Chapel Messages
Tuesday 08/04/2025
Good morning, All
THANK YOU to all our staff and students on reaching the end of an 11-week first term.
A busy term with all the startup events usually associated with the beginnings to a year culminating
in the 50-year celebration of Polyfest, the biggest secondary school cultural festival in the world.
CONGRATULATIONS to all our staff and students who worked tirelessly in the weeks leading
up to the festival. Your effort was well rewarded:
The kapa haka roopu gained first place in Division 3, the first time in the history of our school.
The Tonga group placed first in the Mauluulu
The Tonga group (Boys) placed third in the Taufakaniua
The Fiji stage results are still to be confirmed.
The Cook Island group performed as a showcase item.
THANK YOU to Yr 9 Sam-Sireli Togiatama who placed first in his speech on the Niue stage
and Yr 9 Jayden Namoa who placed second for his speech on the Tonga stage.
Our chapel theme this week of GIVING THANKS would seem timely given all that the school has been involved in this term.
The attitude of gratitude finds its heart felt thanks in the staff and students who have contributed and participated in all
the opportunities provided to be thankful for and to acknowledge our life together as a school. THANK YOU!
Have a blessed day and final week
Enjoy the holidays and rest
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Monday 31/03/2025
Good Morning All
NO WAY … it’s Week 10 and a huge one with the celebration of 50 years for Polyfest.
GO WELL to the Cook Island, Fiji, Kapa haka and Tonga groups representing on the Polyfest stage this week.
The chapel theme for this week is our School’s SPECIAL CHARACTER statement.
It is OUR WHY and defines who we are as the only Methodist school in Aotearoa.
It is our point of difference from every other school and unique in that we are both a parish and school.
The statement calls us to a way of being which is both definitive and inclusive. We are to be in good relationship
with one another. Our relationships will uphold each other and acknowledge the dignity of every person young and old.
At all times, the Christian values of love and respect underpins our every action, our every thought, our every spoken word.
Every day, the Methodist values based on Christ’s teachings, invites us to offer goodness by every means we can.
The challenge is in this Lenten season, is to reflect on what it is we do or do not offer to our relationships especially here at school.
Have a blessed week
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Monday 17/03/2025
Good Afternoon All
Not sure where the day is gone but the weeks are flying by.
Welcome to Week 8.
At no other time in the expression of our faith are we confronted more by God’s act of love toward humanity
than during this season of Lent. The quote for today … ‘God’s love is unearned, unsolicited and unconditional’
grounds God’s impetus and motivation to love us solely in the act and action of God and no other.
It is God who loves. It is God who is loving. It is God whose love exemplifies sacrifice and commitment.
In this Lenten season is the confronting ‘in our face’ reality that God loves us each one as only God can.
Have a blessed day
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Friday 14/03/2025
Good Morning All
The quote for today ‘Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with EXCELLENCE!’
calls us to a standard of being and way which reflects us as individuals, where we come from, who our families are,
which villages and islands we are connected to, what our character is and what our beliefs are. It’s very telling …
Rainbow people, children of the light, Rainbow people, declaring God’s delight
In the multitudinous colours of the multifarious world, Rainbow people, in a rainbow world.
This verse of the hymn we sang this morning speaks to the theme of EXCELLENCE, the chapel theme for this week.
As God’s people we declare God’s delight in and through us because we believe God’s measure of and for us
is no less than EXCELLENT. The world in which we live declares God’s delight and purpose for us to live with an
EXCELLENT intent.
Have a blessed day and weekend
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Tuesday 11/03/2025
Good Morning All
Cold starts to our mornings on the Farm but beautiful sunny days.
The Chapel theme for this week is EXCELLENCE, the last of our four Kairangi values.
The quote for today says … ‘We are what we repeatedly do … excellence is therefore not an act but a habit.’
Neuroscience the study of the nervous system quotes a ’21 Day’ rule to change/develop a habit. On average it’s also said, it takes
66 days to form a new habit or significantly change one’s behaviour depending on each person.
The phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ then is about the opportunity to not just be good at something but to excel … to be excellent.
Anyone at the top of their field, will say that it’s something they work hard at and something they do every day to become better.
So, EXCELLENCE is about persistence, about striving to be better, about striving to do better, about never giving up …
about practicing a skill and habit until it becomes like second nature. It’s an opportunity to be the best we can be …
an opportunity open to everyone when we practice, practice, practice.
We are encouraged to persevere, to be purposeful, resolute, to hang in there. It’s about staying power and being patient … it will take time.
EXCELLENCE is the quality of being outstanding and extremely good, an opportunity everyone can excel in.
Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb is said to have failed at it 1000 times before he was successful.
In one commercial, Michael Jordan said, “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times,
I've been trusted to take the game- winning shot and missed. I've failed over and repeatedly in my life, and that is why I succeed.”
‘We are what we repeatedly do … EXCELLENCE is therefore not an act but a habit’ which will include not getting it right until we do.
This season of Lent allows us the opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ journey to the Cross. Jesus’ death was a one-time event, but provides us the
opportunity to practice life, to do life every day in the hope we will get it right.
Have a blessed day
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Friday 07/03/2025
Good Morning All
End of Week 6 and the seasons they are changing. Much cooler on the Farm this morning.
RESPONSIBILITY as the writer Paul of Galatians reminds us, begins with each individual.
Accepting this understanding as a personal undertaking in the first instance, is accepting RESPONSIBILITY.
The video we watched this morning of renown basketballer Le Bron James speaking about RESPONSIBILITY,
reminds us that the teaching of RESPONSIBILITY lies with whomever the adults are in a child’s life. That the main impetus
to instilling the value of RESPONSIBILITY in fact all values within children, is the need for them to know that they are loved.
It is love then which becomes the platform and springboard from within which our children will learn and lhrive.
In this Lenten season and the Church seasons have changed, we are called to reflect, to fast and to do good.
In our reflecting on Jesus’ journey to the Cross, a journey thwart with many an opportunity to walk away from the
RESPONSIBILITY given him, we give thanks for Jesus’ steadfastness and sacrifice, for his love for us and the world.
Jesus’ love enables us to be RESPONSIBLE in our loving, in our caring for our children, for all people.
Have a blessed day and weekend
Those travelling to North Harbour for the Moana Pasifika game … enjoy!
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Monday 03/03/2025
Good Morning All
Week 6 for us at school … time keeps marching on.
WELCOME to Emma a new nurse and addition to the Health Clinic staff.
This week the chapel theme is RESPONSIBILITY and the Bible Reading for the week is from
Galatians 6:5 ‘For each is RESPONSIBLE for their own conduct.’
Our hymn for this morning was ‘Every day I will offer you’ a lyrical reminder of our RESPONSIBILITY.
V1 Every day I will offer you, Loving God my heart and mind
Every way I discover you, in the world your hand has signed.
Help me see I’m your image and you have dreamed what I might be
Every day in your Spirit I’ll find the love and energy.
A short story … about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody
blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
RESPONSIBILITY … Those who do the work to achieve the task … it starts with you!
Have a blessed day
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Monday 24/02/2025
Good Morning All
Welcome to Week 5 … time is marching on.
CONGRATULATIONS to Simmonds House who took out the Athletics Day last Friday. Awesome!
The Chapel theme for this week is RESPECT.
In June 1963 Aretha Franklin, the ‘Queen of Soul’ hit No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart with her cover of Otis Redding's song, ‘RESPECT.’
She changed the lyrics, tweaked the tune, which then became a powerful anthem for women, for feminism and the civil rights movement.
Franklin wrote in her autobiography … ‘So many people identified with and related to 'RESPECT' … It was the need of a nation,
the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher - everyone wanted RESPECT.
It’s 2025 and some 60 years down the track the call for us in our country is still one of RESPECT.
The Treaty Principles Bill has certainly caused us to think about what is important to us a nation and how it reflects honouring tangata whenua
and every other people who call Aotearoa New Zealand their home.
This morning the school were challenged about the significant people in their lives … from the cleaners here at school to their whanau at home.
How do we demonstrate to them and the roles they fulfil in contributing to our sense of wellbeing … with RESPECT!
Have a blessed day
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Friday 21/02/2025
Good Morning All
It’s Friday … Week 4 done and dusted. Thank you everyone for your great mahi.
ATHLETICS DAY … All the best to our Houses today.
Our theme for this week FAMILY means many things to many people … different things to different people.
The word ‘FAMILY’ suggests certain and different understandings about what FAMILY looks like for our every day.
The notion of FAMILY isn’t restricted to our family homes, but a concept called into practice wherever people gather …
workplaces, schools, sports teams, communities, churches, our neighbourhoods.
While the term ‘FAMILY’ may not be used in these spaces directly, the values that make us FAMILY … the values of love,
respect, kindness, compassion, care, honesty, integrity are.
FAMILIES at the best of times are hard work in trying to maintain an environment where all members can thrive and feel safe.
Can you imagine what it is like at a school … being thrown in at the deep end of sink or swim in a place where the notion of
FAMILY is different for everyone. What might be acceptable in terms of language and behaviour in one space may not be so
when coming together in a school space. It’s hard work ‘being’ FAMILY and calls us here at school to try even harder to be
FAMILY in ways which can seem strange, peculiar, unfamiliar to some of our students and staff.
Our Special Character statement highlights what FAMILY means for us as a school …
We are ACCEPTED for who we are …
We BELONG to the Wesley College Family and the wider Family of God.
How this pans out in our every day living here at school can be challenging but as our hymn for this morning says
‘Everyday in your Spirit, I’ll find the love and energy.’
Have a blessed day
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Friday 14/02/2025
Good morning All
OUR PRAYERS and THOUGHTS for the student from Rotorua Boys High who passed away earlier this week.
OUR PRAYERS for the student’s family as they mourn his loss.
THANK YOU to the students and staff who represented at Koka Lia’s Nan’s funeral this week. The family were very appreciative of our support.
We end our theme for this week, - our school motto - By Faith, By Learning, By Hard Work.
The first slide every morning this week which has welcomed everyone to chapel has said ‘Prepare here … serve anywhere.’
This is where the preparation happens here at school … inside the classroom, outside of the classroom at every opportunity is the impetus and motivation to prepare
for life here at school … for life when we leave school. Following our school motto, understanding and taking on board the opportunity that it offers us to prepare
to serve anywhere is an opportunity not to be wasted.
It's Valentine’s Day today and we give thanks for traditions which speak to us of sacrifice … of faith … of love. Valentine back in the days lived and died
his faith, a martyr who gave up his life for his Christian belief in God. It wasn’t cool back in Valentine’s day, to say you were a Christian but his love for God
kept him steadfast throughout his trials.
Today Valentine’s Day has lost that sense of martyrdom and sacrifice, but it does still speak of love … loving someone, being loved and showing that love.
Valentine’s Day has become very commercialised but at the heart of this celebration still is love … is faith … is service … is hard work … is sacrifice.
Our relationships on whatever level invite us to experience all these qualities and we are made better people for living by these ways of being.
Think of the loving sacrifice our parents make to ensure we have the best opportunities possible by being here at Wesley.
Think of their hard work … the life learning experiences they have lived to achieve what they have. I hope this weekend those of you at home will
do something to say ‘Thank you’ to your parents for their faith and their hard work.
Our God instructs us, teaches us all the while counselling us with his loving eye.
We rejoice and sing!
Have a blessed day
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain
Monday 10/02/2025
Good Morning All
Welcome to Week 3 of Term 1
THANK YOU to all Staff and students involved in the whole school being away on Camp last week.
Our theme for this week is our school motto ‘Fide, Litteris, Labore … By Faith, By Learning, By Hard Work.’
As a motto, it is a guiding principle that speaks to the heart of what we do and how we are encouraged to be.
It speaks even more strongly about who we are as Wesleyans … a people of faith, a people for whom learning is life-long, a people who work hard.
The Bible reading for this week Psalm 32:11 speaks directly to our theme … ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go … I will counsel you with my loving eye.’
Nothing God does is random or by chance … there is a plan and a way of doing things which speaks about goodness … which speaks about success … which speaks about a
way of living and loving which when we follow, will bring us blessing.
It's a winning combination and formula which if we follow will only bring us as the quote for today says ‘Through hard work and perseverance and a faith in God we can live our dreams.’
We want for nothing more but to live out our dreams. By Faith, By Learning, By Hard work all things are made possible.
It’s a win win for you as students, for us as staff, for all of us together as a school.
The way God teaches us is by way of a ’loving eye’ overseeing all we do.
We give God thanks for God’s watchfulness over us.
Blessings
Rev Ali'itasi Aoina-Salesa
Superintending Chaplain