u/AdReal490

During Covid when there were lock downs across the world, I was outside the country and couldn't come back home because flights were grounded. Airlines said that the only way to fly into a country is if all the seats are paid for. We had to charter the whole plane in other words. We would also need to secure the permission to fly into the country from the government. So a bunch of us formed a WhatsApp group with the intention of securing enough names to fill the seats on the plane and split the cost amongst ourselves.

As that plan was progressing, reps from the Ministry of Intl Relations (I believe the minister herself was also there), joined the group and took over the plan. They proposed to and went on to actually pay for the whole flight on the condition that we all meet in Addis Ababa. So wherever you were, you had to fly to Addis and catch the repatriation flight from there to Gaborone. This went well and those who managed to get to Addis at their own cost gave their names and were secured a seat on the flight out of there to Botswana. This was 2020

Fast forward to 2026. A couple of weeks back I get a call from a lady from Ministry of Intl Relations who said she was following up on the debt for the flight. She went on to say that I have to pay back the equivalent of the cost of the flight ticket. After giving her my email address to send me the paperwork, she finally sent the documents and details the following Monday (we had the call on a Friday). In short, I supposedly owe the government P11,300.00 or so that I'm required to pay back ASAP. They did offer a payment plan that I have to commit to and sign that I will honour.

Slight problem though: I'm unemployed and haven't been ever since I flew home on that very same flight. Can government charge for repatriation flights? Especially since we didn't sign anything and there's no record of any such agreement to pay back the flight ticket cost?

As the title states, I'm writing to ask about the high cost of studying at our institutions, especially American and European ones. I'm from African and even in my country, the local conference run schools are expensive to the point of excluding Adventist families from taking their children there. Why is it this way? With a few exceptions, we seem to be using tuition fees as a way to gate keep what is one of our fundamental offerings to a dying world, let alone to our own members who are left with no choice but to take their kids or themselves to secular institutions of learning where there are lots of worldly influences.

Here's some context:

I'm a missionary (ever since joining the church in 2021) and have been thinking about training since this has been a great need in the field. It is much cheaper and accessible for me to train at a non-Adventist institution than it is at an Adventist one. This is a definite no-no for me (training at a non-Adventist institution), having seen how easily influenced we're as people. I know Hartland has a Missionary Training Fund and I have been looking into this (I plan to save my stipend as I'm about to go to mission in order to pay for personal expenses if/when God does open the door to go there).

PS: I'm looking for an institution that is more focused on practically ministry than theology (although that is also important).