Starting At Fuller

This is the strange story of how I started an MA degree at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, a story of God's grace. A minister friend (a former Adjunct Professor at Fuller) dropped me on Fuller campus one day to spend a day there. I was visiting Fuller on behalf of Tangintebu Theological College, to explore a partnership between the two. But ultimately I applied to Fuller myself. I didn't think that I would be accepted, and was surprised when I was. Only then did I ask after the fees. Today, those fees are in excess of R300 000 for the tuition alone (about the same as then). Then add mandatory visits to LA, piles of books, and the best Internet connection in Africa (together, at least R100 000 more), and I said to wife Mirjam that I had to decline, it was impossible. She said that I could have all her savings. Then a member of the famous Vermeer family offered to pay a third (I hadn't asked). Then we recovered some money from a wood-frame house which had been seized in an invasion. And I sold copyrights, asking publishers to pay directly to Fuller (it was a help, although only a fraction of the total cost). Half way through Fuller, I paused, and completed an MTh in South Africa (less than 10% of the cost of Fuller). Fuller took me back after four years, now with one-third of my courses credited to me, which meant two-thirds off the remaining fees. In the end, I spent all of my savings on Fuller. I couldn't have done one more course. I wasn't able to attend graduation. I called it "the pearl of great price". OBSERVATION: I was reminded of all this because Fuller contacted me yesterday to inform me that I had $82.19 in their account, which was about to be claimed by the State of California. I had enormous trouble transferring money from South Africa to Fuller, so by and large kept a large credit balance there, and didn't quite spend up. In a rank-based grading system, I finished Fuller in the top 7% of students. Under a new scheme, I now have free courses for life.