For nearly three years, Nazarene Theological College has flourished on its Auckland, New Zealand, campus, but something was missing – a library.

Lon Dagley, a computer services librarian from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, USA, partnered with NTC-Auckland in gathering books from personal collections, Nazarene libraries in the U.S., and from NTC’s main campus in Brisbane, Australia. 

Dagley and others spent years sending boxes or suitcases filled with books to the newly planted campus. Then in December, a shipment of 2,700 books arrived, leaving the school without an efficient way to organize the collection. 

That is when Dagley reached out to librarians Debra Bradshaw at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Noreen Del Rosario from Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila, Philippines; and Meagan Towle, a library media specialist in Waterville, Vermont, USA, to help catalog the books.

“It stretched my library skills beyond their limits,” Del Rosario said. “It was really hard work. The impossible was made possible through God’s strength.”

After two weeks, a total of 4,413 books and a newly acquired computer and scanner were ready for the school year. Nearly a dozen bags were filled with duplicate books to transport to other NTC sites across the region.

“It was a miracle we got it all done,” Bradshaw said.

Now, classes on the Auckland campus are underway, and the future pastors and church leaders have access to an abundance of resources thanks to book donations and the efforts of a few librarians from around the world.

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific