It is Saturday afternoon here in Fiji. The last few days have been better as we settle into a groove and as the surroundings become a little more familiar. Katie is feeling much better and has her normal fire back (for better or for worse).
On Thursday, we loaded a bus and drove south to some property that has been donated to YWAM to check out the property and have a little prayer service on the land that will hopefully hold a base in the future. The drive to the property was an adventure in itself. For the last hour of the drive we were on a dirt road through the hills of Fiji driving through villages that seemed to take you back in time. The conditions many of the people live in, particularly outside of the city seems very primitive and poor. However, the Fijians have a joy that is unbelievable. As we would drive through a village or past a school, people would run out and jump up and down and wave to us. The highlight of the drive was when we had to drive over two bridges over rivers that had no guardrails and seemed only as wide as the bus. I thought Angie was going to climb out the window! It felt like we were on a Disneyland ride.
After visiting the YWAM property, we drove an additional half hour south to a beach that was the epitome of the most tropical paradise beach you have ever seen. The sand was white and the water was clear and turquoise. Several Fijian gentlemen were giving horse rides on the beach. Katie loves horses and has been begging us to ride a horse for about two years. So, this was a dream come true for her to ride a horse, especially on the beach in Fiji. We had a great time swimming and having some fun as a group.
You may remember that approximately half of the population in Fiji is Indian. Last night, we met with an Indian pastor and his wife who spoke to us about the Indian population here, there culture, and how we can best reach out to them and help them. They were amazing people.
This morning, Angie and I took the kids to a playground we found about a quarter mile from our hotel. When we were there, we met a really cool guy from France with his two young daughters. He and his wife are living for two years on business. We hit it off with him immediately and he invited us to his home this Thursday night.
The specifics of our work here are starting to fall into place. I am leading a worship service each morning at the Methodist Church down the road at 8:30 am. Then we have a team devotional and meeting at the church to update everyone on schedules and details. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, our whole family will be going up the road to the home of one of our local contacts here to help out at an after-school program. Angie and I will help with tutoring and English and also lead some children’s songs. The kids will get to play and build relationships with the other Fijian kids that will be there. This is an answer to prayer as I had mentioned we were looking for something that we could do as a family. On Thursday afternoons, I will stay with the kids and Angie will go with others from the team to a small village that lives right on a garbage dump. She is hoping to help the women there with sanitary practices and childcare. Also, we found a little coffee shop in town that actually serves espresso and pastries. Imagine our surprise when we walked in there and there pictures of Gig Harbor, La Conner, and Seattle on the walls! A little taste of home! Angie and Jen plan to use that spot as much as possible to invite local Fijian women to coffee and build relationships over a mocha. Once or twice a week, I will be going with some of other men in our team to the prison here to work with some of the inmates and also lead some music there. All of this seems overwhelming to us, but the uncertainty and fear is beginning to ebb a little and we are beginning to catch the vision for what we hope to accomplish in our relatively short time here.
In addition to the ministry we will be doing, Angie and I each have some practical roles in the group. Angie is in charge of “hospitality.” This entails organizing birthday celebrations for people in our team as well as protocol and thank you gifts for some of the local people we work with. This will be a great fit for her. I will be leading the worship services for the team and am also the official “recorder” for the team. This means I am in charge of documenting our trip in word, picture, and video.
Today is our day off and we are planning to take the kids to a rugby match at a stadium down the street. Today the under-18 league is playing with the Fijian National Team taking on the Australian National Team. Tonight we are going to a special dinner that is being prepared for us by another local missionary group. Tomorrow, we will be going to a local church where our leader, Bobby, will be speaking.
Have a great weekend!
The Fijian countryside on our drive south on Thursday
The YWAM property we visited
Is it time to go home yet?
The beach we went to. Yes, I know everyone feels very sorry for us!
Katie and her dream come true on "Becka"
Not every day is sunny here. Team Wicks in our rain ponchos.
The Indian pastor and his wife ( I won't even try to spell his name)
1 comment:
Wow! Beautiful! And it sounds like things are coming together for you. Praise God. We've missed you here. The opening night celebration was awesome. Island Breeze performed as well as others. We saw 33 Nations' flags carried by students from those nations. Today we had the dedication of our new building. It was pretty amazing to see dozens of people walk in and out of our room praying over it in many different languages.
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