Colo-i-Suva Forest National Park

We had the opportunity to go see a National Park not far outside of Suva this weekend.  It was really cool to get out and explore nature here in Fiji.  The National Park was full of small waterfalls and pools.  We had a ton of fun trekking through the forest with a few Fijian students.

A cool little refreshment on a hot day in the forest

The park was full of small waterfalls and pools like this

The rocks were really slippery which made walking around pretty tough; my battle scar

There were a few lowers pools toward the bottom of the park.  The water was really cold but very refreshing after a long hike.  One of the pools had a rope swing that we thoroughly enjoyed.  The jump was probably thirty-five feet above the surface of the water.  The rope swung you over the middle of the pool where you let go and hit the water.

We had a lot of fun but I was a little distracted most of the day because I was waiting to hear about my new baby niece!  Thankfully, I was able to get cell phone service and my parents were sending me texts to update me on what was happening.  Ellie Grace Faust was born at seven pounds fifteen ounces and very healthy!  I've been living off lots of pictures since I can't be there to meet her.  If you haven't gotten to see her yet, I can tell you that she's beautiful!  It's bittersweet to be so far away for something so exciting.  But I find comfort in the fact that this is where God called me to be.  It'll make meeting Ellie for the very first time in November all that more exciting.

Lastly, I tried to upload a video to Facebook the other day.  The screen below is the response that I got.  Note the time remaining.  A good picture of the internet in Fiji.

This Call is Being Diverted

This week marks the beginning of classes at the University of the South Pacific!  Students have flooded the campus.  Because it's so warm year round, students are outside constantly unless they're in class.  After Orientation last week, we have almost 1,700 new contacts to follow up with.  We've sorted all of our comment cards into different categories and started pursuing the freshman who have indicated that they would be interested in hearing more about Student Life or a relationship with God.

Our team and the student leaders have begun to divide and conquer as we make phone calls contacting students to set up appointments.

Dave doin' work!

Mary helping some of the students leaders getting started

The guys, pretending like they're doing work

It has been such an incredible first week on campus for our team.  We've learned a lot about Fijian culture and seen a lot of fruit in just a few days.  Our phone bills are getting pretty high but students are responding at an incredible rate.  The response to our phone calls has been jaw dropping to us Americans.  Imagine getting a phone call that goes something like this, "Hi. I'm Brian with Student Life?  Would you like to meet sometime to talk about God and how you can grow in a relationship with Him?".  Most people would say, "No thanks", or "How'd you get my number?", or just hang up.  That's not the case in Fiji though.  These students almost always say yes!  Fruit is literally falling off of trees into our hands!  I've had the opportunity to meet and talk with tons of students so far and I'm booked the rest of the week with appointments.  Our team is sharing the Gospel left and right!  We've seen numerous people trust Christ for the first time as well as students who want to get their lives back on track!  

Sharing the Gospel with my new friend Navi!

Mary sharing the Gospel with a few students

After we share the Gospel with students, we set up appointments to follow them up by teaching the basics of the Christian faith and how to grow in their new or renewed relationship with God.  We're beginning to see that it's going to be a very busy year.  We're praying that God would show us toward committed students in which we can make disciples.  It's so important that we train and equip students to do what we're doing this year.  Please pray that these new students would grow in their faith and become life-long laborers for Christ!

Tonight is the first weekly meeting of the year, called Connexion.  We're hoping to see well over a hundred students come to hear about how to get involved in Bible studies, fellowship and most importantly, hear the Gospel.  I can't wait to tell you more about what God is doing here in Fiji.  I'm praying for all of you back home.  Please pray for us and the movement here at USP.  God bless!

Day of Outreach

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go out into a neighborhood for a day of outreach.  Our boss, Koli, volunteered us for an outreach with the Yarawa Wesley Church as part of our cultural training.  We got to go into a traditional neighborhood not far outside of Suva.  It was a great learning experience to see how most people live here in Fiji.  The neighborhood was very green just like everywhere else in Fiji.  The streets weren't well paved and a lot of the houses are clumped very close together.  Most of the homes are pretty open (no windows or doors) and often times look more like shacks than anything else.  It was definitely an eye-opening experience for out team to see how most people live in Fiji.  The funny thing is, though we would consider them poor, most Fijians are very content with what they have.  It's very humbling to walk through a neighborhood like this and realize exactly how blessed we are back in the States.  Most Americans could learn a great lesson from Fijians about what it means to be content with what they have.

Our main goal was to distribute a Jesus Film DVD to every house that we visited.  We gave each family a DVD and asked them to watch it and fill out a comment card with their opinion.  The church is going to return to each home this Wednesday to pick up the comment cards and follow up with each family as interested.

The mindset in Fiji is so incredibly different than America.  If a stranger in the States comes to your home to hand you religious material, we typically say that we're not interested and send them on their way.  In Fiji, it's an honor to have visitors to your home.  We were welcomed warmly in each home and even offered tea and refreshments a few times.

The neighborhood we were in was made up primarily of Indian families.  As a result, almost every family we talked to was Hindu.  It was crazy to walk through their front yards and see altars where they burn incense to their gods.  At one of the houses, I met my new friend Shaheel.

Shaheel is a student at FNU (Fiji National University).  We talked for a while and explained that we wanted him to watch the DVD and give us his opinion when the church came back on Wednesday.  I asked him if I could share with him what I was doing in Fiji and why I came halfway across the world to be here.  As we talked, I was able to share the Gospel with Shaheel.  He seemed to be interested in what I had to say but I could tell that his Hindu background was affecting they way he was thinking.  I'm not sure where Shaheel stands at the moment but I plan on following up with him.  For now, I'm praising God that Shaheel heard the truth about Jesus Christ.  Take some time to pray for Shaheel.  From what I've been told, it's pretty common for Indian students to respond positively to the Gospel but in reality they are just adding Jesus to all of their other gods.  So if Shaheel is interested in meeting again, that's an obstacle that we'll have to face.

God is definitely at work in students' lives here.  Lecture begins tomorrow at USP and we'll be on campus starting to follow up the 1,700 contacts we received last week during Freshman Orientation.  Pray for our team as we go out to clearly and boldly proclaim the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Would You Like to Take a Survey?

This past week was Freshman Orientation Week at the University of the South Pacific.  We've been preparing for Orientation for a little over three weeks and were extremely excited when it finally arrived. Just like Freshman Orientations in America, there were several student organizations promoting themselves as well as a few local companies (banks, phone and internet companies).  Here's our Student Life tent:

Setting up for the first day of Orientation!

The finished product

Leading up to Orientation week, our team had prepared 750 First Year Kits.  These are simply paper bags that included a pen, highlighter, candy and materials about Jesus.  Just like in the States, Fijian students love free stuff!  Apparently some things transcend culture.  We simply asked students to fill out a short survey in order get a bag of free stuff and to enter a drawing to win a prize.  At the end of the day, we have a survey with student's contact information indicating if they're interested in hearing more about Jesus Christ or getting involved with a Christian organization on campus.  After we sort through the cards that indicate interest in Jesus or Student Life, we'll have a great base to follow-up with this semester.

Our table containing First Year Kits (left), free candy which they call lollies (middle) and the draw box for the surveys (right)

The Grand Prizes!  Twenty 8GB Flash Drives and Two Personal Video Players

I said before that some things transcend culture.  Other things do not.  As we set up the first day of Orientation, we wanted to be proactive in getting students to our booth, not just sit back and wait for them to come.  As Americans, if we want something, we're used to going out and getting it.  So we made a few signs and stationed a few people at busy sidewalks to hand out surveys as students walked by.  Lots of students came straight to our booth while others filled them out in their own time and dropped them off later in the day.  On the first day of Orientation, we were the only group that was proactively pursuing students.  All of the other groups watched over five hundred students come to our booth in the course of one day.  On the second day of Orientation, other groups, including corporate sponsors, were out on the sidewalks passing out materials to students.  I guess we set the tone!

Rob talking with students about the survey

Student Leaders helping us pack more First Year Kits after running out two days in

If you're still reading and wondering how many students we came into contact with, I'm about to tell you.  We originally packed 750 First Year Kits in hopes of collecting a thousand surveys.  We had over a thousand students fill out surveys halfway through the week.  When the week was all said and done, we had nearly 1,700 students fill out a survey!  Yeah, that's right, seventeen hundred!  Student Life did something similar last year during Orientation week and received 250 new contacts.  This year, we increased six fold.

Realistically, there are some students who probably filled out more than one survey and not all of them will be interested in Student Life or Jesus.  But that's 1,700 students who we now have contact information for and who now know of Student Life, which is still relatively small with about one hundred members.  Everyone involved this week is incredibly excited and I hope that as you read about what God is doing in Fiji, you're excited to!  If you're still reading, please pray for the students who filled out surveys.  Beginning Monday, we'll start contacting them to share the Gospel and the love of Jesus Christ.  We definitely have our work cut out for us!

Mesa, this year's Student Life President, and Dave.... speechless!

We're relaxing a little bit this weekend and preparing for the greatest adventure of our lives to begin on Monday.  Pray for us as the Gospel goes out on the Campus of the University of the South Pacific in the next few weeks!

Fijian Dinner

We had a couple of the guys come over last night to teach us how to cook a traditional Fijian meal.  We've eaten Fijian food since we've been here but we've never cooked it in our apartment.  A few of the guys took me down to the market where we bought two fish, tomatoes, onions, limes, chili peppers, coconuts and kasava.  It's pretty amazing that we fed eight hungry guys all for around FJ$30, or about $15 US.  The fish we ate is called tar in Fijian and it's some type of flounder fish.  We also learned how to open coconuts, scrape them, and get all of the milk out of the flesh.  Coconut milk is a staple in Fijian cooking.  Here's some pictures from start to finish of our meal:

Rupeni and Mala cutting up the fish

Mala loves tar, or flounder

Mesa using a coconut scraper to get all of the flesh off the shell

Mesa teaching Dave how to squeeze out the coconut milk

Dave doin' work!

Relatively simple:  just boil fish with tomatoes, onion and salt!

Loving every bite!

Our meal consisted of fish in coconut milk (left), kasava which is tapioca (middle), and chili pepper and lime juice to dip it in (right)

You gotta polish off the leftover coconut milk!

The boys chowing down!

Our meal was delicious.  These guys know how to cook!  I don't think we could recreate this meal on our own yet but we have nine months to figure it out.  It's definitely different from the "home cookin'" I'm used to but it's a worthy substitute.  

In other news, today is the last day of Freshman Orientation.  We've seen God do some amazing things this week in meeting a ton of people.  Check back soon for pictures and the final results of our first week on campus!

We're Not in Kansas Anymore .....

Happy Valentine's Day!  Since Fiji is eighteen hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, I have the privilege of experiencing the future!  By the time most of you are waking up on Valentine's morning, I will be fast asleep with the Day of Love in the past.  But today is special for another reason here in Fiji, it's a national holiday.  What's the occasion?  It is none other than the Prophet Muhammad's birthday.  Yes, that 's Muhammad, the famous prophet of the Islamic faith.  Almost everything in Suva was shut down to celebrate the occasion.  We were extremely surprised to find out that this was a national holiday in a largely "Christian" nation.  There is a heavy Indian influence in Fiji which brings about a lot of traditional Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic beliefs to the island, including the celebration of Muhammad's birthday.  We're just glad that starting tomorrow, Jesus' name, not Muhammad's, will be proclaimed on the campus of the University of South Pacific.  Freshman Orientation begins tomorrow which means that our team will be on campus everyday sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ until the end of the semester in June.  We can't wait to see how God reveals himself as unique and true to followers of other faiths this year.

Since we had the day off, we took some time to relax before we start ministry on campus tomorrow.  We went for a dip in the pool when we encountered this:

Apparently, centipedes like this are pretty common in Fiji.  We're told that they can sting you and if they do, it's not pleasant.  Fortunately this one was dead, so we had some fun with it.

This smile is definitely fake, it took a while to get the courage to pick it up

After relaxing by the pool, we thought we would celebrate Valentine's Day in a very special way.  We went to a really classy restaurant for a romantic, candlelight dinner as a team.  Where? you ask.  McDonalds.  That's right, McDonalds.

If any of you are looking for great Valentine's date ideas, I think you know what I'd recommend.  If only you could find something like this in America.

In other news, we had a party on Saturday for the main Student Life leaders at USP.  We had over ten students come to our apartment in preparation for Freshman Orientation week.  It was a great chance to meet the students we'll be working alongside this year.  

A few things you can be praying for this week:

• That we meet as many freshman as possible throughout the course of the week
• That what we give away is appealing and effective
• That we're able to generate 750 contacts that we can follow up for the next few weeks
• That one of our key leaders, Mesa, can get a dorm room on campus to serve as a hub for Student Life

Lastly, we have a huge praise.  The Department of Immigration in Fiji has decided that we can stay!  We received our work permits for the next year here in Fiji.  We never expected any problems but our visas were very timely in coming.  Since we start officially "working" tomorrow on campus, it helps that we can present our visas to the Director of Student Activities and campus security.  Basically, we're legit now and shouldn't have any problems spending lots of time on campus.

Dave and Jenny signing their visas

Thanks for all of your prayers back home.  I hope you'll take some time to praise God for what He's doing as well.  Check back later this week to hear about what God is doing on USP's campus.  Happy Valentine's Day!

First Timers

We've been busy learning the culture ever since we arrived here in Fiji.  It's crazy to think that we've already been in Fiji for a month.  Even after a month, we're still learning and trying new things for the first time.  This past week, we had two new experiences:  riding the bus and eating Indian food.

No windows!  Great for a good breeze

Which bus should we get on?

Beautiful view of the coast from the bus

The bus is actually a lot of fun to ride in Fiji.  Since it doesn't have windows, there is a great breeze as long as the bus is in motion.  They always play really fun, upbeat music and occasionally you get to experience a view like the one above.  Buses and taxis are the main modes of transportation in Suva.  Not many people have their own cars and they rely heavily on the bus system.  Up to this point, we've been taking taxis when we need to get somewhere.  Taxis are very cheap.  They usually run somewhere between two and three Fijian Dollars.  This is less than two dollars American.  While taxis are not expensive for us, they are for Fijians, especially students.  A bus fare is seventy cents Fijian (about forty cents American) and much more cost effective for most Fijians.  Now that we know we can ride the bus and not get lost, we'll try to ride it as often as possible, especially to and from campus.

We also tried Indian food for the first time since we've been here.  Looking back, it's pretty impressive that we went a month without eating Indian food in Suva.  There are a lot of people in Fiji with Indian heritage (Indo-Fijians), something like 40% of the population.  Because there are so many people with Indian backgrounds, Indian food is very popular in Fiji.  If you like curry, you would have no trouble finding it in Suva.  I've never had real Indian food before so it was a new experience for me.  I'm not sure that I can tell you exactly what I ate but I'd have to say that my favorite part was the naan.  There's nothing really special about naan, it's just bread but for some reason it was really good.

It really is an incredible experience to learn a new culture.  Riding the bus and eating Indian food are just small examples of what life is like here in Fiji.  I hope that over the course of this year, I can paint a better picture of life in Fiji.  I feel like we've just cracked the surface of Fijian life and culture.  There's so much more for the team and I to learn and I can't wait to share it with you.  Have a great day!

What do you think you're doing?

This past week has been new and exciting for our team.  We're learning to fit in here in Fiji and continue to experience new things.

We've been busy figuring out exactly what our role will be this year within the existing team here in Fiji.  We came thinking that we were going to be starting something brand new.  It turns out that the Student Life movement (what they call Campus Crusade for Christ) is more established than we anticipated.  There are several full-time staff who have been on campus in previous years and have gotten the ministry running.  However, it seems that God has sent our team at just the right time.  There are seven campus staff in Fiji but almost all of them are currently fundraising for ministry.  When Freshman Orientation starts on February 15th, only three of the seven campus staff will actually be on campus.  The other four staff won't be able to join us until they have finished raising their support.  So it seems that the timing is just right, the six members on our team will be joining with three other staff to reach the campus, at least for the first few months of school.  It's cool to see God's providence and timing in sending our team to Fiji to help out with the ministry.

We got to take our first tour of the University of the South Pacific's campus this past week.  Here are some pictures of USP:

The campus is very green.  It's really hot during the daytime but most students hang out in the shade.  Starting this week, we'll be on campus meeting students and starting ministry.  Classes don't begin until the 21st but students have started coming back on campus.  They currently don't have anything to do so we're taking this opportunity to meet them and hopefully start planting seeds on campus.  We're throwing a party for most of the student leaders at our apartments on the 12th.  A lot of them are coming back early so they can help with Freshman Orientation on the 15th.  We can't wait to meet these students.  The Student Life movement at USP is very much student-led.  We're excited to work with these students and be a resource for them as they conduct their own ministries on campus.

Our team has been preparing for Freshman Orientation week, which goes from February 15-19th.  During this week, freshman will be on campus and learning the ropes of USP.  Our STINT team has been delegated the task of creating Freshman Survival Kits.  Freshman Survival Kits will be given to freshman on campus during orientation week.  The main purpose of these kits is to generate contacts that we can use to meet students throughout the year.  We are currently in the process of putting together 1,000 Freshman Survival Kits.  We are praying that we would meet 1,000 or more students during Freshman Orientation and get their contact information!  Please pray that we would meet or exceed our goal!

The girls have been decorating bags as the guys try to find the most efficient way to stuff them.  We're halfway to our goal!  To generate a thousand contacts, we will set up a table and pass out comment cards.  Each student that comes to our table, will fill out a comment card with their name, phone number and dorm number.  There are a few questions on the comment card about spiritual background and if students would like to get connected with a ministry on campus or even learn how to have a personal relationship with God.  In turn for filling out the comment card, students will receive a Freshman Survival Kit (FSK) pictured above.  Each FSK contains a pen, a highlighter, a Jesus Film DVD, a week long devotional and a magazine titled, "Who Jesus Is".  The Jesus Film Project (another branch of Campus Crusade for Christ) has also donated 180 USB Flash Drives to Student Life Fiji.  Flash drives are incredibly important in this part of the world.  The internet is only in a few places and a lot of time is not reliable.  Students are dependent on Flash Drives to transfer their materials from computer to computer.  Each student that fills out a comment card will be entered into a drawing to win an 8GB Flash Drive.  Dave has been loading the Jesus Film and some other materials onto all 180 Flash Drives.  It takes about thirteen minutes to load three Flash Drives.  You do the math.

This is what has kept us busy the past week and what we're looking forward to.  We're still loving Fiji and the people.  Our team and the students we're working with are passionate about the ministry and we can't wait for the semester to begin.

Just to recap, here are some things that you can be praying for:

• Freshman Survival Kits - The production process, finding materials to put in them that fit our budget and the goal of generating a thousand contacts through them!
• Students - They are preparing to come back on campus over the next two weeks, pray that God would prepare their hearts and that we would meet them over the course of this year.
• Staff in Fiji - They are currently going through Ministry Partner Development.  Pray that God would bring in their financial support quickly so that they can join us in laboring on campus.
• Work Permits - We are still waiting on our visas from the Department of Immigration.  We have submitted our applications, so we're free to stay until they make their final decision.  We're not anticipating an problems but you never know.  Also, we're meeting with Father Bernardo, the leader of all religious activities on campus, to get approval to be on campus everyday.  Again, we're not anticipating any problems here but we still want to commit these things to the Lord.
• Our Team - That God would continue to bond us as a team and protect us from temptations and spiritual warfare.

Thanks so much for reading and for praying for us.  I can't express how excited we are for the coming weeks.  It's so fun to share what God is doing here in Fiji.  I'd love to hear what's going on back home too!  Please e-mail or Facebook me with any new updates on your lives or prayer requests.

Lastly, GO PACKERS!!!!  We're going to a student's home tomorrow to watch the Super Bowl.  We only get one channel in our apartment and it will definitely not be showing the Super Bowl.  We're excited to spend the day with some Fijian guys and get the opportunity to teach them about football!  Check back this week for more posts on Fijian life!  God bless!