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!