What are you guys doing?

I can't believe it's March already!  Time has flown by these past few weeks on campus.  Classes have started and we're finally starting to settle in to our daily routines.  After Orientation week, we've been calling the 1600 contacts that we received from comment cards.  Our phone bills are high but we've gotten to meet so many students in the past two weeks.  We've been working hard ourselves but also teaching and training students already involved in Student Life how to follow up a comment card.

Working with Fijian Students to follow up all 1600 contacts

The cultural differences in here in Fiji have blown me away since we stepped on campus.  Everyone here is so hospitable.  This bodes really well for doing ministry because people will listen to what you have to say!  A typical phone call with a student goes like this:  

"Hi, my name is Brian with Student Life at USP.  A few weeks ago, you filled out a survey during orientation week.  On that survey, you checked that you would be interested in hearing more about Student Life and how to have a relationship with God.  I was wondering if you'd like to meet to talk more about that?"

And the crazy thing is that they say yes, almost all the time!  It has been a really fruitful first couple of weeks.  The first week we were on campus, our six person STINT team shared the Gospel over sixty times and saw twenty people come to faith in Christ for the first time!  Praise God!  If they are responsive to the Gospel, then we set up another appointment called follow up.  In follow up, we meet to teach the the basics of the Christian faith, like how to grow in their faith and what it means to be a part of God's family.

Dave going through follow up with a few students

Ministry is going great in Fiji but it's not all roses all the time.  There are a few challenges that we face on a daily basis.  Because students are so hospitable, they will often tell you they want to meet and then never show.  They're not as straightforward as Americans so if they're not interested in meeting with you, they'd rather tell you they are and then just not show up.  Sometimes this can be frustrating but God has always provided people to talk to on campus.  Another huge challenge is ministering to Indian students.  Almost all of them have a Hindu background and are very set in their beliefs, even if it's just what their parents believe.  Most of them believe that all paths lead to God so it doesn't really matter which God you believe in.  Please pray for our team as we try to build relationships with Indian students and learn how best to witness to them.

Our weekly meeting in Student Life is called Connexion.  Connexion is held every Thursday and is pretty comprable to what we do in America.  There is music, icebreakers, worship, and a message.  Our theme this semester is God Who?  Each week we'll be teaching an attribute of God.  Students from any background or faith can come to Connexion and learn exactly who God is.  We want students to have a right view of who God is.

For our first Connexion meeting, we taught them the Cha Cha Slide.  They loved it!  We've had requests to play it every week during the meeting.

Teaching the Cha Cha Slide!

Students asked if the Cha Cha Slide could be a permanent part of our weekly meeting

This week is special because we have visitors from Miami!  Ten staff and students from Miami Campus Crusade for Christ are here on their Spring Break.  They've come to help us with ministry for a week.  It's exciting to have extra laborers on campus to help with the harvest.  We're excited to have them be a part of what God is doing in Fiji.  They will be sharing their faith everyday and passing the contacts of people they met along to us when they leave.

We greeted them by having a traditional Fijian meal at our bosses' house.  The meal is called a lovo, which means oven, and refers to the way the food is cooked.  They dig a hole in the ground and start a fire.  Then, they put rocks on top of the fire and let them heat up.

Preparing a Fijian meal for the Spring Break Team

Once the rocks are hot enough, they place the food on top.  Then they bury the lovo and let the food cook for about two hours.  The food turned out to be delicious and we had a great time welcoming the spring break team.

Lovo, Fijian for oven

This was my contribution to the lovo process:

No explanation necessary

The Spring Break team getting to know some of the key student leaders

Please pray for the Spring Break Team this week as they step out in faith to meet USP students.  God is doing amazing things here and we're so excited to be a part of it.  

Lastly, I would like to thank you again for reading.  I am still losing to Kori in followers of my blog, so if you would like to help me out, follow my blog publicly by clicking "Follow" at the top of the page.  I would like to thank Becca, Brett, Shanda, Dave, Mike, Terri Beth, Brady and Trent for answering my plea!  You are all wonderful and I'm praying for you!