Day 16 in Fiji

Day 16 in Fiji!

Woot! Woot! We got to go to the interior today! Our first school was at 11am so we were out the door at 7:45am. After picking up Pastor Rakesh in Navua we headed into the interior! Lolo and I were in the trunk of our SUV and I guess our extra weight was a little to much on those curving mountain roads! We kept scraping bottom! After an hour long crazy ride up the mountain, we finally reached the school! There was about 80 students there, and they responded so well to us coming! I must admit it was a lot more work to get to them, but I think pastor Rakesh said it best when he told them that they are precious and that is why we took the time and effort to bring Gods word to them. When the principal stood to thank us for coming he quoted the very verse from Psalms that has been the theme of this whole project...the entrance of thy word giveth light...he had no idea that was the verse God had given pastor Brooks! So neat!

On the way back, since we were too "heavy" for our SUV, we pleaded with Pastor Brooks to let us ride in the open back of his truck. Woohoo! He said yes! We had an hour long ride of our lives all the way down the mountain!! So much fun! Only one problem...their soil here is red...and when we finally arrived at the next school, I discovered that my face was nicely coated in that very red dirt! Ahhhh, but the ride was worth it!:)

Our second school had about 250 students in it and went great! The students responded very well! They were so excited to receive their very own Bible and we were thrilled to give it to them! We were able to do the primary school there as well, which was about another 200-300 students. They are soooo cute and they sat so well! It was absolutely hilarious to watch Pastor Brooks speak to them and interact with them! You know how a little kids' laugh has a way of making you laugh as well? Well try listening to 200-300 little voices laughing at pastor Brooks' jokes and antics! It had all of us cracking up! These children are so precious! One of the teachers at this school came up and gave me a huge hug...she was overwhelmed with joy to receive her own Bible!

Then off we went for our hour long return ride to Suva with Lolo and I bouncing along in the trunk again!:)

It looks like the schools we did today were our last schools for this trip.  They have 2 more schools in the interior tomorrow, but because of the distance and the fact that these are smaller schools, they have decided not to take us.

When I think of all we have gotten to do and see on this trip I feel so overwhelmingly blessed! I truly have had the experience of a lifetime! Serving God is the best adventure one could ever have...to not serve Him is to miss the thrill of a lifetime!

Day 15 in Fiji

Day 15 in Fiji

So after an extremely long walk last night, we all fell into bed for a fabulous night's sleep! I, in particular, slept like a queen! Since Kelly left, I got to steal her mattress and pillow to add to my bed and I also had the whole room to myself....ahhhhh! Sheer bliss! Doesn't take much to make me a happy girl!:)

This morning our first school was a Hindu school of around 1000 students. Unfortunately, they did not allow us to have an assembly, but rather told the kids that whoever wanted one could come to us and get one. Fiji children are soooo shy though that this generally does not work great to begin with. In total we were able to hand out around 500 bibles so Praise The Lord for that! However it was so sad to see classrooms of 38-40 kids and only 4 or 5 would come to get a bible. Very heartbreaking to see!

We had about 3-4 hours before our next school, so we went shopping for the rest of our "thank you" gifts and had lunch in the mall. While we were at the mall I ran into a girl whose sister received a Bible at her school. I was able to give her a tract and we exchanged contact information...please pray that she would read the tract and that I would have future opportunity to witness to her.

Our second school was so awesome! We arrived there and found out that they had planned for us to do both the primary and secondary schools! ( So far we have only been doing secondary schools which is like our high schools) this is a 7th day Adventist school, so this was a huge blessing as they may not have let us back in to do the primary school after hearing the messages we preached to the secondary school! The primary school was amazing! The children are beyond adorable and completely stole my heart! Obviously their attention span is a lot shorter, but they were all so excited to receive a Bible!

The secondary school there also went very well! The students were very enthusiastic in their response and all wanted to come by and shake hands after! After shaking about 150 boys' hands we unfortunately had to race off to the 3rd school before we could finish shaking the 200 girls' hands! I think my hand was grateful for that but it was awesome to see their enthusiasm over receiving their Bible!

Our third school was another interesting experience...we once again had to go classroom to classroom instead of having a general assembly and we only about 45 minutes to do it! But we did it!:) Pastor Ryan And Bro. Brooks split up and our team split up and we covered it all! The Bibles were very well received, in fact so well received that one of the girls, after just hearing how stealing is breaking one of God's commandments, proceeded to "steal" a second Bible for herself! Oh well, I'd much rather her have the Bible in her possession then some of the other things she could be stealing!

We are now on our way to church for the last service that we will share with these sweet people! It's gonna be hard saying good-bye!