Sunday Day 5 in Fiji (girls)

Sunday, day 5 in Fiji

So after staying up till midnight eating scones and drinking tea with Filo, Paypay, Lawsolini and Rebekah, the rooster had no mercy and once again woke me at 4:30am! At breakfast Mrs. Towle informed us that Pastor Grey had texted and asked us to sing in church this morning! So the rest of the morning was spent preparing to sing "I just want to please The Lord" for church this morning! We also learnt how to sing a couple songs in Fijian last night so we are busy working on those and planning to sing in Fijian at the schools on Monday! Looking forward to surprising Pastor Brooks and Pastor Grey with our new language abilities!:) 

Church this morning was great! The youth sang a special and I wish you could all hear them sing! They have amazing voices and harmony! Almost every school sings for us as well and we love it! The Lord helped us with our special as well, and from the sounds of it it's a good thing we came prepared with several specials as it appears we will be needing them! Pastor Grey is an awesome Pastor....almost as good as Pastor Carlson, and his style reminds me a lot of pastor's preaching which is great as it makes the church feel a lot like home! 

Afterward almost everyone stays for lunch...Fijian cooking is soooo yummy! Fijian culture does not allow them to eat with us or even let us help them in the kitchen so it is a bit of an awkward feeling at times! Thankfully at home I have finally convinced Filo to let me help do the dishes and they are slowly letting me get my foot in the door when it comes to helping with the cooking! It seriously feels like we are being waited on hand and foot here at times!

The service this evening is also at 6pm and another pastor who is from the States and passing through will be preaching.

Saturday and Sunday are definitely quieter days here for us, so we try to rest up and get prepared for the coming week.

This coming week is going to be a very busy week! We will be in 16 schools and so desperately ask for your prayers! Some of the schools we are going to this week are very large and some are not as excited about the Bibles coming as others are. We plead for your prayers! Only the prayer of God's people can open their hearts and provide us with the open door that is needed! The devil would love to mess with the  plans, but prayer can keep him from doing that!

Please also pray for safety, not only for us, but also for our guys as they return on Friday, and for at least 3 more people who are on their way here to help!

Day 4 - Men

Day 4
Today was was a day off for us as school is out for the weekend.
There is no Baptist church here in Lobasa so we decided to leave a day early for Suvasuva where there is a young church being started. We will be attending there on Sunday.
We caught the 7am bus and began the long journey through the mountains.
As we headed out of town the air was sweet with the smell of sugar cane being harvested.
We saw some spectacular views and passed two waterfalls. The locals call this island "The hidden Paradise" This is very true as it is has to be the most beautiful place I've seen and is largely undeveloped.
When we arrived in Suvasuva we met up with Jonathan McPhereson who is the national pastor of the church we will be attending on Sunday. After lunch he took us to the place where we were staying and then we headed out to the reef to do some snorkeling! The water was warm and we were soon surrounded by a swarm of fish. We brought some bread with us to feed them and they were not the least bit shy!
We probably saw 30 varieties of fish and numerous types of coral. God's creation is amazing!
On our walk back to the house we picked fresh papaya from the side of the road.
If you were ever stranded on an island here you would not just survive but feast!
Later as we were walking along our road we met 2 school teachers who asked us to come to their school.
They said they were having trouble with spirits and some of the kids were getting possessed.
This sounded very strange to us but just goes to show how open this country is to the gospel.
As the sun went down the fruit bats came out. These bats have about a 3 foot wing span and fly and glide slowly like a bird. I mistook a few of these for birds on occasion.
I am really looking forward to Monday when we will be back in the schools.
Handing someone their very first Bible is the most amazing thing we have done yet.

 On the drive to Suvasuva

 Hidden Paradise

 "Split Rock" where we went snorkeling

 Us with Jonathan McPhereson after snorkeling

 Palm Trees

 One very tall palm tree!

The view from our porch.

Fiji Update Sunday July 7

Hello everyone!
   Having a great time here in Fiji! It is amazing to see what God is doing here in Fiji, and so exciting to get to be part of it! So glad the Lord has given me this opportunity! The last five days have been amazing! Settled in Wednesday, distributed Bibles Thursday and Friday, then soul-winning Saturday and to the market and church today.The ladies that we are staying with take such good care of us! The food here is amazing, and they like us to eat and then eat more :)  Then have tea. I am starting to get used to how much they drink tea. Had an amazing time out soul winning. I was able to share the Gospel with nearly everyone I gave a tract to! Praise the Lord! Many know so much about the Bible here but have never heard the message of salvation. They are searching for the truth though. Got to hear the testimony of some of the ladies in the church here, and it was very touching! They have religion but lack that personal relationship with Christ. The students and teachers all seem so glad to receive the Bibles. They have told us how they have been trying to save to buy even just a few Bibles for their schools and now God has blessed them with a Bible for every student! The weather is nice here and the land is sooo beautiful. Taneesa and I went exploring last night, and found a really pretty sight, but it was work to get to it! The ground is very moist here, and we had to climb down an embankment to get to it. I started to slide but kept my balance and just kind of skated down, but Taneesa decided to slide down. We had church this morning, then they served us an amazing meal! Now we are just spending the afternoon at the church fellowshipping with some of the girls here. The time is going by so fast! I wish we could stay here for longer! I am absolutely loving it here! Looking forward to this next week and seeing what God is going to do. We are doing three large schools tomorrow, and will be giving out approximately 3,000 or more Bibles! What a privilege we have had to have the Bible and what a privilege to now be able to give all these students a Bible of their own! The Lord is so good!

Students with their Bibles

                                                   
                                                 

Victory Baptist Church in Suva

Riding on the truck...Beth and I wanted too, but
maybe next time

my new best friend :)

handing out Bibles

lending a hand

the crab who got freed from his bonds in the market

cooking supper the Fijian way

Filipe teaching us how to shave coconut

mudsliding!

The dirt was worth it though. It was beautiful down here

Victory Baptist Church youth group singing

fellowship sunday afternoon

running from the camera :)

Update from Kyla

Dear Pastor and  Church family,

I am blessed to be a part of this Fiji Bible project. 

This is the schedule when we get to a school.  

-The men unload the numerous boxes of Bibles.  

-When we get the signal of "go," we walk to the area where the students have gathered. 

-The Fijians put chairs at the front of the class that face all the students, and that is where " team Canada" and a few others sit.  

-After the Fijian students have sang some songs, Bro. Brooks tells the students how the Fiji Bible Project came about and explains things about the Bible such as the red letter addition, study guide,dictionary, and the fact that the cover is waterproof.  

-After that we all introduce ourselves,and in short order we, the team, sing a hymn.  

-In closing   Pastor Ryan Gray, the pastor of a local church here in Fiji,tells the students why the Bible means so much to him... salvation and protection from sin.  

-The last thing we do is my favourite part... handing out the Bibles! 

- Once all is said and done, many times the faculty will serve us tea along with a few snacks.  So after 3-4 schools you could have about that much tea!  

At one school, the children were asking all of us to sign their new Bibles.  That was neat!

As I sit in that chair facing all the students,  I think of the many people from Golden Plains who have given sacrificially to this missions trip.  I am honoured to represent Golden Plains Baptist Church, and I don't want to take that lightly.

Here in Fiji, the people drive on the left side of the road.  

The temperature has been much milder than I was expecting.  The hottest it has gotten thus far  is 27 degrees with 70% humidity.  

The food has been wonderful.  We have not experienced any really weird food yet.  

We sleep on beds that are on the floor.  

Our shower is similar to the ones in Mexico- made out of cement blocks!  We have only cold water, which feels good on a warm day.  

As far as laundry goes, we can't do laundry.  The lady that we are staying with told us that she will do our laundry and we are not allowed to help.

  The prices for food at grocery stores, markets, and restaurants  are pretty comparable to those in Canada.  

The markets are kind of similar to those in Mexico.  I have not seen a meat market here yet!

Please pray that the Lord would give me boldness and an opportunity to witness to somebody!

Kyla

Day 4 in Fiji (Girls)

Day 4 in Fiji!

Today is Saturday and is a bit more of a day off! During the week Pastor Grey picks us up at 7:30am so many of us are up by 5am (although I do have to mention that some of that early rising is partly due to the lovely roosters who start singing at approximately 4am! These lovely birds seem to bother certain of our girls more then others! I wouldn't dare mention Taneesa or Katie's name!) Anyway, this morning as soul winning was not till 11am we got to sleep in!:)

Today for soul winning we went to the open air food market and bus station! There are soooooo many people! You could literally spend all day there and not run out of people to talk to! We were out of all our tracts and John and Romans within about 20 minutes. Many of us got to talk to several people about The Lord and were able to share the plan of salvation! Here, nobody turns you down! I was able to speak to the man who the Greys rent their church building/house from. He is very strong Roman Catholic but we had a good discussion/argument anyway! Afterwards Sister Marioni and another lady from the church took us grocery shopping in the markets! A much different experience than grocery shopping back home and many different foods! Sister Marioni refuses to let us help with the cooking, but she promised us tonight she would let us help her cook out over a fire! We got to help Paypay scrape out coconut, and made freshly squeezed kumquat juice for supper! Our name has changed from Team Fiji to Team Canada to what will soon be Team Pudgy! We are being so well fed here! (Except for Katie that is! Who knew she was such a choosy eater!) Seriously though, not only do we get amazing food at home, but every single school we go to feeds us as well! And when you are in 3-4 schools a day, that's a lot of food! It's also a lot of tea! Every place you go they offer you tea, and more tea, and more tea! By the time we get home we will never want to see another cup of tea in our life! It has now become a joke with Filo and us as to how many times we can be offered tea! Thankfully they no longer get offended when we refuse it!

We have gotten to ride several different types of transportation since coming here: Greyhound-like buses, open air buses, a taxi and our favourite is packing into the back of Pastor Grey's vehicle!:)

I don't know about the rest of the girls, but I have fallen head over heals in love with this country! When I was in Thailand I was counting down the hours until I got to go home because I was so homesick! But here I'm more like " Home? What home? I'm staying right here!" LOL!

I'm honestly already crying at the thought of returning home!:( it is such an amazing experience to be here, to walk into schools and not only see the kids respond so well to the gospel message but then to be able to turn around and hand them a Bible! It is amazing to pass out tracts and not have a single person turn you down and instead have people walk up to you and ask you for one! It is amazing to be able to go through the plan of salvation with almost every single person to talk to when you're out tracting! Yes, I am most definitely in love!

Pictures from Day 3 (Men)

We have been picking up the sugar canes that fall from these tractors and eating them.

Super good !!

listening while the gospel is preached.

Smiling after they get there bible.

Children everywhere.

More Precious then gold!

Even the Teachers Love the Bibles.

Day 3 (Men)

Day 3
Bula vinaka (warm hello)

The Best way to describe today is Amazing! We serve such an awesome God!
This morning we were awoke by the sound of the mosque announcing morning pray time at 5:30 am. The mosque blasts the noise of a Muslims "singing" across the dark, silent valley of Labasa, Vanua Levu  Fiji ( the second Largest Island in Fiji.) It was hot in a short amount of time. As soon as the sun came up the the cool dew that had settled during the night was quickly gone and the smell of people cooking quickly filled the air. The people wake up early here and cook there bread and food (that they will eat in the day) in the morning and it always smells So good. We washed in the cool water and then did our bible time before the day got going. After that we called Brother Joe. The national paster that is organized the Bible distribution on this Island. and got ready for him to pick us up. he said that he would be there at 9 o'clock and at 10 we decided to call him. And he said that he would be there at 11 so we walked into town and he finally picked us up at 12:15. We were told that here in Fiji they run on what they call "Fiji time" that means that when you say " meet at 5 then they will show up at 5:30". When I hear that I said "Hey I will really fit in here!!!"( for you that now me. (; )
After we finally got picked up then we went out to organize the ferry ride back to the main Island on Friday.  and then we were off to hand out Bible's to the Secondary school in Seaqaqa. It was a larger secondary school of Labasa and from the surrounding rural district of Seaqaqa  (See-a-guagua). There were 553 students there plus teachers and staff. So a little more then 600 soul's reached out and took a bible.
It was truly amazing. The people are so hungry for the word and they are over whelmed when we give them there own Bible. They smile and laugh they get so happy. This Island has no Bible, truth preaching church for the people to go to. there at 7th day Adventist, Methodist, J.W., Catholics, Buddhist, Muslims, Hindu and all the other one that you can imagine. But not a single Bible baptist church on the Island.
th people here are so hungry for the Truth we have went out witnessing and handing out tracks in the towns and everyone and I really mean everyone that we talk to will stop and listen to the gospel message and really take it to heart. You can tell that they are not just doing it to be polite but because they want to know the truth.
The fields of Fiji are White already to harvest and the laborer are very few. Pray for all the seed that has been sown will be reaped for the lord and that Satan will not devouter the seed here.
In Christ, John Elwood ( Josiah and Matthew)