Day 7 in Fiji (men)

Day 7 in Fiji
Today we loaded up with Bibles and set out to distribute in three schools today.
When we arrived at the first school they were ready and waiting with a sound system already setup for us.
As our custom is, we meet with the principal of the school first to discuss how we wish to address the students. On this occasion the principal was not in and word arrived that a group of officials would be paying  the school a visit. They told us to come back later in the day and apologized for the inconvenience.
Such is life in Fiji! We rolled on with this change in plans and drove to our next school, Naleba College.
All went smoothly at this school. After sharing the gospel we were able to pass out 467 Bibles to students and teachers. I still have not gotten over the freedom we have to preach to the students and the eagerness of both students and teachers to receive the Bibles. This is truly amazing!
Travelling to our next school took about one and a half hours up and down some of the worst roads we have seen yet. There are numerous bridge crossings where the tires of our vehicle would straddle the railway tracks for the sugar mill. Rather than build two bridges they simply have the road and railway merge to share a bridge. We arrived safely at the school and had good success in passing out 554 Bibles to both students and teachers. Some students and teachers request a second Bible for another family member but as there are not enough Bibles for all these requests we usually have to say no. This is hard to get used to as you would like so much to give out more.
After this school we traveled the one and a half hours back to Batinikama Secondary School where we had been turned away at the start of the day. They told us that the officials had still not yet arrived and it was looking uncertain if they would let us speak to the students. This was a very strong Hindu school and the teachers seemed scared of what might happen should the officials arrive and discover a group of Baptists preaching to the students! They agreed to let us speak, but only to those students who wished to receive a Bible. Rather than calling a general assembly students on the front lawn as is the norm, they invited only those students wanting a Bible to a classroom at the very far back corner of the school.
We were not sure how many students would come at first but it turned out every student in the school wanted a Bible! The classroom was soon packed with some students sitting on chairs outside the window. Praise the Lord! We were able to pass out 233 Bibles to students and teachers.

Unicorn Fish at the market (we ate this yesterday)

 the local market

Our home in Lombasa

This is our shower and invisible sink (we have no sink here)

Car and Train merged bridge

 Harvesting Sugar Cane

Posing with principal and teachers

Day 6 (men) Awesome day

Day 6
Woke up at 6:30 and hurried to get ready because our first school is was at 7:30. we got to the first school and started unwrapping the bibles from there plastic covers. As soon as the sun came up it was hot instantly. By the time that we started giving out bibles we were all sweating buckets. One of the men from TX had a literal puddle of sweat.
 We were able to give a clear presentation of the gospel to all the students, It was Awesome!! It is such a privilege to give the gospel message to all of these children and then hand them there very own bible. We did three schools and close to 1,000 souls got there very own bible.
A bible like this would cost around 35 to 45 dollars Fijian and that is a lot of money for these people. So many of them will never be able to have there own bible because around here $ 3-5/hr  is considered  really good money. We have it so good in Canada, and the sick part is we think that we are suffering.
Here are some pictures of the children that sat in the sun for one and a half hours to get there bible. ( Think how many students in Canada would do that.)  and the last one is Josiah Peeling some sugar cane for us all to eat.
May God Bless you all.
John. ( Josiah & Matthew)

Day 7 in Fiji (Girls)

Tuesday, Day 7 in Fiji

This morning we left the house at 7am and headed to the church to load up with Bibles! Our first school today was a Indian school (East Indian that is, not American Indian!) of about 800 students! We were very well received and once again there was great liberty, thanks to your prayers! A couple of young people from pastor Grey's church actually attend this school, so it was good see them!

We headed back to the church for "Tea" and lunch and to wait for 1pm and our next school! Unfortunately my two "Beth" friends (Dalton and Caleb) love to prank right back so they handed us chocolate covered frozen bananas and we unsuspectingly ate them, only to discover that they were covered in Vegamite! A very disgusting yeast substance! Prank #1 down...who knows how many to go!! Serving God is the greatest adventure and I love the fact that this trip has been jam-packed with serving God, but also full of lots of fun as well!:)

While waiting to go to the next school we added 3 more members to our team! Kelly and Tanner are from North Carolina and Drew is from Georgia. They all just flew in this morning and will be with us for a week, so we are looking forward to having the extra help!:)

Our second school was at 1pm and was different. The kids were very quiet....normally they are very responsive and laugh at all the jokes...not this school! They were very quiet! However they all listened very intently and once again the gospel was preached! 

We are now done for the day and are back at the church for a game of volleyball and then off to Macdonalds for supper!

(Men) Day 5 - Sunday in fiji.

Day 5
Last night we slept under the stars by the seashore in the Small coastal town of Savusavu, Vanua levu, Fiji, At a house that Bro. Jonathan is taking care of. This morning we saw massive fruit bats that were flying around when we woke up. We then got ready for church service and did our bible time.
 For breakfast we ate coconut and drank coconut milk that I had picked up on an early morning walk by the shore. and we also ate lime that we picked off of the tree in the yard.
Brother Jonathan  came and picked us up and we went to pick up the song books and to invite some people that he had talked to though out the week. Then we went to his place and had Sunday school and church Bro. Jonathan preached Sunday school and the visiting American Bro. Dusty preached  the church service. Brother Jonathan is restarting the church "Lighthouse Baptist Church" in Savusavu.  We then drove back to Labasa through the winding  mountain roads. It is so Beautiful here.



We went to a church in Labasa for the evening service. These are the only two churches on the Islands that I have heard of ( That preach the Gospel). We had a wonderful time at the service. They are such good singers here. We then went to a brothers house for "Tea" which is our supper. We ate unicorn fish that they caught the day before. ( This kind of fish you can't catch with a hook and line like most other fish instead they have to "spear-dive" to catch it. Alot of people around here fish like that, they can hold there breath for up to 5-6 min.) They say that the chief eats the head so they gave it to me. I felt so important I eat every bit but the gills I don't think that you are supposed to eat that, but I didn't ask just in case they said yes. Them we went to bed so we were rested for the next week ahead.

Church in Labasa

We are staying in part of this building (men)

Bro Joe/ Bro. John/ Bro. Lucky. In Lamasa

 (Bro Lucky is trying to reach the hindi people.)

Esau/ Joe/ on left and Bill on the right

Amazing Day!

We had an incredible day passing out Bibles in three different schools today!
John and I were both given opportunities to speak to the students.
It was amazing being able to share the gospel to a crowd of listening students!
I can't think of anything that has ever been this thrilling.
God is truly amazing to have given us this wide open door here in Fiji!
I have been joking about different ways to lose our passports so we can stay here.
Thank you so much for your prayers and for investing in the future of Fiji.

John Speaking

Passing out Bibles

Passing out Bibles

Unwrapping Bibles

Smiling and holding up their Bible

Lots of Students

Speaking

Students as they listen.

Reading their Bible

Day 6 in Fiji

Monday, Day 6 in Fiji!:)

So we had a very exciting evening after arriving home from church! Apparently the prankster side of me has stayed quiet a little too long, and it decided to appear last night! So we spent last evening busily filling Oreo cookies with toothpaste to feed to Dalton and searching for geckos to put in Filo's suitcase as she was leaving for Bible School this morning! Unfortunately in our quest for a gecko, I came across the first cockroach we have seen since arriving here! Now I love geckos but I despise cockroaches...so long story short the screams that erupted from me left the girls in stitches of laughter and allowed them to hear me scream louder then anyone has ever heard me scream in my life! 

This morning Pastor Grey picked us up at 8am and we drove to the church where we loaded up over 2000 bibles! Then we headed out to the first school! There was great liberty at that school and both Bro. Brooks and Pastor Grey were able to spend a good amount of time explaining the gospel! We girls had learned the chorus of "Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful" in Fijian, so when we sang this morning    We sang in Fijian and the kids totally loved it! They seemed to open up more to us because of it and it definitely  pleased them that we took the time to learn their language! This school is also the one where much of the video that Bro. Brooks made for the project was filmed.

The second school we went to this morning was the largest we have been to yet! Well over 1000 students! As you can tell from the pictures we were all packed into a large auditorium and talk about sweltering! It was soooo hot in there! But the kids all sat attentively in the heat and once again listened as the gospel was presented! Please, please pray that these students would read the Bibles and take to head what they have heard! At many of the schools we often have teachers coming up and asking for extra Bibles for their family members! Praise The Lord!

On our way to the third school we got to see the Presidential Palace and the changing of the guard! We also saw Thurston gardens and Rebekah was able to get her picture taken in front of it, which was a desire of her heart!:)

The 3rd school was the largest yet! We actually did it in 2 time periods. The first period we did around 400 students and it was probably the worst one yet as far as a good reception! Everyone was talking so speaking to them was a little difficult! The second period there though was to over 1000 students and it was very well received!

Today we had Pastor Sutton, his wife, his niece, and 2 ladies from Florida with us. They were only here for today as well as preaching at the church last night. The Culleys are also with us right now for the rest of the week. Then a number of people from the Greys church and another national Pastor and some of his men from a church near here came and helped as well. We will be doing the schools in his area on the 16th. So we had lots of help today which was a huge blessing as we were doing some of the largest schools!

I think our biggest prayer need this week is that God would open the hearts of the children and teachers of each school we go to and that no school would back out of allowing us to come! Please also pray for both Pastor Brooks and Pastor Grey as they speak at every school! Many schools do not have PA systems or if they do they aren't always the greatest, so it is very wearing on their voices! Please also pray for both Pastor Brook's wife and mother-in-law as both are in the States dealing with health issues at this time. 

Thanks once again for all your prayers and for allowing us to be here!