I am having such a good time here in Paihia! I am camping at a 5-day long party with 1000 youth. It is SO MUCH FUN! All of the youth are so kind and open to hearing about the Lord! We have already seen a few salvations and it is only day 3! And there have been many, many amazing conversations. The youth of New Zealand are hungry for God and hungry for revival. Religion seems to have a stronghold on these youth. Many of them experienced church growing up, and are closed off to Christianity now because of the religious spirit in the churches here. When youth hear that Christianity is not about religion and rules, but about an actual personal relationship with the Lord they get really excited about it and want to hear more.
Yesterday, there was a rediculously long line of girls outside of the showers at about 6 am. I am pretty sure the majority of partiers went to bed after midnight, and then they all got up early and rushed to the showers. Weird. And the bad part of this situation is that they took ALL of the hot water. And it was gone for the rest of the day. So I had to have a cold shower. Now, normally I wouldn't complain, but I just spent a month having cold bucket showers. Is it so bad that I just want a nice hot shower? It doesn't seem like I will be getting one this week. The water was cold again today when I showered.
Our team is coming down with some colds. I think it is because we didn't get much sleep during our transition from Fiji to NZ, and it is significantly colder in NZ than it was in Fiji. And now we stay up late with the party animals and get up early, while they sleep in or shower in warm water. And then we have cold showers. I felt pretty sick yesterday and slept for the entire afternoon. I feel a bit better today but my throat is worse. My voice is really annoying and I feel really bad for all of the youth that I have been talking to, having to listen to my ugly voice. At least I have an accent and they like listening to that. Having an accent is actually a very effective evangelism tool! They just want to hear you talk, and if you talk about Jesus they'll listen! Woot!
Last night we had some Kareoke. Kareoke always sounds like a good idea, until you let a bunch of drunk people scream into the microphone. They don't even try to sing, just scream. It is quite unpleasant for those of us listening, but they seem to love it and have fun. There was one girl that actually had a rediculously amazing voice. She sang twice, but I wish she would have sang every time.
Once the DJ came, things got a little roudy. More so than on the first night. Jacob and I were on sausages and cafe. So we cooked up some sausages. It was pretty awesome. So many of the youth come through and get sausages, because they are free, and then you get to talk to them and tell them a bit about Jesus while they wait in line. And they love you because you gave them free food! I made so many friends last night. It was awesome.
Then Hannah and I had a really good convo with a guy named Ollie. He was such a sweet kid. Kinda scrawney and a bit nerdy, and he told us that he is an atheist. And he really likes to argue with Christians about their faith. So we welcomed him and talked to him for hours. It was funny because he originally came over to be rude to us, but we just killed his rudeness with kindness and love, and he didn't want to leave! He is such a nice guy deep down, but he has been hurt in the past and we could see a lot of rejection in his heart. All he needs is a bit of love, and he got some from us! I am excited to see if he comes back to hang out again tomorrow!
Then there was Stacey. God gave me such a heart for Stacey. I met him on the first night and I could just feel the pain that he is in. He is so lost, just like all of the youth here, and he is looking for fulfillment in drugs, alcohol and women. It is such a common problem in the world. God made us with a longing for love and for fulfillment, but the only person that can fulfill the desires of our heart is God himself. But so many people today give in to the ways of the world. The world tells us that drinking is cool and fun and that you will have more fun when you are under the influence than when you are not. But alcohol makes you do things that you normally wouldn't do, and in the morning, when you have your senses back, you feel just as bad, if not worse, than before. Yet we keep going back for more, thinking that maybe next time it will be better and you will find what you are looking for. But you never do. It is a never ending cycle. And it is the same with drugs and sex. You are lead to believe that these things will fulfill you and make you feel good, but when you come down from your high, you are still yourself with the same problems as before. It is just a temporary escape. And sex might make you feel good in the moment, but if you are doing it with someone who is not your husband or wife, then you are losing something that is yours. When you become one flesh, your spirits become one also, and if that person is just a one-night stand, then you have given part of yourself to them and you will feel even more empty than before.
Man, I can totally see that these things have a stronghold on Stacey and on a lot of the other youth here, and around the world. Him and I had a long talk about God and about forgiveness and true love. He started off being quite against God. He said that he believed in some greater energy out there, but not that it was God. He has had a rough life, and seen some really sad things happen. And Christians go around preaching about how good God is, but why is there so much bad stuff in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? Those were his main questions. I told him that I don't know why God lets those things happen, but that I do know that everytime someone sins and falls into temptation, every time they do drugs or steal, God's heart breaks for them. God's only desire is for His lost children to find their way back to him. And whenever one of his children dies without knowing him, God is so upset. Stacey told me about one of his friends that he lost recently. His friend had not been saved, and he had been involved in some minor crimes. He thought that his friend was being punished for what he had done. I started to cry. God gave me his heart for that boy that died. And God was so filled with grief at the loss of one of his children. He was so sad!
Stacey wondered about illnesses like cancer and AIDS and about natural disasters. Again, I told him that I don't know why God lets these things happen, but when they do, God is not happy about it, nor does he use these things as a punishment. God doesn't give children AIDS in Africa to punish them. AIDS is brought on to them through the sinful nature of mankind. But God can heal. If one of his children asks him to heal them, and they believe that he will heal them, then they will be healed. We saw it with Beryl in November. She had breast cancer. She was going to be treated with radiation, but on the day that she was supposed to start treatments, her test results came back negative and she was cured.
And I don't know if natural disasters are controlled by God, or why they happen. But I do know that God protects the faithful during storms and disasters. In Fiji we saw it with our own eyes during the hurricane. There was a tree in the yard, and the wind was blowing the tree directly towards the house, but when the massive branches broke off of the tree, they flew by the house on either side, and not into it. They should have blown right into the house. But there were believers inside the house that were praising him even through the storm. And he blessed us and protected us.
We talked about all of this stuff and more, and something shifted in Stacey. I think that something that I had said got to him, broke through his walls. I told him about God's love and how much God loves him. He denied it. He doesn't think that he can ever be forgiven of his past, that he can ever be set free from it. It breaks my heart because I used to feel that way about things in my past. Now I know that God can break everything off and take all of it away. And I know that God can and will forgive anyone that asks for forgiveness, no matter what the sin is. I felt God's heart for his son, Stacey. It is breaking to see him suffer on his own. Stacey tried to escape me so I ran after him and gave him a big hug from God's heart. He softened, and then I think he teared up so he ran off. Please pray for him. He is one of my missions for this week. To love on him when he doesn't think that he deserves it.
There were 4 people lead to the Lord last night. One of them in particular was notable. He wanted to accept Jesus into his life. So one of the guys told him that he had to bear himself infront of the Lord. He took that as a literal requirement and stripped down to his birthday suit in the middle of our campsite. I was setting up tables for the evening and when I turned around I saw quite the sight. But it was pretty cool to see how serious he was about accepting the Lord into his life!
I am really excited for whatever God has in store for tonight!
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Friday, 28 December 2012
Steph Moments
Why is it that obscure and unfortunate events happen to me on a daily basis? I have come to the conclusion that it is because I am Steph. Yesterday another such event occurred. It all began as I was carrying my backpack that probably weighs 20 or 30 pounds out to the van. There was nothing out of the ordinary on the ground. But my right foot decided that rather than taking a normal step, which involves placing the bottom of the heal of your foot to the ground and then shifting your weight to the bottom of the toe side of your foot, it wanted to take an abnormal step, which involved placing the outer side of my foot on the ground. This move resulted in an unfortunate spraining of the ankle and pain shot through my leg causing me to lose balance. I am a tall person and that means that I have a long way to fall when I lose balance, and I was carrying a very heavy bag on my back. This meant that I fell even harder than normal. Somehow I managed to scrape the top of my right foot and my right knee as I fell and twisted and landed on my butt. It hurt a lot. But the worst part was that the fall tore a massive hole in the knee of the only pair of pants that I packed for outreaLch. I sat on the sidewalk for a while while I gathered myself and tried not to cry or curse. Then I looked at my left knee and realized that blood was now gushing out of my wound onto my only pair of pants. I ran inside so fast that I felt no pain and I ripped my pants off as fast as I could and tried to get as little blood on them as possible. Then I sat in my undies and tended to my wounds.
I don't think that I have ever had a skinned knee as bad as this one. There are huge gashes in it that are really deep. I basically have holes in my knee now. Awesome. And a twisted ankle. My ankle was legitimately sprained badly. I have sprained my ankle many times in the past and I knew instantly that my ankle would be the size of a softball in no time. So I iced and elevated. And I elevated it for 4 hours as we drove from Auckland to Paihia. And today, it is a miracle, my ankle is a bit purple, but not swollen or sore. Praise Jesus.
We are camping in tents in a campground near Paihia in the very North of the North island. It is in-tents! (get it? Intense! Haha I'm so punny). We are working with an organization called Operation Jerusalem. During the New Years week, it is a tradition for the youth of NZ to go camping and get drunk and party - similar to May long weekend in Canada. And since we are in the Southern hemisphere it is beautiful and hot out over this week. So, with Operation Jerusalem, we are supposed to be a sort of calm in the madness of partying. We are doing lots of prayer and worship, and ministering to the campers. Mostly just loving on them and talking with them. But also putting on activities and feeding them sausages and hot drinks.
Campers started to arrive today and pitch their tents. So we had lots of time to prepare mentally. It is kind of culture shock coming here from Fiji. In Fiji women dress very modestly. The young women camping here are not so modest. Apparently high wasted shorts that show most of your butt cheeks are in style. As well as a general lack of clothing. It is sort of a shock to say the least. I feel like a granny wearing my fingertip length shorts and modest tops.
We went swimming in the river that is running by the camp ground this afternoon. I wore my very stylish navy blue one-peice speedo bathing suit with modest shorts. I felt extremely overdressed. It was awkward. I felt like everyone was staring at me thinking "What the heck is this weirdo grandma lady doing here?"
The river was cold. It is weird feeling cold after a month of always feeling TOO hot. But it was nice. The current was strong and there were lots of rocks. We discovered that the most efficient and safe way for 'swimming' against the current was to do the 'golem'. The rocks made the water only about a foot deep. But the rocks were all slimey, so it was scarey to walk. So we did the golem. Perfect for being in Middle Earth.
As soon as the tents were pitched, the party was a boppin' up in here. There was really loud music coming from at least 3 directions and people were getting roudy. Tonight was the first of 5 nights of partying. After dinner we started to walk around and talk to people and invite them over for sausages later. Me and Jacob went around together and we met so many cool kids! And I have found that there is an abundance of gingers in NZ. I love ginges. I think I will marry a ginge. Maybe even a kiwi ginge, since there is such a large selection here.
A lot of the kids we met in our walk-around came over to our tent area later this evening and we had some amazing convos. I have already met so many new friends and I am excited to get to know them better and to meet more people! It really helps that I have a Canadian accent because Kiwi's love to listen to Canadian accents! I am so excited for what the rest of the week has in store! I think it will be awesome and I thank God so much for this opportunity. I think big things in the kingdom of God are going to happen here this week.
There was one interesting event that happened this afternoon. Jacob and I went into a little camp site area to let people know about the sausages and DJ and such things that were happening later. And this one guy started getting really mad at us and saying "Get out of here you Christians! Stop preaching to me!" and really just cursing at us. We were surprised because we haddent said anything about Jesus or our religious beliefs. All of his friends were telling him to stop being rude and stuff. I asked how he knew we were Christians, and he told me that I have a 'Jesus voice'. Interesting. Since he told me to leave, I did the opposite and sat down beside him. He acted repulsed by me and HE left. I think he has some sort of demonic thing going on. I have never seen anything like that before. Weird. I will be praying for him this week.
I don't think that I have ever had a skinned knee as bad as this one. There are huge gashes in it that are really deep. I basically have holes in my knee now. Awesome. And a twisted ankle. My ankle was legitimately sprained badly. I have sprained my ankle many times in the past and I knew instantly that my ankle would be the size of a softball in no time. So I iced and elevated. And I elevated it for 4 hours as we drove from Auckland to Paihia. And today, it is a miracle, my ankle is a bit purple, but not swollen or sore. Praise Jesus.
We are camping in tents in a campground near Paihia in the very North of the North island. It is in-tents! (get it? Intense! Haha I'm so punny). We are working with an organization called Operation Jerusalem. During the New Years week, it is a tradition for the youth of NZ to go camping and get drunk and party - similar to May long weekend in Canada. And since we are in the Southern hemisphere it is beautiful and hot out over this week. So, with Operation Jerusalem, we are supposed to be a sort of calm in the madness of partying. We are doing lots of prayer and worship, and ministering to the campers. Mostly just loving on them and talking with them. But also putting on activities and feeding them sausages and hot drinks.
Campers started to arrive today and pitch their tents. So we had lots of time to prepare mentally. It is kind of culture shock coming here from Fiji. In Fiji women dress very modestly. The young women camping here are not so modest. Apparently high wasted shorts that show most of your butt cheeks are in style. As well as a general lack of clothing. It is sort of a shock to say the least. I feel like a granny wearing my fingertip length shorts and modest tops.
We went swimming in the river that is running by the camp ground this afternoon. I wore my very stylish navy blue one-peice speedo bathing suit with modest shorts. I felt extremely overdressed. It was awkward. I felt like everyone was staring at me thinking "What the heck is this weirdo grandma lady doing here?"
The river was cold. It is weird feeling cold after a month of always feeling TOO hot. But it was nice. The current was strong and there were lots of rocks. We discovered that the most efficient and safe way for 'swimming' against the current was to do the 'golem'. The rocks made the water only about a foot deep. But the rocks were all slimey, so it was scarey to walk. So we did the golem. Perfect for being in Middle Earth.
As soon as the tents were pitched, the party was a boppin' up in here. There was really loud music coming from at least 3 directions and people were getting roudy. Tonight was the first of 5 nights of partying. After dinner we started to walk around and talk to people and invite them over for sausages later. Me and Jacob went around together and we met so many cool kids! And I have found that there is an abundance of gingers in NZ. I love ginges. I think I will marry a ginge. Maybe even a kiwi ginge, since there is such a large selection here.
A lot of the kids we met in our walk-around came over to our tent area later this evening and we had some amazing convos. I have already met so many new friends and I am excited to get to know them better and to meet more people! It really helps that I have a Canadian accent because Kiwi's love to listen to Canadian accents! I am so excited for what the rest of the week has in store! I think it will be awesome and I thank God so much for this opportunity. I think big things in the kingdom of God are going to happen here this week.
There was one interesting event that happened this afternoon. Jacob and I went into a little camp site area to let people know about the sausages and DJ and such things that were happening later. And this one guy started getting really mad at us and saying "Get out of here you Christians! Stop preaching to me!" and really just cursing at us. We were surprised because we haddent said anything about Jesus or our religious beliefs. All of his friends were telling him to stop being rude and stuff. I asked how he knew we were Christians, and he told me that I have a 'Jesus voice'. Interesting. Since he told me to leave, I did the opposite and sat down beside him. He acted repulsed by me and HE left. I think he has some sort of demonic thing going on. I have never seen anything like that before. Weird. I will be praying for him this week.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Back to Middle Earth
Here I am back in middle earth. It has been an emotional few days. I had a stellar Christmas in Fiji. On Christmas Eve, the day was pretty laid back. I was able to hit town for last minute souvenirs and gifts. Then I relaxed for the afternoon. Dave gave us all a nice Christmas gift of 10 Fijian dollars, which was actually our money in the first place, but it was pretty lucky because I wanted to buy a fancy machete for 11 dollars and I only had 2 dollars cash left. Yay!
It was an interesting Christmas Eve. Usually on Christmas Eve I am at my grandmas house with all of my cousins and aunts and uncles and we go to church at 4 ish. Usually there is at least a foot of snow and it's about minus 30 degrees Celcius. But we get to come home into the warmth of grandma's house for a massive feast of turkey or ham or both with stuffing and mashed potatoes and homemade bread and maybe veggies if we are feeling healthy and LOTS of dessert like lefsa and pie and Christmas pudding. And then we do a Chinese gift exchange. And all of us cousins get to open our gift from Grandma, which is one of the most exciting gifts. And then we have a restless night while we wait for Santa to eat his milk and cookies and for the raindeer to eat their carrots. Then we wake up early and open Santa's presents and our presents from Mom and Dad and siblings. Then we usually go to another family members house for another feast of turkey or ham or both with stuffing and mashed potatoes and homemade bread and maybe veggies if we are feeling healthy and LOTS of dessert like lefsa and pie and Christmas pudding.
Fijian Christmas Eve was not exactly the same. For starters it was really hot and really sunny and there was no snow and no need for a fire in the fireplace. But we did get to have lots of merriment with friends and family. I skipped lunch because I didn't have money to buy lunch in town, so I was really hungry by 5:30 (which is when we usually have supper). But the staff kept postponing eating. I couldn't really figure out why because the food was already cooked and on the table ready to go. I think it was like 8:00 and I was feeling quite faint. Hungry Steph isn't the most pleasant person. Usually I can control it if I know that there is no food, but there was food right in plain view and I could smell it. My mouth was salivating and I was at the point of hunger where you start to feel nauseous. I was in the middle of whining to the staff and asking why we can't just eat already when two taxis show up in front of the house. These were no ordinary taxis... they were filled with white people. Weird. Then Fiji 2 got out of them. What? My brain wasn't functioning at full capacity due to lack of nutrition. Hannah started screaming at the top of her lungs and jumping and running towards the cars. Everyone else started running by me too. I was standing at the top of the stairs staring down at the people running to the street. I was really confused. Finally Auntie ran by practically in tears of joy. Then it clicked. Fiji 2 was at the house! And Auntie was finally reunited with her long lost son Dan who has been so close, and yet so far, for the last month with his team in Rakiraki. So I cautiously walked down the stairs to the street, trying not to faint. And I got to hug my Nomes and my Kat. Cottage 5 reunited. I missed them so much! What a wonderful Christmas surprise! Then we finally ate. Praise Jesus.
We spent the night chatting and catching up and maybe gossiping a bit... shhh, don't tell. And in the morning we had breakfast and then opened our secret Santa gifts. I got a beautiful necklace from Santa, and he even wrote me a poem:
Merry Christmas to you,
On this day, this is what I am going to do:
I am going to write you this poem, from the bottom of my heart,
Hopefully I can get through without a fart.
Seeing you work with the kids, it's so great!
If you come to Kitchener, I'll take you on a date.
I hope you have a great day!
My poetry skills are pretty lame, what can I say?
You are an awesome girl,
and to Jesus, you are his precious pearl.
Love you sister in Christ!
Merry Fijian Christmas!
Awe! How cute is that? It made my day!
And the best Christmas surprise of all??? The electricity came on! YESSSSS! Living without electricity was exciting for the first night because we got to do everything by candle light, including taking bucket showers and navigating through Beth's stuff in our bedroom. And the best part of having electricity??? We got to plug in the washing machine that we blessed the family with. Auntie was so excited. She wanted to do everyone's laundry. I watched her, standing out by her new washing machine and beaming for at least an hour. I love her.
We at Lovo for lunch. It was similar to Christmas dinner in that I am allergic to most of the food. But everyone else enjoyed it, just like normal! Yesssssss. Then we went to the beach! It was fun. The water was pretty warm, but really disgustingly black. I probably swallowed a lot of poison and had poison pour into my body through all of the holes (ears, nose, eyes, mouth, etc.). Why were bodies designed with holes? Bad idea. If we didn't have holes we wouldn't have to eat or poop. Think about the possibilities...
We stayed at the beach until sunset and then when we got home I took a bucket shower with real light, not candle light. Amazing. And then... packing. Ugh. Gross. I hate packing. I gave away quite a few articles of clothing and other such things. I made a trade with Tom: my pretty newish hat for his old dirty one. Awesome deal. What a good souvenir! I love it. And I gave Jackie my pee wallet (the one that I accidentally dropped in the toilet with pee during Circuit Riders). She loved it. She even got some New Zealand change for when she does her DTS during the next school!
We had a meeting and we all pitched in for Dan's ticket back to New Zealand. He got about 1300 dollars in total! Now he can come back to NZ to finish the second half of his outreach, and he will be there at Graduation in February. Amazing. God provides. So cool.
Then Pastor prayed us out. To leave Fiji in the past and prepare for NZ. It was SO SAD. I literally bawled the whole entire time. I hugged Jackie and I bawled. I hugged Flo and I bawled. I hugged Falissa and bawled. Then I cut myself off from hugging people because I was crying too much. I saved the rest of my tears for morning.
And then morning came... I woke up with that feeling that one always gets on the day after Christmas - a little bit like waking up from a really good dream and realizing that life has to go on. We got up at 6:15 to finish packing and to have breaky. I enjoyed my last bowl of Aunties delicious porridge with peanut butter and mountains of sugar. I will really miss the raw cane sugar.
I put sugar on everything. So yummy. Pastor and Auntie made fun of me. Pastor always gave me that look, as I was piling spoon-full after spoon-full of sugar onto my food, the look that says "Really? Don't you think that's enough?". But on Christmas Eve morning, as I was piling sugar onto my porridge, he gave me the look... I put the spoon down... and he started spooning lots more sugar on and he said "Merry Christmas". I love him.
Finally, we said our goodbyes to Fiji 2. And we headed to the van. Auntie didn't come to the airport, I suspect because it would be too emotional for her. And Jackie didn't come either. I hugged Auntie. I started to tear up. I hugged Jackie. I really teared up. Then I hugged Auntie again because I love her so much. I didn't want to leave her. I feel like she really is my Auntie, or my second mother. Then I sadly and reluctantly got into the van. Jackie gave me a beautiful card filled with encouragements. It made me not want to leave. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry again.
The ride to the airport was wayyyyyy too fast. We got checked in and such. We had a big farewell party there to see us off. Tulia and her mom came! Her mom gave us all shell necklaces. And Ben was there with us, and of course Falissa, Flo, Tom and Pastor. I hugged them all. I held my tears in until I came to Pastor. Then I cried. A lot. Then they started to sing us out. They sang a Fijian farewell song. It was used back in the day to send warriors off. It is a blessing and a goodbye that means farewell forever, give it your everything and that you are not expected to come back. It means 'Don't be afraid, I will be with you.'
Kua ni rere
Au na tiko kei iko
Mo yalo gaga
Mo yalo gaga
Au na tiko kei iko
That's when I really started bawling. Like literally sobbing in the middle of the airport. Who am I? All sentimental and crap. Geeze. We made quite the scene. It was beautiful actually. I will never forget it. I love that song. I never thought that I would get so attached to Fiji and it's people. But I love them so much and I wish that I could stay with them forever.
We conquered the plane ride. I watched the Lord of the Rings to get me back into the mood of NZ, and I filled in some of the team journal. I drew cartoon pictures of all of the people that we spent time with in Fiji. They are pretty accurate I must say. We landed around 2 and went through customs where they so kindly washed my running shoes and machete. They even coated the machete with anit rust stuff. The next time I need something washed, I'll just declare it. And FINALLY, I got a SOY LATTE. Praise Jesus.
And we were picked up by the base director, and she brought us to her home for supper and sleep. I was reunited with my garbage back full of NZ clothes and paraphernalia I traded out some of my Fiji stuff for New Zealand stuff. It took me a while to decide what was critical for me to bring and what is not critical. I think I repacked my backpack 3 times. And I did it in the car port. Then it started to rain. The drive-way is slanted. I was sitting on it. The water started to flow down the driveway directly towards my butt. Why am I Steph? Really? Come on. Give me a break. So my butt got wet. What's new? Ugh. And that's that. But my backpack is beautifully packed to the rim and there is stuff tied to it on all sides. Go Steph! And guess who I have with me now!!!! ... My Barney skateboard!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
I also got to phone the Reynolds clan back in Canada. I haven't talked to any of them in over a month, so that was pretty exciting! I chatted with mom, dad, grandma and sista. It was a good ol' chat and I found out that there is about 3 feet of snow and it was -28 today. Man am I glad that I have been in Fiji in >+30 for all of this time. Win for Steph.
And tomorrow we leave Auckland for Paihia. There is this big 'party' there where about a thousand of the youth of NZ come together for a week over new years and drink prohibited beverages excessively. We will be volunteering there. I think it will involve cleaning up bottles, maybe vomit .. who knows... But also just hanging out and talking with the youth. A lot of them just desperately need someone to listen to them. We will also maybe do a burn night, some karaoke, give out some food and bevies (like water). I am pretty excited for this because I feel like they will be able to relate to me and to my past. If I lived in NZ when I was a teen I would most likely have been at this event. So I am excited to see what God has in store!
It was an interesting Christmas Eve. Usually on Christmas Eve I am at my grandmas house with all of my cousins and aunts and uncles and we go to church at 4 ish. Usually there is at least a foot of snow and it's about minus 30 degrees Celcius. But we get to come home into the warmth of grandma's house for a massive feast of turkey or ham or both with stuffing and mashed potatoes and homemade bread and maybe veggies if we are feeling healthy and LOTS of dessert like lefsa and pie and Christmas pudding. And then we do a Chinese gift exchange. And all of us cousins get to open our gift from Grandma, which is one of the most exciting gifts. And then we have a restless night while we wait for Santa to eat his milk and cookies and for the raindeer to eat their carrots. Then we wake up early and open Santa's presents and our presents from Mom and Dad and siblings. Then we usually go to another family members house for another feast of turkey or ham or both with stuffing and mashed potatoes and homemade bread and maybe veggies if we are feeling healthy and LOTS of dessert like lefsa and pie and Christmas pudding.
Fijian Christmas Eve was not exactly the same. For starters it was really hot and really sunny and there was no snow and no need for a fire in the fireplace. But we did get to have lots of merriment with friends and family. I skipped lunch because I didn't have money to buy lunch in town, so I was really hungry by 5:30 (which is when we usually have supper). But the staff kept postponing eating. I couldn't really figure out why because the food was already cooked and on the table ready to go. I think it was like 8:00 and I was feeling quite faint. Hungry Steph isn't the most pleasant person. Usually I can control it if I know that there is no food, but there was food right in plain view and I could smell it. My mouth was salivating and I was at the point of hunger where you start to feel nauseous. I was in the middle of whining to the staff and asking why we can't just eat already when two taxis show up in front of the house. These were no ordinary taxis... they were filled with white people. Weird. Then Fiji 2 got out of them. What? My brain wasn't functioning at full capacity due to lack of nutrition. Hannah started screaming at the top of her lungs and jumping and running towards the cars. Everyone else started running by me too. I was standing at the top of the stairs staring down at the people running to the street. I was really confused. Finally Auntie ran by practically in tears of joy. Then it clicked. Fiji 2 was at the house! And Auntie was finally reunited with her long lost son Dan who has been so close, and yet so far, for the last month with his team in Rakiraki. So I cautiously walked down the stairs to the street, trying not to faint. And I got to hug my Nomes and my Kat. Cottage 5 reunited. I missed them so much! What a wonderful Christmas surprise! Then we finally ate. Praise Jesus.
We spent the night chatting and catching up and maybe gossiping a bit... shhh, don't tell. And in the morning we had breakfast and then opened our secret Santa gifts. I got a beautiful necklace from Santa, and he even wrote me a poem:
Merry Christmas to you,
On this day, this is what I am going to do:
I am going to write you this poem, from the bottom of my heart,
Hopefully I can get through without a fart.
Seeing you work with the kids, it's so great!
If you come to Kitchener, I'll take you on a date.
I hope you have a great day!
My poetry skills are pretty lame, what can I say?
You are an awesome girl,
and to Jesus, you are his precious pearl.
Love you sister in Christ!
Merry Fijian Christmas!
Awe! How cute is that? It made my day!
And the best Christmas surprise of all??? The electricity came on! YESSSSS! Living without electricity was exciting for the first night because we got to do everything by candle light, including taking bucket showers and navigating through Beth's stuff in our bedroom. And the best part of having electricity??? We got to plug in the washing machine that we blessed the family with. Auntie was so excited. She wanted to do everyone's laundry. I watched her, standing out by her new washing machine and beaming for at least an hour. I love her.
We at Lovo for lunch. It was similar to Christmas dinner in that I am allergic to most of the food. But everyone else enjoyed it, just like normal! Yesssssss. Then we went to the beach! It was fun. The water was pretty warm, but really disgustingly black. I probably swallowed a lot of poison and had poison pour into my body through all of the holes (ears, nose, eyes, mouth, etc.). Why were bodies designed with holes? Bad idea. If we didn't have holes we wouldn't have to eat or poop. Think about the possibilities...
We stayed at the beach until sunset and then when we got home I took a bucket shower with real light, not candle light. Amazing. And then... packing. Ugh. Gross. I hate packing. I gave away quite a few articles of clothing and other such things. I made a trade with Tom: my pretty newish hat for his old dirty one. Awesome deal. What a good souvenir! I love it. And I gave Jackie my pee wallet (the one that I accidentally dropped in the toilet with pee during Circuit Riders). She loved it. She even got some New Zealand change for when she does her DTS during the next school!
We had a meeting and we all pitched in for Dan's ticket back to New Zealand. He got about 1300 dollars in total! Now he can come back to NZ to finish the second half of his outreach, and he will be there at Graduation in February. Amazing. God provides. So cool.
Then Pastor prayed us out. To leave Fiji in the past and prepare for NZ. It was SO SAD. I literally bawled the whole entire time. I hugged Jackie and I bawled. I hugged Flo and I bawled. I hugged Falissa and bawled. Then I cut myself off from hugging people because I was crying too much. I saved the rest of my tears for morning.
And then morning came... I woke up with that feeling that one always gets on the day after Christmas - a little bit like waking up from a really good dream and realizing that life has to go on. We got up at 6:15 to finish packing and to have breaky. I enjoyed my last bowl of Aunties delicious porridge with peanut butter and mountains of sugar. I will really miss the raw cane sugar.
I put sugar on everything. So yummy. Pastor and Auntie made fun of me. Pastor always gave me that look, as I was piling spoon-full after spoon-full of sugar onto my food, the look that says "Really? Don't you think that's enough?". But on Christmas Eve morning, as I was piling sugar onto my porridge, he gave me the look... I put the spoon down... and he started spooning lots more sugar on and he said "Merry Christmas". I love him.
Finally, we said our goodbyes to Fiji 2. And we headed to the van. Auntie didn't come to the airport, I suspect because it would be too emotional for her. And Jackie didn't come either. I hugged Auntie. I started to tear up. I hugged Jackie. I really teared up. Then I hugged Auntie again because I love her so much. I didn't want to leave her. I feel like she really is my Auntie, or my second mother. Then I sadly and reluctantly got into the van. Jackie gave me a beautiful card filled with encouragements. It made me not want to leave. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry again.
The ride to the airport was wayyyyyy too fast. We got checked in and such. We had a big farewell party there to see us off. Tulia and her mom came! Her mom gave us all shell necklaces. And Ben was there with us, and of course Falissa, Flo, Tom and Pastor. I hugged them all. I held my tears in until I came to Pastor. Then I cried. A lot. Then they started to sing us out. They sang a Fijian farewell song. It was used back in the day to send warriors off. It is a blessing and a goodbye that means farewell forever, give it your everything and that you are not expected to come back. It means 'Don't be afraid, I will be with you.'
Kua ni rere
Au na tiko kei iko
Mo yalo gaga
Mo yalo gaga
Au na tiko kei iko
That's when I really started bawling. Like literally sobbing in the middle of the airport. Who am I? All sentimental and crap. Geeze. We made quite the scene. It was beautiful actually. I will never forget it. I love that song. I never thought that I would get so attached to Fiji and it's people. But I love them so much and I wish that I could stay with them forever.
We conquered the plane ride. I watched the Lord of the Rings to get me back into the mood of NZ, and I filled in some of the team journal. I drew cartoon pictures of all of the people that we spent time with in Fiji. They are pretty accurate I must say. We landed around 2 and went through customs where they so kindly washed my running shoes and machete. They even coated the machete with anit rust stuff. The next time I need something washed, I'll just declare it. And FINALLY, I got a SOY LATTE. Praise Jesus.
And we were picked up by the base director, and she brought us to her home for supper and sleep. I was reunited with my garbage back full of NZ clothes and paraphernalia I traded out some of my Fiji stuff for New Zealand stuff. It took me a while to decide what was critical for me to bring and what is not critical. I think I repacked my backpack 3 times. And I did it in the car port. Then it started to rain. The drive-way is slanted. I was sitting on it. The water started to flow down the driveway directly towards my butt. Why am I Steph? Really? Come on. Give me a break. So my butt got wet. What's new? Ugh. And that's that. But my backpack is beautifully packed to the rim and there is stuff tied to it on all sides. Go Steph! And guess who I have with me now!!!! ... My Barney skateboard!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
I also got to phone the Reynolds clan back in Canada. I haven't talked to any of them in over a month, so that was pretty exciting! I chatted with mom, dad, grandma and sista. It was a good ol' chat and I found out that there is about 3 feet of snow and it was -28 today. Man am I glad that I have been in Fiji in >+30 for all of this time. Win for Steph.
And tomorrow we leave Auckland for Paihia. There is this big 'party' there where about a thousand of the youth of NZ come together for a week over new years and drink prohibited beverages excessively. We will be volunteering there. I think it will involve cleaning up bottles, maybe vomit .. who knows... But also just hanging out and talking with the youth. A lot of them just desperately need someone to listen to them. We will also maybe do a burn night, some karaoke, give out some food and bevies (like water). I am pretty excited for this because I feel like they will be able to relate to me and to my past. If I lived in NZ when I was a teen I would most likely have been at this event. So I am excited to see what God has in store!
The Calm Before the Storm (December 15, 2012)
After my last blog post yesterday, Jacob, Beeeeth and I went for a shop. We wanted some souvenirs some deoderant and other odds and ends. We first went to the music store so that Jacob could get some stuff. We saw a tall blonde white guy at the other end of the store. It is pretty exciting when you see a white person in Fiji. We pretty much act like the Fijians when we see white people and we stare and take pictures. (People actually come up to us and ask if they can have a picture OF us, not WITH us. OF us. How awkward.) Jacob told me that I should go talk to him. I didn't. When Jacob was paying all of a sudden the white guy was talking to us! Woah. Then we hung out with him for the afternoon. How awesome is that!? He is from Canada. It was really weird because when he first started talking to him he sounded like he had an accent and I couldn't place it. I guess I have been away from Canada for too long. Hahaha!
This Canadian is in Fiji for a few months and has apparently been travelling the world for about 5 years. That's so long. But so awesome. I am a bit jealous. He told us about his life philosophy which included being really healthy and taking it easy, doing what you want (travel) while you are young, and then when you get old you can get a real job and you won't have wreked your body so you will live long. Something like that. Sounds good to me.
We pretty much spent the whole afternoon chatting with him at the country club and drinking ice-cold water. So good. He took us to this country club and showed us that you can get in for 3 times for free and they have a free pool. Unfortunately none of us had our swimsuits. I contemplated jumping in in my undies but I thought maybe the club people would ban me from the pool. So we hope to hit up the pool in the near future. But we only have about a week left. I am so sad. I don't want to leave my new family here. I want to stay with them forever!
Last night we had a burn night again at the church but this time was so much better because there is airconditioning in the church now!!! So the room didn't smell totally ronchy by the end of it and my hair was dry. Woah. That is un-heard-of. I bought some Roti from the Roti Kids again so that they could come worship with us. It was fun.
Today we were supposed to go out to the village (Lovu) to do a children's program thing this afternoon, but there is a cyclone coming so everyone is preparing for that and stocking up on water and food. And Lovu is one of the places that really floods so those people are evacuating I think. So it got cancelled. So we have a free afternoon. Glorious. I got some souvenirs and spent way too much money, and am gonna get lots of water and food incase the cyclone is bad. Prayers would be much appreciated! The cyclone hit Samoa the other day and a few people got killed and lots of children are missing. So pray for them too! I think it is supposed to hit Tonga today or soon and Fiji tomorrow ish! So pray for the pacific islanders!
In other news, I have discovered something about myself that I never knew. I don't like curry. I always thought that I loved curry. Nope. I only like it when there is a lot of hot chilis in it. But do you know what the chili's do? They block the taste of the actual curry. Who knew?
Also, the other day our Fijian friend who has been helping us out with everything while we've been here told Sarah right to her face that she is kinda fat. Ummm she is so far from fat it is not even funny. If she is fat, then I am obese. I couldn't believe it because all of the Fijian women are quite big and curvey because they love to eat a lot. I think I am quite a lot skinnier than all of them, so I don't know how our friend is ever going to find a Fijian wife if he thinks that me and Sarah are fat. I would have thought that the Fijian men like curvey women because that is what most cultures with African decendents are like.
This Canadian is in Fiji for a few months and has apparently been travelling the world for about 5 years. That's so long. But so awesome. I am a bit jealous. He told us about his life philosophy which included being really healthy and taking it easy, doing what you want (travel) while you are young, and then when you get old you can get a real job and you won't have wreked your body so you will live long. Something like that. Sounds good to me.
We pretty much spent the whole afternoon chatting with him at the country club and drinking ice-cold water. So good. He took us to this country club and showed us that you can get in for 3 times for free and they have a free pool. Unfortunately none of us had our swimsuits. I contemplated jumping in in my undies but I thought maybe the club people would ban me from the pool. So we hope to hit up the pool in the near future. But we only have about a week left. I am so sad. I don't want to leave my new family here. I want to stay with them forever!
Last night we had a burn night again at the church but this time was so much better because there is airconditioning in the church now!!! So the room didn't smell totally ronchy by the end of it and my hair was dry. Woah. That is un-heard-of. I bought some Roti from the Roti Kids again so that they could come worship with us. It was fun.
Today we were supposed to go out to the village (Lovu) to do a children's program thing this afternoon, but there is a cyclone coming so everyone is preparing for that and stocking up on water and food. And Lovu is one of the places that really floods so those people are evacuating I think. So it got cancelled. So we have a free afternoon. Glorious. I got some souvenirs and spent way too much money, and am gonna get lots of water and food incase the cyclone is bad. Prayers would be much appreciated! The cyclone hit Samoa the other day and a few people got killed and lots of children are missing. So pray for them too! I think it is supposed to hit Tonga today or soon and Fiji tomorrow ish! So pray for the pacific islanders!
In other news, I have discovered something about myself that I never knew. I don't like curry. I always thought that I loved curry. Nope. I only like it when there is a lot of hot chilis in it. But do you know what the chili's do? They block the taste of the actual curry. Who knew?
Also, the other day our Fijian friend who has been helping us out with everything while we've been here told Sarah right to her face that she is kinda fat. Ummm she is so far from fat it is not even funny. If she is fat, then I am obese. I couldn't believe it because all of the Fijian women are quite big and curvey because they love to eat a lot. I think I am quite a lot skinnier than all of them, so I don't know how our friend is ever going to find a Fijian wife if he thinks that me and Sarah are fat. I would have thought that the Fijian men like curvey women because that is what most cultures with African decendents are like.
Sunday, 23 December 2012
A Hot and Muggy Christmas Eve
Since my last post so much has happened! For starters, there was a MASSIVE hurricane! On Tuesday last week, Evan blew in from the Pacific. He killed a couple of people in Samoa and Tonga and then picked up speed when he reached Fiji. The hurricane was stage 5 when it hit Fiji. Hurricane Katrina was a stage 4 when it hit New Orleans back in the day. I remembered how much damage it did in the states and was really scared for the people of Fiji.
That morning it was quite cool and really windy, and the wind continually picked up until about 2 or 3 PM when the peak of the storm was upon us. The eye of the storm didn't hit right in Lautoka, but it was not too far from here. The winds were so strong. I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Our house got boarded up in the morning and we packed all of our belongings into the rooms at the back of the house. We were chilling in our house which is on the top floor of a two story building, the wind was fun at first, but then it started lifting tree branches and random objects and flinging them into the house. That was not so fun. It was so loud. Rain came in through the windows and soaked the floor. I was actually scared, and I don't really get scared easily.
The family that lives downstairs invited us down when the storm got really bad. We stayed there all day and overnight. The family down there is related to the family that we are staying with. Auntie downstairs is Auntie Margie's sister. When we got moved downstairs I was so scared. There were trees and large pieces of tin roofs flying by the windows at warp speed. All I could think of was all of the poor children and families that live in the settlements near by in their one room shacks. I broke down into tears for them.
At one point, the large tree in the back yard broke apart. The way the wind was blowing, the tree should have crashed right into the house, but magically the pieces that broke off flew by one on each side of the house. God was protecting us after all. But the neighbour on one side had their roof torn off of their house and it flew away. And the neighbour on the other side had their car port collapse on their car. The roof of the car port kept getting caught by the wind and lifted a bit, only to be dropped back down on the car. The car alarm went off all day long. I really struggled with wondering why God would let such a thing happen to such poor people. Everything they had was destroyed before their eyes in one day, a week before Christmas. But I had to let it go because crying was doing no good.
Luckily the storm passed after a long day inside. When I got up in the morning and went outside it was like I was in a different world. My surroundings went from being those of a beautiful and lush tropical ilsand to a barren wasteland filled with rubbish. All of the trees were either torn right out of the ground or else had had all of their leaves blown off. There was paper scraps everywhere and rubbish everywhere. There were tin pieces from roofs scattered everywhere. Our yard was scattered with the remains of the big tree, a lot of books, including and introduction to psychology text book, a wheel chair, clothes, and the power lines had been demolished.
We spent the next few days cleaning up the yard. We all had bought machete's as souvenirs and we got to USE THEM! Awe yeah. We got to hack apart the large branches that were scattered on the ground. It was awesome. There was a lot of us working so we got it done pretty fast. Some of us helped the neighbours too. And the fire department came and freed the neighbours car. It still worked!!! And we learned that no one had died in the hurricane. Thank the Lord.
The next few days involved more cleaning up work. We went out to Vinesh's house. A Canadian girl named Jodie had raised money to build him a new house. Good thing they didn't build before the hurricane. We went out there and 1/3 of his house was gone. And instead of building him a house we got to tear down the wrecked part. AWESOME! Mission groups should demolish things more often. So fun.
The next day the boys got to go back and start building and the girls got to go to an old folks home to do some cleaning. When we heard cleaning we automatically envisioned cleaning toilets. When we got there, the maintenance guy snickered at us and pointed us to a large tree that we were supposed to 'clean up', which means hacking it apart with machetes and moving the remains to a field. HAHA! YESSSSSSSSSSS! We were jacked. So we got to use more machetes. We felt so manly.
At one point I pulled such a typical Steph move. As I was macheteing a branch (apparently I look like I am cutting veggies when I hack at branches) and suddenly by butt was soaked. I was really confused and I couldn't register what was happening to me. I was like 'am I peeing myself?' but then I turned around and realized that I had stepped on a broken pipe and had broken it a bit more to the point that it sprayed everywhere. It was refreshing in the hot sun. :)
It is so weird. All of us got sun burned after the hurricane. And no one got burned before that. We don't really know why. We think the hurricane blew the sun closer to us. But maybe it is more to do with the lack of shade because no trees are around anymore. Also, since the tree in the back yard is mostly gone, we have realized that we have a really nice view off of our back porch. There is a whole aspect of Fiji that we didn't realize exists!
So now most of what was wrecked during the hurricane has been fixed. But we are still waiting for electricity to come back on at the house. Most places in town have power back on though, so that's a bonus.
In other news, Yesterday was Sunday and at church we had an evening candle light service. We sang carols and such and it was really beautiful. It even felt a bit like Christmas in the Air Conditioning. Today is our last day in town. We picked up our last minute souvenirs and are hitting up the internet for the last time before we leave Fiji. We are leaving on boxing day, so we only have 2 more sleeps. I am actually so sad. I don't want to leave my new family. I am hoping that Dan and I can trade places and I can live with his family and he can go to Canada with mine.
For Christmas tomorrow, we had been planned on staying on a private island for the day and snorkeling and such, but Evan kind of ruined those plans. He flattened the island for us. Thanks Evan. But it turned out to be good because we got 1400 dollars refunded to us so we are able to bless some of the families that we have been working with, including Dan and his family. So it will be a Merry Christmas. We will be having Lovo with the Sumasafus. But we will be cooking it. A lovo is a traditional way of cooking a feast where you cook the food in the ground. We even get to shave coconuts. It will be grand.
Yesterday Ben and Jackie's mom brought us her Fijian stuff that she makes. Her stuff is like the stuff that merchants sell in the market, like woven fans and purses. And traditional carvings and such. I bought some traditional tools. The Fijians used to be cannibals before the missionaries converted them to Christianity way back in the day. The Fijians actually ate a few missionaries I think. So they have these tools. There is one club thing that is used to break the victim's neck. Then they have a spoon tool that they used to scrape out all of the flesh and stuff off of the bones. There is a spoon thing that has hooks on it and they used to thrust it into the gut and when they twisted and pulled it out it would bring all of the guts out with it. Then there is the scull crusher that they used to crack open the skull. Then there is a triple pronged forkish thing that was used to pluck out and eat the eye balls and the brain tissue. Fun times.
Apparently, the Fijians would go to neighbouring villages and massacre everyone. They would then bring all of the bodies back and give one to each family. And they would cook them in a lovo. Haha. Maybe we will be eating human tomorrow and we won't even know it! Good thing I have the proper utensils to do so! (This is a joke! We will be eating chicken, but I won't because I don't eat meat, but I guess I could eat some veggies with my eye-poker-outer!!)
I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to everyone that we have met here, but the time will come soon. And then we will be embarking on a whole new journey in New Zealand. Craziness. And apparently Evan is on his way to New Zealand too and we will get there on the same day! Ha! How many people can say that they have lived through the same storm twice?!
That morning it was quite cool and really windy, and the wind continually picked up until about 2 or 3 PM when the peak of the storm was upon us. The eye of the storm didn't hit right in Lautoka, but it was not too far from here. The winds were so strong. I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Our house got boarded up in the morning and we packed all of our belongings into the rooms at the back of the house. We were chilling in our house which is on the top floor of a two story building, the wind was fun at first, but then it started lifting tree branches and random objects and flinging them into the house. That was not so fun. It was so loud. Rain came in through the windows and soaked the floor. I was actually scared, and I don't really get scared easily.
The family that lives downstairs invited us down when the storm got really bad. We stayed there all day and overnight. The family down there is related to the family that we are staying with. Auntie downstairs is Auntie Margie's sister. When we got moved downstairs I was so scared. There were trees and large pieces of tin roofs flying by the windows at warp speed. All I could think of was all of the poor children and families that live in the settlements near by in their one room shacks. I broke down into tears for them.
At one point, the large tree in the back yard broke apart. The way the wind was blowing, the tree should have crashed right into the house, but magically the pieces that broke off flew by one on each side of the house. God was protecting us after all. But the neighbour on one side had their roof torn off of their house and it flew away. And the neighbour on the other side had their car port collapse on their car. The roof of the car port kept getting caught by the wind and lifted a bit, only to be dropped back down on the car. The car alarm went off all day long. I really struggled with wondering why God would let such a thing happen to such poor people. Everything they had was destroyed before their eyes in one day, a week before Christmas. But I had to let it go because crying was doing no good.
Luckily the storm passed after a long day inside. When I got up in the morning and went outside it was like I was in a different world. My surroundings went from being those of a beautiful and lush tropical ilsand to a barren wasteland filled with rubbish. All of the trees were either torn right out of the ground or else had had all of their leaves blown off. There was paper scraps everywhere and rubbish everywhere. There were tin pieces from roofs scattered everywhere. Our yard was scattered with the remains of the big tree, a lot of books, including and introduction to psychology text book, a wheel chair, clothes, and the power lines had been demolished.
We spent the next few days cleaning up the yard. We all had bought machete's as souvenirs and we got to USE THEM! Awe yeah. We got to hack apart the large branches that were scattered on the ground. It was awesome. There was a lot of us working so we got it done pretty fast. Some of us helped the neighbours too. And the fire department came and freed the neighbours car. It still worked!!! And we learned that no one had died in the hurricane. Thank the Lord.
The next few days involved more cleaning up work. We went out to Vinesh's house. A Canadian girl named Jodie had raised money to build him a new house. Good thing they didn't build before the hurricane. We went out there and 1/3 of his house was gone. And instead of building him a house we got to tear down the wrecked part. AWESOME! Mission groups should demolish things more often. So fun.
The next day the boys got to go back and start building and the girls got to go to an old folks home to do some cleaning. When we heard cleaning we automatically envisioned cleaning toilets. When we got there, the maintenance guy snickered at us and pointed us to a large tree that we were supposed to 'clean up', which means hacking it apart with machetes and moving the remains to a field. HAHA! YESSSSSSSSSSS! We were jacked. So we got to use more machetes. We felt so manly.
At one point I pulled such a typical Steph move. As I was macheteing a branch (apparently I look like I am cutting veggies when I hack at branches) and suddenly by butt was soaked. I was really confused and I couldn't register what was happening to me. I was like 'am I peeing myself?' but then I turned around and realized that I had stepped on a broken pipe and had broken it a bit more to the point that it sprayed everywhere. It was refreshing in the hot sun. :)
It is so weird. All of us got sun burned after the hurricane. And no one got burned before that. We don't really know why. We think the hurricane blew the sun closer to us. But maybe it is more to do with the lack of shade because no trees are around anymore. Also, since the tree in the back yard is mostly gone, we have realized that we have a really nice view off of our back porch. There is a whole aspect of Fiji that we didn't realize exists!
So now most of what was wrecked during the hurricane has been fixed. But we are still waiting for electricity to come back on at the house. Most places in town have power back on though, so that's a bonus.
In other news, Yesterday was Sunday and at church we had an evening candle light service. We sang carols and such and it was really beautiful. It even felt a bit like Christmas in the Air Conditioning. Today is our last day in town. We picked up our last minute souvenirs and are hitting up the internet for the last time before we leave Fiji. We are leaving on boxing day, so we only have 2 more sleeps. I am actually so sad. I don't want to leave my new family. I am hoping that Dan and I can trade places and I can live with his family and he can go to Canada with mine.
For Christmas tomorrow, we had been planned on staying on a private island for the day and snorkeling and such, but Evan kind of ruined those plans. He flattened the island for us. Thanks Evan. But it turned out to be good because we got 1400 dollars refunded to us so we are able to bless some of the families that we have been working with, including Dan and his family. So it will be a Merry Christmas. We will be having Lovo with the Sumasafus. But we will be cooking it. A lovo is a traditional way of cooking a feast where you cook the food in the ground. We even get to shave coconuts. It will be grand.
Yesterday Ben and Jackie's mom brought us her Fijian stuff that she makes. Her stuff is like the stuff that merchants sell in the market, like woven fans and purses. And traditional carvings and such. I bought some traditional tools. The Fijians used to be cannibals before the missionaries converted them to Christianity way back in the day. The Fijians actually ate a few missionaries I think. So they have these tools. There is one club thing that is used to break the victim's neck. Then they have a spoon tool that they used to scrape out all of the flesh and stuff off of the bones. There is a spoon thing that has hooks on it and they used to thrust it into the gut and when they twisted and pulled it out it would bring all of the guts out with it. Then there is the scull crusher that they used to crack open the skull. Then there is a triple pronged forkish thing that was used to pluck out and eat the eye balls and the brain tissue. Fun times.
Apparently, the Fijians would go to neighbouring villages and massacre everyone. They would then bring all of the bodies back and give one to each family. And they would cook them in a lovo. Haha. Maybe we will be eating human tomorrow and we won't even know it! Good thing I have the proper utensils to do so! (This is a joke! We will be eating chicken, but I won't because I don't eat meat, but I guess I could eat some veggies with my eye-poker-outer!!)
I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to everyone that we have met here, but the time will come soon. And then we will be embarking on a whole new journey in New Zealand. Craziness. And apparently Evan is on his way to New Zealand too and we will get there on the same day! Ha! How many people can say that they have lived through the same storm twice?!
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Roosters are Annoying
This week has been pretty awesome! We just got back from staying with a Pastor outside of Nadi from Tuesday night until this morning (Friday). We went out there to help his ministry with children's programming. On Wednesday morning, Van, Beth and I trained a couple of local volunteers on how to teach a lesson that Pastor Jare prepared and we taught them lots of songs and some games to play with children. And then at 2 we ran the program. We were expecting maybe 20 kids or so, but when Sarah and Dave got back from a settlement that is about a 15 minute drive from where we were they told us that 26 or so kids would be bused over from the settlement.
We started the program at 2 ish, there was maybe 25-30 kids there. It was a good number. We sang some songs and started playing some games and then the bus came. And swarms of children got out. We had to re-evaluate the game that we were playing and move into the field. I think there was close to 60 kids that came in total. It was so fun! The kids were so well behaved too. Not at all like the kids that I work with at my church. Haha!
As fun as it was, that afternoon was exhausting. It was only 3 hours. When the kids were gone I reminisced about the days of camp when I had to do that 24 hours a day for 2 months. Oh how glad I am that I don't have to do that here. The memories of the late nights with homesick children, the mornings when your eyes literally will not open until you splash yourself with water, and the long, long, long days that you pretend that you have energy, but really you have absolutely none. And the grace of God and continual cups of coffee are the only things that keep you going. Oh, those were the days...
The lesson/activity that we had the kids do was make a bracelet with specific beads that represent Creation, Heaven, Sin, God, The Blood of Christ, Faith and Spiritual Growth. Somehow we had exactly the right number of bracelets for each kid to get one, some of us had to give the kids our bracelets. My bracelet was the demo bracelet, so I was just going to keep it. But then one of our Hindi translators said that she really wanted one, so I gave it to her. And then the next day she brought me a beautiful beaded bracelet of hers to give me. It was so sweet! Now I have a pretty bracelet from Fiji to remember her by. Awe!
That evening we had a worship and prayer service. One of the ladies that had been visited by our door-knockers that morning came to church. She wasn't Christian, but she gave her life to Jesus that night. It was so amazing. She was a single grandmother. She takes care of her son's children because his wife left him and the kids. And neither him nor the grandma can find work. So sad. But now she has Jesus!
On Thursday morning we did some more door-knocking. And then we did some yard work at the Pastor's house. We raked and moved tree branches and lumber and stuff into a burn-pile. It took all afternoon. I got so dirty, but I didn't care because I was going to have a shower in the Pastor's wonderful shower. Van and I also put on an acrobatics show for the children. I did a headstand with my legs in a V and he dove through and did a somersault. It was pretty intense. And I got nature in my hair. So by the end of the afternoon I had dust/dirt up my legs to my knees. My hands were super dirty and I was really sweaty, and so was everyone else. And surprise, surprise. The water was off. Why does the water go off so much in Fiji? It is an island! It has water EVERYWHERE. So we went to an evening service in a nearby settlement really stinky and dirty. It was awesome.
We held a service there for some single mothers and their children. It is a really poor settlement. So we did some worship, had a sermon, did some prayer for the children and ladies, and we brought some snacks for them. I got to sit with a group of little girls. They were probably about 9 or so. They were so cute. And they loved touching my white skin and my blonde hair. I haven't shaved my legs in an eternity, so they are really hairy, but the hairs are really blonde, so you can't see them until the light shines on them. The kids were fascinated with the hairs. And they started poking my hands and feet and discovered that when you push on it the blood leaves the area and the skin gets all white for a second afterwards. Their skin doesn't do that. Who would have guessed? We became really good friends and I was sad when I had to leave.
The Pastor did a little thank-you thing for us and prophesied over us. He works for a cruise company in Fiji, so he gifted us a 8G USB. YAY! I needed a USB so bad. Because I need to get pictures and stuff from everyone else! When he prophesied over me he said that I will be a great mother one day. Oh man. Another mother heart prophesy. Except this time I am a Sarah, which I am guessing means I won't have children until later in life. I just hope that I'm not older than 30 because that's pushin' it a bit. And again I got a prophesy that I will do big things for lots of nations. So that was pretty cool.
And when we got back to the house the water was back on! yay! And the family have a shower with a shower head and the water comes out of it and falls onto you. Wow. Even though it is cold water it is the best thing ever. So much better than bucket showers. I actually feel clean for the first time since I have been in Fiji. The permadirt is off of my feet for a while. Awe yeahhhhh.
And this morning we came back to Lautoka. I am so glad to be back. I missed Pastor and Auntie and my porridge for breakfast. And all of us, especially Hannah, will be glad that we don't have to put up with the rooster anymore. We slept outside on the veranda thingy at the pastors house. And there were chickens and a rooster in their yard. The rooster thought it was fun to cockadoodledoo at very inconvenient times. Hannah started to throw stuff at it every time it cockadoodldooed. One time, she was eating some sugar cane and the rooster was about 5 meters ish away. It cockadoodledooed and Hannah threw her chunk of sugar cane at the rooster. It hit him right in the middle of his side. He screeched and jumped in the air and knocked a pot over and ran away. It was hilarious to say the least.
We started the program at 2 ish, there was maybe 25-30 kids there. It was a good number. We sang some songs and started playing some games and then the bus came. And swarms of children got out. We had to re-evaluate the game that we were playing and move into the field. I think there was close to 60 kids that came in total. It was so fun! The kids were so well behaved too. Not at all like the kids that I work with at my church. Haha!
As fun as it was, that afternoon was exhausting. It was only 3 hours. When the kids were gone I reminisced about the days of camp when I had to do that 24 hours a day for 2 months. Oh how glad I am that I don't have to do that here. The memories of the late nights with homesick children, the mornings when your eyes literally will not open until you splash yourself with water, and the long, long, long days that you pretend that you have energy, but really you have absolutely none. And the grace of God and continual cups of coffee are the only things that keep you going. Oh, those were the days...
The lesson/activity that we had the kids do was make a bracelet with specific beads that represent Creation, Heaven, Sin, God, The Blood of Christ, Faith and Spiritual Growth. Somehow we had exactly the right number of bracelets for each kid to get one, some of us had to give the kids our bracelets. My bracelet was the demo bracelet, so I was just going to keep it. But then one of our Hindi translators said that she really wanted one, so I gave it to her. And then the next day she brought me a beautiful beaded bracelet of hers to give me. It was so sweet! Now I have a pretty bracelet from Fiji to remember her by. Awe!
That evening we had a worship and prayer service. One of the ladies that had been visited by our door-knockers that morning came to church. She wasn't Christian, but she gave her life to Jesus that night. It was so amazing. She was a single grandmother. She takes care of her son's children because his wife left him and the kids. And neither him nor the grandma can find work. So sad. But now she has Jesus!
On Thursday morning we did some more door-knocking. And then we did some yard work at the Pastor's house. We raked and moved tree branches and lumber and stuff into a burn-pile. It took all afternoon. I got so dirty, but I didn't care because I was going to have a shower in the Pastor's wonderful shower. Van and I also put on an acrobatics show for the children. I did a headstand with my legs in a V and he dove through and did a somersault. It was pretty intense. And I got nature in my hair. So by the end of the afternoon I had dust/dirt up my legs to my knees. My hands were super dirty and I was really sweaty, and so was everyone else. And surprise, surprise. The water was off. Why does the water go off so much in Fiji? It is an island! It has water EVERYWHERE. So we went to an evening service in a nearby settlement really stinky and dirty. It was awesome.
We held a service there for some single mothers and their children. It is a really poor settlement. So we did some worship, had a sermon, did some prayer for the children and ladies, and we brought some snacks for them. I got to sit with a group of little girls. They were probably about 9 or so. They were so cute. And they loved touching my white skin and my blonde hair. I haven't shaved my legs in an eternity, so they are really hairy, but the hairs are really blonde, so you can't see them until the light shines on them. The kids were fascinated with the hairs. And they started poking my hands and feet and discovered that when you push on it the blood leaves the area and the skin gets all white for a second afterwards. Their skin doesn't do that. Who would have guessed? We became really good friends and I was sad when I had to leave.
The Pastor did a little thank-you thing for us and prophesied over us. He works for a cruise company in Fiji, so he gifted us a 8G USB. YAY! I needed a USB so bad. Because I need to get pictures and stuff from everyone else! When he prophesied over me he said that I will be a great mother one day. Oh man. Another mother heart prophesy. Except this time I am a Sarah, which I am guessing means I won't have children until later in life. I just hope that I'm not older than 30 because that's pushin' it a bit. And again I got a prophesy that I will do big things for lots of nations. So that was pretty cool.
And when we got back to the house the water was back on! yay! And the family have a shower with a shower head and the water comes out of it and falls onto you. Wow. Even though it is cold water it is the best thing ever. So much better than bucket showers. I actually feel clean for the first time since I have been in Fiji. The permadirt is off of my feet for a while. Awe yeahhhhh.
And this morning we came back to Lautoka. I am so glad to be back. I missed Pastor and Auntie and my porridge for breakfast. And all of us, especially Hannah, will be glad that we don't have to put up with the rooster anymore. We slept outside on the veranda thingy at the pastors house. And there were chickens and a rooster in their yard. The rooster thought it was fun to cockadoodledoo at very inconvenient times. Hannah started to throw stuff at it every time it cockadoodldooed. One time, she was eating some sugar cane and the rooster was about 5 meters ish away. It cockadoodledooed and Hannah threw her chunk of sugar cane at the rooster. It hit him right in the middle of his side. He screeched and jumped in the air and knocked a pot over and ran away. It was hilarious to say the least.
Sunday December 9 2012
The other night when we got to go out and hang out with the prostitutes it was so fun! Maybe fun is the wrong word... but it was probably my favorite thing that we have done so far. We split into boy-girl pairs and snuck off in the shadows of the night to find our victims. It seriously felt like mission impossible walking around in the dark. And then when we spotted a lady that we would like to talk to we got all excited. It was awesome. I was paired with Van. The two tall blondes were reunited as the best crime fighting duo of all time. We walked past an alley-way and saw a really young girl on a bench, and a guy came and nabbed her before we could get to her. She seriously looked like she was in her early teens. My heart broke.
But we did talk to two other lovely ladies and got to chat and show them love. They were really awesome and we talked to them for a really long time. Then we went back on our way, perusing through the shadows of the night and found another young girl across the street. A van pulled up to her and we thought it was going to pick her up, so we prayed that the van would leave. And it did. Then another man walked by her and we thought that he would nab her, but he didn't. We got to talk to her. It was so nice. I gave her a hug. She may or may not have been creeped out. But it was so cool.
In Fiji, most of the prostitutes are single women who just want to put food on the table for their children. I don't think that there are any pimps or anything forcing it upon them, but the poverty that they are stuck in forces them to subject themselves to that demeaning occupation so that they can feed their families. It is so heart-breaking.
On the brighter side of things, we got to play in a park with lots of children on Friday morning. It was awesome. There was a little 3 year old boy named Junior. I tried to be friends with him, but he was really skeptical of me. He had never seen someone that had blonde hair and white skin. But I think he warmed up to me as the day progressed.
On Friday night, we had a burn night in the church hall. We worshiped, prayed and praised God from 6 PM to 12 AM. It started off pretty normal with just our team and a couple of the youth from the church.
There are some kids in town that sell roti (which is like Naan) stuffed with potatoe and stuff. They come from a smaller town outside of Lautoka, every night to make money to pay for school tuition. They are probably ranging from 6 to 15 years old. And they stay every night, into the wee hours of the morning, until they sell all of their roti.
I really wanted them to come up and hang out and worship with us, so God put it on my heard to buy their roti so that they could come up with us. One of the guys and I went downstairs and they had about 15 roti so I bought them all and they came upstairs with us. We gave them a roti and some water and everyone got an evening snack to fill our Fijian bellies.
The kids stayed until the end and even recruited some friends. It was pretty awesome. One of the moms of the youth were their too. So we had 3 generations of Fijians crying out for their land. It was awesome.
Yesterday we relaxed and had our first day off. We hung out in a coffee shop and used their unlimited WiFi. It was nice to get on the internet for more than a rushed hour that costs a whole dollar. And this morning at church we did a skit and I gave a bit of my testimony. It was pretty cool. Then we ran off to another church and did another skit and Beth gave hers. We are like a traveling Jesus show. All we need is a smoke bomb so that we can magically disappear.
I am looking forward to the youth worship night at church tonight!!!
Peace out all,
Steph
But we did talk to two other lovely ladies and got to chat and show them love. They were really awesome and we talked to them for a really long time. Then we went back on our way, perusing through the shadows of the night and found another young girl across the street. A van pulled up to her and we thought it was going to pick her up, so we prayed that the van would leave. And it did. Then another man walked by her and we thought that he would nab her, but he didn't. We got to talk to her. It was so nice. I gave her a hug. She may or may not have been creeped out. But it was so cool.
In Fiji, most of the prostitutes are single women who just want to put food on the table for their children. I don't think that there are any pimps or anything forcing it upon them, but the poverty that they are stuck in forces them to subject themselves to that demeaning occupation so that they can feed their families. It is so heart-breaking.
On the brighter side of things, we got to play in a park with lots of children on Friday morning. It was awesome. There was a little 3 year old boy named Junior. I tried to be friends with him, but he was really skeptical of me. He had never seen someone that had blonde hair and white skin. But I think he warmed up to me as the day progressed.
On Friday night, we had a burn night in the church hall. We worshiped, prayed and praised God from 6 PM to 12 AM. It started off pretty normal with just our team and a couple of the youth from the church.
There are some kids in town that sell roti (which is like Naan) stuffed with potatoe and stuff. They come from a smaller town outside of Lautoka, every night to make money to pay for school tuition. They are probably ranging from 6 to 15 years old. And they stay every night, into the wee hours of the morning, until they sell all of their roti.
I really wanted them to come up and hang out and worship with us, so God put it on my heard to buy their roti so that they could come up with us. One of the guys and I went downstairs and they had about 15 roti so I bought them all and they came upstairs with us. We gave them a roti and some water and everyone got an evening snack to fill our Fijian bellies.
The kids stayed until the end and even recruited some friends. It was pretty awesome. One of the moms of the youth were their too. So we had 3 generations of Fijians crying out for their land. It was awesome.
Yesterday we relaxed and had our first day off. We hung out in a coffee shop and used their unlimited WiFi. It was nice to get on the internet for more than a rushed hour that costs a whole dollar. And this morning at church we did a skit and I gave a bit of my testimony. It was pretty cool. Then we ran off to another church and did another skit and Beth gave hers. We are like a traveling Jesus show. All we need is a smoke bomb so that we can magically disappear.
I am looking forward to the youth worship night at church tonight!!!
Peace out all,
Steph
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose...
Monday morning we went to a small village outside of Lautoka and went door knocking. It was so awesome. I finally felt like I was doing something productive. We went around in pairs and each group got a translator. There were a lot of Indians in the village and most of them were Muslim. But everyone was open to prayer and to talk. The houses were really small, some of them were only one room, but some had more rooms. And no matter how small the house was, they always invited us in for juice or tea or water, whatever they could offer us. We met this really cute old lady. Her name was Jahan and she was 79 but she looked about 105. She just sat outside of the house of her son and his wife, and relaxed in the shade. She had difficulty breathing and had heart problems. The family was Muslim, but they invited us to pray for her. And she got the most beautiful smile on her face. She was my favorite. I don't think she understood a word of English, but she was so sweet and kissed our hands when we left. And her grandson was super cute, he was probably 11. We asked to get a picture with the grandma and the two grandsons, and one of them wasn't wearing a shirt so he said 'Ahhh! I need a shirt!' and ran inside to get one for the photo. It was so hilarious. We also met some really cool Christians in the village. And we prayed for one lady's knee and it got healed!
In the evening, we put on a worship service and prayer time in the village. A lot of the people we talked to earlier in the day came out and it went really well. There were lots of kids so I played games with them. They were so cute.
On Tuesday we did the same thing, and we went back to visit some of the same people as on Monday. We saw the knee lady again, and she was so excited that we were back. She got us to pray for her husbands migraines and her Dad (I think). It was really cool. The husband started manifesting and had to leave the room. I really wished that we could pray more for him, but he wouldn't come back out.
It is really interesting because in the Indian homes, they are generally Muslim or Hindu and they 'believe' in Jesus, so they will accept prayer and ask for prayer from us. But they also believe in other God's. Hindu's easily accept Jesus as another of their many gods, but it is hard to help them understand that Jesus is the ONLY God. Most homes have little shrines set up in their yards for other gods. And it seems like all of these houses are a lot darker than the actual Christian homes, and they have head pains and trouble breathing, but the Christian families don't. It's interesting.
Tuesday night our worship got cancelled because of heavy rain. The only structure that is in that village to have the service under is a structure that the men erected on Monday. It is sort of like a car port. A 'building' with just a roof. So, we had to cancel the worship. It was sad.
But the rain was actually a blessing because the water didn't come on at home that day and we all really needed to shower. So we went out in the rain, and it was heavy enough to shampoo our hair and soap up our clothes. Laundry and shower all in one! It was awesome. That was the first time since I have been here that I actually felt cold. It was amazing.
And yesterday we went to a men's prison. It was SO COOL. It is actually really neat to see a prison in the pacific islands. It is just like you would imagine a prison in the tropics to be like. Laid back and relaxed. It was a medium security prison, but the guards didn't carry guns. There were really tall fences with barbed wire and such though. And when we got there we saw some of the inmates having a water fight with some guards. They were laughing their heads off. Imagine that in North America. Ha!
We had to wait a long time for them to let us in because they had some new convicts that were dropped off and they had to process them. The youngest was 16. How sad. They don't have juvenile stuff here, they are all just put in the same jail. Most of the men in the jail were in there for robbery, which is common in places with lots of poverty, like Fiji. But there is also a lot of rape and murder here too. One of the guys dropped off was coming in for murder and had a life sentence.
It seems like most of the Fijians were the robbers, and the Indians were in for a lot of the rape and murder. And I personally blame their religions. Muslim and Hindu religions give zero rights to women. They are just objects for the men to do what they please with.
Anyways, we had a worship service type thing for the Christian inmates. We were in a small building/room with the inmates. There were no bars or walls or fences between us. It was like we were all just the same, there to worship God. We did a few songs, and the boys did their testimonies and we did our ropes skit. The prisoners were so moved. Some of them were crying. It was so amazing. The Holy Spirit was totally doing something. At the end we had anyone who wanted prayer to come forward for prayer. I think every single one of them, except for maybe 3, came forward. And then, before we left, they sang us a Fijian song and one of the prisoners did such a nice thank-you speach/prayer at the end. It was so beautiful.
To get to the jail we had to take transit. We got this awesome truck with benches in the back and a tarp covering it for shade. It was epic. Like we were Indiana Jones or something super cool. They use those trucks as city transit. BAHAH. Awesome. There are also real buses though, and taxis, but those trucks are too cool.
This morning, Pastor Jare got us hooked up with this lady in the hospital that let us come in and pray during non-visiting hours. And she made us aware of the people who really did need prayer. Leish and I went to pray for this one lady named Mala. She was so funny. We prayed for her stomach because it was having some issues. She totally started manifesting, and then it went away and it was gone. I asked her if she was amazed, and she said "Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!" she was so funny. She had a constant look of disgust on her face, and what normal people would classify as a frown with teeth, was actually her smile. And, in Fiji, the people tend to say 'yes' or 'no' with their eyebrows rather than by nodding or saying something. So when we talked to Mala, her eyebrows just danced on her forehead like crazy. She made my day.
And tonight we are going out on the streets to reach out to the prostitutes. I am so pumped. One night we actually walked past some prostitutes on the street. It broke my heart. I am so excited to just love on them and show them their worth tonight.
Other than that life's pretty good. It is weird seeing Christmas decorations and stuff up in the stores. It feels like summer... because it is. So weird. I don't think I will even feel remotely like I am missing Christmas at home because it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I do sort of long for the smell of the crisp winter air in the mornings, and I really want to toboggan. But I guess I will survive in the tropics. Vicki will be very jealous because I am ridiculously tan.
In the evening, we put on a worship service and prayer time in the village. A lot of the people we talked to earlier in the day came out and it went really well. There were lots of kids so I played games with them. They were so cute.
On Tuesday we did the same thing, and we went back to visit some of the same people as on Monday. We saw the knee lady again, and she was so excited that we were back. She got us to pray for her husbands migraines and her Dad (I think). It was really cool. The husband started manifesting and had to leave the room. I really wished that we could pray more for him, but he wouldn't come back out.
It is really interesting because in the Indian homes, they are generally Muslim or Hindu and they 'believe' in Jesus, so they will accept prayer and ask for prayer from us. But they also believe in other God's. Hindu's easily accept Jesus as another of their many gods, but it is hard to help them understand that Jesus is the ONLY God. Most homes have little shrines set up in their yards for other gods. And it seems like all of these houses are a lot darker than the actual Christian homes, and they have head pains and trouble breathing, but the Christian families don't. It's interesting.
Tuesday night our worship got cancelled because of heavy rain. The only structure that is in that village to have the service under is a structure that the men erected on Monday. It is sort of like a car port. A 'building' with just a roof. So, we had to cancel the worship. It was sad.
But the rain was actually a blessing because the water didn't come on at home that day and we all really needed to shower. So we went out in the rain, and it was heavy enough to shampoo our hair and soap up our clothes. Laundry and shower all in one! It was awesome. That was the first time since I have been here that I actually felt cold. It was amazing.
And yesterday we went to a men's prison. It was SO COOL. It is actually really neat to see a prison in the pacific islands. It is just like you would imagine a prison in the tropics to be like. Laid back and relaxed. It was a medium security prison, but the guards didn't carry guns. There were really tall fences with barbed wire and such though. And when we got there we saw some of the inmates having a water fight with some guards. They were laughing their heads off. Imagine that in North America. Ha!
We had to wait a long time for them to let us in because they had some new convicts that were dropped off and they had to process them. The youngest was 16. How sad. They don't have juvenile stuff here, they are all just put in the same jail. Most of the men in the jail were in there for robbery, which is common in places with lots of poverty, like Fiji. But there is also a lot of rape and murder here too. One of the guys dropped off was coming in for murder and had a life sentence.
It seems like most of the Fijians were the robbers, and the Indians were in for a lot of the rape and murder. And I personally blame their religions. Muslim and Hindu religions give zero rights to women. They are just objects for the men to do what they please with.
Anyways, we had a worship service type thing for the Christian inmates. We were in a small building/room with the inmates. There were no bars or walls or fences between us. It was like we were all just the same, there to worship God. We did a few songs, and the boys did their testimonies and we did our ropes skit. The prisoners were so moved. Some of them were crying. It was so amazing. The Holy Spirit was totally doing something. At the end we had anyone who wanted prayer to come forward for prayer. I think every single one of them, except for maybe 3, came forward. And then, before we left, they sang us a Fijian song and one of the prisoners did such a nice thank-you speach/prayer at the end. It was so beautiful.
To get to the jail we had to take transit. We got this awesome truck with benches in the back and a tarp covering it for shade. It was epic. Like we were Indiana Jones or something super cool. They use those trucks as city transit. BAHAH. Awesome. There are also real buses though, and taxis, but those trucks are too cool.
This morning, Pastor Jare got us hooked up with this lady in the hospital that let us come in and pray during non-visiting hours. And she made us aware of the people who really did need prayer. Leish and I went to pray for this one lady named Mala. She was so funny. We prayed for her stomach because it was having some issues. She totally started manifesting, and then it went away and it was gone. I asked her if she was amazed, and she said "Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!" she was so funny. She had a constant look of disgust on her face, and what normal people would classify as a frown with teeth, was actually her smile. And, in Fiji, the people tend to say 'yes' or 'no' with their eyebrows rather than by nodding or saying something. So when we talked to Mala, her eyebrows just danced on her forehead like crazy. She made my day.
And tonight we are going out on the streets to reach out to the prostitutes. I am so pumped. One night we actually walked past some prostitutes on the street. It broke my heart. I am so excited to just love on them and show them their worth tonight.
Other than that life's pretty good. It is weird seeing Christmas decorations and stuff up in the stores. It feels like summer... because it is. So weird. I don't think I will even feel remotely like I am missing Christmas at home because it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I do sort of long for the smell of the crisp winter air in the mornings, and I really want to toboggan. But I guess I will survive in the tropics. Vicki will be very jealous because I am ridiculously tan.
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Update on Fiji Life
I now know why they said that Fiji is 'easy'. We have been eating, going to the church to clean and paint, eating, going back to the house to sleep, eating supper, and then doing some sort of activity in the evening, then eating and sleeping again. I actually feel like I am on vacation. All of the Fijians are so loving and welcoming! I love the family we are staying with so much. Auntie cooks us such delicious food! The other day, she made this fish dish. The fish was cooked in coconut milk with tomatoes. It was the best meal I have had in months, maybe years. And I learned how to do laundry by hand. It was pretty exciting.
For pretty much the whole week, the water in the house has been off. So we have had to ration water for showers, and often have had empty water bottles. It is so inconvenient to not have water. Thank God the water came back on yesterday and has stayed on. It is so nice to be able to flush your poop down the toilet after you pooh.
I was thinking that the humidity would be really good for my acne, but it has gotten a lot worse in the past week. I am hoping that it is just because all of the grossness under my skin is coming to the surface. Maybe I will be less zitty a week from now. I hope.
The other day we had a scavenger hunt day in town. We had to do a bunch of random hilarious things in the street. Also, we got to do nice things too. We bought fruit from the market and gave it to some of the beggars on the street. The one guy was so cute. We gave him a half of a watermelon and he got the biggest toothless grin on his face. It made my life so much better.
Jacob danced in a store for 2 minutes while I videoed. It was hilarious. All of the people working in the store were laughing, but when I tried to catch them on video they looked away and stopped laughing. So funny. I also had to 'put-pocket' someone. I had to slip money into a random person's pocket. It was hilarious, and eventually I managed to slip it stealthily into some guys butt pocket of his jeans.
I also had to bench someone. So I sat down on a bench next to this teen boy, and slowly and gradually started to scoot closer to him. He kind of looked at me funny, and scooted away once, but then he stopped. Eventually I was right beside him with my arm around him. It was really awkward. And I ghosted a lady. I followed one-step behind her for a while. And she was carrying a baby over her shoulder and it was watching me the whole time. It was so funny.
Other festivities included photos with manikins, photos in the driver's seat of a bus, photos with the tallest Fijian, photos of a human pyramid of Fijians and Jacob, I had to preach from a bench in the Market. We sang happy birthday to a random girl in the market, but it wasn't her birthday. She was mortified. As we walked out people clapped and thanked us for singing. It was hilarious. We also evangelized using an apple.
Other things I've been up to include painting a mural of the world map onto one of the walls in the new church hall. I finished it yesterday. It felt good. But now pastor wants me to draw the outline of all of the countries on with a sharpie. I wonder if he realizes how many countries there are in the world... Hahah.
I finished the book that I was reading, called 'Culture of Revolution: a revivalist's field manual'. It was so good. Now I have started to read Fire and Fragrance and it is really good so far! I am excited to read more!
Van and I have started an intense workout program. I think it was 3 or 4 days ago that we did our arm work-out. Today was the first day that I was able to lift my arms above my shoulders. And guess what! Today is arm day again. Oh man. But I'm gonna be buff.
We also visited the hospital one evening this week. Just to chat with patients and pray for them. It reminded me how much I wish that I could have been on the India team because that is basically all that they do. I am still bitter about them not even considering India for me because of my food allergies. But I do love Fiji. It's just not a challenge at all. But maybe it will get more difficult. My problem is that I love to get down to the nitty-gritty and pop boils on people's butts and pop water blisters, and other things that are more gross. Maybe I should go back to med school after-all. But I guess I will enjoy paradise and being waited on hand-and-foot while I am here. Except I hate being waited on like that, but they won't let us help. I feel so guilty because I am here to serve them and not the other way around. Oh well, that's their culture down here. A lot different than North America, that's for sure.
For pretty much the whole week, the water in the house has been off. So we have had to ration water for showers, and often have had empty water bottles. It is so inconvenient to not have water. Thank God the water came back on yesterday and has stayed on. It is so nice to be able to flush your poop down the toilet after you pooh.
I was thinking that the humidity would be really good for my acne, but it has gotten a lot worse in the past week. I am hoping that it is just because all of the grossness under my skin is coming to the surface. Maybe I will be less zitty a week from now. I hope.
The other day we had a scavenger hunt day in town. We had to do a bunch of random hilarious things in the street. Also, we got to do nice things too. We bought fruit from the market and gave it to some of the beggars on the street. The one guy was so cute. We gave him a half of a watermelon and he got the biggest toothless grin on his face. It made my life so much better.
Jacob danced in a store for 2 minutes while I videoed. It was hilarious. All of the people working in the store were laughing, but when I tried to catch them on video they looked away and stopped laughing. So funny. I also had to 'put-pocket' someone. I had to slip money into a random person's pocket. It was hilarious, and eventually I managed to slip it stealthily into some guys butt pocket of his jeans.
I also had to bench someone. So I sat down on a bench next to this teen boy, and slowly and gradually started to scoot closer to him. He kind of looked at me funny, and scooted away once, but then he stopped. Eventually I was right beside him with my arm around him. It was really awkward. And I ghosted a lady. I followed one-step behind her for a while. And she was carrying a baby over her shoulder and it was watching me the whole time. It was so funny.
Other festivities included photos with manikins, photos in the driver's seat of a bus, photos with the tallest Fijian, photos of a human pyramid of Fijians and Jacob, I had to preach from a bench in the Market. We sang happy birthday to a random girl in the market, but it wasn't her birthday. She was mortified. As we walked out people clapped and thanked us for singing. It was hilarious. We also evangelized using an apple.
Other things I've been up to include painting a mural of the world map onto one of the walls in the new church hall. I finished it yesterday. It felt good. But now pastor wants me to draw the outline of all of the countries on with a sharpie. I wonder if he realizes how many countries there are in the world... Hahah.
I finished the book that I was reading, called 'Culture of Revolution: a revivalist's field manual'. It was so good. Now I have started to read Fire and Fragrance and it is really good so far! I am excited to read more!
Van and I have started an intense workout program. I think it was 3 or 4 days ago that we did our arm work-out. Today was the first day that I was able to lift my arms above my shoulders. And guess what! Today is arm day again. Oh man. But I'm gonna be buff.
We also visited the hospital one evening this week. Just to chat with patients and pray for them. It reminded me how much I wish that I could have been on the India team because that is basically all that they do. I am still bitter about them not even considering India for me because of my food allergies. But I do love Fiji. It's just not a challenge at all. But maybe it will get more difficult. My problem is that I love to get down to the nitty-gritty and pop boils on people's butts and pop water blisters, and other things that are more gross. Maybe I should go back to med school after-all. But I guess I will enjoy paradise and being waited on hand-and-foot while I am here. Except I hate being waited on like that, but they won't let us help. I feel so guilty because I am here to serve them and not the other way around. Oh well, that's their culture down here. A lot different than North America, that's for sure.
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