Week 3...1 Month to Go!

We can't believe it's already June! Well, here is an update on how things are going in the beautiful islands of Fiji for week 3 and what we're up to:

Tuesday and Wed. we worked with a poor Indo-Fijian family who was being evicted from their home. This is happening more and more in Fiji because the Indians do not have many rights including the right to own land, so the Fijians can kick them off any time they choose. because of the recent politcal coup, the fijians are trying to state their dominance so to speak and are refusing to renew the leases for the indians. anyways, this family had to take apart their corrugated iron home and move to another area, so we provided labor for that. The girls helped cook with the mother, Gita, and learned how to make curry (which is eaten 3 meals a day) and stoke a fire by blowing into the coals with a metal pipe. I (Erin) mentioned a few Hindi words I knew and think she thought I was fluent after that because she just kept jabbering in hindi all day, with me nodding and saying okay, trying to figure out what she was saying, haha.

Thursday through Sunday we were in Tau, a village of about 500 people (which is considered really large) for a youth retreat. The theme for the camp was Acts 1:8. We found out when we got there that we would be speaking on the holy spirit in hour long sessions throughout the weekend and that the first one was in....30 minutes!!. Talk about thinking on your feet...what a broad subject! But it went well, God is faithful.

The church where about 50 of us stayed was this one room cement building with openings for all sorts of creepy crawlies, and we definitely saw the biggest spiders we've ever seen, and the electricity was out. Our meals were rather special as well, including whole fish layed on our plates, including eyes, scales and bones, soaking in some kind of liquid. And no utensils of course! But some of us felt really proud because we managed to eat the fish eye, which is a delicacy here.

Tomorrow we will be leaving for the Nausori highlands for a whole week which is exciting :) It's in the very remote interior of Fiji, and we may have to ride horses to get to the village we're going to because there aren't even roads. It's likely we will face a lot of opposition from the Enemy though, so that will be a prayer request.

Next week we will be working on Marine Reach's ship (an outreach that goes to outlying islands to do medical care) until the following Thursday.

THANK YOU all for your prayers and encouragement! They mean so much to us! The Lord is really moving and I wish we had time to tell you all the ways.