GCU Take 2 - 16 Days in Fiji!

I cannot believe it's already been over two weeks since I disembarked at the Nadi airport, not even knowing if my ride would be waiting to pick me up! Since then, so much has happened:
 - Successfully almost got deported, then was allowed to stay as of three days ago!! (Vinaka Jisu!)
 - Spent hour-upon-hour with "strangers" at the ministry sites, both American and Fijian but laughing
    like old friends just the same.
 - Taught my first few English classes using my "TESOL" techniques, focusing on reading and
    pronunciation.
- Spent a day on a tiny (100m across!) resort island just seeing the sights, snorkeling, kayaking, and relaxing in a hammock.
- Tried all kinds of new foods, including the traditional "Lovo" feast where the food is buried with rocks and cooked underground for hours while wrapped in baskets woven from coconut palm leaves.
- Found my favorite local coffee shop.
- Laughed till I cried with the GCU team then bawled my eyes out when they left.
- I've learned enough Fijian to almost follow a church service, and I can ask people various questions about their lives and daily activities.
- I have grown closer and closer with the nationals within SI and the various individuals at each ministry site.
- I am learning how to trust the Lord in situations when I may be of use for His service.
- I am falling in love with Fiji!

The last 16 days have been among the best in my life! The Grand Canyon team was a huge Godsend. I couldn't have asked for a better first team to experience Fiji with! At the end of the week, they all surpassed the SI Fiji leaders by washing our feet. It was definitely one of the most emotional experiences during their time here, and one I won't soon forget.

I will do my best to sum up the last two weeks.
The first week of the GCU Team's outreach was spent with them choosing sites each night then spending the day there, then the next week they selected their favorite of the sites they visited and spent the week really investing themselves into the relationships--and service being done--at the site.
We had 6 sites for student to visit: The Mt. Zion Preschool and Kindergarten, A Women's Ministry for prayer and craftwork (2 locations), The Delana Lautoka Primary (Elementary) School (through junior-high), The Special Needs School of Lautoka, The Golden Age Elderly Care Facility in Natabua, and the Fiji Men's Correctional Prison also in Natabua.
Each day after visiting the various sites, the group would reconvene to share about special experiences or moments that had taken place that day. What an amazing time! Towards the second week we could hear familiar nationals' names being brought up for prayer or to share praise and growth reports. When we weren't at the sites or sharing, we we usually playing cards, group games like mafia, or singing and sharing testimony stories and laughs. Each day got better and better, and it was definitely hard to watch the teams leave their sites and the individuals they had become so close to. What a great season of growth!

Personally, SI Fiji has been amazing! When I get to visit the sites with the teams, more often than not, I will go with camera in hand and will work with the students--then step back and take some photos--work with the students--step back... etc. This means I get the unique opportunity to build relationships within each of the sites and with each of the students! The photography became a bit more demanding at the end of the 2nd week as I had a presentation to edit (I took over 2000 photos total!), put together, edit, polish, then figure out how to show the video to the 30 using a projector, a small portable speaker and a bed sheet! As usual, God saved the day and it all went off without a hitch! Vinaka vakalevu, Jisu!
I loved my first outreach as the media intern, but I'm definitely excited for the 2nd outreach team (a teams of 20 high-school students fro California) when my title will change just slightly... From media intern, to media-site leader! I will be assigned 2 students for the 2 weeks to travel to the sites with me, camera in hand, to document what SI Fiji is doing and the team serving during that time. We will work on photography, and will be shooting 2 small promotional videos during their 2 weeks. I can't wait!

A little about my changing perspective of Fiji..
Fiji is a place of value! Maybe not as most Americans might view it, however. The main export for the entire nation is sugar (easy to see why as sugar cane fields are EVERYWHERE!). Most Americans would think that their visiting and business helps support the Fijian community... How sad! While some things in Fiji are expensive, for the most part, in relativity to American destinations this is an inexpensive place. The basic needs for our SI classroom at our primary school MONTHLY is the equivalent of about $14. There is simply not very much money flowing through the communities here. How much of a difference the 4 million dollar yacht sitting in  the harbor could make 2 miles inland!
Despite the fact that they are, indeed, financially poor... I've never encountered a richer people-group! Rich in culture, raw talent, tradition, values, compassion, and most importantly they are rich in Christ! When my country director wakes up at 5 AM to pray and worship, just to beat the first Islamic prayer to ring out at 5:30, it quickly becomes apparent of the devotion these people feel towards their savior. Can you imagine if our church leaders did the same to battle the spiritual darkness surround American communities?! There are Muslims, Hindus, Buddists, Wiccans, and any other kind of group searching for the truth right in YOUR community, don't think you have to look to far for them just because you don't hear their prayers sounding from loudspeakers over American cities yet.
These believers here are firm in their knowledge of Christ. A true understanding of what is right, and what is wrong. Compromise isn't something they are, collectively, it seems, aware of. The churches are reverent, powerful times of worship and discipleship not coffeeshop-fellowship and fluff to keep the funding coming in. The speech is clean and non-degrading. And even the media is safe to watch with all ages as violence and sex are very taboo in the public setting. I knew that the Lord would give me a season of rest this Summer, but I didn't realize how much my heart needed a rest from the dirt that believers constantly sift through in the states. Wow. I've heard only one curse word during my time here, and it was from an American tourist, not surprisingly.

Daily life is very, very good here. Almost everything operates on something called "Fiji time". This means that, depending on the circumstances, weather, time of day, etc. Things may happen early, close to on time, on time, fashionably late, late, tomorrow, next week, or maybe not ever... But then again, the next phrase you must remember is "saga na alga" (santa-nah-langa)--theFijian equivalent of Hakuna-Matata--it means "no worries!" Everyday we may go to the ministry site at 8 or 9, and may come back shortly after lunchtime or ayeb just before dinner... and it's OK! If we do come back early, I usually enjoy a cup of tea and some fresh fruit while editing photos on the porch, doing teaching preparations for the next day/team/event, reading and journaling, or going into town by walking or by phoning a taxi to walk around and shop/explore. On the weekends when a team is not here, (it's turning out that there may not be many of those after this coming weekend) we are given time off the do our "own thing" within reason. Including cooking on our own, exploring town, etc. The Sunday sabbath, however, is reserved for one thing... Rest! The way things were intended to be when the Lord gave us the sabbath! Sunday is called the Sigatabu (singa-tambu) or the holy-day and is expected to be kept as such. All the shops (in the 2nd largest city in the country) close down, the busses run maybe once or twice rather than every half an hour, and noise within the neighborhood is kept at a respectful level. Often times, playing cards  is too much stimulation and is refrained from in light of the need for rest. Meaning Sunday naps are becoming a thing! Yes!

This coming weekend will be an off weekend and will likely be used for exploring a side of Fiji that I haven't seen thus far with my new friend, Mosese. I will keep you all posted on how our adventure goes! :)

I hope you enjoy the photos included below, and I pray you will continue to keep SI Fiji and myself in your prayers.
Here are some specifics to be praying for:

• Si Fiji
• Please pray for our local staff and site-leaders as we continue the work through the Summer. Pray for endurance and joy as we introduce new teams to each site and develop the relationships with those who are not believers at the various sites.
• Please pray for the sale of our non-running mini-bus. It had engine trouble a while ago, this we are forced to transport the teams around by hiring expensive bus-taxis to haul our service teams to the sites. The sale would mean we could begin looking for a new one to remedy the current situation.
• The next few teams will be large in number. Please pray for details such as bunk-space, transportation, and other details to be divinely smoothed over (as He often does for us) so we can focus on the true ministry of the team and their service sites. 
• Me
• Please continue to pray for growth and for me to be pushed further out of y comfort zone and further into the places the Lord has for me. I know He has me here for specific reasons, let Him use me for those purposes even when I don't understand them in their entirety from the start.
• Please continue to pray for my Fijian acquisition. I will say, this week more than ever, I feel as though I am beginning to "see" the language in the way I have "seen" the others I have tried in the past. It's difficult to describe, but one of the ways I can judge my growth within a language is whether I can begin to see and remember patterns to apply to new vocabulary words... This took place for the first time today--and without me even thinking about it! Yes, it was a simply phrase, but it was an unpracticed, out of the hat style question when I was in a hurry! With proper tense, "conjugation", and pronunciation/stress I might add! :) I almost cried. Haha! Vinaka Jisu! He is faithful!
• Please pray for boldness as I branch out into the Fijian community beyond those who are "definitely" christians, and ito the Islamic and Hindu realm. As I begin my Hindi studies and hope to visit the Muslim school later this month, please pray for the Lord's guidance and light to shine through the darkness.
• The Fiji Islands
• All 332 islands will be impacted by the upcoming governmental election in September. This will be Fiji's first Election, if I understand correctly, as they have been under military rule since the military coup. This is a bid deal for believers in Fiji as there are Christian, Hindu, and even Islamic candidates in the running! Pray, pray, pray!
• I heard today that Honolulu was the present Fiji 50 years ago. Wholesome, clean, and values-driven. I also heard today that Honolulu is now a festering tourist trap with scantily-clad individual (both male and female) promoting the party and LGQT lifestyle and rejecting the truth that used to be so easily found there. The individual relaying this (he just flew in from spending a week there) also  described a spiritually-dark feeling over the place. Pleas pray that Fiji will reject the compromise taking over the western culture and will remember the Lord when developing their future as a country. Vinaka. 

Again, I hope you enjoy the photos posted below, and I am so thankful for each of you who actually chose to read through this entire post ;), and who I can count on to be prayer warriors to lift up Fiji in your prayers for the Lord's hand to act.

Vinaka Vakalevu ke moce!

- Austin