Seeing Fiji as God sees it

In the past 3 days we have...

-Peeled coconut shavings
-Shopped in an open air market
-Walked the campus of USP!
-Began the process of decorating and filling 1000 freshmen bags to hand out next week on campus!


Two days ago, my team jumped on a bus and headed into town to grab some chicken pies and cream buns from our new favorite restaurant; Hot Bread Kitchen.  With lunch in hand, we jumped onto another bus and headed down the road, along the coast towards USP (University of the South Pacific).  The Lord truly met me on this bus ride.  The buses here don't have windows, but are open, and each bus driver gets to choose what music he wants playing.  Our bus driver, at the time, was favoring American hip-hop.  With my arm leaning outside the window, my eyes began to take in Suva as a whole.  The people, the buildings, the plants, the feel of the sun, the smell of the breeze, and the bay to my right, I began to truly sense God's love for this island.  Fijians smiled as our bus passed on, and I began to feel so blessed to be here.  

Me and Brian on the bus in Suva!

For a month now our team has been adjusting to this new culture and climate.  We have definitely had our share of ups and downs; whether it was the food, the heat, homesickness, etc...but it all seemed to become clear to me as we neared USP.  The Lord has an incredible purpose for us this year, and I am so excited to be able to have a role in it!  How humbling to think that God has each of us right where He wants us!  Let's surrender to Him, and see how He wants to use us!

USP!

Vilimaina, myself & Jenny in the Market!

A glimpse of the open-air market!

We met up with Vilimaina at the entrance to the USP campus, and immediately pictures that I have been looking at for the past year began to come alive!  We walked past the buildings where students have classes, and then went to see the "White Tables" where students involved in Student Life (the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry of USP) meet up for Bible studies and Discipleship.  Afterward, Kori, Jenny, Vilimaina and myself headed into town to experience the open-air-market!  We were surrounded by long tables filled with all types of vegetables, fruit, and spices!  It was incredible!  Vilimaina helped us learn to tell how the different foods were ripe or not and which vendors had quality products.  We left with bags filled with limes, eggplants, green beans, coconut, pineapple, and spices!  It was definitely an experience we'll be repeating often!  Vilimaina is a student leader in Student Life and we are so excited to see how the Lord continues to grow her this year!


We returned to our apartment, and Vilimaina helped us lean how to use a coconut peeler (aka a large plank with a small spoon like scraper attached at the end with teeth coming out of it) to get the coconut shavings out from a coconut!  We are all pretty much naturals at it :)  Vilimaina told me I was pretty much Fijian now because I have mastered that skill! We made Eggplant parmesan for dinner and Lolo Coconut cake for dessert!


Tomorrow we are hosting another staff meeting with Koli and Jeanette.  Until then, we are going to be finishing decorating and filling 1000 bags that we will hand out to freshmen during orientation/registration in about a week to advertise Student Life and begin forming relationships!


Thank you so much for your prayers!  God is so good.  He is continually stretching us, but as we learn more and more what it looks like to depend upon Him, He is truly blessing us, and bringing us so much closer to Himself!
Please let me know how I can be praying for you!


God Bless!
-Mary Lin