The Lord will Provide!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind!  Students are in their last two weeks of classes before they take exams!  Where did this semester go?!

Right now, along with encouraging students to use their time well as they begin studying for exams and completing assignments, and continuing to meet weekly with students for Bible studies, discipleship and follow-up appointments, we're seeing the Lord move in students' hearts!  They are currently trusting the Lord as they raise money to go on the 5-day long Student Life Conference at the end of June and/or the V20 conference in New Zealand during the first week of July!

For the past few weeks my team and I have been working alongside students and encouraging them to send out support letters, print out Buy-A-Block sheets (raising support by asking friends for different cent amounts, each completed sheet is over $50!), and set up appointments to meet with potential ministry partners!  

We're praying for over 150 students to attend the Student Life Conference!  Registration closes THIS FRIDAY!  Please be praying for the Lord to continue to bring in the money for these students to attend this conference!  Students who were involved in Student Life last year told me that this conference was their favorite part of the year!  They grew so much in their faith, and it's a great opportunity for students to get plugged into Student Life and make lasting friendships.  Please also be praying for our team (especially Kori and Dave as they head up the conference team) as we plan the details of this conference, and trust the Lord to provide the students!

Our Student Life directors, Koli and his wife Jeanette, have been in New Zealand this past month raising support!  While they have been gone, La (a Student Life staff member) and myself have been heading up the V20 conference prep.!  We're praying for the eighteen students who are signed up to continue persevering and trusting the Lord to bring in their support!  I have had the opportunity to lead weekly meetings with these students, encouraging them in their support raising efforts, and it has been so incredible to see some of these students take bold steps to send out sponsor letters, and follow-up these letters with phone calls!  There have been times where I've asked a few of the girls I'm discipling for one of their support letters, they are so encouraged by this!  After they give me one of their letters, I challenge them to now go and ask ten people they were afraid to ask because they need to take the initiative, leaving the results in God's hands!  People want to join their team, they just need to be given the opportunity to do so!  THIS THURSDAY marks the first deadline for these eighteen students.  They need 2/3 of their money in at this time so we can purchase plane tickets and apply for visas.  Please be praying!  While some students are in awe at how the Lord has provided, many are still desperately praying to see some money come in before the deadline!  God is sovereign and I'm confident He will provide for the students He desires to go, but students need to be bold and trust Him!

THIS SUNDAY we are so excited to welcome the Miami University Campus Crusade for Christ Summer Project Team!  Twenty-five staff and students will be joining us in ministry here in Fiji for five weeks!  Please pray for their safe travels!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

What do disciples, Easter, Garnet and Gold, Bible Study and God's intimacy have in common?

They all happened in April!

Kele, Maina, me and Lani!

This past month I have had some incredible opportunities to get to hang out with the six girls that I am discipling this year!  A few weeks ago I went to a basketball game that Lani, one of my disciples, was playing in.  Kele and Maina, two of my other girls, came with me and it was a blast!  I love getting to see the Lord’s hand guide these relationships!  I meet weekly with each of these girls to go over a specific concept or idea (like how to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, how to be a good steward of your time, why we’re called to obey the Lord, etc.).  In addition to this, I try to hang out with these girls as much as possible just to live life with each other.  We grab lunch; go on walk, run errands, etc.  The goal is to equip these girls to become lifelong laborers for Christ wherever He leads them!  I want to teach them as much as possible about what it means to multiply their lives for the Lord’s kingdom, and what it looks like for them to take leadership roles within Student Life, share their faith and lead younger students in Bible study or Discipleship.  These relationships have definitely become a highlight of my time here in Fiji so far!

Celebrating Easter here in Fiji was definitely a new experience!  Fiji pretty much shuts down for Easter weekend.  On Good Friday, Jenny and I went into town to meet some students and had to search around for a while to find an open coffee shop!  It was a great weekend though.  On Easter Sunday we went to church and had lunch with some Fijian friends.  It was definitely a little different than in America, but it was very memorable!  The Monday after Easter my team had an Easter dinner, which was delicious!  We even got to dye eggs (although they were brown…so that was a new experience!).  We took communion as a team and it was so incredible to come together as Americans in a distant island and remember that even way out here, we worship, serve and remember the Lord who took our sins upon Himself when He died on the cross over two thousand years ago, then rose again, defeating death and thus offering His children a way to enter into a personal relationship with Himself!  How great is our God!  I hope you had a great Easter!

Last week I had a surprise come in from Upper Saddle River, NJ!  I went to the post office and picked up a package from Brian, my boyfriend!  Inside, on the top of the box was a huge Florida State University Flag (his alma mater)!  He is definitely doing a good job at converting me to become a Seminoles fan, even all the way over here in Fiji J   The package was such an encouragement though, and he provided me with more than enough candy to share with students for the upcoming weeks! 

Vilisi, Luisa, Nani, Lavonne and myself at our first Bible Study! (Mere is missing)

Last week I started my first Bible study!  There will be about five girls in it, and I just love them!  We are going through a Bible Study called the Discovery Group.  It covers foundational truths of what it means to be a believer, how to walk with God, and the importance of sharing your faith!  Yesterday, before Bible study, I encouraged the girls to go with me onto campus to share our faith!  We split up into two groups (because three of them had never shared their faith before!) and an hour later we returned to tell each other what the Lord did!  The girls were definitely nervous as they went out to talk about the Lord with classmates, but they were so encouraged to see the Lord move in the hearts of students, and lead the conversations!  Then we went into Bible study where we talked about God’s forgiveness.  This was definitely God’s perfect timing, especially in light of Osama Bin Laden’s death, and the controversy that surrounds that even here in Fiji.  We talked about God’s love for all people, and that only He knows hearts, it’s not our place to judge.  These girls ask great questions, and are so eager to grow in their walks with God!  I’m really excited to see what the Lord has in store!

Finally, last week I had the awesome opportunity to speak at Student Life’s weekly meeting, called Connexion.  We are studying the attributes of God this semester, so I talked about the intimacy of God!  I was nervous, but more excited to get to share!  The Lord has been teaching me a lot about His intimacy these past few months, and how He loves me just as I am, so it was really fun to tell students about that, and encourage them to pursue the Lord intimately as well!!  I definitely felt like I reverted back to my “teacher” voice, which I haven’t used in a few months, but loved the chance to get to trust the Lord and see how He chose to use me to impact students!

We are now preparing for the Miami University summer project team, which will be here in just a little over two weeks!  Twenty-five students and staff will be joining us in ministry here for a month!  We are so excited to see what the Lord is going to do!  We’ll start at USP for the first week, but since it’s the students’ last week of lectures, we’re prayerfully going to begin going to FNU (Fiji National University) to begin Student Life there!  It is so cool how the Lord provides twenty-five additional laborers just in time to help us pioneer ministry on a new campus!  Please be praying for those American students as they finish raising support, and get ready to see the Lord change their lives forever as they follow His call on their lives to come to Fiji for the summer!

I promise, I will get better at updating this blog!  We had some interesting internet issues this past month, so prayerfully, that is behind us!  God Bless!  Please let me know how I can be praying for you!

-Mary