A week in Fiji

Saturday, April 30, 2010

I am so blessed. Anyone who knows me knows how I love to experience more than what the tourists see when visiting another country. I am privileged to stay in the homes of the people here in Fiji. Our first night here was spent in Pente’s namesake’s home with her family. The matriarch had passed away a month before but left behind a home full of her art. Murals on the walls, inside and out. Good ones.

Sitting on the kitchen floor with two old women who were so fun, eating the most yummy Fiji bread, cocoa and papaya (popo) for breakfast was one of my favorite memories with them there. We traded village medicine information and laughed at each other’s stories.

Remember the Bubba joke? The one where the friend knows everyone? My friend, Pente is just that. We’re downtown Suva and in two days here she’s found 9 old friends just walking the streets. Unbelievable.

I have to tell you, I’ve never felt more welcome and special than in this place. Pente’s brother “Tek” and his wife had a 3 day old little girl who they named after me. That’s how special my visit was. He’s had a very sordid past which he is not proud of. He was very successful. Then he suffered a stroke which disabled him for 6 months and his ex wife took off with all his money and left him with 3 years of back taxes. Needless to say, he’s not back on his feet yet, but will be soon let me tell you. Pente and I both think it was God’s way of saving him.

I tell you this because there’s a future for this rebel who may very much be the modern Saul to Paul story. Somebody needs to write a book about this guy. Last January he called many of his nephews and they were planning on burning down his neighbor’s house that was being very bad to the neighbors. Then he had a disturbing dream. His wife had a disturbing dream about him that same night. Both dreams clearly came from God. This made him evaluate his life and he prayed for the first time in years. He’s going to be a powerful witness for God I believe and I fear Satan will try and stop it because of how powerful he was for his kingdom.

I left his family with some sermons and Christian music and a prayer that God will use them to bring this wonderful father and husband back to Jesus.

While there we attended a memorial feast for the grandson of one of the women there in Pente’s family. Like on Abemama, we sat cross legged on mats on the floor in front of long bolts of colorful fabric with dishes of island food in front of us. We each had a plate and with our fingers dipped into the serving dishes and then took turns washing our hands in a basin afterwards. They powdered our necks and shoulders and sprayed cheap perfume down our sides as well. The day before at another meal I handed an old woman the basin and they all laughed. They said you have to stop eating once someone hands the basin to you and she wasn’t done eating. Oops.

Aunt Abigail told a children’s story one day and showed the importance of drinking clean water in a very funny way to the 30 or so Pathfinders in the village. Oh, it was fun to be Aunt Abigail again. Now I can say she’s told stories to children in 4 countries. My mom would be so tickled.

On another day we rode a big rickety bus 3 hours into the interior through the rain forested hills. We crossed bridges over gullies that you hoped would hold you. Saw bands of wild horses grazing in the fields and watched Fijians fishing or floating on long bamboo rafts on the large river below. Had I known what we were driving on in the dark on the way, I would have prayed more for sure. We came to one of our boarding academies where Pente’s old friends lived. What a beautiful place! They manage a bakery which pays the school’s operating expenses pretty much. A Canadian couple learned the school was going to close down and built a bakery with an adjoining apartment and hired Pente’s friends to manage it. All the bakery equipment is donated. 100% of the profit goes to the school, minus $150.00 a piece for living expenses. I took pictures and Pente wrote to the couple, requesting help for Kauma, our school in Kiribati. Pray that if it’s God’s will, we will be able to open one here in Tarawa.

I believe our week in Fiji was God led and it will be great to see how God used us. He is so good. I love my life again.

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