Home Again Home Again!

First off, I want to apologize for falling off of the blogging band wagon since leaving Fiji…and let you know that I will probably be off of it until we are settled into our new home and have internet installed.

You are probably wondering just how our house hunting is going, and I am pleased to report that today we found a great house! Tomorrow we will make it all official with the paperwork. Today has been an amazing day! You know some days you wake up and just know that God is on the move; well that was how today was. We woke up early, climbed the Mount as we talked to the Lord, and then headed to Starbucks to use their internet to look for newly listed rentals (believe it or not we managed to stay away from their addicting coffee). After having a nice little divine appointment with a full on Christian man, Josh suddenly looked at me (while I was talking to NZ immigration) and said, “I think we found our house”. After about 5 talks with the owner, a drive by, and then a walk through, we are pleased to announce the frantic house hunting project has come to a close! The house is perfect for us, looks surprisingly American, is under a year old, has walk in closets, is in a great central neighborhood, and is right next to a greenbelt so we can stay fit for free (gyms are way too expensive in this country). What can we say besides it is awesome!

We will move in on December 24th and are negotiating being able to put all our stuff in the garage on the 22nd when we have to move it out of our present apartment. So, yeah that is our prayer point for tonight. It would not be fun to have to move it all twice in three days. Now we just have to find and buy the basic furniture we need, like a refrigerator and a couch.

Thanks so much for praying for us in our housing search. We are so happy with the house and will put pictures up after we move in and get a bit settled.

Would you like to trade coffee for a speeding ticket?

On Friday morning at 4am, we left Suva for the last time in 2006. I must say it was rather relieving to be driving out of the city given all the current political tension. One of our students, Pita, kindly volunteered to drive us all the way to Nadi and bring the van back on the same day. However, Taubale was the driver to Nadi, and at about 5:00am shortly after we had stopped at a service station to purchase kona coffee, we were pulled over by the police for speeding, and the police officer showed the radar detector at 13km’s over the speed limit, and pulled Taubale out of the car and directed him to walk over to his car parked on the other side of the street. With our eyes straining to stay open, we watched and prayed as Taubale stuck hi head in the police car window and explained that he was late for his flight and in a rush to get to the airport. Surprisingly they said “ok well just give us our breakfast, and we’ll let you off”. Next thing you know we’re watching Taubale run across the road with the biggest grin on his face you’ll ever see. He got his kona coffee and ran back and gave it to the Police Officer saying “sorry I was drunk on this stuff”. It was the funniest let off we’ve ever seen.

After going through 7 Army check points, we made it to Nadi, and after dropping Taubale off we checked into the hotel were we are relaxing for two days before flying out on the 10th of December. Josh was stoked as we ended up having breakfast with Matt Gitteu from the Wallabies rugby team, and then later in the afternoon we spotted Joe Rokacoko, an all black, from our sun lounge, who are both staying here at present. We’re blessed to be here and we’re pretty happy with the “coup special” they gave us with over 60% off the normal rate. Apparently all Fijian hotels are due to drop their normal rates by at least 40% over the next week, right through to April. If you want a nice holiday, this is the place to be.

Well next time I speak to you we’ll be in New Zealand.

IT IS FINISHED!

Last nights graduation was huge success. A great time was had by all. In true island style there was tons of food, and Josh brought one of the best graduating challenges I have ever heard. I'm not just saying that because he is my husband, he was making everyone get teary eyed. One of the highlights for me was the student testimonies. It was amazing because from the lips of the students came what they felt like they learned. Overall the testimony was the same, but it wasn't about public speaking, or navigating their way through building the IWT structure. Nope, by far they testified that they felt like they had learned more about intimacy with Jesus than anything else in the school. Wow...what an awesome thing for them to say. That of course made Josh and I smile.

Celebrating in the Midst of the Coup!

The coup has officially taken place as of 6 pm last night. Suva is still peaceful and Josh and I are still OK. No worries! The Military Commander is announcing his interim government later today, and in a few months they will have another election. Next week the Great Council of Chiefs will meet together and if all goes as planned, the President will be reinstated. Apparently the President sided with the Military Commander.
Tonight we are going to celebrate the completion of the school with Graduation. Our students are busily preparing the "Lovo" for the feast. It has been cool to watch them burn stones until they glow and then bury them in the ground with all the food. It will be great to celebrate all that God has done in these guys tonight. Honestly, they have changed so much...becoming so much more grounded in the love of the Lord and confident. We will post some pictures of graduation soon.
As for Josh and I, we have one more day in Suva (you simple have to clean house and pack). Then to the relief of everyone, we will head over to the Western Division of Fiji to wait for our flight on Sunday morning. Pita, one of our students will drive us and the National Director westward at 3am Friday morning.

How We Are Doing

Many of you are probably wondering how we are doing being in the middle of a politically unstable country, so I thought I would tell you.

Josh and I are doing fine, really well in fact. We love our students, believe in them, and want to give them all that we have before leave here. We have two more days of class after today, graduation, a couple days to pack up, run errands, clean house, go to the other side of the island where the airport is, and then we should fly out on the 10th. That is if the planes are still flying. (Prayers wanted on that one)

The coup that was supposed to take place on Friday was postponed until who knows when, leaving the country in an interesting state of mind. It's like a sense of foreboding is settling over the city. The weekend was very quite in the city as most people stay inside, hunkered down, waiting for the coup to erupt. It never did. Josh and I listened to Mike Bickle, prayed, played cards, and cleaned house.

This morning brought with it more deadlines of when the coup was supposed to happen. As of this minute, still no coup though there are military personnel with guns in downtown. So we are praying together as a couple, as a class (we had a great prayer time this morning), and as the body of Christ in this country. It's the best thing we can do.

Global Pastor's Network

Last week we had the priviledge to attend the Global Pastors Network meeting for Oceania held in Suva. Becasue of the impending coup, a lot of the big name speakers like Bonke didn't come. YWAM leadership was here in force though. Lauren Cunningham and Mark Anderson took on a large leadership role in the four day event, and it was awesome to have them around.




This was a great opportunity for IWT and our students to get connected from different pastors thoughout the Pacific. Here are a couple pictures of the time. One is of Lauren Cunningham, so you can put a face with the name. The other is of the pastors comming to place their commiments to reaching the lost, over the next 10-15 years, at the alter.