it wouldn't be so green without the rain

good news! I found my camera! surprisingly, it was in my backpack :)

there's a TON happening in fiji right now.

+ a group of 23 americans are here for five weeks. university students (mostly from miami u.) here helping us with ministry for their "summer project" with crusade. we're so thankful they're here and i'm excited to get to know some of the girls better! 12 college girls, 5 college guys, and 6 staff members.
a picture at the welcome lunch for the american group. is that a white fijian you see in the front? Yes, yes I am. last weekend, our team got kalavata (matching dresses and guys have matching shirts)!

+ First semester classes are wrapping up at USP, and with the summer project team here for the next month or so, we're branching out to Fiji National University (FNU). We'll continue ministry at USP, but we're excited to see what the lord has in store for students at FNU.

+ the excitement level of this week was made significantly higher by the celebration of Brian and Rob's birthdays!!!! Brian's birthday (monday), we went to a chinese restaurant for supper and then came home for dessert and Harry Potter #5. Wednesday we celebrated Rob's birthday with lasagna (YUMMMMMMM), apple pie, and some of rob's favorite games. Tuesday involved a mid-birthday treat: fruit pizza. best food week ever? yup.

+ After 5 1/2 months in fiji, my umbrella has become kind of like my underwear, i hardly ever leave the house without. today, however, I went in town, sans umbrella. my frugal side got the best of me, and i refused to pay for the short taxi ride home. as a result, i was drenched when i got home. unfortunately, you can't really tell the color difference of my clothing because it was ALL wet. Nonetheless, sammy, our guard, took a picture of me. i laughed most of the way home. i suppose everything here wouldn't be so beautifully green without all the rain.

+ today we bought our plane tickets to the conference in New Zealand in July! So excited!

lots more to come!

riding waves

I don't write posts without pictures because I think they're boring. And even blogs that I really want to read, i can rarely find the motivation to read if no visuals.

Unfortunately, I seemingly misplaced my camera. I'm holding out hope that it's going to turn up... until then, here's what's going on in fiji:





I'm learning to surf!








Also, getting in some mad dive time (on the evenings and weekends).






And sick rappelling, oceanside style.





In addition to copy and pasting some google images, I rifled through some older pictures and found a few worth posting:




We accidentally break glasses, plates, and bowls strikingly often. a couple of weeks ago, jenny busted a plate. dang. another one bites the dust, and I thought it was worth capturing.







this was actually taken at jenny's parents' home pre-fiji. we all took our turns jumping off the second floor onto the sofa. one of the many phases of "training" that we endured.







...we were surprised to discover that it would actually come in handy when we decided to jump from the 45 foot waterfall!








though daredevils we are, most of us have weathered the first five months unscathed. and good news! dave's hair is completely grown back from when he entered the pool and landed on his head.




Brian's hair has also grown back to normal. since then, the clippers and my hand haven't been anywhere near his head.

here comes the sun....

after nearly two weeks of rain, yesterday was a FULL day of sunshine! And today started off a bit stormy, but yes, those are blue skies you see! I was so happy i took a picture. If you read my last blog and have been praying for it to cool off, I would like to personally extend my utmost gratitude, as it seems like summer is finally fading out. And the noise of the rain is sometimes quite nice to fall asleep to or relaxing on a lazy saturday afternoon.

Mary and Jenny are as good as ever. Big news in apartment 10: yesterday Liku our landlord brought us new lightbulbs! Only 2 of the 6 fixtures actually had lightbulbs, which was great mood lighting, but not-so-great reading lighting. Next on the list of repairs is our tile floor that cracked a few weeks back- we thought it was an earthquake in the middle of the night but as it turns out, just some outworn caulk. Even though we make jokes about our air con that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and sometimes leaks all over our books at night and the ants that invade our bathroom, the kitchen, and our living room, we are sooooo thankful that the Lord has provided such great housing for the year!

Last week, we hosted our first monthly international dinner. Some of our first year girls cooked us some YUMMY fijian faves, including kai (big oysters), vudi (oversized bananas), and kokoda (fish cooked in lemon juice and served in coconut milk). Next month is American... the girls begged for some lasagna. We tried to explain that even though americans eat a lot of lasagna, it would better fit to have a big juicy burger or cooked-to-perfection steak. ah, my mouth is watering.


this week at our weekly meeting, i got to talk about god's grace. We talked about how grace is God giving us what we need instead of what we deserve. Even though all we deserve is death, we get a savior, a rescuer, a redeemer. It was sweet to experience God's grace in some super real ways last week as I was preparing to talk. Sometimes I read Stuff Christians Like for a good laugh, and sometimes I accidentally get convicted by god's spirit. I used an excerpt on the question of "too much grace"- check it out: http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/2010/07/too-much-grace/.

A couple of weeks ago, mary convinced us all that Fiji had a sugar shortage! apparently things are back to being a-okay in the sugar department. whew- that was a close one.