a little easter treat

Hi! Here's a quick glimpse at what's been going on in Fiji the past couple weeks!

happy easter :)

As tradition in the Eberle household, we put together easter "baskets" and hid them before we left for church on Sunday. When we got home, we surprised rob, dave and brian and had them search our apartment for their baskets of candy, chocolate, and prizes! We were so excited when we each found our baskets! We loved getting to celebrate that we serve a God who's alive!
shout out to mom for sending an egg-dying kit in my easter package! so we also got to bring a little of america to fiji by coloring easter eggs! brown eggs are a bit more tricky to dye than white eggs. but we managed :)
As I've mentioned, during our thursday night connexion meetings, we've been talking about the attributes of God. Last week, Brian shared that God is a God of mercy. Some of the students said they were really touched by his talk and learned a lot. This week, Mary will be explaining God as intimate. Next week, I get to talk about God's grace! I'm stoked!
Last week was USP's mid-semester break. Ministry looked a bit different because the students didn't have class, so we weren't on campus much. On Monday, we had a training day on discipleship, evangelism, how to lead a small group, and how to go through follow-up with new believers. On Tuesday, we went to Coral Coast Christian Camp, where we'll hold our Student Conference at the end of June. It was exciting to catch a vision of how the long weekend will look at the end of the semester. I'm on the conference committee, so it's been fun to get to help plan the schedule for the week!

what i'd love you to pray for:

+ student conference! It's not until the end of June, but we're really encouraging students to register before May 20th. Our goal is that 150 students will come and get to grow in their faith. pray for all the planning over the next two months and that students will come!
+ cheap plane tickets! No, I'm not coming back to america early (although i would really like to hold my baby niece, who is now THREE months old!), but in July, we get to travel to New Zealand for V20, which is an international student conference with students from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan! We're trying to find cheap plane tickets. Also pray for the twenty-ish fijian students who are going to be raising support to attend.
+ a second year?! nope, not a question mark because it's optional to pray for, but rather because myself, along with my 5 teammates, are trying to figure out our lives. pleeeease pray for our team as each of us has been individually asking the Lord if he wants us to come back to fiji for a second year of STINT. We're each excited to follow jesus in whatever he wants... but pray for clarity and discernment in knowing how to best invest our lives in 2012. We're just hoping the world ends and we won't have to make any big decisions. joking!
+ autumn and no leaves. fiji is trying to do "fall", but it's still pretty hot. pray that global warming stops and somehow we get to see snow 17 degrees below the equator this winter (june-aug since we're in the southern hemisphere).

Thanks for 1. reading- and making it to the end! 2. praying. 3. being excited about what God's doing here! and 4. continuing to send lots of love to: Kori Eberle, GPO Box 19284, Suva, Fiji Islands :)

love you all!

sunday funday

Even though it's just the beginning of your sunday (if you're in America)- here in Fiji, Sunday is coming to a close, and it's been a fun and exhausting day. Today marked the first annual STINT Decathlon:: 10 events. 6 participants. 1 winner.

To break up the sometimes monotonous feel of everyday ministry, we decided to spice things up with a little friendly competition among the six of us.

The line-up:
1. u.s. capitols quiz
2. pasta threading: use a fettucine noodle in your mouth and string rigatoni pasta noodles through the fettucine noodle
3. cup stacking: making pyramidal formations with plastic cups
4. 100 meter sprint
5. triple jump
6. chubby bunny with marshmallows
7. logic puzzle
8. pool run-around: how fast can you run around the ledge of the pool without falling in
9. pool somersaults without taking breaths
10. pool handstands

it was such a fun day! the results were:

gold: dave
silver: brian
bronze: me!

me during the cupstacking competition

the winners of the 100-m dash: 1. rob, 2. dave, 3. mary

jenny doing work on the pasta

the guys thought that matching outfits would give them an extra edge

this is me and my game face. prepare to die. (joking) (sort of)

a short clip of our opening ceremony::

what i've been up to

Firstly, I would like to apologize for the month long break since my last post. Life in Fiji has been exhilarating and keeping me plenty busy!

After the spring break team from Miami left, our STINT team went to the west side of the island with some of the Miami Crusade staff members for an "encouragement trip". We spent a couple days evaluating our ministry, how we've been walking with the Lord over the past few months, and how we've been working together as a team. Along with some assessment of our first months in Fiji, we had some refreshing time before heading back on campus.




LORAINI. loraini is a first year student who I get to hang out with every week. She is outgoing and always full of energy! Lo asked Jesus to come into her life a couple weeks ago, so I've gotten to grow with her, as we talk about what it means that we're forgiven children of God and how to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. I love thursday afternoons with Lo :)




After I meet with Lo on thursdays, we have our weekly Student Life meeting. Our weekly "Connexion" meeting is where we invite students to hear more about being connected to God and where they can meet other students who want to grow in their relationships with God.

For the semester, we're talking about the attributes of God. We kicked off the semester with a talk on God's love. Rob gave the next talk on God's sovereignty. Some other attributes that we're so excited to study this semester include: God's justice, mercy, and holiness.

Students are taking mid-semester exams this week, so they've been super busy being studious! Next week, they have their mid-semester break from classes, so we'll get to hang out with some students outside of campus and do some planning for the rest of the semester.

Thanks for your prayers! I promise I'll blog again soon :)