What we're really doing (when we're not playing pool volleyball).

What we're really doing. After purchasing our volleyball net for the pool at our apartment (it will be a GREAT outreach tool), we've spent our "fun" time playing pool volleyball, learning the ropes of buying fresh fruits and veggies at the market, learning/teaching guitar, winning (if you're me) or losing (if you're one of the other 5 stinters) at card games like euchre, canasta, and 10's and 2's, and baking cookies.

"So after all the fun and games are over, what do you do?" you may be asking yourself. Well, this week, we're putting together 1,000 First-year kits that we'll hand out to all the first year students at USP. The first-year kits include a brown lunch bag with a book, CD, magazine, bookmark, highlighter, and pen. We decorated the bags with information about when our weekly meetings will be held. The goal is that the bags will familiarize the students with Student Life ("student life" is what fijians call Campus Crusade for Christ), and we'll have questionnaires for the students to fill out that will help us find students who are interested in talking to us about spiritual topics. Jenny, Mary and I found the bags (which was quite an adventure), and decorated them, while Brian, Rob and Dave put them together. We're still looking for a good deal on some bulk pens and highlighters, so if you know of any fijian stores that sell them cheap, holla!

A surprise from MHCC. Yesterday when we got home from the grocery store (MHCC), we discovered little bugs infesting our 4 kg (that's a lot!) bag of flour. As evidenced by the picture, this led to a disgruntled mary. But the girls were troopers and sifted through the entire bag and picked out the bugs. Yesterday was also when I realized that grocery shopping is in the running for being my least favorite thing to do in Fiji.


Last weekend, Jeanette (Koli and his wife, Jeanette, are the crusade directors at USP) drove me, jenny, and mary around Suva to see some places that we hadn't yet discovered (and to be honest, probably would have never found on our own). We saw the Australian, American, Chinese, and Indian embassies. We went to a Fijian flea market, the Pure Fiji factory (a fijian-style bath and body works), and she took us to the most beautiful overview of Suva that I've seen yet.

Keep it real, america.

a mid-week pick-me-up

+ What was the best discovery of the week: HBK= Hot Bread Kitchen, a restaurant downtown that serves the best Cream Buns my mouth has ever tasted. They also have boneless (for the most part) chicken pot pies (what Rob is showing off to the right) and giant Hoho's. The best part= you can get a chicken pot pie, a cream bun, and a piece of banana cake for $3.00 USD. Can you believe it? I can't, which is why I keep going back.



+ What was long overdue: a tour of the University of the South Pacific! A couple of the students showed us the ropes this week. With an outdoor pool, USP is officially the coolest campus ever.






+ What brings me so much joy: Fijian flowers. They're vibrantly colorful and... free! (as long as you can run faster than the the owner of property. just kidding. mostly).









+ What was an unexpected adventure: riding the bus for the first time! Brian and I set out to find a printer to buy (which proved to be quite the task), and decided we'd try to figure out the bus system. We didn't really get the system down, but enjoyed the breezy ride into town.

monsoons and oven explosions

There was a random crazy rain shower the other day. We called it a monsoon and cyclone. We don't know the difference so we said both, even though I'm pretty sure it was just rain shower and was neither.

This little guy was hanging out in our bathroom the other day. No can do, mister. He had to go back outside. He was the lucky one, as a few days later, his second or third cousin accidentally got chopped in half when Mary tried to use a bowl to trap him on the wall.
We made some very yummy chocolate chip cookies the other day. Midway through, we had some oven problems. It turned off so I tried to turn the oven back on, but the oven door blew open with blue fire shooting out of it. Jenny and I almost got burned to death.
We had a really great "briefing" meeting thursday morning at our apartment. The directors, Koli and Jeanette, led the meeting, while some student leaders also gave us advice on how we'll go about ministry this year. It was very insightful and a great time to get to know everyone better!

A First Glance

I realize that I’m not the best blog-updater. However, this is only the third time that I’ve had internet access since I’ve been in Fiji, so I would like to offer that as an excuse that you can either completely dismiss or regard as semi-legitimate.

PRAISE: We found permanent apartments! If you don’t know, we’ve been staying in suitable but small temporary apartments until we could find something else. The girls and guys’ apartments are in the same complex, and they’re actually pretty nice. We moved in on Thursday (or Wednesday if you’re in the states:)). Since then, we’ve been unpacking and settling in- it’s incredible to finally not be living out of a suitcase!
The first night in our apartment!!! :)

What’s going on: We just finished two weeks of our bible classes. The classes weren’t like your normal physics or cell biology class, where you think “I think I would rather jump out my window right now than read one more page of this text”, but instead they were thought-provoking classes where I learned a lot! From last Sunday until Thursday, all of the Fijian Crusade staff, along with the six Americans, and some other regional staff, attended a conference about “equipping the next generation”. It was great worship, teaching, and vision casting on where ministry in the South Pacific has been and where it hopes to go.

Some initial thoughts about Fiji:

+ what excites me: I found a library the other day, it has some really great books on some of the plants in Fiji! Also, books on marine life and stars!


+what I wish I wouldn’t have brought: rainboots. Yes, it rains everyday here. But when I debuted by rainboots, I got some hilarious looks. My favorite remark: “Well, they’re not wrong, but they’re definitely interesting.”


+ what irritates me: When I’m walking (either by myself or with the girls), taxis will literally pull over and ask if we need a ride. The other day, I went on walk by myself, and FOUR taxis stopped for me. While I appreciate the kind gesture, if I wanted a taxi, I would have raised my arm and gotten one.

+what surprises me: I don’t really have a tan yet. I thought by now I’d be blending in with the natives.

+what I seriously cannot understand: pedestrians have no rights in Fiji. The taxi drivers are very nice if you’re in the vehicle with them. Otherwise, prepare to get yelled and honked at on a daily basis.

+what intrigues me: there’s a Chinese school just down the road from us. I want to check it out!

+what I wouldn’t have been able to survive the past two weeks without: BDC, code for Bad Dog Café. Currently, this is my favorite restaurant in Suva (very American food), and has been vital to my health after still being in the process of undergoing the slowest adjustment to new food ever known.

More to come!

What to pray for:

Rest. The day we arrived in Fiji, we had a dinner meeting and since then our schedules have been packed with classes and the conference (which was great but tiring). Now that we’re back and into our apartments, we have a week to regroup, rest, and explore Suva. Pray that this would be a restful week and that it would be good time to connect with the Lord.

The health of our team. We are a fiercely strong team, however almost everyone has faced some sort of illness over the past three weeks. Whether it’s a result of the new and interesting food, water, environment change, or your yearly tonsillitis, it can really bring our team down when one or more of us is sick.

My address (no pressure but if you want to send some love)

Kori Eberle
Gpo Box 19284
Suva, Fiji Islands

BULA from the other side of the world!

BULA (hello in Fijian) :)
We made it!!!!

We flew into Fiji yesterday morning and took a bus to Suva, and arrived at our apartments in the afternoon. We cleaned up (after our day and a half of traveling), and had a staff supper and orientation meeting last night. Starting today, our schedule for the next two weeks will consist of Bible classes during the day and homework and getting acquainted with Suva in the evenings.

Sleeping last night was glorious. All our traveling went very smoothly, but we were absolutely exhausted.

It doesn't sound very adventurous, but I tried papaya today for the first time! I didn't like it. But my rule for the next 11 months is to try every food that I can at least twice.

It's 4:28 p.m. on Monday, January 3. For you, it's 10:28 p.m. Sunday, January 2. Isn't that weird?!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can- I don't have much time now but will fill you in later :)

love and warmth from fiji :)

The Countdown Begins

I got into the car on Sunday to go to church, and instead of being greeted with a warm "good morning" or "how'd you sleep last night?" my 14 year-old brother smirked and screamed "FIFTY ONE DAYS!" before I even had the side door closed. Almost every day either my little brother or little sister reminds me of the dwindling number of days I have before I leave. Personally, I'm convinced that they're just trying to relish every last minute they have to spend with me.

This short anecdote illustrates how real it's becoming. Lately, in the midst of raising the rest of the financial support I need, I've found myself spending hours browsing health insurance plans, researching necessary immunizations, and making mental notes to remember to put certain things in my suitcase come December27thish. The Lord continues to grow my excitement for ministry in Fiji, and has even blessed our team to be able to hear about what God's doing there right now!

[emails received from Don and Kathryn Mansfield, the directors of the pacific islands region]

Greetings! Kathryn and I have just returned from Papua New Guinea and leave in two days for a CCC conference for Oceania in Australia.

Things in Fiji are going well. The problem is that we don't have enough people to take advantage of all the opportunities. So we are very excited about you all arriving.

We think that you all will really be able to seriously help in the areas of improving the quality of evangelism and of basic discipleship. Those are two serious needs in Fiji right now.

With you all arriving at the start of next year, you will be right at the star of a huge emphasis on staff development and training.

Regarding Suva . . . It is not really the garden spot of the country but it’s not a bad place to live either. Rather beaches, commercial harbors, and mud flats. (Sorry about that!)

The students there are so open to the gospel. The challenge is the laid-back "manyana" attitudes.

Do you need any help with knowing support levels or with your visa applications?

We are so excited to see you in Fiji!

Blessings,

Don & Kathryn


[second e-mail]

The New Zealand CCC ministry sent a project team this last week and I just heard that by the end of their time they saw 78 Fijians receive Christ and 18 of those are involved in follow-up.

-Don

Currently, I have 68.9% of the necessary funds I need before leaving! A little over thirty percent left! Thanks for your financial partnership and prayers :)

Life in Norwalk

I've spent the summer in my hometown, Celina. But a couple weeks ago, I moved back with my parents in Norwalk, Ohio, where I'll be until I leave in December. Since I don't really know anyone here yet, I've been trying to make new friends to start sharing with some people here in Norwalk about ministry in Fiji.

I'm so thankful that Jenny, one of my teammates next year, only lives about a half an hour away! We've been trying to meet up regularly to connect. A few weeks back, we got to spend a lovely sunday afternoon on a beach of lake erie.

I'm currently at 45.5% of the funds I need before I leave! Almost halfway!

I sent out my first prayer letter last week, so let me know if you didn't receive it but want to!