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.

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 :)

it's spring break time!

This week, we have very special visitors from a little utopia I like to call Oxford, Ohio! There's a group of ten Miami students + Miami Crusade staff who came all the way to Fiji to spend their spring break at USP telling students about a relationship with God! We're sooo thankful for their willingness to give us a huge boost in ministry. They've been here for less than 12 hours, but already it's been really refreshing to see some familiar faces and interact with other whities (who aren't kiwis or aussies)! Not only are we excited for their help in ministry, but they also came bearing TONS of reese's cups and some gifts from parents :)

So far, we've successfully convinced the newbies that:
1. In the presence of Koli (the super cool national director of Crusade in Fiji), it's expected for men to tuck in their shirts out of respect.
2. In order to board a bus, it's necessary to show the bus driver your passport.

(neither of which are true)


Also, today we celebrated the end of daylight savings time. So since it's summer here, we actually got to set our clocks BACK- giving us a whole extra hour of sleep last night!!! But if you live in the northern hemisphere, don't forget to spring your clocks forward next weekend. Everything is backward on this side of the world. it's even true what they say- the toilet bowl water really does swirl the other direction (but not really).

Stay tuned for sweet stories from the MU spring break week and other fabricated cultural norms!

+ please be praying that the Lord would use the miami team in incredible ways this week!

p.s. today i've been loving psalms 23 & 73- check them out :)