It is Wednesday morning here in Sigatoka, Fiji and my daughters Leslie and Stephanie and I have been in country for one week. A lot has happened in that week as we are making preparations for what God has brought us here to do. Mama Opal (my mother), Pastor Simeli, and Pastor Gary Ladd have rented a house here in this city which is about an hour’s drive from Nadi because it was expensive and tiring driving back and forth from Nadi for the school here. We are moved in now, conducting classes each night and preparing for the Vacation Bible School we will have in the village where the school is located on the outskirts of Sigatoka. Tonight, I will start a teacher training class for the students in Shiloh Bible Training Center - Sigatoka and I will recruit helpers for the VBS next week. We expect around 40-50 children at this VBS.

It is our plan to hold at least 5 Vacation Bible Schools around the islands. Three of them are on different islands and because of the travel and lodging expenses, we will reduce the number of days from 5 to 3 days so that we can still touch the hearts and lives of children who live in remote and poor villages. Our theme for the school is SonTreasure Island where we will discover the treasures of God’s love using I Corinthians 13 as our text. We will have DVD skits, puppet skits (we have 10 puppets and a theatre), crafts, games and lot of island songs! Pray for children’s lives to be greatly impacted as they learn that God’s love is giving, caring, kind, forgiving and forever!

Shiloh Worship Center in Nadi is growing! Pastor Ladd is preaching a ‘Break-Through’ message to the church. This is a message that teaches us that God helps us break through upon our enemies of sin, sickness, poverty. Starting with a prophetic word from the Lord, we are learning to not accept the lies of our enemy, to give of our resources to God, and with the power of praise, we can access the power of the Holy Spirit to help us break through the problems in our lives.

We have started a music class on Saturday evenings and currently have 6 students learning “Beginning Worship Keyboard”. The addition of the piano and the bass guitar, and a projector with Power Point Worship songs has greatly added to the worship on Sunday mornings.

We are posting pictures of Pastor Joseph’s sister and Meraia Kenewai beside a tapa (a Fijian fabric made from the bark of a tree that is hand blocked painted) that Pastor Joseph’s sister is preparing.

The other picture is of some dancers presenting a tribal dance at a hotel on the beach which we greatly enjoyed!

Finally, here’s Stephanie learning to climb a coconut tree!