This past week, Mama Opal, Leslie, Stephanie and I flew to the island of Kadavu to hold a 3-day VBS. Kadavu is one of Fiji’s most beautiful islands, but it has it challenges as it has no power plant. but is powered by a generator that shuts down every night at 10 p.m. and comes on again at 6 a.m. And the current government has cut back what power they have so the power goes off for 2 hours at noon and 2 hours more at 4 p.m.

So, each day when the children arrived at about 5 p.m., we would begin with the games and crafts, then at 6 p.m. we could use our CD player and projector when the power came again. This was our first challenge! The second was when 80 children arrived the first day and we were only prepared for 40! The children came from the village where we were staying, as well as two other villages further away. Those children from the two outlying villages came to us by truck each night. Most of them came from single parent homes, no father, and very little resources.

What a blessing it was for us to show them Jesus’ love as we taught them the songs, played games with them, and made the crafts. Tema, our hostess, and her daughter Vive, as well as other young people helped us each night with the puppets, the crafts and even translated the Bible stories into Fijian so the young ones would understand. We love Kadavu and its beautiful people and are praying that we will one day be able to come again and bring materials for Tema to teach the children in her Kids’ Club. She does this with only a Bible, and it is our hope that we can bring crayons, coloring pages, flannelgraphs, paper, glue and scissors when we come again!

Please pray for these beautiful children and for the believers that are there on this little island. Pray for pastors and teachers that will teach them God’s Word.

“Before He made the mountains, before He made the seas, before He made the islands or the coconut tree….oh, God loved you and me!” This is the song that the children at the Bulileka VBS are singing! Children from Hindu and Christian homes gathered for this 3-day VBS and by the end of the 3 days, they had listened to our Bible stories, made the crafts (which they love!), played the games (also a favorite), prayed the sinner’s prayer all together, and could sing 6 songs at the top of their lungs! This song, “Before All Time” was their favorite but they also loved “Follow the Way of Love” which is I Corinthians 13:4-8…..Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast……” They can now recite this by heart.

On the other side of Labasa Town, we held another 3-day VBS for four churches which combined together for this event. The first day, Sunday, the pastors and many of the parents stayed all day waiting for us to begin at 3 p.m., watched as we set up and remained throughout the first day of VBS. You should have heard the laughter and shouts of the mothers as they sat on the church porch and watched the games that Stephanie and Leslie played with the children. What an awesome opportunity for the believers of this town to join together in a community event for the children!

God is doing a great thing in this nation in bringing down the walls between the churches, uniting the believers together. Pastor Simeli will soon write a post for this website telling of the “Impact World Tour” that is coming to the islands in September. This tour will be an evangelistic outreach for the whole nation and the pastors and churches are working together to make this happen. We are very excited to be a part of this outreach and to see what happens in Fiji through this ministry.

We appreciate your prayers and the support of our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. Please don’t hesitate to post your comments or send us email!

In the village of VoliVoli near Sigatoka, we held our first SonTreasure Island Vacation Bible School. We had over 50 children attend, from pre-school age to jr high. What a wonderful time it was! We sang ‘Action’ Songs, as they call them, held puppet shows, told Bible stories, made crafts and played wild and crazy games with Stephanie. Leslie was our tech person, operating the laptop and projector, re-organizing our disorganized crafts time! Meraya Kenawai and I took turns telling the Bible story. When it rained on the third day, Pastor Ladd paid for a shed to be put up over the heads of the children and we continued rain or shine.

Speaking of rain, it POURED on the last day while we were showing the slide show of all the pictures we had taken. The children cheered and roared with laughter at each of the 50 plus pictures and nobody minded the rain, even though it came down hard and heavy! All of them raised their hands and prayed to accept Christ, although most of them acknowledged doing it before. Everyday as we left, the children would all crowd around the van, waving and saying ‘Moce’ (Mo-thay or Goodbye), then they would line up along the highway and continue waving as we pulled out. God’s love through us made an impact on the children of this village!