“Make music to the Lord with the harp; with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn - shout for joy before the Lord, the King.” Fijians are gifted with strong voices and a good ear for music. They sing with enthusiasm and learn to play instruments all by ear. It was our great joy to bring Shiloh Worship Center instruments to assist them in their worship. We brought a bass guitar and a digital piano to add to their two guitars. Each Saturday, we hold a piano class with 5 students learning to play beginning worship keyboard. They have learned to play chords in several keys and have completed the lessons of the book and passed the final exam with excellent scores!

Save (Saw-ve) and Paul are alternating playing the bass guitar on the worship team, and Micah has been appointed the new worship leader for Shiloh Worship Center. Meraiya will take over preparing the worship songs on power point and projecting them each week with the new projector and screen.

Choir rehearsals, with about 15 people learning to read and sing choral music, began last July and we have sung for Sunday morning worship services as well as for Pastor Joseph’s church in Sigatoka. Shiloh Worship Center is making music to the Lord!

Our fifth and final Vacation Bible School was held last week here at Shiloh Worship Center with over 80 students in attendance. Pastor Leoni’s church, the Church of God in Christ, and Pastor Viri’s church, the Church of God, participated with us and it was another great week of ministry and fun as we sang with the children, played games and made our crafts. Pastor Leoni’s wife, Vale and Meraiya assisted me in teaching the Bible stories and we encouraged each of the church groups to sing for their Sunday morning services following the last day of VBS. Here at Shiloh, our Kids’ Church tripled in attendance on Sunday morning as some of the children from the neighborhood came back to sing with us.

This coming week, Shiloh Worship Center will join with other churches in Nadi to sponser a World Impact Tour. Pastor Simeli has been meeting with a network of pastors since last spring to plan this tour. The tour involves the Power Team ministry and GX ministry, along with Island Breeze, a Fijian singing and dancing group who will come and do an evangelistic outreach in several cities of the islands. Last week, their outreach in Labasa brought out 8,000 people in attendance and the pastors here in Nadi are expecting even more to pack out Prince Charles Stadium. Leslie and Stephanie have joined with the other young people of our churches and attended training session by YWAM (Youth With A Mission) to be counselors for all those who respond to an invitation to accept Jesus. It has been a wonderful opportunity for them to learn how to share their testimony and lead a person to faith in Christ and we are so grateful to be here in Fiji to be a part of this outreach. The outreach will be here in Nadi this coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Last Sunday night, we combined services with several churches in Nadi at the Assembly of God and enjoyed a tremendous worship service with the believers here in this city. The man known as ‘The Praying Man’, a local Fijian pastor who is known for his praying ministry brought the message and after the service, all the counselors from all the churches stayed for some additional training and preparation. Pastor Simeli has committed Shiloh Worship Center to prepare lunch for the GX team on Saturday so our whole church will be involved in ministering to the team that rides bikes and skateboards. Pray for this outreach in Fiji and pray for our ability to follow up on all those who commit their lives to Christ during this outreach!

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!