Life in Fiji

It is crazy how quickly time ticks by and that we have already been in Fiji for five months. We have officially missed winter in New Zealand which we are quite ok with. We have made heaps of connections, worked with some awesome ministries and been to some pretty amazing places as we continue to find our place and life here in Fiji.

A scenic stop on the way from Suva

Our New Prado

After a three month search and investigating every seven seater 4WD this side of Fiji, we finally found the perfect vehicle in Suva! It was a bit of a fiasco, as with many things in Fiji, involving extra paperwork and waiting times at the last minute and several bus trips to Suva for Roy.

However we are very grateful to have a reliable eight seater Prado in incredible condition and relatively low mileage for Fiji, and it has already been a huge blessing when we have had a team and family visiting. We saw God’s hand on the buying of this vehicle in many ways including the timing, price, an ethical seller and even the fact that when Roy took it for a test drive he ended up at ‘Homes of Hope’, a place you will read about further down the page, where MMM has done work before and will do some more work next year.

Our new ride on it's way home 🤩 It's a lot muddier now!

Island Acro Gymnastics

Gabby and Caleb have found a place they love with Island Acro. They have a coach who really knows her stuff and has even been to Switzerland to a gymnastics conference this year to keep up with the latest ideas. There is a really good mix of local kids and expats from all around the world. Gabby is now doing two classes, ‘Intermediate’, and this term she has joined the ‘Performance' class. This means she will get extra opportunities to perform at events. Caleb won the gold medal for the ‘Beginners’ class at the end of term showcase and club competition. It turns out the actual performance was a real highlight for him and he loved being in the spotlight!

The Extremely Proud Champion

Island Encounters

We have now completed two official projects in Fiji, the first one being for Island Encounters at Oasis Farm. When we sent out our last update we challenged anyone who was feeling spontaneous and in need of a break from the cold to join us in Fiji. We were super grateful for Willie to respond to that call and come from Christchurch for the two week project. We first worked with Willie last year at Lakeland Park in Queenstown and it was great to have him here to help.

Island Encounters exists to demonstrate the love of Christ by meeting practical and spiritual needs across cultures in the context of relationship. They do this through Oasis Farm, Children’s ministry, student programmes and partnerships. You can check out their website here. The project was focused around repairs to a leaking roof and completing structural improvements, helping them tick off the requirements to get hurricane insurance cover for the building.

Is anyone else feeling spontaneous? No previous experience required.

Sabeto Christian Camp

For our second project we returned to Sabeto Christian Camp, where MMM Fiji was based for 17 years and where we lived for our first six weeks here in Fiji.

We were able to reroof the main dining room and a dorm before the rainy season set in, give the kitchen a makeover (new floor tiles, new kitchen shelving, painted walls), fix the prayer hut which a tree had fallen on, dig out a 33 metre trench to put the mains power underground and repair the porch roof of the managers house.

We were very grateful to have an amazing, encouraging and hard working team of seven from around NZ to help on the job. This included three builders, all with lots of experience building in the Pacific Islands. This allowed us to achieve a great amount of work, the whole team was such a blessing to us and we really enjoyed having them here.

The Sabeto Team

It was great to finally host project teams in Fiji after the long road to get here. It provided lots of learning opportunities for us, there is always room to improve and it was encouraging to see it all come together and in action. It also kept us super busy, as with any job a few curve balls were thrown in there.

We also had three local guys join us for the project at camp and a couple of others part time, it was great to give them skills and experiences that they can keep forever. Our heart is to continually train up locals, so in years to come there will be more knowledge around building in Fiji and the Fijian people will be able to better support one another.

Trip to Suva

We did a two night trip to Suva where we kept very busy! We went to meet with ministries that already had approved jobs for MMM, one being ‘Lami Gospel Church’ and another ‘Homes of Hope’, a ministry that supports girls, young women and children who are victims of, or vulnerable to, sexual abuse. We were able to stay in a guest house at Homes of Hope and had a full tour of their ministry and needs. We also met with two churches who have shown interest since we have arrived in Fiji. In both of these new churches, the Pastors are people we already have connections with. One of the couples we met when working at Coral Coast Christian Camp in 2009. We also did a quick visit to Harland Home, the deaf hostel where kids that go to the Gospel School for the Deaf live, which was a great experience for the kids. We look forward to being able to partner with some of these ministries in the future.

Here's an example of a church that needs some assistance

Lots of Visitors

It seems the school holidays at the end of a pandemic are a pretty sought after time to come to Fiji! We have had Rachael’s mum, Rachael’s brother, Roy’s brother and other friends from NZ all visiting in the last few weeks. Some stayed with us, while others hosted us at their resorts on Denarau. We were blessed to be brought a lot of cheese, chocolate and all sorts of other things missed from home. All visitors from NZ are blown away by the prices of food in the supermarkets here. Pretty much if it is imported, it’s an insane price. We try to avoid as much of that as possible, but it has been a learning curve to work out how and what to eat here while staying within a budget. We have been lucky enough to visit a couple more tourist attractions and done some more island visits. It certainly is a different world doing the tourist thing in Fiji.

Nanny is shifting down the height order!

Schooling

Along the way the kids manage to fit in a bit of school work. They are all keeping up with their year level in maths and literacy, some of them quite far ahead. They follow their own interests a lot with science and social studies as we see the learning opportunities all around them. They have planted pineapples and pulled cassava. Gabby is a pro at making roti on her own; they are always very keen students when it comes to new baking experiences with locals. Making bani lolo (buns cooked in coconut milk) was a new one last week. Our Fijian language is slowly coming along, Fijians are great teachers, always keen to help. Josh has taken to speaking Fijian over English at home whenever he has the chance. Our aim is for the kids to take every learning opportunity they can that is unique to Fiji.

So we continue to find our feet and keep busy here. Most days we learn new things and meet new people, it is always going to be a challenge moving to another country and culture and we still have our moments. We are grateful for the friends we have already made and the experiences we have had and look forward to the opportunity to go deeper with those we have already met.

Planting coral on a day trip to Tivua Island

We head off for Savusavu this weekend, an experience we will try at least once! We will take the kids and a vehicle on an inter-island ferry to Vanua Levu, in the north of Fiji. The journey has an equivalent driving time as going from Whanganui to Kaikoura with a 7am reporting time at the ferry (and no place for a McDonalds breakfast along the way)! We look forward to catching up with our good Fijian friends that we have known since our first trip here in 2006 while helping sort a building in their village that got badly damaged in a hurricane in Dec 2020, when borders were shut and no one was able to help.

The kids were recently asked what they missed from New Zealand and what they liked about Fiji. Gabrielle said she misses, “feeling cold, better access to a lot more things and being near friends.” But the things she liked included, “Island Acro, going in cold pools without freezing and going out to the remote islands.”

Josh said he liked that he has his own room and lots of pets here. He also really enjoyed swimming with baby sharks at Tivua Island. But he is not a fan of all the bugs and creatures here.

Kelepi said he likes that lots of fruits and vegetables are cheap or free here and he loves snorkelling. However he says it is too hot and he doesn’t like frogs and mosquitoes! The kids are adjusting well, but could all really do with finding a good friend each.

We are grateful to finally be in a place we feel God has called us to, doing what God has given us the gifts and skills to do. But it can be a bit of a rollercoaster, some days it’s really awesome and sometimes you question when you can get off the ride! We thank you all for your ongoing support and encouragement. We couldn’t do it without you. You can always read back on our old blogs here. We also do a weekly prayer update email, if that interests you, let us know and we will add you to the list.

Vinaka vaka levu (thank you very much)

Roy, Rachael, Josh, Gabrielle and Kelepi

Some Bonus Photos