Merry Christmas from Fiji

The months are ticking by, cold showers are getting more and more appealing as humidity increases. We are getting more torrential rains and are coming to appreciate that at least with the rain, it dramatically drops the air temperature. We are normalising slippery, muddy or dusty dirt roads with no street lights or reflectors by night and becoming pros at driving them. We are grateful for generators, water tanks and water filters. As well as friends and family bringing chocolate, cheese and other online shopping we’ve done.

We are starting to feel more settled here, making friends and starting to build a bit of a community. I continue to be incredibly grateful for the many people that support us here in Fiji with what we are doing by praying for us, encouraging us and financially supporting us. I am also continually blown away by the detail in which God provides for our every need, no matter how crazy and intricate they are.

Savusavu

It feels like ages since our big adventure back to Savusavu. Leaving at 4am on October 15, it was a bit of a trek but exciting to finally catch up with our Fijian family and friends in Savusavu. It was a great experience for our family to be back immersed in the Fijian village lifestyle and have the opportunity to make sure the roof of the guest house in Nacekoro village is securely attached and water tight in time for the rainy season (this roof was taken off in Cyclone Yasa a couple of years ago).

A photo with Na Bui - the matriarch of our Savusavu family.

In the future this building will act as an Air BnB and be available to stay in for a real village experience and bring income to the village. We were grateful to have Giles, (who we first met when he volunteered at Sabeto Christian Camp) join us for the trip, as well as Frank Luita (who we first met on our first trip to Savusavu in 2006) and Bruce Holmes (from Hamilton) helping us out.

On returning to Nadi, Roy felt honoured to join with a delegation of the Luita family to be part of a duguci ceremony. Here Nathan (Frank's son) who we have known since he was nine, officially asked his girlfriend's family if he could marry her... more on that one next time after we have been to his wedding in March.

The Nacekoro Guest House crew.

Island Acro

Island Acro has continued to be a huge highlight to Gabrielle and Kelepi’s week. They are both challenged and pushed every week and it is awesome seeing them achieve new things. Gabby has really enjoyed being in the performance team this term, which has given her the opportunity to perform in public on several occasions at different fundraisers. The detail of the providence of God never ceases to amaze me that we were given a brand new $900 trampoline in New Zealand the month before we left, not knowing our kids would get so into gymnastics and appreciate and benefit from something to practice on.

Doing sit-ups with a high five - working on their core strength for Acro.

School

A big change in our lives next year will be that our kids are going to school! This will make a huge difference for our family and it won't be easy to get back into the whole getting everyone out of the house on a deadline with lunches made every day again. But for now, we feel like it is the right decision.

Fun and games with the siblings when they should be in bed!

Kelepi, who is nearly seven, has never been to school, but I am sure with his confidence, competence and charm, he’ll love it. We have enjoyed homeschooling for 2.5 years and love the flexibility it has given us. It got us through a pandemic with them never experiencing the changing rules, cancellations and mask wearing. We travelled throughout New Zealand while working for MMM NZ exploring all the amazing things NZ has to offer, moved to Fiji, visited Suva and Savusavu and we have even moved houses here. But now that we are slowing down for the next season and not travelling continuously it is tricky with very little homeschooling community in Fiji. I don’t know if it is forever but for now I will really appreciate the time and headspace to concentrate on MMM Fiji and actually having that ever sought after ‘alone time’. At times it has all been a bit overwhelming and we are looking forward to a new season.

Rachael sneaking a quiet moment at the Nacekoro Village beach

The hope is it will help the kids to build a better community of friends in Fiji and have some new and different experiences along the way. After a lot of thought and consideration they will be attending a small international school, Champs International School in Martintar, which will mean a bit more driving. It has a current roll of about 65 kids, which is about the same size as the last class Josh was in (with two teachers) and Gabrielle already knows about 8 of the kids from Acro. Friends mean a lot to her and she has missed her communities of friends in New Zealand. It is nice to know she will be back in an environment where she can interact with other kids in person daily, and good to know she already has some special friendships forming with the girls she knows from Acro.

Service with a smile.

Josh is less keen on the whole idea, but with a maximum of ten kids in a class and already knowing there are boys from New Zealand around his age I think it will be a nice fit for him. I am looking forward to the opportunity to get involved in a school community again, I still miss Waikanae School.

Anand AOG

We felt very honoured to be a part of the Anand AOG church in Nalovo, Nadi recently. Roy was able to spend a week helping them out with repairing some fascias and installing new flashings, gutters and downpipes. It is a welcoming, servant-hearted community, with no shortage of people around to help out. It was encouraging to see them working together on the grounds, maintenance, preparing food and working towards their Christmas party. It gave Roy the opportunity to work on some Hindi and we were able to attend their Christmas party which was a really fun night out. Roy will head back here to finish the other side of the building in February when a couple of guys come over from New Zealand.

Fitting the gutters with hurricane strapping.

We continue to do a lot of preparation work for future jobs, communicating with teams and ministries in New Zealand and Fiji and getting quotes and talking through plans. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into every job. Often ministries need a lot of advice and ideas of where to start before we spend any time on the tools.

We have been grateful to have lots of family continuing to visit with Rachael’s dad (Kevin) and brother (Ben) visiting separately. It has been fun to be able to show them around and for them to see a bit of the life that we live and explore some of Fiji with them. Ben is here with us now for Christmas, which makes it all a bit more exciting than being alone in a different culture for the festive season. We are missing some of the Christmas celebrations from home, but it's also interesting to experience something different here.

A day out with Grandad.

Gabrielle and Kelepi enjoyed some swimming lessons with a Fijian Olympian this term, which is pretty exciting considering they have spent a lot of time watching olympics in the last couple of years. We are also looking forward to having a bit of time off in the next couple of weeks to get some rest before school starts on January 16.

Sending our kids to an International School comes at a cost. If you don’t already support us financially and want to consider it, please get in touch. Maybe you go to a church that you might be able to get onboard with supporting us regularly, we are happy to talk to anyone that might be keen. Otherwise financial gifts will receive a tax deductible receipt in New Zealand and can be made to:

MMM NZ 03 0442 0148838 00 Reference as ‘Hogan’.

Thank you so much for all your love and support this year, we really do love and appreciate everyone who encourages and supports us. We hope you all have an amazing Christmas and New Years and that through the busyness, craziness and commercialism you get time to stop and reflect what Christmas is about. Consider celebrating the God of Heaven and Earth sacrificing everything to humble himself as a baby and live and walk this Earth, then be nailed to a cross all so we can have a relationship with Him! Recently I have been thinking about the things our family have sacrificed to be in Fiji and I know that is nothing compared to a God that would leave Heaven to fulfil His mission on Earth.

If you haven’t seen our updates before, you can check out our story of the last few years here.

Loloma levu - lots of love,

Roy Rachael, Josh, Gabrielle (Gabby) and Caleb/Kelepi

Kelepi quote for fun:

Ben: It's pretty hot here today don't ya think?

Kelepi: Nah, when you have lived in Fiji six months, it's just pretty normal.

Some Bonus Photos