Wrapping up a great year

As I sit snuggled in a big duvet and sipping a hot lemon and honey drink, it reminds me that we are back in a very different world to the one we have been living in this year. This week we have been tackling a bit of reverse culture shock as we reintegrate back into New Zealand life while also fighting a bout of COVID, forever disrupting our plans.

It is super frustrating to have had plans ruined yet again from COVID when we have been looking forward to this week for so long. We have missed Roy’s family Christmas and a visit to Tauranga to see good friends; we are not sure if we will be able to reschedule these plans as we head down to Kāpiti and have commitments down there. We are praying that a bit of enforced rest now after a busy year will mean we are healthy and able to do everything else we want to do during our time in New Zealand.

Dinner out with our last team for the year at the Boatshed in Vuda.

Seeing New Zealand through the eyes of a Fijian!

It is funny the way you just adjust to what you are surrounded by everyday. Fiji has become our norm, it is what we are used to and as we filled in our arrival cards we realised that we are defined as visitors to New Zealand! That feels a bit different. This week we have had a chance to reflect on some of these things we have come to appreciate all the more about New Zealand.

We never want to become ungrateful for fresh, clean, cold water straight from the tap! Clean, green New Zealand, really is just that. Supermarkets with soooo much variety and so much more affordable than Fiji. We are definitely all appreciating the food. Everything you could want or need, is so easy to get and quickly (well, almost everything). In Fiji we have become accustomed to ‘close enough will do’ or ‘we will try to make it work’, or just giving up on finding what you want as it is probably impossible, or we have accepted that some items are just at unaffordable prices.

Going for a Sunday afternoon walk from home to check out our local fishing spot.

We have appreciated the feeling of being cold and breathing crisp, cool air, sleeping in warm pyjamas under a duvet and the kids have loved going to the warehouse! Gabrielle had an experience of swimming in a pool that she compared to her memory of Lake Tekapo, while the kiwi kids thought it was a good temperature.

We are grateful for access to free dental treatment from people and systems you can trust. The kids had five dental appointments in the first 48 hours in the country. Playgrounds, libraries, street lights, smooth roads, footpaths, carpet. It's weird thinking that some New Zealanders really don’t understand our ‘wow moments’ right now, but it is fun to share them with friends in Fiji who do.

We talk about home with the kids and trying to work out where ‘home’ actually is. Gabrielle thinks we have three homes: Fiji, Pirongia and Waikanae. Whereas the boys say home is where the pets are. We are happy that for now our kids are growing up being able to really appreciate the little things that can so easily be taken for granted.

It is definitely an interesting feeling stepping from Fiji to New Zealand after being away so long.

The Pittman’s house

Before leaving Fiji we were able to fit in one last project this year at the Pittman’s house. This is the place our family house sat for 11 months while they were back in the United States. The family came home to finish their house and organise everything to leave Fiji for a longer period of time, as they were feeling called to serve with YWAM in Kona, Hawaii.

We were able to help them out by putting in a second kitchen upstairs, giving them two separate living spaces which will make renting it out much simpler. We were also able to help with other finishing jobs. It was great to have Mike (who is a joiner by trade) join us for the second time this year and Lloyd who is a board member for MMM NZ come over. Giles and Kenneth, our ever trusty Fijian volunteers, also joined us on this project.

It is always good to get Josh on the job!

Finishing up for the year

After finishing up at the Pittman’s we had to tie up a bunch of loose ends before leaving Fiji for the year. Roy spent some time at the Meliki and Ola Talolo’s finishing their shower so it is now usable. He then worked on a tricky aspect of the roofing at the Seehusen project.

The roofing team at the Seehusen's house.

We had to register the MMM tool trailer for another year, fortunately this time it was a complete non-event as they didn’t even physically look at it, which made the process a lot faster than it could’ve been!

We had a cyclone thrown in there to slow us down for a few days, or maybe that was more about speeding up the process of us getting ready to go home by needing to put the trampoline and pool away a couple of weeks earlier than planned. We were fortunate the cyclone's path didn’t go directly over us so the damage was minimal. The kids were disappointed, in a way, that we slept through the worst part of the storm. They didn't mind the extra days off school though.

Graduation

School Graduation is an important time of year in Fiji. It was a great experience to be a part of as our younger children finished the school year with their class and school. When Kelepi heard months in advance that his class was going to be performing at graduation, he told me he was going to be sick that day as he was not interested in performing. As he started to practise with his class he would get in the truck after school with a big grin telling me how he couldn’t talk about it as it was a surprise. I was proud that he performed two items with his class, one on the piano accordion and the other being part of a drama.

Gabrielle also performed with her class, singing a song while doing ‘the cup game’. It was really cool to see them both well integrated into their classes and enjoying being part of the team.

They have both really enjoyed their time at Fiji Agape Mission School, have thrived in their learning, making new friends and had great teachers. They both look forward to getting back there next year.

Schools out for summer! One school year complete in Fiji!

Josh has also finished the year 8 curriculum with Te Kura, New Zealand Correspondence school and his teacher said was at a good level to start year 9 next year. It is definitely interesting having kids in two completely different school systems! While two are doing quite a traditional school system and learning cursive writing, the other is doing everything online and is encouraged to do lots of learning outside of academics. It is great that we are able to do what works best for each child though.

As we only ever budgeted to homeschool our children, school fees are not something we planned to pay for when we first started with MMM. These fees come to over $5000 NZD a year. If this is something you are interested in partnering with us to pay for please get in touch, every little bit helps and all donations are tax deductible in New Zealand.

What we’ve been up to in New Zealand so far…

Despite best laid plans being disrupted yet again by COVID, Rachael, Gabrielle and Kelepi were happy to have been able to attend the end of year MMM New Zealand BBQ. It was good to see so many people that we hadn’t seen for so long while also being able to reconnect with many volunteers who have visited us in Fiji this year. Roy and Josh were isolating with COVID on that evening but they were still able to connect with people from a distance over the fence! We have been somewhat productive despite COVID, by getting some work and personal shopping needs ticked off the list, had appointments and meetings and got some things out of our storage unit here in Pirongia. That included finding birth and marriage certificates for our work permit renewal, which of course were right at the back in an unlabelled box! We didn’t think that one through when we were packing it all up.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The year in review

It has been a big year, a busy year and a rewarding year. We are so thankful for the 64 volunteers from New Zealand who sacrificed time and money to join us on projects in Fiji. We are also incredibly lucky to have some pretty amazing local volunteers. We hosted seven teams from New Zealand, also fitting in a couple of projects with local volunteers as well partnering with others who gave a day or two where they could when in Fiji for other reasons. Let us know if you are ever in Fiji and want to see what Fiji looks like outside of the tourist bubble, even if you don’t have heaps of time. We love being able to show people a different Fiji.

We love that by just being in Fiji we have had so many opportunities to partner and network with many locals and overseas teams and ministries. We have built friendships and relationships we will be able to continue to benefit from in the future, many of these beyond our everyday work with MMM. But we also know through our MMM work alone ministries have been strengthened, blessed and encouraged through our partnership to serve those who serve in Fiji.

Our next step is for a time of rest with family, friends and our church community in Waikanae before heading to New Wine festival in mid-January. We will then head to Festival One and can even fit in helping out at a Teens Camp at Totara Springs Christian Centre at the end of January.

We are grateful that God has provided us with an awesome house sitter back for our house in Nasoso looking after our pets so well. We appreciate seeing photos of the pets, as the kids all miss them.

We pray that you all have a safe and happy Christmas. We thank you all for your ongoing support, prayers and encouragement and we look forward to continuing to partner with you on the journey next year.

If you haven't seen our past journey, you can check out old updates here.

Roy, Rachael, Josh, Gabrielle and Kelepi

Some bonus photos...