DAILY ROUTINE

This will be the first installment of a series of articles I am offering to share with you what life is like here. Before we left, and at all the support meetings, we speculated as to what our life would be like here in Fiji. Now, I want to follow-up on that theme and share with you the reality, and you can put together the pieces of how much we guessed correctly and how much we were off the mark. Also, you might find it interesting what we do each day, what are the specifics of our daily routine, etc, so this little series will help with all of that.

First of all, our speculation that we would quickly pick-up the Aussie/Kiwi accent has come to pass. Pam and I even think now with the sort-of British accent and have admitted to each other that when we pray silently, out self-talk is with the accent. It’s really quite natural with the large majority of our friends here from one of those 3 places. We even have an instructor this week that has been to Nashville and has had fun with our Southern drawl and we have laughed, as well.

I will start with our daily routine. We have a very full schedule, it seems, which leaves only scarce free time. We have class from 8:30 to 12:30 each day with a 30 minute tea break at 10:30. Breakfast is from 7:00 to 7:30 and quiet time from 7:30 to 8:30. We usually get up around 6 and try to go for a walk along the waterfront, which is usually about 2 ½ miles and we make this trek about 3-4 times each week. After lunch every day is different. Mondays we have small group, which is 2 groups of men and one group of women. In my small group, we have 3 men students and 2 leaders. We spend the 1 ½ hours different ways, but it includes praying for each other and talking about what’s going on with us from the classwork and/or personally. It will prove to be a great bonding time for us men and will be part of our journey most treasured. Sometimes we walk to a nearby hotel and get a milkshake, and that’s a great treat.

The funny thing is that we don’t have the normal house duties we have at home, but we have less free time. I haven’t quite understood where the time goes, but it gets to around 9 or 10 pm and we’re ready for bed and have not gotten all our personal stuff done, almost every day. Maybe, because of the communal type living accommodation, it’s easy to visit for 5 to 15 minutes here and there, and then at other times it’s tough to find time alone to write and think. Anyway, time is hard to control.

Everybody has work duties every day, and we have 3 rotations of 4 weeks each. My first rotation was on maintenance, which made my work a breeze. Pam’s first job has been as the cook’s helper, and I must admit, is one of the hardest on the base. She works harder and for more hours than anyone else here. Our second rotation starts May 21 and Pam has lunch clean-up plus hospitality for our guest speaker each week. Hospitality duties include making our guests feel welcome with a card, clean sheets, cold drinks in their private “fridge”, snacks, etc. plus photocopies or whatever help he/she might need during the week. We expect this duty will require 3-4 hours per week. My second rotation is dinner (“tea”) clean-up, which takes about an hour per evening. Tough work, but this will not be as long as the 2 hrs/day on maintenance. Our new schedules will allow us some time together in the afternoons between 3 and 5:30 that we did not have for the first four weeks, and we plan to have fun checking out the local town much more during this time.

Every afternoon is different, but I will attempt to share a brief overview. After lunch at 12:30 (this takes about 30 minutes) we have a time slot from 1:30 to 3:00 each day that varies. Monday is small group, Tuesday is intercession (usually for Fiji), Wednesday is free time, Thursday is local community outreach, and Friday is a time for feedback and review with the week’s speaker.

In addition to the above schedule, we have a weekly meeting with our “one-on-one” which takes about an hour. Our one-on-one is one of the staff that meets with us weekly, plus any other time we need it to make sure we are understanding the intended teaching. We also do a weekly journal which has a specific guideline that is an overview of the week’s lectures and how they have affected our spiritual journey. We turn these in to our one-on-one each Monday morning for review and correction, if needed. We also have to read 4 books while we are here, and the first 3 of them require a written book report. We usually write a 2-3 page review of the main points of the book, why it was written, and how its information will affect our ministry. Pam and I are now almost finished with our second book and should complete our second book reports by the end of this week, which is a little ahead of schedule. We just can’t imagine getting behind with so little free time, so we try to stay ahead to avoid that.

We will try to add more later on our weekend journeys and adventures, and also cultural differences.

Just A Piece Of Wood

On the first day we arrived we were given a tour of the facilities just like all the other students. Well, if you know me, I cannot ignore the little things that need repair. I catch many of them at first glance and immediately try to figure out how to fix them. On the roof of our building are two clothes washers which are covered by a wobbly shed type cover, made of plywood and 2X4’s. The doors were held closed by a bent nail because the structure was not study enough to hold the doors square so the locks would hold. Within 60 seconds I shared with our tour guide (who is in charge of maintenance during the school) how we could just put some ¾” plywood corners of about 8” on each side, cut into a triangle, at each of the front corners and then the doors would close properly and we cold eliminate the nails. I was excited about my idea for repair, but was slightly discouraged in learning, much like every other missions environment, that we didn’t have any wood and if we did, we would have to purchase a whole sheet of plywood, and we also did not have any sawhorses or a square.Very limited!
On the way to town yesterday, I stopped in at the plumbing supply store across the street and purchased a small bolt lock for our bedroom (my second repair project). While I was there I inquired about a square and also about other ideas related to the washer shed repair: what about some 8” corner braces or now much wood would I have to buy and how much would it cost? There was an Indian man in the back listening to my queries to the clerk and he asked, “What about if I give you a piece of lumber?” I told him the details that I needed approx. an 8” piece cut into triangles. He wanted me to go with him across town with him and he would have the wood cut for me. What do you think I was thinking? Who is this man? What does he want? Will my family ever see me again? Will they be able to find my body? And on and on! I told him I had to be back for supper in 30 minutes and he said we’d better hurry and get in the car if we were to be back in time for me. I gave myself and my protection to God and jumped in the car. Right now you are trying to remind me that my protection was already in God’s hands and I know that, but sometimes you just need to try to recommit God to His job. Within 30 seconds of driving off the man told me he was the owner of the plumbing supply business and he had a lumber yard across town. He has 5 branches and he supplies plumbing material to the government of Fiji. He is a very successful self-made entrepreneur and just wanted to be a good neighbor and offer help to me. He knows the director here very well, and our base has purchased much from him and his company. How big is our God? The man hurried me across Lautoka to his lumber yard and promptly directed one of his men to find me a one inch piece of lumber (it was a little over 7” wide and I thought that would be plenty wide enough) which he asked for my approval. He then had the man plane it and then cut me two 7 ¼” triangles and we hurried off to get me back home in time for supper. The man showed me every part of his operation at the lumber yard and also at the supply house when we returned. I now have the wooden braces for our washer shed, but more importantly, I have a friend named Sarwan across the street with a lot of connections in Fiji. In time, I will be able to discuss eternal topics with him. Thank you, God for your providence

Who's Got The Book?

There are so many things that happen in our everyday lives that we attribute to circumstance that if we were spiritually aware, we would easily see how God is at work in the minute details of our lives. Here is one such story.

In preparation for this school I have been reading a book by Loren Cunningham, Is That Really You, God? I was and am very impressed by the book because of the reality that we can really clearly understand God’s will for our lives, not only in minute details but in the major decisions we make that guide our ministry and future. The other overwhelming feature of the book was that it was difficult to put down. I wanted to read it all the way through. I knew it would be a great book to share with my children so they could gain a little more insight into YWAM, and also to stimulate their desire to know Him in a more intimate way.

When I talked to Libby (my oldest) on last Saturday morning (which was Friday for her) I mentioned the book to her and suggested she find it and read it. She accepted my suggestion and the very next day while she and several other of her brothers and sister were having a yard sale she spotted the very book I asked her to find on her sister’s table of goods for sale! Nilesen’s husband Sidney had the book (don’t know where he got it) for sale and Libby bought it for fifty cents! I know God placed that book in Libby’s hands.

WOW! We're Here!

Here's where the blogging really starts. We're here in Lautoka at the Marine Reach base and it's hot. Did I mention the temperature? It's HOT! I'm sweating over this keyboard and praying for grace. Not really, but it's funny. It is hot, though. Pam laughing as I write this. We're tickled to death about our accomodations here at the base. We have a great little room, with plenty of space for our stuff, and we can see the harbor and WATER from just outside our room. Grey water, but WATER! Typical of this climate, the sinks are outside and so each morning I will get to shave outside. What a treat, I think! Our group is great. There are 10 adults and I believe 4 children. The children go to school at the same time as the adults, but are being taught at their level, but the same material the adults are studying.

Here's the funny story and probably the funniest story of our entire trip. Last night we were out to eat and we shared a seafood platter. On the platter were a half dozen raw oysters, but no crackers or cocktail sauce. So, as you would expect, I asked our server for some crackers and cocktail sauce. She returned a few moments later with a small bowl of cocktail sauce and two metal claw crackers for crab claws! Pam said, "Why did she bring those?". I said, "She brought us crackers and cocktail sauce!"

Today we walked through the small town of Lautoka and had a great time, getting soaked in the rain on the way home. Good clean fun! More later.

Mike

All The Stuff To Do

All the stuff to do for this mission journey is sometimes overwhelming. I'm learning how to publish a blog and am also supposed to learn how to publish an electronic newsletter. That will be a task bigger than the blog. That word should be "blob" in this case. Anyway, I've learned something and I like that. I wish Pam could be here every step of the way. She like to learn, too. The other items on the to-do list, numbers 2 through 189 are still left out there to conquer, so away I go. Later, gator!