LUCF now in Fiji

This is Commodore Vorque Banimarama - the Fiji coup leader who's expelled the NZ High Commissioner.

The LUCF 14 who've headed to Fiji on short-term fortnight mission trip over their winter break are now in Fiji. Their cancelled Air Pacific flight and the expulsion of a NZ journalist and the NZ High Commissioner not withstanding, they seem relieved to be there and ready to go, as the following update from Tom (TSCF Lincoln Mintern - graduate trainee) shows:

Its great to finally be here with the rest of the team (14 of us from Lincoln Uni Christian Fellowship). Praise God that we're all here safely after flight cancellations and high comissioner expulsions and a pretty hairy bus trip (the trip from the airport to the camp usually takes 3 1/4 hours and our bus driver did it in 2 hours 10 - so that was an exciting start to the trip, but we were all so joyful we were too busy singing to be worried)!. We've arrived in Suva today after 2 nights at the Coral Coast Christian Camp. So far we have had some great times together at the camp, both as a team and meeting some of the 150 young people (from primary school to uni age) who were there on a camp over the long Queen's Birthday weekend. We attended one of their services on sunday morning which was amazing (especially the singing!) and the invited us to a lovo feast on sunday night (like a hangi) in our honour which was awesome. We ended up singing them a couple of songs which the loved (especially when we sang 'This is the day the Lord had made' in Fijian!!).

It is a lot hotter than Lincoln and pretty humid - but its not too bad and we're getting used to it. The food has been great too (although a few of the team didn't think much of taro at the lovo!) - especially the fruit. Cam shot up a coconut palm for us yesterday and we got our fill of fresh coconut which was good fun.

Its nice to finally be here in Suva where we are based until next week. Tomorrow we head into the slums and the rest of the week will be spent doing different things including visiting a local kindy, schools, the suva prisons and the womens' refuge. At these places we will be presenting a 'service' of songs, testimonies, skits, puppet shows and speaking from the Bible. We also have a building project at the Womens Refuge - helping build some flat-units there. Then next week we head up-country to the village which will be totally different again.

The team is doing really well and have enjoyed the first couple of days here together in this beautiful place with the lovely Fijian people.

So far we haven't felt unsafe but we'll get a better idea now that we're in suva this week of what implications the NZ-Fijian tensions may have for us.

I'm really looking forward to the 2 weeks ahead and us all being pushed out of the comfort zone to share our faith. So far the spirit within the team has been great and I they are keen to get stuck in - if a little nervous (me included). So please pray for good health and safety and that we'll keep coming together as a team. Please also pray for us as we prepare to share the Gospel with the people here, that we can be clear in communicating to them about Jesus and that we can make it appropriate to this culture and context. I think rugby stories may get a thrashing - they are rugby mad, especially the ABs and the Crusaders!

My love to you all and God Bless

Tom

Thanks to those that have asked about the team and praying for the team. Fiji's not a great place to be for the 12 Kiwis on the team at the moment, and only slightly better for the other two (Japanese and Zimbabwean). I continue to pray that they will be bold and enthusiastic in proclaiming Jesus and that this overseas experience will continue to motivate them to be bold and enthusiastic in proclaiming Jesus in Lincoln.