Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Pacific Internship #2

I'm sitting in the Bure with the Fijian girls preparing for dinner, the sun setting slowly behind me, the pigs grunting, and some of my new friends playing volleyball or quietly chatting.  The Training Centre where we live is just the most amazing place to study, talk and learn.  It's been awesome being here, and there's so many stories already, and so many more to come, which I plan to share over the next few weeks.

But firstly, here's what a 'normal' day looks like:

7:00am: wake up
7:30am: breakfast
8:00am: lock down quiet time
8:30am: we study together 'Called and Accountable'
9:00am: we break into prayer triplets
9:15am: morning devotions
10:30am: morning tea
11:00am: we start to study (whatever we're working on that day)
12:30pm: lunch
1:30pm: more study
3:30pm: whatever we have planned for that afternoon
6:00pm: tea
7:30pm: whatever we have planned for the evening/free time

Some of our team in our brand new Sarongs - ready to hit Fiji!
Here's a bunch of things we've done in the initial days:
- Myers Briggs Test (to understand more about our personality and things we should know about ourselves as we apply it to ministry
- XEE (gospel stories to help us to share the doctrines that the gospel involves)
- a little bit about Fijian culture and people (as we went into town yesterday and started meeting and connecting with people in the streets)
- Strengths Training (to define our areas of strengths and think through developing those strengths and using them suitably in ministry)

One Encouragement:
- There's heaps of people here to talk to with lots of different perspectives and ministry experiences.  I'm looking forward to talking more and more over the next few weeks.  It's amazing how many stories people have to share and it's encouraging to hear different thought processes and decisions that different people make in regards to ministry.

This is at our home!  We get to sit out on the deck
and look at this view all the time.  There's some beautiful
mountains and sugar cane fields!
One thing to pray about:
- When it comes to sharing the gospel, today we learnt four things:
1. ASK for God to give you opportunities to share (specific opportunities)
2. BELIEVE that God will show you people in life who you should meet and share with
3. CONNECT with people that you come across - get to know them, learn about them, care for them and love them - this may (or may not) be the person God wants you to share with
4. DARE to share the truth of the gospel with that person if they are willing to listen - there is never anything worth losing

Please pray for these opportunities to share the gospel (especially next week when we go to Vanuatu), and please pray for courage to speak in those times, and for clarity and words to say.  Please pray that God will save people in Fiji and Vanuatu.


This is a funny photo from today when Rod was teaching us,
and then the power went out...classic Fiji!

- Joy

Monday, June 10, 2013

Shepparton 2013

Over the long weekend, Sophia and I organised to take a few of our international students over to her home-town Shepparton (country Victoria).  There were 9 of us who went up for an overnight trip.

Country trips are nothing for me - in terms of distance and time - so our 24 hour trip was a buzz!  I love a good drive through the countryside, and my carload got the full guided tour (including the Rooster Tree!)


I was the only person in our group who couldn't speak Korean (ok, my one liners don't get me very far), so it was awesome for me to experience what it feels like when you are really only catching phrases based on names and body language.  They were so kind to me though - trying to explain their jokes and keeping me up with what was going on - which must have been a bit of a burden, but I was so grateful!

Despite learning that you definitely can survive, the language barrier did cause one small disaster which ended up with Mook and Me in the freezing swimming pool...

We had a night drive out of town to check out our great Southern stars!  We lay down on the road and searched for shooting stars.  Mook got to have his first drive in Australia, and we also took a night walk around the lake.

The weather was amazing both days!  Sunday had a friendly soccer game with some local kids at the park, and Monday, we visited the Fauna Park so everyone got to see the kangaroos!  We had a nice drive back through some farmland, with the sun shining, windows down, and the girls fast asleep in the back......

It was nice to take a day out of busy Melbourne life to spend with these guys and to get out of town!
Our crew

Our car was aptly named the 'Fun Car'

My new friend Jusin with the cockatoos

This is Dobee's impression of being in the car with me!

Last day with Jacob before he goes back to Korea


2 weeks to go...