We are now officially ‘YWAM-ers’ :o) The Discipleship Training School has ended and we are settling back to life on the base. We had a fantastic graduation ceremony on Wednesday 12th August. What an adventure these last 5 months have been!
At the end of July the lecture phase ended and the outreach phase began. The requirements for outreach are 30 hours per week of ‘outward’ cross-cultural ministry (this includes serving, evangelism and working with local churches), as well as 15 hours per week of team ministry (such as prayer, worship and encouraging one another).
The school was split into two teams for the first five weeks, one team would travel to remote parts of the Fiji islands, and one team would join the M/V Pacific Hope, the medical mercy ship from Marine Reach New Zealand. Because the ship was in need of medical professionals, Ali and I naturally joined this team. Ali was elected as our team leader and we prepared a drama and some dances. Dance is a big part of Island culture and we knew we would be expected to have some ‘items’ to show in church meetings! Our plan was to sail to Samoa and run medical and dental clinics with the ship crew and a team of international volunteers.
However, we were to be met with a few surprises!
Just before outreach was due to start we got the news that the ship was delayed. We were suddenly left with a week to fill, but our last minute plans were successful and good. It was incredible to finally ‘get up and go’ after weeks of being filled up with great teaching and having our faith deepened.
One day we arranged to volunteer at a local school for disabled children. We spent time in the classrooms, ran a lunchtime programme of singing with them, drama and dental education, and did sports in the afternoon. The kids were enthusiastic and loving and we had good interaction with the teachers.
We also took the plunge and engaged in street evangelism, which entailed us splitting up around the town and prayerfully waiting for people to talk with and meet. This is fairly easy in Fiji, especially when you are ‘palagi’ (= white foreigner). Because culture is so relational instead of task orientated, all you have to do is go and sit somewhere and you’ll quickly find yourself engaged in a conversation. Additionally, because the spiritual is such an important part of people’s lives, there are regularly opportunities to pray with people, even Hindus and Muslims. The difference between the islanders and most of the Western world is stark. You can sit on a park bench for days in the UK without a single person saying hello. We come from a culture where people are generally more closed, suspicious of anything religious and resentful of strangers taking up time in a tightly packed day. For us the idea of street evangelism was therefore far less daunting knowing it was socially acceptable. So we went out and enjoyed meeting people from different backgrounds. I had the chance to meet several times with a Hindu man whose wife had been admitted into hospital. He took me to see her and asked me to pray with them.
One day we took a trip up the coast to Tavua, where we spent the day with Jale’s (pronounced Charlie) brother and wife. Jale is part of the Marine Reach staff with his wife Angie, and he accompanied our team throughout the outreach. In Tavua we spent the day doing house visits in a mainly Indo-Fijian community. We shared testimonies and prayed for people. It is not uncommon in Fiji to still find witchcraft being practised, and sure enough we encountered (at least) two men who were involved in these dark acts. One of these was an Indian man who admitted to performing rituals after one of our team had a vision of him with black on the palms of his hands, and after talking with us he gave his life to Christ. Another had become very lonely following the loss of his wife and had resorted to witchcraft in desperation. It was reassuring to be able to bring a message of hope and redemption to them.
We also spent time with the local pastor and his wife, encouraging one another and sharing the needs of the people we had visited so that their church could continue to support them.
So we had a full first week and felt it was well-spent. At the end of this busy and fulfilling week we packed up, cleaned up the Yellow House and waited for the ship to arrive…