As we were hanging around waiting for our lift to appear we got a phone call: the ship had run into mechanical problems and was heading to Suva to be fixed. Particularly disappointed was Ella, who was from Suva and was hoping that DTS outreach would take her further away from her home town!

We loaded the truck and took the 5 hour journey to Fiji’s capital. In the port lay the Pacific Hope, a white, 50m long ship with the YWAM logo emblazed on her side.

More bad news. The ship would not sail for another 5 days at best. There was a team of volunteers already in Samoa but the ship was grounded with all the supplies. The following days were a frustrating time for all the crew and also for our team. Our ability to make plans was limited by the uncertainty of when we would sail, and it was a challenge learning to live in tight quarters during testing times. Our team suffered a lot of despondency – it was like the wind had been taken out of our sails (pun intended a little bit).

But even these rainy weeks were not wasted. A lot of lessons were learnt as we sought to work as a team and trust God to accomplish His plans through us and in us. During our time we were involved in two homeless feeding projects. Every morning at 6 o’clock one church would hand out bread and tea in the park, and both Ali and I had the privilege of sharing God’s word to these men and women who live a life so different to anything we have ever known. We also joined Adam Atkinson (YWAM National Director) and a team of High School students from New Zealand. With them we did some practical work at a preschool, went house-visiting and even did a street prayer event. It is illegal to hold large public gatherings without prior permission so we split into small groups, each of us leading some high school students. Only one of our groups was reprimanded by the police :o)

As the days crept by and it became clear that our trip to Samoa would not go ahead, we again sought God’s will for our time in Suva. We spent time with the men working in the wharf, handing out cupcakes and praying for many of them. One man who had a stiff and painful shoulder was healed on the spot and was over the moon with delight. We also sought to encourage Suva’s Christians in order to fulfil the picture God gave us of washed-out footprints on the beach being renewed, step by step with a deep boot print. We visited and connected with several churches, and were encouraged to find that one faith-filled church was praying for the exact same things as God had impressed on us to pray for.

On the 15^th July the Pacific Hope set sail. We were headed back to Lautoka where the ship would dock until the next phase of the outreach to the Yasawas.