Settling in...

We spent every day of this week, our second week here, at immigration trying to sort out our visas and permits to reside and work here in the country. Every day they said we needed something else. We finally paid for our permit to work/reside at the very last hour 1:30pm on Friday, when they shut at 2pm! And unfortunately they said they could only give us a 1 year permit, not 3 years as they had initially promised us. We also could not pay for our visas, because even though the department of Education gave us an official stamped letter stating we would be working with schools, they forgot to sign it!

So from tomorrow I have no visa and I will be an illegal immigrant, as my passport currently says I'm here on a 2 week visitor visa and immigration don't open again until Tuesday. Monday is a public holiday (Mohammed's birthday). No one here seems at all worried about our lack of visas. I guess Fijian time even flows through to immigration!

We also moved house this week and bought fridges, beds, mattresses and all sorts of kitchen things. This is my new bedroom with private ensuite. It is much, much cooler than the hotel room and makes the heat more bearable.

My new makeshift curtains made out of sulu-ira skirts.

Lenore & I, in yet another taxi, running about the city!

It's been a very hard week spiritually, physically and emotionally for the team.

But in good news - Mika received a breakthrough when the opposing manager of the school resigned. However the chaplain has been appointed to resume the managers place and he is just as opposed to Mika's work to develop the school. This sounds contrary from a school chaplain, but the chaplain and corrupt manager were in cahoots and Mika also explained to us that many Fiji churches contain a strong Freemasonry influence which likely explains a lot of the opposition Mika and our team has been experiencing. Apparently when Teri & Lenore shared their testimonies and forgiveness talk on their previous trip to Fiji, the chaplain strongly disagreed with them, challenging them in front of everyone!

He had hoped to make them look foolish, but they answered him well and he ended up looking foolish. 

The school treasurer has also begun holding up the driveway construction to allow the container delivery and building of container classrooms at Basden. He suddenly refused to sign a form to approve the work to be done. Mika had suspected that the treasurer and manager were aligned and now the manager is gone it seems he has chosen to oppose the work more overtly.

There is so much corruption here, each day the plot thickens and it feels like we are living a soap opera. So we pray that God's will be done in all these complicated situations!

The ship arrived with our container on it. So we have also been busy getting all the necessary custom forms, fees and paperwork done to receive it. I am looking forward to finally unpacking all those things again!

God has been kind and opened a door for Teri to help format and publish the minister of education's book. Lenore and I, are desperately seeking God's will for us while we are here and that he will make it clear what he is calling us to do, and that he will offer us opportunities to use our counselling & therapeutic skills.

Please pray for open doors to serve in the things God has specifically prepared us for. And with the heat and all this running around all week and the disappointing result from immigration, the team is getting a little frazzled!!! Please pray for us to love one another with God's love.