Destined to Shine: Dengue, a Party, a Story and Astro Boy!

Good Evening!

Orion is above me and I can hear kids squealing & playing, the sounds of TVs, the dogs are getting restless to be released for their night of roaming, and the steady metallic 'bang, bang, bang' rings out as the boys pound their kava. It's probably gonna be another long night!

I have an urgent prayer request for Lenore's health. Lenore came down with a bad sickness on Saturday night. She'd been complaining of a back ache for a week. Today I took her to an Aussie dr who said it was most likely dengue fever. She's still waiting on the blood result, but there is nothing they can do for dengue, so please pray that she recovers quickly. She also has some strange blisters on her hands from shaking people's hands, which may also be viral.

On Sunday the 26th we visited a pentecostal church. It runs from 10am-5pm. It was more African style, they wore full suits and danced like crazy. Lenore & I were hot just watching them. It was all in Fijian, but there were a lot of "Hallelujah, Amens'. They wanted to take us to the front of the church, so we slipped out when they weren't noticing!

We all met up for lunch, then I went back to Suva harbour to rest and do some sketching.

It was beautiful and very restful.

When I went to catch the bus home, down by the docks, the whole place was invaded by a Methodist church outreach. I love that they are taking the gospel to the people that need it. Fijians used to work on Sundays, but the new Government has insisted that Sunday be a day of church, rest and family. Suva city is like a ghost town! Imagine if laws like that were to ever pass in Sydney!

The Container classroom is steadily progressing. It was finished today and form 7 (year 12) had their first class in it. I'll take photos when I am next at the school.

School Assembly.

Mika seems to think I want posed photos of students receiving our goods...so here it is. This student had to return the pencil cases as it is only for the poorest students who can't afford them & they don't want to embarrass them by taking photos of them. Fair enough!

Our favourite cafe near immigration, Tetotoka (Lenore calls it Tea for 2), which means refreshing tea. We've pretty much been here nearly every day for 3 weeks. It's pretty seedy with flies buzzing around & chipped cups, but they have bible verses stuck to the table and the tea is good and only $1. Fresh scones are 50c (butter is 30c and nutella is 70c) I usually have jam (which is more like honey and only 10c) but I just found out they did scones with nutella, so had to try! I asked for no butter, but that is inconceivable to a Fijian...they love to lavish it on.

Lenore says the dogs here look like zombies. They aren't really pets. They have no spirit or spark in them. This one is particularly nasty as it has no fur left.

Beautiful flowers at a 21st.

Mereoni's 21st party. Oni (nickname) is dressed here in formal Fijian dress.

Grandpa was so happy to see all his family together! He grinned the entire party.

The presents are put on a stack of fancy mats.

Lenore in her finest Jaba suit (pronounced Chumba)

We were invited to speak at the Butt St Methodist Church, family service. Lenore was to do most of the speaking but became unwell. I felt to share a story, so I stayed up until 4:30am completing it. It went well!

Beautiful Flowers at church.

More flowers at church.

My story. Large A2 paper is really hard to find. I bought a story book and covered it's images with cut up blank paper & my own story. There once was a rich man with lots of money!

He placed his treasure in a little clay pot to keep it safe. Then he left his house to attend to some business, leaving the clay pot behind.

But while he was away a thief came in to steal, kill and destroy. He broke into the man's home, smashed open the sealed pot and stole the money.

The rich man came home to find his pot broken on the floor!

How do you think the rich man felt...?

The rich man was very upset about this,

so he took the broken pieces to the pot maker to see if it could be fixed.

The potter had never heard such a strange request before...to fix an ordinary broken clay pot.

Most people would just throw away their useless old broken pots...

But the potter looked at the rich man and saw how much he loved his clay pot.

He treasured it more than all the vast treasures he kept in it.

And so the Potter said;

"Yes of course I will mend this pot for you!"

The rich man assured the potter that he would pay any price for his pot.

So the potter took the broken pieces and set to work.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

2 Corinthians 4:7

I read it through and then went back through it again asking the kids who they thought each person was.
The rich man was Father God, who owns everything and all of us belong to him.
The clay pots are you and me. We contain God's greatest treasure, his Holy Spirit which is his very own spirit that says we belong to him.
The thief, is satan who wants to destroy us.
Some people may have thrown us on the garbage pile and said we are useless, and worthless and not good for anything. But God never throws us out. We are precious to him, he reaches down and picks us up, no matter how broken our lives are, he has paid the ultimate price for us, his own son, Jesus, and like the good potter he mends us, and restores every part of our lives so that we radiate and shine his goodness!