Fiji Conference 2017 Day 8: "The DreamTeam!"

After a restful Sunday afternoon, we got the PNG team together for dinner and a chat...about their Christmas, their thoughts on the students back home, their needs for the future, and what the top priority is for prayer.

It was good to catch up with these precious folks.  We also invited Rose from the Solomon Islands to be a part of our group tonight.  (She came to Fiji for our theology classes and staff conference.)  Rose graduated last year (she studied in Fiji) and is working off her bond with the Solomon Island government who paid for her tuition.  She has 2 more years of working off her bond, then she wants to come on staff with us.  Tonight we gave her names of Solomon Island students who graduated from the PNG university because when she goes home she's interested in them all getting together.  We also found out that she attends the church we did when we lived in the Solomon Islands...therefore we know some of the same people.  It's a small world! 

We heard about Lily's trip to another Fijian island for Christmas and New Year's (with disciple of hers who invited her home for the holidays,) and Dianne taking her mother shopping around Suva, and Elton getting a provisional driver's license in Fiji, then going to Papua New Guinea, showing them his Fijian license, and receiving a full license from them!  (Look out world, Elton's coming through!) 

It's a nice feeling to be together again!

Dianne and Rose, with a good-lookin' couple

Fiji Conference 2017 Day 7: "A Day in Town!"

It's Saturday!  No classes!  Time to shop!

We went to town today to go to the Pure Fiji outlet and the flea market.  It's a small world here in Suva, and we ran into Diane (from PNG) and her mom, who flew out to Fiji with Diane and is staying with her during our 2 weeks of theology classes.  What fun to see them!  (Diane looks just like her mom, by the way!)

view from pizza place

After shopping we went to a pizza place on the 4th floor of a department store.  It was so good to get somewhere air-conditioned...It's been a sweaty one today.  From our window we could see a rain cloud dumping down not too far away, but it just seemed to be a humid mist where we were.

View from pizza place

Then, our big treat of the day...we went to a movie.  It costs $7 here in Fijian money, and in New Zealand the price of an adult ticket is $18.50 NZD.  (That's $27 in Fijian dollars!) We saw the movie Passengers, and I was so caught up in the story that I let out a shriek at one point.  (It was a little, soft shriek. Good thing it wasn't 3D or my shriek may have been louder.)  What a wonderful break!

We returned home after picking up a few groceries, to find out that we needed to move back to our original room.  They said the toilet was fixed in the first room we had and someone else wanted the bigger room we were in now.  Sigh.  Easy come, easy go.  

Fiji Conference 2017 Days 5-6: "The Multiverse!"

I'm learning quite a bit of sciency stuff in my apologetics class...terms like "the goldilocks zone" for our place in the galaxy, and the fact that the big bang is generally embraced by the scientific community now...which says that our universe is not infinite, but has a beginning.  The question of what caused that beginning is a real problem for the materialist, or atheist.  They have come up with the theory that we're really part of a multiverse, and that another universe did something to cause the "big bang" that started everything for us.

I couldn't believe my ears...The multiverse...the term I worked so hard to remember from the movie Dr. Strange!  I think, because it was mentioned in a movie, that the term will be used by average people soon...not just the science community (or the sci-fi community.)  I have learned through my class that the multiverse theory is meta-physical...something that can be imagined, but not proven.  The atheist might have to exercise faith after all.  I hope he chooses God to put his faith in to explain who caused the "big bang" of creating something out of nothing.

We're not in the photo, but it's our class!

Fiji Conference 2017 Day 4: "Slippy Seats!"

Transportation to and from our classes is via Fiji taxis.  Some taxi drivers fix up their taxis really nicely...others, not so much.  I really like the taxis with clear plastic covering their seats.  They look and feel so clean.  Often there's air fresher and many times a picture of a Hindu god on the dashboard or visor.  Another thrill I have discovered about plastic-covered seats is that they're easier to slide over when we share the ride with our friends and all crowd in.  The down side is of course that you're more likely to slide over unintentionally when rounding a corner "at speed."  (I guess it's wise to only share slippy seats with friends!)

Fiji Conference 2017 Day 3: "Blast from the Past!"

After a hard afternoon of reading a textbook full of long sentences filled with huge and unusual words, what gives a refreshing distraction?  Internet TV!

We watched some old NCIS episodes...then, after seeing "Ducky," I was hankering for the old Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV show where the same actor plays the co-star spy.  When I was a little girl, I used to pretend I worked for the same spy organization.  My girlfriend and I made identity cards and everything.  Of course my brother was the enemy agent...only he didn't know he was part of the game.  Dan found the old TV show online and we watched an episode.  It was pretty hokey, but fun!

Fiji Conference 2017 Day 2: "Unexpected delights!"

Today I attended my first apologetics class...and it was not what I was expecting. I had supposed I'd learn to argue with intellectuals...which I wasn't very keen on doing in the first place. The professor is taking a practical approach to the subject, and the heart of the subject isn't about winning arguments, but is about creating an opportunity in which the gospel can become the focus of the conversation...in an environment of gentleness and respect.  I like that.

Another surprise was in glimpsing the children of the staff here.  My goodness.  I've done childcare with these kids who are now young men and women who tower over me!

I barely make it to Ilisoni's shoulder!

After class today, we were surprised to learn that the room in which we were staying had been upgraded (at no extra cost) to the bigger room across the hall, because we had a leaky toilet in our previous room.  It's like getting to fly business class when you've only paid for an economy seat on a plane!  Score!


 
Another delight is that we have arrived in Suva during a bumper crop of ripening mangoes.  They're literally falling off the trees around here.  It's like God is giving Suva a wonderful Happy New Year present of extra abundance!

 

Fiji Conference 2017: "The Taste of Paw Paw!"

Happy New Year! We woke up this morning in Suva.  Yesterday was a bit of a blur getting here.

Yesterday we woke up at 4:30 am to catch our 6:00 shuttle to the airport.  Dan had only 1 1/2 hours of sleep because of his cold.  (Dr. Anna gave him 2 antibiotics and a steroid.  That should wipe out any infection.)

This is the first time Dan was greeted at his assigned plane seat by his screen.

 We landed in Nadi and needed to catch a bus to Suva.  We just missed the bus from the nicer company (more roomy, less people,) so had to take the bus that had many stops along the way and MANY people. I sat near the back.  There were 2 of us adults and 2 children in our two seats...plus my carry-on backpack.  Dan was somewhere in the front.  The family I was scrunched up against was a mom with her 2-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl.  They were Indo-Fijian, so I looked very different...especially to the little boy who kept tentatively touching my white skin.

About an hour and a half into the  trip, enough people got off that Dan motioned for me to sit with him (and another passenger) in the front.  This time it was Dan who didn't quite fit, with half his body taking up the aisle space. After another while, the woman next to me got off, and we fit into our seats much better.  The whole trip was about 4 1/2 hours, and I was so thankful for my kindle.  We arrived in Suva about 5:30 and were a bit hungry (breakfast had been a long time ago), so we made a quick trip to McD's. before settling in for the evening.

The place we're staying provides breakfast in addition to our room.

We had a good night's sleep and awoke to breakfast laid out and covered on the dining room table.  Fresh paw paw (papaya), pineapple, and toast! There's a cool breeze blowing, and I haven't met a mosquito yet. We're laying low trying to rest up and hoping Dan's nose and cough will be much better before the opening  banquet tonight.  The dinner kicks off the beginning off our two-week theology class studies.  (My first apologetics class starts tomorrow morning!)