Truth is who You are

We hopped on a bus on Saturday morning and made the 2 hour bus ride to the Coral Coast to stay at a Christian Camp where the Student Conference was held. Most of the students who came to the conference were from USP, but we did have a few of the FNU students we had just met come too. The conference was a really cool chance to see many of the Fijian students seek growth in their relationships with God. So many of them were thirsty to know more about the heart of God and have their hearts line up more and more closely with His. The conference had a main session each morning with musical worship and a speaker. During the day there were training sessions and seminars that the students could attend to learn about topics like grace, finding your mate, biblical manhood, spiritual gifts, and many more. There were discussion groups after the main sessions that we were assigned for the whole conference. In the groups we would discuss different questions that were provided each day. We also had to prepare different skits or "items" in our groups that we would perform each night at the different themed nights, which included favorite bible hero night and pacifica night.

We left the conference Tuesday morning to make our way to Mana Island where we had a few days of debriefing before heading back to the U.S. Leaving the conference was a lot harder than I was expecting. We had just been immersed in community with many Fijian believers and relationships were developing very quickly, but then before we knew it, we were leaving people who we would most likely never see again (at least not most of them). The good-byes that morning were definitely emotional, but eventually everyone managed to get on the bus.

We made our way on the bus to Nadi where we caught a boat to Mana Island, where we stayed until Saturday morning. While we there we had several debriefing sessions to process everything that had gone on in the past 6 weeks. We looked at different emotions we had felt, why we felt them, different things we've learned or grown in over project, and even prepared ourselves for re-entry into the American culture. It was also a beautiful island with a wonderful beach where we got to relax and rest and reflect. I really enjoyed my time on the Island and I think it was extremely helpful in gathering my thoughts and processing what God had done through the Fiji Summer Project. I also got a killer tan.

On Saturday we caught the boat back to Nadi where we stayed in a hotel for the night, then Sunday morning we went to the Nadi airport and began the 24+ hour journey back to the U.S. Something interesting about our flight back was that we got to actually travel through time! We left Nadi around 10am July 3rd, and then we landed in Hawaii in the evening on July 2nd! That's what happens when you fly east across the international dateline.

Overall my time in Fiji was fantastic. I feel like God grew me in so many different ways and allowed me to see the work he was doing through Campus Crusade at the different universities in Suva. I am extremely thankful for everyone who read this blog and prayed for me and my team while I was in Fiji. Please continue to pray for the ministries at USP and FNU. God has been doing wonderful things there already, and I fully expect him to continue.