When I was leaving the Nambitu Indian school after doing the Easter presentation, the headmaster Mr. Dass had asked me if I could please come back. I saw him two weeks after Easter and he made the request again. The Lord meets our requests….

As I prayed about going back, the Holy Spirit had me ask the Johnson family go with me and have the children minister. So that is what I did…. God wants each of us to help others accomplish the plan and purpose the Lord has for our lives. He tells us it is about striving together for the faith of the gospel. Each of us has a part to play in getting the plan done.. Individual assignments are not greater than one another… they are just different. But equally important. So for me, having them come and minister was an easy one… I jumped at it! Yippee!!! I get to see the entire family minister!!!

The headmaster, teachers, and especially the school children were extremely blessed by not only having me return, but also me bringing “my friends” along. It is a place where not that many visitors make it to visit. So the program was extra special. I was so blessed to see them perform and minsiter.

Candace, Danielle, Janelle, Daniel, and Olivia all sang, danced and shared from their heart. Thank you Alan, a Fijian who came along to play the guitar. Pastor Lenard shared a message that continued to build on the foundation the Lord laid at Easter. It was wonderful as the school children became engaged and sang along and allowed the Lord to further touch their hearts.

Click on photos to enlarge
Photo 1: L to R: Daniel, Janelle, Danielle, Alan, and Candace singing
Photo 2: L to R: Danielle, Candace and Janelle performing song and dance
Photo 3: Olivia singing Jesus Loves Me
Photo 4 & 5: Children at the School…

I’ve learned a few new kitchen tricks for preparing my Fiji Dinners. So, watch out… You’ll be eating much curry, lolo and roti!

Each time I come and stay with my Fijian family, we exchange cooking recipes and methods. It is much fun!

This time, they taught me how to make Rololo – photo below – which is the coconut milk base used in traditional Fijian cooking. Hand squeezed and quite tasty. Just quite a bit of work to get it to the milk stage.

When we were done “milking” the coconut, I asked what they did with the meat of the coconut? To me the response was quite odd. They said, “throw it out. We only use the lolo.”

Hold on now… that seemed really funny to me, the meat of the coconut is still good and it is “shreaded so fine.”
I offered up a solution rather than throwing out the coconut meat. I taught how to make coconut pancakes….. simple…
Flour, Sugar, Coconut meat, milk and egg…. Fry it up in a pan….

“NICE” was the response I got from teaching the coconut pancakes… They will no longer be throwing out the coconut meat.

After that, they pulled out a bucket of dehydrated apples that someone gave them and asked “What do we do with these????”
I showed them how to make a simple apple compote and “top” the pancakes… Again “NICE” was the response.

Oh what a wonderful time we have in the kitchen…. OK, I’m still in Roti School, they are not quite “round” yet, rather, we joke about my roti looking like islands… All in good humor!

I have been extremely blessed as the Lord gave me an American Family here who has also been assigned to Minister in Fiji at a Church called The Rock. A Virginia Based ministry. Thank you Lord for sending them!

Pastors Lenard and Serena Johnson and 5 of their 7 Children arrived in Fiji a month after I did. We met in the park in Korotogo Village on Good Friday. I attended the church service they were holding with a friend. It was an encounter that I will never forget for a number of reasons.

As opportunities have opened up for me to go places, the Holy Spirit has encouraged me to ask Pastor Lenard and Serena to come along with me (sometimes including the children) and minister. For me, it is a great honor to work along side of them. It is a huge blessing to help one another accomplish all that the Lord has planned for each of us here in Fiji.

The Children, who are with them here, range from 3 1/2 to 17, are all wonderfully gifted individuals. I’m blessed to see them sing, dance and minister. We’ve gone snorkling together, thank you Lord for making the opportunity to just “Hang out” and get to know eachother, and I’ve attended some of the church services at the main Rock Church. Another Blessing as the Services are in English… Easier on me!

The youngest, Olivia, I call my little Miss Mandrin because she loves eating the lovely Fijian mandrins with me… The entire family has opened their arms to me. And for that I’m really thankful to the Lord…. A blessing sent from America not only for Fiji, but for me!

The family: L to R: Janelle, P. Lenard, Daniel, Serena, Candace, Olivia(front), Danielle

I was asked if I wanted to go fishing when I first arrived. My answer was if a time could be arranged, I’d love to go.

To my advid fishing friends…Thank you for all the “preparation and training” on my fishing trips. However, these people are really serious about their fishing….It was a wonderful “trip”. MK and KK, let me say that I was blessed ~ there were no leaches to attach to a hook so no need of my rubber gloves! Thank you Lord!!!!!

Adventure number 1: Catching bait. Photo number 1 shows Konam and Grandma doing so…..you find a small pond and take a net that is attached to two sticks. One “sifts” the water to see if you come with “little fish” and freshwater shrimps. These are used for bait. To catch enough to be used for fishing, you wade around for I’d say close to an hour catching bait…..
Adventure number 2: Getting to the water: photo 2 Fishing back home can sometimes require driving many miles to the lake… well here, it requires WALKING miles to get to where the rivermouth and the ocean meet. You carry all your bait and “fishing rods”. It is a beautiful walk over the sand dunes down through a grassey meadow.. cows, horses and old movie sets. Yes, movie sets that were left behind. When one finally arrives at the river banks, you are greeted by a good number of people fishing…
Adventure number 3: Finding a spot to fish: photo 3 Since fishing is taken very seriously, finding a good spot can be a bit tricky. You need enough space inbetween each “line” that is cast so you don’t hook your neighbor.
Adventure number 4: Baiting the hook Thank you Konam and Rimal.. They baited all my hooks!
Adventure number 5: Casting the line photo 4 This was the “trickiest” part of fishing for me to fish back home, and here with this fancy fishing pole, it truly needed practice so I did not “catch a land fish” with the hook.
Adventure number 6: Catching fish??? photo 5 and 6 I finally got something on the line, but to all of our amazement, I was catching crabs.. We laughed as I realed in the “big one”. Others around us were so excited that I was catching crabs they wanted to know exactally where I was throwing my line. See in the market a crab brings between 15 and 20 dollars. I hit the gold mine!
Adventure number 7: I’m better at catching land fish: photo 7 After catching a few small river fish, I decided that I’d stick with the fish that the Lord has sent me here to catch. I turned my fishing ability to the people around me. Since I was the only Eurpoean person fishing, many were curious. I walked and talked with the people fishing, answering their questions and sharing the bait (LOVE OF GOD) and watched the Holy Spirit real ’em in. Glory to God!

Thank you for sending me fishing Lord….

Philippians (MSG) Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with me, believing and proclaiming God’s message. Colossians (MSG) For the lines of purpose in your lives never to grow slack, but to remain tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. For you to remember that the Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. For it doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message that bears fruit and gets larger and larger…..and for that Message to continue to be given out from each of you. In Jesus Name. Amen!