Time in Tonga and Fiji

Malo e lelei! Bula Vinaka! and Kia Ora!

That is a very warm greeting from Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand! Kathryn and I returned from an 11-day trip there around a week ago. We had a great time and were able to have many of the important conversations about the remaining process of beginning ministry at the University of the South Pacific! Here are some pictures and stories from our time.

The on-board flight route on the longest leg of our trip from LA to Auckland, 13 hours

Pacific Island Conference in Tonga

The first stop on our trip was in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. We were there for five days for the Pacific Island Navigators Conference. There were about 200 attendees from Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands, as well as Tongans who are reaching out to Islanders in New Zealand. It was so great to get to interact with the different islanders and to learn about each one of their countries and people.

Throughout the conference there were different student-aged groups that came to lead worship! We had a great time getting to fellowship with God's people on the other side of the world. 

The first night of the conference they gave each of the guests a flowered necklace to welcome and thank us all for coming. Kathryn and I sought to do things the island way while there, so you can notice that just like the Tongan and Fijian men, I'm wearing a skirt (or Tupenu in Tongan) to dress up for the conference.

The Non-Tongans at the conference on our way for a tour of the island!

We ate lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood; most of it was really good!

Part of the fresh market. 

Drinking the water straight from the coconut is a common beverage in the Pacific Islands

Suckling pig is considered the finest food in the Kingdom of Tonga! 

As you can see Tonga is a very beautiful place! This view was just down the street from where we spent the first two nights.

Though we were there only five days, it was a great opportunity to learn about their culture and how they live and relate with one another.

On to Fiji and USP

Our time in Tonga went very fast. The next part of our trip was in Suva, Fiji where we went to visit the University of the South Pacific and interact with the Navs there who are working to secure our visas. 

Students walking on campus.

We spent a few hours one day walking the campus, watching students interact with one another, and getting a feel for USP. We also traveled into downtown Suva to get to know the city as well.

A new prominent building in downtown Suva.

Though we saw many things one of our main goals for the time was learning more about the details of the visa process. We were especially trying to get a feel for the length of time remaining before we would be cleared to enter the country and begin ministry there.

These are the wives of the Nav group in Fiji.

We were thankful to have met these women at the conference in Tonga. They helped us to navigate the city and get around more efficiently than we would have on our own! Their husbands were out of town on business, but we were able to interact with them about the visa situation. The Navs there are trying to make a couple of changes to their board before they feel it would be a good idea to submit our applications. They were unsure as to how long this would take but hoped to be able to do so in the next month or so. Because of this continued uncertainty, our international leadership is processing whether it would be better to recommend to Kathryn and I that we move to one of the other strategic needs in the Asia/Pacific Region.

The Top Ten Reasons not to mess with a Fijian (aka old tribal weapons and tools)!

One of the main options is in Auckland, New Zealand and we were able to layover for a day when we flew through New Zealand back to the US.  

A Brief Look at Auckland, New Zealand

While we were in Tonga, our leadership connected us with some of the leaders in Auckland to talk more specifically about the opportunities and needs there. So our small day trip turned into a day of meetings and significant conversations. We had a great time meeting the staff there and getting to see the city and campus! This is still very much just an idea until we have more clarity and a for sure closed door with Fiji, but we want to be prepared if this is the case.

Here are a few pictures from our time there!

View of the city from the plane. Auckland is the home to over 1 million people.

The University of Auckland is in the middle of downtown. These are students walking from one part of campus to another for class.

One of the older buildings on campus.

Auckland is between two harbors on the North Island of NZ and, at one of the staff's recommendations, we hopped on a ferry to see a different part of the city!

We are very thankful to have been able to make this trip and, though we don't yet have any concrete decisions or timelines, all of the right conversations are happening. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will know more about the whole situation. Please pray for God's continued guidance and clear leading for us and our leaders in this time.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

We are currently in route to the Island nation of Tonga to attend The Navigators Pacific Island Conference! We will be about 6500 miles from home and will be gone for about 14 days! We left at 1:30pm from Chicago on Monday to get to LA. We left LA last night, the 3rd, and arrived in Auckland this morning, the 5th. We lost the 4th so hopefully nothing too important happened. :) We have a 9 hr layover in Auckland right now and we can see the ocean outside the airport window. Wish we could go outside but I'm not too worried about it because I know we will have a day here on our way back. And this is such a nice and comfortable airport to be stuck in!

We leave for Tonga at 3pm today and we will be there 5 days for the conference. We can't wait to meet and interact with Navigator staff from all over the Pacific Islands! And Mike Treneer, the international president of The Navigators, is the conference speaker which is always a treat.

After Tonga we will head to Fiji for 3 days to see campus, meet people, look at housing, etc. We are excited for this leg of the trip!

Our hope and prayer during this time is that God would bring more clarity to our situation with the visa complications, etc. Even more than that we hope to begin to build deep relationships with staff in the region and to further our heart and vision for the South Pacific.

Stay tuned for a detailed update when we get back!