MONDAY, JUNE 5:

What a fantastic encouraging day!  Thank you GBC prayer warriors!  Your prayers are much appreciated.  Today we divided into six teams and spent the morning visiting Hindi homes with about 14 brothers and sisters from Fiji who wanted to be trained in evangelism.  These volunteers were from five different local churches who were all cooperating together to reach the unreached in their area.  They had spent two months praying for the area, walking through the neighborhood and locating each Hindi household beforehand.  Two months

The receptivity to our message ws awesome.  Most homes "happened" to have people at home, and were open to listening.  Many had never heard of Jesus at all.  But where the person had been exposed to the witness of a neighbor, doors flew open.  Thirty one names were added to the heavenly roll call during the morning visitation.  Twenty four more were added to His Kingdom in the evening after the Jesus Film showing!  And best of all, two men and two women from the local church got so excited about sharing their faith, that they are going to join us and help another church tomorrow!

TUESDAY, JUNE 6:

Greetings or "Bula" from Fiji.

We are working/ministering with six different churches -- one each and every day - Monday  through Saturday.  We go door-to-door during the day giving our testimonies and inviting them to the showing of the Jesus Film in the evening. The churches are targeting the Hindu population as the film is in the Hindi language.

THURSDAY, JUNE 8:

Bula from Team Fiji!  God is performing mighty works on this island and in the hearts of the people.  The heavens are rejoicing with over 219 new souls for Christ.  Today is our last day of ministry to plant seeds or reap the harvest. 

We thank you for your prayers.  We layed hands upon three team members who were in physical pain.  The next morning, with all your prayers, God had relieved their pain.  Continue to uplift us in prayer.

Thursday we partnered with Ebeneezer Assembly of God Church.  Even with the down pour of rain, our spirits were lifted as sixty-seven were added to the Kingdom.  This provided them with a church plant which they had been in prayer for many months.

On Friday Scott asked for prayer as he was to be the main speaker at a Christian businessmen's luncheon.  All went well.  Attending with him was Wes, the International Director of Campus Crusade in the South Pacific.  He and his wife Susie will minister with us on Saturday.

As we were gathering at Miracle Assembly of God Church, one of the Campus Crusade brothers, Sammy become doubled over in excruciating pain.  We left him with the pastor as we departed for our morning ministry.  Upon our return, we learned that the pastor had taken him to the hospital.  After our meal together and praying for Sammy, several of us went to the hospital (Vicki, Ashley and Kitty from our team).  He had been admitted and still was in observation with IV's as they waited for the blood results.  The process is very slow as the hospital is understaffed.  We prayed with him and returned for the evening ministry.  Later we heard he had been moved to a surgical ward.

The pastor who hosted us tonight was absolutely giddy with excitement over the prospect of going back next week to follow up on 48 new believers with ten more yesterday and twenty one more who are interested!

scheduled for hernia surgery.  Please pray for the doctors and a speedy recovery for Sammy.

We have a two hour window for shopping this morning for our prayer and financial supporters.  Tomorrow we travel back to Nadi, a day's journey before our flight home on Monday.  Please continue to pray for our ministry and our travel home.

The Fiji Team.

FRIDAY, JUNE 9:

Bula (Hi!) Grace Baptist Church Family!

Your prayers for Ashley and Trinity's mobility (ankle, knee) and Seans' cold/sore throat were answered!  After the one day, all recovered so they could minister, walk and talk effectively.  Please now pray for Sammy's (a local pastor) hernia.

God's hand is providing an abundance of spiritual fruit, as the local churches have prayed for 2 months in advance of our visit.  In addition between 10-30 believers have joined us to be trained in personal evangelism each day.  They are telling us, "now that we have seen this, we can do it ourselves!"  The local church has loved us, prayed for us, fed us, and gone out with us.  We have been part of two new church plants.  The most abundant harvest day was with a church where the love abounded, but the soil was the very hardest last year.  We are finding people serving in churches who were introduced to Christ in last year's trip!

But one of the most amazing things we have seen this year is the incredible life-change in the 16-18 year old teens serving with us.  The first-year participants are all sharing their faith and leading people to Christ daily.  We are seeing transformation before our very eyes.  And the second-year teen participants have all become evangelism team LEADERS, leading a team of 3 from door-to-foor, and training others.  They are effectively engaging almost all who come to the door in an effective gospel presentation.  Even to write this letter is bringing tears to my eyes.

Please continue to pray for the two Hindu priests who, in separate houses, dramatically responded to the Gospel.  Pray for their protection from the enemy, their spiritual growth, and their witness.

There were 31 decisions for Christ including several Muslims on Monday.  Tuesday seemed to be frustrating with only eight decisions for Christ and rain (more of a drizzle) during the film with most leaving for their homes just as Christ was being crucified. 

Today began with most being tired and in low spirits from the night before.  However, God used us for His glory with twenty five decisions for Christ before the evening film.  What's even more glorious is that each and every youth led

someone to Christ, many for the first time.  This is a day that will be cherished always.  Also of interest is that two Hindu Priests accepted  Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.  They asked for prayer that their families would also accept Christ so that they could spend eternity together in heaven.

Until the next uptdate - keep praying for us.

The Fiji Team.

MONDAY, JUNE 12:

Fiji team has arrived home safe and sound!  Praise God with us for the fruitful ministry they had in Fiji.

LAST FIJI UPDATE - DATED JUNE 17:

Scott Gillis writes:

Saturday, our last day of door to door evangelism in Fiji, was full of surprises and need for flexibility.  But God blessed abundantly as 44 came into the Kingdom from the remote rural area we visited.

The plan was to leave after lunch, spend the afternoon door to door, then do a film showing.  First we were delayed by lunch not arriving timely, then by buses not arriving timely, then by rain on the road, then by other things..
We arrived at the neighborhood, way, way out of town, quite frustrated with the way things were gping,  but the team committed their remaining time to the Lord, and pressed on with determination to share the love of Christ. 

In the end, we spent just two hours door to door, did not do a film showing, but had the most fruitful day of ministry of the week in terms of receptivity to the gospel.   People's hearts were open, and many seemed totally open, totally hungry for hope, like they had been just waiting for us to arrive.

As we were sharing afterward, we found out one reason we may have been delayed.  At the first house one of our teams went to, there was an 84-year old woman, who had just arrived moments before to visit her brother.  While he was not at all interested in the Gospel, this woman was open and hungry.  At her age, and remote location in the countryside, this may have been her last opportunity to hear the Gospel. But hear it she did.  Had we arrived sooner, we would have most certainly missed her.  We learned a valuable lesson, that God's timing may not be on our preplanned schedule.  Flexibility.

To recap the week:

Our ministry was much more concentrated on the Indian Hindi-speaking population this year.  While last year we ended up going to many Fijian homes in the targeted neighborhoods, this year many of us would go for two or more days witnessing only to Hindus and Muslims.

Most of the local partnering churches were MUCH more prepared this year than in our visit last year.  All but one had done a training for people planning to go out with us.

We had about 60-70 local people go door to door with us, most for the first time in their lives.  So we were able to train many people in the local churches in sharing their faith.

Each partnering church was committed to going back to follow up the 105-110 homes per day which received Jesus Film DVDs during our visits with them and agreed to a follow-up visit. Of course, the local churches are also following up on the 263 people during the week who prayed to invite Jesus Christ into their hearts.

Finally, on our last day, one of the pastors showed up to wish us well as we departed Suva. He told us he had gone out the day before to buy some folding chairs for the church.  Enough new people had told him they would be attending on Sunday, he did not think the church had enough chairs!  What an encouraging way to leave Suva on our way back toward home!