Kids Club, Teams & Family

Here are some photos of a Kid's Club we recently hosted at the Agape Outreach Center (SI Base) at Momi. As our first "official" outreach to the community, it was a great success! With the help of Shoma from Child Evangelism Fellowship and our SI teams, the kids heard the Good News of Christ and had a great time as well!

We are currently hosting a combined team from Indiana Wesleyan University and Grace College in Indiana. They spent the last week working at Momi--building, planting, cooking, teaching and creating pumps for the well. They're working at Homes of Hope in Suva this week. This has been our biggest team yet, and it's been a stretch with our limited staff, but it's been awesome. We're so thankful to have the Thompsons here helping us out for the summer--they've been amazing.

A GLIMPSE INTO A LIFE . . .

We'd like to introduce you to a young Indo-Fijian girl we will call "Z" to protect her privacy. Z comes from a very poor Muslim family. When we met her she was 9 mo. pregnant, abandoned by her boyfriend, and dealing with some big issues (abusive step-father, severe asthma and anemia, and a pregnant mother with 4 other little ones at home, all trying to live on the $5/day that the step-father sometimes brought home for food).

We took Z to the hospital when she went into labor. Z needed a blood transfusion due to her anemia, but the hospital said they had no blood to give her--so we arranged for her to be transferred to the hospital in the next town. It was great to see our friends rally around her and shower this girl we'd just met with the love of Christ. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy (he is pictured above during the ceremony in which his birth hair is shaved off and then thrown into the river).

From the first we have been praying that Z would go to Homes of Hope. However, Z was reluctant to leave her mother and siblings in such a bad home situation. Last week, the step-father kicked her out of the house. Z came to Momi to stay with the team a few days before going to Homes of Hope. While there, she saw Christ's love lived-out and heard the gospel message of salvation.

Last week Z gave her life to the Lord and was baptized. She tells us she has never experienced such peace, and she is literally glowing with happiness. Please keep Z in your prayers as she begins a new life for herself and her baby at Homes of Hope.

OUR FAMILY

God has blessed us so much with our three beautiful girls--they bring us so much joy every day. We are continuing with home-school throughout the summer as time (and teams) permit, hoping to take a longer break at Christmas.

Sometimes it can be challenging to balance ministry and family time as the demands of the ministry are so great, especially when teams are here. We try to do as much as a family with the teams as we can, but it is definitely more challenging this year with an infant! Isla is sitting up on her own now, has grown two teeth, and her little personality is coming out. She is a very happy, social baby and we all enjoy her so much.

Laura is trying to finish up her homework before seminary classes begin this year (first two weeks of August). We're praying for someone to come out to help with the baby and the girls' home-school during the two weeks that Laura is in class (let us know if you're interested)!