Labasa

Hi everyone, we have been in Labasa 5 days now, and I don't know if I'll be able to put all our experiences into words! In that short time we have come to love the people here already. They are eager to know us, as they have known my grandparents. It is an honor to be here, where my grandparents lived and worked, and to see the fruits of their labor. We have gotten to know all of the Bible school students, and have had many chances to talk with them. And we had such a nice time at church on Sunday.

We give our concert here tomorrow night, so you can pray for that. Many people heard us on Sunday, and have invited friends, so we are told the church will probably be packed tomorrow, and we hope that is the case, that many can come to hear the music and hear about God, and be encouraged by all that we have to share. It is an experience of a lifetime for them. They have never seen a violin before this, except in the movies, so they all tell us how special it is for them to have us here, and it is amazing for us to bring that kind of experience to them. They just sit in total silence and stare as we share our music. Today Angela played and Andrew sang at the primary school, about 200 kids ages 6-12, and they all just sat still the whole time, fascinated by the sound the violin makes.

Saturday we went into a village in the interior, way up in the mountains, called Nukubolu. It was SO beautiful. And they were thrilled to have me play violin there too. They prepared a feast of a meal for us, all traditional Fijian food, that took a lot of work to prepare. And then they let us eat first, and sit in the chairs, and then the men eat, and then the women and children eat what is leftover after we are finished. After the meal, we went to see the hot pools, which have been in that village for many years, and are fed by hot natural springs nearby. I cannot describe the beauty of this place- it took many hours on terrible roads to get there. We even drove through the shallow part of a river to get there! Not many people travel to this village, they do not often have visitors. They have no electricity. So, to bring them the violin, what an experience for them to hear something they have never heard before.

There are a few couples here who knew my parents in New Zealand, and new me as a baby. Tui and Josie had us over on Sunday after church for lunch, and they had a whole album full of pictures from the Bible school in New Zealand, and many of me as a baby, and other pictures my parents had sent through the years. Tonight we will go to Sai and Serema's for dinner, they are another family who knew my parents then, and we know we will enjoy the time with them too. They each have a son at the Bible school now. And we heard both Tui and Sai preach on Sunday. There is also a girl that I played with the last time I was here, when I was 10, she and I were friends, and after I left we wrote for a while. It was neat to see her again at church on Sunday, and she is getting married in August, and I met her fiance, and have seen her mother and brother too.

We have some difficulty when they all talk in Fijian, and we have no idea what they are saying, but someone usually translates for us if it's important! And we do our best to communicate with them to get to know everyone. In just a short time, we have really come to love it here, and wish we could spend longer. Andrew is teaching some piano and music theory lessons, and many of them are eager to learn much more about music. Anyway, I think I could go on much longer about all of our experiences, but I'd best stop here. Please pray for us to get over our colds. We are still quite sick, especially me, so pray that we get better soon. It is definitely slowing me down a lot to be sick, I have to be sure to get my rest, and am constantly sneezing or blowing my nose. Thanks for your prayers!