Thank you all so much for your prayers- we need them, whether we're ministering to others or enjoying a holiday on an island by the sea!
Yesterday, we went out to a resort island, and Andrew and I took off on a two-person kayak, and Joshua was with us on his own kayak. About half-way around the island, our kayak got so full of water, we tipped over, and then couldn't get both of us back on. Some fishermen came to help and drained it out, and we made it a little farther, and then had the same problem again. Finally, we sent Joshua on ahead to get help, and we were trying to swim and push the kayak, but help was sent before Joshua even got back, and a boat came to pick us up, for which we were very grateful! Joshua was telling us there were lots of sting rays and crabs in that part of the ocean, and in fact, he had seen some closeby. So, we shouldn't have been standing in the sand, but we had been standing on the sand to dump our boat. We are very thankful we didn't get stung or anything- no problems, and our rescue boat came after us before we were out there too long. Boy did we have an adventure, and boy did we sleep well last night! :)

Today we went to the Nadi Christian Community School all day, and we even took the bus with the kids from Laugoka. It is a very old bus with well-worn, uncomfortable seats, and it bounces like crazy on the roads, which are bad and full of potholes. The windows make so much noise, clattering as the bus bounces along, you can't even carry on a conversation over it, and the bus driver just speeds over all the bumps! To top it off we had my violin and Caleb's keyboard and all our stuff for the day with us. It's a long busride too- about an hour.

When we arrived, we led a small concert during chapel time at the start of school for all the kids, and then the kids split up into their classrooms. We heard and judged the older kids' competition pieces they had prepared for convention. Today we heard poetry (from memory), and sermons (8 minutes long). It was very impressive to hear each high-school-aged student do a sermon! It is a requirement that they all do it, and they all did a really nice job. We did the judging all day, with breaks for morning tea and lunch. It was tiring by the end, but fun to hear the things they had prepared. We were done a little early, and then everyone met together again at the end of the day. The principle asked me to pray at the end of the day for all the students, and we hopped on the bus to go home again.

Anyway, I was very impressed by the verses these kids used in their sermons, and many of them had them memorized, and made personal applications and everything. They really took to heart and presented well what they knew about the Bible. I felt challenged to be prepared always to share my faith. We should all be able to give a sermon and back it up with the scripture we know. They chose some very good topics too, and had some really neat stories to go along with it. We heard on topics like truthfulness, joyfulness, perfectionism, self-control, etc. But some of those in more teenager-terms. The one on self-control was called "Time to Chill". :)

Ok, that's enough for today- dinner time I think. Tomorrow will be similar, we'll go to school all day, do a concert to start, and then judge some different events tomorrow. Love you all! Thanks for your prayers!