Wow ... where do we begin? This was COC's third trip to Fiji. We went in August of 2008, last May in 2009 over Mother's day as well as the whirlwind 10 days we just got back from. Homes of Hope is in WaiLoku just outside Fiji's capital city Suva which has a population of around 180,000. This year, our group included three from our sister church Mission in Gilbert along with our seven from COC. Mission Church has been hard at work over the last three years bringing awareness to the ugly truth of Sex trafficking and Exploitation in Fiji which is why COC is involved.
Since we began COC has been apart of constructing Salote and Joelle's home (Fijian woman that visited us last month), we've helped construct and finish out their three story School House, and most recently we finished the concrete work and got half-way through framing a two story addition on the guest quarters in preparation for a busy year of teams coming to help at HOH. Our teams have also been responsible for outreach, training, teaching, and counseling in various forms and opportunities.
The rest of the teams this year including ours in September, will be working on finishing the Spa House, (a transitional home for new moms that arrive on campus) constructing a new and improved kitchen while converting the old one, bringing the two guest houses together, moving the donated US Embassy building onto the already prepped foundation, and getting the Talapia fish Farm up and going.
Last week was a very special in Fiji. The Fijian Government hosted a conference to talk about the problem of Child Sex-Trafficking. You see, this year, Fiji was put on Tier three status as a nation for not dealing with the issue of Trafficking and Exploitation responsibly. Because of this they were denied a Billion (With a B) Dollar Grant that they depend on annually due to sanctions. To prove the point of the problems even further, last Friday the Headlines read that they had rescued a 10 year old child from a Prostitution ring. Praise Jesus that she was found! There are far too many that aren't! Thankfully Linne Roche, Homes of Hope Co-founder, was asked to come and present at the conference. She was very encouraged at the opportunity and the relationships that were forged there. Please pray for Fiji's government ... that they would follow through on behalf of the children that God has given them. Pray for Mark and Linne and Homes of Hope that they would be prepared and available for however God desires to use them there.
I'm so proud of the team that God put together for our trip. Carrie Tracy, Heather Comforty, and Dorothy Aragon were our first- timers and they did amazing. God challenged each one of them. It was an honor to serve with such wonderful fun people. Rob Dolsen, Nancy brown, Courtney Jones and myself made up the rest of our team. Each played such an important role in the story of this trip. Bryan Crawford, Ray Thielen, and Chris Martin were our other amazing teammates from Mission Church. We were so blessed to have them with us. It wouldn't have been the same without them!
My best memories of this trip will be playing with the children ... meal and church time with the girls, Morning Devotions, joking with the guys on the job site, eating at Joty's ... and of course ... personally donating blood to every mosquito in Fiji! I'll be back with more in 4 months!!!
Here's the cool thing!!! We're not done! We're going back!
If you're interested ... The dates we're looking at for the next trip are this fall. At Church Sunday there will be an announcement for those interested in coming with us. If that's you, here's a list of things to be working on:
-Pray about your involvement
-Let me know you're interested immediately
-Begin creating a list of people to help you raise the money to go
-Get your Passport
-Be prepared to take 6 work-week days off of work. We usually plan a 10 day trip that runs Thursday to Saturday (10 days)
To learn more go to ...
Hopefiji.com
VisionAbolition.org
-defend the defenseless
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