Suva

This past week we traveled to Suva, Fiji’s capitol city, for an XEE clinic.  It was a lot of fun, but also hard work, so we are all enjoying a couple days of much needed relaxation back at the base.  One of the Fijian intern’s church let us sleep at their church, so we loaded the bus up with our mattresses and suitcases and headed to Suva.  There was a total of 17 of us sleeping on the floor of the church, and we had to pack up our beds and bags every day for the Hope for Kids clinic (kids EE), so it was definitely an experience.  I was thankful that our group worked together though, and it ended up being a really fun week. 

This is the church we slept at! So pretty!

Hanging out at the beach near the church we stayed at!

Cute tiny little pineapple! If you know me well, you know I love small things. :)

We had Sam the Man share a bedtime story every night which were always super random and hilarious.  One consisted of a group of Teletubbies having a picnic of spaghetti, and a big teddy bear came to give them a big hug.  The Teletubbies got scared and ran away, but the bear eventually caught up to them and gave them a big hug.

I really enjoyed the XEE clinic because the teaching style is more geared toward the younger crowd, so there are a lot of discussions, dramas, and short videos.  During our OJT, I wanted to really focus on connecting with people before sharing the Gospel, so we pretty much met with one girl every day.  Her name was Aliti, she lost her legs in an accident when she was younger, and her parents about 4 years ago so she was going through a rough time.  When we asked her, “How fulfilling is your life on a scale from 1-10?” she gave her life a 2 with tears in her eyes.  We shared with her how Jesus came to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10), and then walked her through the Gospel.  She went back home that night, and the next day when we came back, she told us she wanted to give her life to Jesus and accept Him as her Lord and Savior!

This is the church that we did our training in.  

Our training area.

Billy out on OJT.  His team shared the Gospel with these four students, and all 3 girls prayed to receive Christ! 

Some of our group on OJT.

This is Aliti...We got to know her pretty well over our meetings throughout the week.  She has such a sweet spirit; it was an honor to lead her to Christ!  Please be praying for her growth in her spiritual walk.

Billy and a couple others went out to meet with a lady after a day of training, but the lady ended up not picking up her phone, so they decided to walk around the town.  Billy ended up meeting a man named Vinesh, in a video store who was a Hindu.  Since we have gotten here, Billy has been praying to lead a Hindu to Christ, and for them to show an outward sign that they are giving up their idols to follow Jesus.  Anyways, Billy ended up walking Vinesh through the Gospel, and REALLY explained to him what it meant to follow Christ.  He was SO excited to give his life to Jesus, and he ended up cutting off his bracelet (which is a sign of their commitment to their Gods—sort of like a wedding ring in a way) in that shop to show how serious he was.  Billy told some other former Hindus what happened, and they were so shocked that he cut off the bracelet…I guess it is a really big deal to do that. 

Billy, Vinesh, and his cut off bracelet!  Please be praying for him as he grows in his relationship with the Lord. 

 It is so amazing to be a part of seeing people’s lives change and seeing people be set free.  If you are a believer and are not sharing your faith, you are really missing out on a blessing that the Lord wants to give you!  He allows us to take part in lives being changed, and I can’t even express how wonderful it is to be a part of it.  Billy and I would be more than excited to train you how to share your faith if you are interested.

We also got to be apart of St. Luke's Anglican Church's (the church we slept at) youth group.  A couple people from our group as well as a couple from the Australian group were able to share their testimonies.  It was such an encouraging night seeing how God works in everyone's life so differently.  We also learned another type of Meke (tradition Fijian dance) and got to perform that.  

On Thursday we drove back to the base, but on the way back, we got an awesome surprise by the leaders!  They took us to a beautiful resort on the water, and we got to hang out and eat dinner there.  It was a great way to celebrate all our hard work and what the Lord had done the previous two weeks.

Last night we celebrated the Australian team leaving by having Lovu—where they bury the meat and veggies in the ground to cook it.  We had two birthdays as well, so we go to enjoy some cake and ice cream!

Ed and Maba grating the coconut.

Maba digging the hole for the lovu!

Pastor Nakiti wrapping up the food with foil and banana leaves.

They put hot coals in the ground and cover everything for a couple hours.

Uncovering the food!  Those are banana leaves.

Billy helping out.  The leaves were really hot!

Taking out the cooked casava and meat! mmmmm :)

Thank you so much for your prayers!  God has been doing some amazing things, and I know He is hearing your prayers!

Prayer Requests for this coming week:

·         For the health of all our team members—a lot of us have gotten stomach bugs, and it’s still going around.  Especially be praying for Chanine; she has been sick pretty much the entire trip.

·         For our classes next week—the former arch bishop of the Australian Anglican Church is coming this coming week to teach us about mission theology.  Pray that we are all healthy, awake, and ready to learn!

·         For unity—that we continue to work together and get along…for no tension between personalities, and for love for each other.

·         For God to continue to reveal His will for our lives.

·         For all other interns in Washington DC, Africa, Fiji, and the upcoming Asia internship. 

Multiply!

Bula everyone!  Melanie here.  Just a head's up that we are leaving for Suva (the capitol city) in about 45 minutes and I still have some packing to do, so my post probably won't be too long. I just wanted to update you all on what God has been up to through our group.

This week has been absolutely amazing!  Billy and I both got to be trainers for the first time, and we both felt like we were finally stepping into a place where our strengths are being utilized fully.  It was really amazing to see my trainees step out of their comfort zones, and by the end of the week, be boldly sharing the Gospel of Jesus! I have begun to really understand what multiplication looks like, and how important disciple making is instead of doing everything on your own.  I feel blessed and so encouraged, and am really excited to see what God has in store for us next week!  Below are some pictures from throughout the week.  Most of the people we came across were people who knew about Jesus, but trusted in their works to receive eternal life.  We were able to walk them through the Gospel, and give them assurance about WHY they are saved and can be certain that they have eternal life as a free gift.

Billy and his two trainees (middle: Rupeni; right: Marcos)

(From left to right) Me, Emma, Chanine, and Allysha

Billy's two trainees sharing the Gospel with two locals.  Both prayed to receive Christ with such enthusiasm! 

Sumindra prayed to receive Christ yesterday.  She was a Hindu trusting in her works, and left with tears knowing Jesus did all the work for her.  She said, "I am going to take this everywhere with me!" in reference to the Bible when she left. 

From left to right: Jone (my trainee), Mere's son, Mere, and me.  She prayed for assurance for her salvation through Jesus.

Left to right: Me, Luisa, Naomi, and Emma (my trainee).  Both prayed for assurance for their salvation in Jesus.  They were so sweet!!

Us performing our "Meke" dance for the closing ceremony.  

Last night was the 4th of July here in Fiji, so we celebrated America's Independence Day with some Apple Pie, fireworks, songs, and s'mores!  So yummy! 

Fireworks!!!

Campfire with s'mores to top it off!

Prayer Requests:

• For us to have a safe drive to Suva today.
• For the clinic next week to be smooth, successful, and an impactful event for trainers, trainees, and people we minister to.
• For health!  There as been a stomach bug going around all week, and we need the protection of prayer around us so that we can all stay healthy.
• For unity and growth among our team.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!! God Bless!!

OJT and Vision

Man has this week been amazing!  I will try and keep it short, but it will be tough...there is so much to share!

We learned a bit of the XEE version (for younger people) of how to share the gospel.  Mainly, we focused on connecting with people.  I (Melanie) realized that when I am talking with people I do not listen well, so I am working on really listening to people.  Not listening while waiting to interject what I want.  Not listening so I can make a point.  But listening just to listen.  Asking questions so I can know more about their life.  Having a conversation to genuinely get to know the person, and genuinely caring about what they are saying.  

In the context of my relationship with the Lord, I am really learning a lot about prayer; about the power of prayer and how God uses it.  How I should not limit God in my prayers.  How I should pray specifically for things aligned with His will.  God is really re-energizing my prayer life, and I am so excited to see how He will use my prayers.  

We also were able to learn the Island version of sharing the Gospel.  It is very similar (pretty much the same) to what we have used with EV2 at Crossroads, so I was really happy that I had done the Evangelism Explosion growth group through church.  

We were given the privilege to go out and do "OJT," which stands for On the Job Training. Basically, we go out, meet people, and share the gospel with them.  On Tuesday, we went to the same village of the church we went to on Sunday, and visited people in their homes.  My team went to a man name Jim's house.  He said he had been thinking about eternal life that whole week, so I felt blessed to be apart of sharing the gospel with him.  After hearing the gospel, he prayed to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior with tears in his eyes.  Praise God for His faithfulness! Here's a picture of Jim, his wife (already a believer), and his grandchild.  

Jim (next to me), his wife and grandson-in front.  In the back is Sam and Jerome (on the team).

Billy's team shared the gospel with Savenaca and Rusila Loa along with Seru Momo, and they all prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Here is a picture of them:

Billy and Edward (blond hair), and the family they shared with.

On Wednesday, we went out on another OJT in town.  Billy's team shared the gospel with Nitesh and Kamni, and they placed saving faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They were about to sit in another place, but they felt that they needed to sit where Billy's team eventually found them.  They said we were like angels sent to them and said that what we shared was such a blessing that they want to cook us some Indian food. Here's a picture of them:

My team came across a lady named Anna.  Her husband was a pastor, and she knew so much about the Bible, but did not know for certain that she would have eternal life; she was relying on her own works to get her to Heaven instead of what Jesus did.  We were able to walk her through the gospel and show her that she can know for certain that her sins are forgiven if she places her faith in Jesus' sacrifice.

Today, the president of Evangelism Explosion International came to teach us about vision. Both Billy and I learned to not limit God on what He can do through us.  He is a very dynamic teacher, and we are so excited to hear what he will bring for us tomorrow (God's provision). 

Tomorrow, a mission team from Australia of about 20 people are coming to join us for an EE clinic next week.  So we will have about 35-40 people on the base, and the pace will pick up a lot.  They told us to be prepared to not use a lot of internet, so we won't be able to post as many updates as we have been.  Also, the following week, we will be going to the city, Suva, to lead an EE clinic.  Basically, we will be equipping a church on how to equip their congregation to share the gospel.  I love how EE is so focused on multiplication.  

Once again, thank you so much for you prayers!  We would not be able to be doing what we are doing without your prayers and support, and people are giving their lives to Jesus because of it. Please continue to pray for God to continue to speak to us.  That we would be open to whatever He wants us to do with our lives.  Also, that we continue to see people giving their lives to Christ through our OJT.  

           

A few kids from Nabila Village.

          

Blessings,

Melanie and Billy Sikma

First Weekend

Bula everyone!

This was our first weekend since we've arrived, and we had such an amazing time!

Yesterday, I (Melanie) got to go to this beautiful coffee shop with a couple other interns while others went to town and some stayed on the base. The coffee shop was so cool, had a beautiful garden in the back, as well as awesome food and coffee!  We also got to taste some sugar cane!

After we all came back together for lunch, we had a trip to the hot springs.  There, we got to enjoy a hot mud bath.  It was so relaxing and a lot of fun.  Here's some pictures from that:

Doesn't Billy look like a super hero?! :)

Today, we went to a local village to attend their church service.  It was definitely a lot different experience than Crossroads!  There were mats and we had to take our shoes off and sit on the mats for the service. Church is a very formal event here, so Billy had to wear what is called a sulu, and I wore a skirt.  The sulu is pretty much a dress skirt...it is the same material as our dress pants and just wraps around their waste. Here's a pic of us all snazzied up!

The church service was awesome...they sang some worship songs, had some people share their testimony (Billy was one of those), same some more worship songs, had the kids sing some songs, had the youth team dance for worship, and then Pastor Nakiti preached from the Word.  It reminded me of the church we go to with Crossroads in Mexico in the sense that all the people asked to share their testimony had no idea they were going to until they were called up.  Pretty comical, but also really cool because it allows a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to work.  

Billy sharing his testimony.

Here's the kids leading worship.

After church, the village people made us lunch (I love chicken curry!), we got to play with the cute kids, hang out with the locals, and then ate some more (tea and cake).  

Lunch on the mats.

It was a huge blessing to hang out with the village today.  We get to go back on Tuesday to share the Gospel with the rest of the village, so we are all pretty excited for that.

Here's this week's schedule.  XEE is just a way to share the Gospel with people. OJT means "On the Job Training," meaning we go out and get the share the Gospel with locals.  

Thank you so much for all your prayers!

Settling In

Bula (Hello) from Fiji!  

It is coming towards the end of our fourth day here, and I feel like we have been here for much longer. Our team is meshing really well, and we have tackled a lot of information in the past few days.  I'm so thankful for being able to experience this internship, and am excited to see what comes from this trip.

The journey to get to Fiji was a long one!  It consisted of a five and a half hour car ride to LAX, another five to six hour wait to fly out, and then a final eleven and a half hour flight to Fiji.  We were all pretty pooped by the time we arrived, but were also so excited to be here.  Being that we flew in at 5:30am Fiji time, we had the whole day to put off sleeping and get to know the area.  Luckily, the leaders understood we would be tired, and made it a fun day!  Below you will find a few pictures of us enjoying the beach.  It was so beautiful!

Our group at the beach.

On Tuesday, we got started on our classes and learned about calling; focusing on what it is and how God has called different people in the Bible.  Wednesday and today consisted of learning about our personality and strengths.  We took the Myers-Briggs test as well as the Gallup Strengthsfinder test, and were able to look deep into what our personality and strengths looks like, how we can use that to serve God, and how we can grow in them and capitalize what we are already good at.  My (Melanie) top five strengths were: WOO (Winning Others Over), Activator (getting things started), Futuristic (looking ahead and visualizing the future), Positivity, and Belief (having a strong belief system).  Billy's top five strengths were: Command (taking command/leadership role), Competition, Activator, Maximizer (going for and achieving maximum results), and Futuristic.  It was fun learning about ourselves in a better way, and especially learning about how we can maximize our strengths for the kingdom of God.

Here's our class area.

As far as the base goes, I am super thankful for it!  The rooms we sleep in are much nicer than I expected, and there is even an AC in the class area for the hot afternoons!  There are 4 ladies that work here that clean, cook, and serve us unbelievably!  I feel so spoiled, and the food is delicious.  It seems like we eat all day though...breakfast at 7:00am, snack and tea at 10:30am, lunch at 12:30pm, another snack at 3:00pm, and dinner at 6:00pm.  

Thank you for your prayers and support!  We are so thankful to be here, and it's really cool to know that people are praying for us.  I'll post some prayer requests below.

Oh yeah!  Billy and I also have a beautiful baby niece, Sadie Grace McBroom to welcome into the world!!

Prayer Requests:

-That God would lead us into what He wants us to do with our lives.

-That the team continues to get along and serves as a support system to each other.

-For the people we will begin to share the Gospel with. (Starting next week)

-For the mission team from Australia that will be joining us next week.

-For the other interns in Africa, Washington DC, and Asia.

God Provides!

For those of you who have been praying...THANK YOU!  We are now FULLY FUNDED, and the entire cost of our internship is taken care of!  It has been so crazy to see how generously people have been giving...from sacrificial $10 donations to $600 donations!  If you were a part of our financial support, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.  Your generosity is such a blessing, and we are so grateful.

We leave Saturday for LAX, and then off to Fiji from there!  I can't believe it's already here!  Please be praying for safe and on-time travels for all of us interns.  

We will do our best to post weekly updates, but since we don't know how well the internet is at the base, or what our schedule looks like, I can't promise anything.  

Thank you again for all of your support!

Blessings,
Melanie and Billy Sikma

One Week to Go!

Psalm 105:1
"Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!" 

Praise God for the generosity of His people!  One more week until we head off to Fiji for our internship with Evangelism Explosion, and God is providing incredibly!  In less than a week, God has blessed us with a little over $2000, and is continuing to provide.  Our total donations to-date are $4,574, and many others have expressed interest in giving financially toward our internship.  It has been so cool to see that God is in this, and is taking care of us. 

Thank you to those who have already given. 

Thank you for those who are praying for us.  Prayer is a powerful tool, and we need people praying for us.  Thank you for being faithful; God is working!

Thank you to those who are considering giving financially.  We have a little less than $1500 keeping us from being fully funded.  If you would like to donate, you can do so through our site: https://www.youcaring.com/eefijiinterns

If you are supporting us prayerfully, here are some prayer requests to lift up:

• Pray the Holy Spirit would lead our time together, and that God would be revealing his will for each of our lives during the Internship.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to already be at work in those we will meet and get to share the gospel with during the internship.
• Pray for the leaders, and facilitators as they prepare the equipping sessions.
• Be praying for safety and protection for everybody's travel.
• Pray for unity and against spiritual opposition to our time together.
• Pray also for all of the above for the Internships that will also be going on in Washington DC, Uganda and Indonesia.

We are so excited to see what God is going to bring through this internship!!