Service of every kind

This young man broke his neck jumping into a pool of water.  We were able to arrange for him to get a ramp so he could get into his home and a pathway so he had room to roam.  A Doctor from California has been very generous in helping this young man with supplies and items he needs. He said his grandchildren worked and contributed to the cost of the ramp. Many are blessed with
opportunities to give.

family and a few young men from
nearby ward help do the work.

This pathway will help the young
man out of the house each day to be with friends.

Yes this will have some railing put on

7 families of single mothers with children
had to be moved to different living arrangements due to a fire - very difficult
for all these poor women and children

The fire and water from putting the fire out
ruined all of their possessions 

sad to see the kids school books and scriptures
destroyed

all 7 apartments will have to be rebuilt

.

Wheel Chair Project handoff to SIA (Spinal Injury Assoc)

Wonderful people involved from Spinal Injury Association as well as Elder Johanson & Paul Whippy from our office.

example of one of the kinds of wheel chairs we donate along with a bag of spare parts and tools.  We have had 1 container arrive and the Association will distribute to recipients and we have 2 more containers coming over the next few months.   Each container has a combination of approx. 714 wheel chairs and walking devices.

There is always a big ceremony when we "hand off" goods on one of our projects.  It's a tradition of how they honor the donors.  We had the media, British High Commissioner, Minister of Womens Health, Manager of Vodafone, Elder Johanson (area 70) and us there.  They all got to speak and give praise.  Then to the table for some treats.  

2 day Island review

This is an Ablution Block we are doing for a village deep in the middle of the Island.  This provides the village with two men and two women toilets

This great man is managing two Ablution Block Projects for us

This is how you control traffic going thru your village

Another shot of one of our projects

This Ablution Block will serve 168 school kids at a Seventh Day Adventist School

A nice shot of our village manager - this will have 3 men & 3 women toilets and a show for each.

This is the Master teacher for the school and he is very pleased with this addition

This is a great site to see a bunch of the kids heading home from school.  They have to cross this river morning and night and when it is too high there is a boat that the teachers use to help kids back and forth.  We crossed this river in our truck - it was a great experience

We are in charge of the emergency containers and their contents and we inspect them twice a year.  They are strategically located around the Island to assist members when a Cyclone hits.  They are filled with all the gear needed when there is a disaster.  Notice how they are chained to the cement blocks that go down deeper into the ground so a Cyclone can't pick them us and blow them away.

Wendy checking things out

contents for a disaster - chain saws, axes, tents, wheel barrows, generator, gas containers, hygiene kits, tarps, shovels, cooking pots, water containers, hard hats, rakes you name it.  

Sunday 16 June

A few of the members of the Church benefiting from the Water Project for their village.  Elder & Sister Haleck got to see first hand the blessings of projects like this.  

Elder Haleck, Pacific Area President viewing one of our Water Projects for a village of 150 people.

Funeral of Stake Patriarchs wife - beautiful scene as they walk to the graveyard right behind the church building

This is my breakfast every day.  I love it.

Warwick Resort we stayed the night
celebrating our 47th Wedding
Anniversary

Warwick Resort

Marriott Resort - we liked this place

We had a busy week with meetings with Area Welfare & Self Reliance folks, Funeral, visiting Water Project with Pres & Sister Haleck, buying cement to deliver to the project, meetings with villages needing our help, meeting a new provider for spinal cord injuries that we can work with, reviewing requests for our participation in Welfare needs in communities, planning for strategy going forward with Government, Non - Government Agencies, Embassy's, foreign Governments.  We hope to be able to find some exciting, meaningful projects with long lasting effect in the lives of people in need.

Sunday June 9/19

It was Saturday night and we went to a Fundraiser for the Fiji National Basketball Women and Mens team.  Our Supervisor Brother Paul Whippy got us tickets - Paul was a coach of the team at one point and he has had sons play on the team for years.  Two of his sons will play again this year.  The Games will be in Samoa in two weeks.  The Women took Gold and the Men took Silver last games so it was a time to promise everyone that they would bring back the Gold this year.  These games are held every 4 years with 26 different sports and 3500 participants.  They are the Olympics of the Pacific. 

members of the Ladies National Basketball Team dancing and people would come and stick money to their arms and neck.  Fund raiser for the team.  They are going to the Pacific games in Samoa in 2 weeks.  They took Gold medal as Pacific games.

This is the team and they pick up 5 more girls who are on scholarship in US universities to round out their team.  

This is the mens team and they also pick up 5 more player who are on scholarship at US universities to round out the team.  They took Silver last Pacific games and hoping to take Gold this time.  

Bro. Paul Whippy in the red shirt with his wife and three sons.  Two of them on the National Basketball team for third Pacific games.  Paul was the coach up until recently.  Fun night to go to a fund raiser with them.  

We had a great surprise - Dave & Ashley Cichy and family were vacationing in Fiji and came to church with us today and we had a chance to spend some time on the Temple grounds after church and then at our flat for a visit.  It was so great to get together with them.  They have 3 lovely daughters named Summer, Lucy and Rosie.  

First Week

Wendy and I have had a busy week of training meeting with Welfare Services leaders from New Zealand and with our local leaders.  We have felt overwhelmed at times, well most of the time.  We spent the first two days getting up at 4am (not on the time change yet) then going to the office till 4pm, home and in bed by 6-7pm and waking up at 4am.  It is getting better.  We spent Wednesday out at a project we will work on till completion, and it was exciting to go see the efforts of the village people as well as the welfare services in action.  Thursday we spent most of the day working through all the active projects as well as 17 new projects for us to consider.  It will take some meetings, investigation of costs and consideration for needs to make the final decisions but right now our plate is flowing over with work to do.  We have containers of desks, chairs and books coming for 4 schools that we will deliver as well as many water and school book projects being requested.  There are many other types of requests and it is humbling to both see the needs and also to be involved in making decisions regarding the help that is needed. 

Wendy entertaining some of the children in a village we visited for a clean drinking water project.

trenches taking the water up to a storage tank in the village

Village workers taking a break in the hot sun from hard work

village men and family from other villages helping clear the trees and dig the trench.  ROOTS

These guys sure know how to work and be happy.  They were singing and happy to take a break for a picture.