Hi, it’s Christiana! Today was our first day in Fiji, and it was packed full! We landed at 5 AM, then headed over to the Kennedy Center. Once we arrived, we met the other team that was there, the Change Makers. We ate breakfast, which you could choose from cereal, porridge, and toast, along with coffee or tea to drink. We also freshened up, has a quick team meeting, and headed out for that day’s excursions. Today we went zip lining, and on a quick hike to a waterfall. Zip lining was awesome, and even a new experience for some of us! After that, we ate lunch. Lunch consisted of different types of sandwiches, chips, apples, and watermelon. Then we hiked to the beautiful, freezing waterfall! On the way back to the Center, we stopped in Nadi town to exchange money and shop around a bit. The Fijian currency is bright and colorful, and the town was full of people bustling around, shopping and returning home from school. While me, Jackie, and Brooke were walking back to the car to meet up with everyone we even made friends with some of the children catching the bus back home from school! Once we returned to the Center, we had free time. Some people played volleyball or spike ball, others showered or just chatted. Then we had dinner, which was a delicious rice and chow mein! Following, we had another quick team meeting and sang a few songs together with Caleb playing the guitar. After that, we met with the Change Makers and sang a few songs. We also got the opportunity to hear a few testimonies of the Change Makers, which was really cool. Since we were all tired, we called it a night. They usually play a movie each night, but we didn’t attend due to jet lag, but I am excited for future movie nights and the rest of the trip! It was a great start to the trip, and I cannot wait to see how God uses us to impact others for His kingdom! Thank you for all the prayers and support, and happy birthday to my dad, miss you!
– Christiana Hewlett
Tori Barbar:
“We made it to Fiji!!! We got in the airport at 5am and we got off the plane and grabbed our bags from baggage claim, went through customs, and waited for the rental cars. When we got through customs there was a Fijian lady named Rusila and she made a sign for us that said “Welcome Coral Ridge Team” and welcomed us in (she is head of the EE center where we are staying and she is taking us to a lot of our excursions!) When we got our rental cars we drove to the Kennedy Center, and we met another group there that have been in Fiji for 4 weeks and will be there for 8 weeks in total. After we arrived, we got cleaned up because we hadn’t showered in our 2 days of travel. After we got washed up, we went zip lining and it was super fun. We also hiked to a waterfall and swam in the waterfall. When we got back to the EE center we just chilled and we had Thai food (it was so good). After that we did testimony/praise and worship. We sang 2 songs led by the other group and heard two testimonies from the them as well. Brooke and I were supposed to share ours but since we were so jet lagged we all were just falling asleep (since we literally hadn’t really slept in 48 hours). Overall, Fiji is a wonderful place with wonderful people that are just so happy and delighted to hear your voice and see you.
Fiji Student Missions Trip 