Celebrations, Adventures and Connections.

We have made it to the end of another wet season without any major cyclones, although we only closely avoided a few. However, we did have lots of heavy rains and good thunderstorms (which terrifies our dogs!). Our road is currently full of potholes and people are starting to burn their overgrown fields again. The humidity is slowly dropping and we have even started using a sheet again some nights.

Maui Bay always makes a good pit stop.

Family Updates

The kids have started term two of school and as much as they weren’t keen to go back, they have settled in well. They all had a successful term one and are doing well in their studies.

Josh is loving a writing curriculum he’s doing, where he writes an adventure novel over the course of the year. He also really enjoys his Hebrew classes, both online and through an app. He has started gymnastics as well and does coaching there too. He is doing less Jiu Jitsu, but still gained a yellow belt and coaches the younger classes when he can. Josh has been constantly listening to music of all types lately, which has then turned into picking up Roy’s guitar and starting to learn a few songs. So far, left-handed Josh using Roy’s right-handed guitar is working ok.

Josh has also recently taken the title of ‘Tallest Hogan’ too!

Josh and Caleb playing at the beach with 'Logan Hogan', a log that was briefly adopted into the family.

Gabrielle still loves her gymnastics. She is progressing in skills, working hard, challenging herself and performing when she can. She really enjoys the dance side of her acro gymnastics and is working hard towards competing in the Australian Club Competitions in the Gold Coast in October. We are very grateful for this opportunity, as it gives her something to work towards all year. There is limited gymnastics equipment and no other competition of its type in Fiji, so a great experience to look forward to. At school, she is getting ready for her ‘A.C.E Convention’ in July, which is a lot of work. She is in the middle of an acrylic and a watercolour painting, had to recite the New Testament book of 2 John in the King James Version, is in a choir and is learning the handbell amongst many other things.

Ella-Mae and Gabrielle after performing at the Fringe Festival with Island Acro.

Kelepi works hard at school and is doing very well. Outside of school he prefers to chill out and read, rather than do any extracurricular activities. However, he is always up for a play date with a friend. We are grateful for the access we have to the Te Kura school library (NZ correspondence school) through Josh being a student, so Kelepi can read a few books every week without costing a fortune (there isn’t the same access to libraries in Fiji). Recently I made the comment to a friend in passing that he wants to learn the drums one day. Unknown to me that friend had a drum kit at his house that he needed somewhere to store for a few months and he thought our place was a good place for it! So now our kids are all getting into the drums! We do have to put a curfew on the practice as glass louvre windows aren’t very soundproof!

Dutifully destroying a minecraft cat piñata with school friends at his 9th birthday party in March

Rachael has been keeping busy juggling family life, MMM Fiji admin work and planning all things that make the teams and projects happen in Fiji as well as getting involved in local childrens and youth work (more below). She has been amazed at the way God has been able to use her with connecting lots of different friends with needs and ways they can help each other out. We have a very creative God who has an eye for detail and cares about us all deeply. Rachael finds it a privilege to help these connections happen as she continues to widen her friend base.

A swing bridge selfie when walking the escarpment track in January - on our 20th wedding anniversary!

Roy has been travelling a lot over this first part of the year. There have been several work trips staying away at Malake Island (more info below). Amongst all that he had a case of dengue fever, which is very prevalent in Fiji right now. This put him in bed for a week and took about a month to fully recover from the ongoing fatigue. He has been playing squash when he’s able and has even roped the kids into playing a couple of times.

At Pukehina Beach

New Zealand

Over summer we enjoyed a quick trip back to New Zealand where we packed in time with extended family, had a great stay with friends in Pukehina and Gabrielle managed to graduate from Kāpiti Learn to Swim. We spent our last weekend at the New Wine Festival in Masterton, which is always a highlight for our family. The kids love meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones for a great time of learning, competitions, activities and games.

Transiting between the two countries and cultures highlights the contrasts our family sees and experiences - this tends to be a source of joy and loss at the same time. We all love and appreciate the time of connection and catching up with people whenever we visit New Zealand, but it can take time to readjust both when we arrive in New Zealand and when we get back.

We can all jump a little higher now!

Malake Island

One of the projects we have been working on this year is on Malake Island, a small island that takes a 10-minute boat ride from the mainland near Rakiraki (2.5 hours north of where we live). The Malake Methodist Church is the main village church and evacuation centre on the island, which has a population of 637. This island was one of the worst hit by Cyclone Winston, with only 11 houses left standing afterwards and the church has never had repairs to the damage it received.

The work so far has been rebuilding a covered entrance and a side room off the side of the church, but the ongoing larger project of repairing the roof structure needs further fundraising, planning and design work. The roof has an extreme sag in it (200mm!) - just imagine a 7.5m rafter span with unsupported joins in the top chords that was constantly lifted up and down during the cyclone!

Roy has made three trips there and one more planned for mid-May. We were grateful to have two builders from YouBuild in Nelson join Roy for a week, alongside some of our local workers.

There is never a lack of fresh fish and island culture when visiting Malake Island. Roy was told that 80% of the villagers earn income by selling fish caught from nighttime spear diving.

The village had a 24/7 prayer roster for the whole 40 days of lent, which included worship music and prayers over the microphone. Can you imagine your local suburb all willingly participating in that?! That is inspirational community living right there.

Looking at Malake Island from the boat landing, where everything required for the project is taken over by boat

Oasis Farm

Roy has continued working at Oasis Farm, continuing on from the project held there in November. Some interior jobs were finished earlier this year and preparation was done to replace several posts in the carport. Just after the carport was propped up and the first post was about to be removed, we received cyclone warnings so decided to put that on hold. This week Roy has been working on fixing that, with Josh getting involved as well.

How to remove termite damaged posts with Josh:

Step 1 - Cut

Step 2 - Kick

Planning for the year

As you can imagine, building in the rainy season can be pretty disruptive with heavy rains, flooding and threats of cyclones. We try to spend the wetter months doing the planning for the year. We have spent a lot of time working towards upcoming teams and projects and have a few lined up and working towards others. We often find ourselves giving ministries advice, connecting them with the right people and organisations or helping to deal with termites long before we actually get to do any building.

We visited Coral Coast Christian Camp and checked out a project just down the road that is happening in June this year.

Youth and Children's ministry

We continue to have a heart for the youth and children in Fiji. There are not a lot of safe options for children to have structured fun here. The country has some big issues concerning drugs, pornography, abuse and unplanned pregnancy. We believe that by helping provide safe options for fun, positive relationships and teaching them about the love of Christ, we can help youth and children to thrive and stay on the right path, growing in a personal relationship with God. We are still involved with leading weekly youth bible studies and monthly game afternoons. The increasing number of attendees is encouraging!

In September we are planning a Kids Camp at Sabeto Christian Camp. We are partnering with the camp, Waikanae Anglican Parish, El Rancho Christian Camp and NZCMS to run this camp. A team of young adults, highly experienced from leading at kids camps in New Zealand, will partner with a local team to make it come to life.

Our goal is to provide an amazing experience for children in Fiji to hear about a God that loves them. They will build positive relationships in a safe environment, while having a lot of fun and being fed well. We will be inviting children from different communities that would never usually get the opportunity to have an experience like this. Our church youth and other youth will also get the opportunity to grow in their faith and leadership as they work alongside the team from New Zealand.

Roy and I have worked in Christian camps in New Zealand for about ten years, and this is something we have been keen to do for a very long time. It is exciting to finally see it all coming together as we use our different skills to benefit the people of Fiji. It is also great that our kids will get the opportunity to get involved with something we have enjoyed so much over our lives. We ask if anyone is interested in partnering with us to make this camp happen to consider donating through the NZCMS website here.

So life is keeping us super busy with lots happening and plenty to look forward to, we are grateful that God is using us in Fiji at this time. Vinaka vaka levu and thank you so much to the team behind the scenes supporting our family to make all this possible - MMM, NZCMS, Anglican Missions, plus the many individuals out there too! We appreciate you.

Roy, Rachael, Josh, Gabrielle and Kelepi/Caleb