Preaching to a Different Culture

I just finished typing out my first sermon for Fiji. It was an interesting experience attempting to mix what I know with what they will understand. The truth is that many Fijian people are very basic in their faith, and many of them are still feeding off the milk when they should have been on meat years ago. So as I look to writing this message, I spent a good deal of time talking with others about it and praying. I let it sit, marinate a little before I sat down to write it out. It kind of felt like procrastinating, but God kept saying to me... “Not yet... let it sit for a little while longer.” So I did, and when I finally did sit down to write it out, it flowed out of me. It’s not often that it does that.

I spent the day with Jong, just relaxing and talking about our lives. From his upbringing, to the hotel, to back home in Canada, to working with the Fijian people, it was a very enlightening experience. I had a chance to get on the internet sometime in the afternoon, after spending 30 minutes figuring out how to get through the network to the net, I discovered that I needed to set up a proxy. Once that was done, everything was hunky dory!

After dinner, he took me for a tour around the hotels around Island. We went to the Sheraton, the Westin and the Hilton. All three of them were hovering around 30% occupancy rates, and they generally need at least 50% to break even. Keep your eyes posted for wicked good deals to come to Fiji and visit! I’m sure they aren’t that far away.

While we were touring through the Chinese architecture of the Westin, a tropical storm was brewing of the coast. There was nearly blinding lightning and some huge thunder that just got me excited. By the time we pulled up to the Hilton a few minutes later, it was POURING rain again. We made a quick dash to the hotel lobby... and got completely drenched in the process. I had a blast. Once we were inside, they gave us a ride via golf cart to the restaurant. Inside, they gave us towels to help dry ourselves off. That’s what five star arrangements will get you. They were even warm! ;) I love the rain here in Fiji.

And then it was straight back to the BDC to write my sermon... tomorrow I preach.