This Coin Has Many Sides…

One of the first things that life taught me was that you can never take one persons word for it. Life and its many experiences tend to jade the way we look at the future and different situations. Only when we talked to various people who each have had unique experiences can we really begin to get an outline of what the real thing looks like.

Being here in Fiji is no different. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk to a new expatriate about their experiences in Fiji, because undoubtedly they will add something new to my current understand of ‘Fiji’ in the cultural and political sense. Some have a negative outlook on Fiji, others will have a positive, some will have a realistic, and others still will only be looking at it from a business perspective. Each of these opinions is valuable because they compliment and flush each other out in such a way that I am better for hearing each one.

Had I taken one or two people’s words for it, I don’t know if I would even believe that there was a reason you would have anyone trying to ‘do missions’ here. It certainly is not a short term mission, because you need to build into the people’s lives, and the gospel develops characteristics in a person that is foreign to this culture. Yet even in the midst of that, I have to be careful that I am not taking my ‘western’ idea of Christ and attempting to impose it upon a pacific culture.

Christianity is by no means a white-picket fence faith. Rather, it is diverse and culturally independent. I’m sure the way we worship now would have seemed completely foreign to the early Jewish Christians. Imagine what it will look like in another 2000 years. I’m sure we would shake our heads in disbelief and amazement at the way Christ permeates our culture.

Nothing of note really went on today. It was my day off, so I hid in Jong’s flat and enjoyed the air conditioning while watching a movie and doing some reading for my courses. He had a friend fly in from Australia, so there was a group of us bachelors that went out for dinner on Valentines Day. Went to a pretty excellent Thai restaurant, and had various rice dishes. It was good, but as with anything else in Fiji; don’t expect it to be too cheap! Up early tomorrow to go work on the camp… and the rest of you will be enjoying Valentines Day!