South Pacific

And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’

Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:19-20

I'm excited to share that I am returning to Fiji for my fourth time and Samoa for my third time! I will be co-leading a School of Biblical Studies Teaching Outreach Team from the 30th of June to the 28th of August. We have three students:

• Catherine - an Indian Fijian from Suva
• Michael - a Messianic Jew from New York City
• and Simon - a Korean American from Seattle

And there is Rachel, our beautiful and talented co-leader, who is from Manitoba, and myself, Jillian, from SW Washington.

I put the photo of the fish up because this seems to be the theme in preparing for outreach.

There is an old saying,

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."

We have been thinking about what our goals as an SBS outreach should be... and the biggest goal is not preaching and teaching the Bible in the traditional sense. The biggest goal is teaching people HOW to study the Bible for themselves. That is what we can leave with the people. Rachel and I, as the leaders, will therefore facilitate and organize as many opportunities for our three students to teach as possible... but our goals in teaching are not simply experience for our students nor entertainment for our audience. Our goals are that the people we teach are left with a desire to study God's Word for themselves and to apply it, and that there would be changed lives in Fiji and Samoa!

On a personal level, I haven't returned to Samoa in over 4 years. When I left in early 2007, I had plans to return for the South Pacific Games in August that same year. My brother's death on Mother's Day 2007 drastically changed my life, and I was not ready to return to the islands that summer. I needed to stay home with family a bit longer. Now, 4 years down the road, I am fulfilling a promise I made to friends in Samoa, and I am coming back! My friend, Kika, a pregnant 17 year old single girl, decided to name her daughter after me. When I return, Kiki will be 21 and there will be a 4 year old little girl named Jillian running around Savai'i. Oh boy. I feel God has been so faithful to bring me back to this place I love.

I believe I've mentioned this before, but I will be staying behind for 2 extra months in Samoa after the outreach is over. The students will head home August 28th, but I will be staying to serve YWAM Samoa in teaching, cooking, and helping however I can. This was something I felt the Lord put on my heart, and it seems the Samoan Base Directors are as excited about it as I am! This extended outreach is approved by my leadership in Kona, as they feel it is a way SBS Kona can be a blessing to Samoa and it is also an opportunity to seek potential contacts for a future SBS located IN the South Pacific! The Base Directors have already invited me to speak for a week in their Discipleship Training School on the topic of Inductive Bible Study. I'm excited to see what God does in that time!

So please pray for our team. We are starting into the New Testament this quarter, and we will also be doing outreach preparation throughout the quarter... pray our students' lives are transformed through the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and that they would be able to pass it on not only during their "outreach" but in every day of their lives!

Pray for our finances, too. Simon and Mike and Rachel have their fees - praise God! It is only Catherine (from Fiji) and I who need to see money come in to purchase flights. But we know God is faithful and we have seen him provide so many times before!

My Itinerary will look like this:

Kona - Honolulu - Fiji - Samoa - Portland (via Los Angeles)

It will cost me approximately $2000 for all of these flights - the same cost as if I were returning to Kona. So basically, I am getting a flight home for the holidays thrown into the deal. I will head straight home to Washington from Samoa for November and December then will return to Kona at the beginning of January 2012. Most of my monthly support I receive, okay, all of it, is enough to pay my monthly expenses. Unfortunately, I do not have an outreach savings hiding away somewhere, so I need pretty much $2000 to be able to go on outreach. The ground fees are no worries because my monthly support will take care of these. But the flights are an additional cost. Please pray about giving towards this amount.

Catherine needs her entire 3rd Quarter tuition before she can pay anything towards outreach, so she needs a bit more money! Coming from Fiji, though she was an accountant in Suva, her money just does not go as far as American dollars. Pray that finances don't hinder what God is calling Catherine to do.

Please pray for unity and clear communication within our team and with our hosts in Fiji and Samoa, that God would be glorified through our ministry, not us!

Akua ho'omaika'i oe!!!

Jillian

Long over-due update

Aloha!

It's been a while since I have written, so a lengthy update is due. Sit down with a cuppa and enjoy! This past quarter has been a busy one, to say the least.

I taught two books:

Zephaniah - a Prophet that warns Judah as they are spiraling downward towards exile to repent so they might be hidden on the day of the Lord.

and

Esther - The story of God's providence and sovereignty in a Jewish Queen of Persia who saved the Jews from annihilation. The story also tells of the origins of the Jewish Holiday "Purim."

Here's a photo of my neighbors, Isaac and Lucas who came to visit as I was preparing my teaching for Esther. They came dressed up as action heros... so I decided to put my Queen Esther costume on and play for a while. I of course was shot repeatedly by imaginary pistols.

Not quite the Purim story... But nonetheless, we had fun.

Speaking of Isaac & Lucas, here's a photo of Isaac holding an Anole Lizard.

These boys live in the downstairs home and their parents are also YWAMers and very involved in their church, Living Stones. Their mom, Jane, is Danish and bakes AMAZING treats for my roommates and I all the time... she's really too good to us. And their father, Andrew, is always giving us meat as he hunts wild pigs and sheep around the island. You may have seen him on "Hogs Gone Wild" on the Discovery Channel. He's the Australian bloke leading the Kona, Hawaii team. If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and show your kokua (support)!!! Andrew and Jane and their boys have been a great family to me and I feel really blessed to know them. I've babysat a few times, and I seriously tell them I can't wait to babysit more. Being around the boys brings such joy and adventure (and mischief) to my life!

Another major event this quarter was the devastating Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We did have a warning system here in Hawaii that sounded soon after reading the news of Japan, and indeed, we had tsunami surges and risings up to 11 feet higher than what is normal, causing millions of dollars worth of damage to hotels, small businesses, homes, and property. But, thanks to the advanced Tsunami Warning Sirens and Evacuation plans, we had no loss of life in Hawaii, and for that we are very grateful. This is a photo I took of the asphalt by King Kamehameha Hotel and the Kona Pier after the Tsunami.

Lastly, now that I've shared where I've been, let me share where I'm going.

Our students finished their last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, on Saturday and are now studying Matthew. To see their faces light up as they talk about how much Jesus makes sense in light of the Old Testament brings so much joy to my heart. It reminds me of when I first "got it."

We will have a Spring Break for 7 days starting next Thursday, in which I will be preparing some teaching and also taking some time to hopefully do some scuba diving and hiking and other outdoor things... I feel I've been under the fluorescent lights of this office & our classroom far too long... you would never know by my skin tone that I live in HAWAII!!! ;)

I will be teaching 4 books for the New Testament: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Philemon. Small letters, but oh-so-powerful!!!

And I am gearing up to co-lead an SBS outreach team to Fiji & Samoa from June 30-August 28, so that's another thing on the horizon that I will tell you more about later.

That's the latest from Jillian - always a little late, but always with lots of love and aloha!!!