CWM-TIM 2023

  We enjoyed the mud pool experience. You start by putting mud on yourself out of a bucket. Then you stand around waiting to "dry".Once dried, you enter the mud pool, which is quite squishy on the bottom. You "rinse" yourself there, then head to the "hot springs", which is a nice warm pool. They have a 2 another pool, but it was too hot for us. It was a wonderful experience because I don’t have these type of experience back in India.

We participated in the celebration of Independence of Islands in the Pacific - Tongo Island on 04.07.2023 Solomon Island on 07.07.2023, Kiribati Island on 12.07.2023 in the PTC Chappel   We came to know that, how they have been colonised and the struggles they had. It was really interesting to hear from them. There was cultural activities and Dance.

When starting out on a big adventure, it is pretty natural to be excited at the beginning. Adrenaline kicks in and keeps you going - up to a point. After a while, your mind and body and spirit reacts. I am asking myself to find a new equilibrium in strangeness. My interior self is being challenged every moment by the external strangeness. How can I find peace again? Being in a new and different family, I start with a little anxiety and fear and progress to curiosity and wonder. But, by now, our TIMs are also beginning to get on each other's nerves. Our weaknesses and faults cannot stay hidden forever. We start to feel the weight when someone else is leaning too heavily or we get annoyed. Our reserves of courtesy have been depleted and we have to work hard to be kind. When things are starting to drag and feel a bit hard and concerning, we are invited to pray for one another and for ourselves: God of Mission -  gift us with spirits of cooperation and generosity,  so that we migh...

A special session will start today. But when heard that the two-day day session will end one day, I got worried. The session started, but at the beginning, our instructor told us about an accident that happened in his life, which he still regrets. He wiped his tears as he spoke, along with a few of us. He gives us a book, in which everything is given. slowly slowly the session started to feel good. it started to feel better when we split into groups and practically applied them to ourselves. Fun but learning by the time we finished our course,I started to think that time seems to have gone a little too fast today. and another reason to enjoy the session is that our instructor was very funny and friendly. Thank you, Instructor and CWM because we are now professional First Aiders.

No one want to encounter any accident.  But if there is an accident and we can't offer any help, especially your friends or family members, it's shocking and depressing. Last Saturday, we had our first aid training. The teacher not only taught us many knowledge but also spent a lot of time on practical operation to make sure that we know how to do that. I believe that no one will ever want to use this skill. But when we encounter accidents, may we all remember what we have learned and truly become other's help.

 SUNDAYS ARE FOR FAMILY! The culture of the TIM class we were taught by Fuata that on weekends the group would have to cook for themselves. This past week; became so busy that we couldn't continue with our other tasks, including gardening; blog reflections. On Saturday we had a whole day First Aid Training Session which we all left tired. Then woke up Sunday for Church. Indeed, Sundays are for Family; the practiced Culture of TIM where some members of the Group have to cook for the entire group gave us an opportunity to taste two different dishes, Taiwanese and Indian dishes! They were both marvelous! Thanks to team that was cooking! While dining; we had an opportunity of sharing stories and talking about the experience we having thus far! This week was challenging but a good experience and lessons are what I am taking away with me! SHALOM!

We all come from churches, so we all have expectations and understandings of church from our own contexts. On our first Sunday, we head to Centenary Methodist Church. It is a large church and we are a bit early. This gives us a chance to settle and observe.  TIMs are encouraged to become disciplined at ethnographic participant observations. This means, we always ask the questions afterwards: - what did you see? - what did you hear? - how did you feel? - what did you observe? etc...   At Centenary, one of the key features is the choir, who blessed us with a rendition of Lift up ye heads from Handel's Messiah. We joined in the hymns and were welcomed. Amelia brought a greeting and Fijian blessing. Most of the beautiful singing was a capella (unaccompanied) but full of rich harmonies. The preaching was by the Past-President, who very graciously gave us a summary of his sermon in English. He was reminding us that we are in the Pentecost season and encouraging us to live in the Hol...

 As teachers, we would always believe that a child should always have toys to play with at an very early age. This allow them to use their creativity while developing the dexterity, imagination and emotional strength. Seeing this in the Fijian museum amazed me and with a thankful heart to the missionaries, they knew and acknowledged the needs of the children present during their teaching.  Imports and Exports were not exercised at the time hence the use of what was available from the surroundings to build these beautiful handmade dolls. Reminiscing on my younger days, the joy of receiving a Barbie doll to play with was all I wanted for Christmas.  Therefore, imagine the joy that I had when playing with my dolls and the joy these young Fijians felt when they saw  these hand-made dolls by the missionaries. It is an experience that I will always remember!