Journey to Fiji
I learned so many things when I traveled to Fiji in July of 2022 to visit Treasure House Children’s Home. An orphanage that Asia’s Little Ones has partnered with since its inception, but with whom we were recently struggling to get communication from.
The trip was just over a week, and while part of it was visiting and ministering at the orphanage, Treasure House. The other part of the trip was helping to host a team of grad students from South Eastern University as they explored missions and ministry in Pacific Oceania. Spending a week with these students, I am so hopeful for the future and am praying even more fervently for the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest fields!
It was a fantastically
successful trip, and yet at the same time I came home with a huge burden for the places and people that we interacted with.
*Did you know there are 333 islands that make up the island nation of Fiji?
*Did you know that nearly 28% of the population of Fiji is religiously Hindu and ethnically from Southern India?
*Did you know Fiji exports bottled water all over the world, but 47% of its own rural population doesn’t have access to clean water?
*Did you know that there are 61 high school boarding schools in Fiji (some boarding upwards of 900 teens) and many children from Fiji, and surrounding island nations live basically on their own as they go to high school?
*Did you know that Fiji is on the tier 2 watchlist for human trafficking, with the majority of the victims being young teens and women?
Please pray
for the minority Indian Hindu population of the country! They are surrounded by Catholicism and Christianity and yet as the minority, there is a deep division between most native Fijians and those of Indian decent, and a great darkness still blinds them. I walked around a Hindu temple and the spiritual resistance was palpable. I went to a soccer game at an Indian (Hindu) school and it was heavy there too. It is also not lost on me that everywhere the demonic strongholds of Hinduism become deeply rooted; the suffering of the poor, widow’s and orphans is greater, the value of women decreases, and the evils of human trafficking prevail.
However, because of Jesus, there is always hope. I had the opportunity to visit with a pastor who shared his testimony of coming to Jesus after being a Hindu priest, and his church was dynamic! More church plants reaching the Hindu community are desperately needed across the country.
Also after many years of no Assemblies of God missionary presence, we have new missionaries there! One is a children’s minister, and another is focused on ministering to teens, especially those living on their own at boarding schools.
What does this have
to do with Treasure House Christian Children’s Home? Well most of the children that come to the orphanage are also Indian, and were orphaned by abandonment. Sadly, calls come every month from the dept. of welfare asking if there is room for another child, and unfortunately because of space and department staffing the home is already at full capacity and unable to take in any more.
What happens to the children who can’t come? They are sent to a Hindu orphanage, and receive the bare minimum to survive since it is believed in Hinduism that current social status and suffering in this life is punishment or karma for things done in the past life. Oh, how I wish we could take in every child that needs us, and wrap them in the loving arms of Jesus! Raising them with the truth that they are beautifully and wonderfully made.
Please pray for Treasure House and for the 21 children that they care for. (Five of these are severely disabled, are highly special needs cases and will require lifetime care). And please pray for the needs of the ministry! The land owner they were renting from passed away suddenly, and the day before I arrived, Treasure House received an eviction notice. We have until December 2022 to find them a new home!
If you would like to give to help Treasure House click here.
