Report 5 – Emmaus in Fiji (posted Monday 28 July)
written by Claire Jago - your (other) roving Emmaus journo in Fiji!
Bula!
Your final report from Fiji! Closing Ceremony … I think I had tears weeping out of my eyes the whole time. From the time they walked in to the sound of marching saints, some were already crying from their goodbyes and I was gone from there. It was just really emotional. There was no stopping these women from getting up and sharing their response to the walk. As soon as one finished another one was already on their way. In fact, twice we had a line of someone standing behind the person upfront making sure they went next! These women are hilarious, really, I think the laughter matched the tears.
Again, like the men, everyone got up and nearly everyone said thank you. Some of the highlight responses are:
- A couple mentioned that before coming they thought they had an intellectual knowledge of God, now they felt they experienced God from the heart.
- One said she came without a compass and had little direction but that she was leaving with a compass and even though she didn't quite know where that would lead her yet, she was now confident in trusting that God had it sorted.
- One lady marched up to the stand and declared her new found confidence in Christ. She said her village was a battlefield and that she intended to go back and be on the frontline, not with a gun, but with God's word. I'm sure she was quite serious about it, but the way she presented it had us all in laughter. Hand movements and all … classic! I think a few of these women would make good actors, or comedians.
- I think the same lady also said that she came to the Emmaus walk with her cup full but now she was overflowing. I think this is a good way to describe what I think most of the women felt. You could see it in their face and in their response, they were overflowing with the Holy Spirit!! It is the most significant point that nearly everyone mentioned that what they intended to do about their experience of Emmaus was to go back to their families, workplace, church, community or village and really start spreading the love of Christ.
All of these women found a mission and a new Strength to accomplish it! Praise God! How exciting the last two weekends have been. Despite the troubles, God has certainly been here and the Holy Spirit has been moving in force. I hope one day you get to meet some of these new members to the Emmaus community, really! These pilgrims were exciting, and in need of no encouragement. There is still much for them to learn and sort through for Emmaus to take off in Fiji, but there is so much we westerners can learn from them. So ... come to Fiji one day and stop by Immanuel Reuben's place to find out how our little fledging Nadi community is going. They very much appreciate any support! OR get these guys to come out our way and be on team … it's a very good investment!
One last update on the shenanigans of the group. Even though everyone is usually dead after a walk (the team anyway), God seemed to provide us all with the strength to meet up for one last dinner tonight at the Hexagon Hotel before everybody starts doing their own thing tomorrow. It was a little emotional I think, not so much tears, just emotional. So many months of work and 2 weeks living together and now we are at the end. The goodbyes were going for at least an hour, trying to get around to all the 50 people there! There might be a little grief … but I've had a lot of fun meeting all these new people. Life moves on and I think some people have made good friendships with people in other communities across Australia which has been great in uniting us all!
That's the end of my ramblings now. I'm sorry if I haven't been detailed
enough, but thanks for reading along with us and keeping in touch this
way. (I usually write these in the only spare minutes before bed so
I hope they have been coherent enough!)
Claire Jago xo