Introduction

At the moment I am preparing to go on a missions trip for 6 weeks during December and January. I created this blog to let you know how I am going in my preparation and to share my prayer needs. To begin with, here is some basic information about the trip I'm going on.

Teen Missions International
The organisation I will be going with is called Teen Missions International Australia. TMI was started by a man in America in 1970. He felt that it was important to train young people for missions while they had the desire to do so, rather than waiting for several years until they finished schooling. Since then TMI has grown to include Australia and New Zealand. Each summer there are several missions trips from both America and Australia (different summer times) that go to places throughout the world. "TMI is an interdenominational evangelical mission made up of Christians from many denominations who have come together to work for the Lord. This summer TMIA is running 8 trips at the same time, each in a different country. For more information see the Australian website: http://www.teenmissions.com.au/ or the American website: http://www.teenmissions.org/

Fiji Missions Trip
One thing in particular that drew me to TMI missions trips is that they put you through an intensive training program before sending you off to the field. I believe that this is very important as it allows your ministry to be much more effective. It also means that the missionaries we will be assisting can have more peace of mind - you wouldn't want an entirely untrained person building the roof of your church, hey?  In early December I will be heading up to QLD to meet a whole bunch of teens from Australia and New Zealand. We will be at Boot Camp (called that because we have to wear leather work boots the whole trip) for 10 days, during this time I will get to know my team who I will be going to Fiji with as we camp together and have daily classes and devotions together. The classes will include: carpentry, painting, block laying, music, puppets, balloon tying, Bible memory, Servanthood, God's Will, Personal evangelism, basic photography and more. On the last evening of Boot Camp we will all have a comissioning service - you are all invited to come! The next day each team will fly out of the Brisbane airport to their various locations.

My team will fly to Nadi on Viti Levu the main island of Fiji before taking a bus across the island and catching a ferry over to the isand of Vanua Levu where we will be helping at Lomani Au (I am loved) orphanage. the orpahnage is the first in norhtern Fiji and it opens some time this year. Our job will be to help develop the grounds, building a retaining wall, planting an orchard, cultivating the gardens etc. For the entire trip we will be sleeping in tents and washing our clothes in a bucket. After four weeks in Fiji we will fly back to QLD for Debrief for 4 days then I will return home 8 days before Year 11 starts!