And just like that, the semester was over and it was exam week. Brent’s final exam was on Thursday afternoon so the kids and I walked down to meet him afterwards and found his class in one final prayer huddle. That is one super special class of graduates, such humble and committed men, and I am so excited to see the powerful way God uses them and their families as they spread out across the Pacific.
So once exams ended, we had a fortnight to wait for graduation, but I can tell you that there certainly wasn’t much waiting around; we were kept from idleness with the packing up of the house and various end-of-year activities and Brent’s contribution to work on the infamous study hut.
We were rather relieved at the end of the first week to learn that Brent had passed Greek (or should I say ‘parsed’ – haha good inside joke there for fellow learners of Greek) – the only subject that had given us reason for serious concern – and could go on to graduate.
Lesley had organised a group of New Zealanders to come over during this time and paint the outside of the houses in their village, so it was also fabulous to catch up with those of the travellers whom we knew and trek across campus to ‘offer some moral support’ (just hang out mostly) during break times.
Lucy certainly kept active enough to sleep well at night (and not-night).
On the final Thursday, we had a party to end preschool for the year (that was such good fruit) and Sheree wrote each of the children a personalised card encouraging them and acknowledging their growth over the year, which was so sweet.
Thursday evening was the graduation banquet. It was advertised to start at 6pm, but I was super grateful for my couple of pieces of toast beforehand because 8.30pm rolled around and we still hadn’t begun. When things finally did get going, the food was not the first item on the agenda – there were speeches and songs and presentations to be made – so I don’t think we began eating before about 10.30pm, which made for rather a late night, especially for our little people. Certainly it was the most extreme example of Fiji time we experienced! But we had the most lovely evening with good friends. Reggie found a piece of blue fabric that he designated his superhero cape, and frankly it was difficult to get him to take it off for anything that week, so here he is pictured with it and his other family: Puia and Matai and Huatia.
Around that stage of the week, this graduation banner appeared on the wall of the church/hall where all these events were occurring. If you zoom in, you can see that’s Brent’s face front and centre, larger than life. Much to his consternation, he was also featured on the cover of the graduation weekend programme booklet, together with his image alongside those of his classmates inside. All the big kids took great delight in carrying Lucy around all weekend and asking her to point to daddy – she’d find him on the book or point to him on the wall or, occasionally, actually in real life.
Graduation was Sunday morning and it was suggested that we arrive early to get a good seat, which privately, I thought not much of after the debacle with the banquet, but in fact, I was wrong, and the hall was the fullest I ever saw it when we arrived at 9.15am and the graduands marched in on the dot of 10am as advertised. They had some good speeches, especially the guest speaker (Brent actually got a personal ‘kia ora’ from the front when he realised there was a fellow kiwi graduating), and then everyone took lots of pictures.
So that was officially the end of our Fulton adventure. (Although I think Brent would consider the following day he spent trying to get our boxes shipped back to Auckland somewhat of an adventure, although not in the category of would-wish-to-repeat adventures – the people at the freight company wanted variously to be given paperwork we didn’t have, to collect more payment than they had initially indicated and to open every single one of the boxes I’d packed to look for something they refused to identify. But it all got on the plane in the end.)
We consider ourselves supremely blessed to have spent the most wonderful year in Fiji and made so many beautiful friends. When we first arrived in February, we had no real idea of exactly what it was God had in store for us but He has confirmed to us over and over again how worthy He is of our trust. I don’t know what next year will hold for us but I do know God holds us in His hand.
Thank you for reading along this year and for your continued prayers for us.
Much love, Brent & Allyse, Reggie and Lucy xx
Reasons I Choose To Look Up 