An Unexpected Early Finish

 We received some devastating news at the end of last week.  Our eight year old grandson, Ethan Nielson, was hit by a pick up truck and had to be air lifted to the Alberta Children's Hospital.  He broke his pelvis in 6 places, broke a bone in his ear and around his eye.  The worst is that he received serious brain injuries and is in a coma.  After a sleepless night, we decided to end our Fiji mission 5 days earlier than was planned, and return to support and help our grandson and his parents, Jordan & Melanie Nielson. 

Ethan Nielson a few months before his accident

We took care of a long "to-do" list, including emptying 

our apartment, returning our vehicle, giving away the 

remainder of our glasses, saying our goodbye's and 

canceling our last couple of days of work.  It was not 

the way we wanted to leave, it was hard, and it was sad!

The ward arranged a farewell at the church for us.
As you can see, we were each asked to say a
few parting words.  It was difficult...

We have grown to love these people, as
we have come to know them so well.

We had to fight back the tears as we spoke.

They gave us a farewell gift of a beautiful
banner with, "Families are Forever".

It was very touching when the congregation sang to us, 
"God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again", 
followed by the Fijian farewell song called, "Isa Lei". 
During these songs, a number of our friends came up
to the front and gave us a variety of different necklaces.
There wasn't a dry eye in the room.

It was followed by a pot-luck luncheon.

This is the leader of the congregation,
Bishop Lavaci, who we grew to love.

We also had a wonderful farewell dinner
with the senior missionary couples who
were also working in our city, Suva.

This is a wonderful couple, the Smiths.

This is our friends, the Willis's.

This is the Laytons who are the mission
president and his wife. They treated us so
nicely and made us feel very welcome.

This is our very good friends, the Greenburgs

This is the Whiteheads, who we grew to love

Our good friend, Susan Stanford gave us a ride to the
bus station to catch the 4.5 hour ride to the airport.

After the bus ride, it took us 3 plane rides
to get back to our home in Calgary.  We
arrived 30 hours after we left our home in Suva.
We were obviously jet lagged and tired, but
excited to see all our friends & family, again;
and of course, our dear grandson in hospital.

Three days after returning home, we woke up to this wonderful snow fall.  It was the first snow we had seen since last year's winter.  People in Fiji have never seen or touched snow.

Here's a photo of all the exam sheets from our
six months in Fiji.  We ended up seeing 6060
patients, and giving out about 4500 glasses.

We certainly felt our mission was a resounding success, and we are so glad we were able to do this.  

It was an experience of a lifetime that we will never forget.   

Our new mission now is to take care of ailing parents and help our grandson and his mother and father and siblings over these coming months as we await to see what kind of recovery takes place following his severe injuries.

Thank-you for remembering Ethan in your thoughts and prayers.

Our Last Week: Finishing Strong

This has been our last full week of work here in Fiji.  It has been a very busy five days, as we examined 854 patients, more than we have ever seen in the past.  We went out to five different villages, examining adults in the community halls, and lot of children in the different schools.  It was a very hot week, and there was no air conditioning or fans in any of these villages, mostly because they are still without power since the cyclone 3 weeks ago.  

This is the road we took to some of the villages
this past week.  It was this spot that was
completely flooded over when we attempted
to go to these villages 2 days after the cyclone.

This is what the road looked like 3 weeks ago

When we got to the village, the man
(named "Api") who was hosting us this
day, showed us what was left of his
house following the bad cyclone.

Api put some tarps around the walls to help
keep the rain out until he can rebuild.

Api spent three days looking for all the parts
of his house and gathered them together so
that he can begin the rebuilding process.

Despite the severe damage to his home,
Api is still Happy!  He and his seven kids
and wife will have a home to live in, again.

This is the kitchen of another home where
they do an amazing job cooking and
baking over an open fire.

T

They shared some of their good baking,
buns & sqaures with us this one morning
before we began doing eye exams.
It's always a unique experience eating on
the floor with flies buzzing all around.

When we arrived at this school, we knew
it was going to be a busy day when we
were met by these 170 students
waiting for us to check their eyes.  

This kids are so happy as they sit on the floor
waiting for their turn to get their eyes checked

These kids were fortunate to have a bench
to sit on while waiting their turn.

These kids were all waiting at the door
for their turn...

Others were peaking through the windows

As is common, there were no chairs in this
community hall.  Everyone is happy and
comfortable sitting on the floor mats
while waiting for their turn.

This young girl was proudly wearing her
"Brownie" uniform today.

Don't you just want to hug this poor child?

It's always helpful to have a teacher provide
the names of the students as I checking them in

This is our good friend, Noa Seru, who was
helping us in this village school on this day.

This kids are so well behaved as they line
up both on the bench and against the wall.

We found this system to work well to keep
things moving quickly.  When one student
is finished, they just slide down the bench
for the next child to have their eye exam.

Although we see a lot of patients each day,
it's still one child at a time.

After some of the eye exams, it's always
fun to hi-five the kids.  They love it.

This Fijian family has 7 children, 3 of whom
are Albino.  Their white blonde hair and blue
eyes and light skin makes them really stand
 out here in Fiji.  All three of these Albino
children were found to need glasses, quite badly

This is a typical library for the schools, here

I had fun one day with these Fabulous
Five Girls who worked in the same room
we were doing exams. I kept giving them assignments
to write stories, and asked them lots of deep questions.
They just loved it and kept asking for more..

At recess, Rick had a blast entertaining the kids
teaching them his great dance moves

They really got into it!

At this one village community hall, they didn't have a single
chair, so we did all the eye exams standing up. This can be
quite a challenge when examining a 6' 7" man!  It turned out
that this whole village had taller men & ladies than we'd seen
in any previous village.  In fact, many of these tall men are on
some of the major sports teams here in Fiji.

With no air conditioning, we really work
up a sweat.  You can see Rick is soaking wet. 

When we return to our home each day, we would
immediately throw our clothes in the washing machine and have a refreshing cold shower

This nice man prepared a coconut for us to enjoy

They provided a grass tube for us to use
 as a straw to enjoy the coconut milk.

After drinking the milk, we then scraped
out the nice soft coconut flesh. 

It sure tasted great!

This 88 year old lady is actually the "Paramount Chief"
in the area, and was so thrilled with her new
glasses.  She really loved Rick when he told her
she looked ten years younger with her new glasses!

Ann & I feel so fortunate to have had this amazing Fiji experience over the past six months.  It's been a lot of hard work, often in less than favorable conditions at times, but we wouldn't have traded it for anything. The joy we receive from giving of ourselves and providing service to others far outweighs any sacrifice we have made in our lives for this humanitarian mission.  

We want to thank the Fijian people for their wonderful hospitality and Frank & Susan Stanford for all their guidance & assistance.  

We couldn't (and wouldn't) have done it without their constant help.  We have been blessed in so many ways, and have learned so much through this "once in a lifetime" experience.