From Our Pastor's Heart to Yours

Dear Friends & Supporters of the Bryant's,

The words of the Prophet Jeremiah, "Mine eye affecteth mine heart" (Lam. 3:51a), capture the emotions of my wife and I after our visit in Fiji with the Bryant's.  What a thrill to our hearts to have been privileged to visit this family in June this year to see the good work of these faithful servants!

Being Kent's pastor for nearly 30 years, I have learned something of his burden for reaching the children with the Gospel.  I have seen his amazing giftedness to teach and communicate the truths of God's Word.  Over the years, I, too, have seen the pictures of Fiji and many beautiful children and families.  Yet, to sit with Kent and Becky in Lautoka and to witness firsthand their blazing passion for their people, served to introduce us to extraordinary servants of the Lord.  We observed them to be a couple with a vision to reach out further with the Gospel and to establish a beachhead for Child Evangelism Fellowship in the South Pacific as defined in their vision for the Moriah Project, a haven and hope for for the children of Fiji.  The potential of a building in such a strategic location that will house a training center, a meeting place, staff housing, and offices will truly be a victory for the advancement of the gospel!


I am taking the initiative to write to you, as dear supporters and friends of the Bryant's, to commend you for your support and to tell you firsthand that this family is a worthy investment of your love, prayers and financial support.  If you are not presently supporting this missionary family or if you have considered increasing their support, I highly recommend you to do so as the Lord enables you. 

Thank you for taking the time to hear the heart of this pastor who has been richly blessed by his visit with these faithful missionaries who, without a doubt, demonstrate faithfulness in competence, diligence and integrity.  My wife, Gail, and I have been profoundly touched and blessed by these fellow servants of the Lord.

May the Lord richly bless you.

By His Grace,
Pastor Greg Allison
Bible Baptist Church

2047 Gate Number Two Road  / Creedmoor, NC  27522

Office:  919-575-3414    Fax:  919-575-3417

www.biblebaptistonline.org

Tsunami Scare -- Fiji Spared

When three earthquakes rattled Vanuatu today (Thursday morning at 10 AM local time / 6 PM EDT), the regional tsunami center in Hawaii issued a tsunami alert for the South Pacific islands, including Fiji.  Kent heard the announcement on the radio and Becky quickly checked the website to verify that the first wave of a potentially devastating tidal wave could be in Fiji  by 11:40 AM (Fiji time).  

The sirens at the Lautoka wharf with the PA system warnings told us that this was a real evacuation alert. By the time Kent arrived at our house, the kids and I had grabbed the evacuation pouches with all vital documents, the laptops,  bottled water, our prescription medications, and cameras. We did have time to make  the required phone call to CEF's Crisis Management Team as well as to  our parents to alert them that we were evacuating.  We took a back road up to a high mountain perch where we gathered with many others to watch the ocean and wait. It looked so peaceful.  Within an hour and a half, the all-clear sign was given to return home. 

Given the severity of destruction in Samoa caused by a tsunami last week, we are deeply grateful to the Lord for His divine protection here in Fiji today.  The destruction here could have been massive, but God was gracious to us.   

LORD,  WE THANK YOU!

The MORIAH PROJECT: In the Top 20!

The MORIAH PROJECT of CEF FIJI has been chosen by leaders at the CEF World Headquarters in Warrenton, Missouri as one of the top 20 missions projects for CEF around the world!

Please click on this link for further information about the project and how to give as God may lead you.  We're trusting our great and mighty God for His abundant supply.  Our goal is for US$330,000.00 of which we have US$15,000 on hand.  Thanks for PRAYING and giving as the Lord may lead you!

The MORIAH PROJECT (Project # 13 in the list)

"Queen Esther Retreat"

Katelyn, along with seven teenage girls, giggled their way through the weekend retreat led by Becky. They learned to stand, sit, and walk like a "princess" as well as treating each other to a facial and manicure. They had a contest to see how many ways they could identify the changes the star in the movie  Princess Diaries made to become a princess. Before going to bed, they enjoyed popcorn and the story of Queen Esther via the DVD titled One Night with the King. 

Saturday morning, Kent graciously served us a pancake breakfast! The girls then enjoyed learning what God says about modesty in the Bible. Becky used a PowerPoint based on Dannah Gresh's book, Secret Keeper.  A great activity was sorting pictures from  fashion magazines into "throw away", "secret keeper" and "modify this to be a secret keeper" piles. However, the all-time favorite activity was "saree draping." A friend from church came with a dozen beautiful Indian sarees and taught us four ways to wrap six yards of material! Kent took photos of each girl who put their picture in a card she had made for her Dad for Fiji Father's Day on September 6th.  I hear that the father's absolutely LOVED getting a photo of his Indian or Fijian "princess".

A Typical Day? No Such Thing!

Occasionally, we're asked, "What's your typical day like?"  There is never a "normal, typical day" in the life of most missionaries and definitely, not in ours!  For the past eight weeks, in addition to the steady flow of overseas visitors, we have had a work team of local men carrying out maintenance and renovations to the house which we rent.    

This 70-year old house really feels like home because we have lived here for the past 12 1/2 years.  It was way past time for this maintenance to be carried out.  The entire exterior of the house has been painted, including the front fences, the carport gate and it looks so nice again.   However, the workmen are now on the rooftop pulling up the roofing tins and installing steel brackets around every rafter to make the house "cyclone-proof".  It has turned out to be a very noisy undertaking.  So, while the whirlwind of our daily life continues, we also dealing with whirlwind of noisy hammering above our heads. 

Pray that this work will soon be completed so as to not prolong the disturbance to our home school and the office work that Becky does here at home.  You can see from these pictures that the job they're doing is a BIG one!

A Parade of Visitors

There has been a "parade of visitors" passing through our home in the past two months and what a blessing they have been!

In mid-June, we were privileged to have our home-church pastor and his wife to visit with us for a week. Pastor Greg and Gail Allison, from Durham, NC, made their way to Fiji. We had a marvelous week sharing our HEARTS, our MINISTRY and our PEOPLE with them.

Following their visit, we were blessed to have Becky's parents with us for almost four weeks...John and Syble DeBerry from Myrtle Beach, SC. They seemed especially glad to see their growing grandchildren, Jeremy (15) and Katelyn (11 1/2).

Just a few days after Mom & Dad left Fiji, Miss Jan Johnson, the CEF Asia Pacific Education Consultant for this region arrived to be a guest in our home for one week. "Miss Jan" assisted us with conducting a 10-day training course. We were delighted to have her with us.

Within two hours of Jan's departure on August 11th, our next set of house guests arrived. We are pleased to have Carol Bratcher and Grace Stephen with us. These ladies are missionaries having just returned from their furlough. They have spent many days and hours looking for a house to rent. They are hopeful that a house they've seen and like will be available for them sometime around Sept. 10th.

Our next visitor from eastern North Carolina is Mr. Tommy Boyd due to arrive September 14th. Although he's coming on an official visit to Fiji for the U.S. State Dept., he is from a supporting church and is adding a couple of extra days to his itinerary to visit with us. We look forward to meeting him and having him in our home!

The Reason We Live in Fiji is...

...so that precious boys and girls like these will have access to the Gospel and come to know the Savior!

"Even so it is not the will of your Father...that one of these...should perish."

Matthew 18:14