stories and musings on life and ministry in the Pacific Islands

Developing student personas for digital strategies

Because of COVID-19, Christians all over the world have been forced to find new ways to minister, from a distance. One of the areas that I’ve been able to focus on because of the ways things turned out last year has been the ministry’s digital strategies and more specifically the Student Life website. I’ve been meeting with Karl (Tandem New Zealand) to lay the foundation for the online platform.

Our vision is to be able to journey together with people digitally all over the Pacific while still being able to connect them with workers on the ground that can help facilitate small steps on their spiritual growth journey.

To do this we’ve done a lot of research and gathered information through student surveys, staff interviews and sitting down with a smaller group of students to verify our assumptions.

Above are a few screenshots from our online brainstorming session with the staff team here in Fiji. The team used the whiteboard app Miro for this activity. Surprisingly, it was a very productive and engaging process with the staff team. In the past it’s been a challenge to work on things together remotely (thumbs-up to Miro).

Anyways, much of our discussion focused on the staff putting themselves in student’s shoes. There was also talk about their impressions on the types of students that were currently a part of the ministry and the types of students we wanted to attract. It was good because it also gave us an opportunity to talk about some of the gaps in our current system and to better understand student and ministry needs.

What we then created was a persona. A persona is a profile based on data that represents a group of users that have similar goals, pains, needs and behaviours. Personas help us know, love, and serve our users. Personas also help us focus our efforts on meeting our goals and the needs of our users.

Our persona is taken from a grid that allows us to identify groups of people by their placement on the Scale of Belief (x-axis), and the Level of Benefit they get from us (y-axis). When we talk digitally, we don’t speak to individuals, but rather people as a larger group through this framework.

We then took this persona, built around data collected from the surveys and on assumptions that the staff had made and sat down with a select group of students to provide feedback and to verify whether or not they could relate with the persona.

Our prayer is that God would help us so that those we encounter are moving “upwards” and to the “right” on their spiritual journey so that they may eventually be able to guide others.

Our Persona

The first persona that we’ve developed falls into group K, so we’ve named her Kalesi.

Kalesi represents the most common student coming into Uni that eventually becomes a part of the ministry. Kalesi is a Pacific islander that has grown up in a Christian household yet is not currently experiencing any significant spiritual growth. Her main goal is to do well in school so that she would be able to give back to her family and somehow find a cause that she can contribute to.

Our aim as a campus ministry is to be able to connect with Kalesi(s) and be able to journey with her during her time on campus so that she can fulfil her dream of making a difference.

Currently, Karl and I are working on mapping out a way to best connect with and “win” the trust of Kalesi. So that we can have part of the website up and running by orientation week this first semester. (More on this soon.)

The next phase will look at creating a persona for the most unreached student on campus and figuring out pathways to reach them.

Appreciate your prayers as we continue to work on this.

Online Bible Studies

Last year I (Judith) started an online Bible study re-connecting with friends from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and a new member here in Fiji. We journeyed through the books of Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Hosea meeting once a week for about one and a half to two hrs. Through this, the ladies have grown in their knowledge of the Word, been encouraged to study the Word of God well & consistently and discovered its great applicability in the fast changing world we live in today.

Below are comments from a couple of them:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed the online Bible study. It grew a hunger in me to dig deeper and listen to other sermons on the different books we were studying.”
Mrs R.

“I really like it (Bible studies) because we’re able to see and learn from the Word and also on what’s going on in the world right now. It has helped me a lot especially in areas where we face challenges and difficulties in this world and in mission life because there is Hope. We should have faith to continue to do His work.”
Mrs W.

My desire is to continue the group this year, Lord willing. Please pray for God’s guidance.

Helping with ministry accounts

With regards to helping out with ministry accounts, I am thankful I have been able to work from home this season, updating and reconciling the monthly accounts and also spending time with the kids. My finance and administration partner Kelera has been a great help, being the hands and feet of the operation. We are so grateful to God for her contribution to the ministry especially during the past year.

Other Bible studies and trainings

TuMa on the other-hand began a weekly online Bible study with the staff. It’s been fun and invigorating having deep conversations as we’ve studied the gospel of John and his first epistle. Unpacking and discovering the wonderful truths on Christ’s life and Christian living in John’s writings. A very convicting, humbling and rewarding time as well.

Apart from the weekly staff Bible study, TuMa has been meeting up weekly with a group of guys both students and alumni for a deep study of the book of James.

I don’t have a screenshot of our ladies study so here’s one of TuMa and the guys.

We were also part of a HomeBuilders study for couples led by Pita and Mere Nacuva that covered three studies over five months.

Grateful that we were able to finally meet up (some for the first time) at Vunimaqo for a small BBQ once restrictions were lifted.

Lastly, we were blessed to be able to work with other staff and take a group of students through a series of zoom workshops that focused on how to study the Bible.

Last zoom group photo, workshop with staff and students.

Voyagers Conference 2021

A journey in itself

Earlier this year, because of the pandemic, it was becoming evident to us as a ministry that we would have to reconsider having the annual Student Conference. It was either going to be shifted online or cancelled altogether. The thought of that was a bit disheartening because initially, Voyagers Conference was planned to be a huge event bringing together university students from across the Pacific region. The ministry had already booked out the entire Pearl Resort for the weeklong event.

Conference was coming up in a matter of days and there were still so many things to be done. The constant delays and periods of ~~radio~~ email silence were taking its toll on me. Anxiety slowly started to creep in. At one point, I began to think, ‘you know what… maybe it’s not too late to cancel this whole programme’. Thankfully, we didn’t cancel. Things finally started to come together a couple of days out from student conference. My heart though, was far from being at peace. The night of the conference opening a technical mishap meant that everything had to be delayed by an hour. More stress. But this was out of my hands now. There was nothing really, I could do… but pray.

Things finally got underway with the programme and by the grace of God, it just flowed. We had around 80 people tuning in on that first night. Our National Director, Koli Ravoka spoke from Daniel and focused on a passage from chapter 11; “but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”.¹

Voyagers Digital Conference main speaker, Koli Ravoka.

Discussions were then facilitated on Discord, an online social platform that was originally created for gamers.

At the debrief that night, with two other team members, we logged into the call and spent a good couple of minutes just laughing (I don’t know if that’s just an Islander thing or if it’s universal) before even speaking a word. It was a laughter of amazement, of relief and admittedly, one of embarrassment. God has always been in control. Orchestrating everything for His own glory. What a timely reminder.

From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Psalm 90:2

Highlights and outcomes of the Conference

Cuppa-joe sessions

A Q&A hosted by a staff member [Joey]. During the session he fielded questions that had been voted on by students to a panel of esteemed Cru staff. The questions ranged from faith, “can I lose my salvation?” to relationships, “how do I know she’s the one?” to social topics like, “how to I respond to a friend that is telling me that they are attracted to the same sex?”

FamilyLife Fiji National Directors, Pita and Mere Nacuva sharing during Cuppa-Joe.

Reaching your world

Staff gave a brief overview of the state of the digital landscape in Fiji and shared about opportunities for digital outreach. They introduced MissionHub, a free app that builds communities and encourages people to take steps of faith in their everyday lives.² Plus, how to use tools such as short films as aids to gospel presentation.³

Testimonies

We had a lot of testimonies of students that were encouraged through the conference, especially given the circumstances. One student wrote,

“The conference was such a refreshing experience. I was so blessed by the speakers and grateful to have made new friends on Discord. Overall, my relationship with God has developed and I’m just grateful.”
Luke, a final year civil engineering student.

Since the conference, our Discord server has remained busy. Students are excited about plans to have more Cuppa-Joes and FamilyLife (our family ministry) has indicated that they would also like to run their own digital conference later this year.

Most of all we want to build on the momentum that we’ve generated from Student Conference. To do that we’ve began working on a Student Persona. More on that soon.

Download the Conference Booklet designed by Tuma.

voyagers21-booklet Download

Notes:

Watch day one of the conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmQ2lM05AQQ&t=1136s
Download MissionHub at missionhub.com
Find out more about digital outreach on indigitous.org

Namaka Orientation

Imagine walking through campus on a hot (read: humid+sweaty+sticky) day and coming across a table that was serving ice cold juice… for free! Wouldn’t you stop to cool off and find out what these guys were about?

That was our exact strategy out at orientation day on Namaka campus last Wednesday and we had an overwhelming response. The Student Life table was definitely the busiest table at the school foyer.

While students got a drink, we took the opportunity to talk to them a bit about the ministry and asked them to fill out a quick one-minute survey card that looked like this:

A couple of the resources that we gave out on that day

Tom, one of the student leaders that showed up to help did an awesome job talking to groups of students (at times twenty plus in a group) about who we are and how they can get involved. It’s always encouraging to see students step up.

Tom talking to a group of new students about the cards

Prayer Request

Please pray for the students that filled out cards. Over the next couple of weeks we will be making phone calls to see if we can connect with them. Pray that God would just prepare their hearts.
Pray for the team as they begin these connections with students that God would provide opportunities for them to get into deeper conversations and share their personal testimony of life change.
Our first Connexion (weekly meeting) begins February 14th. Perfect “date” wouldn’t you say?

Praise Report

Our constitution has been approved by the Student Association and Student Life Namaka is now a registered body.
Kelera, our latest team member has found an apartment and will be moving over from Suva this weekend.
Visit our facebook page, it now has over 1,000 likes – www.facebook.com/StudentLifeNamaka

The Highs and Lows of 2018

Setting up ministry in a new location is a challenge. It’s no secret. Building a movement is something that takes time to function at full capacity. It’s something that we understand might take even longer given the fact that at the moment we might only have two full-time campus staff to begin the new year. This is something we knew full well taking on this assignment.

However, from the get go our rhetoric has always been that we are here to help assist and equip students reach their campus for Christ. We want the students to take ownership of the movement. We want students to lead. We also want to build strong partnerships. It doesn’t matter whether you’re with Cru or YWAM, WEC, OM, or a small church, what matters is that God’s name is glorified.

And although, there hasn’t been much fruit to show for this past year in ministry. We believe that a seed has been planted in many people’s hearts and that the few that have shown interest, really understand the vision of building Christ-centred movements in the Pacific and beyond.

Here are a few things that happened this year:

Connecting with students

We were blessed to find on arriving to Namaka, a group of students that were keen on being part of the movement. Most of these students had either been involved in a Bible study that Nathan had been running on his visits to the West or encountered a project team.

We hosted a BBQ with key students and used it as an opportunity to connect with them and cast a bit of vision.

Easter Outreach

The team organised an Easter Outreach where we were able to have a speaker share the gospel with around 280 students. Of the 98 comment cards that we got back, 55 indicated a strong desire to grow in their walk with God. 48 of the 55 – female students. This was definitely going to be a challenge with Judith soon to go on maternity leave and Nathan and I the only full-time staff on campus.

Leaders Training at Home

In April we had five student leaders attend a training at home. Nathan talked about quiet time and I spoke on the spirit filled life.

Spirit-filled living. This is a week before Judith gave birth to Micah

Other stats for those that like numbers:

Life concept 1 – Confidence	52 students
Life concept 2 – Forgiveness	38 students
Life concept 3 – Empowered	32 students
Life concept 4 – Equipped	13 students
Life concept 5 – Maturity	8 students

*Life concepts is very similar to Follow-up. You can download the resources here.

As the semester progressed, campus ministry often felt overwhelming and lonely with Nathan and I being the only staff in a new campus. Our student numbers at connexion started to dwindle and we lost contact with some key students. However, what we’ve been left with is a refined group of committed students.

Micah arrives

Lautoka Hospital for some reason has a new policy that does not allow fathers to accompany their partners to the delivery room so this is one of the first times I’m seeing Micah

Prayer Group with other Missionaries

God’s blessed us with great friends who serve with other ministries and organisations. We’ve found support and encouragement in our local church and amongst other missionaries in the area.

Church friends visiting Judith and baby Micah

ELI – NZ

In June I had to travel to New Zealand to be part of the ELI training. It was tough leaving, Micah was only four weeks old. Fortunately, Judith’s parents had come over from Vanuatu to be with them while I was away.

Voyagers Conference 2018

Read about that here.

Deuba Wedding

Nathan and Rebekah got married on the beach in Deuba. It was a beautiful wedding. I’m very proud of Nathan, he’s become someone I can really count on and Bekah adds a lot of much needed humour and spontaneity to the team.

Second semester

The second semester was a challenge, with Nathan and Bekah focusing on support raising, I became the only staff on campus. A couple of times I had to run Bible studies with a group of 6-8 female students; as the semester progressed we picked up momentum but this was interrupted yet again with trips to Australia and Vanuatu.

After a Bible study meeting with students

Vanuatu Trip

September was a busy month for us. I had to leave Judith and Micah again for ELI, this time in Brisbane. A week after returning from Australia, we travelled as a family to Vanuatu. Jim (Judith’s brother) was getting married to Charlotte (a close friend).

It was also a good time for us to connect with family, friends and ministry partners and our church there.

Church involvement

We’re really thankful for being a part of a vibrant church community that has helped us settle well in our new location. One thing that really blew us away was when Judith had just given birth to Micah, families from church brought food over for an entire week.

Since then, I’ve been given opportunities to preach, putting into practice what we’ve learnt during IBS and also assisting with the church finance.

Tavakubu Community Church is a Brethren Church that is located about five minutes drive from home, comprising of about 12 families and many young people.

Preaching for the first time at our church in Lautoka
(Note: we had a visiting team from NZ attend that Sunday)

Pray for partnerships

Please be praying for these potential partnerships:

Auckland Bible Church, NZ

In October I got to show Justin (Tandem Director) and Tim (Senior Pastor of Auckland Bible Church) around Nadi and the campus. Pst Tim is planning on bringing a team of about 8-12 church members for a one week mission trip to Nadi in July next year.

Pray for the team as they raise their support
Pray for their time on campus and opportunities to link up with the churches nearby

Tim and Justin talking with students at the Namaka campus

Justin with Student Association President Tom

Operation Mobilisation

With Mr Bloomfield (WEC), Mr Asif (OM) and Nathan (Cru)

Sunday afternoon Nathan and I, along with his father-in-law Mr Bloomfield (WEC) met with Mr Asif from OM UK in talking about strategies to help reach Muslims while continuing to encourage Christian workers in the field.

*Sorry, that’s about all I can share online*

But here is how you can be praying:

For wisdom and strength to share the Gospel message
That God would guide us to meet those whom he has prepared to listen
God would take those who have heard the Gospel to apply it to other listening hearts

FamilyLife

We’ve been so encouraged by having FamilyLife staff John and Julie Majors (and family) here in Fiji for the past six months. It’s been such a great time to get to know each other, learn and also talk about ministry. One of the things that Judith and I have been feeling God impress on our hearts lately is the need to reach out to the handful of young couples at church. The Majors helped us see that as full-time workers we also need to invest as much; if not more, into discipling our own kids and learning to love our spouses better.

We’re looking forward to starting our very own “home-group” with other couples next year to learn more about Godly parenting. For now here’s how you can be praying specifically:

Pray for 4-6 couples to join us in going through FamilyLife’s the Art of Parenting material
Opportunities to assist and learn from Pita and Mere Nacuva (FamilyLife Directors, Fiji)
Attend a “Weekend to Remember” event with two more couples (friends of ours)

More about FamilyLife on their website – www.familylife.com

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Julie Majors (@julie.majors.kentucky)

Praise Report

One of our main prayer points this year has been that God would send more workers to our campus. We were praying specifically for female staff since they represent the big percentage of the student population.

We’re happy to announce that Kelera (Lela) will be joining our team next year. Lela has just graduated from New Staff Training and was recently based at the Fiji National University campus in Nasinu near Suva.

Lela getting approved to join the team by Micah

Lastly, please pray for another female staff member (can’t name at the moment) from the US who currently works with international students in Australia. She’ll be coming to Fiji in April to visit the campus and meet with the team to explore the possibilities of doing ministry here in the West.

Oceania Leadership Summit

Module 2 of our Emerging Leaders Initiative was held in September at Mt Tamborine in Brisbane.

Our ELI team made up of Nathan, Nani and Sai (coach) got to present our research project and I got to share about ministry so far in Namaka.

We had two main streams at the Leadership Summit. The first one was for senior staff/leaders, their speaker was Gregg Hinzelman who spoke on developing vision and engaging donors. I was glad I could sit in on most of their sessions. The second was the ELI and our main speaker was Holly Sheldon. Holly spoke on “leading larger” and how that drove her to begin a ministry now known as Bridges International.

DMPD team made up of Joey, Ice and Biu giving their presentation

Bob Whitaker sharing on Romans 8:31-32 – God is for you

Main takeaway:

There were quite a few but this one really summed most of it up.

PLEDGGT

Pray
- James 4 says that we don’t have because we don’t ask
- Pray for God to give you God-sized vision
- Pray for the World – Ps. 2:8
- Pray for labourers – Matt. 9:37-38
Look
- Jesus intentionally looked around, saw the need and used that as inspiration to implore his disciples to beg God for reinforcements
- Look at the spiritual aspect of current events
- Look to God’s heart for the world through scripture from Genesis through Revelation
Educate
- Work hard at developing vision
- Educate yourself about the area you are trying to impact
- Utilise online resources
- Spend time with visionaries and people who are stepping out in faith
- Learn missionary facts
Dream
- Vision is simply trusting God for the possibilities of the future and talk about it
Give
- Our hearts tend to follow our wallets
- Support nationals – get their prayer letters
Go
- Join a mission project
Talk
- Tell stories about missions experiences
- Use other peoples stories
- Impart vision into all aspects of your ministry

ELI Research Project

Here’s just a brief overview of our ELI research project. Our focus in on reviewing the training material currently used at conferences in the Pacific Island nations.

*We have a video that we presented in Australia but we’re still working on recording the audio for that but it’ll be up soon.

Methodology

We conducted online surveys with staff and students
Interviews with long serving staff
Observational trials of staff teaching our current material to students and afterwards giving their feedback on what they thought.
This then led us to review the training material we’re using and also material from neighbouring Cru locations such as the US, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and even Papua New Guinea.

Screen Shot 2018-09-13 at 12.41.59 PM — We looked at material from the US, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and PNG.

Obstacles

Some of the challenges that we faced during our data collection process were

that we had a small pool of students that responded; compared to the actual number that were sent evaluation forms post-conference.
In addition, their responses may have been too kind and not elaborate enough to give us an accurate look at the data.
Another obstacle we faced was our team location and schedules. A new baby, settling down and getting married and new campus responsibilities too. These were the major ones we faced.

Nathan, Judith and I getting commissioned to the West by our director Koli Ravoka.
Trying to do some work while babysitting Micah.
Nathan and Bekah got married.

Key Findings

When we were able to meet we found out a lot of things from the data we collected. We found that given the choice, the top three topics of interest for both students and staff were:

How to study the Bible (52%)
The Spirit filled life (43.5%)
Making Disciples and Prayer (33.3%)

We also discovered that students and staff both agreed that the training was lengthy.

However, our biggest finding was that there was a significant contrast between student and staff views with regards to:

Comprehension
Practicality
Transferability
Interaction
Overall satisfaction of the training

This meant that our training greatly relied on the trainer and how they delivered the material.

So, there is now a change in focus of our project. It’s no longer the content but the layout and delivery of the material.

Recommendations

As we navigate our way through these obstacles and key findings we’ve established some possible solutions to meet these needs by firstly simplifying the training material and focusing more on the format of the training.

These solutions will explore incorporating active learning activities such as;

Culturally adapted case-base problem solving which is relevant and relatable to Pacific Islanders.
Collaborative learning where students are engaged in group activities.
Personal reflection and journaling times
Giving staff the opportunity to practice coaching techniques and how to better facilitate group discussions.

edgardale — Cone of learning. Research has shown that kinaesthetic learning can help students retain up to 90% of information.

Our hope is then to come up with a framework for future material formatting one level training as a sample next year and trialing it in 2020.

Emerging Leaders Initiative

The Emerging Leaders track is a two-year leadership training program which gives participants the opportunity to work with emerging leaders from across the region and a chance to receive coaching from experienced leaders in ministry.

The training is made up of four modules, two in each year of the course. Our first module was a week-long training held at Long Bay, Auckland.

Mark Rutter talking about the Leadership framework
Coaching time with Joey and Ice
ELI team meeting with Nathan, Nani and Sai
Koli our National Director sharing his vision for the Pacific

Mark Rutter our main speaker (US Director of Leadership Development and HR) spoke on Cru’s Leadership Framework. The framework is comprised of six elements: Heart, Relationships, Roles, Responsibilities, Results and an undergirding foundation of Stewardship.

My main takeaway: Invest in your team

“A man’s greatest talents are not in how much he has been able to do alone, but how effective he has been in getting others to work with him. A good leader leads men; a great leader trains leaders.”
Henrietta Mears

Prepare and equip the team to pursue the mission
Ensure the right person is doing the right job
Create an environment for growth
Develop individuals

Idea: Go through a book with the team and have weekly book discussions to not only foster growth but also motivate one another. A few of the books that we might begin with for “win” phase at the beginning of the semester are:

Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening by Dan Hayes
The Finishers by Roger Hershey
The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman
Everyone, Everywhere; Glimpses of God’s Global Work Through People Like You by Erick Schenkel

Any other recommendations?

Voyagers Conference 2018

My highlight would be sharing to a community of non-believers; it was my first time sharing the Knowing God Personally booklet to Hindus and asking them if they wanted to give their live’s to God. I was blessed to have been paired up with Tandem Director Justin and his son, Luke from NZ. It was just a great experience to witness how they shared; as well as get some pointers from Justin.
Lusi Muamua

35807823_1031557313676602_8472587985164959744_o — Lusi (third from right) with her outreach team.

The highlight of the conference would be the training and group discussions because during the trainings of a level one, I got to understand the KGB booklet and understand God’s promises & plans for me & for the in the lives of other believers / non believers.
The group discussions became a way to connect with other students & fellowship which brought the students closer and this was the best highlight of the week getting to sit down and just talk about God’s promise and plans for us all.
One takeaway from John Majors sessions on Luke 9:23 was how he elaborates on the the 3 main topics of the verse; deny, take up cross daily & follow. I was really blown away with John Majors talks he really spoke from his heart & experience.
Mary Donu