Fiji 2025

Introduction

The trip started off a little bumpy with an 18 hour delay.

The only major frustration with this was that we were scheduled for a group study that night which we missed.

I am grateful to Tom Thornhill who picked us up from the hotel we had to stay in and took us to grab some lunch and to see a nice view of the bluffs in California.

We had wonderful accommodations.

Assemblies

The assemblies were well attended all three Sundays that we were there.

One Sunday, we spilled out from under the porch in overflow.

Seth took the first hour each Sunday morning dealing with how to grow together as a church.

So much of the work has been focussed on evangelism and therefore first principles.

They are now needing to learn how to grow in understanding.

My lessons in the second hour focused on making God the central aspect of our lives.

Fiji is changing.

Many of the changes in culture that we might observe happening over the last century here are happening in a matter of a single generation there.

In addition to weekly assemblies, they have what they call a roaming study each week. The time and place change each week according to everyone’s schedules.

The first study was at Munil’s home.

Seth taught a lesson on lessons from Job.

The second study was at Jaitesh and Shu’s home.

I taught an overview of Revelation (some questions had come up in a few studies on that subject).

The last one was our final night and was at Perun’s

Seth spoke about the parables of lost things in Luke 15.

One other group study we had was each Saturday night we had the men over for a study. We spent the day cooking on those days and then had a meal and study with the men.

I spoke about the need to develop in Bible knowledge. A lesson about motivation.

Then Seth spent the next two weeks talking about practical ways to begin adding to their knowledge and understanding.

In addition to these studies, on the final Sunday evening we were there, we hosted a potluck at our apartment.

The brethren got together and made something called Lovo.

It was very well attended and a visitor, who I’ll tell you about directly, came and joined us as well.

Individual Studies

I want to start with Hari.

We were only scheduled to study with Hari once for an individual study but we have some concerns about him for a number of reasons so we asked if we could get together for lunch to give us some extra time with him.

In the course of those lunches we were able to spend some enjoyable time with him but also find out more about what is going on in his life.

When it came time for the night of our study, we shared some scriptures with Hari and what our concerns are.

He received the teaching well, but also indicated that it is hard to live by.

Please pray for Hari. He is being tested and he needs strength if he is going to overcome.

Rohit and Shevani

We met with Rohit, Shevani, and their children several times. They are a delight.

Rohit was working for a man near where the church meets. He often passed by coming and going while the church was meeting.

After several years of this, he was impressed that no matter the weather and no matter how few were in attendance, they always met, always sang, always took the Lord’s Supper. He told Navitesh he wanted to be a part of a church that was so dedicated.

Our first study with them had to do with demon possession and questions having to do with spiritual gifts.

They had been a part of a charismatic church and so had ongoing questions about many of the things they saw there.

This is a common element for those who have been steeped in the doctrines of charismatic churches.

They know that so much of what they saw was contrived and manipulative, but often, there are participants in those spectacles who aren’t simply acting. Or, at least, they don’t know they are acting. They are suggestable people who end up “speaking in tongues” or being “demon possessed” as a result of the power of suggestion.

The remainder of the studies with them, Seth went through elements of 1 & 2 Thessalonians as a way of teaching babes in Christ.

Ashwin and Shevika

Ashwin works as a supervisor over a large supermarket near where the church meets.

His mother is Seventh Day Adventist and has encouraged Ashwin to find a place to go to church.

He had been going to an Assembly of God but was uncertain about what he saw there.

He moved to Nadi about 3 years ago and in conversations with coworkers told them of his dissatisfaction with the Assembly of God and that he wanted to find a church that went by the Bible. One of his co-workers told him “you need to talk to Master Dutt (Navitesh).

Navitesh met with him once or twice but Ashwin works many hours and his zeal fell off.

While we were there this time Navitesh saw him in the supermarket and Ashwin said he was thankful to see him because he wanted to resume studies.

He came to church the next two Sundays and I studied with him and his wife (Shevika) while Seth was studying with Rohit and Shevani back at the apartment.

The studies were mostly focused on Shevika as she is a Hindu but told her husband that if he was going to be a Christian then she needed to understand what that was about so that she could do it with him.

So we did just a few introductory Bible studies just explaining what the Bible is and what it is about.

Navitesh is planning to continue studying with them online. Meanwhile, I am hopeful that they will continue visiting on Sundays with the group.

Joe & Melissa

Joe is a co-worker of Munil’s. Munil is the head of the IT department with a large hospital group.

Joe is in charge of setting up new employees with a computer and so he met Munil when Munil started with the company.

They were making introductions and quickly discovered that they lived near one another. Munil asked how Joe was getting to work and he said public transport (over an hour away)

Munil offered him a ride and so they began riding to and from work together.

The subject of religion soon came up and Joe said he had been reading his Bible but was needing help understanding it.

This began an ongoing Bible study which led to the baptism of Joe. He is just a great guy to be around.

Joe was telling his family about the church he was going to and it turns out that his cousins were members some time back.

Some of you may remember me talking about Moti in years past. He has since passed away but his youngest daughter told Joe she wanted to come to church with him.

So Joe and Mellisa came for studies several times. We went through a portion of the sermon on the mount with them which opened up some questions from Mellisa which we focused on for the last study.

Shammi and Family

We were only able to get together with Shammi and her daughters one night.

Shammi is Navitesh’s sister who was married to Indar.

They live the farthest away from everyone else between Nadi and Lautoka.

Shammi’s son works a lot and is rarely at worship services as a result.

We had a study with Shammi and her daughters about how to always be thinking of the spiritual implications of our work.

Perun

We were able to visit with sister Perun a few times while we were there.

Mostly, we study about encouragement with her. Seth presented a lesson from Romans 8 and she said it was one of her favorite chapters.

She continues to care for her disabled siblings and is homebound most of the time as a result.

Jaitesh, Shu, and Indra

Shu has been a part of the church for the longest and his brother Jaitesh and mother Indra became Christians several years ago as well.

Jaitesh and Shu along with Munil have taken up preaching on Sundays.

We had one of the roaming studies at their house as well as a study with just their family.

When we studied with just them, Seth talked about

Shiv, Rhata, & Munil

We met a couple of times with Munil’s family.

They were our first evening study and our last one.

On the first study Seth talked about how it is possible to please God from Micah 6.

On the last study, I led us in a discussion of how to interpret the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.

Navitesh

Conclusion

Please continue to pray for all of these good brethren and for the work in Fiji.

One of the great things about preaching in other parts of the world is that you get some perspective about the different ways of living and different levels of understanding.

But even though the needs and understanding levels are different, the words addresses them all.

The call of Jesus reaches out to the one who has never heard his name and it reaches out to the one who has heard that name his whole life.

And it is the same call regardless, the call that says come unto me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.