Window on the World

God’s Transforming Work
in Fiji

Ratu Epeli Kanaimawi, our WCG pastor in Fiji, was invited to participate with more than 1,000 international Christian leaders in the inauguration of Transform World, conducted in Jakarta, Indonesia, in May.

Kanaimawi, because of his service to the government of Fiji, was asked to be a member of the Governance Group. I would like to share excerpts from his firsthand report on God’s intervention, healing and blessing of the nation of Fiji over the last half decade. Kanaimawi’s role as vice president of the Association of Christian Churches in Fiji gives him an inside view of the remarkable transformation of this island nation.

I remember as a boy one day when a man in the congregation who had been in a wheelchair, crippled from polio, was healed and walked out of church that day. He went on to be one of my professors, robust, healthy, standing tall.

It is so encouraging and gratifying to see how God is so merciful and cares so much that he would intervene for an entire nation that is crying out to him in travail. Here is Ratu Epeli’s report.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked man rules, the people groan” (NKJV).

That pronouncement made by God in Proverbs 29:2 is as true for Fiji as it is true for any country in the world. Fiji has two major races. Indians make up 43 percent of the population, and the indigenous Fijians 52 percent.

The Fijians are 99 percent Christians. The Indians are predominantly Hindu with a small minority of Muslims and Sikhs. With the vast cultural and religious differences between the two races, an ethnic divide has always existed between the two people groups. Political pronouncements tend to aggravate the situation rather than mend it.

Elections and coups

During the national general election of 1986, the Indian dominated Labor Party won the election and formed a government for the first time. 

This did not sit well with the Fijians, who felt that their rights to rule their country had been taken away. They quickly used their military power to overthrow the Indian-led government. This military takeover heightened racial feelings of animosity in the nation. Although the coup was bloodless, it tore the country apart and set back progress toward harmonious relationships more than a decade.

While the nation was still recovering from the first coup, the general election of 1999 brought a second coup in its wake. The Indian-dominated Labor Party again won that election. Fiji’s first Indian prime minister was sworn in by the president of Fiji.

His term in office was short-lived because a coup led by Ilikimi Naitini, a young Fijian, took the prime minister and his cabinet hostage in the Parliament House for 56 days. Some 19 people were killed, and many were injured and brutalized. The country was in greater agony and pain than even that experienced in 1987.

At this lowest time in Fiji’s modern history, the largely Christian Fijian population began crying out to God. They used 2 Chronicles 7:14 as their theme in approaching God. The prayer efforts started from the highest echelon of Fiji’s society, right down to the individual in the village. Fiji has remained, to this day, a nation of prayer.

• The president and his staff rise before dawn each morning to pray. The churches also organize two formal prayer breakfasts at the Government House each year for the president.

• The prime minister and many of his cabinet ministers also turned to God in prayer. The prime minister has two formal prayer breakfasts each year. These take place in different parts of the country.

• The church leaders and members of their congregations turned to God in prayer. The civil service through its network formed their various prayer groups. The traditional leaders and chiefs encouraged their communities to turn to God in prayer. The women and youth organizations also have prayer programs. The whole nation of believers turned to God in prayer.

They all drew strength from 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says: “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (NIV).

The spiritual leaders of Fiji put aside their differences and recognized what Christ was telling them in John 10:16: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen [flock]. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (NIV).

By May 2001, some 14 church leaders heeded the call and met with the president of the Methodist Church in Fiji to discuss ways of working together as an Assembly of Churches. Doctrinal differences had kept the churches apart from the beginning. The coup of May 2000 provided just the right atmosphere for the churches to come together and for God to once again do the impossible.

The ACCF was officially launched by President Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda in Suva, July 8, 2001. Since then, many wonderful things have happened.

The ACCF mission statement  contains four simple but significant parts.

1. All Flocks to Unite

2. Living His Way of Love

3.Establishing God-Fearing Lead-ers

4. Reconciling Fiji for Peace and Prosperity

If peace and prosperity are to come, it is important that people are reconciled to God and also to one another. “All this is from God,” says 2 Corinthians 5:18, “who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting man’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (NIV).

Answering the prayers of his people, God gave Fiji a new government and a crop of new leaders. When God’s people humbled themselves and turned to God in prayer, God answered them. A four-month old political party was established quickly and won a landslide victory during the 2001 general election. All the former political leaders were swept away overnight, and a new crop of leaders under Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase took over the running of the nation.

Government Leaders Lead by Example.

It was heartening to see the government leaders, beginning with the president and prime minister, humbling themselves and repenting of their ways. In a public prayer meeting at Albert Park in 2001, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase publicly asked for God’s forgiveness.

George Otis Jr.’s transformation video “Let the Sea Resound” has beautifully captured the sentiments of his confessions and repentance.  God was true to his promise! He heard these prayers and moved quickly to heal our land.

A New Ministry of National Reconciliation and Unity
Is Established.

Immediately after Laisenia Qarase was sworn in as prime minister in 2001, he moved quickly to establish a Ministry of National Reconciliation and Unity. This ministry became the conduit through which all reconciliation and unity efforts flowed. The churches found it important to liaise closely with this ministry.

The prime minister has also created a Council for National Reconciliation and Unity, where other religious organizations and the private sector can meet with church and government representatives.

The President Lit the Torch
of Reconciliation.

On July 8, 2001, President Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda and First Lady Adi Salaseini Kavu Uluivuda lit the torch of reconciliation at Albert Park. That occasion also marked the launching of the Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji.

This event had a major significance in transforming the nation. God’s people recognized the significance of the torch as symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit among them.

Church ministers and the young people of Fiji took the torch to the four administrative divisions of the country. The church young people, in a weeklong procession, took the torch on foot around the island of Vitilevu. Townships and villages took delight in receiving the torch and joined in the foot procession to its next destination. All those communities who received the torch tell wonderful stories of how God had brought blessings to their communities.

Government Leaders Were Dedicated to God.

On Oct. 14, 2001, a dedication church service took place at the National Stadium in Suva. The prime minister and his cabinet ministers, along with most senators and their office staff, were dedicated to God at a special ceremony led by a former president of the Methodist Church. Church leaders laid hands on and commissioned these government leaders for their responsibilities.

The Oasis of Loving Motherhood Was Born.

To look after the interests of church mothers and children, the Oasis of Loving Motherhood was formed and launched by First Lady Adi Salaseini Uluivuda.

Unity Through the Healing of the Land Program.

The healing of the land program started only three years ago in a small way, but as time went by, the news of reconciliation, unity and miracles started to spread, and demands grew quickly. This program is being promoted strongly in Fiji.

In the Explorers Report of April 13, sent out worldwide by the Sentinel Group (www.sentinelgroup.org), was this report on Fiji: “In many cases, God has used the Healing of the Land team to bring villages to repentance. Their pattern is to go into villages where they have been invited by the chiefs, starting the two-week process with a week of fasting and teaching the Scriptures.

“The second week they normally visit individual families and lead them into reconciliation with their family members. In many cases, an outstanding miracle has taken place on the last day of the team’s ministry in the village.

“As the meetings continued in Savusavu, Healing the Land team leader Savenaca Nakauyaca, son of a key revival leader, Vuniani Nakauyaca, gave an amazing update. ‘What God is doing here is beyond imagination. The place is fully packed every night as people from other villages are there to witness what God is doing. And you know what, three lame or crippled people were healed right in the meeting and people were amazed. God’s favor is indeed on the young people who are leading the process. The team prayed over these three crippled people and they went home walking on their feet. Praise God!

“Nakauyaca says, ‘Instead of going to the hospital, the people from the surrounding villages are coming to where the Healing of the Land team is camping to receive their healing. The news of this has spread all over the region and the other villagers and their chiefs are negotiating with the team as to who will host the team next.’ Some 26 other villages have opened their doors for ministry.”

Since the coup of May 2000, much growth has been experienced. These are but a few examples:

Jobs have returned and unemployment is decreasing.

The building industry is booming with new and more elaborate construction projects undertaken.

Tourism is booming. The hotels are full and they don’t have enough room to meet increasing demands.

A number of new five and six star hotels are being built to cater to current demands and future growth.

The political front is stable in the hands of a God-fearing prime minister.

God-fearing leaders have emerged in the nation, and the people are happy. Smiles have returned to the faces of women and children in the streets.

International confidence in Fiji has returned and foreign investments are beginning to grow.

Law and order has been restored.

What a wonderful God we serve!

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2005