A VISIT TO FIJI
4-18 October, 2004Pastor Aminiasi Tuidraki had been in correspondence with me for about a year before he invited me to go over to help and establish the believers in his assembly into the present day TRUTH. (For his personal testimony - click here.) This was his first time organizing a convention and he wanted me to speak on the Faith that is given to us in this endtime. He and his assembly had severed ties with a big
assembly in Suva, the capitol city of Fiji, which is on the eastern part of the island and whose pastor is nothing short of being a cultic leader.
Fiji has more than 300 islands. The history of Fiji goes back to some 3500 years. The people were then tribal and cannibalistic. English missionaries arrived on the islands in the mid-1800s. A Reverend Thomas Baker was eaten in 1867.
Nearly half of Fiji's population are Indians. They stem from groups of labourers who were brought there by the British to work the plantation in those early years. They are mainly Hindus whereas a great portion of the rest of the Fijians profess the Christian Faith.
On the 3 October, 2004, I left for the airport to take the "graveyard" flight at past midnight to Nadi, a town on the western part of the biggest island of Fiji called Viti Levu, where Bro. Tui and his family live. Filling the Immigration and Custom form during the flight, I found a clause which states that a visitor is not allowed to engage in any religious vocation except with approval from the Director of Immigration. When I read that, I felt that Bro. Tui might not have been aware of this particular law and done the necessary things with regards to holding the convention publicly. I was praying on whether I should ask him about it but I didn't when I arrived. I was thinking of asking him on the following day but again I felt not led to.
I thank the Lord that He had all things under control for on the day of the first meeting (held in the evening), Bro. Tui called me and told me that someone called the Immigration Office and told them that there was to be a convention held in a hotel in Lautoka, a town some 30 km. east of Nadi. That "someone" who called the Immigration Office is that Branhamite pastor in Suva. Bro Tui told me that years ago before the separation, he and another believer were called upon by that same pastor to request the authorities to stop an Endtime Message church from holding a convention in which a foreign minister was the guest speaker. Bro. Tui knew that the same pastor was up to his same wicked deeds. The pastor possesses the spirit of nicolaitanism.
We thanked the Lord for seeing us through, otherwise His sending me to Fiji would be fruitless. The Immigration Office granted the permit for me to teach for the whole of the 9 services specified in the application form. My decision not to tell Bro. Tui of the need for a permit was to have an effect of exposing the
spirit of Branhamism that exists in the life of many believers, and especially in the "preachers" of the Endtime Message. That spirit always persecute others who are not in agreement with their view of the Endtime Message.
The convention was held in Lautoka. Though a few non-believers came only to the first two services, the believers from Nadi, Lautoka and Rakiraki remained faithful in attendance. That helped them to understand what the Message of the Hour is really all about ― to get right back to the Apostolic Faith that was once given to the saints, and to know the plan and purpose of God in every age, especially in our age.
Services were held in the morning and the evening. Each teaching session lasted for about 2 hours. Bro. Tui, his family and myself travelled between
Nadi and Lautoka between services. I slept most of the time after lunch and a small quick dinner before the evening service. After the evening service, I would take a small papaw (papaya) and a piece of pineapple before retiring. I took the same for breakfast then a cup of coffee with either a small muffin or two to three pieces of biscuits. There wasn't much time to eat a hearty meal except during lunch.
On the last three days (Friday to Sunday), the meetings were held in the assembly's regular gathering place, a club house in the premise of a sugar processing plant. I was glad to know that a few other believers had come from other towns. One of them was a pastor (Bro. Isaia) of an assembly on an island called Ovalau, off the eastern coast of Viti Levu. This pastor was invited, like all others, to the convention. Though he could not come early as planned, nevertheless he came and found a blessing in the Lord and His Word. Like Bro. Tui, he had also distanced himself from that pastor in Suva.
Then there were two other brothers, one (Bro. Mark) who returned from Sydney, Australia, to deal with some legal papers before he could go back to Sydney. He was in Suva when he saw the poster in the town and together with a son (Bro. Waqa) of a pastor from an assembly in Nausori (that also distanced itself from that pastor in Suva), came for the last few meetings.
Bro. Mark related how that he had been a believer of the Endtime Message for some years while in Sydney and attended a fellowship pastored by a Singaporean Chinese living there. He said that there were a good number of Chinese believers but as time went by they no longer attended the fellowship.
He, too, has no desire to attend because the TRUTH of Scriptures was not preached and the Bible life of the leader was not found.
After the convention was over, they all left home with some books. May the Lord open their eyes to the truth that they may be established in the Present Truth.
Bro. Tui desired that there would be two more meetings before I leave Fiji. It was announced to the congregation that I was to minister again on the following Saturday and Sunday. Those two meetings were cancelled. The reason: the Immigration Department again received complaints from someone that I should no longer be allowed to minister the Word. Pleas with the Immigration Officer proved fruitless as the permit granted was only for the first week of 9 services. Bro. Tui was advised to comply with the law.
Why was that pastor out on a "witch hunt"? His spirit is not that of Christ, that's for sure. It's a Pharisaical spirit, a Jesuit spirit, an antichrist spirit, a self-righteous spirit. Branhamites: beware of your religious attitude. True saints of God do not go "witch hunting". Believers should take heed to Dr. Gamaliel's advice that he gave to Saul (Paul). Read Acts 5:34-39.
Anyway, some of the believers gathered at Bro. Tui's home and had a small feast on Saturday night. We sat and talked and answered some Bible questions. On the morrow, together with two other brothers (Joab and Sevuloni), Bro Tui and I left for Rakiraki for a little Sunday meeting with some of the believers there in a brother's home. It took us about four hours to get there. We had lunch in the brother's home before we took an express bus back to Lautoka and connected using a local bus to Nadi.
The visit to Fiji was fruitful. The believers were thirsting for the Word and they were filled. They came and shook my hands and said, "We thank God for your coming. Now we understand why God sent a messenger to point us to the Word." They wished me to come back again. Those others from the eastern side of Viti Levu and the island of Ovalau would like me to visit them should I ever return to Fiji by the will of the Lord.
Personally, I would like to give God the praise and glory. It was a joy to see the saints thirsting for the Truth and witnessing their thirst being quenched by the Spirit of the Lord. Their souls thirsted for righteousness and their actions were manifested in that they gave out of their pockets in contribution toward paying for my accommodation and food. May the Lord bless them all for their sincerity.
PS: A time when we were sitting and relaxing, Bro. Tui related an event which took place when his assembly was still with the group in Suva. He said that an Indian preacher from Singapore went there to preach. In the first few sessions, he quoted some Scriptures to lay a foundation for what he wanted to establish later for his certain revelation. On the last session, he then said to the congregation, "please pray for me, if I am wrong" and then dropped his revelation that the Lord had come, the rapture had taken place and the millennium is here, and that there is no longer a need for feetwashing and the communion.
Bro Tui said that the pastor then went up and, in the Fijian language, made a negative comment regarding that revelation. Of course, the Indian preacher did not know what was said.
As Bro Tui told me this event, I recalled what Bro. Chandula Abeywickrama (of Sri Lanka) had in the past related to me of a similar occurrence with the same Singaporean Indian preacher in Sri Lanka. Both Bro. Tui and Bro. Chandula said that the preacher was very smart to use Scriptures to hold the people and then dropped his "revelation" using some quotes of Bro. Branham.
Like that pastor in Suva, this Singaporean Indian preacher has the same spirit. He once destroyed a small assembly that I had started to begin to build (in a town in West Malaysia). To this day, he has yet to apologize for what he had done. All he did, when we once met, was these words uttered to me, "It's all in the past. Just forget about it." I can never forget those words. It was spoken barely 10 feet away from a few foreign ministers in a room. They asked me what he meant by that. I gave them the "history", and they said, "That's not an apology." I said, "Nope."
If only a person would be sincere....
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