The Fijian Missionary

I met him in Tanzania. He moved there as a full time missionary with his wife.

His saying on the topic of temptation: "The birds will always fly over your head. It is when they want to come and make nest on your head, that you must chase them"

He grew up in Fiji. He told me that nearly the entire Fiji is Christian. A few years ago we saw how the Fijian's sevens team came running out with Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” on their jerseys.

And so, as is the call, he had to go out to preach the gospel.

For the missionary:

A story he told me, from his younger days, when he was just 21 years old...
He heard of a tribe living somewhere high up in the mountains of the Solomon Islands, very remote, tropical south west pacific, a tribe completely unreached.One of the tribesmen moved to a city and lived there, this is where he met up with him; the tribesman taught him the basics of their language. They would soon go together to the tribe, with the tribesman as his translator and interpreter. He packed food for roughly 3 months not knowing what to expect. Biscuits were mentioned... After a few days’ hike they met up with the tribe. To his surprise none of the tribesmen or tribeswoman had any clothes on; they were all running around naked in the mountains! It was so much part of their culture – they thought of it as normal. It took him a while to get used to all of this.

He organized a helicopter to bring the tribe a cargo of clothes. Before the helicopter came, he told them that a silver bird will be landing soon and that they should all stay calm; no harm would come to them. After a while the blades could be heard beating the air. When the helicopter appeared in sight, the tribe fled for cover. Only after landing, followed by a few words of encouragement from him, the first tribesman came out from amongst the undergrowth. He walked up slowly and touched the silver bird, then took his finger to his mouth; trying to taste this thing in front of him. Probably didn’t’ taste like much.

The tribe got outfitted with new clothes, unfortunately by the time they had walked a few feet into the bushes; all the clothes were gone, spread over the hill side, tossed for a bad idea. He couldn't convince them otherwise.

On another occasion he was a spectacle for the entire village to witness. The village followed him walking down to the river, no-one on-board as to what he was going to do. He then took a bath in the river; none could fathom why… they had never taken a bath before.

He and the translator preached the gospel boldly from person to person amongst the tribe. After a few months the whole tribe was converted! From start to finish - a few months living in a wild mountain, in the south west pacific, amongst an unreached tribe that soon became like family. It is here that he fulfilled a part in this amazing story we call life. When he left, the whole village waved him goodbye!

Now that is a story to talk about!

Complacent?

Be bold as a lion!