‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands…For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endured to all generation.’ Psalms 100:1, 5.

It was a wonderful privilege to revisit the Cook Islands after a month with the challenge of establishing our church in this wonderful island nation. Pr. Anton Salavyov as Division Leader was responsible for this work and the challenge was how we could find local people to accept our message given the four days we had before we returned. We trusted entirely in the Lord to lead us to find honest and truth-seeking souls. Though we had some interests during the earlier visit in June, they were all foreign nationals who would soon be leaving at the end of their terms.

God amazingly brought us into contact with a self – support church minister who willingly accepted us into his home where important points of the present truth were explained to Him. He was the first person we shared with, then the list extended, we were introduced to a Samoan lady who invited us to her home in the evening for a more thorough study. At the Samoan lady’s home, two other local interested Adventist women joined, and with so much keenness completed our first night of study late into the night. Straight after that first session, the women, confirmed that they are not moving anywhere else on Sabbath but to have the meeting separately with us for further studies. Our first Sabbath meeting consisted of three interests, two local ladies and a Fijian. They had arranged a village meeting house where we had our Sabbath meeting conducted. They were so interested in our Sabbath school discussion, on the subject of ‘Investigative Judgement’ that we continued our discussion till lunch break. The ladies prepared a wonderful lunch for us before the afternoon session begun.

Pr. Anton Salavyov spoke at length on the prophecy regarding Turkey as an important sign for the close of probation which is a real occurrence of the present time. The Adventist sisters were so glad to see in the entire review of our Church, the “Principle of Faith” expressed entirely regarding our present biblical and Adventist principles. The Sabbath closed not without an opportunity given for the women to take their stand with the people of God, and amazingly they all decided to follow their Lord in baptism.

Sunday was scheduled for these three pioneering interests to be baptized. They had gathered together with the husband of one of the Sisters for the meeting. The man had received information from his wife and during the previous day had been doing his own research by internet, and though he was not with us during our Sabbath meetings, was accompanying his wife to the baptismal meeting. It was the Lord’s providence that immediately after the prayer and as the candidates were heading for the water that the spirt of the Lord touched the man and he pleaded to be baptized. This was just the final touch that we needed, to stabilize this small group – we needed a man to take on the leading role and here was this chosen Adventist brother stepping in to receive God’s call as soon as he receives it for the Cook Islands.

We thank the Lord for these four dear souls, who now shouldering the great responsibility of the work in the Cooks and it is our wish that we cooperate in praying and supporting this new group in the Pacific.

We again thank you brethren for your prayers and faithfulness in supporting our missionary work and may the Lord continue to bless each and every one of you as the Lord’s work continues to extend further into new fields of this region.

SR Kenivale

Fiji Islands