Just over six months ago, IMS was established here on the tropical shores of the Cook Islands, with four souls added to the family of God. As believers, like all those who have entered through the front gate to this global family, we are also progressing on this spiritual journey with various challenges.

We sent a request to Pastor Anton for someone to visit us here in the Cook Islands and on Tuesday morning, 31st January 2017, Brother Sanaila Ravia from Fiji arrived.

We were deeply humbled and blessed, that Brother Sanaila accepted God’s challenge, and came to visit us. What a blessing. we have abundantly been blessed by his visit. On a small island like Rarotonga (capital of the Cook Islands), every Seventh-day Adventist, and every Present Advent Truth member must have known that Brother Sanaila from IMS Seventh-day Adventist Church Reform Movement was on the island. News travels so fast here in the Cook Islands And, it is incredibly amazing how our local coconut wireless seems to have been able to overtake the effect of modern communication technology with ease.

On our daily travels, Adventist people whom Pastor Anton and Brother Sanaila were introduced to from their previous visit (July 2016) were also lined up for us to meet up with later on. One by one, we invited them all to attend our nightly Bible Studies; and even though they all showed interest to attend; only one soul turned up for one evening.

Naturally, I was sad. However, we honour our God through our willingness to totally trust Him during these times. Everyone faces untamed situations in life; and we are no different. But, without a doubt, our God often reveals His power best in times of seemingly great challenges.

Brother Sanaila’s nightly presentations (6:30 – 8:00 pm) were superbly received by our members. He came there each night, with prepared messages; but, every night; our compounding questions always diverted our studies into other topics of much higher interest to our spiritual need. Unselfishly, he was always able to feed our spiritual hunger without missing a beat. On Sabbath morning, Sister Shirley Ka led us in our Sabbath School Studies; and Brother Sanaila led our Divine Service, and including the Holy Ordinance. What a moving experience for all of us. All praise and Glory must go to God.

We had a lovely lunch together. And around 6:30 pm that Sabbath evening, we gathered together for our last hour and half study. We thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship.

Thank you Brother Sanaila for visiting us and thank you so much to Pastor Anton and the IMS Conference for allowing our request to proceed without any obstruction. Not one of us knows what the future holds. Each day we face the new and the unknown. Following God into an unknown territory, though, creates in us a dependency on Him, which ALWAYS leads to victory.

Joshua 1:5; “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

Joshua accepted the challenge because he recognized God’s promise to him. And in essence, God said to Joshua, “If you accept the challenge, I’ll commit myself to you.” This is also our humble prayer for all of us

Kia Orana and God bless.

Teuira Ka