164 Years of Faith

-

25th November 1860 was the date on record our great great grandfather Aisea Vakadranu got baptized to be a Christian. 164 years ago. 

Upon this discovery the vuvale Nadokadrau likes to get together to honor what that decision has been for us over the generations. 



A little bit emotional realizing the significance that one decision has been over the generations. 

Sure there has been bad decisions along the way, and our grandfathers could have easily chosen not to introduce us to the faith but here we are 5th, 6th and 7th generations later still gathering to pray and praise. 

Alot of it is also credited to the women who married in to the family, our mothers who helped nurture us and keep us in this faith reality. A combination of grit and grace to press through challenges and the simple truth of the power of our living God. 

Today we have become many branches and many in numbers since that baptism and I recall a verse that was personally shared to me back in 2008 by Tutu Tu Kolinio (SLRs late father) that he felt is significant to the family story and journey; 

Romans 4:17

“As it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations'—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” 

               Two of the remaining fathers we have,
                               Tata Peni & Tata Siti  
           

I am a 5th generation believer of the faith of Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord and getting to sit around family yesterday to sing and pray and have tea and cake 164 years later is pretty mindblowing to me. 

"God, who gives life", is the reason we live and have our being and I believe that in that one baptism into Christianity all those years ago, God had today in mind - some day they will be many, fruitfully multiplied, in numbers and in the faith.  

We are products of generations of prayers and obedience and grace and grit. We didn't just happen. Our destiny story could have been different, going the complete opposite direction of where we are right now. But here we are. 

I share this because I know how important that decision has been in my own life. 

What a testament to the reality that the Word of God stands the test of time. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Doing It Anyway

-
Image
For some reason, I thought I needed to be out of the woods of this process to be able to tell the story. At least a proper one where my emotions are not in the way. The danger of doing it anyway is you feeling the rawness of the rage, the hurt, the heartbreak, the bitterness.  But I want to stay alive and telling the story helps me do that. Not for likes and follows and shares, but to simply stay alive.  Cue tears.  There's this misconception among Christians sometimes that nothing bad happens to us if we believe in Jesus. You know because God is good all the time and  Great things He has done. I'm not writing to imply those aren't true. I just want to tell my story.  This blog has been about my journey. Testimonies of God's faithfulness in grief, suffering and celebrating life and milestones. And so the journey continues.  Here's what I've been dealt with: a relationship that I love(d) where he wanted to marry me ..... and then he didn't, the morning of....
Read more

Heartbreak

-
Image
Imagine a girl growing up in a safe little good Christian home. Key words: safe, good and CHRISTIAN.  I start here because when the environment in your development stages in life is safe, good and Christian, your views and ideas about life is very limited. Limited to only good things. It's not bad and I'm not ungrateful but I say limited because I had no idea how to cope when bad things happened to me because it was a foreign concept and that it was even possible to happen to me in the first place. God was my protector I was taught and I should be immune to bad things?  I look back and see trauma happened one after the other for me in my 20s and now 30s that I guess is where my safety net comes in. My safety net being how I was raised as default - prayer, Bible and family with phrases like, "just pray about it!"   Great stuff but does not negate the fact that I was raised to believe that God is good all the time and for a kid that was raised in that environment, unco...
Read more

Fiji Now...

-
Image
Steve Penny Prophecy for Fiji! PROPHECY BY STEVE PENNY AT CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE, Nausori, Fiji - Monday,3 November,1997 "This nation shall experience a cloud of the glory of God, the anointing coming down upon this nation like a thick cloud filled with rain , filled with great potential and it will come down and it will blanket all of the islands like a cloud and it won't come and just wash across and go, but it will settle and it will continue to fall ...the rain of God's presence will fall on this nation in a powerful way. And the reviving of the Spirit…literally within five years, this nation will be awash with a great Revival. One side to another, this nation will literally be under the blanket of a move of the Spirit of God like you've never seen before. Just about every denomination will be touched...only those that are very, very resistant will hold out against it, but whole denominations will be swept into this move of the Spirit. There'll be un...
Read more