Church History

The founding families of the new church plant in Sanasana Naisoso are the Nakaora Family, the Naulivou Family and the Masano Family. The founding individuals are Merelita, Merewalesi Nasenicagi and Maimona Luke. These mentioned members were part of the Nadi Indian SDA Church from with the longest serving member recorded from Mid-October 2014 – End of October 2017 when the Indian Church regular Sabbath Programs was closed due to the unfinished  construction work that needs to be completed. Sabbath worship program was moved to Pastor Anthony Sharma’s residence and non-hindi speakers were told to move to other churches within Nadi or Lautoka as all programs of the Indian Church would now be conducted in Hindi language. At first the English / iTaukei speaking members thought of breaking up to join other sister churches, however the conviction of remaining together and stating a new church plant was the direction we finally embraced and this idea was growing rapidly amongst the three founding families whenever we met up for prayer meeting in our three homes every Wednesday nights from November – December of 2017. After the official closing of the Indian Church, we then continued to worship on the Sabbaths at Nakaora’s Residence seeing that Naulivou and Masano Families residence were not conducive for Sabbath worshipping but all Wednesday night prayer meetings were carried out in these two residences. Before December 2017 ended we consulted the then District Pastors Kaveni Rauku and Uraia Seru if we can start a new church plant in Naisoso. They directed us to start and come under Namaka SDA Church. From End of October 2017 – January 2018 the three founding families and other single members worshipped at Nakaora’s Family home every Sabbath. Our first Taplin shed was erected on the month of February 2018 out from worshipping in the house living room. Pastor Uraia Seru became the District Director of Nadi and informed our church that he will be our new Pastor when Pr. Kaveni Rauku transferred to Suva in 2019. He provided all necessary Tithe / Treasury Books for us to start collecting our Tithe / Offerings and Report to Fiji Treasury every month. He allowed us to purchase our new Communion Service Equipment and we have already conducted Quarter Two / Quarter Three Lords Supper Program in our own church already. We are now running normal Sabbath School / Divine Service Program as a Branch now.

Leaders, Members, Programs

This is an overview of Nadi Multi-Ethnic Seventh-day Adventist Branch Church Plant Commencement, Membership, Planned Programs, Evangelism Activities, Leadership and the Departments for the church period from the month of January – September 2018. This report is required by the Namaka SDA Church Board. The verbal presentation was related by Elder Samuel Masano to the Namaka Church Board on Sunday the 20^th October 2018. Nadi Multi Ethnic Seventh-day Adventist Church is the Branch of Namaka by church protocol and not by mother church planting.

2016 Picture – Visitation to the Natabua Old Peoples Home when we were together with the Nadi Indian Church from 2015-2017.

HOW WE STARTED AS A CHURCH

The Nadi Multi-Ethnic Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed by three families who were worshipping at the Indian Seventh-day Adventist Company Church in Westfield Nadi. Namely the Nakaora Family (long-time Indian church members), the Naulivou Family (Baptized into Indian Church in 2016), and the Masano Family (Transferred in From PNG) to support the Indian work and joined with the Indian church. They were active members of the Indian SDA Church up till October of 2017. 

At that time all programs were conducted in both English and Hindi. However, in October of 2017, the church Pastor notified all of us that the Indian SDA Church will no longer conduct its programs anymore in English and that we were to join other Fijian or English-speaking churches. Most members went away attending churches near their residing places.

The three founding families started a new church plant in Nasoso, an area where there is no Presence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It all began in the residence of the Nakaora Family.   

•We started with Sabbath worships in the living room of Nakaroa Family House. •We worshipped later with a tarpaulin over our heads tied to the house frame outside as the number grew making the living room overcrowded. See Images Below.  

•Members donated funds & bought roofing irons as we experienced rain and the wearing out of the tarpaulin from the sun over time. •A tin shed was erected on the open space of Nakaora Family’s compound.   

THE CHURCH NAME “NADI MULTI-ETHNIC”

The founding families prayerfully seek the Lord’s guidance in coming up with the church name and with many other options brought forward, “Nadi Multi-Ethnic” stood out because many who were already worshipping with us were from different ethnicity. We identified our little church as a “Warm and Friendly Place for All Races” 

ENCOURAGED TO MOVE FORWARD – Nadi District Pastor Kaveni Rauku

In November of 2017, the three founding families started the Sabbath Family Worships in the living room of the Nakaora Family Residence. Other members heard that we were gathering so they joined and at the end of 2017 (November – December 2017) we already had 8 baptized members and 7 children worshipping. The then Nadi District Pastor Kaveni Rauku and his associate Pr Uraia Seru knew about our church branch and encouraged us to move forward.

EARLY CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Pastor Uraia Seru was assigned to take care of us from 2017-2019. We were part of the Namaka Church Board which he pastored but had our own leadership roles. Through Selection / Nomination Committee, we had a Leading Elder and Assistant (ordained), a Deacon, Deaconesses, Sabbath School Leader, and Teachers both for the Adults and Children were appointed. As the number of children grew our first pathfinder club was established in 2018 and directors appointed. We had the Personal Ministry leader and other departments of the church in full function by the end of 2018. By 2019 and thereafter our church now had a good leadership structure with our treasury department remitting tithe/offerings to the Mission.       

CHURCH PASTORS

During the duration of the church life from 2017, we were privileged to have three Pastors ministering to us. Pastor Uraia Seru was with us from 2017-2019. And in 2020 Pastor Osea Raitila was attached with the church just for a few months. In 2021, Pastor Ratu Bola Mataitini ministered to the church for one year. Pastor Uraia did the 1st Baptism for our church in 2019 followed by Pr Bola who did the 2nd Baptism during a combined district program at Wailoaloa beach. Pastor Thomas Albert was appointed to start the new Western Multi-ethnic District and assigned to be our church pastor from 2022-2023. He was posted to Rotuma Island and the 2nd Pastor appointed to oversee the WMED Churches for 2024 is Pastor Ravo Hugh who is also our church 5th Pastor since we began as a church in 2017.

FIRST COMMUNITY HEALTH OUTREACH

Since Evangelism and health outreach is the church’s Mission, we conducted our first-ever One Week Public Evangelism and Health Outreach Program between  November-December of 2018. The turnout was great and we praise God to add some more members into the little church. Mr. George Kwong conducted the Health Program while Pastor Osea Raitila conducted the Spiritual Seminars in the Waimalika Community of Nadi Fiji. Free health checks were conducted including body massages, and healthy herbal juice was made available by our church and served every night to the visiting community by the church. 

CHURCH FIRST BAPTISM

Membership is important to our little church since we first started in 2017 with only three families (8 adults/7 children) but up till to date our church has experienced a total of 89 precious souls for Jesus who have actively attended our little church since it’s inception with 19 transferred out due to work commitments and 70 still attending the church today. 

 In 2019, those who joined from 2018 Evangelism & Health Outreach program were nurtured and also baptized. See link on page 20 for more online story about the Baptism.