I recently flew exactly halfway around the world to participate in six days of meetings with the Global Leadership Team
Executive and the President’s Gathering, then I flew back. I can assure you that changing twelve time zones and then going back is tough on the body.
So what was the point of travelling to the relatively remote island of Fiji for some global meetings? The simple explanation is that when we were meeting together as a GLT last summer, God spoke to us that we should have the Executive meetings in Fiji. But why should He say such a thing? I believe that the primary reason is that Fiji is a nation where God is at work laying new foundation stones. Fiji has become known throughout the Christian world as a laboratory for transformation. That is, it’s a place where God has been
doing a deep and foundational work to change the very nature of Fijian society.

This was illustrated just as I arrived. On the car journey to a meeting place the YWAM leader there explained how recent evangelistic events in Fiji have been attended by overwhelming crowds. In fact, twenty percent of the entire population jammed the national stadium for the last night of the recent visit of an international evangelist. Tens of thousands give their lives to Christ, and there were numerous
healings and other supernatural manifestations of God’s love.

That was a strong reminder that when we speak of God’s power to transform nations, we must remember that it requires firstly significant numbers of the nation’s citizens coming to faith in Christ Jesus. From that point social structures, government, economic and legal factors can begin to change. The evidence suggests that Fiji could well be on the road to transformation, but some leaders also caution us that racial tensions and injustices threaten to boil over with the slightest
provocation. So it really seems that Fiji and its future is hanging in the balance.

YWAM’s role in the future of Fiji could be significant. We were there because one evangelistic arm of Youth With A Mission, that is Impact World Tours, have felt to focus on Fiji as have a number of outreach teams and the University of the Nations. During the course of this next year outreach teams are planning to go to all of the Fijian islands and then the Impact World Tour will begin with major evangelistic campaigns in 2007.

A few months ago one of the “Kings” of Fiji visited Loren Cunningham and other leaders at the University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii (the social structure of Fiji with its Chiefs and Kings is still very much intact, each King is over several Chiefs and there are a dozen or
more Kings in the islands). The purpose of the King’s visit to Hawaii was that he would extend an official request on behalf of his people that YWAM should come and help them. They particularly asked that a campus of the University of the Nations should be established in Fiji.

During our visit, we had the great privilege of receiving a gift of about a hundred acres of land given as a site for the UofN campus. Loren and I and the members of the GLT Executives and the President’s Gathering had the great joy of meeting King Ratu Osea, his elders and the people of one of his villages. I was surprised to find a group of people who live and worship together in a way that, to a great extent, has been untouched by the development of modern life over recent decades. However, all that is about to change.

For more then four generations this village has had a sense that they were stewarding land that God has given them for a special purpose. Then in 1973 a visiting minister had a prophetic word for them: that
their village would be a place where the nations would come and go. That stirred a great faith in the heart of
these villagers. They have been praying faithfully, even fasting and praying on a nearby prayer mountain for these decades. When they heard about YWAM and the University of the Nations a couple of years ago they realised this could be the fulfilment of their prophetic word and their intercessory prayer. The King and his people then determined in their hearts to give YWAM a hundred acres of land, including the prayer
mountain, for the development of the campus.
We received the land in a day long ceremony which involved all the elders engaging in a beautiful series of covenants expressed through chants and the exchange of a whale tooth. One of our leaders explained the whale tooth ceremony makes a much more solemn contract then words on paper. The accompanying photos show the King sitting with Loren during part of the ceremony upon the prayer mountain and with me during the other part of the ceremony that was conducted in the village.

The gift of the land is all the more remarkable because it is a short drive from the International Airport at Nadi. It is situated on a beautiful bit of coastline that has been completely undeveloped until recently. Now, within a few months, a very large Marriot resort centre opens and seven other resorts are in the process of being built or planned in the immediate area.
Of course, these factors makes the gift all the more valuable and significant. As we prayed there with the elders, I had a very strong sense that the Lord was calling us to join together with them to stand for righteousness in an environment of the rapid development
of tourist trade in that part of the island. Development does not have to mean a decline in righteousness, and part of learning to “Disciple Nations” is to discover together how to maintain a standard of righteousness when prosperity comes to previously poor communities.

Fiji is also a source of missionaries for the new missions movement from the Pacific islands. I finished off my time in Fiji with the privilege of speaking to the latest DiscipleshipTraining School. It was great to meet students from all over the islands of Fiji and to think that the youngest who grew up on remote islands with simple subsistence agriculture and fishing have sensed the call of God on their lives
for the nations. They have responded by doing a DTS that has its sights set on both China and Europe.
We look forward to welcoming some of these DTS students here in England next year. This photo shows the DTS with me on the Saturday evening before I flew out. You will notice standing behind me someone
who has got to be the world’s largest DTS student to date. Kali is one of the world’s tallest men, but his spirit is as gentle as his body is tall and it was great to get to know him
and his fellow students as they prepare to go into the nations.

Finally, this YWAM family is a remarkable lot of people. What a privilege it is to serve God together!