The Trans Pacific Union Mission (TPUM) has been celebrating its July Harvest this month, with thousands of individuals across American Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu making the decision to be baptised.
Regular updates shared to their Facebook page have depicted local churches and small groups across Fiji congregating near rivers and the ocean to support those being baptised.
So far, Fiji have completed their harvest for the Fijian-speaking community, and baptisms for the Indian-speaking and multi-ethnic groups are happening now. Other missions including Solomon Islands and Kiribati are also doing their harvest right now, with baptisms planned for the last Sabbath of July. Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga are doing their harvest in August.
With this year’s harvest month focussing on equipping young people for evangelism, the TPUM trained thousands of young people in the early months of 2020 to conduct evangelism and share the gospel effectively. They are now enjoying the fruits of their labour.
TPUM president Pastor Maveni Kaufononga is excited by the progress.
“I am really really happy with how the harvest is going on in our Union,” he said. “I don’t believe in delaying anything that we are doing for the Lord because of COVID-19. We just have to adjust how we do things but God’s work must continue. The Bible tells us that those who wait for the right weather will never get anything done and therefore no harvest (Ecclesiastes 11:4). God is working in all weather and I am excited to be working with Him.”
Although far from comprehensive, the following list depicts some of the baptismal highlights from Fiji specifically:
Sabbath July 11
Nineteen people were baptised from the Nadala and Nadarivatu districts, and another group were baptised at Wailoku Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Sabbath July 4
At Nagelegaga Seventh-day Adventist Church, six people were baptised and in Suva’s West Zonne, Pastor Talemo baptised 23 young people from four local churches—Naboro, Wailekutu, Uduya and the Samoan Church.
In addition, 46 people from Waitale and Natolevu in Fiji’s Tavua District were baptised.
On the same Sabbath, Tenakoga Adventist High School celebrated their first baptism for the July Harvest, seeing 35 students make the decision to accept Jesus as their personal saviour. Another 27 students took a stand to be baptised at the next ceremony.
In the Lautoka District, a total of 14 churches and Sabbath School branches came to be baptised. The program went from 2pm until 4:30pm and 132 people gave to their lives to Jesus.
On the same day in Deuba, nine people were also baptised.
