WHEN God calls, he provides.
This sentiment has been the secret behind the successful evangelical work carried out by the Musudroka family when they left Fijian shores eight-years-ago to take God’s gospel to fellow Melanesian brothers and sisters in the Solomon Islands.
It was never easy for the Rev Rusiate Musudroka to leave behind close family members and travel with his wife and four children to a place far away from home, a foreign place they had never been to and a place God had chosen for them.
It all started from scratch.
Mr Musudroka was serving at the Central Christian Centre in Nausori when he was chosen to carry out evangelical work in the Pacific region.
He never hesitated … he took on the challenge, believing this was God’s calling for him.
They first settled on Guadalcanal province where they started working with other denominations before actually beginning to sow the seed of the Assemblies of God Church.
When the family arrived on Guadalcanal in 2010, his wife, Sai Turaga Musudroka baked puddings and sold them to Fijians working on the island.
“The income we earned from these puddings helped us finance a bread bakery baked Fijian style which is known to many in the Solomon Islands as the bula bread,” Mrs Musudroka explained.
“We did projects in order to raise funds to start off our project so when we felt we had raised enough, we started a chicken business where chickens are slaughtered and sold when matured at six weeks.
“God does work in mysterious ways because every project we did fell into place and did wonders and the last project we did to raise enough funds was raising pigs to sell.”
The family then kick started their evangelism explosion project by visiting other provinces on the Solomon Islands as well as other denominations on Honiara while at the same time updated their field workers on the various provinces on the projects.
They had initially planned to build a church structure and use as trading centres in each region with the main purpose of bringing together leaders of all denominations in the Solomon Islands, train and equip more people to grow and plant more churches.
Every project the Musudroka family carried out during their seven-year stint on the island was done with their love for God being His servants and it was not about fame or money.
At times, they have had to go through major challenges, however, they did not give up and they said God would always show up when they were in need.
The family achieved their first project in 2015 on Guadalcanal when they completed a church building together with a medical clinic and a double-storey house for a pastor and the nurse.
In December 2016, the family rounded off projects in the Solomon Islands to move on to the Marshall Islands where another major evangelism project awaited them.
While language remained a barrier, their four children were fast enough to learn the native Marshall Islands language which was a big help for them in terms of reaching out to people.
In the Marshalls, they had to rebuild a church that was initially built by the late the Rev Jone Masivou, who had served in Kiribati for seven years and the Marshall Islands for 21 years.
And they are a testimony to believing that their faith in God has always led them to achieve the best in life.
“Miracles do happen in our family because sometimes when we have nothing at home, God provides,” Mrs Musudroka said.
The family is here to be part of the Assemblies of God Fiji 40th Biennial General Conference.
