A tribal priest, an expat Scot and a Māori walk into a church. No, this is not the start of a joke, but may as well be. Let’s set some context.
It’s the height of the weekend celebrations for the Aleph church network. They are celebrating their founding anniversary, Solomon Island Independence Day and a covenant between their tribe and God.
The church was originally founded by an expat Scot. Later a revival hit the church through a Māori Evangelist (Mori Thompson). That happens to be the same Māori evangelist that toured Northland New Zealand around the same time. Alas, since then no revival meetings have toured Northland… until this year (2025).
Waiki sits next to me as the son of the pastor who hosted the first Northland tent revival meeting since Mori Thompson.
The service begins and the tribe priest stands up to address his people and introduce myself and Waiki (and the team). He proceeds to give a message on the heart of missions and call the church to fulfil the great commission.
Waiki then stands to speak: “The kingdom is like a Rugby team,” he says as he wears his NZ rugby shirt, “we pass the ball to one another so that if we fall, it’s okay, our team mate can run on. We need each other, we can have each others backs.”
Next I stand up to talk of Samson who set 300 foxes on fire (yeah that’s right) binding them two by two (Judges 15:4). Once the fire of God comes on a person they cannot sit still, nor can we run alone that we would lose the fire. We must be bound together.
Needless to say, the profound coincidences leading to this moment were not missed by the church who are not blinded by western unbelief, but rather see Gods hand at move in such moments and made it plain to us this was the case.
Here was someone from Scotland and a Māori affiliated with the revival meetings, joining with the priest of the tribe on the day of church covenant celebrations.
In this moment God bound together the work of two peoples: Solomon Islands and New Zealand. Specifically The Missions House and the Aleph churches of Honiara.
Perhaps this is my favourite part of missions, the part where you’re glad you didn’t run ahead in your own strength. The part where you’re glad God led you in his timing. The part where Gods hand moves ahead of you.
The part where God reveals what His will was doing all along.
This is why faith is important. We cannot lean on our own understanding but instead acknowledge the leading of God despite the lack of evidence. When God says “go to the Solomon Islands”, he has prepared the occasion beforehand, we must obey.
I believe with deep conviction Christianity will return from the ends of the earth through the world. The western church has developed a slothful, carnal, self-seeking faith which is useless in the face of the spiritual war at hand. If it were not the case why are our countries so Godless?
As the team prepares to re-enter ‘the real world’ (you know, the one where we’re all addicted to self image, social media and spiritual skepticism) there is a sadness. Our faith is so high as we taste the true definition of church, the one the disciples and early church experienced: life on mission with God.
But there is hope. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit’s fire burns brightly and we are now tied to by the tail of our brothers and sisters in the Solomon Islands.
We will not stop. The mission of God consumes us all. It burns in our hearts and forces us to confront the slothful apathy in the west: the low level mindlessness in which we live. It forces us to advance as we now know Him in close proximity, and those who know their God will stand firm and advance mightily (Daniel 10:10).