Last Sunday we just celebrated our National Thanksgiving Prayer Service at the National Auditorium, hosted by our Religious Advisory Council., writes Pastor Paul Kauri, the General Superintendent of Cook Islands Assemblies of God Church.

This years’ service was rather special, for it marked 20 years of our nation gathering together, seeking God’s protection from natures elements in prayer. You can see 2 Chronicles 7:14 all over this event.

¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

This National Prayer Service was birthed out of a natural disaster, which happened in 2005. It marks the 20^th anniversary since the five cyclones hit The Cook Islands within a five-week period – Meena, Nancy, Olaf, Percy and Rae.

20 years ago, six differing denominations saw the great need and urgency to gather our people together to pray, choosing to stay within our common grounds of

1. Jesus
2. The Bible and
3. Our Nation.

It also reveals 20 years in which God’s gracious hand of protection has been on our little paradise, and while cyclones have passed through our region of the Pacific – The Cook Islands has been divinely spared further damage.

It reveals God’s gracious and faithful nature as written in His Word, that he would forgive and heal our land when we come together to seek His face and pray. It also reveals that aspect of God who keeps His WORD despite our lack of understanding or preferences. He said He would command His blessing when brothers and sisters gather in unity - Psalm 133:1-3.

1. How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity …. 3. For there The LORD commands His blessing, even life evermore.

I confess that when my wife and I relocated back to Rarotonga ten years ago to live, I couldn’t understand the role of RAC and our involvement in it. However, when I saw the outworking of Psalm 133 in our nation and specifically the LORD holding back the cyclones, I realized that I didn’t need to lean on my understanding of RAC, I just needed to Trust The LORD and His work through it.

And while the numbers in attendance to this National Prayer service may have waned over the years (reflecting man’s fickle memory of the dangers God has kept us from) God’s covenant to His people, and His steadfastness to His Word has not wavered in the slightest. He still blesses unity; He still hears us when we pray – regardless of the numbers at this strategic gathering, for even when we are faithless – He remains Faithful! Great is His Faithfulness!

Yet, over the last 20 years, there have been other storms brewing, stemming from other nations putting pressure on our political leaders, all in the name of Human Rights, Equality and the ever-constant struggle for power.

And while some of these storms have received comments from our spiritual leaders at these national services, other leaders have tried to navigate these storms leaning on their wisdom, knowledge and strength. But, Proverbs 21:30 tells us, “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against The LORD”

The recent submissions regarding the amendment to our national constitution, to openly declare the history of our nation, that, with the message of the Gospel of Jesus, the setting up of Takamoa Theological Training College and the translation of the Bible into Te Reo Maori, Rarotonga became the hub which drew the other 14 islands to receive training as missionaries, and being sent into the Pacific, and from this, The Cook Islands was born!

It is a fact that we became a nation because of the gospel of Jesus and as such we are a Christian Nation!

So here we are twenty years later, under God’s grace, protection and blessing, not for anything we’ve done but rather because of His Goodness and Grace. In the words of the Psalmist,

“The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love, The LORD is good to all, He has compassion on all He has made.” Psalm 145:8&9

Yes, here we are 200 years later and counting, from when the gospel came to our shores, establishing the Cook Islands as a Christian Nation, and now we’re having to contend for the declaration of our Nation to be Christian?

I wonder what our forefathers would be thinking right now, given the great cost to them to proclaim this gospel and whose names are etched on the plaques in Takamoa College with the words, “Martyred” next to them.

Regardless of what “I wonder” or what anyone wonders for that matter, what God is doing is the ONLY THING that matters. If the five cyclones brought about a national time of prayer through RAC, then perhaps it’s time for us as RAC to consider the other storms that have been battering our nation? Perhaps this is what God has been preparing us for in our unity against the storms?

If the attendance to our National Prayer service is waning, then perhaps a review of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is due;

¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

1. With all due respect to our labels – it is His Name we are called by, not ours.
2. We take a humble pose in this national event, because of the One in whose presence we stand, The King of All Glory.
3. We PRAY – the emphasis on WE and PRAY.

Everything has it’s a season and certainly the approach and format in which we have prayed for the last 20 years has been necessary and God has blessed it, as our history has shown.

But I want to leave you with something to ponder regarding these points I’ve raised;

• whether you agree that the format for our National Prayer Services needs reviewing or not;
• whether you agree or disagree with the submission to amend our constitution,
• whether you attend the National Prayer Service or if your zeal for it has waned
• or whether you believe in God or not …

I leave the closing remarks of this week's church talk to Joshua son of Nun;

“Now fear the LORD and serve Him with all faithfulness… but if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose you this day whom you will serve … but as for me and my house we will serve the LORD” Joshua 24:14 & 15.