Eight years in Fiji, one final mission

After eight years of making Fiji their home, Pastor Mark Gardner and his wife, Kim, are leaving with one hope — to find others willing to come and stay.

For Pastor Gardner, visiting Fiji for a short mission trip is not enough.

The Assemblies of God global workers are returning to the United States, where they plan to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast encouraging people to make a longer-term commitment to missionary work in the Pacific.

“Everybody wants to visit Fiji on a missions trip, but nobody wants to live here as a missionary,” he said.

He described the difference simply: “Everybody wants to explore the reef, but nobody wants to go for the deep dive.”

It is a message shaped by more than two decades of missionary work in Africa and another eight years developing children’s ministries in Fiji.

The couple arrived in Fiji in October 2018 after spending about 20 years in Africa, including years living and working in Angola during the war and later in Namibia.

Pastor Gardner, who is from Connecticut in the United States, joined the US Navy at 18 and served for six years before attending Bible school.

He had planned to become a pilot.

“Then that’s when I felt the Lord speak to me about becoming a missionary, going overseas to share the gospel,” he said after the farewell gathering in Nadi on Saturday night.

In 1997, he and Kim left the United States for Portugal to learn Portuguese before moving to Angola, where they served through the war.

In Fiji, their work focused on developing children’s ministries through training, resources, camps and programmes across several islands.

Pastor Gardner said their ministry challenged the belief in some communities that children were too young to have a personal relationship with Christ.

“We go into places where they don’t believe a child can be born again or have a personal relationship with Christ until they’re 15 or 16 years old,” he said.

He believes children are being exposed to influences at younger ages and churches need to respond earlier.

“We cannot afford to wait until a child is 15 or 16 years old anymore,” he said.

The couple took their programmes to Taveuni, Rabi and Ovalau, among other places, holding children’s camps and services.

Pastor Gardner said children had approached them afterwards to share what they believed were personal spiritual experiences.

Since 2018, the couple has also introduced the School of Supernatural Children’s Ministries through Kids in Ministry International, alongside other initiatives aimed at changing approaches to children’s ministry.

Their work extended beyond the church.

Following Cyclone Yasa, they became involved in disaster relief, distributing food baskets to more than 100,000 people and assisting churches with rebuilding, according to Pastor Gardner.

Now, their focus is shifting.

The couple plans to travel across the United States, speaking at churches about the need for missionaries willing to live in the Pacific, learn its languages and become part of its communities.

Pastor Gardner hopes more missionaries will eventually be established across Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa and Tuvalu.

After years of living overseas, their next assignment is not another island.

It is finding people willing to stay.