I, nor my family ever dreamt that I would become a priest one day. I was consumed with my secular job and was never part of a church. The fact that I followed the still, small voice to commit my life to ministry is truly a work of God. As is the fact that I lived through serious bouts of epilepsy, malaria, and food poisoning as a child. Jesus healed me so I could be an instrument of God’s grace to others as a priest.
In 2010 while working as a leadership advocate for the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), an Anglican bishop invited my wife and I over for a visit. Upon hearing of the skills I had acquired working with the UN, and of the Lord sparing my life several times, he suggested I apply for seminary. “What need do I have for another job?”, I thought. And despite running into him several other times I ignored his advice for 3 years. That is, until I quit my job due to a variety of challenges in the workplace, languishing between several jobs. Looking back on it now, I know it was the Lord leading me to follow the bishop’s advice and I decided to apply to seminary. Needing the bishop’s endorsement, I had only enough time to submit my application on the final day it was due to begin the upcoming semester. After passing my examination for the priesthood, I received a phone call from a company making a lucrative offer for me to be their HR manager. I had dreamt of such an offer all my working years, and I was very tempted. Phyli stood up and said, “It’s important we make the right decision. God’s ministry is worth more than the money or anything the world can give. Our very lives are a blessing from Him.” By her words, I turned down the job offer and took up the call to become a priest.
I was 34 when I began seminary at the Trinity School of Theology, in the Airahu Diocese of Malaita. Under the leadership of Fr. Jonathan Hicks and others there, I was ordained as a deacon, then, 10 months later as a priest on October 18, 2018
