Rozanne's Story
I was born in Fiji, in Labasa, and we worshipped idols. There are so many, you can't even name them all. We worshipped those idols thinking that they are our gods, thinking that they will answer our prayers. I was raised up in that kind of environment, where we were scared of evil spirits.
In my family we had seen my uncle, he used to get possessed and he would collapse, and sometimes he would manifest. It's like living in the kingdom of darkness and fear. There is a lot of fear, fear of failure and fear of witchcraft and things that were practiced a lot in that place. We were surrounded by this darkness. We were even scared to go into another room alone. We wouldn't sleep in one room in darkness by ourselves.
We were living in Suva and some missionaries came home and I was resisting. I was resisting Jesus. I was resisting Christianity. I didn't like them. They wanted to share their stories and I didn't want to hear it and they left.
The second time they came, I actually shut myself in the room. I really didn't want to listen to them because I had my own religion. My mum was there she was listening to them and they prayed and they left.
Then I had a dream, and in my dream I was holding a cross, and in one hand I was holding an idol. Something in my dream was telling me to place the idol on the ground and hold the cross. Then I told my mum that I want to go to church, I need to go to church, we have to find a church. My mum was scared because she knew that I wouldn't be allowed to go. My family would not allow me.
One evening she was sitting with my brother, my dad and me. She had this courage to tell Dad that I wanted to go to church. Before Dad could speak out, my brother said "You are not allowed to go. The day you go, you take your clothes and get out of this house. You are not allowed to come back because you will be bringing shame to our family. We are not allowed to go to church. Don't ever speak about it."
Something happened inside of me. I was bubbling for Jesus. I wanted to know more about Him and I had this hope that He would set me free from all of this witchcraft, that He would set me free from these nightmares, and that He would set me free from all these powers of darkness that were tormenting me at night.
A few days later, something happened to my brother. He came to me and he said, "You can go to church." I was freaked out. Really? I grew up in a family where I'm not allowed to go out alone. In Fiji this is how I grew up. Forget about night, even during the daytime I'm not allowed to go out alone. Then my brother, the one who was saying that you don't go to church, he started to help me.
He went to my neighbour and the girl who lived there. She was also from a Hindu background but was a converted Christian. He went to her and he said "Can you take my sister to church with you?" Then he came home and he said "I have talked to this girl, her name is Panita, and she will come and take you to church."
I couldn't believe that he had done that for me. It's just like when Jesus was walking with His disciples and He was doing miracles but every time the disciples thought, "Who is this Jesus?"
So this is what was happening in my life, and I went. The day I entered into the church that love that I experienced, that was something that I cannot explain but I know I was standing there in God's presence. My tears were rolling down and I felt that love of Jesus. The immense power of Jesus in my life was amazing.
It is something I cannot explain even today. I could never thank God enough for that in my life, and the love of Jesus. Once you experience that, you'll get that boldness.
I would say to those out there that you will not regret looking for Him, and you will see that Jesus Himself will come and deliver you. Like He did to me. He will come and deliver you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light because He is the one who controls all that.
He has the power above everything else.
He has conquered death on the cross.