Episode 48 - How Kava Addiction Is Destroying Marriages in Fiji.

In this powerful and eye-opening episode, Solomone Koroi shares his personal journey of being trapped in kava addiction, how it affected his marriage and family, and the devastating impact he has seen kava have on many families in Fiji.

Solomone opens up about the reality of addiction, the struggles it brought into his home, and how it almost cost him everything. Most importantly, he shares how Jesus Christ transformed his life, set him free from addiction, and restored hope, purpose, and healing.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, we pray this testimony encourages you that there is hope.🙏🏼

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:32

As we all know, my podcast team is specific about my high school local. Even though I was fighting the fight of a interview in the beginning that's on the colour, but uh Christ Olacata is anywhere difficult, it's not just called, it's easy, it's Samoa, it's co-it's anybody called it that goes against the word of God, and that is why I am happy to introduce Solomonne, and I'll let him introduce himself. So thank you so much, um Solomon, for joining me today. And um, can you tell us a little about yourself and uh where are you speaking from and why did you want to join the podcast today?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Um thank you, thank you for your introduction. Um my name is Solomone. I was born in Fiji in a little island in the in the Lao group. Um I grew up there. I've been following your podcast, um, and I thank you for the good work that you are doing. And um I went through so much um addiction in Kawa, and um the Lord uh set me free a couple of years ago, and something that I always want to share with people. And um, I thank the Lord for this opportunity that I'll be able to share with you tonight.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Thank you so much, Solomonet. So um before we talk about uh cava, can you tell us a little about your background and how were you first introduced to drinking kava?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Um I was born in Lomaloma, uh in an island in um in Dalal Group. Uh I grew up on a little island not far from Lomaloma, um in the it's called Vikumbia. That's where I saw the first time I saw cover, cover plant. I used to go with my we used to go with our grandfather into his plantation to he pulls off the cover and we replanted it and we bring it home. But one thing I never see, I never see my grandfather bring cover. He's always at home with us in the evening with our family dinner, our family devotion. I never see him at any time um since I was growing up to go out and have cover. Uh that was the first time I see Kawa. Um I came to see more about Kawa when I moved over to Suva for my education with my mom and dad. Then I see I I started seeing how Kawa is part of our ceremony. It was part of our ceremony, in every ceremony that um that we have, and then I started seeing that. Um the first time I read Kawa, I I was introduced to Kawa and then we moved over to a farm, a sugarcane farm in um uh the second largest island in Fiji. That's where my dad had a farm.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

And the first largest island in Fiji?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

It's uh uh Bono Lebu. Okay. Um that's uh I started drinking cover when I was 13 years old. 13 years old. 13 years old, I started drinking cover. Because at the farm there's um there's no other way of socializing. Like um we just go to the farm, the sugarcane, uh, people from our islands they come in and they have master cover once um a year for a couple of months. And they bring that with them, that um kava tradition that we they bring kava every night from Monday to Sunday. So because they just they camp in our farm, and that's where I was introduced to kava. I started bringing kava is and starting to be part of uh uh my life and culture. And um at that time I see it as normal. It's just part of um the and I I I took that along with me for yeah, almost for all my life until I was um an adult.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

And uh what did you realize when you were drinking? Did it affect your life when you were young?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

It's it's um cover affects uh my body. I mean, it makes me tired and lazy every day. Um even walking in a farm, I used to I used to form force myself to get up in the morning to do to work. The effect of cover will um will hit me almost the whole day until two or three o'clock in the afternoon or four, that's when the the effect of a cover I read last night will be gone. And then I desire for it again after that, like six o'clock after work, we have a shower and then uh you are fresh for another go. And then and that system and it rolls on every single day. Where it affects your whole body whole day. Um I always joke about it. I'm covered whole day, like dope whole day. Dope all day. And then in all day, and then the uh the next in the afternoon I desire for it again, start looking for it again.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Wow, so that is that is the addiction, it's like you you just want it more and more and more, yeah. And um uh so many people said that uh you're not drunk on cover, and you can still think clearly. What is your uh experience on that?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Maybe they that's them, but for me I will tell you the fact. Anyone who says they're not drunk with cover, uh I will go against them because for me, I was so addicted to cover that one bowl of cover will make me drunk and dope. One bowl. That's how I was so addicted to the system. It it it goes into your system, it uh makes me forgetful, uh, the effect of cover. So one bowl of kava, I'm numb and I'm dope. Um and just imagine, and I drink another 20 or 30 more after that the whole night. It came to a stage that I'm I'm very forgetful. Say for example, I'm sitting with you tonight drinking kava, singing and listening to music, and someone else will come in and join us. And then I'll be talking to them. The next day I will ask you, hey, who was with us last night? I forget who came. So when I'm dope, when I'm drunk uh with cover, whoever comes in that night, I'll forget the next day. That's how uh bad the stage I was in.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

I I mean I tried cover myself as well and I was drunk. And it's funny to see people saying that they they're not drunk on cover when they actually do. Did you went to university at USB?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Uh no, I didn't go to yeah, I just go to high school and then I go into to work, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

And you were drinking while in high school? Drinking cover while still.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

I was in high school.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

How did it affect you when you were drinking in high school?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yes, it affects me a lot. Um in my performance at school, I always feel sleepy at school. Even I went into a boarding school, and then we always bring in our cover and mix at night without a teacher knowing.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Teacher knowing. Yeah, so and you're allowed to drink cover while you're still in high school.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

You can do it at home, but not at school.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, not at school.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah, but uh yeah, it makes you just makes you tired and um um very unmotivated, very lazy. Yeah, very lazy.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

How did it affect your uh relationship? You your uh relationship at home with your family?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Good question, yes. Cava, um it affects uh my relationship with my wife, with my children. Uh I have no time uh for them at all. And um speaking on that, can I touch on this? Uh and uh Yeah. I did I did um I believe uh three through through my experience of talking to people, this majority of marriage breakup in the Pacific, especially Fiji, not from alcohol, not from other things. Majority of them are from cover. Where the father is had no time for the for the mother, for the wife, for the children. Um I used to finish work my whole shift in Fiji and I'll go out that night spending um the whole evening again with my friends drinking cover. And uh a lot of divorces, uh, a lot of sickness, diabetics, high blood pressure, heart attack uh from drinking cover, the effect of drinking cover. I will explain that. We'll drink cover whole night, and then we go home and eat at 2 and 3 in the morning, and then you go straight to sleep. And that builds up for years and years and years, and um, those are the causes of the diseases that we're having. I remember one of the professors, she's from Fiji, uh, she lives in Melbourne. She was doing a research on uh why is there's a lot of um marriage uh breakup in the Pacific Island. And uh she was talking about health, and then I I shared with her and I said, it is cover. I said to her, that's that's from my experience. And she said, Oh, that's really new to me. I said, Yes, it is cover. And then I explained it to her. Yeah, the effect of cover is not only uh the relationship, it's also health-wise. I think something that we have to admit, yes, it is happening, yes. Other than denying it so that we can find a solution for it.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Especially when it's normalized in the in the country. And the thing is, so many people are saying, why are you talking about cover and not alcohol? Alcohol is already well known, the effect of alcohol. But cover there is no regulation. Anyone can drink cover. And that is what we're trying to do, something to raise awareness and regulate cover to protect our families and also raise awareness about the addiction of cover. How did it affect your family? Did it affect so much of your marriage during this time?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah. It does it does affect my marriage. I have no time with my wife and my children. We don't have any dinner time together. Uh we don't have any devotion time together because my time are all used up on my on cover. And to make it worse, um our house, when I'm when I move over to Australia uh in 2001, our house was people was just in our house every night, drinking from Monday to Sunday. Wow. That I then I have no time for my family. Um every night. Uh even sometimes I'll um feel so tired and uh just want to sit down with my family and I'll hear the knock on the door of people coming home to drink. It's my house was like a hotel.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Our garage was uh we can't park our car in the garage because our garage was the was the the bar for cover. So every time when people come, they walk straight into our garage and they start mixing the cover and start drinking. So I have to come and join them. Um I'm talking about Monday to Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Monday, every day.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Every single Monday after s up to Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

And how long do you drink at night? I mean, when when does it start and then when did it end?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

If they if they rock up at four o'clock, they can mix if I'm not home, and then I'll um they can start drinking and then I'll join them when I'm when I'm Oh, so they'll come and start drinking before you come home. Yes. And um, yes, um our house was um was a place for cover. And it not only I talk about health and um mental and sickness, uh it it's uh financially gained me too. I I buy my cover in bulk. I buy them in boxes and it's I mean and then I stock at home.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Where do you buy them from?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Um at the time when I was uh drinking cover, it's uh I have a friend that uh he's a pilot. So when whenever he comes, he'll just ring me a ring. Oh, I've got 10 kilos here. Then I go off to the airport and pick it up. And that's that's where my money goes to instead of going to my family. So kawa comes first before my family food uh and other meals, I mean and other expenses. So that's another disadvantage, another bad side of cover.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

It's the finance side. The financial side. How does how did your wife feel when they always come and drink kava in the money?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

In the money, yeah. She always don't like it. Uh and I always, you know, at that time I'll just say, ah, just don't worry about it. Um I just wanna just just push her uh down and just um tell her to ignore it. Uh and um, yeah, I just don't have time with her at all. And the worst thing is that I I don't even have time with God. Because the main thing. No time for God at all. I can't even pray. Uh every time I sit down after cover and I try to say a word and I fall asleep. And then I'll fall asleep. Yeah, because um it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

You're not sober. Yeah, the mind is not sober. And that is the thing, is because um that's the spiritual impact of it is that you don't have time with God when you drink cover.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yes, um, the beauty about our God is um when you desire something that you would been doing, and you when you desire changes, the Holy Spirit comes upon you and will lead you. And that's what exactly happened to me. I was having enough of cover. I hate what I was doing, but I was still going back to it every time, and I don't know the way out. And um, whenever I'm praying, and then this is my word of prayer. I said, Lord, take this addiction away from me, take the taste away from my lips so that I can serve you. That was my word of prayer. I took it very lightly at that time, but I used to say it most of the time, and then I'll fall asleep. Um even when I'm doing it, um sometimes when I'm praying, I can't pray sitting up because I'll keep falling down and I lie down on my bed and I say, Lord, I've had enough of this. Um take the taste away from me um so that I can serve you. That was my reason for um praying. And I think the Lord in um in Mark chapter 6, from 7, from 6 to 9, because Kaaba is a it um is a demonic um weapon that the devil used to destroy culture, to destroy churches, and to destroy destroy homes and even lives and families. That's Kaaba is one of the main weapons that the devil is using now. Uh it has made people confused spiritually and asleep, spiritually asleep. Can I read uh Mark 7, 6 to 9? Yes, yes. That to make sense in what I'm um yeah, I'm um I'm talking about. Um Jesus replied, You hypocrites, as I was right, when he he prophesied about you, for he wrote, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a fast, for they teach man-made ideas as a command from God. And this is what we are doing. We're bringing in our culture to try and implement it as part of our serving God and thinking that it's right. Um, and then it continues with that for you ignore God's law and substitute it with your own tradition. So that's that's what that's what the Lord uh said to them. Uh he called them hypocrites. Um you cannot mix Kaaba and God. It's either you serve God and leave Kawa, or serve Kawah and just leave God. You can't you can't play around with them. Because um on the spiritual, on the spiritual side, uh no person who drinks cover should be preaching the word of God. I'm talking from experience because no person who sits down and drink cover and get dope and get drunk and then uh listening to this worldly music and uh dirty jokes, because those are part of things we do when we drink cover. Exactly. Uh and then on Sunday you're gonna stand up there with that coat dressed up as um no a sheep uh in the line, uh a line in a sheepskin trying to preach the word of God. Because I can only give what I have. We cannot play around with it. We cannot uh preach the word of God and hold on to position, second position in the church. Um because you can't mix them together. That's that's I'm talking from my own experience on what I experienced. I've I've said it cleared in um clearly in most of the churches because I I I love people, I want them to know. Um one thing that I did, uh I'm a member of a Methodist church. When um God delivered me from cover, I did not leave my church because Methodist church gives us the freedom to drink or to smoke.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Before we continue, can you tell us how how did the Lord deliver you from cover addiction? Like what was the moment and how how because you've been trying, how long did you try to get out of cover and when was the the day?

SPEAKER_00 17:17

The Lord delivered me. It is the beauty is that as I said before, um the Lord knows our heart. He looks at our heart.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

The moment if if someone is committing a sin, as soon as you decide that you hate that sin, the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then we'll guide you to different people, to different places, so that you can change. Um I got delivered, is that uh when I was praying that prayer, I start seeing missions. Uh, one of the visions I tell you, one of the visions I saw is that um uh in the spirit, in the spirit we communicate um through our heart. We don't talk. I had a vision, I was um there, and then an angel came to me and he said to me, Follow me. In in seconds, we were in front of our church hall. The church that I used to be um we I used to be a member of the church with my family um for a while. In front of the church hall, and then he said to me, Um, look inside. Like all communication through our heart. When I looked inside the hall, the hall was the light was off, it was dark, it was full of people with their head down, drinking cover. Like the whole the angel just said to me, Look inside. When I turn around, he's gone. And I can only know three people when I look inside the hall. Out of all the hundreds that was full in the hall, I only know three souls, um, two of my friends. I shared this with them, the message with them. Uh they left when they left cover, but um, I'm sad that uh they later on went back to it. But I believe that God will walk in their life to deliver them again. It's been 20 years now since I I got delivered from cover.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Twenty years.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Did you went back and drink cover again after that?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

No.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

The the beauty is this when God delivered you, you are free indeed.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Free indeed, amen.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

I need no counseling, I need no medication. It was an instant delivery that happened in seconds. I don't know even seconds of a second. The last I I still remember the last bowl I drank of cover. When I drank the cover, and then it rips on my on my chin. And then as soon as it rips on my chin, I start my body started feeling um like different. Uh it got itchy and then got swollen. My my face just got swollen that night. Uh, from uh that evening to early morning at nine o'clock in the morning when um my wife took me to the doctor, my uh my face was swollen. But deep inside me, the Holy Spirit is telling me you won't die. But it was blocking up my my uh wingpipe and everything. We went to the doctor and the doctor just took it like this and uh put his knife across, uh pushed out all the all the push and there was it. This is the this is the muck of my last bowl of cover and it's the scar on my face. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Wow, why why what happened? What did the doctor say? What happened to your chin?

SPEAKER_00 20:25

I I explained to him, he he just shook his head, he couldn't believe I said to him, I crank something last night and it clipped there and then it swallowed.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

He took my temperature and then I just cut it open, gave me some medication, go home. But that that was it. I got delivered um that night from karma. And uh I remember my friends they keep saying, Oh, let's see how long it's gonna take. Um for you to go back. For you for go back. And I always tell them, no, when God delivers you, you are free. You are free indeed. You won't go back.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

How did your friend take it when you stop and they no longer come to your house to drink kava?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

After that, my house was still open for them.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Okay, but he didn't.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, I'll be sitting down with them and I'll tell them no, I'm done with it. And they they thought I was joking. And then uh later on, because I'm not drinking, then they start falling out there one by one until um our house was completely free from um my friends, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Wow. Has some of your friends are they still drinking kava or some of them have stopped?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Um they still aren't drinking. Uh I haven't interesting. Even some of my friends who know me when I was young. I remember one of them, he he called me on uh Facebook one night.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And he said, Um, I only I will only believe it if I see it that you have stopped drinking cow. Yeah. Because he he can't believe that I've left because it was just yeah, I was so bad with cow.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

So bad with cover. Wow.

unknown 21:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

That was powerful. Your um your wife and your children, um how did they feel when you stopped drinking cover?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Yeah, my wife is so glad because um what I do, I take her around everywhere, and cover because I can drive when I'm when I'm Really? Yeah. Oh I can't drive because I'll fall asleep on the wheel or my eyes is blurred that uh So she has to take you around? I have to take yeah, I take her around um and then still sit down and wait for me.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

And even our kids do have to wait. Sit down and wait for us to for me to finish and then we'll go home. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

And thank God, thank God that you stopped.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Thank God, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

And your wife and children are happy.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

I probably I probably have lost my wife if I was still drinking and my yeah. Yes. I'm serious.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Uh did you have any health issue during that time when you were drinking kava or just that thing, just your gin?

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Uh the health issue, yes. It's uh especially skin. You know how when you drink a lot of kava the skin get dries up?

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Uh what do you call it in Fijian again?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Kanikani. It it took it took me a while for the kanikani for my body to clean out. It took me more than a year, I think. Wow. My my skin was keep drying up um after I left it. My face and everything. Like it gets it gets worse after I left it. Um because it just keeps coming out. But it took me a while, more than a year. For completely to be to completely but one thing that uh took me a long time to recover is my memory to I'm always forgetful. Uh that one took took me a while.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Um and did it come back. You so after you stop drinking cover, you start remembering things again?

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Yes, that took me a while to I just pray about it. I said, Lord, please restore restore my memory back, restore wisdom back into my life.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Wow. Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. Um I am currently fighting cover against Tonga, Fiji, and the Pacific. And um, were you one of those defenders who defended cover and you know what was your excuses or your reasons for defending cover all the time? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Even if when they preach it, they're always saying, Oh, can you just preach the word of God? And stop preaching on cover. But yeah, but the Bible is um is clear too in um that no drunken person will will um inherit heaven. I think in 1 Corinthians 6 and Galatians 5, 19 to 20. Yes, and I used to be the defender of um. I always say, can they just preach the word of God instead of preaching cover until I finally gave my life to Christ and I'm born again, and then the Lord just showed me okay, this is it. And that's why I totally I said before that um anyone who is um drinking cover should not be preaching the word of God. You cannot preach them together. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

I agree. I totally agree. Because you're drunk. You're drunk and preaching the the word.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

You cannot do them, um do that together.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Playing with fire?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah, you're playing with fire. Because um, if you look at it, it's um that's why the Lord called them hypocrites in those days. And uh those are the hypocrites because um you are preaching something that you are you are doing. No, you are no, you are sinning and then you who are you to stand there and tell people not to do that? Um As I said before, you cannot give what you don't have. You should only give what you have. And that's why preaching is that um I'll just go a little bit there. Um there's a lot of uh theological preaching nowadays that people bring in all this mental, no theological side of this, but just go straight to the word, it says, do this, you'll go to hell. No, it's uh you won't inherit the kingdom, and it's it don't need any other explanation.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

The Bible is clear on that. It's clear, it's very clear that drunk and this won't inherit the kingdom of God, but they always use that excuse that they don't get drunk on cover.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

If they are saying they don't get drunk on cover, I don't know how they're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Maybe the cover is like small cover and water mostly.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Or maybe a lot of water.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Yeah, a lot of water.

unknown 26:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

When you were in Fiji, did you hear about any how cover was used for witchcraft in Fiji? Do you have any stories or knowledge of that in Fiji?

SPEAKER_00 26:45

I think I witnessed it um when I stood in cover. Uh when you watch them, some of them when they drink cover, the whole f fingers go into the cover bowl. You know how when you hold a cup, you hold a cup with your hand like this. Yes. But these people will put their whole finger inside the cup. Why? That's something it's this other sign that these people are the ones doing witchcraft.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Um, some people when they hold on to the cover, they they mumble a few words before they drink every bowl.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

What is that? Well, what are they doing?

SPEAKER_00 27:19

They they're talking to their devil, they're communicating. And uh another one is that when they drink, they'll only drink a little bit and they'll throw half of it out. Like saying, Oh, this is for for their devil. For the devil. Yeah, so it's it's um cover is uh part of the witchcraft. Yes. It is part of witchcraft in Fiji.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

In Fiji.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Uh yes. And I and I believe a lot of people who are in church, the other one doing witchcraft. Um really? Because the Bible is clear, saying on on judgment day, then the angel will come and separate the ship from the goat.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

From the goat.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

So there are so many goats in the church.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

In the church.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yes. And the Bible too is clear that not many people will inherit the kingdom of God. It's a lot will make it in that highway. But a lot only very few people will make it on the narrow road. Um and in the church, it's um I always pray when I walk into the church and I say, Lord, please make the members of this church a few that who will make it. Because I know near a few. We have to be on our knees, yeah, praying for our children. Yeah. Because not all will make it. So if we if it's saying a few, that means in a church, probably ten percent of the church members are the few that will make it, or maybe five percent. Yes, no.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

No, that's true. The narrow, I mean, I I see it so so vividly when fighting the Doa Fai Kava and Doa issue. Only a small percentage is supporting my fight. Oh, okay. And then the rest of the people, and I'm even church people, and church ministers are still, you know, supporting all these practices. And that is how I'm like, oh, the Bible is true. The gate is narrow.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Very narrow for those who will go into the kingdom. Um, are your children drinking kava?

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Are they uh my children they don't drink kava? Wow, that's good. I've explained to them how bad kava is. I said to them, when I was growing up, people encouraged me to drink kava when I was small in Fiji. And um I'm I'm asking you, I've been through it, don't do it. Kava is a gateway to other drugs. Um is a gateway to smoke, um alcohol, uh, marijuana, and ice and all those. So it's the cover is like a gateway, it's a doorway to that. Because drinking cover takes you whole night, so they look for something that's gonna cut down on that whole night. Or some of them they want to recover whole nights, but uh they don't want to miss out, so they take those hard drugs to keep them awake all night. So they can drink over whole night. So it's a gateway. It's a doorway to those big to destruction. So the devil will just use cover to distract people, um, and then get them into the doorway of those drugs which he can kill them. The devil comes to seek, kill, and destroy to kill them quickly, uh, rather than um uh destroying them slowly. He wants it faster.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Yeah. I mean it is true, you know, when you uh see them, the uh the cover won't be strong enough. So they'll drink cover, and then you see videos they'll have alcohol like uh cans on the other side, so they're drinking both, mixing alcohol and cover. And I think that's why so many of the aboriginals here in Australia they were dying because they mixed the cover and the alcohol.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Yeah, and that is the problem. This is what happened with um uh with the family. You know, when the when the father keeps going to drink cover and cover, you know how he destroys the family? And the mother is staying home with the children, and the father is going up every night drinking. So what the mother decided had thought, okay, let me start drinking cover too. Okay, he's drinking it, let me try and do it too. It's either she go to another house or she does it at home. And she starts drinking at home with on her own, with other friends, and then the whole children, and then because of the father, he's uh going out and drinking it. So the whole family starts drinking it because he has no time with the family, and that's another thing. Like the wife just had enough, and then okay, you drink it, I'm gonna drink it too. So in now in many families, the whole family are taking it. The whole family. It's mom and dad and the whole kids children, and they're all drinking cover and um it's part it's part of their life, and all smoking. Um it's it's just um destroy the the the the family culture, yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

And then the children grow up and do the same thing to their children. But you broke that cycle for your family.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

I did broke the cycle from my from my family, yes. Um I thank the Lord for that. No, without Christ, um I wouldn't I wouldn't have um left cover. I thank the Lord that um when our um youngest son when he was born, he's 20 now. When he was born, that's when um the Lord delivered me from cover. So it's 20 years now. Tasted my the my last bowl of cover.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

I mean that is what we are trying to to encourage families and especially men to do is to break the cycle. Break the cycle for your family, for your children, so they can grow up in a different environment, in a better environment than what we were used to when we when we grew up. What would your advice be to the Fijian men or any Pacific man who drinks cover? What would be your advice?

SPEAKER_00 32:58

My advice is um to ask God to deliver them. Uh to ask God to deliver them because that's what uh happened to me. I have no way out. I I know that drinking cover was bad. I know that I'm not um I feel guilty, I'm not spending time with my family, with my wife and children. I know that I'm spending more money on cover than um on bills and things for them. And my only way out was um to go to the Lord. I knew that is bad. I don't want it, but I keep doing it. What I did, I I surrendered to the Lord. So I said, Lord, I hate what I'm doing. I have to hate it, but I don't know how to get out from it. Romans chapter 7 from verse uh 14. So the trouble is not with me, uh it's not with with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that I am doing what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong, it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't do it. I don't don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong. It is sin that is living in me that does it. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is no power within me. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is demon dominated by sin and death? That was my cry. I said, Lord, um I hate what I'm doing. I I don't know how to get out. So I surrender it to the Lord. So that is my advice. If they know whatever the people are doing, um they know that cover is bad, they know that it is destroying their family, their finances, their mind, their their relationship with God, they have to. All they have to do is surrender it to the Lord. Then God, the answer is Jesus Christ, our Lord. So you see, it is in my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to Kawah.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

To Kawah. Slave to sin.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Slave to sin. So a slave to Kawah. So that is my advice. Um because we cannot change our own self. Because I can change my own self to be to please my wife, but I will go back to what I'm doing. If I change myself to please God, it is forever, it is for good. Because if I try to please someone else, I will go back to it. Because I'm when we just are helpless and then we just come to the Lord and I say, Lord, um, I can't do it. Um, I need your help. And we'll hear the power of God that will come upon us. Thank the Lord for his words, eh? Um everything that we want that is in the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

So it's all in the Bible.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

All in the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

But we I think the uh that the devil has blinded so many of our people.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Yes. He's blinded us through uh the cover and through tradition and through um education. A lot of people they rely on their um education and on their doctrine in philosophy and psychology or whatever they have. There's no school that is same as the school of the Holy Spirit to teach us the word.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Well, sir, is there anything else that you wanted to share tonight for our audience?

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Um yeah, for whoever is um struggling with um with cover, uh I congratulate you if you are willing to change. And I've um I will share how I change. It's um uh through the power of God. Um and uh one thing that we have to do, you have to admit it that it is bad for you. It's bad for your health, uh mentally, for bad for spiritually, and also for your finances. You um you have to hate it. Okay? When you hate something and you don't like it at all. I ha what I did, I hate it. I even hate the smell of it. Do you know that covers stink and smell bad? When you if you if you spill it on something and then grass up, it's got a very bad smell. Bad smell. Oh no. So if you go into a house, you can smell the cover. It's um you know, if there's green cover in the if you drops on the mat, it's it's just you have to hate it. Even who people who green cover, they know it it have a a bad smell that comes the next day. It's a very bad uh stale smell. Um and all they have to do is just call upon the name of Jesus. If someone is listening who says, I don't believe in Jesus, my friend, just get into your room and just say, Lord Jesus, if you are real, deliver me from cover. And the Bible is clear that whoever calls upon the name of Jesus, name of the Lord, will be saved, and he will be there to save you.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Thank you. Thank you very much for sharing that um powerful testimony to help your uh fellow Fijians and the Tongians who are very addicted to cover. And um, we will continue making this fight so the government can also recognize the addiction that is the problem. The government don't recognize, even the church don't recognize the cover addiction. People are addicted to cover, so we can do something about it.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

I'm one I'm one of the we I'm one of the the person that I was addicted to cover.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Yes, yes, and you're free from it. I'm free from it, and that is what we hope and to break the cycle in the family, break the cycle for the next generation. What we are doing now is we want to leave a better future for the next generation because culture is holding us back and using culture to justify addiction and and all of that. Um, thank you so much, Solomon. You're welcome. Um, is there any any other last message before we finish?

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Or um Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, uh, and then I will give you rest. Um whatever burdens uh that is um holding you back with cover, um just go to Jesus, um soften our heart and just call on him and come to him. Uh he will set you free, he will set your family free, and he will break that cycle of addiction, you know what you say. He will break that cycle of addiction uh that has been going on for years and years. Um and he will set you free. That's all uh that I can say. Um Jesus is the answer.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

Yes, Jesus is the answer. That is right. Jesus is King and uh Jesus is Lord. Um thank you so much, Solomon, for your time. I appreciate you sharing your testimony because I know many Fijians are following my page and my podcast, so we can continue raising our awareness about cover, um, even though the Samoan culture we were uh shifting this week for the Samoans. But um anything that has to do with culture, I I I welcome them to my platform so they can talk about it and see how we can we change the Pacific to have a better future for the next generation. So um thank you so much Solomon Nevi Navakalevo for your time.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

And God bless you and your ministry.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Thank you likewise.