Surfing + preaching + plumbing = impact in Fiji

By Shayla Papik —

When Jimmy Papik quit pastoring in 2015, he was burned out. Rent was skyrocketing for his storefront church, relational conflicts among members were swirling, his business had suffered from som measure of neglect due to the demands of ministry.

Something had to give. But once he was out of ministry, he wondered if he might ever return. Despite the maelstrom of difficulties of a startup church, the emotional rewards were great.

Last year, God spoke to the Venice Beach man: Your ministry is not over.

In 2025, the pastor/plumber/surfer coalesced his passions and profession to surf, preach and bring water filters to Sigatoka, Fiji.

“I do ministry in my mother church, but I just want to be called out,” Jimmy says. “As I was praying about it, Fiji kept coming on my mind. It makes a lot of impact in your life to come into these impoverished areas knowing that you can do something.”

He loaded up his bags with Sawyer water filters. Ironically, the town that experiences 71 inches of rain a year has a problem, due to faulty infrastructure, of contaminated water. The people get typhoid from the water drawn from the Sigatoka River.

Jimmy hooked up the filter at the church where he preached. He drank for the first glass.

“It was clean, clean water,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone to get sick.”

He handed out filters to the pastor’s family, to church members, around town. According to calculations, his filters would provide 1.2M gallons of purified water to the locals.

That’s the way to mix fun, faith and philanthropy.

Jimmy first visited Fiji as a young surfer who wasn’t a Christian at the time. The Fijians were remarkably hospitable. He stayed at hostels and even in the upstairs of a church.

“When I look back, I realized there were Christians looking out for me and praying for me, and I had no idea,” Jimmy tells.

After his young days of traveling the world and surfing, he came back to his native California, set up his plumbing business, got married and started a family. Meeting a pastor/surfer he got saved and established in a church, eventually rising in ministry to the point of being named a pastor of a startup church in his native Dog Town (Venice, CA).

He was the skating, surfing saint.

For 10 years, Jimmy pastored. Rising rents on his church storefront conspired with interpersonal problems of congregants eventually overwhelmed the work, and Jimmy retreated to his business (which he had much neglected in order to serve the church).

In the passing years, his wife died of cancer and he re-married. His business, Sunset West plumbing, was thriving, but deep inside was a yearning to have impact.

The idea of returning to Fiji was NOT just because it had the best waves. Actually, Jimmy’s destination was determined by catastrophe. While his childhood home was burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he learned of hurricane sweeping over Fiji. Smarting from his own loss, he looked around the world and worried about others’ losses.

After prayer, he contacted the local Pastor Sene Tocuma. Of course, Sene was overjoyed to host revival services preached by the American pastor.

“The first day we went on outreach all day,” Jimmy tells. “The next day was a Sunday morning. I was able to preach a Gospel message. People actually gave their lives to Christ there.”

The water filters was born of his experience as a plumber. “People get stomach issues. The kids can’t go to school — or it makes the parents not be able to work,” he says. “So this is a really big deal.”

That’s how Sunset West Global was born with the mission to bring filters to impoverished regions of the world. The Sawyer filter can be purchased on Amazon, but a lot of these communities don’t get deliveries from Amazon.

“People see Fiji Water and think all they have is clean water coming out of the mountains,” he says. “It’s not that way.”

Of course, Fiji Water exports the best water, but the people who live there don’t get that high-priced bottled water.

“Bringing clean water filters to Fiji is a really satisfying thing to do,” Jimmy says. “With such little investment, you can help so many people. You have a sense of accomplishment. You can feel like a better person by helping others.”

You may also be interested in: German pastor raided by SWAT for preaching the Gospel, Venezuela pastor praises God for Maduro ouster, Pakistani pastor killed in hailstorm of bullets. Full disclosure: Jimmy Papik is this reporter’s father.