IT was around 3.30am in the morning in 1988 as Aseri Vina woke her husband Josua Mali, 74, when she heard an unfamiliar sound coming from a grave nearby their house.
The grave belonged to the late Reverend Samuela Jeke, a man highly respected and admired by the villagers of Namara, Waya in Yasawa.
He was said to be a man truly blessed by God.
Awoken from his sleep, Mali thought he was dreaming when he heard the noise he described as the most beautiful sounds he ever heard.
The Namara villager said there was a big boulder that separated the late Reverend Samuela Jeke's grave from their house.
"It was a sound of a mass choir singing this beautiful hymn in the odd hours of the morning," Mali recalls.
He said he and his wife sat inside their house listening to the singing not knowing where they were from.
"It couldn't have been our church choir because it was just a normal day and there was no church-organised activity going on, " Mali said.
"I couldn't confirm anything else, but surely it could have been the angels from heaven," he said.
Mali said before Reverend Samuela passed away he had asked the villagers that he be buried at the end of the village, so if there was a landslide, he would stop it.
The village of Namara is situated beside the seaside at the bottom of a steep hill. Villager Epeli Rawaqa said there was such an incident on the night of March 13,1985.
"We heard a rumbling noise that particular night and we knew that it was nothing else but a landslide from high up," he said.
"We had wanted to run for our lives in the darkness of the night, but then I told my wife and children that we should just stay inside the house. If it's God's will that we die, then so be it," he said, getting emotional and teary-eyed.
Rawaqa said interestingly, all the big boulders that rolled down in the middle of the night actually rolled towards Rev. Samuela's grave and stopped nearby.
Up until today, there is evidence that the grave is steered clear of the big boulders that lie close to Reverend Samuela Jeke's resting place.
Villagers said their fathers and grandfathers witnessed Reverend Samuela being richly blessed with spiritual powers.
"He was a very devoted spiritual man and practised what he preached," Rawaqa said.
He added that one time, he was travelling on a boat from Lautoka to Waya and it rained.
"Funnily enough, despite the rain, the sky was clear and dry in the area in which the boat was sailing," Rawaqa said.
Such was the blessing poured upon the man of God of Waya.