Frank NeaSchool Leader at The International Fatherheart Ministries
Frank Naea had preached and taught in schools for years after he encountered the Father heart of God in his first DTS in YWAM. This was only superseded when bankruptcy and failure became his doorway to experiencing the Love of the Father, restoration and a whole new way. It has become “the gospel to me.”
Presenting this revelation to others has brought “life to every part of my journey,” Frank says. “Seeing others experience this and come into the reality of this gospel is priceless.”
Frank, whose last name Naea rhymes with “higher,” was born in Mt Albert, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, the eldest of ten children. His father was Samoan and his mother was Maori.
Frank grew up in South Auckland, after living with various relatives for the first five years of his life.
He met his wife, Sonia, when she came to his house to consider a musical collaboration. Sonia had been singing in a church music group with cousins of Frank’s, and they wanted her to meet four of Frank’s brothers who were all in a band.
“I heard their car arrive and went to see who it was, only to see this beautiful young lady walking up the path to our house,” Frank recounted. “Almost immediately these words came out of my heart: ‘If I’m going to get married, that’s the woman I’m going to marry.’ ” He and Sonia were wed nine months later, in 1978.
In 1981 they joined Youth With A Mission. They and their two children traveled extensively as part of the missions organisation and lived in more than sixty houses in the span of twenty-five years. Fortunately, Frank lists travel and transitions as things he enjoys.
He and Sonia first met James and Denise Jordan in 1983 when they came to teach on the Father heart of God at YWAM schools. But Frank’s first encounter with the revelation didn’t come until 2004, when he attended a Fatherheart Ministries event in British Columbia, Canada.
“I was met by the lavish love of the Father when my obsession with trying to please him was met by His overwhelming kindness,” Frank said. “It literally floored me and began a whole new journey of discovering the depth of His love for me.”
Before joining Fatherheart Ministries in 2012, Frank served in YWAM for thirty years, ministering as a teacher, a base and ministry leader in New Zealand and the Pacific, and for three years as international president. He completed leadership training at YWAM’s University of the Nations.
Frank now is a Fatherheart trustee and A School leader, as well as one of its Pillars, or elders. He’s been involved in more than forty Fatherheart schools in various countries.
He and his wife and two children ~ Luke, a builder, and Ruth, an interior design graduate ~ now are based in Taupo, New Zealand.
Frank enjoys cooking and eating, sports events and live musical theatre. He also enjoys visualising potential, or creative thinking that leads to unusual but simple processes or solutions, something that’s been reawakened as he’s become more immersed in Father’s love, he says.
Another favourite pastime is karaoke, a love of all types of music and the occasional AirPiano, “especially at my desk while plugged in to Paul Simon; Earth, Wind & Fire; Gregory Porter and, “other worship bands.”
