Church in Tonga

Tonga is a country which is 99% Christian. The Sabbath is constitutionally enshrined in Tongan law. There is to be no work done on a Sunday. 

Bells from a nearby Catholic church woke us at 5am, and then the beautiful sound of singing himi (hymns) filled the air. I slept for a little longer, but then started praying and thinking about the sermon that I was to give later that morning. 

Everyone dressed very smartly, and we left for church a bit later than we had hoped. On the way to the church in Touliki, we would have passed ten other churches - Catholic, Anglican, Mormon. It was good to arrive, but it was not immediately obvious how we fitted in. 

At 9:45am, we were nearly the last to arrive for a 10am start time. Everyone was sitting in quiet contemplation and prayer listening to worship music. 

Viliami did a fabulous job of leading the service, and gave the members of our team opportunities to speak. 

He translated during my sermon on "Grace and Forgiveness". It was my first time speaking with a translator, so I suspect that Vili was quite happy that the talk was short. I was mistakenly introduced as Pastor David, but made sure to correct it later. 

We performed and got their church to perform alongside us. Some of the congregation looked excited to be doing something interactive. 

Rodney did a cool job on his prayer, and Ben did a great job preparing for communion.

The service was filled with beautiful himi and hiva (songs).

It was nice to start meeting people and making connections, and Max's gift of a Māori hoe (paddle) to the church was well received. 

We returned to Halaleva for lunch - another umu meal of taro, kumara, fish, lu pulu (corned beef wrapped in taro leaves) - and this was entirely gluten-free.

At 3:30pm, after a nap, we were back at the Touliki church for their afternoon youth service. This was a lot more relaxed with lots of hiva and some great short testimonies from Jonty, Abbey, Ariana, and Joe; followed by two testimonies from girls at the Manuka and Touliki church.

After a bit of talanoa, the connection was established, and we spent a lot of time talking with the youth and making plans for the next few days. It felt good to reflect on the day after dinner, and talk about what went well, and what didn't go so well. Naisa (Mafi's brother) is the lead pastor, and he felt that God's spirit was challenging the older church members to allow the younger members to play their part. The sermons and messages were all pointing to this. 

It was a busy day, so I was in bed by 9pm. Very tired... and satisfied. Praise God!