One in Christ

This year after returning to Vava’u we knew God was calling us to work with the youth in the area of evangelism. While fellowshipping with the youth in our village—who happen to come from various Christian denominations—we started a Bible study and evangelism group. They call our group “To God be the Glory” and anywhere from 3 to 10guys show up. We have a lot of fun together, and they are really eager to grow in God.
(Here they are leading a program for a local school)

Our prayer has been that the true Christians in various denominations in Tonga will come together in unity. As Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:24 “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me, and have loved them even as You have loved me.”

Childrens Day/ Fakame!

May is a very special month in Tonga to celebrate the family. Childrens Day, then Mothers Day, then Fathers Day all in a row - they like to do it all in one month.

So we start celebrating on the first Sunday of May with "Fakame" the childrens special day. Children go to church dressed in white and all kinds of special cultural decorations. Their Mothers busily prepare these decorations throughout the year, and it is breathtaking to see what their loving hands can sew.

When the kids come to the curch they do a special program for the church,and they all sing songs and recite verses. It is the most adorable day of the year.

Hosting a YWAM team from the mainland

We had such a wonderful surprise this month when our previous YWAM leaders from Tonga asked us to host one of their DTS outreach teams.
Here we are sitting in our living room to have a meal together. This team went on to do community service/cleanup projects in neighboring villages, door-to-door evangelism, and ran evangelism programs with dancing, skits, and preaching....
This team was a great influence on the small group of guys we have been discipling. Now instead of just Bible studies, our guys want to start going out to local schools to run evangelism programs too!
Praise the Lord!