Welcome to Falevao

We arrived in our training village today and were welcomed with an ‘Ava ceremony. After the ceremony, they fed us traditional Samoan food (taro, coconuts, crawfish, etc.) and announced the family assignments. Each trainee was assigned to a separate family. I went home with my family and after getting settled into my home I had to head back to the training fale (house). My 10-year old host brother had to walk me there because the training fale was about a mile away. Walking through the village was fun because I got to enjoy the beautiful scenery: mountains of rainforests and a cloud of midst surrounding the mountain. After training, I began to walk home and noticed my brother walking behind me and a fellow trainee. I had to be home by 6:30 because there is a curfew for Lotu (prayer) from 6:30-7:00 every day. My host mother and sister told me that they re-named my 4 month old niece “Salai” (my Samoan name) so that they could remember me. For Lotu, my family and I sat on the floor and prayed in Samoan and they all sang worship songs. It was amazing. I kept thinking about how God put a desire in my heart to experience“tribal-type” worship in another culture and another land and now He had fulfilled that heart desire of mine.