Colorful Sunday

One of the most biggest holidays in Samoa is White Sunday, or as Peace Chapel likes to call it, Colorful Sunday. We missed it last year, as we arrived in the country three days after (which means I have been here for a year now!). White Sunday is a day for the kids. They get a new outfit to wear to church, they put on performances, go home and eat all their favorite foods - including ice cream!

The morning service was fun. The kids looked so cute in their puletasis and new clothes. They did skits, talents, testimonies and my favorite - memory verses. The memory verses were done by the smallest kids - ages 3-5. I started picking out the future pastors - some of them just had that charism.

The evening service performances were done by our group. We started off with a song/dance and moved into a skit. The skit starred Marques as the dad, me as the mom, Leta and Charlotte as the kids, and Zonder as the guy we talked about. We based our skit on Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs..." The family has a devotion about this verse and then the next day the kids witness the parents talking bad about someone. The daughter does the same thing and gets reprimanded for her behavior. The parents realize what they have done and decide to apologize to their kids and to the person that they talked about. It was fun, but a lot of hard work to prepare for. I was feeling like I wanted it to be over until we had a quiet time of prayer together before the service. We gave it up to God and thanked Him for allowing us to serve the church for a change. Our attitudes changed and we became united and glorified the Lord. It was awesome.

After the skit, we sang another song and then Junior gave his testimony. His testimony ministered to so many people and blessed me so much. After that we sang a final song to close his testimony - "I can only imagine". When we finished, Pastor Samoa got up and thanked us, showing his appreciation for our hard work. He said that it is so much easier to teach kids but with adults there is more resistance to training and directing. And that was certainly true for us, but each practice we prayed and gave it over to the Lord so that He could work through us. Our strength was found in Him.