After five-year wait, church in Tonga has new facility
Under the towering palms of the South Pacific island of Tonga, workers construct a new meeting facility for the Nuku’alofa congregation.
The Arlington church in Riverside, Calif., provided funds for theproject, overseen by Steve Raine, elder of the Otumoetai church inTauranga, New Zealand, and principal of South Pacific Bible College.Two of the college’s graduates, Taniela Fukofuka and Alan None, haveserved as project managers. The new facility follows “five long yearsof planning, government prevarication, prayer and perseverance,” saidMike Austin, an Otumoetai church elder. The church has existed inNuku’alofa, Tonga’s capital, for more than 30 years, but the newbuilding “will help ‘legitimize’ the church in the eyes of the Tonganpeople,” Austin said.
The Arlington church in Riverside, Calif., provided funds for theproject, overseen by Steve Raine, elder of the Otumoetai church inTauranga, New Zealand, and principal of South Pacific Bible College.Two of the college’s graduates, Taniela Fukofuka and Alan None, haveserved as project managers. The new facility follows “five long yearsof planning, government prevarication, prayer and perseverance,” saidMike Austin, an Otumoetai church elder. The church has existed inNuku’alofa, Tonga’s capital, for more than 30 years, but the newbuilding “will help ‘legitimize’ the church in the eyes of the Tonganpeople,” Austin said.
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