Kava Ceremony & Church ??! Lape 08 September 2019

It must have touched many of our hearts as four couples joined Maku and another two couples joined his mother to the larger island Catholic church. We thought we were at the wrong spot as it did not appear to have a church. We did get directed to a tin roofed building with tapa and tarp sides with mats on the floor where the minister sat on the kava stool stirring a bowl of brown liquid. Maku joined us from his sister�'s house in his ceremonial ta-ovala and two other church elders sat down with us (they included we yacht women for this day). Minister Hamma explained this was a time to speak of their spiritual journeys and repair any relationship issues prior to going into the church next door with their families and drink the kava. He began to pass around the filled kava bowls and we all tasted it until our lips became numb and said thank you but the elders just drank full bowl after bowl laughing and translating to us their conversations. Since the service would be in Tongan, the minister recapped the scripture in Luke 14 about putting Jesus first ahead of even family which is a difficult concept for this culture. He also let us know September is Women's Month and the 3 women in the community would likely stand and witness and sing a favorite song in Tongan. We jumped when the head elder started banging on a old propane tank hanging from a tree outside the kava house to announce church service. So the men drink kava until the head elder sees that they are in a good relationship and then he rings the bells for church to begin- can be 10 am or whenever he thinks they are ready. Tonga Time is very real here. The children were hanging around looking in the openings waiting in their Sunday best.

Once the third gong was sounded the church building filled and we yachties all ducked for the back seats. The elder that was delivering the Bible message never looked down to read and he spoke for quite some time. Poor Maku was sitting back with us trying to interpret some. The singing were hymns we recognized but with some variations so we could hum along to some degree. The offering required everyone to go forward to an elder at the front table which was awkward but it was for the poor in other lands because the minister insisted they had all their needs met here in Tonga. That was a first. Except later in the after-church kava drinking, plus their wives bought us a huge lunch plate with a watermelon coconut milk slushy, the minister asked for fish hooks to reach their missionary funding goal with fishing efforts by the three men of the island. The boat they take out to sea and spend several nights on is fairly rotten but if they take all that kava along, I'm pretty sure they have a good time.

Maku sat with us after and did his personal testimony which was powerful as he admitted to the contrast and doctrines he is attempting to balance between his Tongan culture which includes the kava and smoking, then the Methodist, Weslyan plus he attends high school as a Mormon and will do the required two year stint as missionary after this senior year. He thanked us very much for accepting his invitation to church and said it made the congregation very happy to have so many guests. We all wondered how many more folks in Norway and US would go to church if the service began and ended with wine drinking.

Tonga has been the best next to Marquesa, for having friendly interactions with the locals. I have to laugh when we started counting the ten languages we know how to say Please, thank you and hello in is about all. Malo for reading this blog.