A church based in the United States, South Seas Christian Ministries will shine light into the lives of vulnerable families in remote areas of Samoa by building them better homes.

The ‘Agape Homes’ project was initiated by Pastor Nofoaiga Eletise, who is also Vice President of the church and it’s his way of making lives better for vulnerable families as he was brought up by one.

Pastor Eletise said his heart is to come back to Samoa and build homes for the vulnerable as he remembers what it’s like to have nothing.

“I was on Twitter reading my son’s article on football and then this one article popped up right in front of my face and the article from the Samoa Observer was titled, ‘Giving Samoa’s poorest family a voice’ and I looked at the picture of the house and said to myself, oh my goodness this is my house,” he said.

“I was from Safatoa Lefaga and my family was poor as I grew up and that’s where God really spoke to me because that whole week I told my wife that there was something heavy in my heart but I just don’t know what it was.”

Pastor Eletise is currently in Samoa with some of the church’s board members, Marie Eletise and the architect, Aimee Pang and they are working with their local representative, Tuailemafua Theresa Ulberg to research vulnerable families in remote areas and examine the costs for the materials to build the houses.

The plan is to start building the first home in 2024 and it will be an ongoing project that will require some time.

“Anything is possible with God so if this project covers all vulnerable families in Samoa, we do it. We go out and provide all resources,” Pastor Eletise said.

“There are some families who still have decent homes to live in but maybe we can provide them with water tanks and bathrooms outside.”

The team also met with the Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa to discuss their project and they explained that the Prime Minister was excited and grateful for the initiative.

They departed Samoa this week for Hawaii to begin stage two of the project which is to start fundraisers for the project.

This is their first trip back to Samoa since 2019 and the reason for the trip is to re-establish South Seas Christian Ministries in Samoa and to research their project.

Prior to this project, the church made numerous contributions to the development of Samoa by helping out families as well as building its headquarters in Samoa. The church is based in Hawaii and the mainland U.S. The President of the church is Papalii Tele Jack Thompson.

• The original article reported that the South Seas Christian Ministries is based in Australia which is incorrect. It is based in Hawaii and the mainland U.S. The South Seas Christian Ministries team that visited Samoa also returned to Hawaii and not Australia. The error is regretted.