Members of the Lighthouse Seventh Day Adventist (S.D.A) at Vailoa were happy to open their new church on Saturday after years of moving between various locations to worship.

The 130-member congregation church were on hand to witness the opening of their new church with the churchgoers elated that they have finally found a permanent place for their church.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer on Saturday, leader of the church Maulolo Lino Pogai said construction of the new church took three months.

He said that the total cost of the church's construction is $190,000-plus with the funding coming from private sponsors and not from bank loans as is usually the case for a lot of churches in Samoa.

"It was all done through hard work,"  Maulolo said. "There was a lot of assistance from families overseas to support the work."

Looking back at the journey they took prior to the building of the new church, Maulolo lamented the years the congregation had to move from one location to another and paying rent to use a hall for worship.

The last place that the congregation had rented was the Early Childhood Education School Hall at Sogi in 2015 until this year when they had the opportunity to build a church on the land that was recently purchased for the church.

Maulolo said that they are happy that the work is now complete, and he had given his thanks to those in Samoa and overseas who had supported the construction of the new church at Vailoa.

The church was designed as an open building with no windows. When asked about the design, Maulolo explained that was what the congregation wanted.

According to him, their previous location was hot so they had designed the church in a way that the congregation can rely on the wind.

The land on which the church is built was purchased for the church by a Samoan currently living overseas, who had also paid for the design of the building.

The current building will be used as a church and a hall, and Maulolo stated that in the future they are planning to build a church next to the current building's location.

He had given his thanks again to the families for their support as according to him, the work could not have been achieved if it was not for their support.

Maulolo also thanked the Lighthouse S.D.A congregation Pastor Sioeli, the S.D.A Samatau congregation and everyone who had supported them throughout the construction of the new church.