The Manono uta Methodist Church opened a new residence for their Reverend on Saturday with the new home costing the church over $300,000 tala to build. 

The opening ceremony of the new residence was held at the church compound where the house is located and was attended by members of the church and invited guests. The newly constructed residence will be the home of Rev. Lokeni Lokeni.

Members of the church were happy to open the news residence for the Reverend which was constructed by Great Wall Construction and cost a total of $336,781.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer after the opening ceremony, the Manono uta Methodist Chairman of the Committee, Leiataua Mulipola Laki said he was happy with the completion of the work and indicated that they also faced a few challenges.

Leiataua thanked the construction company for their assistance during the construction of the residence, which he said was a huge assistance and praised the Lord for the work that has been done.

The former residence of the Reverend only lasted over 17 years before the wood had started to rot. 

According to Leiataua, one of the worries they had was that the residence faced the wind and they tried their best to build a better residence. Other factors they also looked at when constructing the house was that it was located near a swamp and the property needed to be elevated.

"Construction started on the 27th of September 2021. It was four months by January 27th but it was extended due to the lockdown caused by COVID,"  Leiataua told the Samoa Observer.

"The residence has two bedrooms and a master bedroom, 2 bathrooms, store room, dressing room, office, laundry room, kitchen and sitting room.

He pointed out that the current residence is quite bigger than the former residence that was taken down.

Leiataua was also thankful for the assistance of those who were residing overseas, who had contributed $196,000 tala to the cost of the construction of the Reverend's new house.