After the Lord’s miraculous interventions in the missionary effort of Tonga with the building of the chapel of Saints Peter and Paul, the missionaries’ house and the magnificent Holy Church of St. George the Trophy Bearer, which will be finished in less than a month, it is the turn of Samoa. A beautiful island state, bathed in greenery and adorned with the smiles of its noble and hospitable inhabitants. On our previous visit we met the benevolent Pastor Pepe. In our current meeting we saw him sad and unable to walk from an unknown illness in his leg. So everything we had planned and scheduled for the start of Orthodoxy was falling apart. But above Peppe and above every human factor is our Lord, who sent forth His Apostles and sent forth us humble ones in the preaching of His Gospel, saying: “And behold, I am with you always…”. Be assured that I will be with you in your every need and difficulty forever.
We crossed Pepe’s foot with the piece of holy wood, which the Athonite brother Sava has, with the relic of the Holy Apostle Barnabas and the icons of the Virgin Mary, the Evangelist John the Theologian and other saints, saying their troparia. The next day Pepe came again, telling us that he was no longer in pain, and running down the steps of the courtyard . There had been a miracle that impressed him and brought him closer to the true faith, the Orthodox faith. This was the first intervention of our risen Savior in the missionary events of Samoa.
This gave us faith and courage to look to the unknown horizon of finding the land for building a church of the Beloved Disciple of the Lord. We decided to change hotel, to be closer to the sea for reasons of health and well-being. There we met a husband and wife from Australia. The husband was Samoan and the wife was Greek by motherhood. We confided our problem to them, namely that we had no land for building the church. As Orthodox Christians and faithful and virtuous people they told us: Whatever money we earned for twenty years we had to buy a plot of land and to build, whenever we could, a house. But now, as soon as we buy the land, we will offer it to you in the form of a loan so that the church can be built and we, as Orthodox, can also have our church. They had a lawyer talk to the owner, who gave them the land for one hundred and twenty thousand Samoan dollars, a sum that was impossible for us to approach. So with the money we have, about fifty thousand, we hope to be able to build the church.
This is the second obvious intervention of our Lord, who wants all men to be saved and become a flock of His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. May His name be glorified and that of His Holy Apostle John the Theologian, who is always near us, as I realized this time, when on the first night we came to Samoa, I found myself in my sleep on Patmos, near Elder Amphilochios, who was especially fond of the Beloved Disciple of the Lord. There are bitternesses and sorrows in the Mission, but there are also such blessings and joys that can only be described as heavenly. And it is these that give the Missionaries the courage to persevere and overcome with the help of the Chief of Salvation and Conqueror of death, our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs the glory, honor and adoration throughout the ages. Amen.
†O New Zealand Amphilochios
