Samoa

A. Introduction

Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa) lies in south of the equator and is located in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of the two large islands of Upolu and Savai'i (which together account for 99% of the country’s total area) and eight small islets. The country was governed by New Zealand until its independence in 1962.

Samoa was formerly in the Western Hemisphere. At the end of December 2011, Samoa jumped forward by one day, omitting December 30 from the local calendar. The nation moved to the west of the International Date Line and became part of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Samoan and English are the official languages.

Samoa reported a population of 194,320 in its 2016 census. 92.6% of the population are Samoans of Polynesian descent. About three-quarters of the population lives on the main island of Upolu. The capital city, Apia is located here too. Christianity is the state religion. 98% of the population are Christians.

Samoa has an equatorial/monsoonal climate, with an average annual temperature of 26.5 °C (79.7 °F). The rainy season is from November to April.

B. The development of the True Jesus Church

We started visiting our members in Samoa in 2011 when we received the news that there are members over there. All our members there were from China and they own provision shops there. Services are held in members’ houses when we send workers over. Currently, we send workers to Samoa once every three months.

We are evangelizing to the relatives of our Chinese members there. We have also approached some local Samoans to share the gospel with them. Currently, our main work over there is to pastor our members and preach to their relatives.