Exciting News from Samoa

 Dear Partners,

Talofa in Jesus' name!

God is on the move in the Samoan Islands! We want to bring you up to speed on what God has recently been doing here in Upolu and beyond: 

1. STILL no COVID-19 in Samoa!

2. All of our saints have made it back on repatriation flights from New Zealand. 

3. We recently attended a wedding of one of our pastor’s sons in Savaii where we were also able to meet with a local Matai (high chief) to discuss opening a new church on the west side of the island.

4. We have completed our Apostolic Truth Bible College Faculty Training and will commence classes August 11. We have 12 brand new 1st year students enrolled.

5. Just recently a pastor from the States sent money to purchase a new bible school van solely dedicated for our school. We will be picking up the van next week!

6. My wife and I recently graduated from a 2-week intensive Samoan language course at the National University of Samoa.

And our most exciting news is the recent approval to start a brand-new church near the city center of Apia in a town called Moto’otua! This new church plant will also serve as our National Bible School Headquarters where classes will be taught on a weekly basis. We are extremely excited and thrilled for this opportunity and have already seen the favor of God throughout this process. Revival is here to stay! 

These pictures on the next page are of our new building project. In order to move in we will first need to renovate as well as purchase church equipment and school supplies. We are asking each of our partners to prayerfully consider contributing towards this project. Our project goal is $20k—this is divided into $10k for renovation and $10k for church equipment/supplies. If we can reach our project goal of $20k this will equate to $52K Samoan Tala---enough to meet the building’s needs. 

You can give directly to our ‘building project’ by following this link: https://igfn.us/vf/Merritt. Simply fill in the appropriate information and select “BUILIDING PROJECT” under, “My donation is for”. 

We cannot thank each of you enough for your faithfulness over these many years of service! And thank you in advance to the many who will give towards this new project. We will update each of you as soon as our project goal has been met and wil keep you up to speed during this new church plant process. 

We love and appreciate each of you very much! 

-The Merritt’s-