Where We Worship
Nu'u Lotu welcomes many changes

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Staff Writer

• Name of church: Nu'u Lotu Congregational Church.

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The Nu'u Lotu Congregational Church choir holds rehearsals in Nu'uanu but looks forward to a new church in Kalihi. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

• Where we are: The church shares facilities with Nu'uanu Congregational Church, 2651 Pali Highway, but is securing a location for a church in Kalihi, where its membership is based.

• Our numbers: A little more than 100.

• Our pastor: The Rev. To'o'olefua R. Paogofie, a graduate of Hawai'i Pacific University and the Pacific School of Religion at the University of California, Berkeley.

• What we believe: That the church must "remain faithful to the living God ... who is present in our changing world," Paogofie wrote in a statement. He said it's the church's goal to "welcome change as an opportunity for greater faithfulness. We must not view our present challenges as decline, but as transition."

• Our history: Paogofie arrived 19 years ago at Nu'uanu Congregational as a fresh-faced young seminary graduate. Thirteen Samoan families in the Kalihi area had high hopes for the young Samoan, and the idea that they would be able to establish a church where the need was great: near the heart of subsidized housing areas in Kalihi (Kuhio Park Terrace, Kalihi Valley Homes and Mayor Wright housing). He became the founding pastor of Nu'u Lotu, whose membership base has since grown to 19 families.

• What we're excited about: They've secured land, now a vacant lot in the Kalihi area within walking distance of Kuhio Park Terrace, and are beginning to build a church and community hall. "(It's) such an inspiration to the community, a new beginning for all Samoans who live in the Kalihi-Palama area," he said. "This is a place for Christian family values and virtues for today will be facilitated, to build good citizens for the future."

The community hall is being designed to serve as a base for outreach programs geared to adult literacy, computer literacy and after-school tutoring. He says he hopes it will also cater to the needs of latch-key students as well as the needs of elderly Samoans who live alone.

• What's special about us: "There is not a single well-established Samoan church within walking distance for Kuhio Park Terrace, where the majority of the tenants are Samoan," Paogofie said. Nu'u Lotu is going to be built in Samoan fashion: dome-shaped like a Samoan faletele (a chief's house), though without the traditional thatched roof. (The city won't allow it, he added with a laugh.) Being away from Samoa, it "will try to help keep Christian family values alive in the young people."

• Contact: Paogofie at 791-5644.

If you would like to recommend a faith organization for a Where We Worship profile, e-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser .com, call 525-8035 or write: Where We Worship, Faith Page, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802.