February 12, 2026

This morning at 6:00 a.m. we sailed into Apia, the capital of Samoa. Samoa is primarily a Christian country due to John Williams, of the London Missionary Society.  Williams’ mission reached Samoa in 1830. He converted the King and the rest of the island followed.  In Samoa there are many Catholic, Seventh Day Adventists, and Assemblies of God churches.  The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the center of Apia is beautiful, with a wooden ceiling of geometric patterns, colorful walls, and stained glass. 

Striking is the reflection of the stained glass on the polished stone (marble) floor.

What intrigued me was a clock tower memorial in the middle of town for soldiers who fell in World War I.  New Zealanders built the clocktower in the 1920s, but Samoa entered the war as a German colony.   New Zealand quickly occupied Samoa, so Samoans served on both sides.  Some served in New Zealand’s Māori Pioneer Battalion and some with German forces.  Interestingly, the clock tower commemorated both.    

Samoa is a country with some unique difficulties.

First, American Samoans have American Nationality but are not American Citizens, unlike people born on Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Marianas.  Those others have birthright citizenship granted by Congress.  American Samoans still live under a regime of case law called the Insular Cases.  These rulings say all the protections of the US Constitution do not apply to insular possessions unless granted by Congress.  American Samoa is the one holdout.

American Samoans have the right to live and work in the US but cannot vote and cannot hold jobs that require citizenship.  There are just under 50,000 people living on the Island but there are three times that many living in the US, mostly in Hawaii, California, Washington, Alaska, and Utah.  They do not have the protection of citizens when in the States and cannot register to vote.  To do so they must go through the naturalization process.

Second, the Samoa postal services are not accepting ANY mail for the United States because of the executive order ending di minimis shipments to the United States.  (Shipments of under $800 used to be exempt from duty).  The USPS set up temporarily set payments ranging from $80.00 to $200.00 per piece of mail based on the tariff rate from the country of origin.  This would be in place until they could work out a system of determining the true value of a parcel.  The rule was not supposed to apply to post cards, letters, and documents but the implementation of the executive order was chaotic so many post offices just stopped sending any mail to America.  Bigger countries, like the United Kingdom worked out agreements with the United States and resumed sending letters and postcards but some smaller countries, like Samoa still do not send ANY mail to the United States.  Samoans could not send Christmas cards to their families in America this past year.

Despite these difficulties we found the Samoan people to be kind and gentle despite their large size. (men and women both) Many Samoans and people of Samoan descent have achieved success in professional sports-an impressive feat for a country with such a small population! Sports
where Samoans have most notably excelled include rugby, sumo wrestling, and American football. A 2002 article from ESPN estimated that a Samoan male is 40 times more likely to play in the NFL than a non-Samoan American! Pretty Impressive!

Thanks for traveling with us.

Thirdmill Update:

New City Fellowship Nairobi, a Thirdmill strategic partner in East Africa, currently has two learning communities studying Thirdmill`s material. Rev. Dr. Martin Munyao, associate pastor at New City Fellowship is leading the two learning communities and recruiting additional partners. One of the learning communities is a diverse group of believers studying together in Farsi. The group includes Afghan refugees living in Kenya. 

This year, LifePoint Ministries leaders, trained by Dr. Martin, will establish several learning communities in four key cities in Kenya. This type of involvement from other ministries is the best way to multiply the theological training so desperately needed around the globe.