Your ShelfYour Projects

In Raratonga

13%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jun 2, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 22.

Read the full edition

In Raratonga

By A. H. Piper

A. H. PIPER
THE accompanying picture is one of our church buildings in Raratonga, Cook Islands. This is the first church that has been erected in this group of islands, and is of special interest on that account.
OUR FIRST CHURCH BUILDING IN RARATONGA
OUR FIRST CHURCH BUILDING IN RARATONGA
The readers of the REVIEW know something of the difficulties that had to be met in getting this enterprise started. We have reported, from time to time, the opposition to our work that has existed in Raratonga, especially when it was known that we were about to erect a meeting-house. But we are thankful to state that toward the completion of the building, many who at one time opposed us, helped us finish the house. It is often so in connection with God’s work in the earth.
The walls of the church are built of coral rock which the natives procured from the sea, and the roof is of galvanized iron. Its measurements are forty feet by twenty-two. The cost of the building was four hundred and seventy-five dollars. Of this amount two hundred and seventy-five dollars was sent to us from Australasia, chiefly from the Sabbath-schools in that field. The rest was raised by the workers of Raratonga, and by the native brethren. No money was paid out as wages, for the brethren did all the labor.
Without a penny of debt on it, it now stands, finished and furnished, ready to be dedicated to God on the anniversary of the introduction of the gospel to Raratonga, which will be the twenty-third of May. To God be all the praise.
New Plymouth, New Zealand.