'Uesiliana Church Conference

The 'Uesiliana Church has a conference each year at the end of June. It is a huge celebration. People from all the island groups come down to the main island Tongatapu and even people from New Zealand, Australia and America. The purpose of this conference is for all the leaders in each church, however, all the church members come to the conference to perform during the different masses that happen 3 times a day for two weeks.

This is the church where all the masses are held. It is huge inside with a big balcony, of course for the Sunday service is when it is most full. There is a picture of the second Sunday of the conference and you can see all the people outside because everywhere inside was all ready full. It was amazing at how many people were there.
Here is the other side of the church. If you look closely you can see that they set out rows of seats on the patio of the chruch as well as stadium seating just outside (the right side of the picture) and yet there were still people sitting on the ground everywhere you looked.
On Tuesday of the last week of the conference the District of Lulunga (5 islands - including Tungua) performed for everyone. Here is a group picture after the performance. The people wearing white were in the performance and the people wearing green were in the choir. I was in the choir, you can also see the married couple - Eric and Melanie from Ha'afeva the island one hour away from Tungua.

For two weeks straight, three times a day after each chruch service there is a kai pola (big feast). As you can see the line of table there are two rows like this and all the table are going to FULL of food.

And it is amazing at how much the Tongans will eat at each meal. You would think after a day or a couple of days of eating meals like this 3 times a day you would be sick. But not the Tongans, it is AMAZING!!!