American Samoa - Southeast Asia

Peppering the Pacific just below the equator about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, a group of islands make up the two nations of American Samoa and the independent nation of Samoa. Together, these islands are home to nearly a quarter million people.

The Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands share a distinct language and culture that is steeped in ancient tradition. At the same time, due to American and European influence over the last one hundred years, both nations are quickly modernizing in their technologies and ideologies.

Both islands were introduced to Christianity in the Nineteenth century by Congregational and Methodist missionaries, with the Catholic missionaries not far behind, and are nominally Christian nations. However, the Gospel of salvation by grace is rarely preached in it pure form there and the need for fundamental, independent, Baptist missionaries is great.

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