Gospel Day celebrations 2009
It was a brilliant day on Monday 26 October for the reopening of the magnificent Takamoa Mission House which was first built some 170 years ago under the guidance of Reverend Buzzacott of the London Missionary Society (LMS). This allowed the Reverend John Williams to devote his time to translating the Holy Bible into Cook Islands Maori for our people.
Church Executive, Iaveta Short explained the history of the building and the mammoth task of completing the renovations and landscaping of the mission house and grounds to its former glory.
The mission house is the first European style building in the Cook Islands and is no less striking now than it must have been to the bedazzled ancestors who beheld this marvelous building when it first opened.
The cost may have been over $1million but it is well worth it in terms of preserving an important historical site as well as restoring it to a modern and functional administrative headquarters for the Cook Islands Christian Church (CICC) which is the founding member of the Religious Advisory Council of the Cook Islands.
Takamoa Theological College was established by the LMS in 1839 on 5 acres provided by Makea Nui Ariki and from there many missionaries were trained and sent to the other Pacific nations to spread the Gospel as early as in 1842.
Those countries included Samoa, Vanuatu (then New Hebrides), New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti and Hawaii. The last missionary on such a mission was Rev Turaki Teauariki of Mauke who went to PNG in 1964 and returned in 1975. The library is named after him.
The advent of Christianity began in 1821 in Aitutaki and then came to Rarotonga in 1823 changing our lives for the better.
The celebration of Gospel Day each year marks the moment in time when our people stepped out of the darkness into the light of the Lord God.
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