The Rev. Tauileata Moli (right) receives the Denman Award for Evangelism from Bishop Grant Hagiya and the Rev. Gwen Drake, Crater Lake district superintendent, during the 2015 Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference.
OREGON-IDAHO CONFERENCE/GREG NELSON
As a child, the Rev. Tau Moli dreamed of being a minister. Growing up in Samoa, Moli attended a Christian school in junior high and high school. He then went to Fiji and completed a three-year program that focused on ministry training. Moving to the United States in the early 1990s, he earned Bachelor of Arts, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees.
In 2011, Moli was assigned to the Myrtle Creek and Canyonville United Methodist churches in Oregon. In November 2014, Moli felt led to plant a church for Samoans living in the Medford, Oregon, area. Today, with the blessing of the Revs. John and Linda Tucker of Medford’s First United Methodist Church, Moli leads a Sunday afternoon service in Samoan at First UMC’s chapel for 35 to 40 regular worshippers. His ministry over the years earned him the 2015 Harry Denman Evangelism Award in the Oregon-Idaho Conference.
Each Sunday, Moli travels 80 miles among the three churches. His enthusiasm for evangelism travels with him. “It is my passion,” Moli says. “I always want to see myself reaching out to people and touching their lives. It is a joy to see people giving their hearts to the Lord. That’s the core of ministry to me.”
Evangelism for Moli is all about connecting with church members as well as people who do not attend church. “My ministry is visitation,” Moli says. “I go to homes and ... talk about life and about each person’s spiritual journey.” Moli sometimes meets people in restaurants and coffee shops but he is just as likely to take a plate of food to a neighbor.
Evangelism, Moli says, is “the way you live.
“I open myself to people, and people open themselves to me. It’s not really a task where you have to go and convince people and try and bring people into the church. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. My work is to be myself and be friends with people.”
Cindy Solomon is a marketing consultant and content writer living in Franklin, Tennessee.