Ia manuia lou Aso fanau 83 Tama Peleina...

My father pic in the late 1950s in Auckland

Wishing my dear father: Faalavaau, Aiolupo, Fasavalu, Uilitoni Tauau a Happy 83rd Birthday today in a special birthday that he shares with his grandson Jojo in Melbourne.

It was such a blessing to share a lunch and then dinner with our family together to thank God for such a blessing as having a father who has been able to share in the love of firstly his children and now grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in Auckland and overseas.

I'm presently working on his memoirs and there is so much to write about but so little time with the many projects that I have going all at once but I am thankful for the time that I have been given to share with him in memories and seeing the hand of God at work from the very beginning.

I so see him as a pioneer as my mother and late paternal grandmother, one of many of that generation of pioneering Samoans who left beloved homelands in the late 1950s and early 1960s to cast their future towards the new horizon of New Zealand. In doing so, we as first-generation Samoan New Zealanders were blessed by their 'tofa mamao' or wisdom for the future and have benefitted by their many decisions.

My father was and still is conscientious and hardworking, a planner and organizer. I saw him helping to support our family growing up and a house for his mother in Siufaga in Samoa. He worked with my mother and gave my sister and me the opportunity to go to University and study. 

He supported the vision of building a Pacific church in Mangere that many families have been blessed to attend, the building of a church in his home village of Siufaga with the many fundraising efforts. The building of our house in Samoa that was blessed last year and the many times that he would support our various families and church families with weddings, funerals, special occasions etc.

I have learned a lot from my father but there is so much to still learn. I am thankful that God gave me such a father who's been able to speak into the lives of his grandchildren, such as mine and has been a real beacon of faith in that my children see his real faith lived out daily in his consistent family prayer devotions in the mornings and evenings.

May God continue to bless our special father and I will always be thankful for having him in our lives...