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Samoan church feeds homeless, gathers youth

In 2025 the Neighbors in Need Offering, one of the United Church of Christ special mission offerings, supported 26 recipients across the UCC engaged in direct service and advocacy. The Northern Lights Food Share of the Christian Life Center UCC in Anchorage, Alaska, was one recipient.

Youth are at the heart of the Northern Lights Food Share. Photo courtesy of Christian Worship Center UCC

The project began when Va’a Alaelua, the lead pastor, and church members were looking for a way to promote the church to their neighbors.

The church rents space in a church building surrounded by homeless camps. As they have gathered to worship for three years, they saw outside their doors people facing hunger and hardship.

“Then we heard the Spirit whisper,” Va’a said in a video on the NIN grant.

Members found it hard to walk past people, so they decided to see them, share meals and show them love.

“We’re a small growing church plant, a mission church with limited resources, but we could offer a pot of soup and what we had,” he said. “We  invited our neighbors in to sit at a table and eat with us. Something that feels holy has grown from that.”

The church chose the name Northern Lights Food Share,  “because northern lights shine brightest in the darkest sky and they hope their ministry brings light in the darkest places as we show up with warmth and hope.

The ministry includes donors and people who pray for it.

“We do more than hand out meals. We build hope, restore dignity, show up where love is needed and create a community where no one is forgotten,” he said.

From a small start, the project grew beyond the block around the church. They go to encampments all over Anchorage, bringing hot meals, sleeping bags and whatever they can to show their love for hungry, homeless people.

Va’a is humbled, realizing that God took that little they had and multiplied it.

With the NIN grant and other donations, the church serves hundreds of meals and buys sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and supplies to help their friends survive freezing Alaskan nights.

“We are also saying you matter, you are seen and you are loved,” Va’a said. “We just stopped to see who was next to us and what they needed so they do not feel alone.”

As the church reaches out to serve bigger encampments, the youth, who are at the heart of the ministry and bring their parents to church, lead the effort. They sit and have conversations with their neighbors.

“The youth are learning that church not just building go to on Sunday but a way of being in the world,” Va’a added. “Through their hands and hearts they are shaping a compassionate, inclusive and just future.”

The youth have gone out eight times to the encampments, sharing meals Sunday evenings after worship. Va’a and his wife, May, gshop for the ministry, buying for hundreds of people.

To identify the teams of youth, they wear a T-shirt with the name of their ministry and a UCC comma, as as a reminder that God is still speaking.

“The story not over. Every gift given for the ministry provides a comma not a period,” he said.

In February, about 10 youth helped. Now 60 youth help, because they invited their friends.

On a recent Sunday, there were 200 at church, and they ran out of communion.

Youth are a big part of our ministry. They show up more when we go out. They come to worship to hang out with friends and to sing.

“Youth are the today and tomorrow of the church,” Va’a said. “While there is a lot wrong in the world, there is a lot we can do to address it. The need is growing in Alaska and all corners of the world, and so is the opportunity.

“This work is holy. We are committed to show up again and again to feed, to listen and to care,” he added.

As a result of visiting the Mountain View homeless camps with the Food Share ministry, the church found many Samoan families were there. In addition, from speaking with other chaplains and ministers, Va’a learned that many Samoan youth are in prison.

So the Christian Worship Center UCC launched a Community Youth Gathering on May 2 at the Loussac Library Theater, inviting seven church youth groups—Catholic, Congregational, Methodist, Pentecostal and Seventy-Day Adventist—to come together to share faith, hope, friendship, songs, dances and presentations on the theme, “Rise.”

“We began that as the first of four gatherings this year to tell youth that we love you, we believe in you. We hope to build unity in a safe place, celebrating everyone’s unique way of lifting up God,” said Va’a.

About 350 came in May. On August 22 about 350 youth from seven churches came for a back-to-school Community Youth Gathering at the LMS UCC Samoan Church, inviting youth to ignite their faith, find their voice and fuel their purpose with dynamic speakers, live music, powerful worship real talk sessions and 15-minute youth group presentations on the theme, “Stand Firm.”

“Youth shared music and ideas to help with struggles their families are going through,” he said.

The third Community Youth Gathering is being held in October with 10 youth groups invited. There will be a “trunk or treat” for the community.

“We are doing this because see what is happening here with homeless families and incarcerated youth. In six months, three Samoan youth were killed by police. Their families are now in the church, which is helping them with their grief. We will launch a prison ministry soon,” Va’a said.

In July at General Synod in Kansas City the Christian Worship Center ws one of 19 UCC congregations recognized as “new and renewing” church.

For information, call (907) 440-6095 or visit facebook.com/cwcanchoragecampus.

 

Pacific Northwest Conference UCC News © copyright Fall 2025

 

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