Bali Hai Worship

Description/story: The island of Moorea, Tahiti, at the time we were visiting Tahiti a lot we had a timeshare on Moorea. At that time, these islands were still a third world country and there were only two churches on the entire island. One Catholic which had a French priest with services in French, and the other was Protestant. This is the Catholic church, I loved the looks of this little Catholic church, so quaint and cute. But, I didn't speak French well enough to understand anything and we didn't recognize any of the music. Behind the church in this painting is the mountain known as "Bali Hai" in the movie "South Pacific". Bali Hai is actually on Cooks Bay in Moorea and our bungalow was just across the bay from it. The Catholic church was a walk down the road out front of "Club Bali Hai", the only American-owned resort in all of Tahiti. Tahiti is owned by France. After walking away down the road, the road curves and the Catholic church was around the bend. The Protestant church was too far to walk and their service was in the culture of the Tahitian people. A woman native to the island of Moorea met us as we exited the bus to attend the Protestant church. She translated the entire sermon to us because we didn't speak any Tahitian. Being that we are not Catholic, but in fact Protestant, we were able to recognize the hymns and listen to the native cultural tones and harmonies which have a distinct but beautiful sound of Tahiti. Later after church, the woman took us to her home. As the saying goes "WWJD" she did exactly that.