By Pesi Fonua

Six hundred youths from eight Pacific Island countries attended a Seventh Day Adventist Trans Pacific Union Youth Congress at Beulah College, Vaini, Tongatapu from December 30 to January 4.

Fanueli Mataele, the Director for Seventh Day Adventist Youth in Tonga said that participants came from Fiji, American Samoa, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, and Tuvalu, and were hosted by Tonga.

The Youth Congress is held every five years, and Tonga had previously hosted the event in 1983.

The Theme for this year's Congress was 'Kingdom Builders'.

Fanueli said that during the five-days Congress the Seventh Day Adventist youth carried out a number of community out-reach programs, "they visited the hospital, the prison and gave food to the prisoners, they collected rubbish in public places in the capital Nuku'alofa and planted trees at beaches."

On Friday the congress youth marched through Nukuk'alofa.