Former Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Lieutenant’s Elina and Sateki Palu are excited to have started their appointment as corps officers with the Ashburton Salvation Army Corp last month.
After two years training at the Booth College of Mission in Upper Hutt, Elina, 50, and Sateki, 46, both originally from Tonga, moved to Ashburton along with their 17-year-old son Jonathan and 16-year-old daughter Esther.
Elina said they were looking forward to building relationships with members of their church as well as organisations and the community. It was their first appointment as officers.
Sateki said they were already working on getting to know the community and its needs.
‘‘God called us to Ashburton, and so we now need to discern what God wants us to do here. We know God wants us to be a blessing to the people we meet and work with,’’ Sateki said.
The Palus said they will build on the good work done by Captains Elizabeth Walker-Ratu and Semi Ratu who were appointed to a corp in Fiji at the end of last year.
Elina grew up in the Free Wesleyan Church, while Sateki’s family were some of the first members of the Tongan Salvation Army when it started in 1986.
In 2004 the couple moved to Auckland to work for YWAM with a focus on working with asylum seekers, refugees and Muslims.
They taught life skills to the people, mainly young folk, as well as running bible studies, providing discipleship training programs and undertaking short-term overseas mission trips in Asia and the Pacific.
The Palus were members of the Otahuhu Corps when they headed off to undertake their training for officer ship.
Sateki said he was in his teenage years when he believed God was calling him to be a Salvation Army officer. But instead he headed off to work with YWAM. Twenty years later he was still feeling that call, but Elina wasn’t.
‘‘One night I prayed to God that if he wanted me to be an officer, if that is what God wanted it would be clear to me.
“Next morning I checked my email and there was one from the person who does the recruiting for the Salvation Army, saying they were going to be in our area. And they were coming to see Sateki and I,’’ Elina said.
The Covid-19 pandemic delayed their plans to begin their studies to become officers.
The Palus graduated in December 2025 from their studies, leading to them going from cadets to officers with the rank of Lieutenants.
