WELKAM! WELCOME! BIEN VENUE!
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| Portoroki Church welcomes you anytime you pay a visit. It is a name to be proud of, yet what does "Portoroki" mean? This is a baffling question. If you are a visitor to our church and you ask anyone, you'll be greeted with a blank stare, which might be interpreted as "I don't know!", "Who are you?" or "Who cares?" So what does it mean? Here's a brief description of what the name "Portoroki" means. The name is actually a concatenation of two separate words - one in English and one in the Shepherds language. These two words are "Port" and "Toroki", respectively. "Port" is the English part of the name and refers to the Portoroki "port of call" - the harbor. "Toroki" means "to enter" or as we say in Bislama, "kam insaed". It is sort of an invitation to enter (into a place). So we see that the "Port" part refers to the geographical location - a harbor - and the "Toroki" part refers to the fellowship/worship. It is believed that the Portoroki seafront was the landing site of a great chief from the Shepherd Islands. And do you know who named the church? It was our own Church Elder John Luen - who is himself a Paramount Chief in the Shepherds group.
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