WAIPAHU — As in other cultures, Samoans turn to prayer first in the face of adversity.

And that's what a crowd of about 400 did last night at what was billed as a non-denominational prayer service at the Lighthouse Outreach Center. The service was convened in reaction to the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami that wreaked death and destruction on the Samoan Islands Tuesday morning.

"We need the people of Samoa to know we feel together with them for what's going on as one mind and one body, brothers and sisters, so we can hurt together," said the Rev. Joe Hunkin, senior pastor of the Lighthouse Outreach Center.

Community leader Gus Hannemann said his brother, Mayor Mufi Hannemann, asked that he and other Samoan leaders put the gathering together. "Pray first, and then we figure out what else we do. That is why this prayer service is so important to us. In Samoa, we pray constantly."

The mayor is on a previously scheduled trip to Seattle attending a mayors conference and was not in attendance last night.

Mormons joined Methodists as well as other people of other denominations in prayer and song.

The Rev. Mila Sapolu, of the Samoan Congregational Church in Wai'anae, was designated spiritual leader for the event. He urged people to accept the tragedy.

"This is the day that the Lord has made," Sapolu said. "And we shall rejoice and be glad in it."

Sapolu asked that the gathered to also pray for the victims of this week's natural disasters in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Julia Sula, a retired case worker for the state, said she left American Samoa on Monday, the day before the earthquake struck.

Sula said she had spent two months in American Samoa, mainly in her family village of Leone.

"Our whole village got swept by the tsunami," she said. "It's important for us to come tonight to pray to God and ask him to forgive people and give love to them."

At least four cousins, all women, are confirmed as dead after being swept out to sea, she said. A number of children are still missing.

Not everyone in the audience was Samoan.

Waipahu resident Janet Kiriu, a member of the Grace Bible Church, said she learned about the gathering while attending her regular prayer meeting earlier in the evening.

"I needed to come and join them for a little while," Kiriu said. "I believe that in unity there is power. We're all brothers and sisters."