On Faith
Rev. Gordon Marchant
Passengers make first-class
spiritual journeyIn the movie "Titanic" there is a very popular scene of "The Third Class Dance," where Leonardo DiCaprio, portraying a carefree young man who is a steerage passenger on the ship, swings his newfound love, Kate Winslet, off her feet as a crowd of lower-class immigrants joyously celebrates.
Despite their economic inadequacies, the movie envisions the third-class passengers as having such fun, all of them completely oblivious to the fate that awaits them.
Regardless of whether the "Third Class Dance" actually happened on the Titanic, did you know that Hawaii has a story to tell about events that really occurred in the steerage of a passenger ship that sailed into Honolulu's harbor 10 years before the Titanic voyage?
The story begins with the SS Gaelic, whose captain allowed 102 Korean men, women and children to come aboard his vessel, along with the other passengers. They were immigrants destined for Hawaii, to work as laborers on the sugar plantations.
All were listed as being able to read and write, but no one seems to have highlighted the fact that the language they could read was hardly English. The travel manifest records that each person possessed a small amount of money, but it was not much. In most cases the clerk scribbled an amount of $30 to $50 beside their names.
The dreams of these Korean immigrant families were probably similar to those who traveled on the lower decks of the Titanic. They were coming to start a new life. There's no mention of a dance being organized in the bottom decks of the SS Gaelic.
Nor does the passenger list include a Jack or a Kate. Those kinds of details we will leave up to Hollywood.
What is factually recorded is that just three days before Christmas 1902, these Korean families left their ancestral homes for the port of Nagasaki, and from Japan they sailed another 10 days before disembarking in Hawaii, their new foreign home.
What did they do in the steerage compartments of the ship while traveling those 10 days?
Believe it or not, many of them gathered together for prayer and Bible study. Yes, it really happened! Among the steerage passengers were two men, Chung Soo Ahn and Yee Chai Kim.
These two Christian men believed that their trip to Hawaii had a divine purpose. They felt responsible before God to care for the spiritual needs of families moving to the islands, and so they joyously preached the gospel in the steerage of the ship.
According to one historian, by the time the SS Gaelic reached Honolulu, 58 of the first group of 102 Korean immigrants were committed to become members of a new Methodist Episcopal Church in Hawaii.
If you desire to see whatever became of that "Church in Third Class," take a few minutes the next time you are in Makiki to stop by the modern facilities of Christ United Methodist Church at 1639 Keeaumoku St. You might be amazed to witness what God can do with a small group of poor immigrant families who commit themselves to honor Him. That's the real story of what happened in the steerage!
The Rev. Gordon Marchant is English-language pastor with Christ United Methodist Church.
RELIGION CALENDAR
