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Gift of faith
A Kalihi Union Church team's two-week
trip to the Philippines changes lives
Youths will do the talking at Kalihi Union Church services tomorrow. It's all about their summer trip -- foreign travel, new friendships, satisfying volunteer work and a little adventure.
Their two-week trip to the Philippines was not a vacation, but a mission. The 13-member team went to Dagupan, a city six hours' drive from Manila, to help the congregation of a church there. They helped pour concrete flooring at Christ Our Life Ministries, worked at a shelter for street children and shared their Christian faith.
The young adults and teenagers took a lot of extra luggage along: 34 boxes of clothing, slippers, toiletries and school supplies collected by Kalihi Union members. They distributed the goods to children who live in poverty and usually beg on the streets.
"Giving tangible gifts is a tool for us to share Jesus," said Kendal Fong, a youth minister at the Kalihi church who was on his fourth mission trip. "Going back to the church up there, it's like family. We help our family on that side. We're blessed on this side. If we're family, we should share."
About 30 children live in the Dagupan church's urban shelter, but at least 100 youngsters turned up when the Hawaii folks served food, Fong said.
They brought fun as well as food. Professional entertainer Greg Gabaylo joined the mission, captivating the kids with his juggling and magic. University of Hawaii students Joel McClatchey and Tiffany Yoshida brought a guitar and violin to back up the group's musical outreach.
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"We do a little music, the hula, some drama to tell a story, and we would share a short message with the kids," said McClatchey. None of the Kalihi mission members speak Tagalog, but "we were able to communicate. They're smiling and they keep coming back."
Yoshida wrote a skit about Jesus in people's lives, enacting a worship song, "He Will Carry Me." Group members presented a sign dance to the hymn "At the Foot of the Cross."
That was the easy part.
"We helped to mix concrete," said Yoshida. "I wanted to show that girls can do construction, too. I helped them make shelving -- my grandpa was a carpenter. When we worked at the church, we passed buckets of concrete in a line up to the third floor."
The stories they will share in church tomorrow morning will ring a bell for others in the congregation. Several members have joined the Philippines mission project since it began in the 1990s when a local organization, Paradise Global Mission, recruited church-building help for the congregation in central Luzon island. This year, Kalihi Union Church made the outreach to the Dagupan congregation their own project.
A leader of the volunteer force is church member Dennis Arakaki, state representative for Kalihi, who took the trip with daughter Cammie. It was his sixth year.
"It blesses our young people; it can be a life-changing experience," said Arakaki. "They become totally immersed as Christians. They begin to see what it means to give of themselves. I wish more could take it."
Arakaki's role in the annual mission trip has led to a "sister state" connection between Hawaii and Pangasinan province on Luzon.
Dr. David Breese, a dentist with Kokua Kalihi Valley Health Center, joined the mission to offer basic dental care to the children, a new dimension that Arakaki hopes will grow.
Arakaki marshaled the volunteer force for a historical side trip this year. The group planned to clear brush and clean up a neglected monument marking the 1945 landing of American troops to drive out the Japanese. The Hawaii group planted trees around the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur at Bonuan beach.
It's not just what the mission group did for Christ Our Life congregation in the Philippines that resonates at Kalihi Union Church, said the Rev. Peter Kamakawiwoole, senior pastor. He loves to hear what they bring back that will outlast the two-week trip.
The youngsters rehearsed some of those enduring visions in an interview Tuesday:
» "It made me see how much I have, all the things we take for granted here," said Brandon Chang, a Pearl City High School sophomore and the youngest volunteer. "What good is it to have all that, if there are people starving who don't know where the next meal comes from?" Chang said he found his peers there "are more mature than us. People all over use being a teenager as an excuse for things that they do. Claiming 'teenager' is a crutch. People are people and can be measured by what they do."
» It was the third trip for Joel McClatchey, who said: "This last trip changed my world in so many things. I want to be more effective in outreaching to others for God. Those people have nothing but how strong their faith is. It's humbling. I want to do more with my life. I'm still trying to figure that out."
» Tiffany Yoshida decided to take a UH Tagalog language class with a view to "very definitely going back. I was so blessed to be part of the team; it made me feel like I was contributing." She stayed overnight at the children's shelter and was inspired by the staff's dedication. "Now I worship with singing and praying; I want to worship God with my life. They live out their faith; they do it 24/7."
A new project called "Kalihi Cares" was launched by the mission volunteers last year, Kamakawiwoole said. The young adults reach out to children in the Kalihi neighborhood of cramped apartments and commercial buildings, inviting them to the grassy church campus for sports and games "as well as learning about Christ," the pastor said. "They are being friends with the children and developing relationships with their families."
Kamakawiwoole said: "The power has been the youth who have a desire to continue to bring back what they learned. We are trying to invest in people to encourage them in their calling, their gifts, not just to go out to another country, but to use it here."
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