Hawaii

Steps of Faith—Reaching the Houseless

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:23:55 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Steps of Faith—Reaching the Houseless

White sandy beaches. Turquoise water. Clear skies and beautiful sunsets. They’re usually the first things that come to mind when people think of Hawai’i.

But what about not knowing where your next meal will come from? What about not knowing where you’ll sleep tonight? For the members of Maui’s community who are houseless, those questions are very real.

They’re just as real to God. And he laid these struggles on the hearts of one ��ñ�� chapter, from the University of Hawai’i Maui College, and called them to act. They were inspired by two stories—one helping them truly see the realities of their houseless brothers and sisters and another encouraging them to step out in faith to serve.

Faith Renewed

Last year’s spring semester wasn’t easy for Kahala. By 4:45 a.m., she was up already and moving the van she’d slept in. By 6:30, she needed to be done getting washed up after finding an open bathroom. An hour later, she had to be at her school’s student lounge with microwaveable meals ready to heat up for breakfast. And she had to do all this with three children. For six weeks.

The day Kahala had to gather up the kids, hurry them into the van, driving away from their home, it started pouring across Maui. “The entire time we were homeless and sleeping in our van, that same heavy rain continued,” she said. “I felt as though the heavens were crying with me.”

Kahala did her best to stay strong and confident for her kids, attending small group Bible studies and church just like normal. “This was tremendously hard,” she said. “But we knew that we were doing the right thing, which solidified our faith. We knew it was a matter of time and any other thoughts were banished from existence, even if we cried all night.”

Having lived on the streets of Philadelphia’s inner city when she was younger, Kahala couldn’t help thinking of those times as she tried making the best of her situation in Maui with her kids. “Each day brought plenty of obstacles, emotional baggage, and an ounce of despair,” she said. “Each day equally brought new people who would try to help.”

Throughout this challenging season, God faithfully provided for Kahala and her family through the generous love of her community. Classmates opened up their homes. Kahala was able to deeply connect with new people. And on Valentine’s Day, just when it felt like she couldn’t handle much more, God provided Kahala with an affordable apartment. The landlord, knowing her situation, even covered the first month’s rent.

“Our faith [has been] renewed, and our family reminded of why we are supposed to stick together,” Kahala said.

Faith Over Fear

“Have you thought about planning that outreach event I mentioned a few months ago?” asked Brennan, ��ñ��’s Area Director for Hawai’i.

“Uh . . .” Naomi’s eyes dropped to the floor as she answered her supervisor. “Not yet.”

Brennan’s voice came over the phone, gentle and gracious. “How come? Is there something holding you back?”

“I’m not sure,” Naomi said.

Overall, this past school year had been really encouraging for her. Serving as the campus minister of a newly planted ministry, Naomi had seen 15 students drawn to the chapter at the University of Hawai’i Maui College. Four had either made first-time decisions to follow Jesus or recommitted their lives to him. God had also renewed Naomi’s passion for ministry and Maui, her home island. He’d even giver her the opportunity to serve as the prayer leader for the school’s Hawaiian Club.

But still there was this outreach event . . . she’d been putting it off for months.

“Naomi, are you still there?” Brennan asked.

“Yeah,” she switched the phone to her other hand. “Honestly, I’m not sure what’s holding me back.”

Brennan continued asking questions, listening carefully. Together they discovered the reason behind her procrastinating: Naomi was afraid of failure.

“I didn’t think that talking about not planning and doing one specific event would lead me to such a deep revelation about the internal, emotional work that God was doing,” she said later. “I felt God’s challenge to be unafraid and move forward. Brennan reminded me it wasn’t about just crossing something off the list but about the heart behind it. It was clear that my heart wasn’t fully in it, and that needed to be changed.”

Brennan went on to ask Naomi to pray for faith over her fears. “[Those prayers] would help her to lean into Jesus for his mind and heart,” he recalled. “Naomi responded faithfully . . . and saw God show up in transforming her heart and mind.”

Reminded that God wasn’t asking her to come up with a perfect event but rather was just asking her to try, Naomi took a step of faith planning an outreach event for Maui’s houseless in the city of Kahului to offer them help and hope, tangible encouragement.

Faith Together

Naomi began the outreach by gathering five students together around a picnic table on campus. Kahala was among them and felt led to share. “One thing I have learned very early on is that we need to be the living example of what we need to see,” she said, looking back on that moment. “This leading by example is inspiring to others.”

Kahala began opening up about her own experience of houselessness and how she had just found an apartment a few weeks earlier. She spoke of how her faith has grown in God’s provision, how he’s called her to give generously to other families who are struggling, even when she didn’t have much. The others listened intently, coming around to comfort her as she began to weep.

“The students . . . could tell that even though [Kahala] shared about her own generosity, there was much more she has given but wasn’t sharing,” Naomi recalled. “They were able to see [her] heart of generosity, aloha, and humility.”

Naomi went on to read Acts 2:42–47. Her longing to see this kind of beautiful community, when combined with Kahala’s testimony, inspired the students to give their own money to cover some of the supplies for the outreach event.

They then took to the streets of downtown Kahului to hand out blankets, towels, and feminine products, spending time listening and talking to their houseless brothers and sisters. Moved by all they’d heard, the students boldly stepped out in faith, inviting many people to upcoming chapter events.

“Being seen on the streets . . . meant that folks who knew the students might have seen them and been concerned or worried for their well-being or just wondered what they were doing out there in the middle of the afternoon talking with houseless folks,” Naomi said. “This would provide opportunities for these students to have conversations about their faith or about God.

“I saw students grow in determination and their heart for other people,” she continued. “I knew they loved each other, the small group on campus, and their classmates, who they were close with, but seeing them reach out to strangers, to talk and even pray with them was a side of them I hadn’t seen all the time.”

“[We] listened to the hearts of those who wanted to share their journeys with us,” Kahala said. “We were able to pray with them and provide support. It felt great to do this with our brothers and sisters in faith and not through an existing human service provider. It showed us how much our friends in faith truly cared and that we were all ready to stand to make a difference.”

As Kahala continued to cling to her faith through a difficult season, as Naomi faced her fears head-on through God’s grace and power, many lives were changed. Maui’s houseless tangibly experienced the love of Christ.

News Keywords

#good4campus

Hawaii

University of Hawai’i Maui College

Maui

outreach

houseless

Bearing Burdens Together: The Power of Prayer and Flourishing Faculty

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:48:04 +0000

Gordon Govier

Bearing Burdens Together: The Power of Prayer and Flourishing Faculty

May Kealoha, a nursing professor at Oahu’s Kapiʻolani Community College (KCC), was used to praying about big decisions. But as a member of a faculty committee that was facing a big decision affecting the future of KCC, she did not want to pray alone.

Brennan Takayama had just moved to Oahu to become an ��ñ�� Area Director. Prayer was part of his plan as he envisioned planting ��ñ�� chapters on more Oahu campuses to reach more students with the gospel.

But neither expected how well their hopes and prayers would come together when they discovered each other at their church in Honolulu and began to talk about campus ministry.

Brennan said he would help Professor Kealoha start a faculty prayer group. But a week later, when he returned from a conference, he found a message from her saying that she had already contacted other Christian faculty and administrative staff whom she knew and planned a meeting. She invited Brennan to come.

“We got together, shared prayer requests, and then we prayed,” Brennan said. “There was not a dry eye in the room. It was so significant. They were praying with other faculty and staff, on campus, in the middle of the day, to Jesus—something that they had never experienced before, and never imagined could happen.”

The KCC prayer group has been meeting almost every Friday for the last year-and-a-half. “We have so many struggles,” Professor Kealoha said. “It’s such a blessing. We call it a little heaven at the end of the week.” Answers to prayer have included financial support for a medical outreach and chemistry research, as well as healings.

Terry Lock, an elementary education professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, attended last year’s celebration of ��ñ��’s 70-year history in Hawaiʻi because all three of her children had been, or are currently, on ��ñ�� staff. When she heard about the KCC faculty prayer group, she knew she wanted to start one on her campus.

“We’ve been meeting regularly every other week to pray since September and it’s been incredible,” Professor Lock said. “God quickly revealed to us that he’s been present on this campus all along and that we were now joining him in his efforts. Now we don’t have to bear the burdens of our work by ourselves and we pray for the souls of faculty, staff, and students across our university system.”

Professors Kealoha and Lock are not only working with Brennan but also now with Dan Stringer, a Campus Staff Minister with ��ñ��’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) who has returned to Honolulu after three years at the University of Southern California (USC).

“It’s amazing that there’s so much traction with faculty already,” Dan marveled. “Often you hear stories in GFM that it takes a long time to get started with faculty ministry.”

A year ago, in the spring, an annual dinner tradition was begun aimed at fanning the flames for more faculty prayer groups and fellowships on Oahu. “Now it’s a bonfire,” Brennan said.

Professor Kealoha observed, “When we pray, we strengthen whatever God has put in each of us as leaders. We are strengthened and we can flourish, because we have prayer.”

Will you partner with ��ñ�� and our 2030 Calling so that faculty on more campuses can experience the power of praying together and partnering with God for his mission on campus?

Be a part of our 2030 Calling

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How ��ñ�� Changed My Life

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:43:02 +0000

Elton Wong

How ��ñ�� Changed My Life

I was a relatively new Christian when I arrived at the Claremont Colleges. During my freshman year, I went to some of the ��ñ�� gatherings, but after the first semester I decided I was too busy. Over the next few years I still grew as a Christian, however, reading the Bible on my own and connecting on occasion with my church community back home in Hawaii.

Then, during my senior year, I felt God calling me to connect with other Christians regularly and be a part of a community. I decided to check out ��ñ�� again, and it changed my life.

Though I had been involved with several churches, and participated in some meetings with another Christian group on campus, ��ñ�� was the first community to emphasize God’s radical grace and unconditional love for all people, especially those who are outcasts and marginalized in society. When I learned about God’s love for the poor and oppressed, and his desire for justice to set the oppressed free and for us to do something about it, I took it to heart.

After graduating from Harvey Mudd College, I tried to live out my faith by getting involved in ministries that reach out to the homeless or at-risk youth in the Santa Ana community. But it wasn’t until I moved back to Hawaii that God led me to the next step.

I was working at the University of Hawaii as an electrical engineer, and had talked to some of the ��ñ�� folks there about finding a church with justice-related ministries. God used them to lead me to one that had a homeless outreach and a ministry for reaching sex-trafficking victims.

Here, I found a group of people who were living in a Christian community home and had taken in a few homeless people from time to time. One of the leaders there invited me to move in. I had been considering buying a large house for ministry however, so I asked if he’d be willing to purchase one with me instead.

Five years ago, we closed on a house, invited several others from church to live with us, and opened our home to people in need. Since then, we’ve lived with over 50 different people, over half of whom needed help getting back on their feet; people who would otherwise be homeless, recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, single parents and their kids, survivors of domestic violence, and survivors of human trafficking.

One woman had never gone more than two weeks sober in her life since she started using drugs over 10 years ago. After living with us she has been sober for the past year-and-a-half, and is now holding a steady job as a supervisor at a local supermarket. I personally invested a lot of time and energy with her, so I’m happy to see her doing so well.

Another woman, a single mom and survivor of domestic violence who struggled with alcohol addiction and materialism, is now living in a Catholic retreat center, pursuing a stable life with her two boys. Her boys are getting a good private school education (Hawaii public schools are not great) and have grown to be respectful young gentleman.

A man who struggled with alcoholism for many years was able to overcome his addiction while living with us. He attributes a large part of his recovery to prayer and to being in a loving and grace-filled community. He now lives in Los Angeles and is pursuing his dream of a career in music.

Another man who was introduced to drugs at a very young age and was a drug dealer for a while, has now been sober for over 120 days and completed his rehab treatment program. He recently flew to Seattle to be with his dad.

These are only some of the stories we have of people who have been changed by our house and its members. Not all of the stories have a happy ending.

One man who came in and out of our house had a long history with alcoholism and drug addiction that he was never able to fully overcome. We loved him and he loved the Lord, but he eventually ended up dying from an overdose. We held a memorial service for him and invited his family from the mainland and his friends from the streets to honor and remember him.

We can’t help everyone nor can we take the credit for people’s recoveries, but our home definitely serves as a stepping stone and a sanctuary for people on their journey.

In addition to opening up my home, I’ve been involved with our church’s justice ministry for sex trafficking victims. I go out with a team about once a week to talk to the prostitutes in our city. We don’t preach to them but rather we simply share God's love with them by handing out food, since they don’t get to eat regular meals. We also listen to their stories, pray for them, and help them work with local law enforcement if they are ready to get out.

I’m one of the few men involved in this outreach, but many of the women have told me how much it means to have a guy on the team. All they have known are men who have abused them and taken advantage of them. To meet a man who is caring and compassionate toward them without expecting anything in return makes a big difference in their lives and gives them hope.

Ultimately, all of these stories are of people whose lives have been transformed by God through ��ñ��, indirectly. Without ��ñ��, I would have never learned of and received God’s heart for the poor and oppressed. I wouldn’t have opened up my home to those in need, and I wouldn’t be giving hope to women who have only experienced the selfish and abusive side of men. I thank God that I had an ��ñ�� chapter on campus and that he led me to be part of it my senior year. I live a crazy and interesting life, and I have ��ñ�� to blame, in a good way.

News Keywords

Claremont

Harvey Mudd College

Hawaii

Angel’s Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 17:05:11 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Angel’s Story

Angel, from Hawaii, had a difficult childhood and grew up in a broken home. Eventually, she was taken from her family by Child Protective Services and became a foster child, moving from home to home, constantly running away from abuse.

“I prayed every single night, waiting for a better day,” Angel said. “Why am I suffering? A better day didn’t come, so I left God’s side and accepted a world of pain and darkness—a world where I had to survive by myself.”

At only 17, Angel graduated from high school and had to leave her foster home at the time. She hopelessly searched for a place to live, fearing she would become homeless.

“I had already experienced years of stealing and selling myself to survive financially, and I didn’t want to go back to that life,” Angel said.

A Huge Risk

That’s when her social worker took a huge risk. She told Angel about Brenda Wong, an ��ñ�� Area Director who owned a Christian community house. Angel hesitantly accepted an offer to move into the house, not having any other choice but to be on the streets.

For months, Brenda persistently invited Angel to ��ñ�� events. Angel consistently said no because, to her, it sounded like “a place for nerds.”

Finally, Angel came up with a plan one night when Brenda invited her to an ��ñ�� event again. “I’ll go just once, tell her I didn’t like it, and never go back again,” she said, hoping Brenda would stop asking her.

That night though, the ��ñ�� staff minister who was speaking taught on Matthew 14 when Jesus calls Peter to walk on water toward him, reaching out his hand. He asked the students listening if they would take Jesus’ hand as well. Angel understood that Jesus was calling her to him.

“I felt something warm, I wept, and I cried so hard,” Angel said. “That one night I went to ��ñ��, I gave my life to Jesus!”

A New Family

Now a part of the ��ñ�� community, Angel has a family for the first time—one that loves her unconditionally. She spends her time with them, serves with them, and helps lead worship with them.

“When I first went to ��ñ��, people genuinely wanted to know about my life. That was something that was so foreign to me—this kid that was pushed to the side, no one wanted to know about me, and yet everyone was asking me, ‘Where are you from?,’ ‘What’s your background?,’ ‘Who are you?’—I felt important,” Angel said.

More than that though, Angel decided to take a risk just like the one her social worker took that changed her life. Having once dropped out, Angel decided to not only return to Honolulu Community College, but to also plant an ��ñ�� chapter there. She wants to start a small group where anyone can experience God’s love.

Already, God has used Angel to initiate spiritual conversations with classmates, helping them connect what’s going on in their lives to the life of Jesus. Her vision is to speak love to those who are hurting like she was and to see her community transformed through her own transformed life.

“Because I said yes to Jesus, God is putting my old self to death and has brought me new life. He is giving me back what was taken from me. He has prepared the fattened calf and wrapped me in his finest cloth. I am the prodigal that came home!”

Just like Angel at Honolulu Community College, ��ñ�� students and staff are living out our 2030 Calling to plant on campuses currently without a Christian witnessing community. Will you be a part of making our 2030 Calling happen so that more college students across the country, like Angel, can experience the tranformative love of Jesus? Click the button below for more information.

Give to the 2030 Calling