At breakfast Saturday morning, we were told that Rachel, the
young mother with cancer died during the night.
She is with Jesus. Last night her
mother came to thank the church and to pick up her granddaughter. She had never been in the church before. Her face was radiant as church members hugged
her and told that they had prayed for Rachel and her.
Our team jobs for Saturday were all clean-up details to
prepare for the grand opening of the Solid Grounds Café. One of the most exciting was the installation
of the stained glass cross. For years,
their cross was an almost opaque yellowing window. During the power washing, they found that the
window was covered by deteriorated plastic.
There was an attractive textured glass cross under the yellow
plastic. They now have to decide where
to put that original cross window.
Saturday Bill was asked to organize all the supplies and
equipment for the team. Much of the
paint for the church is in five-gallon pails so Bill decided to use a skateboard
for moving the heavy items back into the Lanai.
We teased him about being rather a mature man for carrying around a
skateboard.
Eddie from the Wahiawa church designed and mounted the sign
for the new café and arranged for a band from the First Samoan Church of the
Nazarene to perform for the grand opening.
Jordon, one of our team members joined them on the drums.
The café was a great success. Several neighbors came. Seven Nazarene church
were represented.
The REAL story in all that we have seen since we arrived is
not the physical labor or the café. It
is the changed lives. Last year the
church members felt helpless and were barely clinging to hope. This year many have expressed immense thanks
for their new sense of hope. Because of
their new confidence they are growing spiritually and reaching out to the
community. Several neighbors stopped in
this week to talk about watching last year’s team and this year’s. Several neighbors cooked for our group numerous
times this past week.
One lady told me, “You and your teams have brought us many
blessings.”
I responded, “All good things come from God.”
Written by Bonnie Young
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