BASIC Action Ohana Group

Hey everyone, as you all know last year february i embarked on a most excellent adventure. Over the past few years since I became a member at KCC, I grew a concience and met up with the love of my life through my space. I had some legal problems that was 17 years old and thought that it was time to resolve them. So I moved to washington state to be with my love and to take care of those problems. both of them I had no idea how they would turn out, but took the chance anyway. the court ended up sentencing me to 40 hours of community service and terminated any probation I was on.which was heaven sent for real, I was looking at spending two years in jail.phew. After that was takin care of my soon to be wifes family moved to tennessee.Thats right tennessee. so of course we followed them, but not until last month.what a trip we drove from washington through Oregon, california, arizona, new mexico, texas, oaklahoma, arkansa and finally tennessee. where I was an instant father to a 16 year old boy. During the drive I was able to see GODS beautiful country. all the different landscapes was just breathtaking.so now im on a whole different journey having to deal with Rebekahs son.. so far so good. Only through the grace of GOD am I able to deal with these new situations in my life and if it wasnt for my church family there at KCC was I able to do all that.thank you all for the support and love and hopefully you all will be able to meet my new family soon.

So the story goes like this… there is a blog post from one of Ohana loved one, Richard,and it gets posted, automatically, to my Facebook account. So, more for clarification than anything else; I’m not getting married.

I love the stories of our Ohana, and this is a great place to tell some of it. I have had debates with some about whether Facebook can be a real community, and I suppose this can also fall under that debate as well. But isn’t there something within us that screams out with wonder over whether our lives are part of a bigger story or not, that there is a purpose for what we do as well as what has been done to us. I think so, and to hear real stories from others just may give us glimpses to the answer.

What do you all think?

wow another easter gone by. spent my easter with my very soon to be my wife and her family here in tennessee. we went to a very traditional methodist church where we werent welcomed with opened arms but I still held my head up hi and was on my best behavior. The service was a nice change and after the people in the church realized we were with Rebekahs mom they warmed up to us. the greeter didnt even try to hand me a program I had to take one any way I didnt let that discourage me and plan on exploring different churches , however ther are really only two denominations here methodist and baptist. But we will continue our search

Happy Easter!

For me, Easter has been a time to fearfully experience a giant fuzzy scary bunny rabbit. At other times, it’s finding colored eggs and eating pastel wrapped chocolate covered peanut butter candies. And yet still other times, I have sat in semi comfortable chairs in a semi air conditioned room listenting to someone tell me about Easter, semi conciously.

Well, today is going to be different. I’m not sure what Easter I will see, but I will enter today with the knowledge that Easter, whatever else it may be, is about hope. And for today, experiencing this is more than enough for me.

What is Easter to you?

Weddings are suppose to be one of the happiest days in a lifetime. But I can just imagine that this isn’t neccessarily true for everyone involved. There always seems to be some sort of a bridezilla drama, or in the best man speech, he forgets the Wedding Crasher’s rule which states that using “the funny because it’s true thing is funny if the truth is a small thing”. Yea, I’m just guessing that there was some “God give me strength” prayers today.

But when it came down to it, I was moved to hear the vows. I believe the atmosphere became much more romantic, meaningful and unique as they exchanged promises. I personally think the vows between two people is the heart and soul of the ceremony. Hearing Donavon and Amal not only receite their vows, but giving each other the look that they understand just exactly what they are pledging to just sends goosebumps up my arm. Wow.

Finally, they had the kiss, which was very tasteful I must say. The kiss didn’t have “porno tongue, but church tongue”. Sorry, but what’s a wedding story without references to a not so obscure 80’s movie.

Well, it’s time for me to join in on the last part of the ceremony. This is where the wedding gets interactive, I get to eat, and yes, I plan on doing this part well.

Update (9:55 pm): The speeches from the best man, maid of honor, father of the bride and father of the groom, were awesome, heartfelt and warm. I was moved from the love that was plainly expressed.

And praises to God… I found out from Amal that she expected so many things that still needed to be done today, and instead, found them done. I guess this wedding did turn out “magical”.

Update 03/31: Added wedding pictures to our photo gallery.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to hijack the discussion regarding social justice with my iPhone-ing post. So, to help get us back on track, here are a few more thoughts from Ming regarding social justice.

Anyhow, a few more thoughts based on last week’s rather fun and lively discussion (I love our small group for discussions such as that). Taking a page from the liberal playbook…I think what was formulating deep down in the recesses of my mind was to create a “dialogue” between the “Modern Western Christians” with those that they are unfamiliar with…like the gays and lesbians, the Muslim and Arabs, those from other religions, from other racial backgrounds, from whatever…as with what Amal was saying. Something like a forum or a panel or roundtable, or just a frank “moderated” discussion. Those things “I” can do…I know I can do them…just need to get the people together. I think for people to understand one another, they need to talk, to be almost forced to get to know one another. You know me, I like to “force” the hand, the issue, the whatever.

Imagine a church service…where they bring in several “X” group of people…and have them talk about their lives, their backgrounds, their experiences…and then talk about their perspectives on “American” Christianity (Protestant)…and their background and experiences with that particular form of religions…even maybe grasping as to what they think the Christians think of them. Understanding…forcing it…I think something like that (say instead of preaching from the Bible one Sunday) would or could be a VERY powerful experience…or maybe at a midweek service, or some special service. Imagine that? Then…Q&A with the panel, etc. or whatever…

I remember Donald Miller talking from his college ministry experiences at Reed…and making the “confession booth”…twisting it around where the Christians confessed and asked for forgiveness for what “our” religion did to harm others. That was very powerful…very raw, very pure, and very cleansing.

I think we (as the Protestant church) NEED to do more intentional soul searching, forced understanding, and radical purification of the “false Christian” taint that clouds our eyes….to remove the very sour taste of humanity from our Bible…and to be able to “purely” pursue Jesus and the kingdom of God. We don’t do this often enough…we play “Christian”…pay $10 a month for Compassion International (sorry Tony Compolo) to soothe away our “white” guilt or “rich” guilt or whatever guilt. Is this REALLY kingdom living? Or have I bought into some insanity that Jesus preached and Sir Francis of Assisi went bonkers over.

Please, post any thoughts to help us understand this better.

I just downloaded the Wordpress app for iPhone and it is cool. I can now blog from pretty much anywhere and I can even add pictures as soon as I take them. Here Is the tree in back of the church where I’m writing this now.

I’m not sure how much I will be using this app, maybe more when, in my opinion, two of the biggest feature for the iPhone is coming with version 3, cut & paste and landscape typing. About time for Apple; here is an awesome piece of technology and they forget basics like cut & paste or being able to type in landscape?

Update 3/19: Okay, I’m having problems with uploading pics from my iPhone and this blog. I’m guessing that it has something to do with my blog template. Maybe it’s because I can’t tell my iPhone where to put the picture. Oh well, I corrected it manually for now. This is still cool though.

Update 3/20: The iPhone app has been updated with more control over pics. I haven’t used it yet, but it does seem to address the issues that I had with it. The other upgrades with the comment and page sections looks very cool, easy to use, and useful. I love the new landscape typing. Having fat fingers suck.

A couple of days ago, a great friend of mine, Ming, asked a great question. If we believe that we are to do more in life, we need to have some serious dialogging regarding social justice.

Hmm, after some thought, I think I need to either reread the chapter or spend more time thinking…heh. Anyhow, I still feel that the concept of “justice” was kinda glazed over. I do think that Loving God/Loving Others is a form of justice…and in a sense, that’s like a higher calling for justice…but, on a more practical down to earth level…how does justice apply to our lives in what we can do? Bringing someone to God, having God heal them and all that, I don’t necessarily feel “justice” has been done.

On some level, I would rather talk about social justice…as Christians, and the “Christian/[Protestant” role of enacting justice in our society. Maybe we did talk about this…but I was left hungry after this Sunday. The Christian “right” and even liberal/liberation (black) both kinda give me a bad taste in my mouth these days. Justice in flung around like another…buzz word, or rather, social justice…

My understanding of social justice comes from a very progressive left view…from those that sued and won gaining reparations for interned Japanese Americans (Korematsu II); those that wrote on the concept of hate speech and suggesting (as a theory for a paper) that hate speech should be regulated (becoming THE most quoted law review article in US history); those that worked on supplementary briefs for the Padilla case; and now the push for putting their kids in public schools as an act of social justice…to fight against segregation through private/public school and school districts.

I’m not sure if the “modern western Christian” church really understands this concept. As some might have stated, it’s only recently that Tony Campolo/Brian McLauren are learning these terms…and this concept of “post-modern emergent” church thing is the white Christian’s response to this concept…and is still somewhat new and awkward with understanding it (James Matichuk’s thoughts). Not quite white guilt, but just some new understanding of a greater struggle…which somehow translates to white/black (and only with a bit of yellow thrown in that’s to Korematsu or Vincent Chin or whatever his name was). Meanwhile, there are other liberal churches who have immersed themselves in “social justice”….but again, I feel at odds with this since I’m not really all that liberal (politically speaking)… Anyhow, an example would be Pine United Methodist in San Fran. This is a church where the pastor worked closely with the Japanese American community and later reached out to the Muslim/Arab community after 911 (they are primarily a Japanese church I think). But to my understanding or at least through the perspective of the person talking to me about the church, they have gone so far left that God…where’s God? I don’t know.

Anyhow, still digesting and still hungering for more discussion.

Any thoughts?

Well, the New Year has rolled into my life like Christmas, without any fan fare. I barely noticed that the year is now 2009.

Really, it’s just a number, another upping of a digit. I don’t think this new number won’t take away all the joys or heartache that were in 2008. I’m finding that my life is not a failure, nor a success for that matter, based upon the changing of this numerical digit. For me, life has moved from remembering what year things happened toward’s remembering those periods of my life that has transformed me towards who I am.

But enough of this. Happy New Years to all of you. And a special note to all of you who have crossed my life, please drop me a message letting me know how you are doing.

I just wanted to write a few things about the KCC Christmas Day caroling activity.
Mark Gallagher, the principal of Kaimuki Christian School, was very adept at directing the 25 + volunteers who showed up at church that day in terms of labeling the donated gifts by age/gender groups. We also shared a bit before we left for the Salvation Army facility. Many people, like myself, were first-time participants. (Ann was there, also Danny and his wife Carmen, Pastor Cal, Michael, etc.) After we reached the facility on 22nd Avenue, we sat among the mothers there and sang Christmas carols together. After each song, Mark asked if anyone wanted to share any thoughts. A few of them had been homeless over the past months, so they expressed their thanks for being in a safe and cheerful environment.

In addition there were a few family members visiting that day. One man said that he had been so worried over the past year about his daughter because he and his wife did not know where she was and she had not been in contact with them. A KCC participant who I don’t know well shared that she too had been in a drug rehab program in the recent past and expressed her hope that the moms living there would benefit from the counseling there.

I hope we can do some other kind of service activity in the near future at that place, maybe in the evening. There are a total of 36 moms staying there, 24 in the intensive drug rehab program. All of them have babies or toddlers living with them. Well, that is all I wanted to say for now.