Update from Kauai

Hello everyone this outreach has been really busy on the beautiful Island of Kauai a.k.a. the Garden Island. We have been living out of a tent with our three your old, inside of a local volleyball gym.

We have met the forbidden people of Hawaii. Literally an indigenous people from “the forbidden island” of Hawaii called Ni’ihau. While they are from Ni’ihau they have been exiled to island of Kauai or seeking better medical, or just seeking better opportunities on the island of Kauai. The Ni’ihauan village embodied shacks that envy the shacks you see in Cambodia. Some of the shacks/houses were once used by the U.S. government as Japanese interment camps during WWII. Many of the shacks have no running water/electricity. From what we were told the island of Ni’ihau is worse off. We were invited by a pastor to go into the village, past the hundreds of “No Trespassing” signs. As we made our way down the dirt road, a village security guard stopped us midway. The pastor had to talk with the security guard for 10 minutes before he let us go into the village. We were instructed to not take photos or videos as they are closed off community. I was shocked by how rough the housing was here in America. Working with the church’s after school program, that teaches the Ni’ihauan people how to sing and read music, all while teaching them to follow Jesus.

The Ni’ihauan Island has a strange history of the Robinson family purchasing the island and part of Kauai from the Hawaiian King in the 1860s. Still today the Robinson family and only the indigenous Ni’ihauans and anyone the Robinson’s invite are allowed on the island. If you get to close by boat you will quickly be told to turn around.

I also got invited to a Marshallese church, an amazingly giving community. Many of the Marshallese people seek refugee here after their islands were bombed 58 times by atomic bombs by the Manhattan Project. The Marshallese I will never forget as they are such a a giving community. They welcomed us with amazing shelled necklaces, to a huge feast, and displayed their dances they had been practicing for over a month competing against one another.

Kayla and I have been street evangelizing and sharing the Gospel throughout the island. We have been volunteering by working the Poi farm/Poi factory. Learning how to grow the Hawaiian staple, the traditional way. Talking and learning from the locals and doing a lot of service projects.

Last week, as my buddy Dan and I were street evangelizing we had a man named Kyle walk up to us. He told us he recently almost died while at work and was asking himself what the meaning of life was. We ministered to him for an hour as he kept asking question after question. By the end of the conversation he said, “I think I am just at the point where I have to decide if I want to surrender.” We prayed for him.

It has been amazing to see God work on the island of Kauai and to see God work in my family and I as well.

Things to pray for:

Kyle that he’d be lead to surrender to Jesus.

We are getting ready today to leave the island of Kauai and live on the island of Oahu. On Oahu, we are going to go work at a boarding school where students are recovering from trauma from human traffic. If you could be praying into that.

How could we pray for you?