The First Christian Church in Hawaii

A while back, I posted a layout of the first Christian church in Hawaii. Tonight I have another one, this time inside that church building. It stands across the street from Hulihe'e Palace (the historical vacation home of royalty, now a museum) on land near the harbor, given by the king.

We were fortunate to arrive at the same time as a tour group and were able to sit in on the guide's lecture.

The Mokuaikaua Church was founded in 1819 by missionaries who had traveled 18,000 miles for 164 days to settle here on the island. Their first building was started in 1820... native style with a thatched roof. Construction on the permanent stone building was begun in 1835. It is the present edifice and still serves an active church.

Dinner

There were so many beautiful places to see and exciting things to do in Hawaii, but it was still good to finish our daytime runs and head back to the ship for dinner. There were several different places we could eat, but we generally went to the same place...made reservations ahead of time, so that we could count on the same table and servers each night. Teece and I usually 'dressed' for dinner...the guys put forth some effort as well.

I have no segway into this topic except perhaps: Arizona is tired of being the dinner basket for anyone who can manage to cross its border. Go Arizona! Isn't it interesting that Mexico is warning it's citizens it is unsafe to go to Arizona? Yipee.

Heard on the radio today: Arizona is advised to offer free passage to San Francisco for any illegal willing to move there. Sounds like a smart idea given that the city has come down hard on Arizona for passing the law reinforcing the right to ask for papers from those who break the law and the right to deport them if they are not legal residents of the USA. Seems fair to me.

Discriminating Taste

How did the wonderful word, 'discrimination' evolve into such an ugly word? In the sweet past, it was a good thing to be a discriminating person. One who was a discriminating art buyer, was educated as to the fine points of artistry. They knew which paintings were good and those whose work did not measure up to the rest. A discriminating shopper could find the best value for the money. A moral person could discriminate between right and wrong. Then some ugly person, probably a liberal, gave this great word over to a practice of judging people by outer characteristics, like skin color, nationality, height, freckles, etc. I don't know many people who don't realize that is a poor way to judge people. It is their character that makes them who or what they are. Even then we, as Christians, do not have to judge others. Our God in heaven will have that final say. We are only to love and respect our fellow man and treat them as we would want to be treated. After all that, I have forgotten why this layout reminded me of discrimination.

We did discriminate among the several companies who provided helicopter rides over Kauai.

We made a good choice and lived through it.

When we had our own little Cardinal and my hubby flew us around the country, I was petrified. I would hold on and pray myself to sleep. I have no idea why I felt so safe in this little aircraft. I never gave it a thought that everything wasn't just fine. I would do it again and again if given the opportunity. It certainly gave me a great opportunity for shooting pictures. Maybe that was it, I was so busy catching my breath over the beauty and snapping photos that there was no time for fear.

Perhaps if we stay on our toes in this fight for the integrity of our constitution, we'll have no time for fear.

Ballet is for...

Ashley wanted to take ballet in order to do something the boys couldn't do. To her surprise, Aussie decided to go with her. The next year, she joined the Girl Scouts. Then she had some time with the girls. Now this year, you can see that Mason must have felt left out after saying for years that he did not want to do ballet. He looks like he is thoroughly enjoying 'dancing' with the girls. He may never look back.

Sometimes we just don't know how much we can enjoy something until we've done it. If you have never spoken to others about politics, you know it is not PC to do so unless you are a liberal, you should make an attempt. Many of us have decided that we can no longer keep quiet. We are ready to speak our minds. And you know what? It feels mighty good. Try it, perhaps you'll like it as well.

Join a Tea Party. You'll never meet nicer people anywhere. And who knows, it could help.

And God help us if it doesn't.

Pirates for the Day

The triplets went to a birthday party last Sunday. Their twin friends just turned 7, or is it 8? I'll have to ask. They were happy to be pirates for the day. What fun kids can have!

I checked out my google dictionary and it limits piracy to the sea. I suppose the definition has been narrowed since my little Webster's desk dictionary was published in 1985. At that time it could mean a robbery on the sea or in the air. Now, we need to add more to the definition , since we have piracy in our national treasury as well.

What fun our congressional pirates are having looting our treasury....or what used to be 'our' money. It is only promissory notes now. They 'promise' they will come up with the money one way or the other when any debt is actually called. It is an imaginary game. There is actually nothing there.

Of course we can always print more. Let's think about that option. We could print tons of it every minute. But then, we may as well just say that money isn't necessary anymore. All we need to buy necessities and even luxuries are leaves from trees. Wouldn't that be wonderful? We could see it growing by the road. And just think how much we could buy. Whoops. Think again. Who would labor to produce goods if all they would get for them is a bunch of leaves? Why, they could pick all they want for themselves.

It is a game our feds are playing...with our money and our minds. And they continue to act as if they have found a buried treasure and they can do with it whatever they want. Wasn't piracy against the law...in the old days?

Super Weekend

Isn't this a super looking group of girls? These are the ladies who came to our Ladies' Retreat this weekend. We look for ward to this every April and this was our 25th year.

It was excellent...filled with deep spiritual meaning, prayer, friendships and humor.

Our main speaker is a missionary to Honduras. The concept of her lesson was spiritually stimulating and made God's words life giving. We should all have closer relationships with our Father in heaven while profiting from her incite. Her stories brought tears to many eyes...tears of total joy. I wish every one of you could have been there.

You might enjoy checking out her mission website at www.armorofhope.com.

Speaking of super...Introducing a new Super Hero... Super Caleb, our super grand baby.

Bamboo

The triplets had a great time at the zoo. It was cool for them to see bamboo growing. It made them think of their Uncle John and his bamboo bicycle company. As you can see, Aussie had to test it's strength. Not sure whether or not this is the type of bamboo they use for the bikes, since not all bamboo is as strong as theirs; but this at least took Aussie's weight.

John, Jacob and Mark are the company owners. Mark moved out of state long before this picture was taken last December.

Well, I'm off for a wonderful weekend with 'the girls' at a Ladies' Retreat... will have my Bible and camera, so I'm praying for good weather. The weather man isn't very encouraging...but I know it isn't up to him. Thank you God.