Sunday June 15, 2014

Dear Pastor’s Daryl and Claudie Yamada

Mahalo! Mahalo! Mahalo! Thank you for hosting us during our recent stay at Mililani Missionary Church. My wife and I felt so loved by you (thank you for meeting us at the airport and honoring us with the leis as well as sending us off), the board of elders, your leadership as well as the congregation at large.

The One True God of the Hawaiian people is the same Good God worshipped by all ancient people. The Hawaiians are magnificent beings, whose deepest traditions are founded upon the belief that they were created by God in the image of God.

Aloha is the Hawaiian word for God’s unconditional love; what the Bible calls Agape. Thank you for allowing us to experience the true spirit of Aloha (love and unity in spirit). The Ohana (family bonding) spirit can be seen and felt in hearts of your leadership as well as the members of your church. Love and unity are two mighty weapons God has given to Mililani Missionary Church to bring transformation to your community, city and state. We can honestly say, that God is doing a new thing! (Isa. 43: 19). God is once again restoring the True Spirit of Aloha! You have been chosen by God to re-dig the wells of revival. The seeds of revival are in your DNA!

Oral tradition indicates that the ancient Hawaiians who discovered and settled in Hawaii some 1,600 years ago, knew and worshipped the One True God. Then, approximately 700 years ago, the Tahitian conquered by the priest Pa’ao, overthrew the worship of the One True God and established the harsh bondage of the Kapu system. Strict order was maintained through horribly repressive laws and the absolute power of the ruling class. Then in 1809, Henry Opukahai’a an orphan who knew the Hawaiian gods, came to America where he was introduced to the One True God. God placed in him a burning desire to share the Good News of Iesu Kristo (Jesus Christ) with his people. He found that the Hebrew language was similar to his own! Because of his impassioned pleas (I believe that he along with Lili’uokolani, “the Christian Queen” were the first intercessors for the Hawaiian people), in late March of 1820, the Christian missionaries first began to arrive in Hawaii with the good news of the Gospel. It was said that the Hawaiian people heard the Gospel eagerly. In a few short years, there were more Christians per capita in Hawaii than in the continental United States. The kingdom of Hawaii was known as a Christian nation. It was said that the largest church in the world at that time was Titus Coan’s Haili Church in Hilo with about 7,000 members. A census taken in 1853 showed a total Hawaiian population of 71, 019. Of these, 68,241 claimed membership in a Christian Church, an unbelievable 96%! This period was aptly dubbed the Great Awakening.

We believe that the One True God of the Hawaiian people wants to once again visit His people as He did in the past with a MIGHTY WAVE of REVIVAL! Yes, God is doing a new thing! God is once again restoring the True Spirit of Aloha! And, you as a people have been chosen by God to re-dig the wells of revival. My wife and I would like to partner with you to see this happen once again!

A Mission Statement defines the organization’s purpose and primary objectives. Mission reflects the purpose and assignment God has destined for you. “Re-digging” the wells of your spiritual roots (REVIVAL is in your DNA). There have been 4 GREAT AWAKENINGS (1730, 1800-1840, 1850-1900’S, 1960-1970’S). The Missionary Church came into existence as a result of the spiritual revivals that swept across North America in the late 19th century. It began in the 1850’s when a number of ministers were dismissed from their former churches for having prayer meetings, holding revival services, and giving public testimonies.

(Taken from MMC’s Mission/Vision Statement):
Flowing from the love and power we receive from God, our mission is to see:
• relationships restored,
• Mililani transformed to fulfill its name, (Mililani means to lomi [massage] heaven into people’s heart; heavenly caress; to praise; to look heavenward)
• and the nations reached for His glory.

We pray that God would once again visit Mililani Missionary Church with a fresh outpouring of His Spirit and “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19b NKJV).

Finally, while staying at the missionary room provided to us by you, my wife and I would do prayer walks every morning. It was during one of those morning walks that the Lord gave us Psalm 95: 1-7. We saw Psalm 95 written in every household in that community. As a result, we felt the Lord say to us that Psalm 95: 1-7 was to be prayed over this community;

¹              Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

²              Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

³              For the Lord is the great God,

And the great King above all gods.

⁴              In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.

⁵              The sea is His, for He made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

⁶              Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

⁷              For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

Psalm 95: 1-7 NKJV

Mahalo nui loa. A hui kaua. Ke Akua pu a hui hou. Aloha oukou.
Me ka aloha pumehana,

Dan and Paula Tovar

cc: Apostle Che Ahn (HIM)