Aloha Brothers and Sisters, Like all of you, my thoughts this week have been constantly with the people of Maui, and more specifically the people of Lahaina who have lost everything. Seeing images of the destruction and hearing the emerging stories of the horror brought on by that fire, I've been taken back to my own experience when a wildfire ripped through my hometown, Middletown, in Northern California in 2015. I was living here in Kahalu’u, and took the first flight I could get back home to be with family and friends who had lost their homes and help in whatever way I could. The destruction was terrible to witness—the burned out cars lining the roads, whole neighborhoods leveled to ash and twisted metal, a smell of acrid burning that you could not escape, a silence across the landscape because the birds and animals and insects had all fled or been burned up. I remember that the reminder of what had been lost was so constant and overpowering that when I finally left the burn zone to come back to Hawai’i it was hard for me to believe that the rest of the world had not burned. But despite that, what I remember most about that experience is how the community came together to lift each other up in that dark moment. Volunteers both local and from the outside stepped up with donations of food, water, and essential goods. Friends helped each other sift through ashes of their homes to find anything that might have survived. Around town, as people were allowed back in, neighbors stopped to embrace each other in the street and strangers shared their experiences with one another to offer hope and comfort. One man I’d never met before stopped me on the street to ask how I’d been hurt by the fire. I shared my family’s story and then I listened to his. He’d escaped his burning home with only his clothes and a few pictures from off the wall. He was 75 and said he didn’t think he would rebuild. He was too old to start over. When we parted he gave me a hug and wished me the best. That experience reminds me of what Paul wrote about Charity. He said that charity "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Middletown has since rebuilt, and slowly healed. It was charitable action that helped buoy up the people of my hometown in 2015. Sometimes that meant donating goods or money, or giving up our time and talents to help rebuild. Other times it just meant listening to someone's story and giving them words of reassurance. I've wondered what I can do to help our neighbors and friends on Maui, what our responsibility is as Christians, and I think if we look for opportunities to be charitable in the fullest sense, we can help those affected most to be able to bear this burden and find hope in what I know for them feels like a hopeless situation. Marshall Comstock
Kahalu'u Ward Ward Clerk
Meeting Schedule & Links
August 13, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting Program: CLICK HERE
Missionary Moment
Announcements
Missionary Meals: Our missionaries need meals and visits! Please sign up to meet with the Elders using this MEAL CALENDAR, or call them at (808) 379-8012.
Aug 13, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting @ Waikalua Chapel
Aug 13, Sunday 6:30 pm - Stake Youth Fireside @ Keolu Hills Chapel
Aug 17, Thursday 6:30 pm - Youth Night @ Waikalua Chapel
Aug 20, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting @ Waikalua Chapel
Aug 20, Sunday 4 pm - Youth Council @ Bishop’s Office
Aug 20, Sunday 6:30 pm - SED @ Bishop’s House
Aug 24, Thursday 6:30 pm - Youth Night @ Waikalua Chapel
Aug 27, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting @ Waikalua Chapel
Aug 31, Thursday 6-8 pm - Relief Society Social @ Waikalua Chapel
Sept 3, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting @ Waikalua Chapel
Sept 7, Thursday 6:30 pm - Youth Night @ Waikalua Chapel
Sept 10, Sunday 2 pm - Sacrament Meeting @ Waikalua Chapel
Sept 14, Thursday 6:30 pm - Youth Night @ Waikalua Chapel
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