Board of Mission and Outreach

Hui Mālama O Keawalaʻi

Hui Mālama O Keawalaʻi, the care-giving program of the Board of Mission & Outreach, continues its program to short-term assistance for members and friends in need. The program, launched in September 2015, is being carried out by a Steering Committee chaired by Cindy Mead of Kīhei. Committee members include Kahu Bob Nelson and Tom Nelson as well as Intake Coordinators Anne Rowehl and Edie Kapiko.

The program provides short-term care covering four areas of need: 1) Providing transportation for appointments; 2) Providing meals; 3) Visiting members and friends at home or in the hospital; and 4) running errands.

For more information, contact Edie Kapiko at (808) 268-1612.

 

The Local Mission Fund is for the Outreach Committee.
The Board has two committees: Outreach Committee and Mission Committee.

Preface

Over the years the Outreach Committee of Keawala‘i Congregational Church has sought to provide support for those in need. Such support has been provided through a number of community organizations and social service agencies including the Maui AIDS Foundation, A Keiki's Dream Program, the Maui Food Bank, Kaunoa Senior Services Center, Women Helping Women, Hospice Maui, Maui Blood Bank, Horizons Academy, The Children's Justice Center of Maui, Maui Youth & Family Services, Maui Family YMCA, and many others.

In addition support has been provided through the combined efforts of other faith communities as well as through requests received directly from individuals and families seeking assistance with health, food, clothing, housing, transportation, counseling, and other needs. Sometimes families are faced with a member's catastrophic illness. In some cases, individuals lose their jobs and are unable to find any suitable work within a reasonable amount of time.

Some families are single parent households. Other households are faced with the turmoil of substance abuse and/or domestic violence. In each instance the committee seeks to help and encourage those in need to also help themselves.

Local Networking

Since 1999 the Outreach Committee began to expand its work through a network of other local faith communities in responding to those in need. Unfortunately several network partners have either curtailed or terminated their own programs.

Efforts are underway once more to rebuild the network and establish ways in which such partnerships will increase the amount of resources that may have a more effective impact on those in need.

The Local Mission Fund

Maui, Moloka‘i, & Lāna‘i

The Local Mission Fund provides grants to benefit individuals and families in need who reside in local communities throughout Maui County. These communities include those located on the islands of Maui, Moloka‘i, and Lāna‘i. The Local Mission Fund draws the bulk of its resources through the fundraising activities of the Outreach Committee of Keawala‘i Congregational Church. These include the annual Christmas Crafts Faire, Bake Sale, & Silent Auction and at least three other fundraising events that are held throughout the year.

How the Fund Works

Request are received from a number of different sources. First, members and friends of the church may make a request on behalf of an individual or family. Second, referrals are sometimes received from community organizations, social service agencies, and other faith communities. Third, requests are sometimes received fro the persons or families in need.

The Beneficiaries

Partial or full grants are made based on the assessment of other resources that are made available to the grantee. These may include the grantee's own resources or those received from other organizations and agencies. All grants directly benefit person or persons who are in need.

Grants issued through agencies, organizations, and other faith communities are not to be used to the supportive the administrative expenses of those various groups. Grants released to and through agencies, organizations, and other faith communities and to recognized community funds established with local financial institutions located within Maui County.

Areas of Need

Grants may be issued, though not limited, to the following areas of need:

Counseling Housing Elder Care
Legal Defense Transportation Food
Utilities Health Youth
Education

How You Can Help!

There are three ways that you can help the Outreach Committee in its work. First, include the work of the committee in your prayers. Second, if you know of individuals or families in need of assistance, please share this brochure with them.

Third, you may make both monetary and material donations to the committee, including household furniture and appliances. No clothing please.

Our Church’s Wider Mission

Cathy Hobson

Cathy Hobson, a former member of the Board of Mission & Outreach, made the following presentation on Our Church’s Wider Mission at a past congregational meeting.

I didn’t realize how hard it would be to choose just a few words to say about Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM). We all know that our contributions to One Great Hour of Sharing help in disaster response around the world—the earthquake in Haiti, tsunami in Indonesia, etc. It’s good to know that our annual donations help to build a fund to give immediate assistance to people struck by unexpected natural events.

However, when I started investigating OCWM I found much more. For one thing our congregation has two special offerings—the Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia Scholarship Fund in February which assists students studying for the ministry and the Christmas Fund that helps retired church workers and clergy who are in need.

Secondly, the annual budget of Keawalaʻi has, for many years, included a contribution to Basic Support for the national ministries of the United Church of Christ (UCC). These national ministries include conferences to provide support and continuing education for volunteers and staff, resources for Christian education, stewardship education, youth events and camps, and justice advocacy.

Since our Keawalaʻi Church was founded by missionaries over 180 years ago, I wondered, “What happened to old-fashioned missionary work in this new age?” This is what I found.

The organization developed by the UCC and the Disciples of Christ is called Global Ministries. The web site lists 54 individuals, some co-sponsored with the Presbyterian Church, USA, who work in Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe, Southern Asia and East Asia & the Pacific. The work they do ranges from a couple from Nashville who are in India as a medical director and anesthesiologist in a hospital, and a couple from Connecticut who are professors in Biblical studies and church music in Nanjing, China.

They also include a woman from Queens, New York, who works in Kenya in the “networking and advocacy program of the Greenbelt Movement” and is the coordinator of the youth volunteer program and a young woman from Los Fresnos, Texas who is listed as an environmental and Christian Education specialist in Chile.

 

Did You Know OCWM Changes Lives?

Listed below are just ten of the many ministries in Hawaiʻi that are supported by the gifts given to Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM) each year:

  1. Ministry at Kalaupapa
  2. Local church grants for new programs
  3. Communication through the Coconut Wireless, The Friend and other Conference publications
  4. Boundary-training for pastors and programs to promote safe churches
  5. Pension program for church employees
  6. Seminary scholarships
  7. Mission 4/1 Earth
  8. Child sponsorship
  9. Ecumenical and interfaith relations
  10. Lectionary and Sunday School resources

Source: The Friend, Hawaiʻi Conference, The Oldest Newspaper West of the Rocky Mountains, Founded 1843, Volume 29, Issue 6, OCWM Special Edition