Last summer I finally took my family to Oahu (the island), Hawaii. My dad was in the Air Force and had a heart attack and died when he was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base. I had always wanted to go back with my family and show them the (five) places we lived and the (four) different schools I attended during the three times my family lived there.
We went to New Hope Christian Fellowship Oahu on a Saturday in June this past summer and it was truly a highlight of our vacation. A really neat thing about New Hope is they don't have their own facilities so they use Farrington High School's Auditorium. Because of the cost of real estate on Oahu it would have cost the church upward of 10 million dollars to build something suitable for New Hope. They chose to invest in the school and the community directly instead of spending all that money on facilities. Because of the investment in the school (spiritually and financially) by the church the kids that attend Farrington have been more protective of their school and there has literally been less violence and gang activity at this school of nearly 2500 students.
I found New Hope when I was looking at this list in Outreach Magazine. It is amazing that New Hope is averaging about 11,000 people a weekend in attendance in the 1,200 seat auditorium (5 services) at Farrington and the five other satellite locations (with 11 more services) of New Hope. The music was outstanding with the stage full of folks singing and those in attendance were fully engaged in worship. The message was about blended families and the executive pastor Elwin Ahu gave his personal testimony and delivered the message. The people worshiping were from all walks of life and represented every conceivable people group. It is much like I envision heaven to be with such great music and diversity of people.
If you are in Hawaii you must check out New Hope(get there early)!
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