Church practices daily devotion to Christmas
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
This is one of those stories that warms the heart and gives cause for hope that, even when there is talk of war and world terror, small miracles do happen, and the true spirit of Christmas can prevail.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Ostensibly it is the story of how hundreds of children, parents and neighbors were treated to free turkey dinners, toys and clothes yesterday at the Lighthouse Outreach Center Assembly of God on Leokane Street in Waipahu.
The Rev. Joe Hunkin stands by a tent full of toys donated by the community to distribute at a free feast.
The pre-Christmas feast was the culmination of the church's year-long effort to help disadvantaged people in Waipahu's toughest neighborhoods. The overriding theme, however, was that nobody would be turned away.
"If they don't belong to this church, if they don't belong to any church, if they are an atheist, if they are rich — it doesn't make any difference," said the pastor, the Rev. Joe Hunkin. "Everybody is welcome. No exceptions. The Gospel is a sharing gospel."
For Hunkin and his congregation, the idea of living every day as Christmas has become a reality — although yesterday's celebration was a spectacular manifestation of the ideal.
Most who showed up were neither rich nor atheistic. Many were from high- crime, low-income areas in Waipahu. Members of the congregation had spent the early hours preparing a feast and arranging boxes of shoes and toys to be given away in the parking lot to any and all who showed up.
"Call your neighbors," Hunkin announced over the loudspeaker as "The Christmas Song" played in the background. "We have a lot of food. Call them and tell them to come get toys. The community is going to be great if you who have been blessed will help someone else be blessed."
In the larger sense, this story is about how Hunkin, a career Army non-commissioned officer who retired after 26 years, took over the ministry of Waipahu's Assembly of God Church five years ago and transformed it from a Sunday service to an everyday affair.
At the time, the congregation consisted of a half-dozen families. Today it has grown 10-fold. Beginning a little more than a year ago, Hunkin and five teams of congregation members took up brooms, shovels and rakes and fanned out into the neighborhoods every Saturday to clean up.
"They laughed at us," said Hunkin, who had been warned to expect that by David Bennett, founder of Soul Savers Ministries, a national organization started in Maui. "But we just kept coming back and cleaning up the streets and offering assistance. If they needed food, we'd get it for them. If they needed a new couch, we bring one over."
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"We were hated at first," recalled JoAnn Taimatuia, one of the team leaders. "They thought we were disgusting. We had doors slammed in our faces. When they didn't accept us, we'd just clean up their trash and leave. Finally they began to open their doors."
The Lighthouse Outreach Center Assembly of God in Waipahu collected donations of toys as part of a congregation effort to help disadvantaged members of the community, whether or not they are believers.
Bennett taught Hunkin how his own neighborhood outreach program, "Bless a Block," operates. Soul Savers Ministries also began supplying Lighthouse with stock overrun and closeout toys, clothing and furniture donated by major corporations such as Wal-mart, Disney and Safeway.
In time, neighbors stopped laughing and started asking for assistance.
Six months ago, the anti-crime Weed & Seed program began working with the congregation. Honolulu police officer David Foumai of the Waipahu program said the Lighthouse work had a noticeable impact on crime."
"Let me give you an example," he said, mentioning a building in Waipahu's most poverty-stricken high-crime area, a drug house full of dealers and users.
The building owners, under pressure from neighborhood residents, finally evicted everyone and renovated the building, Foumai said.
"Now, about eight of the families living in the building are from Pastor Hunkin's church. And whenever those families see anyone standing around looking suspicious, they go out and talk to them about the Gospel."
Foumai said that usually sends drug dealers scrambling. He calls the story a perfect example of weeding out the bad and seeding in the good.
Hunkin is the sort of pastor who can make anyone feel accepted, no matter how dark their past or how grave their circumstances.
Certainly, Siatuu Tauai is a believer. A year and a half ago, the 35-year-old was a fugitive and four-time prison loser living with his wife and two small children in a 1989 Honda Accord he didn't even own.
The couple was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Their constant fighting often became violent. Because he had lost his home and job and was on the lam, Tauai was dealing drugs for money. Survival had become a living hell for him and his family, he said.
Then he met Hunkin through the church outreach program. Hunkin vouched for Tauai to parole officials, who reduced the time Tauai would have to serve.
Today, Tauai has a job as a warehouse worker, and he and his wife are clean. They live with their two children and 9-month old baby in a three-bedroom housing unit.
This year, the family will celebrate the peaceful Christmas together they thought they would never experience.
The change seems miraculous, said Tauai, who has become an outreach team member himself.
"Everything I lost, I got back through this ministry," he said, all Christmas cheer yesterday. "Now I want to give back."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
