Marsha's Blog

  Good Morning!  I thought you might need a break from Hawaii events/history today.  I'm happy to say that we're fine, if a little hot. Tony's classes are going well and he enjoys learning from the students. So today I'd like talk about something that happened to me many years ago.  I'm however, still learning from this rather humorous lesson. But first let me start with a joke to help explain. Apparently a man and his wife were out in a little boat fishing.  They hadn't caught anything and were getting cranky.  They decided to talk about what they'd do IF they did actually catch something, thinking that would cheer them up. "So when we catch it, I'll pull it up and you take the knife and cut the line" the husband instructed. "No, you need to use scissors to cut the line" the wife interjected. "Knife" he said "Scissors" This argument got more heated until he threw her overboard and said "Knife!" As he hel...

 This week has flown by.  By the number of concerned messages I've been getting, I know you all are watching the news and know that the islands of Maui and the Big Island, Hawaii, have had devastating fires.  Our island sits a little to the north, and while we had strong enough winds to knock our electricity off for a while, we weathered the storm without much drama. I am happy to report that the relief efforts are going well and we’re all rejoicing that one of our churches, in the very city of Lahaina, where the fires were most devastating, was untouched. Today let me tell you the story of the BAPTISTS here in the islands.  As I mentioned last week, by the mid 1800's, missionaries were beginning to arrive and Christianity was growing.   However, it wasn't till the early/mid 1900's that a Baptist came along.  His name was Joseph P Tyssowski, an attorney from Texas and an ordained Baptist preacher. When he arrived, he was happy to find one small church,...

  Hello from Hawaii,   I was planning to continue a series of interesting facts about Baptist's in Hawaii, but today I need to “interrupt this program with an important news bulletin".   A few days ago, I started getting notes from friends sharing their concerns about the terrible fires here in Hawaii. Unfortunately, since we’ve only just arrived, we were lacking both the time and the opportunity to look at the news.   Imagine our horror when we turned on the tv and saw whole towns in flames. Fortunately for us, this was happening on two other islands, not the one we’re living on, but seeing the news was reminiscent of the terrible bush fires in Australia not long ago, and the images called up memories best forgotten.   Then tonight I listened as a lady spoke to a group at church with tears in her eyes.  Her best friend had just escaped with her life and then watched her house and all she owned burn to the ground in just minutes.  It wa...

Good Morning Friends, I am happy to say that all my complaining of the last few weeks had finally ended!  We are now settled in all snug and happy in the guest rooms of Olivet Baptist church.  Tony officially starts his classes this next week and we're excited. He’s already hit the ground running by preaching at the local Chinese church (in English) and the Japanese church has snagged him for an upcoming service (in Japanese). In his words, he’s “happy as a boy in a bathtub full of bullfrogs!” We've been visitors on and off to Hawaii since the early 80's when we began flying thru on the way to Japan.  We lived here 4 months last year, so it almost feels like a home away from home.  Tony's remembering how to drive on the 'wrong' (to us) side of the road, and we're beginning to re-discover some of our favourite foods! And don't forget the lovely CHICKENS!  For some reason, there are feral chickens all over the island, even in the middle of town.  I’d forgo...