Church News: August 7th, 2025

by | Aug 7, 2025 | News

Watch Our Most Recent Worship Service

Watch Our Most Recent Worship Service

You can click the button below to watch a video of a recent worship service:

Watch the most recent worship service

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Our online worship services are a great way to introduce people to Koloa Union Church…and provide inspiration and hope to friends and family!

Feel free to forward this email or send the YouTube link to anyone whom you think would enjoy watching our online worship service.

Share our worship service with even more people! You can also put the link of any video of our worship services directly onto your Facebook page and thereby introducing every one of your Facebook friends to our worship services and our church!

Family Movie Night

Family Movie Night Poipu Koloa Church

Family Movie Night
Saturday, August 9th, 6:00-8:30 p.m.

Youth Event

Rev. Dr. David Vásquez-Levy

Youth Gathering For Middle School & High School Youth

Sundays at the Church 4:45-7:00 p.m.

September 14 & 28

Confirmation Retreat August 14-17 Waikeke Cabins in Kokee

Those who have not attended a confirmation retreat are asked to attend before joining the church. Those who have attended a confirmation retreat previously are asked to help with lessons and activities…and join the fun!

Volunteers: Contact Tiffany if you can provide a meal for the youth or if you are interested in helping out in another way.

Kauai Association UCC Youth Gathering

At the Smith Memorial Parsonage Sunday, August 24th 4:00-7:00 p.m. Enjoy games, pizza & fellowship with youth from other UCC churches on Kauai! Bring a dessert to share and your refillable water bottle.

RSVP: Youth are asked to RSVP to Aunty Tiffany for all youth events!

Volunteers: Please contact Tiffany if you can provide a meal for the youth or if you are interested in helping out in another way.

Summer Book Group

Summer Book Group Koloa Union Church "Jesus and John Wayne" by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Summer Book Group Wednesdays, July 16 – August 20 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.

“Jesus and John Wayne” by Kristin Kobes Du Mez Dinner will be served at 6 o’clock. Book discussion will begin after dinner.

Discussion Schedule

July 16: Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1
July 23: Chapters 2-4
July 30: Chapters 5-7
August 6: Chapters 8-10
August 13: Chapters 11-13
August 20: Chapters 14-16

Please sign up on the church bulletin board. Please let Kahu know if you can help with a meal. Please purchase your book on Amazon.com or contact the church office asap to purchase a copy for you.

Church Breakfast

Church Breakfast Tuesday, August 26th 8-9:30 a.m.

Join us on the 4th Tuesday of the month for delicious food and a fun time getting to know others from Koloa Union Church! (No breakfast in April) Location each month to be determined. RSVP on the sign-up sheet or by contacting the church office

Prayers and Squares

Kauai Quilting Class Prayer Meeting Koloa

Prayers and Squares – Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025 10:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

Prayers & Squares continues to meet in Moore Hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. once a month on a Tuesday, where we spend most of our time promoting prayer by creating hand-tied quilts. Volunteers with all ranges of quilting experience may join for prayer, fellowship, stitching, and learning about quilting. The motto: “It’s not about the quilt; it’s all about the prayers.” If you or someone in your ohana are in need of a tangible representation of prayer, please contact Debbie Gunning to request a quilt.

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Aloha Hour

Rev. Dr. David Vásquez-Levy

Next Aloha Hour Sunday, September 7th, 2025 Join us at the beach on July 6!

We usually enjoy Aloha Hour right after the worship service on the first Sunday of each month. If there is more interest (and volunteers!), we can have Aloha Hour more often. Please check in with Penny Osuga, our Aloha Hour chairperson, if you have any questions or would like to volunteer. See the sign up sheet on the bulletin board for food contributions. Kitchen help is also needed for a successful gathering.

Lectionary Readings

LECTIONARY READINGS

Wednesday, September 10th 7-8:30 pm

Smith Memorial Parsonage

Lectio Divina is a time to silently reflect together on a repeated reading from the Bible and then share with one another about the experience (if so desired). Please let Kahu or Karen Johnson know if you plan to attend.

Lectionary Readings

LECTIONARY READINGS Weekly Readings from the Bible

Each week, Christians throughout the world read biblical passages from the Revised Common Lectionary, including the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament, and Gospels. After three years, a good portion of the Bible is included and the cycle begins again. RCL passages are often read in church worship services, and Kahu Akana usually includes at least one reading each Sunday.

Readings for August 10: Isaiah 1:1-20; Psalm 50:1-23; Genesis 15:1-6; Psalm 33:12-22; Hebrew 11:1-16; Luke 12:32-40

Readings for August 17: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1-19; Jeremiah 23:23-29; Psalm 82; Hebrew 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-52

Readings for August 24: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Isaiah 58:9-14; Psalm 103:1-8; Hebrew 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17

Readings for August 31: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1-16; Proverbs 25:6-7; Psalm 112; Hebrew 13:1-16; Luke 14:1-14

Readings for September 7: Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-18; Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1; Philemon 1:1-21; Luke 14:25-33

You Are Loved T-Shirts

you are loved t-shirt for sale

“You are Loved” tees are still available Participants wore this tee shirt at the Kauai Pride Parade in June. We still have a few available: 5 Adult small-$12 1 Youth XL-$5 2 Youth L-$5 1 Youth M-$5 2 Youth XS-$5 Let the church office know if you would like to purchase a tee.

Help us with the newsletter!

The KUC Newsletter is how we stay in touch! We send out our Newsletter on a monthly basis in order to keep everyone updated on what is going on at Koloa Union Church.

Be sure to see the pictures and images! If you don’t see any photographs and images by now (like a picture of our church directly above), you are missing out! You can usually fix this issue by clicking “View images” (usually at the very top of the email) in order to see the great photos and images throughout the Newsletter!

Be sure to see ALL of the news! You may not be seeing all of the KUC Newsletter! Some email servers “clip” the message in order to save storage space, so be sure to click on “View entire message” if it appears (usually at the bottom of the email). Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on someof the news!

Add to the KUC Newsletter! Scroll to the bottom of this email to learn how to add any announcements to the Newsletter or add an email to receive future editions! The next edition of the Newsletter will be April 9. Deadline for articles is April 6 Early submissions are greatly appreciated!

A Message From Kahu: August 7th, 2025

by | Aug 7, 2025 | Message from Kahu

A Message From Our Kahu

A Nation of Immigrants

 

I remember the first time I saw the Statue of Liberty. I was sitting in a window seat on an airplane flying from Los Angeles to New York on a cold November day nearly 40 years ago. I was on my way to a retreat center just north of the city to participate in a gathering of racial-ethnic seminarians from all across the country. I was surprised when a denominational leader who worked at my seminary asked me if I was interested in attending. I had not thought of myself as a “racial-ethnic seminarian” before that. I just thought I was a “seminarian.” However, it was an expense-paid trip to New York (my first) and an opportunity to talk to other “racial-ethnic seminarians” about their experiences, fears, and anxieties, as they anticipated working as clergy in a predominantly White denomination. Except for the Native American participant, our people had all come from other places. It was on that trip that the idea that we are a nation of immigrants really sunk in.

I have seen the Statue of Liberty many times since that trip. (Having a son living in New York City has made that possible!) In 2017 I did a boat tour of the Hudson and East Rivers: the highlight was getting right up close to Lady Liberty as our guide told us her story. It was a story of welcome to people from all over Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. It was a story of the celebration of diversity, of the goodness of inclusion, and of sharing opportunities with others.

For the most part we have seen ourselves as a nation that welcomes immigrants from all over the world. However, that welcome has always been met with some resistance and/or outright oppression. Even from before our nation’s independence from England, every new ethnic group that has arrived in our country, regardless of the circumstances of their migration, has felt it: Africans, Jews, Italians, Irish, Chinese, Mexicans…and the list goes on! However, the animosity towards immigrants has reached new heights in recent days. Politicians and preachers alike have been warning the rest of us of the dangers inherent in the undocumented immigrants in our midst.

When it comes right down to it, people have always been migrating and people will always continue to move from one place to the next in order to seek out a better life for themselves, their children and grandchildren. Frankly, many have not sought just a better life, but life itself—just hoping to stay alive. As I read through the Bible, it is apparent that it is a collection of one migration story after another. Just think of all the people, including our biblical heroes, who moved from one place to another: Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his family, Moses and all of the Hebrew people, Mary and Joseph, Jesus, Paul. Most of our best spiritual teachers have moved from region to region, country to country. It is no wonder that there is a long tradition in our Judeo-Christian heritage of actually loving the foreign-born people in our midst. The writer of Leviticus reminds us that this is the case because we come from people who know what it is like to be in their shoes.

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:34)

I think most of us would agree that there needs to be reasonable immigration policies and that there need to be consequences for immigrants who commit serious crimes (just as there should be for citizens). However, there is no place in the Christian faith for hurting people, separating children from their parents, placing innocent people in cages and sending them to prisons in other countries over which we have no control—simply because they are among us “without permission.” I hope we will return to the way of loving the immigrants in our midst.

I will leave you with the words from the sonnet of Emma Lazarus engraved on the bronze plaque of the Statue of Liberty:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Aloha Nui Loa!
Kahu

Pastor Alan on sebatical