It was a joyful day being back in church on Sunday after a 3-week break of vacation and study leave. It was a special Sunday for me, as I celebrated my 3-year anniversary as the kahu of Koloa Union Church, and as my son Palani and I hosted around a hundred people at the grand opening of Alan Akana Gallery in the afternoon. The gallery is the fulfillment of a dream I have had for many years to have my own space to share my watercolors with others. I am especially pleased that the church will benefit from the profits of the sales. Please drop by if you weren’t able to attend on Sunday.
The theme of our worship service on Sunday was “joy,” and I shared a bit about my journey with joy and some of the things I learned about joy in The Book of Joy, written by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The thing that stands out most to me is Tutu’s quote that we are “reservoirs of joy” and we allow ourselves to experience joy in our own lives, that joy has a ripple effect and continues to touch the lives of people even far beyond our vision or knowledge. I encourage you to pay attention to the possibilities of joy for you and allow your joy to ripple throughout the world!
I hope to see a lot of people on Tuesday as we gather at 6 p.m. in Moore Hall for our Mardi Gras Pancake Supper, and then again on Wednesday evening at 6 for our weekly Lenten Soup Supper, followed by our Ash Wednesday service at 7. I have a feeling that this year’s service will be especially meaningful to a lot of people.
As a reminder, this years Lenten Season will focus on the beatitudes—Jesus’ “blessings” in Matthew’s Gospel. I invite you to join us on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings as we consider the many ways of blessing and being blessed!
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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Click HERE to see a video of Sunday’s sermon. Videos of Kahu’s sermons are available most weeks. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. You can also subscribe on YouTube anytime you watch a sermon; that way you can easily watch any past sermon and even receive a notification when a new sermon is posted.
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