Celebration, Demolition & Construction
During our worship service on Sunday, I surprised Kei and Penny Osuga with a very special certificate regarding our office expansion, as the final big project of our capital campaign:
The Church Office Shall Be Named In Honor Of:
Tasaburo & Akiko Okamura
Kiyoshi & Takako Shintani
Kei & Penny Osuga
For their generous and varied contributions to our church over
three generations by gifts given by their family & friends
The certificate then listed the names of all of Kei & Penny’s family members and friends who made donations to the office project.
In early fall, we were still short about $30,000 in terms of what we needed for the office expansion and new women’s restroom. After Penny mentioned to me that she wished she could think of a special way to honor her parents and grandparents, who were Kōloa Union Church members, I visited with Kei and Penny’s daughter Tara about the possibility of their family and friend’s donating the funds for the entire church office and naming the office after all three generations—including Penny and Kei! Checks poured in over the last couple of months, and a few folks made promises to send money over the next few weeks.
It was a special honor to have Kei’s sisters, Irene and Sachiko, (who contributed to the effort), in church on Sunday to assist with placing lei on Kei and Penny!
We had a vision four years ago to create a space that was more welcoming and inviting on our church property. We began with an ambitious goal of $150,000. Since a handful of our church leaders raised than that mount on our own, we increased our goal to $300,000. With two grants from the Vidinha Charitable Trust and additional gifts from members and friends of the church, we have now raised over $400,000!
We will begin demolition on the women’s restroom and office expansion right after Christmas and plan to have both projects completed by March 1! We still have a small handful of unfulfilled capital campaign commitments. As some of those commitments are fulfilled in the coming weeks, we will be able to pay for every project on our list, including new signs on Moore Hall and the sanctuary, new doorknobs and hardware on all of the doors on Moore Hall, installation of light fixtures, completion of irrigation, and making the floor inside and outside the sanctuary attractive, level and safe.
As our capital campaign winds down and we finish up the final projects in the next few months, I want to thank once again every person who gave, volunteered and prayed for a successful capital campaign “Maika`i Hana Hou!” (Creating Goodness & Beauty Once Again!). Your generosity and support has definitely created goodness and beauty, which has certainly made us more welcoming and inviting.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
__________________________________________
Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of a recent message from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
Recent Comments