By Kahu Roy Brooks, on December 26th, 2012 What did these organizations have in common this Christmas Eve? Nourishment of the Heart, Soul and Body…….The body was filled with nourishment, as Zeoma Akau of Kupuna church served up Hot, heaping servings of hamburger stew, that was rich and tasty, to the multitudes of park residents. While doing so, Ho’olu’a handed out water proof padding for those rainy days and nights, as well as brand new socks to adults and children, as part of the Cozy Christmas partnership with Castle Medical Center’s outreach ministries.
This all started by 4:30 pm, with our food running out, we closed up the kitchen and went over to Blanche Pope Elementary school to join pastor Fred Welsh and Pastor Mike Kahumoku of Joyful Community Christian church, for their annual Christmas Eve service, to a packed cafeteria congregation. What a blessing filled day, this Christmas Eve was…………Please join us by responding to our posts. Amene
By Kahu Roy Brooks, on December 21st, 2012 December 19th began with 3 SUV loads of gifts for needy and homeless families in the Waimanalo community. What a bountiful and blessed experience, to be gainfully employed by ”God’s work and delivery service”. That’s a catchy name for his delivery and messenger service. The day began too late to make deliveries on the 19th, so we put delivery off to the 20th. By 8:am we were on the road with our first load of gifts, which is a partnership with the Castle Medical Center outreach ministries, and Ho’olu’a. With our destinations set, we made our first delivery by 9:am. By 8:00 pm Thursday evening we were making our final delivery to the houseless on the beaches in Waimanalo.
The unique thing about this relationship with Castle Medical, is that they are also our partner with “Cozy Christmas”, where they collect warm blankets and socks for the houseless. With a car load of blankets and socks, we made our last distribution of warm and fuzzies by 10:pm. What an awesome time for the work of Ke Akua.
Our night was not quite over yet, as we made a special delivery, at the request of Kupuna church’s Kahu Paul Akau. We delivered a brand new 8′ X 9′ dome tent to a lone female houseless resident at the beach park. She had been in the park for a week, and was in need of this temporary housing. This person named ‘K’, was the first recipient of our temporary housing project. (tents of course). Partners in this housing effort are: Ho’olu’a, Castle Medical Center outreach ministries, Windward Homeless Coalition, Na Pono No Na Ohana, Partners in Development Foundation, Inc, and the Waimanalo ministries
Amene……
By Kahu Roy Brooks, on December 16th, 2012 Ho’olu’a will convene its second forum in January, which will address the housing concerns of the native Hawaiian within the community of Waimanalo. In September of 2012 our forum convened to begin designing a strategy, that would address these concerns. At that time we agreed that once we were over with the holiday season and its events, we would resume duscussions on houselessness and the native Hawaiian, in Waimanalo.
Please contact Hoolua, if you would like to participate in this forum.
Forum members:
Kahu Roy Brooks-Hoolua & the Gathering Place of Gods Ministries
Kahu Paul Akau-Kupuna church
Nancy Cullen-Windward Homeless Coalition, board of directors
Suresh Tamang-Doctoral Candidate, U. of Hawaii school of social work
Rod Tam-former senator and city councilman
Keep in touch with Hoolua.org as we keep you posted on meeting times and sites.
A hui hou,
Unko Roy,Chairman
www.hoolua.org
By Kahu Roy Brooks, on December 16th, 2012  Kaleo, Pohai & Ryan beaming with pride over their success with Hali’i 2012
 Papa & Mama Kalikimaka at Hali’i 2012 w/ Mahoe Ohana
 Families took full advantage of all activities at Hali’i 2012  Hali’i 2012 food service for nearly 800 was a miracle.
 The Root Beer Floats were a huge success with the families, volunteers and volunteers at Hali’i 2012
 Papa & Mama Kalikimaka with co-chair Sandy Kealoha & 3rd year Photographer Nalua Spencer of Le Jardin  The library was filled with families engaging with newly added curriculum based activities. Hali’i Christmas December 2009 at Waimanalo beach park, the journey begun. December 14th 2012, 5:pm to 8:pm, the destination, an evening of celebration that will live in a communities heart and soul forever. Sounds of children’s laughter, their play, and excitement filled every corridor of Blanche Pope Elmentary schools cafeteria, library and walkways, as families escorted their keiki, down homestead side streets and main roads, and filled the school parking lot, to find their way to the source of all this revelry. Hali’i 2012 marked the beginning of a communities engagement on a much larger scale, than ever before imagined, with each other, and their Piko, Blanche Pope Elementary school. Where their children come to learn, they now gather to engage in family magic. Yes Magic! Cause if you were here, you would have seen, touched and witnessed the magic of families celebrating, in the face of global catastrophy. Blanche Pope Elementary school and the Hali’i planning consortium, are forever grateful for the effort that our community put into an evening of enjoyment. Our community has surpassed all our expectations of how this event could have benefited our village, by your presence and participation. As usual I never seem to have a handle on event photography (will work on it in 2013), but with a record 550 plus of our families and keiki in attendance, I think many of you took a mental photograph of all the good that took place this Friday evening, at Hali’i. THIS JUST IN: We have tallied the registration records, counted bowls, plates and stuff. We also looked at photo’s to see if anyone was not registered. Early expectations were that 450 people might attend this years event. After tallying initial records we came up with 727 attendee’s. After tallying volunteers, vendors and houseless families that did not sign in, we counted 773 persons, attending Hali’i 2012. Our guests, that were houseless amounted to 27 persons, including children. Hoolua, the Hawaiian Civic Club of Waimanalo and our community partners remain committed to supporting this event, which fosters community engagement within the educational system. Above all we remain committed to a strong adherence to cultural Hawaiian values and Ke Akua. Mele Kalikimaka kakou a me Hauoli Makahiki hou, Unko Roy, Chairman Hoolua Inc. @ www.hoolua.org
By Kahu Roy Brooks, on November 29th, 2012 On November 23, and November 29 we saw a warming of the relationship between Hoolua, the Hawaiian Civic Club of Waimanalo and Castle Medical Center, through the CMC “Cozy Christmas” drive. For several years now, Ho’olu’a has been able provide warmth, during the coldest time of year for our homeless families, on the beaches.
As darkness drew closer, I could see a little boy, not much more than 4 yrs of age, clutching to a baby blanket, as the evening chill began to envelope the beach side community. He looked cold, and he told you so. He hung on to his blanket, as if it warmed his entire body. But, I could see that it was far from adequate a source of warmth.
I opened the rear of my SUV, exposing a mountain of warm blankets. His eyes lit up, as he said, over and over again, Blankets! Blankets! Blankets! He scampered onto the bumper of my car, as this child reached for as many blankets as he could, saying “I going take one for my mommy!”. “I going take one more for my mommy!”. Then he ran off and returned with his mommy in tow. This is the purpose of our relationships with families such as CMC. We can reach out, but without CMC we could not touch.
Let us give thanks to Ke Akua for this partnership with “Cozy Christmas”, Pauline Kalawaia and the Castle Medical Center ‘Ohana.
A year of Miracles….
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Ho‘olu‘a is… “Dedicated to supporting the right of access to persons with disabilities, native Hawaiians and those persons with barriers to self-sustainable and independent living, to attain equality in access to those rights, by acquiring the skills necessary to live fully integrated within their communities."
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