Perseverance

Dr. James Carlson shares a lesson he learned as a church planter in Hawaii!
Many years ago I learned how God uses perseverance to accomplish his purposes.  At the age of twenty-seven I was asked by my denomination to plant a church on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.  This was 1973.  I was approached for this assignment because I had been commissioned as a Navy Chaplain during the Vietnam War, and as a reservist had access to military bases in Hawaii.  I had also traveled extensively in the Far East and was familiar with the challenges of interacting cross-culturally, especially in sharing my faith.
My wife planned to join me on Oahu with our two young sons as soon as I was established.   The first thing I did was to interview Dr. Jim Cook, well-known pastor of the International Baptist Church on the Pali Hwy in Honolulu.  I told him I had just arrived to plant a church and asked him where there was the greatest need.  He looked at me with some skepticism and then suggested the community of Aiea in the foothills overlooking Pearl Harbor.  Before I left he said, “You need to know that the average tenure of a church planter in Hawaii is nine months.”
That afternoon I scouted Aiea, twenty minutes east of Honolulu.  It was home to hundreds of second and third generation Japanese families whose parents and grandparents had immigrated to Hawaii prior to World War II.  All were Buddhist.  It was also home to military personnel who were stationed at Pearl Harbor Naval Base and Hickam Air Force Base.
Following the leading of the Spirit, I found a centrally located elementary school with a cafetorium that could seat 300 and immediately talked to principal.  “How much to rent the cafetorium each Sunday morning?” I asked.  “Twenty-five dollars,” was her response.  I signed a contract on the spot and planned to begin services a week from that coming Sunday.
I quickly had 1000 invitations printed, and for the next seven days walked up and down every street in Aiea passing them out.  Most families were friendly but non-committal.  I was an outsider, a “Haole”.  They had lived on the island their entire lives.  Nevertheless, I believed I had been called by God to plant a church.  I already had a name in mind— Calvary Church of the Pacific.
When Sunday arrived for our first service, I was at the school cafetorium early.  I wanted to be sure everything was in order, that there were plenty of chairs, and the windows were open for ventilation.  I had bathed this venture in prayer and expected a big crowd.
One person showed up.
He was a young man in the air force who was being transferred in two weeks.  I was able to minister to him that morning, but I was also very discouraged.  Was Dr. Jim Cook right?  Would I even last nine months?
Oahu had a radio station (KAIM) that was owned by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  The next day I located the station in Honolulu and talked the radio manager into selling me five minutes of time each morning at 10:55 a.m.  I called my program, Perspective, and began giving short sermons followed by my phone number and an invitation to attend services in Aiea.
Four days later a woman from Aiea named Rosie Fukuhara called me.  She was raised Buddhist but had become a Christian listening to Dr. J. Vernon Mcgee on the radio.  “Would you come over and talk to my family?” she asked.  My husband and four children are not believers.”
That evening I sat Japanese style with the family on their living room floor.  For two hours I shared the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  When I was finished, I looked at the patriarch of the family, Charles Fukuhara, and asked, “Would you like to give your heart to Christ?”  The Spirit was moving.
After a few contemplative moments he looked at me and said, “Yes, I would.”
I asked the same question of each of the children, and each one answered, “Yes.”
I helped them pray to receive Christ, and the Fukuhara family became a Christian family that evening.
The next Sunday they were all in church.  Little did I know that Rosie and Charles were acquainted with just about everyone in Aiea.  They began inviting their friends.  Rosie was well-liked, and Charles, a construction superintendent who built high rises in Honolulu, was highly-respected.  Week after week new local families began attending, and one by one, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters chose to follow Christ.  Our baptismal services took place in the Aiea High School swimming pool.  Charles Fukuhara became the first deacon.
Long story short, three years later this young congregation purchased land next to Aiea High School and built a beautiful worship facility.  Four hundred folks attended our first service.  Several pastors have succeeded me, and since those early days literally hundreds throughout the world have been touched by the ministry of Calvary Church of the Pacific.  The present pastor is a full-blooded Hawaiian, Rev. Peter Kamakawiwoole.  The website of the church is calvarypacific.org.
Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
James 1:4 says, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete.”
I learned much about the power of persevering through that experience.  Are you serving the Lord in a difficult place, where the road is hard to travel?  Keep on keeping on, and you will be rewarded.  If the Lord is in it, never … never … never give up!