On Maui, friendly lunches lead to ecumenical home building

By Stan Franco | Special to the Herald

I started working at St. Theresa Church in Kihei with Father Jim Berry in January of 2005. One of my first duties was to get to know the Christian pastors in the Kihei area. In the process, they invited me to join them for lunch once per month. Over these lunches we become friends. About six months ago, I suggested doing a project together. All thought the idea had merit and what followed were evening meetings with the pastors and congregation members to decide what to do.

We agreed to start with something small and feasible and someone suggested we help Habitat for Humanity. The international non-profit builder of homes for low-income people – its most famous volunteer is former president Jimmy Carter – was active on Maui.

So we invited Cheryl Pokipala of Habitat to attend one of our meetings and she told us her organization was building 12 homes in Waiehu for Hawaiian families.

We decided to help. We announced the project and put out a request for volunteers in our four South Maui Churches — St. Theresa, Kihei Lutheran, Keolahou Congregational and Trinity by the Sea Episcopal.

On Saturday, Jan. 12, about 20 members from the four churches met in Waiehu to pound nails, sweep and shovel dirt from sidewalks and streets, and clean up construction debris. Six of the volunteers were from St. Theresa: Celine Janiszewski, Stephanie Franco, Stan Franco, Lionel Haggerson, Nona Kong, and Medel Aquino.

We worked from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., taking time for lunch. Celine was thankful for the opportunity to volunteer. She said she had always wanted to help on a Habitat project. Others said the same.

At the Habitat site, I talked with pastors Dave Krueger and Rennie Mau about continuing to help Habitat. We agreed to ask our respective church members to volunteer on the second Saturday of each month until all 12 homes were completed.

This was a time for us to become one in the body of Christ. We enjoy working together and hope many other projects will come from this humble beginning.