Volume 5, Issue 32
August 14, 2020
THIS SUNDAY: August 16, 2020
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost


ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES WITH COMMUNION

8:00AM
Joe Adorno (EM)*
Jeff Albao (U)
Diane Sato (AG)

9:30AM
Dileep Bal (EM)
Mario Antonio (U)
Linda Crocker (LR)
Jan Hashizume (AG)
Nelson Secretario, Mabel Antonio (HP)

* EM - Eucharisitic Minister; U - Usher; LR - Lay Reader; AG - Altar Guild; HP - Healing Prayers
UPCOMING EVENTS
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES WITH COMMUNION
8:00AM and 9:30AM
Sanctuary and Side Lanai

Aloha Hour
Every Sunday
10:45AM - 12:00PM
Side Lanai and Tent

Monday Crew
Every Monday
8:00AM
Church Office

Adult Formation Class:
Studying the Apostles' Creed
Tuesday, August 18th
God the Holy Spirit
6:30 - 8:00PM
Zoom meeting
Those who are interested in the Adult Formation Class may contact Cami at Cami@allsaintskauai.org for login information.
RECURRING EVENTS
ALL RECURRING EVENTS SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Sunday School
Every Sunday, 9:30 - 10:15AM
Memorial Hall

Laundry Love
1st & 3rd Wednesday, 5:00PM
Kapa`a Laundromat
McMaster Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Concert
Every Wednesday, 6:00PM
Church

Choir Practice
Every Thursday, 6:00PM
Choir Room
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The editor-in-chief of your Epistle will be taking a few weeks off for surgery on Oahu. In the mean time, we will be publishing a very abbreviated issue each week. These issues will detail the weekly scripture readings, service schedules, duty rosters, upcoming and recurring events, and All Saints' news. Once recovered, the editor-in-chief will resume his duties.

Mahalo for your support.
Weekly Sermon from Kahu Kawika
The Caring Control of God
Proper 14A: “The Caring Control of God”
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
All Saints’ Kapaa, 9 August 2020

I came across some unusual but true traffic signs from New York City. They struck me as some of the wordiest and strangest traffic signs I’d ever seen:

  • The Rudest (and perhaps the one that captures the culture of a true New Yorker): “Don’t even THINK about parking here!” (Ironically, by saying that, it makes you think about parking there).

  • The Most Dangerous, found on a multilane thoroughfare: “Traffic will flow northbound until 4pm, at which time it will flow southbound.” You can imagine the potential for chaos and confusion around 3:59pm!!

  • The most “Polite” exchange: Please do not damage my car – I have NOTHING worth stealing in it, not even a car stereo system!” One day she put the sign up on her driver’s window and left for about an hour. When she came back, she found her same driver’s window had been smashed with another note laying on the driver’s seat: “Just checking.”

If you’re driving along in NYC and happen upon one or more of these signs, it can really put a kink in your otherwise planned-out day.

Like encountering unexpected signs, we may have well-intentioned plans for our day or even for our lives, but other things pop up unexpectedly along the way.

In our first reading from Genesis 37, Joseph no doubt thought his good life was planned out for him:

Background: Joseph ben Jacob of the “Technicolor Dreamcoat” fame was Jacob’s (Israel’s) favorite son out of the 12 sons. Although Joseph was born #11 out of the 12, he was the firstborn of two sons from Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife. Even his name implies his father’s preferential treatment of him: “God’s bounty.” (God’s gift)

Due to his preferential treatment, Joseph grew up rather spoiled and even bratty – tattling on the other brothers’ work and making them look bad before their father Israel. He had dreams from God about his eventual rise in power over his other brothers – and then he bragged to his brothers about it!! Besides, Joseph strutted about in his multicolored ornamental robe given by his father Israel – a robe, by the way, not fit for heavy manual labor like his other brothers had to do.

Joseph thus stoked the animosity that his father Israel had created and his brothers had perpetuated. 

God had other plans for Joseph – eventually God would indeed cause Joseph to rise up, but he would have to go through a rather circuitous route to get there.
  • God Cares: God certainly protects Joseph along the way (drawn out of the dangerous pit, rises up the ranks of Egyptian royal society to the position of Prime Minister), but also God cares in the sense of God not allowing Joseph to remain in his spoiled ways. God had bigger plans for Joseph, and like a “tough love” parent God was not prepared to turn a blind eye and keep Joseph from reaching his true potential as the person God really wants him to become.

How do we experience the malama of God? Certainly with the blessings of friendships, provisions for our lives and livelihoods, and a support network around us. But also at times in a “tough love” kind of way. We may get a “no” answer from God for something for which we have been asking. We may be going through a hard time with our finances, our health, or other disappointments. I’m not saying that God has sent those things, only that God can use those things to bring us to a better place, to take off the rough edges of our personalities and to live in a realization of greater dependence on God. All this leads us to the second thing we can learn from the life of Joseph:

  • God Is in Control: God is not only loving, but also has the power to bring that love about. Joseph ends up in some dire circumstances – alienation from his family; being thrown into a deep and muddy cistern with the prospect of being left for dead; being kidnapped by slave-traders to live in a foreign land far away from home; getting falsely accused of attempted rape by his Egyptian employer’s wife after rebutting her advances; serving time in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

However, to Joseph’s credit, he does not lose his trust in God to work all things out. See what Prime Minister Joseph says 20 years later to his brothers in Genesis 50:20: “What you intended for harm, God intended for good.” And by the way, Joseph’s dream that he had as a youth of 11 stars bowing down before him, comes true when his brothers 20 years later bow down to Joseph as Prime Minister of Egypt.

As I said last week, sometimes we have to go through something PAINFUL to get to something GAINFUL. Joseph makes it through, though, by realizing that (1) God cares, and (2) God is in control.

Unlike some of the traffic signs in NYC, God is neither arbitrary nor whimsical, but stands by us and yet also disciplines us as a loving parent – both twin aspects of God’s malama, God’s care, for us. And we can trust God to work through both the good times and the bad in our lives. Wherever we are in our lives and whatever we may be going through, we can put our trust in a God who is sovereign and who cares.

Hear these words through the prophet Jeremiah (29:11), said to his fellow Jews stuck in exile hundreds of miles away from home: “I know the plans I have for you – plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering, especially Kaaren, Kelly, Bill, Bob, The Sloggett Family, Annie, Mike, Destry, Laragh, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. 

For all who have died, especially Bruce, Dick, and those affected by the COVID-19 virus and those we name silently or aloud, in the hope of the resurrection, and for all the departed, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. Amen.
The Apostles' Creed:
What, Where, Why?
We say it every Sunday at church, but where did the Apostles' Creed come from? Why do we recite it in our worship services? What does each part mean for us today? Join Kahu Kawika as we take a closer look at the Apostles' Creed. For background, the Secretarios suggested we get the book by Adam Hamilton, Creed: Why Christians Believe the Apostles' Creed (you can order a print copy from Amazon which will arrive on time, or download a Kindle version immediately). We will explore this via Zoom (online or via phone call-in) over three Tuesday evenings, 6:30-8:00PM in August, as follows according to the three-part breakdown of the Creed:

August 18: God the Holy Spirit
News from Buildings and Grounds
Much Needed Improvements Continue
Stained Glass Is Now Protected


David Crocker was working again to help keep the All Saints' sanctuary beautiful and protected. He installed plexiglass sheeting over our lovely stained glass windows. This is valuable security especially during hurricane season.
Driveway Regraveling Project Completed


As you may have noticed last Sunday, we have completed the re-graveling of the church driveway. We graded the foundation to get rid of potholes and facilitate drainage. We also added parking pavers along the edges to contain the gravel. This improvement should last us for a few years before more gravel is needed. 
-Ron Morinishi, Jr. Warden
Below is a summary of the draft Vestry minutes from our last meeting on Tuesday 28 July:

  • Church Finances for January-June 2020: We have a positive financial balance of $16,714.84, which is encouraging given the pandemic and economic downturn. Last year at this time it was at $25,284.94.

  • Offering Counters: There is a need for more volunteers to help process the Sunday offerings on Monday mornings.

  • Stewardship Plans from September: "Malama Moments," with Stewardship less about fundraising and more about the variety of our heartfelt responses to God's goodness to us.

  • Approval of new Tenancy Rental Rate Schedule designed to provide consistent and transparent information on rates and other responsibilities to tenants renting space on All Saints' campus.

-Kahu Kawika
Hale Ho`omalu Accepts Donations
All Saints' Restarts Donation Collection
All Saints’ has had a long relationship with Hale Ho`omalu, a Child and Family Service program that provides families with the tools and resources they need to create meaningful and lasting change in their lives. Over the years, our `Ohana has collected donations specific to monthly-need requests provided by Hale Ho`omalu.

COVID-19 changed our ability to collect donations since on-site church services were canceled. Now that we are open for on-site worship, our Hale Ho`omalu donations will be collected again for delivery to this worthy program. We are grateful to our wonderful Monday Crew that takes the donations to Hale Ho`omalu each week.

Hale Ho`omalu is requesting donations of school supplies. There is an on-going need for travel sized toiletries and canned goods so these items will be accepted every week. As always, monetary donations are gratefully accepted.
IN BRIEF . . .

These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"

Please submit your story ideas to the Epistle Staff at news@allsaintskauai.org.
KUPUNA SHOPPING ASSISTANCE MINISTRY
Any of our All Saints' kupuna who need assistance with grocery shopping can contact Carolyn Morinishi (808-651-2061) to set up a delivery.

ALL SAINTS' VIRTUAL SWAP MEET
If any ministry has an unmet need, reach out to put it in the All Saints' Virtual Swap Meet and it will be published in the Epistle. Contact Bill Caldwell at news@allsaintskauai.org.

PASTORAL CARE CONTACT INFORMATION
Whenever you have a need for support, please call (650) 691-8104 and leave a voice mail. The system will immediately forward the information to the Pastoral Care Committee who will respond to each request. If you prefer, you may send an electronic pastoral care request via email to pastoralcare@allsaintskauai.org.

PRAYER CHAIN MINISTRY
Individuals who want to participate in the Prayer Chain Ministry must re-enroll to continue receiving the email communications. To re-enroll, please visit the newly established Pastoral Care web page or contact the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

SUBMITTING A PRAYER REQUEST
Prayer requests will now be submitted online or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Names can be added to the Prayers of the People petitions by using the Prayer Chain Request form or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267. Names will remain in the Prayers of the People for a maximum of four Sundays before a name must be resubmitted.