Cookies Anyone?

The Lord definitely works in amazing ways! Danette happened to mention to Margie Hoff, wife of Olivet's former pastor, about how excited everyone was regarding the opportunity to minister to the women from Hawaii at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Kentucky. Margie then phoned her good friend Grace Efurd ... and Grace contacted Danette and asked if she could contribute to this ministry by baking some macadamia chocolate chip cookies for these women. Little did we know that when Grace asked if she could bake "some" cookies, it meant 6000! Grace rounded up her baking friends Jean Agena, Roberta Caldwell, Nelly Dionisio, Carleen Dunn, Jeff Eckerd, Sheri Howard, Iris Imamura, Ken Kuwahara, Bev Little, and Ellen Moss. They in turn had help from their friends who gave money to purchase the ingredients: Terry Fritz, Evie Harmon, Sharon Kawata, Cherry Lai, Mary Sloan, Jody Watts. Some interesting facts: the cookies required 50,516 chocolate chips (Dave Rolf counted!), then were packed in 112 Gallon jars - 75 of the 112 gallons were baked by Grace and the rest by members of Mililani Baptist Church; they will be personally delivered by Master's Touch to the 750 inmates and staff at the Otter Creek Women's Correctional facility, including the 175 women prisoners from Hawaii; the cookies will be repackaged into individual ziplock bags and will be distributed along with macadamia nuts, kakimochi, lihing mangos, and hand-written postcards of encouragement from Olivet Baptist Church members. Big Mahalo to Grace and her friends at Mililani Baptist Church!

"Hulihia" - by Ilima Stern

It is truly amazing the doors God opens - including the opportunity to minister to the 170+ Hawaii women at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Kentucky. Due to its distance from Hawaii and major airports, these women receive very few visitors from home. As we prepare for this particular leg of our tour, we had the opportunity to learn "Hulihia" from Ilima Stern (pictured above), who composed this for the women at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua. In partnership with Creative Writing teacher Pat Clough, Ilima works with the women, helping them to transform themselves through writing. They have published "Hulihia" a literary journal of their works. If you'd like to purchase a copy, please write to Jane Campbell, President of Windward Arts Council, P. O. Box 1704, Kailua, HI 96734-8704, to request a copy. A $10 donation would be greatly appreciated to cover the cost of publishing. The women are working on their next edition.

Hulihia [ Transformation]
E huli, huli, huli [Change, change, change]
Me ke ea maoli no. [With true spirit.]

E pi‛i, pi‛i, pi‛i [Climb, climb, climb]
I ka pu‛u na‛auao. [The hill of knowledge.]

E ku, ku, ku [Stand, stand, stand fast]
Mai hope wale no. [Don’t go backwards.]

E ho‛i, ho‛i, ho‛i [Return, return, return]
I ke ola i waho. [To life outside.]

E ola, ola, ola [Live, live, live]
I ke ku‛oko‛a. [In freedom.]

Master's Touch performed an Hawaiian choral piece, "E Ala E" written by Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele and Joe Camacho. The anthem was sung by the choir of Olivet Baptist Church on Easter Sunday. This is one of the dances which will be shared during the upcoming concert tour.