Bement, Illinois

After Chie, Etsuko and Noriko left, the rest of us (Gay, Randy, Ethel, Danette, Liliko and Hae) packed up the van and headed for Bement (rhymes with cement) Illinois. I know, you're wondering why Bement? Let me tell you a story to introduce you to this very special place. But it starts a while back... to the time when (as Randy would say) he had more hair and was a tad thinner. He met a young woman (no, I'm not going to tell you the story of how he met Gay, you'll have to ask him yourself for that one yourself) who was a teacher from Illinois, spending her summer in Hawaii taking some education courses to improve her teaching skills. Well, this young woman loved Hawaiian music - and so Randy would take Donna Sharp and her friends around to the various clubs. This became an annual event ... she especially like our Ilikai member, Noly Paa!

Now fast forward a number of years and Andrew is going off to college. As a mother, when your child goes off to college, you look forward to winter break as it means they're coming home. Well, Andrew announces to Gay and Randy that he isn't coming home. Instead, he has planned on attending a Christian conference in Champagne-Urbana. Now as parents in ministry - Gay and Randy are used to traveling - so they decide that if Andrew isn't coming home - they'd go to Illinois and spend some time with him there! Time to call their long time friend Donna. And wouldn't you know it, Bement is only a stone's throw away from Champagne-Urbana. They could stay at her house and would they consider singing at her church, First Presbyterian Church? Thus, the Hongos met Pastor Marsha Frederick and sang for their Christmas Eve service. Despite the freezing cold (only a mother's love prevented Gay from getting back on that plane when she got outside and saw her breath!), they had a wonderful time with Donna, spent the holidays with Andrew, and fell in love with the church. Gay says that it was so beautiful singing on Christmas Eve, with the snow falling gently outside - picture postcard perfect!


[Randy & Gay with Donna and friends Barbara and Nancy; dinner celebrating Pastor Marsha's birthday (in blue), Carl her husband is on her left, and Joyce & Chuck are on her right]

Now fast forward to 2007 - Louisville is only a 5.5 hour drive away ... so how could we come all this way and not stop in to see this great community! We started our Bement segment with a delicious dinner at the Beach House - celebrating Pastor Marsha's birthday (don't worry, your age is safe with us), then some singing and dancing at the Pastor's house. The next day, we started with a visit to Barbara's mother, Adra, in an assisted living facility. There one of the residents told us, I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and now Hawaii has come to me. Then a concert at the church. And here again, we were blessed by old friends Lawrence and Helen Mercades, former residents of Maui - who drove all the way from Chicago to see us. Not only did they drive 4 hours, but Helen thought we'd be missing rice by now and so made rice, chicken stew and dessert; and even crocheted leis for all of us! So after the concert, everyone enjoyed Helen's food and the ono pizzas provided by the church. As you can imagined, we thoroughly loved our time in Bement and are so thankful for the members of First Presbyterian Church for their warmth and hospitality!


[Lawrence & Helen Mercades; some of the women of First Presbyterian preparing our after concert food]


[group picture time ... notice the leis that we are wearing, compliments of Helen]