JULY 2019

PEOPLE SPOTLIGHT: 
​The Rev. Cn. Moki Hino & Catherine Chow

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The Rev. Cn. Moki Hino with the Rev. Charles Cesaretti

The Rev. Cn. Moki Hino
The Cathedral of St. Andrew

Each year, the Episcopal Preaching Foundation (EPF) hosts a Preaching Excellence Program that brings together hand-picked students from around North American seminaries, Anglican Studies, and diocesan formation programs.  They spend a week in intensive workshops to hone their preaching skills under the guidance of distinguished EPF faculty.  

This year, the Rev. Cn. Moki Hino was contacted by EPF to take part in their conference as a preaching mentor.  The conference took place at the Roslyn Retreat Center in Richmond, VA, May 27-31, 2019.  Canon Moki worked with the Rev. Cn. Charles Cesaretti (pictured at top together) to mentor seminarians whom the EPF believes has promise in preaching for the future of the church.  (Cesaretti was close friends with Bishop Richard Chang, and delivered the sermon at his funeral.)

This year's students with mentors and faculty.

​56 students were in attendance, and the conference faculty included former Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori; Dean of the School of Theology at Sewanee, Bishop J. Neil Alexander, and Rt. Rev. William “Chip” Stokes, Bishop of New Jersey, and Rev. Gary Jones, Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA. From the publishing world Jonathan Merritt, author of the critically acclaimed Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words are Vanishing – and How We Can Revive Them delivered a challenging keynote on that topic.​

​"The preaching conference in Virginia was wonderful and it was a joy to mentor seminary students in preaching," said Canon Moki.

As an added bonus of being in Virginia, Canon Moki was able to visit Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, and St. John's Church in Richmond, where Patrick Henry said his famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death."

(Photos contributed by the Rev. Cn. Moki Hino.)

Catherine Chow is third from right. Photo courtesy of Holy Apostles.

Catherine Chow
Church of the Holy Apostles

When school starts up this fall, Catherine Chow will be a senior at Kea'au High School on the Big Island.  Senior year for most high school students is an exciting time to take part in special school activities and planning for college and future endeavors. 

Although she will no doubt be immersed inthe senior experience, she will also likely be harvesting delicious produce in the gardens she helped establish in Hale Iki Village, one of several communities developed to provide temporary housing for those displaced by the 2018 volcanic eruption.

Catherine is a member of Holy Apostles Episcopal Church, that played a huge role in raising funds to support the creation of Hale Iki Village.  At 16, and a junior at the time, Catherine decided to build and maintain a garden for the people staying at Hale Iki Village.

She led a community-wide effort, gathering support from her high school (Blue Zones Club), 4-H groups and local churches, and transformed a rocky barren lava landscape, into a thriving garden teeming with delicious fruits and vegetables!  She engages the children of the village to help, who are thrilled with the results of their hard work and care, and can enjoy the "fruits of their labor."

But the garden is not the only thing she is nourishing. In an April e-mail update to Pastor Katlin McAllister of Holy Apostles, Catherine shared her progress and additional plans to collect items for Easter baskets and activities for the residents of Hale Iki:

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​I have set Fridays after school as a regular "work" day at Hale Iki.  We go to water and weed and work with the children who are there on those days.  It has been a lot of fun with the children who enjoy working in the garden.

The garden has been producing long squashes and pumpkins.  The residents use some of them to cook meals, the Hope Services workers also take some home to cook, and my mom and I take some home to prepare dishes to bring back to the residents to eat.  I have attached some pictures of the garden that we took this past Friday.

My Keaau High School Blue Zones Club is planning an Easter activity with the residents on Good Friday.  I sent out a request to the Keaau High School staff to collect books, coloring books, crayons, small watering cans, clothing, baby toys, diapers, etc. for Easter baskets for the young residents, as well as small items for an Easter egg hunt (fruit snacks, bubbles), eggs and egg coloring kits to color Easter eggs with them, and also food items (hot dogs and fresh fruit) for lunch that day.

The following are some things I would like to do.  Some can be done easily in the near future and some will take some planning.

​-Plant vegetables that are easier to harvest and use for the residents such as cherry tomatoes, sweet salad peppers, lilikoi, green onions.

-Build a vegetable stand for the children to harvest their fruits and vegetables to store and sell to visitors and passersby, and save the money to use for activities for the children.  (This was an idea from a parent of one of the children at Hale Iki. His son loves working in the garden!)
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-Set up a small covered catchment system with a spigot so the children can use to fill up their watering cans to water the garden when we are not there.  (We usually bring jugs of water so we do not use any of their water from their catchment tank, and they love to water the garden!)

​Although we do not go there everyday to water, the garden is beautiful.  God is blessing this garden :)

(And yes, that is a smiley face closing out her update!)
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Pastor Katlin and the entire Holy Apostles' family are very proud of Catherine and are helping to guide her and help at garden work days.

"We are SO proud of you," said Pastor Katlin in a response to Catherine's update. "This is great work and I really appreciate having the information. You are an example of discipleship across ages."

God may be blessing the garden, but Catherine has already been a blessing to so many in her young life!  

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​Sybil Nishioka, Editor and Communications Contractor, Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i