Ten Little Known Facts from the Christian History of Hawai‘i is a podcast I created for Mokuaikaua Church in Kailua, Kona. Mokuaikaua invited me to speak on March 31 and April 2, 2020 as part of their extensive Hawai‘i Mission Bicentennial celebration. The celebration is to be rescheduled hopefully for later this summer. For now I hope you enjoy hearing ten ancedotes from Christian History of Hawai‘i material I discovered over the years.

INTRODUCTION (Sound files appear below images)

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The mission to Hawai‘i was inspired and requested by a Native Hawaiian

Portrait of ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia from Memoirs of Henry Obookiah

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Kealakekua Bay: ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia and Captain Cook at Helehelekalani Heiau

Captain Cook is the center of attention at a ceremony honoring the Hawaiian god Lono at Helehelekalani Heiau along shore of Kealakekua Bay.

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A typhoid epidemic in New England led pioneer Mokuaikaua missionary Asa Thurston to dedicating his life to Christ, studying for the ministry at Yale, resulting in him becoming a missionary to Hawai‘i

Connecticut Hall at Yale

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The American foreign missions movement was influenced by Bible prophecy

The Rev. Jonathan Edwards promoted the Concert of Prayer in New England and foresaw the coming of a millennium of peace and prosperity when Christianity would encompass the world.

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The pioneer mission to Hawai‘i and the first mission to Jerusalem aimed at creating a permanent Protestant base in the Holy Land were planned together and sent just a week apart from Boston

The sermons delivered in Boston in October 1819 by Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, pioneer American Board missionaries to Palestine, listed Hawai‘i mission publications on its back cover.

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’Ōpūkaha‘ia – Henry Obookiah died during a typhus fever epidemic likely caused by a volcano erupting in Indonesia

A nineteenth-century engraving of a volcanic eruption.

 

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Upon arrival in Hawai‘i the missionaries and their wives conversed in the Hawaiian language with ali‘i nui 

The brig Thaddeus (left) as envisioned in a drawing made for the Year of the Bible back in 1984. Kalanimoku (right) greeted the pioneer mission company at Kawaihae where he lived on an ahpua‘a given him by Kamehameha.

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At their first meeting on Kaua‘i, the missionaries and their wives rubbed noses (honi) with King Kaumuali‘i

Mercy Partridge Whitney of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the wife of Waimea, Kaua‘i missionary Samuel Whitney, and  King Kaumuali‘i of Kaua‘i exchanged a honi (ceremonial rubbing of noses) upon her landing at Waimea, Kaua‘i in July 1820.

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Deaf education pioneer Thomas Gallaudet used Hawaiian sign language in creating the American sign language

Prior to sailng to Hawai‘i aboard the brig Thaddeus, Foreign Mission School student Hopu (Thomas Hopoo) used Native Hawaiian sign language in communicating with deaf students at the pioneer deaf education school run by Thomas Gallaudet in Hartford, Connecticut.

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Some Baibala (Hawaiian language Bible) scriptures use words like mana from the Hawaiian language instead of new words created from English or biblical language wordsThe Partners in Development Foundation in cooperation with Mutual Publishing is publishing modern versions of the Baibala, the Bible in the Hawaiian language. Go to pidf.org for more information.

Two centuries later, a new generation discovers the story of Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia. 

With the postponement of the 200th anniversary events in Kona due to the mandated limits to gather, we invite you to watch this 22-minute documentary on the life of Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia online beginning Saturday, April 4th. 
The $5 online rental or $15 DVD purchase (and all donations) will help us produce  more Hawaiʻi Legacy Series documentaries. To order or donate today, please click on this link: https://www.lifenetmedia.org/hawaii-legacy-seriesFor more information please contact:michael@globalnetproductions.com

Preparing the Way, my new 160-page full-color, hardcover, pictorial book for the Hawai‘i Mission Bicentennial is available online through the Logos Bookstore in Honolulu. Preparing the Way retails for $22.95. I have about three dozen copies at their store, all the rest are in a Honolulu warehouse and I live on Kaua‘i. Here’s the details provided by Logos…

Logos Bookstore of Hawaii is our local supplier of books.  Please order by email:  logos@logosbookstorehawaii.com or call 808-596-8890 for local calls or 1-800-303-1533 for Neighbor Island or Mainland calls.
“Preparing the Way”, retail price is $22.95; with Hawaii sales tax, total per book is $24.03.
Shipping Fees:  • if the purchase amount is under $25, $6 fee for Neighbor Islands; $10 fee for Mainland • if the purchase amount is $25 – $50,  $4 fee for Neighbor Islands; $8 fee for Mainland • if the purchase amount is $50 – $75,  $3 fee for Neighbor Islands;  $7 fee for Mainland •  if the purchase amount is over $75, shipping is free for Neighbor Islands;  $4 fee for Mainland.

Moses Goods as King Kaumuali‘i of Kaua‘i following the premiere performance of his solo portrayal performed at the Kaua‘i Museum on Sunday, December 15, 2019. Here Moses holds up a prop Bible used in tell the story of the arrival of American missionaries at Waimea, Kaua‘i on May 3, 1820. The name Taumualii appears in gold leaf on the cover of the Bible. The actual Bible given to Kaumuali‘i that day was a gift from the American Bible Society in New York City. A similar Bible was sent to Kamehameha. The sending of the Taumualii Bible came about at the request of George Prince Kaumuali‘i [Humehume] the son of Kaumuali‘i. From the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut in late summer 1819 George sent a request to the American Bible Society for a Bible of equal status as the Kamehameha Bible, a Bible that would bear his father’s name. In 2003 I spoke at the Hawaiian Islands Ministries annual event in Honolulu on how the Bible came to Hawai‘i. To prepare I contacted the American Bible Society archives and library. They discovered a folder of Foreign Mission School schoolwork sent by George to the Bible society to prove his worth in requesting the Bible. In 2016-2017 Kaua‘i Museum Director Chucky Boy Chock and I worked with artist Evelyn Rittner on designing a painting based on the Kaumuali‘i Bible account. Today the painting hangs in the main gallery at the museum. Moses incorporated the Kaumuali‘i Bible as a prop. Upon seeing Moses use the prop Kaumuali‘i Bible at the premiere performance Chucky Boy and I glanced at each other and smiled, happy to see how Moses perpetuated this intriguing story of the Kaumuali‘i Bible. Photo by Chris Cook

King Kaumuali‘i is a key figure in the introduction of Christianity in Hawai‘i, especially to the windward Hawaiian islands of Kaua‘i and nearby Ni‘ihau.

On May 3, 1820 Kaumuali‘i greeted American Board missionary teachers Samuel Ruggles and Samuel Whitney at his kauhale, his compound, just east of Pa‘ula‘ula-Fort Elizabeth at Waimea, Kaua‘i. The Samuels were returning to Kaumuali‘i his son George Prince Kaumuali‘i and landed from the brig Thaddeus, Captain Blanchard. Kaua‘i was the last stop for the Thaddeus in Hawai‘i on the way to the fur trading ground George was sent away as a young boy to New England aboard the American merchant vessel Harzard, Captain Rowan. Over about fifteen eventful years George had lost the ability to speak the Hawaiian language, and forgot his Hawaiian name, Humehume.

Kaumuali‘i and Humehume had a tearful reunion that May day. Ruggles and Whitney might have surprised the Kaua‘i king by greeting him not with a handshake, but by rubbing noses in the traditional Native Hawaiian form of greeting, of sharing their breaths of life, a-lo-ha.

Fast forward to December 2019 and notable Hawai‘i actor Moses Goods enters the gallery of the Kaua‘i Museum dressed in a kihei garment, taking on the role of Kaumuali‘i. Moses sits down and pulls up a wooden portable writing desk c. 1800 and begins to pen a letter back to New England. In the letter he describes the emotional return of his son Humehume and much more. The performance was sponsored by the Hawaiian Mission Houses in Honolulu, the Kaua‘i Museum and the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities.

To experience Moses’ full one-man drama based on this significant event in the life of Kaumuali‘i, join us in Waimea the weekend of May 2-3, 2020 when we commemorate the bicentennial of the arrival of the Hawai‘i Mission, and the beginnings of the spread of Christianity on Kaua‘i, Moses is scheduled to return with Mission House actors portraying his Native Hawaiian Foreign Mission School student William Kanui, who departed from Kaua‘i in 1809 for New England, and Kaua‘i Queen Deborah Kapule, the wife of Kaumuali‘i and a propoent of Christianity on Kaua‘i. The trio will be part of the Mission Houses’ Ali‘i Letters series of dramatic costumed performances during the Hawai‘i Mission Bicentennial events set for April and early May in Hawai‘i.

Go to missionhouses.org to access a complete schedule of events, and a look back at the Hawai‘i Mission Bicentennial events held in New England in fall 2019.