Friday after work was a mad dash home to grab my kids, video camera and Bible for Vacation Bible School.  Luckily I live 5 minutes away from church.  No time to change out of work clothes because my wife tells me that my son’s friend wants to come.  So we drive up the hill, pick up Buddy and then drive back down to church.  We make it in time to still enjoy the great light dinner that the ladies in our church have prepared.  God Bless them! ;)  I also have time to go over the PowerPoint presentation, iTunes, and videos for the VBS rally – yeah, church has become high-tech.  This year the theme is Game Day Central and the verses are from Hebrews12:1,2: Run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.  So anyway the rally goes pretty well except for me playing the wrong tune at one point – oops.

After VBS we walked up the street to the Rissho Kosei Kai (RKK) Buddhist temple for the Bon Dance.  What is a Christian doing at a Buddhist temple you ask?  I’m enjoying the community fellowship, the cultural experience of the festive food and dance.  I do not partake in the worship or incense offering – God would most certainly be displeased with that.  The Apostle Paul who preached to and fellowshipped with both Jews and Gentiles once said:   

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.  Col. 2:16, 17

And

If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake.  1 Cor. 10:27

My daughter saw her good friend Jamie and the two enjoyed dancing in the circle around the yagura.  I of course made a bold attempt at dancing but alas, I’m quite the novice compared to fellow blogger and sister in Christ, Donna.  It was nice meeting Donna’s friend Shari – she is also very sweet and encouraging to a “dance-challenged” person like me.  Their Okinawan music and dance troupe Ukwanshin Kabudan provided excellent authentic Ryuku music and patient instruction in the finer points of Okinawan bon dance:

Saturday found me packing up my music gear and heading off to Maili (West side of Oahu, Hawaii) to play with my part-time band NoName for a Missionette high tea at Paradise Chapel.  That’s right:  High Tea!  God blessed with great (albeit a tad windy) weather there.  We played while the kupuna (elders) and pre-teens enjoyed their tea and finger sandwiches.  We of course were offered lunch after we had played and we were so touched by the two organizers’ prayer of safe travel for us.  But no rest for the weary; after unpacking back at home I had to head out again to pick up Toyoko from dialysis at Pearl Ridge.  This was followed by a graduation dinner at church and then another evening of Bon Dance at RKK.  Hey, I told you this was a jammin’ weekend, lol!

Sunday:  Up at 7 AM for final Worship Team rehearsal, followed by Sunday School and service.  Finally back at home to work a bit on the church website.  Then finally, a nap!

OK, I feign griping but in all actuality, this past weekend was a blast and the Lord is so good in blessing me and my family.  With Him, all things are possible!  Amen.

I was on a one week “vacation” from July 4 to July 10.  My wife went to Dallas for a music teacher’s conference so I had to take off from work to watch the kids.  I could’ve gone with her - and left the kids at her sisters’ - but I had committed weeks before to run the A/V presentations at our church’s Vacation Bible School.  BTW, feel free to visit the Palisades Baptist Church site and roam around there and please sign the guestbook.  I’m the web designer and webmaster.

Needless to say “vacation” turned into quite a bit of work.  The fourth found me barbequeing 3 racks of baby back ribs and 2 chicken in my Kamado grill/smoker, supervising the kids playing with novelty fireworks, and then taking my wife to the airport.  Had to take my daughter to her summer school band rehearsals at Highlands Intermediate and to her physical therapy on Friday.  I actually managed to finish painting the mauka wall of our house.  LOL!  This is the job that I started last summer.  What else…  The afore mentioned VBS A/V run and dry run the night before.   My wife got back after church on Sunday (thank you Lord for watching over her during her trip). 

We managed to get in a beach outing on Monday the 9th at our favorite beach - Ko Olina.  Sadly while snorkeling there I saw just a few weke (goatfish), a puffer fish, and a mamo (sergeant fish).  Usually at this time of the year I’ll see a bunch of oama (juvenile weke) near shore, a few naenae (tangs) grazing the rocky area near the outer boundary of the lagoon, and maybe a lone omilu (bluefin trevally).  But the kids had a blast and my wife actually got in the water!

A couple of interesting things: 

(1) A person posted a rather strange comment on my YouTube video of our Worship Team performing “My Savior Lives” at our Easter service.  I felt compelled to respond to this apparent non-believer (see 2 Timothy 4:1-5).  Basically he stated that Jesus is based on the Egyptian myth of Horus.  This prompted my to do some research and found that this theory is so full of holes and half-truths, it’s not even funny.  I pray for this person for he once went to seminary and I have a feeling that he has other issues with his faith besides his “coming to the realization that God is consciousness”.  If you clicked on the hyperlink, you’ll notice that the commenting has basically turned into a debate.

(2) Speaking of YouTube, I made a couple of videos of me doing some solo guitar/voice stuff.  Lucky for you, I purposely hid my mug from view, haha:

So that was my vacation - lots of activity but a vacation nonetheless.

First off, thank you so much Katz for updating the theme graphics here – it totally rocks!  Tonight I’m supposed to be writing an article on how certain strains of micro-algae can ingest CO2 and produce fatty acids which can then be extracted into ethanol and biofuel…  Bleh!  Instead I come here to write this blog, haha!  This must be a record for me – 2 entries in a little over a week.  Here goes:

Last Saturday I hijacked my wife and kids to Wahiawa for the Wahiawa Hongwanji Bon Dance.  Actually they all enjoyed themselves.  My wife and daughter went to the bazaar and bought inexpensive jewelry.  And my son, Mr. “I’m borrrrred – can we go yet?” got a plastic pirate sword out of the deal.  It looked like just about all of

A real treat was the Okinawan Lion Dance put on by one of the Okinawan Dance Clubs:

I was at the Renaissance Hotel near the Pike which is an entertainment/restaurant area.  Across the street from the Renaissance is the Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant - a great micro-brew pub.  I liked Rock Bottm so much that I went there 2 nights in a row, haha.

We had a great time one evening aboard the Queen Mary which has been docked in Long Beach since 1967.  After a nice heavy pupu party we toured the ship to learn about it’s facinating history.  I highly recommend this if you’re ever in Southern California.

My stay was not without a bit if excitement.  On Wednesday evening, I was outside the hotel and I hear a screech and then a loud boom.  I saw the tail end of the accident where an SUV was rear-ended and then spun around by a small C-class Mercedes which flew up over the curb of the median.  The two guys in the Mercedes get out and start walking away from the scene.  I yell at them to stop but they take off running.  The driver of the SUV is shaken up but he is a ble to get out after the paramedics arrive.  His passenger, unfortunately, has to be wheeled into an ambulance on a gurney.  Hopefully she’s OK.  It was amazing that no one was seriously injured.  What bothered me (other than the two knuckleheads who ran off) was that none of the air bags deployed in either car.

Early next morning (around 1:30 AM)  the fire alarm in the hotel is activated!  I search around for my clothes and wallet and go stumbling down the stairs.  Not too many others have evacuated the hotel.  Turns out to be a false alarm and only the 5th and 6th floor speaker/strobes activated.  This happens twice that afternoon.  I also caught a bad virus which made my flight home miserable.  Bleh!  I seem to be on the road to recovery so I’m just kicking back today.  Oh, and sorry but I didn’t pack a camera for the trip - I should’ve though.

Last night - Friday 12/29/06 - our Central Leeward Oahu Baptist Association combined youth ministries held its first annual Metamorphosis Youth Rally at Gospel Lighthouse Church in Ewa Beach.  Being a rather “old fart” at 48, I must say that I was impressed with the rally and just a little envious because I never got to enjoy such great fun at a church sponsored event when I was at that age!  Fellowship, food, games, and MUSIC were the highlights of the evening’s festivities.  I got to play an active role because the Good Lord blessed our church’s Worship Team in providing some of the music performed at the rally.  I enjoyed much of the other fun vicariously through my daughter, lol!
 

Our Worship Team played a set of contemporary Praise and Worship music consisting of the following tunes:
 

You, You Are God
Forever
I Am Free
King
Hear Our Praises
I Exalt Thee
Gifted Response
 

It was such an honor to witness and be apart of this where hearts were touched by Jesus!  The other Worship Team made up of young people from the various Central Leeward Oahu churches was AWESOME!  Led by Brian on keyboards and vocals, these young musicians played and sang their hearts out for Jesus and had the kids in the pews shouting, jumping, singing, praising, and at times, worshiping with eyes closed in heart-felt emotion - the Holy Spirit was indeed in our midst!  Amen!
 

Oh yeah, the food served up (chili dogs, veggies, and chips) was ono!!!  And the prizes!  CDs and gift cards (Jamba Juice and Starbucks) were given away as well as an iPod Shuffle, and (drum roll please) a Sony SPS with a $30 gift card for games.  Not too bad for going to church on a Friday night yeah?  Big Mahalos to Gospel Lighthouse, Pastor Travis, Uncle Steve, Uncle Duke, Sean and all the kids who actually put this together and made this happen!  Whoa, Uncle Maleko getting misty eyed now. ;)  I can’t wait for the next one even though I can’t enter the raffles for the prizes, lol!

Anyway, my wife generously volunteered to play keyboards on this piece and I had to write out the keyboards arrangement for her.  Here is a pdf download of the keyboard arrangement if you’re interested:

Lifesong for Keyboards

It was a little intimidating playing a praise tune among pianists playing “serious” classical repetoire but I think our performance was welcomed and appropriate as the recital was held at Kilohana United Methodist Church.  After the recital, Iggy Jang, violinist and Concertmaster with the Honolulu Symphony, and pianist Thomas Rosenkrantz treated us all to a performance of a few Spanish dances, a Chopin piece, and a Debussey piece.  It was a great musical evening and God blessed us by allowing us to lift up our young brother in Christ.

P.S:  Casey’s Dad Alan just had surgery last night to remove a growth from his colon.  He’s in a lot of pain right now and will probably be in the hospital for 10-14 days.  So, if you please, kindly pray for Alan’s complete healing and recovery.  Thanks!

I decided to undertake this project because my company is involved with the Lacy Veach Day of Discovery at Punahou School on October 28, 2006. I think this is the 4th or 5th year of the event.

I got this “Minimum Theremin” circuit design from this website:

Art’s Minimum Theremin

I was so proud, that I took the darn thing to work, haha:

…

I’m such a nerd sometimes.

Although it was a bit of an inconvenience for most of us on Oahu, buildings on the Big Island sustained some structural damage and there were a few rockslides as well.  The famous Kealakekua Bay was actually rearranged by a slide and the Captain Cook memorial was demolished.  The news has so far reported that, amazingly, no one was killed or seriously injured.  Praise the Lord!

We actually went to church and had a minimal service today.  I’m on the Worship Team and of course we played/sang unplugged.  It was all good though because we were still able to lift our voices in praise.  I guess today was a little reminder about who is really in control!