YWAM Kona Dedicates Cafeteria

What a day of rejoicing we had last Friday, October 24th – thanking the Lord, and dedicating the 30,000 square-foot Aloha Cafeteria in the Defender Building at the University of the Nations Kona Campus. This long-awaited provision ends years (decades!) of long food lines that our students and staff have endured, and allows us the joy of sitting together under one roof for our meals, while looking out over the blue Pacific and enjoying cool island breezes! We are so grateful to God…and grateful to the generosity of His people – especially Dave & Jessica Lindsey and their company, Defender, as well as Jay King and friends, Bruce Logan, and Warren Israelson – who made it possible! Mahalo nui loa!
Along with the ribbon-cutting for the Aloha Cafeteria, we also had the joy of dedicating and blessing the Brightleaf Power solar energy project, as well as Kama’aina Hale, as we move forward to renovate 68 apartments, thanks to a friendly loan from Pacific Rim Bank. The first five U of N staff families have moved into newly renovated units, alongside other Kona community working families, who already occupy the other 60 inhabitable units.
The first part of the day involved the YWAM/UofN family, thanking Jesus and our donors. One of the highlights of the time was having nearly 100 children from our various campus education programs bless the donors by reciting Psalm 100…and then showering them with lei up to their ears, in true Hawaiian style. The second part was the official blessing and ribbon cutting, where we were joined by approximately 300 friends from the Kona community – firemen, pastors, police, educators, vendors, etc. It was humbling to be so well received. The third part of the day was an evening Love Feast meal with the YWAM ohana and donors (two meals, actually – 650 at each seating!) which ended with thanks to God in many languages and a beautiful Korean fan dance.