Pastor Kiha

Pastor Kiha shared a story a couple weeks ago about a visit he had made to an Arizona prison where about 1,500 Hawaii inmates are incarcerated. He said that he had been afraid and apprehensive at the start of his visit, but that as he walked through the grounds, his fear soon dissipated.  The Hawaii prisoners immediately recognized him as being someone from back home and called out to him and greeted him with affection. They would say, "Hey, do you know my family in Kaneohe?  Their name is  . . . " "Hey, do you know the  . . . family?"  "Hey, I'm from  . . . "

One man in particular, enclosed in his cell, held up a photo against the window of his door and shouted, "Here's my family.  If you see them, tell them hi for me."  Pastor Kiha said that he asked God to help ingrain the image of the people in the photo into his mind.



Back home, after service one Sunday at the Kahala Mall chapter of New Hope, Pastor Kiha said that he was in the parking lot about to leave when he saw a family pass in front of his car.  He immediately recognized them as the people in the inmate's photo.  He burst out of his car and shouted to the group.  A man stopped and Pastor Kiha explained about having visited the prison in Arizona and wondered if he knew someone there. The man acknowledged that it was his wife's brother, and then called for his wife who had walked on ahead. When the woman returned to where they were standing, Pastor Kiha was able to relay the very special message that was entrusted to him, thereby fulfilling the wish of a prisoner from Hawaii, locked up in the middle of a desert, way across the Pacific Ocean.