If you were sitting in church and the overhead light fixture fell on your daughter, what would you do about it? It did not take Norm Dickerson long to decide to join the building committee of the Kailua church.
Almost eight years later, Serina Dickerson and her father would be pleased to know that she does not have to worry about falling lights anymore. Although major renovations were completed in 2003, the church had one more milestone to go before considering the project totally complete — the last payment on their revolving loan. On the last Sabbath of 2006, President Ralph Watts III and Secretary-Treasurer Ron Lindsey helped the Kailua church celebrate the burning of the mortgage as everyone praised the Lord for their debt-free house of worship.
It had been almost 50 years since any major renovations had been done. The original committee of Dickerson, Ron Trautwein, Don Bieber, Jon Larrabee, Naomi Yamashiro, and Pastor Rob Lloyd, decided in 1999 to fix that light fixture and a lot of other things. The city and county of Honolulu had already condemned the out-of-date electrical system. In addition, the roof leaked, the upholstery on the pews was shredded in too many places, the carpet was very stretched and wrinkled, and it was anyone's guess when the next light fixture might come crashing down.
In the beginning, the cost of the repair of the electrical system and roofing were so great that it looked like it may be more cost effective to just build a new church somewhere else. Even though they would have to leave the existing walls and floor intact, some new zoning laws finally convinced the committee and church that they would do better by remodeling the existing structure.
“We realized this whole project would require large sums of money which we did not have," explains Yamashiro, head elder. "We only had about $18,000 in our building fund when we started. Because we knew it was going to require all of us to sacrifice, we took the matter to the Lord in prayer. We voted to take out a revolving loan of $220,000 from the Pacific Union in August of 2000, and the Hawaii Conference gave us $200,000 in funds from Mission Hawaii. We are grateful for those funds.”
The church had to sacrifice in other ways in order to pay for this project that ended up costing $1.1 million. They went without a church secretary for several years and decided to rent the facility to a church that met on Sundays to help pay for the project. In addition, they believe the Lord blessed their project in many ways. One person anonymously gave $100,000, and many others consistently donated very significant amounts.
When the project was completed in 2003, a complete renovation of the church had been done. Not only were all of the repairs done, but a complete turn around was done with the old entrance forming the back of the church and a new entrance opening to the parking area, In addition, a second story was added that provides Sabbath school rooms, a pastor’s study, a PA booth, a church secretary’s office, and full restrooms. The sides of the sanctuary now almost fully open via folding glass doors to a wide lanai with tropical plants, which ushers in the island breezes.
“This has been a journey of faith and much prayer – as well as volunteer labor, but the final outcome is a beautiful house of worship," said Pastor Rob Lloyd. "The Kailua members are truly blessed to worship God in a sanctuary that glorifies Him.”
