Past is Prologue to Future

By Evie Hao, chair Faith Action Anniversary Committee

“The word ‘celebrate’ usually evokes images of confetti and people dancing to Cool and the Gang’s 1980’s song, “Celebrate.” But celebration can take many forms.  It can be quiet and reverential. It can engage and excite.  It can commemorate and thus inspire vision for the future.”

A few months ago the Faith Action Anniversary Committee announced the start of planning for the celebration of Faith Action’s 25 years of life in our community.  However, COVID numbers continued to climb, so the committee decided our celebration would take the form of a video presentation.

The work started in earnest. Searching through hundreds of photos, news articles, videos, and documents surprised, engaged, and excited us. Our discussions led us to the structure of the video series.

The series is a “book” that tells the story of Faith Action’s first 25 years as a community organization.  The book has four chapters, each 10-minutes long.

Chapter 1.  Individuals and groups who inspired faith congregations to come together in a mission to bring God’s love to communities, focusing on root causes of brokenness in people’s lives.

Chapter 2:  First key community accomplishments:

• • Bus shelters
  • Kalihi Valley Homes
  • Kukui Gardens

Chapter 3:  Later accomplishments:

• • Long Term Care Act
  • Bob Nakata Act on Housing
  • REIT Bill (Real Estate Investment Trust
  • New Environmental Justice and Transformative Justice Task Forces

Chapter 4:  Future of Faith Action. What’s the vision in the next 25 years? Let’s explore.

Draft scripts of each chapter are almost complete.  Much more work is necessary to strengthen the scripts, select/create visuals and background sounds, etc. We welcome anyone who wishes to contribute script-writing and video-creating skills.  Contact evyhao@gmail.com. Committee members are: Kathy Jaycox, Deanna Espinas, Christy MacPherson, Rev. Sam Domingo, Patrick Zukemura, Karen Ginoza. Staff liaison: Kiki Mills.