First United Protestant Church, UCC

Serving Hilo since 1869 ~ Serving you today!

Recent Events

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June 29: Sending good wishes; and: the shirts have arrived!

This picture was taken early in the morning. Later, before and after worship, these tables in the narthex were hubs of activity: on the table in the foreground, a birthday card is in the works for one of our members who will celebrate her 92nd birthday on the 4th of July; and on the table in the back are the journals our delegates will take with them on their trip to the National Youth Event in Tennessee later this month. The first entries in these journals are the many good wishes from our fellowship that go with our delegates!

The beautiful shirts which our delegates will wear during their travels have arrived.

The shirts are an original design by June Dela Cruz.

Here, our delegates are telling us the latest about the preparations for their trip, and thanking us again for helping to make it a reality.

They also announced how we all can order shirts for ourselves.

thanks to Rev. and Mrs. Walter for most of these pictures

June 22: A Celebration in Anticipation of the Trip to the NYE

This day, the last day of the more than year-long fundraising efforts of our youth to reach their goal to go to the National Youth Event in Tennessee next month, turned into a glorious celebration. They had worked so hard, for so long, to realize this goal. It was wonderful to hear the excitement with which they were bringing us up-to-date on the latest planning for their trip: originally designed t-shirts which they will wear while traveling will soon be ready.

They thanked not only the Laulima Team, who shares their faith with our children and youth every Sunday, but also many others who had helped in the fundraising effort, with beautiful leis. It was especially touching that even the little ones, who had helped to fold napkins and handed out notes, as well as grandmothers who took care of the babies so that the mothers and older children could help, were honored.

After worship, we enjoyed a Teriyaki Steak Lunch fundraiser on the lanai.

We emptied our Family Thanksgiving Jug during the lunch. It's content will get them on their way. It was fun guessing at the jug's weight and at it's content. Many hands made short work of the counting, while another team handled the clean-up after the lunch.

June 15: Father's Day....

Many had given us a picture of the dad in their family to put up on our bulletin board for a Father's Day display. And what a wonderful variety of pictures! Spanning generations - one shows one of our littlest ones with her 102 year old grandpa - as well as time: some of them are of times long ago.

We're having a guessing game going, to see who can identify the most people in our display.

.... and "How Much Have You Grown?"

It has become a tradition: on the Sunday after the school year closes, we measure all our children to see how much they have physically grown. Several years of growth are recorded on that stick already!

While all this is going on, Rev. Walter asks us to reflect on how much we have grown in faith and other ways since we last did this a year ago.

June 14: Workday!

A small but very energetic and dedicated group achieved much at our monthly workday. After the heavy work of clearing the remaining tall grass and weeds adjacent to the playground and along the lava wall, the removal of unsightly trees and shrubs in front of the building, and of pushing back the overgrowth along the lower lawn border, the work turned to new planting in front of the building. Ginger and plumeria were planted in the desire to add color and fragrance to the church grounds.

June 8: A Baptism....

With joy, we celebrated the baptism of

Gabriel-Louis Aka'okola'akealani Benjamin.

Congratulations and best wishes to Gabriel and all of his family!

.... and Choir Appreciation Sunday

The choir was all smiles when they were honored with kind words of appreciation, and beautiful leis, as they get ready for their summer vacation.

and, of course, these celebrations were followed by a party on the lanai!

May 18: Honoring our Graduate....

Every year, on a special day during worship, we give our graduates our blessings and congratulations. This is a rare year when we have only one graduate in our fellowship, McCharles Tumaneng, who will graduate from Hilo High School to go on to studies in liberal arts at Hawaii Community College. Congratulations and best wishes, McCharles! After worship, we gathered on the lanai for an extended coffee hour in McCharles' honor.

.... and a Planning Session for the Trip to the National Youth Event (NYE) in Knoxville, Tennessee in July

At noon, our delegates and their families, and the chaperones and guardians for the trip, met for lunch at the manse to discuss details of their big journey. Faye had prepared a big folder for each of the families with all the pertinent information - maps, schedules, phone numbers, etc, etc, even information on the weather and climate to expect at their destination!

thanks to Debbie Walter for the pictures of the meeting at the manse

May 11: Pentecost and Mother's Day

This year, Pentecost and Mother's Day fell on the same Sunday. Our worship was a joyful and festive occasion. Most people wore red in celebration of Pentecost; and, to the delight of our children, the narthex was decorated with red balloons. As has become our custom on Mother's Day, after the sermon Rev. Walter read a story he had written for and about mothers; and gave flowers to special mothers.

May 4: A Gift from the Kamehameha Hawai'i High School Choir

The Kamehameha Hawai'i High School Choir, under the direction of Michael Springer, provided very special choral music during our worship service - from a special prelude to a special postlude, and anthems between. Their music wasn't the only gift they gave us: they also invited all of us to a "pizza plus..." lunch on our lanai after worship. This not only was a wonderful opportunity for us to party, but also to chat with the young people in the choir.

May 3: Project Day

The Project Day had as it goal the removal of the overgrown grasses, weed trees and shrubs that have clogged the church/Kaiser Clinic boundary for some time. The crew worked diligently and successfully! A plus to the Project Day was the removal of an unsightly, and also overgrown, Money Tree adjacent to the building. Both areas are now clean and far more attractive. (Next Project Day will be the first Saturday of June.)

Thanks to Rev. Walter and to Faye Persson for these pictures

April 18: A Fundraiser Dinner at the Manse

A group gathered for a gala dinner at the manse. This event helped to raise funds for a trip to the National Youth Event in Tennessee for four of our young people. The young people and their advisors joined us at this event, not only to help out at the dinner and join the fun, but to tell us more about their hopes and plans. It will be the first trip to the mainland for several of them.

April 12: Project Day

A small team got together to tackle a particularly nasty project: to remove the decaying gutters from the back of our education building, as well as to clear the jungle on the mauka corner of the playground.


Hard at work! (Rev. Walter is up on the roof cutting the gutters lose)				the debris ready to be carted away


				finished!

thanks to Rev. Walter for the pictures

April 9: An Honored Guest

The Kosraean Fellowship of First United Protestant Church welcomed honored guest Rev. Nena Kilafwasru, Senior Pastor of the Kosraean Congregational Churches, at a festive worship celebration on Wednesday evening, April 9th. Rev. Kilafwasru had recently been on the west coast of the mainland visiting Kosraean churches and stopped here on the Big Island to meet with the church here in Hilo and then in Kona. Following the worship service a full reception on the lanai extended hospitality to the Pastor and his wife. We were privileged to have Rev. Kilafwasru here at the church and welcome his return.

Rev. Kilafwasru


Rev. Kilafwasru with the Kosraean leadership		A gift to First United Protestant Church

thanks to Rev. Walter for the pictures

March 30: Bento Lunches

Early in the morning, our young people and their helpers and advisors were hard at work preparing bento lunches (Japanese style boxed lunches) for us, for a fundraiser to help them go the the National Youth Event in Tennessee in June. During worship, the tantalizing smells of teriyaki chicken on the grill drifted into the sanctuary. The lunches were delicious!

March 23: Easter!

It was a morning full of joy - a great sermon, wonderful music... Our children were in the center of the celebration. During children's time over the weeks of lent, Rev. Walter had given a series of lessons on Christian symbols. For Easter, Rev. Walter had a gift for each of the children, as a keepsake to remind them of God's everlasting care for each of us: Rev. Walter made a shepherd's crook for each of them, with a scroll that contained the shepherd's psalm attached.

thanks to Rev. Walter for the picture

During Sunday school time, the children had a party, while waiting for the Easter Egg hunt following our worship service.

thanks to June DelaCruz for the pictures

And the tree in the narthex that had been our Lenten/Easter project, for our theme of "Behold! I make all things new!", is now surrounded by butterflies that appeared for Easter.

(above) Start: Ash Wednesday

(below) making leaves and flowers

March 22: A Wedding

Numerous family and friends came from far and near to celebrate the marriage of Lei Agag and Mark Semana. Here, we see the proud parents waiting, Lei as she receives her veil, Lei and her escorts, Mother and brother Jeremy; the Communion Table and Memorial Candles for Mel and Uncle Romulo Inez; and the newly weds arriving at their Reception.

March 20: Maundy Thursday

We observed Maundy Thursday with the traditional solemn Tenebrae service.

March 16: Palm Sunday!

As is our tradition, every year the children and youth process in with palm branches during the first hymn. It is such a joy to see especially the little ones, being so proud and excited to do this! These pictures do not do it justice!

Rev. Walter continued a series of explaining Christian symbols during Children's Time. Today, the symbol was not a visual one, but a symbol of the spoken word: Hosanna! (Save us, we pray!)

During Sunday School time, the children and youth prepared a treat f0r us, which they handed out after worship: a little bag of pretzels, with a story about how during the Middle Ages, a monk invented this shape, which represents arms crossed over the heart in a prayerful gesture, to remind people that Lent is a time for prayer.

March 9: Our "One Great Hour of Sharing" Mission Offering

Our little ones proudly and eagerly collected our offering.

...and our Lenten/Easter project in the narthex is growing!

Our Lenten/Easter tree in the narthex started out dead and bare on Ash Wednesday. In keeping with our Lenten theme, “Behold! I make all things new” has come vibrantly alive over these past weeks, thanks to the many who made leaves and flowers. This week, chrysalises were added – a fun project for the pre-school children, who wrapped realistic looking pipe cleaner caterpillars into brown paper cocoons. On Easter, there will be lots of butterflies, or so we hope…

March 2: Happy 100th Birthday, Isabell!

After worship, delivering FUPC's birthday card, congratulations and best wishes to Isabell.

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The Following photos help to tell the story of Rev. Walter's trip to Israel to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem. While he was ther we received a number of photos of his daily events and he delivered the sermons on September 30 and October 7 via telephone from Jerusalem.

October 21: A Gift to the Children

Before Rev. Walter left on his recent trip to Jerusalem, the children had made prayer cords, which Rev. Walter placed on the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

A surprise waited for our children behind these drapes this morning. During Children's Time, Rev. Walter gave them gifts: each child got a card with pictures of their prayer cords on the wall in Jerusalem. And Rev. Walter had brought their cords back home again after their visit to the Western Wall - and each cord had added to it a beautiful little carving made out of olive wood from Jerusalem.

October 14: Youth Sunday........

This wonderful morning was full of contagious joy and energy. Our children and youth did the entire worship service - the sermon (given by our recent confirmands, who gave heartfelt insights into their understanding of Ecclesiastes' "For Everything there is a Season"), the music (including hula), the ushering, the refreshments.... They did a wonderful job, and we were so proud of them!

... and we had the joy of welcoming back Rev. Walter from his long trip to Jerusalem. Here, he is greeted with a Hawaiian chant of welcome.

October 7: A Day of Awe and Wonder

Again, as on September 30, Rev. Walter preached to us live via telephone from Jerusalem, while we watched projections of the pictures he had e-mailed us from there. Rev. Walter had a small group with him there in Jerusalem, who shared this worship with us. Again, it was a miracle how time and distance became meaningless in the presence of God. Today is a worldwide day of prayer for peace in Jerusalem, and there is particular relevance that we could share in it so directly, even though we are half a world away.

pictures from the "Day of Prayer for Peace in Jerusalem" event that Rev. Walter attended there earlier today, which we saw on our screen - and a projected picture in our sanctuary.

The most moving part of this morning's worship was that we could share communion together.

thanks to Rev. Walter for some of these pictures

October 4: "Wall to Wall Faith"

The prayer cords our children and young people made have arrived at their destination!

From our sanctuary wall.....

....to the Wall in Jerusalem! thanks to Rev. Walter for the pictures!

September 30: A Sermon from Jerusalem!

Today, we were able to share in a very direct way in Rev. Walter's trip to Jerusalem. All the technology worked, and Rev. Walter preached to us, live, via telephone! During the sermon, we saw pictures Rev. Walter had e-mailed to us; some of them were taken this morning!

The sermon is about to begin. On the screen is a picture of dawn in Jerusalem, taken this morning!

some of the pictures from Israel; and, on the right: before the worship service, we could chat with Rev. Walter in the church office via webcam!

At the end of the worship service, Rev. Walter read to us the column he wrote this morning for our October newsletter (see the "Pastor's Message" on this website). In it, Rev. Walter tells us about this thoughts and feelings when he brought our children's, and our, prayers to this special place early this morning.

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Page last updated:6/30/08