(continued)

Life in Hawaii had not been good to Henry and when he saw that tall ship, the Triumph in Kealakekua Bay he swam out to it, with all the hopes and desires of leaving Hawaii for a better life. Captain Caleb Brintnall through interpreters realized Henry wanted to leave Hawaii on his ship. Henry now about fifteen years old was signed on as a cabin boy. Henry met Thomas Hopu another Hawaiian boy in search of adventure on the ship. Both Henry and Thomas would become original members of the American Board Mission to Hawaii; though only one would return to Hawaii. As fate would have it at the age of 26 in Cornwall Connecticut, Henry would succumb to the typhus fever on February 17th, 1818. Henry's testimony was published and became a best seller. The profits of the book "Memoirs of Henry Obookiah" were used to finance the missionary journeys to Hawaii and other lands.

Inspired and encouraged by the dramatic testimony and conversion of Henry Obookiah the first missionaries sailed for Hawaii, on October 23rd, 1819 aboard the Thaddeus. The Missionaries sold all that they possessed, farms, homes, and their future in America. They made a solemn commitment to God and each other to spend the rest of their lives serving the Hawaiian people. Yet, they knew all to well that they needed the approval of King Kamehameha and that the Kapu Priests would not welcome their presence. On the morning of March 30th, 1820 the missionaries saw Hawaii for the first time. The Thaddeus cruised along the Kohala coast on a southwest course nearing Kawaihae. The wind and water became calm so Captain Blanchard sent a small rowboat with James Hunnewell a ships officer, Thomas Hopu and John Honolii two of the Hawaiian Missionaries ashore. Their task was to find out the whereabouts of King Kamehameha and the state of his Kingdom. One disapproving word from the King and the mission would be over before it had begun. Minutes passed like hours as they watched for the boats return. Finally three hours, an eternity, later the boat returned. Thomas and John were so excited they could only speak in Hawaiian, then James Hunnewell spoke up with these incredible words:

"Kamehameha is dead; his son Liholiho is king; the tabus and kapus are abolished; the images are burned; the temples are destroyed. There has been war. Now there is peace."

It was obvious to the missionaries that God had prepared the way for them. The great Hawaiian miracle had taken place all of the obstacles that could have prevented the Gospel from being preached had been removed. Even Hewahewa the highest kahuna (priest) and direct descendant of Paau, the original Kahuna from Tahiti, was the first to set fire to a heiau (temple). He declared:

"I knew the wooden images of deities, carved by our own hands, could not supply our wants, but worshiped them because it was a custom of our fathers. My thoughts has always been, there is only one great God, dwelling in the heavens." Hewahewa also prophesied that a new God was coming and he went to Kawaihae to wait for the new God, at the very spot were the missionaries first landed.

King Kamehameh died five months before the missionaries sailed but they had no knowledge of his death before their departure. In less than the span of one year from his death, and as the missionaries were at sea, the Kapu system had been dissolved, and a civil war had taken place. Only the creator of the universe, Jehovah, could have scripted these timely events. In the midst of this chaos, the stage is divinely set for the entrance of the missionaries with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The missionaries brought a message of peace, tranquility, and Aloha…