The Baptist World Congress began with a beautiful display of music and worship. We began singing to our Lord with the wonderful song, Hear the Spirit. Then I witnessed an amazing display of devotion and worship by the Olivet Baptist Church choir and dance team. It made me realize how important it is to see how worship many time reflects the cultures in which we reside. The Hawaiian dance team did a beautiful interpretation of an Hawaiin dance that led us to worship.
Then we lifted our voices in many languages to How Great Thou Art. WOW!
One important display was a meaningful tradition called Ho'okipa. This tradition is a chant that welcomes guests to the shores of Hawaii. The leader shared these words," We welcome you to Hawaii, to our home. We are an island community in the middle of the bast Pacific Ocean. Because of this we are sensitive to the winds that blows around us, to the waves that crash upon our shores, to the rains that fall to nurture our precious lands. We are dependent upon one another to survive. All that comes to us from our great God is precious to us.
"We look upon the pua (flowers) that grow profusely in our gardens rich with color and fragrance of symbols of the special people in our lives. We fashion these flowers into lei and share them to honor a guest in our homes, to commemorate a birth or a passing, a graduation, or a job promotion or just to say, "I love you."
"The lei is always with us. We wear one proudly knowing that we are embraced in the great affection of our family and friends, each flower representing someone close , the ring of flowers representing that warm embrace. It is an old and treasured custom here in Hawaii."
I wish we had better traditions and customs that welcomed people with such warmth. We are a wonderful people that need to be welcoming because of the grace of God. Maybe we need a lei, but more importantly, we need love to share. May we be that type of people.
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