I had the privilege of traveling to Kona, Hawaii last week with my boss and dear friend, Sean Lambert. Before you get the wrong idea, I need to tell you I didn’t see perfect beaches nor did I enjoy any mai tais —this was a work trip. In the five days I was gone, I think I spent approximately an hour on tourist stuff, haha!
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I’m not going to tell you why I was in Hawaii just yet. A few things need to unfold first. Be sure though, sometime in the new year I will share with you more.
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But I am going to tell you where we worked
I wish I knew who created this… I’d love to give them credit!
For the first time, I got to go to King’s Mansion. This is a YWAM property that has been written about in YWAM’s foundational story, Is That Really You, God?, by Loren Cunningham. Let me tell you what I learned while I was there.
In 1973, a group of YWAM students were praying for YWAM to be established on the island. One person saw, “a big white house on a hill with a veranda and green shutters”. This turned out to be the Hawaiian plantation style home of the Greenwell family who had a long history in Kona. It was built in 1903 and in March 1977 the Greenwells sold the home and its six acres to YWAM. The YWAMers dedicated it to the Lord, and King’s Mansion became the first property owned by the mission anywhere in the Pacific and Asia. Over the next decades, more than 80 Discipleship Training Schools were held. An estimated 4,000 young people were trained for mission work around the world.
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Since 2002, Loren and Darlene Cunningham have stewarded the property. New ministries such as ywamconnect.net (a global Internet community), 4K (a new framework for strategic completion of the Great Commission), a global literacy project, and more have been launched from here. And soon I can tell you about one more fun project that was started here… ;-)
More recently, King's Mansion has been undergoing much-needed renovation and expansion to prepare it to host the future vision as a gathering place for global leaders.…
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Sean and I met with a few others here and let me tell you, the place is full of beauty. The grounds of course are lush and green. It’s up the hill a bit, which means it catches the breeze and the views are gorgeous. We met for prayer and devotions each morning in the main floor living space. It’s full of maps and cultural treasures that the Cunninghams have been given over the years. We worked in a conference room on the main floor. We had breaks and lunches on the incredible lanai. I was given a guided tour of the upstairs bedrooms, bathrooms and work spaces. I’m told that renovations are near complete, and that they are awaiting the occupancy certificate.
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Loren Loved Ice Cream and So Do We!
I only spilled a little ice cream on my shirt…
Loren’s gravesite is across the street in a small cemetery. On our last day together, it was my privilege to honor him with his wife Dar, my boss Sean, and the rest of the crew by enjoying an ice cream together.