History
A long time ago in a Greyhound bus far, far away…
HIM was born. It was the summer of 1983. Dan and Pam Chun were studying in the Holy Land, rumbling up and down the scorched and dusty roads with a rag-tag group of pastors, priests and nuns. One day in the bus, Dan shared a long-held vision with a priest friend. “What if the world’s best Christian communicators and teachers could come to speak regularly at a conference in Hawaii? What if all the Christian leaders could hear and be trained by them? What if local Christian churches from across denominations were impacted and renewal was sparked?” Our friend said, “Not what if but when.” That moment, HIM took its first breath.
HIM was incorporated as “Hawaiian Islands Ministries” three months later in October 1983. The ministry sponsored its first HONOLULU Conference in 1985. More than 400 people came. We thought that was a lot. HIM’s all-volunteer staff said, “Let’s do it again in 2 years!” Attendance, church participation and enthusiasm grew, and the crew said, “One more time!”
Full-time paid staff was hired in 1992, and the HONOLULU Conference became an annual event in Hawaii in 1993. We moved from one church facility to two, to hotels, and in 2000 to the Hawaii Convention Center, Hawaii’s largest facility. Other training opportunities were added: pastors conferences, ushers/greeters workshops, audio/video and radio ministry, prayer gatherings, and the Straight Talk business breakfasts. HIM teams with local churches to co-host special-focus events, such as for women and singles. In 2000, HIM launched its San Francisco Bay Area ministry to serve and unite churches and Christian leaders as they minister there.
After the events of September 11, 2001, HIM helped coordinate the ecumenical prayer gathering at Punchbowl’s National Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2002, HIM received with the UH Center on the Family (COF) and the Hawaii Community Foundation, one of the first HHS federal grants for to build capacity among Hawaii’s faith and community organizations. HIM has continued that partnership with the COF until today, and their collaboration has been honored to be one of only two recipients nationwide to receive three consecutive grants.
The HONOLULU conference has expanded to now include a full youth program for middle school/senior high students. The Friday Night Worship Concert has become a song-filled, glorious experience of magnanimous praise. Prayer teams forming the core and doing the spiritual groundwork in Hawaii and the Bay Area support HIM and pray for mighty, healing, transforming revival of God’s Holy Spirit in our churches, communities and children throughout the year. Participants point to HIM’s excellence in serving others, to its “unity amid diversity.” Many say “a taste of heaven!”
In 2008, HIM celebrated 25 years in ministry, our silver anniversary serving the Body of Christ in Hawai’i. In 2009 we continue in faith, as we have every year, with the mandate to gather believers, churches, the diversely gifted sons and daughters of God as “Many Yet One in Christ.”
HIM we proclaim, admonishing and teaching every person with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ. Colossians 1:13
