Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
Why Aloha? the whole world knows what aloha is--love in Hawai'i--but better to ask WHY ALOHA? the answer is as essential as breath & as fun as whistling, so LET'S GO!
Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
Ep.6: Why Hānai? Foster Care in Hawai'i
It's often hidden this black eye on Hawaii's picture perfect paradise: Our foster care crisis. But in this powerful conversation with Brad & Esther McDaniel, founders of Harvest Family Life Ministries, not only are we shining light & truth but also giving simple solutions for anyone to help.
The reality is sobering: ~5,000 children in need & fewer than 600 homes. Many keiki sleep in state offices, closets, or hotel rooms as they wait to be placed. Most troubling is the huge number of Native Hawaiian keiki, highlighting deeper challenges faced by Hawaii's indigenous people.
Yet hope shines thru: "If just 10% of Bible-teaching churches engaged with foster care, we could eradicate these needs in about five years," Brad exclaims. And it's simple: there are many entry points for involvement—from occasional baby-sitting to donations or volunteering—everyone can be foster ohana. Why? When faced with abandonment, aloha always wins!
Harvest Family Life Ministries: 808-694-0000 / www.hflhi.org
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Aloha, my kakou aloha. Aloha alive is all about living aloha and making it come alive. I have with us today two people who are supernatural, superhero and super shero. It's kind of like Wonder Woman, superman and they got married. Welcome to Brad and Esther McDaniel. They've been high school sweethearts since HBA, hawaii Baptist Academy, and ever since then they've both gone into helping the Keiki of Hawaii through Harvest, family Life Ministries, specifically helping foster families and churches come together as one. Good day to both of you and aloha. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1:Now I want to say, as we get started, I'm going to say this real fast because I don't want to start crying. I'm not going to do that, but I go to a lot of church services. I see a lot of pastors preaching and I'll take a ton of notes because I think in ink. I very rarely keep a card that I've written on and this one is dated I'm sorry, july 30th 2022. You were speaking at Calvary Chapel and it says Brad McDaniel and you were talking about foster children 2,700 foster keiki in the state of Hawaii living in the Department of Health, living in hotel rooms, living in offices. There were 600 licensed homes and basically there was a lot going on that I was not aware of for our children. Can you tell us today how many Hawaii Keiki are without families? Sorry, it's, catchy, right it is. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:So we are looking at about 5,000 kids, according to the 2024 audit done by the state, who are receiving services from child welfare services.
Speaker 1:So- 5,000 children who do not have parents.
Speaker 2:Correct, or their parents are working to get to a place where the home is safe.
Speaker 1:Right, so have food stability and have a home where we can pay the bills and safety, real, simple and basic living. Okay, so that's. Another quick question is where do they stay if they're not adopted into a foster family?
Speaker 3:well. So foster care is temporary, so let's start there that we're hoping and praying for. Reunification with biological family members doesn't have to be the parents, it could be be grandma, cousins, auntie, uncle. But if that doesn't work out, then generally the first choice would be like okay, foster parents, what do you think you know, looking at permanency, legal guardianship or adoption? But then we do have many youth who don't even have that option.
Speaker 1:Because right now, as of this date and we're going to keep this dateless for the podcast you said that we're kind of sold out on homes, but we still have children.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. We're always in this shortage and nationwide that's a common thing in every state. There's not enough foster homes and when we're talking about that, we're saying a family setting right, like if we took in kids that we got licensed from the state to do foster care, then we've done that, like for many, many years. There's just not enough families. And that's what we do. We navigate that system to help more families from our local churches be ready to receive children, so that children aren't waiting.
Speaker 1:So I have a couple of questions come quickly to mind. First one, and you just said that is, we pair foster keiki, or children, with churches. Is that the purpose of Harvest? Family Life Ministries?
Speaker 3:Oh we're big on church engagement. Yeah, my favorite thing is reminding the community we're not a church Harvest. Family, life is not a church harvest. Family and life is not a church. It's the local church that has that fellowship and children's ministry and women's and men's ministry and just that natural ohana in jesus. It's good and that's truly what our children need.
Speaker 1:So pairing churches with foster keiki. It seems like like God's own design, because God and it's part of our aloha in the state of Hawaii is to hanai, which means I adopt you in, and the greatest hanai was that Jesus is the only son of God. But we're all hanai'd, we're adopted in, especially if we're not Jewish right, which would be the first family, but then there's all of us who got grafted in and had night. So this really is god's plan. Now I want to ask you another question that came to mind right then how many licensed homes are there for foster children? And it's almost a moot point, because you just told me there's not enough homes, but how many are licensed?
Speaker 3:well, we want to make sure that we have some good data and so we had pulled up. The latest thing that we could get access to publicly was September 2023. And this is from the audit, so the state auditor. These are numbers. For Oahu, there was 341 total resource caregiver homes. That's the other name for foster parent, and there's a couple different kinds of license. General license means that we can take in anyone, any child, that is, you know entering foster care. So there was 142 general license homes and then 199 child specific homes, most likely kinship, like know, auntie, uncle, grandma, cousins, right, or even a neighbor. That's how we actually started. Our neighbors ended up, their children entered foster care and they ended up at our home wow, so sorry.
Speaker 1:I went to public school, you guys went to private. What is the total number on that then? If I add those all together, oh this is Island?
Speaker 3:I just did Island. Is it just one? Just a general estimate. So it's 341.
Speaker 1:And no slam or shame on public schools, by the way, but how much is the total estimate of licensed homes?
Speaker 3:Oh, it's going to be less than that 600. That he said there.
Speaker 1:So this was back in 2022. We had 600 licensed homes. Now it's less than 600, but you're still telling me the number of foster children needing a home is 5,000. And that is the message of urgency that I wanted to bring to my audience Because, as I said, I've heard thousands of preachers in my lifetime. I take notes every time, but the I rarely keep a a card. I kept this card because it bothers me and I think part of that is we have these, these films, like we're coming out with a disney film, right, and the disney quote, right.
Speaker 1:Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind. I'm not shaming our state. I think we have one of the most powerful forces on earth in Aloha. That's why I recalled Aloha Alive. But I also know that until I saw that there was a problem, I didn't know we needed a solution.
Speaker 1:And so thank you, brad and Esther, for faithfully bringing to us the black eye of our state, that we are not taking care of our children, and then to quickly segue, oftentimes the only time we hear about this on the news, because it does give paradise a black eye and that's bad for tourism, it's bad for business. The bottom line is the bottom line, it's about money. But on this show we are true, right we are. We tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help us God. So here's the deal is that the black eye is we're not taking care of our children. They're living in hallways, they're living in offices, at state offices, state departments, and they're living in hotel rooms. But we can make a difference for 5,000 children. It doesn't take all that much. You started with a neighbor. Now, how did you get started? Because I saw that your degree, esther, either one of you can take this. How are you?
Speaker 2:inspired to help children like this. So we were. We knew early on in our marriage that we wanted to do foster care. It just was something God had put in our hearts and it never came together. Through the different avenues that we explored, it just wasn't the right time, 2003,. Over a span of about five weeks, we got three either knocks or phone calls. Wow, and this is the story that really started us doing what we were doing. I was a senior pastor at the time at Mililani Missionary Church.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 2:And our neighbors knocked on our door and we had really made an effort to be known and know our community that was. We did some very proactive things to do that and so we met these neighbors. Because of that, Over that span of time, husband got arrested.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:They got evicted because what he was arrested for was he was using and the money that he was stealing was going not to the rent. And then eventually the kids ended up in the system. But when they got evicted we told the five kids 18 down to eight years old right.
Speaker 2:Mom bring them here. And she said I'm going to go stay at my sister's. And she did that and we had the kids. We had two-bedroom place. Our kids were five and eight years old. We moved our kids into our bedroom, those five kids in the other bedroom and on the couch and wherever else they could be. And it was. I always say it was joyful chaos one bathroom, one bathroom wow. And four of those five kids were girls. So now we have five girls, an adult woman, queen Esther. Yes, it was fun.
Speaker 1:Wow, joyful chaos. I like that. But there was a felt need, you felt it and you took. Well, as Pastor Alan Cardenas often says, part of Aloha is extreme kuleana, extreme ownership. And you took extreme ownership there in Mililani, where, where you were living in a two-bedroom, one bath. Now how did that lead into Harvest, family Life?
Speaker 2:Well, what we saw during that time was how the church knows nothing about this.
Speaker 1:I was stunned, I'm a senior pastor.
Speaker 2:I'm a third-generation pastor and I had no clue what to do with this and had gone to a Christian private school. Yes, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've been in church all my life. I've never heard these numbers.
Speaker 2:And that has to change.
Speaker 1:I was offended. Righteously angry would be a nice way to say it.
Speaker 2:And that's what hit us kind of in the face as we walk through family court and visits and all the stuff that goes on in this kind of setting, with a child who, with children who were screaming and crying right as they had they're walking through trauma.
Speaker 1:They're in active trauma. This isn't a one-time accident. It and done this is. I am continuing to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and they may not know Jesus, so go ahead and and they may be in a home that doesn't direct them to Jesus.
Speaker 2:So how do we handle that trauma? And I want to say a couple of things, and one first and I say this to church all the time is that there are some things that we are not supposed to pray about, and if we had stopped to hold a prayer meeting at Seek Wise Council whatever the case may be but none of those are bad things and those kids ended up on the street, that would have been on us, wow.
Speaker 1:And so God's word is clear about taking care of the children yes, so- the widows and the orphans, the widows and the orphans, right, and we often talk about the forgotten ones, and these really are the vulnerable, the most vulnerable. These are children. They don't know where to go and make money, where to get their next meal or where the roof is going to come from, and so thank you for doing that, friend, for taking extreme ownership. Now you're, you're talking and kind of building on how Harvest family life started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so as we saw that I'm still pastoring and we went to Calvary Chapel Now I'm on staff there and Harvest. We're now taking kids in just regularly over time. Social workers are calling. We didn't get licensed right away. All of that is going on and Esther is working at Kokua Ohana, which back then was under Partners in Development and it was a contract that focused on Native Hawaiian children and faith-based recruitment.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And that actually they brought our founder Harvest Family Life Ministries from the state of Texas, bishop Aaron Blake, to teach them how the state and the church can work together, and also to focus on the Native Hawaiian children, because there are more Native Hawaiians in the system than any other ethnicity, with a 20-something percent of our population being Native Hawaiian. So something's not right.
Speaker 1:Oh, now say that again, that the Native Hawaiian population are more highly represented.
Speaker 1:They're the top representation of foster children, when really we know, and Governor Green has recently stated are more highly represented, they're the top representation of foster children, when really we know, and Governor Green has recently stated that Hawaiians are, by large and far the most moving out of the state and so there's more Hawaiians outside of the boundaries of Hawaii and the islands than there are here, and yet we have more of the foster children. So that concept again and I'm not trying to shame or blame, because we're here to find solutions and to be ohana to aloha, but it we need to help and reach out for those who are the least of these and the worst of we's then we have what hawaiians call heva, the wrong that has been done and we can see the ramifications or the consequences of this right. So how do we help? Because it almost scares me and I know you're building to where harvest family life started.
Speaker 1:Thank you for saying you've been in operation for almost 30 years as a family. Your daughter has even been a foster mom when she turned around and became of age, and now your grandparents congratulations. Your whole family was into it then was, was it 13 years ago you became officially licensed in the state of Hawaii as Harvest, family Life, right Ministries, hawaii. So how, when I hear a story like you took five kids into a one bedroom and you had one bath, I'm going to tell you I'm that frog who jumps into that hot pan of fire and jump right back out. I don't think I can do it. But if Mele, your daughter, could do it, how can the rest of us take practical steps to do that?
Speaker 2:I think the bottom line, first and foremost, is, as believers, god calls some of us to take children into their home, and this is one of those things that agape love always involves sacrifice. Jesus demonstrated that for us, and so we have to stop with the questions of how difficult it's going to be. Are my kids going to get hurt? That's reality.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But if God says do it, we're just supposed to go do it. So I know that simplifies, but faith is supposed to be simple.
Speaker 1:Well, and what's interesting to me is you're saying it may hurt, there may be conflict in the family, and that's what happens with blended or mixed families. We know that now with a lot of step families et cetera. But guess what? The hurt is everywhere. Now I mean that's kind of a bad news. Good news thing because it's the same news there's hurt everywhere. So I've heard one of my favorite podcasters say pick your difficult. It's hard to wake up early in the morning and go work out, but it's also hard to be overweight and going into the hospital all the time or taking meds. So pick your heart. And so you're going to. I'm going to pick my hurt. So how do people get started? And is there support for families who do foster, who get licensed?
Speaker 3:Yeah. And so we're here, sitting here saying there's trouble in paradise, thank you, thank you, esther. Who, in your healthy, wonderful Christian home, wants to bring brokenness into it? Well, that's the number one way to grow your faith, let me tell you right. So that was one of the things that we love is helping people navigate this big system. So child welfare services is a big system. How do you get licensed and all this risk-taking that's involved? Well, that's what we love to do at Harvest Family Life is walk with you through that process. We've been through it at different times child specific licensing, general licensing. We've done different things, you know, and we have good people that we work with at the state who are willing and able to help us, to help you get licensed for foster care. Beautiful.
Speaker 2:There's such a different variety of ways to go through that process. I think it might be better to just give the information of how to contact us. If we do a pre-service visit, we will come into the home of the family and talk them through.
Speaker 1:I like that because if it's this big, scary thing I want to help, but it looks like I have to climb Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea, 10,000 foot elevation. But if you help me walk the first few steps, I think it's more doable.
Speaker 2:So the pre-visit so if people will just contact us, we'll go in their home, we'll talk through everything you just asked us about and say where do you fit, because it's a very personal step that people are taking. Thank you, and so we want to one. The support begins with Harvest, but then we want to help their local church, support them as well, because we can't support 5,000 people.
Speaker 1:That's the goal is to have that many homes. Yes, absolutely, that every child is, no child left behind. That's one of the things we chant in Hawaii, doe. So what is the contact?
Speaker 2:Let's start saying that for people to have, so our office number is 808-694-0000.
Speaker 1:808-694-0000. If Hilo High can crack that, one anybody got that one.
Speaker 1:And also, you have a great website, which we're going to have this flash up on the screen Thanks to our great video editors. But the website, if I've got it right, is basically the acronym of your name. It's Harvest Family Life, hawaii is HFLHIorg, so again, that's wwwhflhiorg. Okay, so they can go on there. What I love about that place, it's real simply laid out. It's not hard to you know navigate. It's all on one page or you click on something and I can see where. If you feel like, okay, well, I can donate fifty dollars or five thousand or five dollars makes a difference nowadays, um, you can click on donate and it takes you either to a QR code or you have uh texting and you also have via check. For those of us who are back in the Flintstone stone ages and we love our checks and we write them. So thank you for that. Now, what other support services do we provide? Foster families through harvest family life.
Speaker 3:We have something called circles of care, and that's where I love that part too, because it's the church engagement right, and we're directing people to find their community, their fellowship within the local church. So there's things like a meal train, like, say it's. We had one family, in fact, the Bowen Jessica Nunez out of Inspire, and they had three children and then they adopted three more.
Speaker 1:Wow so adjusting that menu planning.
Speaker 3:and they were not babies, they were like 13, 11, and 9. Oh, the growing giants. Yeah, and two boys and a girl right.
Speaker 3:They all eat like adults. So we started with like a three to four-month meal train where there was meals or groceries being dropped off three to four times in a week to help her with that adjustment. We have other things where we've had people who are sick, you know, like foster moms who are ill or going through something, and we'll have a young adult small group from one level come out and clean her house, do her dishes, pick up some of her errands that she needs to have done. But the biggest one and this is so appreciated by foster parents across the state is respite or babysitting. We really need respite providers and that isn't, you know, that's kind of like the thing of oh, I just want to get my foot in the door or get my toe a little wet with you're not getting licensed for foster care, but you are impacting the life of a child as well as their caregivers.
Speaker 3:Yes, and here's the thing I think you'll like this little factoid when you compare the number of churches across the nation, the number of children in foster care in the United States and the number of counties, when you put this little algorithm and you throw that all in there, if just 10% of the local Christian, christian, bible-believing, bible-teaching churches were to get engaged with serving the foster care system, we would eradicate all of these needs probably in about five years. Holy God and possibly less. Right, because you put the Jesus factor in there and never mind about the time. Right? Just imagine if that church were to exponentialized like he makes that church. Just imagine if the church were to rise up and activate in that way.
Speaker 1:Now, thank you for saying that. That was a big boom-ga-Jesus. We could eradicate this whole issue. 5,000 children, you know who would have moms and dads, aunties and uncles. We would have ohana. I also want to thank you and I want to recap that you said if we could even provide some babysitting for two to three hours on a Friday night so mom and dad can go and have a meal without cleaning up six kids, right, or figuring out, it's a, it's a respite. It's more than just a rest, it's a respite for the soul.
Speaker 1:And then another thing a friend of mine who just passed away from cancer, and that's Pastor Tisha Falcon-Leifeld, you know, she bragged on a friend of hers who came to the house and would help them just do the laundry. And that sister friend said I'm sorry, sis, this is all I can do. And she about cried. And if you know, tisha, that's pretty par for the course. But she said, said, having somebody come in and do that laundry for us, and no shame. Either way, we all have dirty undies and everything else and we smell like sweat. But if we can provide that to these families, that's a nice. I like that, just getting my toe into the baby. End of the pool.
Speaker 1:Thank you for giving us little footholds. Now can you tell us, um, you did kind of tell us a few success stories, but, um, what's a day in the life of HFLM for you folks Like you? Just flew back from Kauai where you preached at a few churches you were helping to set up. I greeted you at the door, told you my brother-in-law works up there. You said what's his name? We're taking names. You know we're going to connect more partners.
Speaker 3:What's a day in the life of Esther and Brad look like for being supernatural superheroes. Girl, it is bathed in prayer. Wow, it's gotta be inside out and upside down. Sometimes I just have sermons playing in the back. Yes, I need a good word to sustain us through.
Speaker 3:People will say I don't know how you can listen to child abuse and neglect and these, the sin of the world, sin, the darkest house. To pray yes and then saying yes. But you know what? The hope in Jesus, that is what we can't take credit for, any of it. This is totally a holy spirit sustained. We can't even explain, like, how did we sleep last night after all of that? I mean, yeah, you're exhausted, but also, for me, my brain's always like going, like, what am I going to do? Lord Trouble in paradise. But then he says remember what I said in Isaiah 61? You're anointed to bring good news. It's good If the church can just continue to remember that we have children and parents. Their parents need the Lord. Their parents need this hope, this love. I fully forgot that.
Speaker 3:You know, set the captives free, right, or the prisoners that will be released. It's interesting to note those two different categories. You know, it's like some are indicted of something, they're carrying some kind of label and they need to be set free. Some are held captive. They're putting their attention on something and not even realizing that they're actually not in a jail cell. They're actually walking around, but they're still in some kind of bondage. But Jesus said come, that's good.
Speaker 2:Let me add on to that because it made me think. So, those five kids, their mom, the first ones that we took their mom nine, 10 months. She did the things that needed to be done. She brought them home one by one, but through the process she went with us to a revival at a local church and she gave her life to the Lord.
Speaker 2:So, that's 22 years ago. She will tell you, I hated my social worker. That was, you know, I just hated her, but that's the best thing that ever happened to me. Jesus saves people. We know when we hit rock bottom and this is rock bottom for parents, and so we talk a lot about that taking it from a place society has said child welfare is shame. God sees shame and shows compassion, and we, as the body of Christ, have to learn to do that that is so good.
Speaker 1:I forgot about the parents completely because I'm so focused on the littles, on the keiki, the children, but there's a real felt need there. It calls to mind one of my dear friends from Waianae. She was a very success, is a very successful principal at high schools, but she had shared her testimony at one point and said her dad was part of the syndicate. She never. He wasn't part of her life. He was often gone. She was abandoned. She had other family to help raise her. But of course we still yearn for that mother-father figure. She yearned many years after he got out of prison. He said he was sorry and she was fine with that. She forgave. But my point in bringing that up is that she said my father never stopped loving me. He knew he wasn't capable of being my father but he never stopped loving me. And so, as you said, brad, to have compassion for the parents, because I'm pretty sure that when anyone has a baby for most human beings we don't have a little baby and think I can't wait to abandon you, I can't wait to royally mess up and totally make you feel like the worst human on earth. I bet there's no parent and in fact. That breaks something off in my heart right now towards my own parents. Thank you for that. But back to the issue is that we are to have compassion for those who are going through the worst moment, who wanted to abandon their child Most humans don't by nature, so thank you for that, brad.
Speaker 1:It's ministering to the whole family and that's a lot like Camp Agape comes to mind, right, with Pastor Roy and Char, because that ministers to children of the incarcerated people. They go, auntie Dawn, just say I'm normal, my parents is in prison. Hello, you don't have to say incarcerated, so I go okay. Okay, your parents are in prison, prison. But no parent ever thought, hey, when I, when I wake up today, I want to be arrested, I want to be locked up for 10 to 15 and I want to make sure my children feel like nobody loves them, no one, ever in their right state of mind. So thank you for that reminder. Now, are there partner churches that help you? Because I saw there's like a clothing store or there's a store and there's no money involved for the foster families. Can you brag on?
Speaker 3:those partners, that story that he told about the woman that went to the, the revival that was at um, one of the baptist churches that is now involved, which is olivet baptist church. So they do not house a cocoa closet, but university avenue baptist, but University Avenue Baptist Church houses a Kukua Closet. Yeah, you do, and there is partnership, right. The surrounding churches, or any churches, can come and go through our volunteer orientation and serve at Kukua Closet, which is a free resource store, right, kukua Right, so there is no charge for our families that are coming in to shop on Fridays. And Central Baptist, which is just a diagonal from Roosevelt High School. They house one that's open on Saturdays. Kauai Inspirational Fellowship in Wahiawa will be launching one in June. So it's a little church, it's a tiny little church, but they have designated a whole room to serve children.
Speaker 1:Ain't no shame in our little church game.
Speaker 1:Come on now. Might be small of size but mighty of heart and mighty of miracles. This is a lot more than I saw on your website, so that's good news. It's spreading, there's more partners coming in and I love that these families can come in, like if I suddenly that one family took in three and two boys. I don't know that I could afford to to clothe all these children or have school supplies, backpacks, cold meds right, if there's a whole plethora of needs that get supplied at these stores yes, and and especially like what you're talking about.
Speaker 3:Well, you have placement all of a sudden. So we've had people who maybe had older kids or their kids are already out of the home and now you're getting a toddler placed. You don't have a crib, like what do you do? So harvest will come and help you reconfigure that space to prepare it, and if you're going through foster care licensing, we'll do that too. Like you don't know what your placement is going to be, but we'll help you get beds. We have partners and new partners, sweep and heavenly peace, so they're helping us getting beds, and that's the whole thing that we love. Right is church engagement, as well as bringing on other agencies and other community partners, all for the sake of our Kiki, and I love that there's different entry points for all of us in the community is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 1:Like I could be a person who volunteers at the stores the Kokua store or I could be a person who's supplying furniture Right, there's a lot of different entry points again, pukas, that we could place Now. Another question I had for you folks is are there other things to support the families that we didn't talk about? Foster families, other services?
Speaker 2:The one thing that I would highlight with that. We have a technology tool that we brought to the state of Hawaii in 2018 called Care Portal. Care Portal is in 38 states now, I believe, and it basically child welfare professionals those who are serving vulnerable children can go on the website, put in a need that they may have crib, bunk, bed, whatever the case may be and tell a little bit of the story about the family, because people give from their hearts, not their head, within confidentiality guidelines, and then when they click submit. In Kona right now, there are about 500 Christians from 10 different churches who will get an email nicely formatted saying here's the need, here's how you can help, and then if they say I want to help and they go through the process of filling stuff out, it then connects them to that worker who put the need in. On Oahu, there are about 600 Christians from 20 churches.
Speaker 1:Holy, that's awesome. So this was through Care Portal. Yes, awesome, genius. This is technology being used for God's greater good. I love that.
Speaker 3:Hundreds of children and Department of Education has been using it almost three years now. Wonderful, it's amazing. From graduation cap and gown, prom bids, cleaning things, cleaning things you know it all comes under the education of homeless children and youth program. So we're really, really excited about that because, yes, we are meeting needs of keiki o ka aina. But what about that liaison that's at doe who's running all around trying to take care of all their different families and and children? We say come to cocoa closet. Why don't you pick up some things for yourself, not just for your clients? Wow, you're doing this work and you're not doing it for the big bucks.
Speaker 1:There's any way that we surprise, surprise, the state of hawaii doesn't pay all that much, especially to our dear beloved social workers. Thank you for blessing them and that ministers to their heart, because that is a concern. And we want to two, two things. I want to state Thank you for bringing that up, esther that you folks work hand in hand with the state departments, right With child welfare services and all these other department of human services. I think it is so. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing is maintaining joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength and you mentioned that earlier and you mentioned it again just now. How do we maintain our joy when you're looking at and working in this area that can be like the cesspit of humanity, like if you're that blessed person who goes down into the sewage pipes and rescues? You know people who are stuck in that system. How do you keep your joy? And you've been blessing other people who aren't even in churches, they're in state departments, but that's where I'm going to come in for a landing with the two of you. Thank you for doing that. How do you keep your joy? You said you bathe yourself in inside out prayer and worship, worship music. But it's.
Speaker 3:You know, we, we get the honor of being here on your show, right, but along with us is hundreds of people, other ministry workers, people, but and I think about our church, ohana, we're part of bayview chapel assembly of god. Our pastor, rene Rene Lo, and Brother Alex them, giving us this like releasing us into the community, not saying, oh, you got to be here every Sunday. Like, they understand our call, they uplift us in prayer. They're just a phone call or a text away. It's all of the different people that are in this. I call them the Harvest Ohana, our board members, our board members.
Speaker 3:There was a time when I was bringing a message on Mother's Day and I was so sick and four prayers came in Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then it was like one more time of just this bout of nausea and vomiting and then it was done. You know we experience those things on a daily basis that we recognize. There's other people who are upholding our arms yeah, that we get to be on this show. But there's all these people who are serving children across the state, right, and praying and putting the word out and giving them the word of God and being agents of hope. You know, amen.
Speaker 2:I think God not I think I know God supernaturally one gives us a margin for the kind of pain that we see, that not everybody has, and that's when he calls us. You know, we say that when he calls you he equips you, and that's true, but the way that he equips are in ways that we never would have thought. That's that idea that we can see that stuff, and not that it doesn't break our hearts, but it doesn't break our hearts to a place where they can't be mended. So it breaks our heart. And then the Holy Spirit steps in and says okay, here's solutions, and while you work on solutions, I'm going to mend that heart and you won't even know what's going on. So I think that joy comes from obviously supernatural work with the Holy Spirit and then being able to hang on to the stories, some of which we've told you the good stories, because there's a lot of good stories out there. Even though it's a place of ugliness and brokenness, god is always at work.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we hang on to those good stories and that brings us joy constantly.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. I'm going to share a quick memory and I won't compromise the child's name, but we were together at your Harvest Family Life Christmas celebration this past year. I had the honor of emceeing and there was a young man there from a school who recognized me as Auntie Dawn from Choose Aloha program and he goes Auntie Dawn, could I, could I say something on the mic with you? And you know you get that a lot and I'm not trying to encourage that with all children, but he was really an articulate young man. You're remembering who I was, who I am talking of. And he was adopted into or being fostered by a Samoan family and you know, for whatever reason, this was their only child, as far as I could see.
Speaker 1:Uh, and, and Samoan families. What I love about them, as with many local families, they always wear matching attire right, whether it's the Samoan attire or Aloha attire, whatever it is, and they had their matching I think it was Missing Polynesia brand. And the young boy also had his matching with dad and with mom and they were so proud of him when he came up on stage to co-MC with me and he wanted to be so helpful. He's such a good boy, but you could tell the love of that mom and that dad and the dad more quiet, right, but the mom, she had her camera up, they were filming. Can we get a picture with you, auntie Dawn? But there's that nest of love that a child needs, that if it is cast out of the nest too quickly, as many are in the foster system, it can harden their hearts and we know that Jesus talks about a hardened heart of stone and how he has to transform that back into flesh. But you could see that not only was this child having such a warm, beating heart of alofa talofa ofa right and he's coming up strong in that Samoan way, but you could see it in his parents, in his foster parents.
Speaker 1:And now, because of what you said about my forgetting the family, the original biological family, now I'm praying for that little boy's parents, his bio family, and it's a win for the boy, it's a win for the foster family, it's a win for that bio family that's not forgotten and it's a win for God. That bio family that's not forgotten and it's a win for God. It's win, win, win. Aloha always wins. So thank you both. Can we give the contact again? I know the website. I'll get that for us 808-694-0000.
Speaker 2:And our website is wwwhflhiorg.
Speaker 1:And again, this is Harvest Family Life Ministries. This is dear friends, brad and Esther McDaniel. Their whole family became involved with foster care from an early age in a very authentic, natural way. Please know that at this time in 2025, that there are 5,000 children in need of our Aloha. But when we choose Aloha as that young and I'll just call him a brown kid the brown kid saw with his family, thenoha always wins and we can win together, even if it's an hour on a friday night that you're gonna babysit for them and give respite to a foster family, or maybe it's some furniture going in there, or maybe it's a donation to the kukua stores right, I didn't hear that, but we could do that as well. Donating and then, if also cash is always it's not king, because jesus is king, but if you want to donate that, that's also online on their website hfl highorg. Thank you again. Mcdaniel's is is. I love you and thank you for being the supernatural superhero and super shiro of aloha. Thank you, thank you for happiness.