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. 8 ~ Small Biz Secret Sauce
What's a Mom & Pop small biz to do? Success isn't always found in profit margins & growth strategies. It's not necessarily transactions but transformation!
"We're in the life-change business," explains Stef Anderson, co-owner of Waioli Kitchen & Bake Shop--a 103-year-old historic restaurant & outreach in Mānoa, Hawai'i. Waioli isn't just serving exceptional scones & French press coffee, they're serving 2nd chances to ex-inmates, former addicts, & houseless individuals.
This heart-to-heart talk challenges you to true success & true Aloha! Come enjoy Waioli Kitchen & Bake Shop Tuesdays - Saturdays, 8AM-1PM & taste true ALOHA!
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Aloha and welcome to Aloha Live podcast. I'm Auntie Dawn O'Brien, your host, and I'm here with one of my dearest friends. Her name is Steph Anderson, and she and her husband Ross are co-owners and operators of a small business, and that's why we're bringing to you today the secret sauce of small business success. Welcome, lady Stephanie.
Speaker 2:Oh, what an honor, Dawn. I'm so excited to be here and so excited for what you're doing in this season.
Speaker 1:Thank you, amen, hallelujah. And she actually helped me birth this podcast, which is why she gave me this gift. It's one of those glass fishing balls, the floaters. It meant a lot to my dad, who grew up on the shore, a lot, and she gave that to me. So I have it here on my set as a shout out to you, even when I'm not shouting out. So thank you, mama, for helping me. Now we're talking about small business and I know that in this time and in this season you know, in any season small business is a hard go. Then you're talking put on top of that a restaurant which waioli kitchen and bake shop, which you co-own and operate with your husband, ross is a restaurant. It's been in operation actually for 102 years long, before you guys even got there. How do you make it work? How do you make it?
Speaker 2:succeed. Yeah, that's such a good question. You know it's actually coming up on 103 years this year, yeah, and every year there's been different people over the generations that have taken the restaurant right. It started when Salvation Army had the orphanage up there and they used the restaurant to train the girls to make pies and jams and jellies.
Speaker 1:Life skills because they were getting pregnant outside of wedlock, which is what it used to be called back in the day, and that was kind of a social stigma again back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So go ahead and these young girls learned life skills, that's it and that's still what they're learning, but in a different generation, right? So they did have the home for unwed mothers. First they had the orphanage, then the unwed mothers and now in this generation, we felt like addiction is such a strong thing. Come on, people are suffering. Incarceration is huge as well, and I had spent six years, uh, in the women's prison, preaching and teaching and counseling and we realized that in prison these women have a lot of support. They can get their ged, there's a lot of support in the prison, but when they get out of prison, they literally just open the doors and out they go and it's like a vacuum.
Speaker 1:To be real honest, it's just.
Speaker 1:All of that support goes bye-bye, that's it and then they're left on their own and they go usually back. And I know the recidivism rate here in the united states of america, which is the most incarcerated nation in the world the most by far, number two is not even close. And then you look at the most incarcerated people or ethnic group and I'm not trying to shame or slam anyone, that's really not my business, that's the devil's business but the most incarcerated ethnic group, a lot of people would guess maybe African-American or maybe Latino-American, when in actuality it's Polynesian-American, it's Tongans, samoans and Hawaiians. And I'm a Tongan who looks at that and says we have a real problem when, by per capita or people group, we're most represented in the prisons and we're not helping our own people. So, thank you, and you're talking about doing six years in prison ministry here in the state of Hawaii, that's right, at WCCC, at the Women's Correctional Facility.
Speaker 1:Thank you, sweet sister. And by the way, if there's any confusion, my sweet friend has been here for over 30 years. I know she looks 21, but it's been over 30 years. And Ross, your husband, has lived here even longer than that. You're a true part 40, 40 years 40 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, unbelievable. Well, that Jesus juice looks good on him because that fountain of youth, you guys got it going on. Now let's speak to that. You were talking about addiction and inmates, and they can. A lot of these women coming out of women's correctional facility. You folks actually not only hire them, but you walk them through the valley of the shadow of coming out of prison.
Speaker 2:Wow, right. I would say we're in the life change business, right, and it's hard to change your life. When we talk about business as a model and what that looks like, we would say we're more of a mission, right. When you have a business, you are profit driven.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And because we're on this side of our life, donnie, we are we're on the shorter end of our life, so it wasn't about starting a business for business sake, right, business profit drives. But we knew in this, in this side of our life, we needed to be on mission right, and mission is purpose driven.
Speaker 1:It's not profit driven.
Speaker 2:That's good, so that's kind of where we are with it. This is a mission that we feel like God gave us. Ross had been in the restaurant business for over 30 years.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't no small potatoes there and I'm Don small potatoes O'Brien, I get the small potatoes, but he was at Duke's Waikiki. That was pretty huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he, um. He started in ts as a bus boy and he ended as the vice president holy whoa yeah so he, he, he ran the whole gamut.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful but I love that you're saying it's food on a mission, because that's even on your boxes of scones. By the way, we've got some beautiful mountains of lumps of love right here. Thank you for bringing them. I can't wait to finish filming today so I can sink my fangs into that. And she brought some. This is my order. If I'm within a five mile radius of Waioli Kitchen and Bake Shop, they've already got my French press going. So thank you for bringing the hot French press.
Speaker 1:But you guys are food on a mission. It's on every box that goes out of scones. You guys got to get these scones and we were just talking. I got to get one more plug in.
Speaker 1:One of your resident chefs came up with this ube, which is sweet potato, purple sweet potato, japanese style, local style, and it has white chocolate chips and drizzles of the divine. That's all I'm gonna say. They judge it and you put it in your mouth and you go to heaven, so in a good way. So we also have some savory scones. We've got some. I think it was mango, lily, koi, right. And then at the shop see, I can't even talk without salivating and then at the shop we also have the ginger candied ginger scones. I recently took these to a women's tea at my church and I was stopped by one of the pillars and they said where did you get these scones? Why only kitchen and bake shop? Thank you so much. So, food on a mission and, as you said, it's small business, not necessarily in this season for profit, but in this season it's for people. You work with ex-inmates, you work with ex-addicts, you even work with houseless, which is another huge issue here in our islands. Why do you do those things?
Speaker 2:You know, I think, dawn, it's a calling it's not everybody's call to work, especially with the homeless, especially with the addicted, especially with the incarcerated. I wouldn't suggest anybody just go and do that. It's what God has given us to do. So everybody's trained differently, right, dawn, I was trained going into the hospital and praying for the sick in hospice, then going into the prison. That's just the way that God trained me. God had Ross in the restaurant business all this time, and isn't it funny at this season of our life that he would marry the two together and say here we go, this is what I have for you in this season. I don't, I have no explanation for it, except that's what he's called us to do. So that's what we do. We want to see those who are invisible, the ones who aren't seen, the ones who. That's what Jesus has called us to do. Right, and as we follow him, he directs our steps and he's directed this restaurant. And, yeah, the houseless is all a part of it.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm especially inspired by that friend because as I look around at our nation and perhaps our world, we have a lot more of each of those three categories. We have a lot more people who are becoming houseless. We have a lot more addicts hopefully ex-addicts, but I don't know who's walking them through that. We need more programs. And then we have a lot more people who have become incarcerated and being released early because there's not enough space.
Speaker 1:So for those of us listening or those of us who are watching, that's why I'm bringing this to forefront, not just as a small business and we are talking about that, but there's also the food on a mission or business on a mission, and if we don't make that mission our business, it's going to be knocking at our doors. We're seeing a lot of this happening in our communities right, where we see the houseless who are mentally disturbed acting out at a 7-Eleven, or we see someone in a parking lot acting out, or you know. We see a lot of these issues and so that's why, if we don't make this mission our business, it will become your business.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And so thank you for doing what you do Now. You guys even went through 2020. And I have to choose my words carefully so we're not struck down by Lord algorithms. How did you survive as a small business? Because you're, if I may say, a small bake shop and kitchen, a restaurant. You're only open for breakfast, lunch and the bakery right, which is exceptional, but you're in the back of Manoa right, beautiful location, great location, but you're a small place in the back of Manoa. How did you survive?
Speaker 2:That's such a good question, and every time I think about it, there's only one way that we survived on, and it was God, 100%. I'm not trying to dodge the question. I'm telling you that we opened our first year and you were so kind to say that we had a chef. Honestly, dawn, we don't have a chef. We have a girl named Dita, who was in and out of prison her entire life.
Speaker 2:Now she spent more than nine months outside of prison. Yeah, and she is the one who does this, and Is that her creation, the ube? I think it was a team consult on that. It wasn't a chef, though, it was them. It was them being creative saying, hey, can we try this, can we try that? And this one step? They tried a matcha failed. You know what I mean. But like, hey, that's what we're here for, let's try. But our whole motto is try yeah and so she did that.
Speaker 2:She's been with us for over four years now. Did not go back to the prison wow that she didn't.
Speaker 1:and I was saying the recidivism rate in the united states of america is two out of three ex-prisoners go right back in. So how do we break that cycle of prison? How do we break that cycle of prison? How do we break the cycle of poverty? How do we break the cycle of abandonment and come back into abundance of God and I believe that's what you're speaking to and in surviving 2020 and what happened to the whole world and you were forced to shut down for a few months, but you folks were able to come back and you were forced to shut down for a few months, but you folks were able to come back, yeah, by the grace of God.
Speaker 2:And this is really what we learned in that season that it's going to take the community to heal the community.
Speaker 2:When you hear our people's stories, dawn, it's no wonder they served time in prison, it's no wonder they became addicted, right? So much of it is generational criminality, generational addiction, right? If that's all you know, that's your reality, and so we have to change the reality, which I wish I had, like a just, oh, a perfect formula for you. But the only thing that has worked for us is have them meet Jesus, have them know that there was a plan and a purpose for their life and it wasn't to be a criminal and it wasn't to be a no, I got it right because some of them have never even thought about that.
Speaker 1:No, no right, it's not a conception like. We have certain houseless communities on the west side of Oahu. There are five, six generations deep in houselessness. They've never known another option. I was just speaking with foster care families today, advocates, and they said there was a child. She was about 18 years old, she had almost aged out, but it was back on the foster care block and she finally found a mom and dad and the highest compliment she could have given this pastor and his wife, who is also a, after she had lived with them for a few months and before she was about to turn 18, she said you're my TV mom and dad.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:I've only ever seen a mom and dad like this on TV, and so I knew that it had to exist, because somebody created TV shows where all the moms and dads are they love each other, they're joking, they're laughing. I never had that in my life, but I knew when I watched TV. It must be real and you're the real deal, wow. And so thank you for saying that, especially when you're working with ex-inmates, ex-addicts, and houseless is and this is a saying I don't know what I don't know right, that's what my Dilima family teaches me you don't know what you don't know. And I'm like, yeah, I know, I don't know what I don't know, but families who are five, six generations deep into houselessness, maybe a foster child, they don't know what they don't know until they come into community and come into connection, and that's what you provide.
Speaker 1:At the 100 year celebration of the Wai'oli Kitchen and Bake Shop, I was there. Thank you for having me as one of your guests. I was also invited by the Salvation Army right Charmaine Cueva she also brought Hawa Neal she's a dear friend said please come up for the celebration, and they reflected all the way back to the first orphanage, as you said, and then the moms who were learning there on base. But I saw one of the women who is an ex-inmate, got up to share a testimony in front of the news crews and she looked right at you and then at Ross, your husband, and said it was thanks to having a father figure with the patience to put up with my stuff, my issues, and keep loving me no matter what. And she did break down and shed some tears a number of times, but they look to the two of you as that, mom and dad, when I read some of your and I'm going to bring this back to you and ask you some questions.
Speaker 1:But I looked at your website. It's as beautiful as the Wai'oli location up there in Manoa and it says that you folks combine our livelihood with our passion. It also says, and I quote only through the success of our people will we thrive. Engage everyone. We meet with a heart of service that transcends the needs of ourselves. Wow, now you wrote those values on your website. But I also just told you I saw it for myself, not through third-hand gossip, but through gospel, the good news and testimony of some of your women testifying. How do you guys walk that out every day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's messy Dawn. I wish like again. We're always looking for a formula. How can we help them not go back? How can we keep them from wanting to go get high under the bridge? This is something that every day faces them.
Speaker 1:It's a constant nag and pull to pull them back and let's be fair, you have had some former workers who were in and out. You would give them a second chance and a third and I know them personally. They were my friends. I didn't even know you as a close friend at that season, so I love that you're honest in saying it's messy, yeah, but we walk it out.
Speaker 2:We walk it out and you know what You're fired today, but come back tomorrow and we'll see how you're doing Right, and hopefully you'll want to come back again, wow. They don't always.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We've lost a number of them. I met Father Boyle from Homeboy Industries.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I said how do you do it, like, how do you deal with the mess? Because there's so many that will not. The ones that stay are very few Dawn, I wish I could say we have this huge track record Right, but actually the ones who are willing it's very small. Yeah, he said I never count. He said because I don't know. He said you don't know when they're going to come back. And he looked at me and he said Stephanie, they will come back Someday. They will come back and they will thank you, but you don't count. You don't count how many. You don't count how many you lose. You don't count how many you win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:We take no credit and we take no blame, we just make ourselves available to them.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:Hey, if you want to change your life, yeah, today's a good day.
Speaker 1:Here's your opportunity. We're here Because there's not a lot of places that will hire an ex-convict or an ex-felon, right, if that's on your record, you know. As you say that, sister I am reminded of. One of our favorite speakers is Reverend David Wilkerson, and he was sharing how he and his wife started long before the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, right, they had started a boys' home and were helping to repair the lives of young men who had gone astray. They only had five guys in there and, for whatever reason, it ended up getting shut down because it was so restricted by bureaucracy and paperwork. And we have a Jewish boy, and now we have to have a Jewish person in here to consult. We have a Catholic boy, now we have to have a priest on staff, and so there were so many restrictions that finally, after just a short time, it did end up getting shut down. And, long story short, he said he never understood and he thought it was one of the worst failures of his life and he asked God why did I ever do that?
Speaker 1:Now, long story short, 30, 40 years later, a young man walks up to him at a service and said I was that Jewish boy and I had. I had in and out situation with my parents and because of that experience and we went to one revival with you and that revival changed my life. It planted a seed and I am now a pastor, I am married, I have my own family and I have a church family I'm ministering to. So if he looked at it with human eyes, it was an absolute failure. But God said wait, I planted one seed in one boy's heart and he grew up to be a force for God. So thank you for doing what you're doing with that.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. Now I'm going to switch back into the other mode, where you're a wife, you're a mom, you're now a Gigi. I love the pictures of our little Prince Uriah, her grandson. You're also a small business owner. How do you balance the load? Because you make it look good, you are healthy, you've got a good balance, you have a good family, you're life satisfied. How do you balance all of that? That's such a good question.
Speaker 2:I don't know Dawn.
Speaker 1:Let's just be real.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I mean? Come on, let's just be real. Do you know what I mean? It's a mess. It's a mess. Here's the thing for me, though. I was raised in a very dysfunctional family. I was an orphan. I was adopted into a family that was a mess. I should have been a statistic Dawn, and when I met Ross, I decided my family was what I was going to focus everything on being at home and being there for my kids.
Speaker 1:That was my number one job which is the exact opposite of your experience as a child.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. I left home when I was 16 years old, yeah. So with that in mind, I wanted to be that mom who was there for her kids, and so, even though I would go pray for the sick, I'd go to the prison. My number one thing was my family. And then after that, in the kindness of God, he brought us this and he had me go to school later in life. Right here I am 40 years old, with a bunch of 18 year olds in Bible college, you know. So God has a funny way of doing things. He trained me first, wow, and then he taught me with books yeah, that's great by going out and doing this stuff.
Speaker 1:You kind of did it in reverse. Most of us get the education and then the experience.
Speaker 2:You have the experience and then the education that and there's been seasons that have been super busy and chaotic, and there have been seasons that are super peaceful and good, and I'm in that sweet spot of life where it's both and and I'm just so grateful for it. And you asked about surviving lockdown earlier. I don't know if I answered it, Because who knew what was coming? Though, Did anybody know what was coming? We had no idea. We literally thought I think it was in March. They were like, yeah, we're going to shut down for four weeks. We thought, okay, by summer three weeks we're going to be back in business.
Speaker 2:I mean imagine we just opened one year before.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, at Wai'oli. Yes, okay, I did not know that. Yeah, so our first year, we're just getting through. I was gonna say, as a restaurant, many of them don't make it to the one year mark and you just made it, congratulations.
Speaker 2:And then the big closure yeah, we can't say that, sorry no, that's okay that big c word came, and what we learned from that is unless the lord builds the house, come on labor's labor in vain. Yeah, you know what our sandals didn't wear out? You know what Our lights stayed on? We had no. I think if it happened again, we'd have a little bit more of an idea of how to pivot.
Speaker 1:Well sure, no one knew.
Speaker 2:We had no clue, we took no loans.
Speaker 1:Wow, we got one grant.
Speaker 2:Wow, for very little, not even enough to pay the rent and the lights, but it was a grant that was kind of them to give to us, wow. But we didn't take any loans because we didn't know are we going to end up with $100,000 debt Right On top of making no money for all that time? So we refused to do it Wisdom. We threw ourselves on at the mercy of God.
Speaker 2:And he answered us Wow, and. And he answered us Wow, and he showed us I've got you. And you don't know that when you have your own money, you don't know that. When you're comfortable, you think you know it, but you don't know it until you are in that desperate place. Come on, yes, if you don't fix this, god, we will die.
Speaker 1:Come on, we will literally. Whom have I in heaven but you? I have got nowhere else to go.
Speaker 2:And have I in heaven, but you, I have got nowhere else to go, and it's a painful lesson, but it's the most amazing lesson, Right, because we don't worry.
Speaker 2:I don't worry like I used to worry I would get sick if people didn't show up. I mean I literally would be like, oh my gosh, how are we going to get through the day? How are we going to get? We had three people go get high under the bridge and they're not coming back. I mean, that's the kind of thing that we face and I would be neurotic, literally. I was a mess and now I go it's yours, jesus, the restaurant's yours, the people are yours, you've got to do it.
Speaker 2:And you know what he doesn't. That's the thing is to watch him move and watch him do it. And it's not based on Ross's restaurant experience although that's helpful, right, when you were asking about the secret sauce it's not. You know, we got to have the basics right. You got to know your P&L, you've got to understand labor costs, you've got to understand your food costs, right. But then that missing thing is knowing that God will bring the people God will set you up. He's gonna do it.
Speaker 1:Wow and.
Speaker 2:I just want to encourage whoever is out there thinking about embarking on the small business. You've got to just trust God with that. Do everything, Do your homework, Know what you know. But that missing component is something that only he can do. The X factor is the cross. The X factor is Jesus.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's it. And what I also want to throw in there is that Ross's strengths also complement your strengths. So when I walk into Wai'oli Kitchen and Bake Shop, let's say one of the strengths is that you both know Peter Merriman. Of course we both love Merriman's. Let's go Friday, just throwing that out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But you consulted with him because he was a family friend, a dear friend, and he was able to say, hey, scale down the menu, you just want to do a few items? Great, I think you even mentioned you had this whole cheesecake thing, right yeah. And he said, no, we're just going to scale it down, bring it down to a few items, and you're going to nail those hard, and you sure do. Now you have people coming from around the world, japan especially. That love to.
Speaker 1:So Ross's strength there was working with how do I run a business? Then you come in and when I'm standing in line, there's this beautiful gift shop area that I get to stand in and you have some. You know like you have these things that I mentioned. This is another gift, but you also have. Sometimes there's lace, sometimes there's jewelry, sometimes there's tea towels, and I love walking through that as a woman that I just get to shop while I'm standing in line. So your strengths complement each other. You also have your children working there. I love seeing your son, noah. I see Gracie, gracie, your daughter, there. Even Prince Uriah, their little guy, shows up as the mascot of the whole restaurant. So it's a lot of working with each other's strengths. Would that be fair to say?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it's a family business, right, it's a family business. When you come, we could be holding a baby, we could be holding somebody else's baby, and I think that's what we wanted to do in this generation. So, at the times where it was a tea house and you had to be dressed and it was beautiful and wonderful. That's fantastic. But everybody says, oh, my old auntie used to take me here, I only went with grandma, I only went with you.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's right. Once in a blue moon.
Speaker 2:Flip that and say bring your family.
Speaker 1:Let them run around. Do you know what I?
Speaker 2:mean Come. Love that Come on a date, do your thing.
Speaker 1:And come often. It doesn't have to be a 50th anniversary or our graduation, it's come every week. I'm there three, five times a day, or a week, whichever is. I'm not even joking. Now. I want to talk about the prophetic a little bit, because I was trained by a mutual, our mentor, right, and he said sometimes, dawn, you can speak to 95% of the audience, but sometimes you're going to speak to the five percent. Um, how do you operate in the prophetic, friend? And, by the way, as you dwell on that for just a second, I want to back up and say thank you for talking about, uh, during the closure of the earth, right, the whole globe and talking about surviving during that 2020 season, because I think there have been times coming upon us now that are hard. I'm hearing about thousands of layoffs with major companies around our nation and we're a first world nation and so I'm looking into the camera right now, knowing that there are people who are possibly facing layoffs. A lot of people are right now drowning in credit card debt. People are putting groceries on layaway. It's going to be tough times is what we foresee. We foresee that even in the good book that warns us, it is written that hard times will be coming in the end of times. But I'm not focusing on the negative, because Jesus doesn't warn us to scare us. He's not about fear, that's the other side but he warns us lovingly and I like to say don't be scared, be prepared Now. That said, thank you for covering how to survive in tough times. Throw yourself upon the feet of the Lord. But I'm going to pivot that right into.
Speaker 1:What I was talking about is prophetic gifting. You often, minister, stephanie, in the prophetic. You've done that for me personally, thank you, prophetic. You've done that for me personally, thank you. She looked at a photograph and she called me out on a sinful relationship that I was engaged in at the time. You were the only one who had the steel spine to speak up to Don O'Brien and call me out on sin, and I needed it. It saved my life. How do you hear the voice of the Lord? And how do you do that For the 5% advanced Christians who are walking saying I want to start operating the prophetic, because they need to hear the word of the Lord? How do we do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's such a first of all. It's very kind of you to say that I wouldn't consider myself a prophet. I know you don't, but I would say that everything flows out of intimacy right with Jesus, everything that when you hear the Lord, it's your intimacy that you would hear him through me. Same with me, it's my intimacy that says I'm not doing anything. Today I am reading the word of God and I think there has been a famine in the land of the true word of God, and so that's where I get my strength, that's where I get my oil. We have to in this hour, donnie, we've got to have oil in our labs, and it's not fun to say to a friend what's up with that. Do you know what I mean? Of course, not it's not fun.
Speaker 2:And it's not a fun, you know. I mean, when you say prophet, I'm like no, no, they stone the prophets they kill the prophets, they gather the prophets, I wouldn't say that about myself.
Speaker 1:Any prophet with their assault dies hard.
Speaker 2:You're going to die a nasty, horrible death. So we'll just say that I'm a friend. That just confirms what you already know. I would say that about myself, right that Holy Spirit speaks to you and he starts nudging you, and when you don't listen, he will send the next person and say Don let's go over here, especially because there's been so much in your life Don that God is doing and even podcast, so important that all of us right it's simple Repent.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I mean? Confess, repent, pray. There's nothing new under the sun, it's super simple. And if we just live in that and know that it's his kindness, that leads us to repentance. That is the thing that motivates us and moves us in this way.
Speaker 1:And I love your heart, friend, because you just said it. It's simple, it's confess, repent, pray and the scripture, god's word. There's such a goodness about being convicted, right Is he does it not to break us but to break off that sin. And he knows that he will wreck your plans if your plans are going to wreck your life and that plan of mine in sinful relationship with that gentleman was was going to absolutely wreck me wow, again, it wasn't the first time and god says we're done with doing this, flying in that same sin pattern before you land in the in the place of hell. So what I love about the scripture, god's good word that says confess your sins one to another, that you may pray for each other and then be healed, not to be broken or shamed or made right.
Speaker 1:It was like the woman at the feet of jesus I love the way that it was portrayed in mel gibson's the passion of christ remember that it's my favorite scene and she's caught in sin. They didn't bring the guy around, notice that, but they catch this woman in sin, in sexual sin. They throw her before jesus, messiah, the lord, and, and he basically calls out and says those with the least sin, you may cast the first stone, go ahead and stone the woman, but the one with the least sin you start. And those men were smart enough in that moment, as they gripped those stones, to realize my God, I'd have to start stoning myself. And they dropped their stones and left. Now her hand is crawling towards him in that movie and she's trying to touch him because he says woman, go and sin no more. He set her free.
Speaker 2:He said where woman are your accusers?
Speaker 1:There you go, come on yeah neither do I wow, woman, go and sin no more and the freedom that's so. She followed him for the rest of her earthly life and straight into heaven. So thank you for your love to do that and I love that you said when I ask you how do you hear? How do you minister? How do you minister? Cause I I'm thinking we're walking into a time when Jesus said we are going to have to cast out demons, we're going to have to heal the sick, preach boldly, give generously, and that we would. There's one more coming, but we're going to have to do all these things. How do we do that? By staying in the secret space, in the sacred space between me and Him, that intimacy, that oil of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for that. You look fabulous. By the way, I have to say Love it. Woo girl Coming on Aloha Alive with some nice Manu Heali'i what else could we wear on your show?
Speaker 2:Everything else is forbidden. This verboten.
Speaker 1:You know it, it's, it's my brand. Um now, last words, as we bring this in for a landing and this has been exceptional may I have you back? I would love it and we would love to come and film. I already discussed it with the crew and that was pre them eating your food wait till they eat it if we can come and film at waioli we would love it because we want to talk more on small business and I think think we came down to the bare brass tacks and the bottom line is the bottom line.
Speaker 1:It's not about money, it's about people and when you do people well and the connection, that's where you start to make a lot of money In this world of well. We have digital technology and AI. We've got enough that will take care of every other concern. But you can't fake the jesus funk and you can't fake the people funk.
Speaker 1:That's it, you guys give great service and purpose as people. So you've lived here for at least 30 years, though you're 21, and ross for his own four decades. What is aloha to you? I always ask a guest at the end of the show.
Speaker 2:So good, um. So at dukes, when ross was there, they hired uh, dr conahele, dr george conahele. Yeah, we were blessed to have that practitioner comp yes, and he gave us a huge sense of space which we then took to wyolie and understood our sense of no wonder and one of the things that he taught us about aloha, because they started a class, aloha 101, because all these kids are coming right off the ground.
Speaker 2:I did not know that, yeah yeah, they did and they still do to this day. Started with Dr George, and the number one thing that we wanted to get across to them was Aloha is giving more than is expected.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And expecting nothing in return oh wow and that's where we are with the restaurant, right you if I? Give you a cup of coffee and a scone, you give me five bucks. We don't want to be about transactions wow about that. We want to exceed your expectations, give you more than you expected, which may just mean prayer, which may just be hey, how's your dad? I haven't seen your son. Where's your wife? How's everybody doing just that simple act of kindness? Yes, and isn't that what the culture?
Speaker 2:is the extra at your waioli absolutely I mean the, the polynesian, the aloha culture, aloha culture lavish love with no expectation back.
Speaker 1:You had me at hello, you had me at the lavish love, but then you doubled down with a no expectation of return. It's not transactional. It's not transactional.
Speaker 1:Wow, you can see it on that one Sister friend, that was good. Okay, so last last question. Thank you for telling us what is aloha to you, a favorite expression of aloha, whether it's a taste or a smell. Like you have a lay on, people love lay right, maybe it's an experience you've had as you're here. What makes aloha so distinctive for you? What's your favorite smell, taste, experience?
Speaker 2:I would say puakini kini is my favorite smell, that sweet smelling aroma that reminds me that I'm back home again. Yeah, when I smell that, it's always been like that. Since the first time I came here there was a smell. It used to be more so in the airport. When you came in the smell is different, but it's also it's also the people that that is so legitimately the culture that they're always giving. Oh, I saw that your car needs tint. Let me tint your window, Do you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like no, I don't want any money. I just saw you're getting somber. Look how red your skin is. No this is a true story and just the way that this culture loves and I love when people take that culture and they take that coal. That is Aloha, and they're going everywhere and it's lighting up people everywhere. That's aloha and they're going everywhere. Yeah, and it's lighting up people everywhere. That's never experienced. You don't experience aloha in new york city, in los angeles unless somebody from here goes and brings.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that's the beauty of aloha. Yes, and it and it is spreading everywhere and ultimately, you know, I don't have to tell you I'm not telling any polynesians what aloha is you just taught me a 101, whatever, whatever, sister, and it was a real good 101 from Dr Kanahele.
Speaker 1:Thank you for saying that, and I would like to come in and reinforce what you just said is Aloha is not bound by our shores, it's not locked in by the waves, and the biggest ocean on earth, the Pacific Ocean, that we sit in the middle of, it's spreading and, as you just said, once you get that touch of aloha I was just speaking to my brother Jim. He's moved to Florida, he's retired there with his wife, janet Grace, and he had on his aloha shirt and he was going out to dinner and one of the maitre d' at this Italian place in Florida said you must be from Hawaii because that's not a flea market and no shame or shade on flea markets. But he goes, that's a rent, that ain't nobody's like humble kind. That's the real deal. And this is an African-American gentleman who said I was in the Navy for a season and I served part of my tour there in Hawaii and I learned the culture of Aloha. And so he said well, sis, you got to come visit, because now I know the maitre d had a really good um italian place. So once you are kissed by aloha, our prayer, our pule, is that you will take it forward and, as you just said, it's a hot coal and it can start to light up and ignite wildfires around the earth, by the way, as we come in for a landing. On this, I just want to impart a mahalo. On this, I just want to impart a mahalo. I am so grateful for you in my life. I am so grateful that when we walk into Waiole, there is a spirit of Shalom and in Hawaiian, it is to be just so at rest, that it is completely still. There is a stillness and a sacred rest you afford us. That's why I'm there like three, four times a day. If I could Thank you and I know as I'm listening to you on this podcast, that you were an orphan, that that came from a place from abandonment to abundance, wow and that you give forward the love that you may not have experienced except for Abba, except for God, that you now express that love to those who are the least of these and the worst of we's, including myself, dawn O'Brien. Thank you for that, because it is creating exponential miracles are going out as you provide your humble sack lunch, like the little boy with two fish and five loaves. You bring some really nice loaves and you bless so many to a multitude of miracles. So thank you, stephanie anderson.
Speaker 1:Waioli kitchen and bake shop. You're going to get yourself some beautiful scones not these, because they're going straight into my mouth when we cut the cameras and you can also, um, either take it to go they've got a lot of other baked items or else they have breakfast and they have lunch up on. I think. You're open at 8 am until 1 pm and they're open. They're closed for sabbath, on sundays and they take the monday. You can open there with them at tuesday through friday, no, through saturday. Tuesday through saturday. Thank you very much. Waioli kitchen Bake Shop, where you're going to experience shalom and aloha Aloha. From Aloha Alive. I'm Auntie Dawn, stephanie and Ross Anderson. God bless you.