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. 21 Wild, Wild WESSIDE! Hawai'I HAMMAHS
A raw-&-real story of pride, trauma & prison turned to power & purpose! How a Hawai'i hammah & criminal turned community leader & lasting freedom. World & hurricane surer "Bird" Mahalona leads Wesside men alongside a scrapper wahine-wife to transform the Wild, Wild WESSIDE!
• Pride: The "Shot Caller" behind violence & generational fails
• Inner incarceration is personal prison
• Deliverance paired with daily discipleship in the Word
• The “hardest case” reentry success thru structure & Scripture
• Camp Agape, keiki care, & the Love Tunnel
• Practical advice for ex-inmates to avoid traps
• Forgiveness, accountability & reversing generational curses
• What's aloha? Like trust it's EARNED
Check out Bird & Lucy Mahelona at Fishers of Men Nãnãkuli, CHEE JESUS & CHEE US!
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www.ChooseAloha.org
Aloha and welcome to Aloha Alive, another very special podcast with a dear brother from West Said. Nana Coolis in the house today. I want to say aloha my kako to all of you who are viewing with us, but also to my dear brother. It's Pastor Bird Mahelona. How's it, Bird? How are you? Awesome. Thank you for coming all the way in that traffic. It's the worst traffic in the nation, bro. It inspires much road rage on the west side. But we also have the aloha spirit. So thank you for coming, Pastor Bird. Thank you. Thank you for having me. You know, and also aloha to Pastor Lucy Mahelona. If you don't know the West Side, it really is the wild, wild west, right, Bird. I mean, last time I seen Pastor Lucy, she was going through the brand new Starbucks drive-thru in Nanakouli. I mean, it's brand spanking new. You can still smell the tar off that road. And she and chop stopped that truck right in the middle of traffic and she got out to come honey honey me and hug me and give me the blessing of the Lord. Nobody went toot their horn because they all know Pastor Lucy is Mantida. She won Mahelona. So we love the Lord, but we will make a personal introduction. If you don't know what I'm saying, we will just spell it out for you. But you know what? We're gonna start off with some rumor or truomers in just a bit. But I wanted to thank you, Pastor Bird. We were just commemorating off camera, remembering how um one of the first times, and we've known each other for many years, I think it's decades already. I don't like age myself for all the cakey watching, but Auntie Don has been around for quite some time, and we've known each other probably over 20 years in ministry. Um, you run a ministry out there in Nanakouli called Fishers of Men. Yes. You also do what is a clean and sober home, not right now because your son is working in the federal uh prison and so there's a conflict of interest, but normally you run a clean and sober home. I got to come out and minister there in 2014 at Fishers of Men ministry, which is what we were remembering. And at the time, I had been working at a certain radio station that had just released me. They just fired me. I didn't want to use the F word, but I I gotta say them. And you know, we just speak the truth. So let's go. Um, I had just been fired on a Wednesday morning, I remember, and you and I had a pre-scheduled, we already had a commitment for a Wednesday lunch because you had you and Pastor Lucy asked me to come out and speak at Fishers of Men that Sunday. So we were just kind of doing a pre-team, pre-game huddle. And when I showed up, I just had gotten fired for the and I didn't know what to do with myself. It was a complete shock. I we had some of the best ratings in the state of Hawaii. I heard that Perry and Price were getting a little scared because they were always number one and I was a number two in the mornings, and so when I got fired, I was totally side-swiped. I was totally just gone. And um when I saw Pastor Bird at Nico's, we had the fish lunch. You came all the way in. Thank you, brother. You know, you were the perfect person that God sent in that moment for me. I was mortified. I had never been fired so publicly and shamed. Uh my last day was gonna be Friday, and I came to you probably really sad, and I said, Pastor Bird, I think you hired me to come speak because I'm a celebrity Christian, which is an oxymoron, celebrity Christian. Hello, only one celebrity, that's Jesus. But I said, You don't want me anymore because I just got fired from my job. And Pastor Bird, you said, no, you know why? It's somebody's birthday on Sunday at church, and she likes you sing the Lottie Dottie happy birthday song. And I looked at Pastor Bird and I said, Pastor Bird, by Sunday I'm not gonna want to sing the Lottie Dottie happy birthday song. I just got fired from my job, and by Sunday I'll be devastated. But you didn't let me go. And here's the um the goodness of God is I came on Sunday. I didn't feel like it, but I I always make my yes a yes. Jesus said, make sure your yes is a yes. And when I came out, you told the people what had happened, and all the men were standing in the back, they had their shirts up, ready for scrap, they were ready to fight. Let me interpret myself, and they were saying, Nanakouli got your back, nanakouli got your back. And they I thought we were gonna have a fight in that place right then. I thought we were gonna have a riot in church, and the goodness of God was um just that you folks really had my back. And then the next thing you did was a shock to me. Um, I didn't think I was gonna get paid because Nanakouli is, you know, more of an impoverished area. I didn't even think I was gonna get lunch, to be real honest. I was like, maybe I'll get a Musubi. Uh, not to be judgmental. I grew up in Tonga, super poor, but um you put out a koa bowl, it was a big coal bowl, probably half this table, and you held me down on one side, Pastor Lucy held me down the other side, and you said, Everybody, we're gonna do in love offering for Sister Dawn. And I wanted to run, I was gonna sprint out of there, but no, you guys held me down, and every man, woman, and child, even the small babies, they came and they put money inside. And um when I was growing up in Tonga, I remember my grandma, she used to always make sure as a small kid I still had um either a 50 cent piece uh in tongue and money or a tala, which is a dollar, and that's what the babies came and they drop, and I was crying so hard. I made it out back to my home that afternoon I fell asleep, and I uncount the money afterwards. Bro, it was over three thousand dollars. I never had a bigger payout in my whole life, and I I you know I didn't do it for the money, Pastor Bird. But to this day, the Lord had told me before I even got that payoff. He said, Don, you got fired, but I will take care of you if I have to send a bird to feed you in the desert. And I said, God, birds, this is ridiculous. By the way, it's ridiculous that the pastor's name is Bird, and it dawned upon me that God sent a bird to minister to me in the desert of Nanakouli. So, brother, give me your hand, Mahalo Nui. You are such a big part of my ministry and me sticking it out because I could have fallen off real easy right then. I was so embarrassed in front of the whole state. But God bless you and Pastor Lucy and my fishers of men. Nanakouli, because nanakouli, we got your back, we got you back. That's the pastor bird I brought before us today. Welcome. So, sir, I want to do rumor or trumor. It's a little game I sometimes play. The rumor is means is false. Trumor means tell us more about the truth. Number one, you surfed a hurricane. Did you actually surf a hurricane, bird mahelona? Yes, yes, I did.
SPEAKER_03:And never done before.
SPEAKER_00:And somebody actually took a picture of that.
SPEAKER_03:I have that photo.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that's huge, bird. Okay, he surfed an actual hurricane. Do you remember which one was?
SPEAKER_03:Hurricane Eva.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you 1982. Unreal. And how big was that wave?
SPEAKER_03:Like 30, 40 feet.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, the men who surf mountains, who surf the moving mountains. Here's the second rumor or trumor. So the first one was true. Number two, you serve time in prison.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Really? Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. So that's a trumor. And we're gonna hear more about that. Number three, you used to tour the world with top surfers, as you yourself are top surfers, even including the Japan circuit. Rumor or trumor?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, we're three for three right now. And I kind of spilled the beans on number four. You run a men's rehabilitation, well, clean and sober home in Nanakouli. Yes. Wow, so full circle from that crazy Cuckoo Molutu surfing the hurricane, touring the world on a surf circuit, and then coming into being with the giving back to the community. Pastor, tell us how you came to faith in Jesus Christ. I see you have your beaten up Bible right here. This thing is all bus up, but you're not.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's you know, I raised up in a church, I knew about who Jesus was, but I never know who Jesus was. So my mom and my dad was pastors. My oldest sister Yvonne was a pastor. We have seven, my mom from my mom's womb, we have seven pastors in our family.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_03:So I was the last one to be ordained.
SPEAKER_00:Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_03:Of like the um King David.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the runt.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the rant. They're looking at the one nobody liked, the one was in prison. That's one God called. That's one God called.
SPEAKER_00:Powerfully so, sir. So you came from a Christian family. You kind of went Manuiya boy, right? You kind of went. The prodigal went out. He went on a run. Yeah. And then you came back. Which, in you know, so many of us know, like Pastor Roy Yamamoto. We know so many of the pastors who serve at Camp Agape, which is for uh not just the incarcerated, but for their children, their families. Um, they had a call on their lives as you had a call on your life. Yes. And you went and you ran a little bit, but you came home like the prodigal son came and returned home. Now you do Fishers of Men. Tell us about Fishers of Men, Nanakuli.
SPEAKER_03:Fishers of Men is all prophesied. It's uh it's it wasn't my name. My going to prison was God's plan.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So he had to get me because I I was on a platform that's surfing around the world. So my story is like Planning Guy started that played sports. My arrogance and pride brought me to prison.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:And everything that when I look at my life, Kyle, Kulon Sing, Nausisho, it's all the same story. Yeah. Pride.
SPEAKER_00:Anna O'Lion. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So if so when you take out the pride out of anybody's life, thank you, Pastor. You're gonna find peace and humility and humbleness. And this is what happened in prison. Yes. So when I went to prison, and I tell everybody, and I mentored so many men today that here's that story that helped them understand the spirit of the mind makes a big difference for the rest of your life. The battle doesn't start in prison. You're not incarcerated in prison, you're incarcerated in your mind.
SPEAKER_00:Come on now, Pastor.
SPEAKER_03:And some of the guys that I'm I would talk to, the guys at New Hope Saint Island last night, the 12 uh 12 steps with Chaplain Barbara. I told the guys that um when I was young, because of the way I was brought up, my dad used to beat and rape my mom in front of us.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So, and that's that we all have a story, darling. Yes, sir. We all have a story why we were incarcerated. And if we if we track the hurt and the pain, yeah, it doesn't start on a street, it started from a broken home.
SPEAKER_00:Come on now. We're going right into this. Thank you, Pastor.
SPEAKER_03:Uncut and raw. Yes, right?
SPEAKER_00:That's how we want it.
SPEAKER_03:My dad's to beat my mom, and we all hated him. I hated my father. And um, when I got married, I became just like my dad. I went in prison for kidnap, rape, and attempted murder. Wow. So there's a lot of trauma that happened in our past. And I'm talking to a lot of guys out there and women, that your past affects your future. This is why in Genesis, God said in the beginning, there was a void. There's something missing in my life.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. That was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_03:So he said, when there's a void, when he created in Genesis, he created the heaven and earth, and he said, Let there be. And he spoke in the atmosphere. He spoke into my life. He spoke into my darkness.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:This is where God worked at his best in our darkness.
SPEAKER_00:Come on.
SPEAKER_03:And he said, Let there be light. And when he seen that light, Don, when I seen the light, he said, Now it looks good. Hallelujah. So he separated the day from the night and my past to my future.
SPEAKER_00:Ooh, wow, Pastor. And Pastor, uh, you're preaching to me right now. I was a child who had mega trauma. I swore I would never be like my alcoholic father who was uh negligent, neglectful, and he had his good things. I love my daddy to this day. But we know, as you said, childhood trauma, and I swore I wouldn't just not be like my daddy, but I would never be like my mama, who I'm sorry, but at the time she was choosing to sleep around. And guess what I became when I became older? And so thank you for administering to that darkness and to that pit because we need to expose it to the light and speak Jesus into that darkness. The childhood trauma does not define us, God, our creator, does. And that's something you had to find out in prison. And as you said, God strips aside our pride, my pride. That's a good word, Pastor. Thank you for that. And you know, I know a little bit about your testimony, and now um there is a woman who attends church and she's right in the front who was a victim of some of your crime. Is that true?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So my victim, my ex-wife, and I'll I'll the Bible says what you what you sow, you're gonna reap. Okay, you're not gonna pass, you're not gonna get you do something bad, you're gonna get good. You do something bad, go bad gonna come back. You do something good, good gonna come back. It's a choice today. I understand God's word is real. Yes, so I was married, and then I met this girl in my surfing career, and I I and I groomed her, and I learned this from a sex offender class. I groomed her, she became my victim. I became just like my dad again. Oh wow, because he went from women to women to women in the bars. So, so my victim, um, my ex-wife, I was married and I committed adultery, and then so my adulterous wife that I married, which is my victim, yeah, um, she committed adultery. See, the Bible said, No feel good, uh, Pastor Bird, what you did to your first wife. No feel good when your adulterous wife did it to you. I'll lose kidnap rape, I took her in my car, kidnapped, raping, and attempting murder. You don't do that to me. I can fool on, but you cannot fool around.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_03:The Bible says the Bible is real. What you sow, you reap.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:She had an affair.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_03:I grabbed her and I went in jail for kidnap, raping, and attempting murder. I became just like my dad. Now, hurting people hurt people. Come on, Don, she was a beautiful person, she was unversion, she was nice and kind, came from a good family. After I manipulated her and beat her and raped her, when she got married, hurting people, hurt people, she beat the sh beat her husband to the Pope. She became just like me.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, Bird, thank you for the truth. And like we said, raw and real. But until we begin to expose some of these very deep pits of Satan that hurt people, hurt people. And there's a spirit upon that that we need to start looking at and calling it out. I don't want to be polite with the devil, I want to kick him in the head because the Bible says that in the book of Genesis and throughout the rest of the Bible. We don't play with a cockroach coming in the house. I don't play with a snake that invades the house towards my children. We stop those things in the head. So thank you for being very real about it and for taking accountability, because that is a big part of repentance, which the Lord knows will free, take the noose off of our neck, and it takes the noose off of the necks of our children and our children's children and our spouse whom we love. Wow, Pastor, that's so good. And now that lovely lady, I've met her, I honey her in your church, I've talked with her. We're all family, all is good, all has been wiped clean, right? Yes, and that's only Jesus Christ when you said you went to prison for kidnap, rape, and attempted murder. This person now worships the king of kings and the lord of lords in the house of Nanakouli, Fishers of Men, with Pastor Bird and Lucy Mahalona. Powerful. And Pastor, if I may say this, that I often say as a child of trauma, but that's not my identity. I'm a child of the king of the kings. I got a triumph and a trumpet coming coming for me. It's not the trauma, right? It's the triumph and the trumpet. But with you folks, same thing. We reverse the curse. We send that straight back to the pit of hell. I ain't receiving that package, no, sir. Not today, Satan, not tomorrow. In fact, there's not a day this side of Jesus that looks real good for you, loser. So go back to the pit. So I said, I'm not receiving that. We're gonna reverse the curse, we're gonna bring the blessing. Because the only thing in your Bible, in my Bible, is blessing. God says, I never meant for a calamity for you, but for a future and a hope. Yes. That's nothing but good bills right there. That's nothing but goodness. So, Pastor, thank you for sharing that so pointedly. And I know that that's what works when you're ministering to many of these young men, especially when we see that Hawaii has one of the highest incarceration rates in the United States of America. United States of America, on the graph, we have the highest incarceration in the whole wide world. I mean, you might ask yourself why that's true, but United States, number two, is so far below number one United States for the most prisoners in a population. And then when you look at the United States and you expand it, the highest incarceration per capita, per a people group is for native Hawaiians, Polynesians like Tongians, Samoans, and Micronesians. And unfortunately, a lot of those people live on the West Side. And these are exactly the people that you are uh working with, Pastor Byrd. And you may not have a clean and sober house right now because of federal regulations, but you're still working with the Khane out there. You're still working with the young men.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Now you were just telling me a story of one of the most impossible incarcerated men that was brought to your attention, and you said, We're gonna take them, give us that one. Can you tell us the story about that?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. So when we had our cleaning soapboa house, the the warden called me up and uh uh his conversation with me that the counselors and and the staff had the hardest time with this guy. They they told me that he needed a place. They cannot find a place for him. So, Pastor Rick, can you take him into Fishers and Main? I told him, of course. He said, but but he did what we have learned that he couldn't be institutionalized. So I told him, what happened? So I told him he'd been in prison for uh when he was 19, he got out when he was uh 57. So he was incarcerated for 50 51 years. So see, he couldn't be institutionalized because he was talking to himself, is he was actually he was talking to demons.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, right?
SPEAKER_03:So he was wrestling in his mind, right? Right? So if you can't change the mind, you can change your choices.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. So when he came to us, they said, no way, Pastor Bird, you want to I tell him, bring them, bring them, bring them the most impossible person, but bring them even the federal officials and the prison officials saying you're not gonna want this one.
SPEAKER_03:They say, cannot. They said, I said, bring them, bring them. So when he came, we teach him the word. Hallelujah. Transform minds, transform family, transform lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00:Transform the man, transform the land, right? We're gonna change all nanakuli because you can change that one man. One man.
SPEAKER_03:Today, um, he was one of my um successful graduates that came out of Fish as a man ministry. He loved God, he has a job. He used to surf when he was Waikiki, but now he he's in he lives in Haleva, he works at a farm and he served, and he's clear-minded. Wow. And and the spirits have been broken. See, we we're not fighting flesh and blood, you know that. We're fighting principalities of the air.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:And and when I go to the prison, I by the raising of hand, this is my question to a lot of the guys how many of you, two, three o'clock in the morning, something was choking your neck or holding your mouth down for screaming.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:And so I tell them, now you guys don't witness. And for those of you never raised your hand, these guys want to witness that's a spirit without a body. The demons is real. Go to John 10:10. Yes, the devil came to kill, steal, and tap you out. Yes, so now their eyes are big because they now the word and that spirit match. Yeah, the word just when exposed the spirit that was trying to tap them out by killing them, and that's the spirit of the body. Now that spirit is gonna come back. Yeah, you're gonna try to see if your house is empty so he can fill up that void.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So when when when people realize that now they go down, now they know the choices they made, the spirits that attack them, they're not fighting people, they're fighting principal palaces of the air. A spirit that cannot be, and the spirit is, I tell them, the spirit is waiting out at the gate at the entrance. He's waiting for you to come back into your life. Yes, the devil no more power. You give him power that's right by your choices you make.
SPEAKER_00:That's right, exactly it. And Pastor, I love that we're speaking very point blank right now because last time I checked, your Bible is the same Bible I'm reading, says it right there in black and white. It's pretty point blank about, as you said, John 8 44. The devil is a liar, he's been a murderer since the beginning, right? It paints it all out for us. And it says that when you might um ask to have a demon removed, but if you don't put in some good things inside of you, that demon comes right back with seven friends. They're gonna have an orgy in the house, they're gonna have a big old party, they're gonna wreck you.
SPEAKER_03:All these friends with him. Yeah, there in in in in the Bible says there's seven, there's like there, there's uh seven spirits. You get you bring one, they're gonna bring all seven inside. So all that seven get named. So the number one gang shot caller in all of the spirit, his name is Pride. Wow, pride brings in unforgiveness, rejection, abandonment, self-sense entitlement. So all these spirits that come that's that that that and I call it premeditated because you you you you you think about the negative spirit and stuff that happened in your past, all are traumatized. Now that becomes a stronghold. Yeah, come on now. And now God said in the Bible in 2 Corinthians, you gotta bring down that stronghold that comes and exalt against the truth. That's good. The devil gonna try, and he's an accuser of the brethren. Yes, he's gonna accuse you, you're gonna believe, he's gonna lie to you for you to believe in a lie. Now you play in a movie. And guess who's gonna start in the movies? Right? The guys they star in their own movies.
SPEAKER_00:In your main playing in the mind theater of your mind, uh, 24-7, 365. One of the best pieces of life advice I heard was from a dear friend of both of ours, Pastor Roy Yamamoto. He said, Don, you gotta help me train up our kids because too often they're sharing their testimony, but it's like 99% the negative stuff that happened before Christ, and then they might say, Oh, and then I got saved. Paul. No, you gotta less on the devil and his power. And yeah, we recognize what happened, the trauma, but more we focus on the goodness of God and his victory and his glory. Pastor Wayne Cordero said the same thing. We don't need to give the devil any undue merit. We see what you're doing, but we're gonna give all the glory to God, right? So thank you for saying that, Pastor. And I love how you even said pride is the shot caller. If you don't know the syndicate, but maybe you watch The Godfather as a movie. So the shot caller is the most important one, right? He's the one calling literally all the shots, and you named off all the other demons that get in there, right? Like the abandonment, like, oh, uh the entitlement, right? I deserve this. I should be, as Judas took a little bit extra off the side on the purse, right? Oh, I get to have this because I'm running the money books for Jesus, or the abandonment. And I heard myself even doing some of that, Pastor Bird, until I heard my mentor, Pastor Wayne, and then my brother, Pastor Roy, saying, We don't give a bunch of glory to the devil. We recognize what he did, but that's very small compared to the infinity eternity of what Jesus is doing. Is that how you also raise up your men? And of course, the people at who attend the Fishers of Men Church.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's identifying the voices because there's many voices in the world, Don, but not every voice is significant. Not every voice tells you the truth. And this is why we're looking for the truth. And how are you gonna find the truth? You read your Bible. How are you gonna know the truth if you know you know you're not in your Bible? Come on. So there's there's that lack of uh people's understanding because they don't know the word. Because once you know the word, your foundation will be more stronger than it was before. Yes, the difference between today and your future is the wisdom of the Bible, wow, knowledge and understanding. Wow, making better choices to help people know. Yes, for me is helping people know. That's good. I just was in Mazul 13, and I talked about the past and the trauma. Okay, and then um on Thursday. Friday, Chaplain and Barbara went to the same prison, Mazda 13, and the guys that I talked to that was hurting, that that that um they found peace and they found love and forgiveness, they were running Bible studies Friday. Saturday, Thursday they got delivered. Yeah, Friday they're running Bible studies.
SPEAKER_00:Hallelujah, Lord.
SPEAKER_03:So Saturday I went down to New Hope, the 12-step study. Past Chaplain Barbara told me, Pastor Burt, the guys you mentor to, I heard about them. These guys was a shot caller, never believe in God. They're running Bible studies.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. And that's like a literal, real shot caller. You know, the guys in the syndicate who are still running. And see, that's a concern for me because what I've heard recently is only worldly news. And you know, there's God's good news, but the devil wants us to focus on the worldly news. And it's that there's so many gangs being run through our prison system, right? That there are so many, even in the detention hall for the younger kids, they're getting the tat already, they're having to associate and pick a gang. But now I'm hearing God's good news to counter that bad news that people are running, you're getting delivered on a Thursday, you're running Bible study on a Saturday, and you're burning for the Lord for the rest of your life. Hallelujah. That's good news I can live by. And as we both know, it says in the word of God that the word of the Lord goes forth and it does not return void. Brah, you drop that venomo, you drop a check, you're gonna get some interest and then some Jesus is gonna whop your jaws. You will be shocked and amazed. I'm sorry, keep slipping into a little bit of pigeon here because Auntie Don's with my west side omana. And I from the first, I'm Hannah myself in, right, Pastor Bird. That's my family. Yes. On the west side, family is your ride or die. It's my ride and die. We'll die every day for Jesus, and we still riding. Okay, I love this. Um, what are some of the best advice that you can give ex-inmates who are trying to stay clean and free? And you just said one of them was reading the word, Pastor.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yeah, right? Yeah, that's that's why I talk about lacking. Yeah, sometimes we get uh complacent. Yeah, and that that you don't you don't have to do nothing bad. All the devil's gonna do is keep you busy all day. Come on now, right? Oh, I gotta work. Oh, I get responsibilities, oh social media. I gotta work. All these stuff comes up in your mind just to keep you off the word of God. Come on, you're so busy here. All you gotta do is keep you occupied. Hey, over here, over here. So your mind is all over the place early in the morning. Yes, your mind running already. Yep, you should have putting God first.
SPEAKER_00:From the second we wake up to the time I go to sleep, you're gonna be trying to run me.
SPEAKER_03:Run me. That's right. That's what the devil does. He doesn't have to do anything bad. All you have to do is keep you occupied. That's right. And you're making your your your conversations, your your responsibilities first instead of God. Yes, and then all of a sudden you drift. And that's how the devil, I call him slick and slitter. He comes in and he comes in and he slides in, and before you know it, you're sleeping with the devil.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, come on now. Woo! There's power in the word of God, and there's power in this preaching today, family. I love that. Um, just to be mindful, to stay in that word, because especially in these last seconds of the last days, Jesus warned in Matthew 24 that there will be many false prophets, there's gonna be false teachers, so much so will be so marinated in all this falseness or lies or lack of the truth, the Bible, that finally they raise up a false Christ and they worship him because they've been putting up with lies for how long? But you always draw a straight line, Pastor. I seen you do it, I seen Pastor Lucy do it. Fishers of Men Ministry, always drawing the line of Jesus. This does not falter, it does not shift like a shadow or get tossed like a wave. The line of the Lord is a straight line. And I'm gonna walk that line just like that. Johnny Cash song, walk the line. You know, I had to throw that in there from my prison folk that know. I like act like I am prison. You see how I can get one tat on my neck right there. My friends from prison, and I go to a women's correctional a lot to um just share the word of the Lord and worship, and they always laugh at me. They go, Don O'Brien, you know you never gonna get that tat. You know you're lying. I go, I know that's the only lie I tell. Um, Pastor, that was some good advice for ex-inmates to stay clean and free by constantly soaking their mind and their spirit, man, in this word of the Lord. What's the best advice we can also give to the youth or the family? You know, the keiki who come to Camp Agape, we do that every year. They always cry for their parents who are in prison, who are incarcerated. How can the youth keiki or the um the significant other, whether it's a wife waiting at home or a husband waiting or a girlfriend, they're waiting for their loved? ones to come out, but how do we support them when they come out?
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, it's it's hard because they're when their parents get incarcerated, right? And then they're left all alone. And then we go back to what I just mentioned earlier. There's a sense of um entitlement and abandon and unforgiveness. Because when I was young, I go, why did my mom leave my dad? So I felt hurt, like it's my fault. So the kids think it's their fault, Don. Yes, it's not. People make choices, and choices make people. We don't understand what your mom and dad went through. But they everybody go through some trauma. Because every marriage is different culture, and the way they were raised up in marriage. My I watched my my dad beat my mom. I was raised up in that family. Everybody has a story. So for the kids that that that that that is struggling with the stuff of that that they've been through, is to find peace with your um church members, with people that love God. Because people you got you got people in schools that is manipulating, and if you if you're talking to them about your problem, they're gonna tell you about how to hate people. Yeah, you need to hear something positive with positive people. This is why I support Pastor Roy. When they got the surf contest, because I surf professional around the world, when he called me for the surf contest, I'm going down to the beach, yeah, and I'm I'm doing the judges, we're doing water safety, water patrol, and we do the love tunnel, right? Yes, so we do the love tunnel, we get all the judges raising our hands and the kids running underneath, and they're running with love and joy.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:Just to see that, just to see them guys and being part of helping these kids. And now, not everybody's gonna come, but this bro, I love about Pastor Roy, instead of we go minister to the kids in prison, we're gonna catch them, and their mom and dad is in prison, right? So they come out, they pray, they get into the scripture, we teach them how to pray for the parent instead of hating the parents.
SPEAKER_00:Come on now.
SPEAKER_03:See, this is what helps the kids, and we kind of catch them all, yeah, but we can do what we can with what we got.
SPEAKER_00:And it's a beautiful thing to see, and uh, you know, a lot of parents are watching this, and you have the triumph tunnel after a soccer game or all these. And for us, it's the love tunnel because it's camp agape, and agape is love, God is love. And to see all those big men, right? Big local boys, they got the tattoos, but they're standing there making the tunnel for the keiki, the smile and the joy of Jesus that breaks out on that child's spirit, and it's catchy. All of us are smiling. The smiles are sliding off my whole face, sliding off of the ocean, off of Kauai. It's that big. We're all, it's just one big joy bubble, and it's real because one of the things I've heard, Pastor, is children really only need three things. They need to be safe, seen, and celebrated. And you help them to feel safe because we get the big men all around us and the big titles too. Then we also are seen. They see us, you see us, you help us with the water safety, you teach the kids, you're right there on the boards with the kids, helping them to learn to surf. And then the third thing is that you celebrate them. Even if they just wrote a ripple, all winners.
SPEAKER_03:They're all winners. If we're like, oh, this is the best guy, but they're all in even the ones that fall, even the one that I had some kids crying because they found they didn't make them, they hit the stand. Yeah, but we celebrate them, they're champions.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:So in Passerwish, who's who's the who's the one winner in this year? They all champions, give them all and give.
SPEAKER_00:And they do that, you you folks help provide prizes for every single child. I'm usually MCing these campagapi events for the children, and I'm like, Roy, you telling me we're gonna hand out 176 prizes today. And he goes, Yep, 176 kids, 176 prizes. And then you got other pro surfers like Joel sent uh is it Centaurio? And he donated hoodies and all kinds for I go, for every kid? Roy, I'm an MC. I can do first place, second place, maybe third. He goes, No, we're gonna give 170. I go, bruh, you guys is killing me in a good way. Yeah. That we are just absolutely inundating these children who usually don't get much of anything. In fact, that's why they started Camp Agape because it was inspired when Roy had a double life sentence on his head, couldn't see his daughter, and the daughter had a mom. Of course, you know, the single mom syndrome, but you work hard in absence of the other parent, and then that kid doesn't really get to go on camps. Some of these kids never even left their side of the island to go over to the other side and serve that side. So thank you for supporting Camp Agape and the ministry with that, Pastor Bird, in addition to all that you do on the west side. Whoo, power up in this house. Power. So, uh, what I heard you say to come in on a wrap with how do families, especially Keiki, support um their beloved inmates who are coming out. Number one, you said it's just prayer when we get the kids to pray. Forgiveness was key. Like, I'm not gonna hold it against my parents. Like you saw your dad, unfortunately, raping your mom and beating her, but there's forgiveness to set you free. Because I heard that quote at Camp Agape where Pastor said, you know, forgiveness is setting a prisoner free and finding out that prisoner was you. And so for the children, it's setting their parent free because they're already doing a lot of time on the inside, but also getting into a good church community. And Agape Christian Church is every Saturday, and they have it with uh Brother Roy and his wife Charlotte Yamamoto ministering to a lot of ex-inmates with their whole staff of these guys used to all be in prison, now they're all pastors, like you're right, Pastor Clint and Pastor Vince, and so please come out, check out Camp Agape as well as Fishers of Men. You're gonna hear the straight blunt truth with Pastor Bird. That's what I like. Last question, boy, our time just flew by, Pastor Bird. I love you, brother. Thank you. Last question we ask all of our guests is what is aloha to you?
SPEAKER_03:Aloha is uh something not given, it's something earned.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:And what I'm saying is that when the people watch us as Christians, and we talked about that earlier, yes, sir. We can you can see uh uh the love in the law by the people's attitude and gratitude, and that's and that's coming from the heart. And um with with for me, the the spirit of Allah is is is uh something like the Bible says, God is love, right? That he gave his only begotten son. Yes for us, and that's that's my friend, that's our friend. That that the spirit of the law is the love of God. You cannot find that love with people, no, right? And and we talk about betrayal, right? You cannot be betrayed by a stranger because you don't love a stranger, but the people you love that betray you, oh, that hurts. Yes, and this is where love gotta come in, this is where the true Christian gotta forgive and let go and trust God. This is why people are incarcerated because they lost the spirit of Allah.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, Pastor, such a deep answer, and I'm so honored because of course your lame name, your name, Mahelona, and you're a Hawaiian, you've been on the west side and here in Hawaii all your life. You've seen so many. I feel like I get to ask some of the greats, brah. Um what is the ike, the knowledge behind what is aloha? And and and what I just heard, it's not a free pass, it's a hard choice you gotta make, especially when there's betrayal and you gotta choose forgiveness, choose to not be incarcerated and become tied to that so you become bitter, right? And start making some dumb choices. Who is your aloha hero? A person who lives true aloha, past or present?
SPEAKER_03:My sister was my mentor. My dad and my mom was pastors of the church before I took over. My sister Yvonne used to work for um Wine I Penicar, so Jay Amina's mom and dad. Yes, sir. I love the Amino Hana. Yeah, before there was arch of safety. And then my sister, my mentor, she was driving, she was married to uh her husband, and her husband was abusive, and then she was drive, uh she was driving boss, and then she was going through all kinds of stuff with my my brother, and but she you see, but um when you made a vow to God and to you, significant good and bad, rich and poor, you gotta remember what you said. You gotta keep your vow. Did you really mean it? That's that's very important. So my my sister, my brother-in-law to beat her up, she got a divorce, she was driving a bus, she met on someone guy and had uh had an affair with the guy, and then the conviction of God, because the Holy Spring will bring the conviction of your vows and words that you have made your commitment. So she brought the conviction, she quit the bush, she left, she left that affair with that someone guy, she went back to her abusive husband.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So my mom was telling me this. She was upstairs. My mom gave her the house that I'm living in now, okay, before she passed away. So my mom gave her the house, she was upstairs praying. She went back to the abusive relationship, she was praying, and when she was praying, my mom said, Your brother-in-law, and kick her on the back on her face, and and she went back to the abusive relationship, Don, and stayed. She kept her vows.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, good and bad, right, rich and for poor. Because that is the vow that we make before God in our family when you marry someone in riches and in poor, in sickness and in health, till death do us bad.
SPEAKER_03:That's my mentor. That's my hero.
SPEAKER_00:A living sacrifice. And again, Pastor Bird, brother, this is not an easy truth that you're speaking right now, but it is the truth.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And we said earlier it's walk the straight line. That's a straight line.
SPEAKER_02:Draw the line.
SPEAKER_00:And there's a lot of ways, uh as I know that people are watching right now, asking questions about well, what if it's an abusive marriage? What about this? What about that? What about that? And you know, nowadays there's a lot of conditions that people put on the Bible, right?
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But God has an unconditional love and an unconditional promise. And quite often there's also a scripture that promises us that when we are in a commitment to an unbeliever, I say not yet believer, because I want to speak hope there and speak promise. But when you're in a commitment to an unbeliever, they may get saved because of your sacrifice. Because you are the only Bible they're reading and the only church they walk into is you.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:And that was your sister eventually.
SPEAKER_03:My sister she holds her commitment. She holds her commitment. She stayed in that abusive relationship. You see, this is when you pray and you gotta hold to your prayer, you gotta take back your prayer. So she prayed. So after she passed away, after all the abuse and her commitment back to her husband, to God, first and foremost, she stayed focused. And um, she passed away. Then my brother-in-law had a relationship with Jesus. Finally, the prayers were answered.
SPEAKER_00:And there it is. There's the promise of the living God. That's the scripture I just quoted. And here you are telling me, in fact, true story, that was Yvonne and her husband. He came to Christ. Praise the living God. And Pastor Bird, if I may say that I would take that and even advance it into you and Pastor Lucy, your wife's lives, that you folks live a very hard sacrificial life. Of course, you always smiling, you always blessing people. But I know the people that you work with, we both know and love the ex-inmates who come to your house, and some of them two, three times, they're going back in, they come out, right? But you continue to love. Nanakouli to this day, the Y'annai Coast continues to be uh an area with a lot of spiritual challenges. I'm not gonna dress it up and put some earrings and makeup on it. I'm just gonna say it the way it is. It continues to be a place of great spiritual challenge, but it's our home, it's our ohana. And we never leave home. I ain't ever leaving my ohana, and you, sir, continue to contend for God's very best for these people, which is to bring Jesus into the hearts and the minds and the souls and the lives and the goodness of God into the living of this land. So thank you, sir, for living out your sister Yvonne's living sacrifice. It was it's a hard sacrifice. You taking your licks, you're taking a beating, but you just keep going. Just like that pink bunny rabbit. It takes a beating, but it just keeps going. And we're not laughing at the reality of what is abuse many times, but we are, in a sense, really saying, if it were not for the God of the impossible, saying, I am, I make all things possible. He is the great I am. I am possible. So, Pastor Bird Mahelona and his wife Lucy, who allowed you to come today. In fact, and this is kind of funny, last note, you're semi-retired, right, Bird? He's semi-retired, and his wife goes, Yeah, I know you like retire, but you can just go work and get one work out and get paid while you're working. That's one smart one right there. She's working today, you're here. Thank you both so much for your ministry, uh, faithfulness through many years. You cannot go into Waianae or the West Side until you pass them right there on the corner of Nana Coolie Avenue, Fishers of Men, Pastor Bird and Lucy Mahalona and their whole ohana. And if you're passing by, consider yourself adopted, hanai into the family of Fishers of Men. God bless you, sir, and I hope to have you back.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:I love you. Yeah, I love you. Aloha, everybody.