Episode 223: What's Brewing in Brussels!

French, Tahitian, Swahili, Dutch, and English are all spoken and sung in Brussels where mission is lived and shared in ways that are transforming lives. Kahealani Faatuarai Drollet and Jane (Zsa Zsa) Fauura share their story with host Robin Linkhart. Special feature at the end of the interview just for you. 

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Intro and Outro music used with permission:

“For Everyone Born,” Community of Christ Sings #285. Music © 2006 Brian Mann, admin. General Board of Global Ministries t/a GBGMusik, 458 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30308. copyright@umcmission.org

“The Trees of the Field,” Community of Christ Sings # 645, Music © 1975 Stuart Dauerman, Lillenas Publishing Company (admin. Music Services).

All music for this episode was performed by Dr. Jan Kraybill, and produced by Chad Godfrey.

NOTE: The series that make up the Project Zion Podcast explore the unique spiritual and theological gifts Community of Christ offers for today's world. Although Project Zion Podcast is a Ministry of Community of Christ. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those speaking and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Community of Christ.

Transcript

Intro Music: 0:16

[inaudible].

Josh Mangelson: 0:17

Welcome to the Project Zion Podcast. This podcast explores the unique spiritual and theological gifts community of Christ offers for today's world

Intro Music: 0:33

[inaudible].

Robin Linkhart: 0:33

Hello and welcome to another episode of Project Zion Podcast. This is your host Robin Linkhart and today we are bringing you another edition in our series, What's Brewing, where we explore how God is showing up in the neighborhood and people of faith are living out mission and transforming ways. Today we are here with Kahealani Faatuarai Drollet of French Polynesia and he is on assignment here in Brussels, Belgium. That is write projects I and podcast listeners. We are on location in Brussels, Belgium and because our travel plans matched up perfectly this week, we also have Jane Jane Fauura also from French Polynesia and we fondly call her Zsa Zsa She's visiting Kahealani and supporting the amazing mission taking place in Belgium. Welcome Kahealani Thank you. We are delighted to have you with us today. I want to take a little time to give each of you an opportunity to introduce yourself and share a little bit about you and then tell the story of how you came to be connected with Community of Christ. So we will start with Kahealani and listeners, I want to let you know that Jane speaks Tahitian and French and a little English. So we have our good friend and mission center, president of Western Europe here, Joey Williams, to help us with translations. So welcome Joey. Thank you, Merci. So Kahealani, just take it away. Tell us about you and how you came to be connected with Community of Christ.

Kahealani: 2:39

Yeah. So, hi everyone. I'm Kahealani or Super K to any eight years old. I knew the church in 2003, through my father who was baptized that year. And then I will journey with him in coming into Community of Christ and French Polynesia. And then I decided to be a part of this beautiful community in 2008 on my birthday, December nine. That was the first thought for me on that day to do, to be baptized in the church. And so I was baptized in Community of Christ January the fourth, 2009 in my beautiful congregation called Tiona. And then since that day I was active in the church and, I give my life for God in Community of Christ. And so many things happen since 2009 till today. And especially IYF 2009 was the Big Big Big event which changed my life forever and my faith.

Robin Linkhart: 4:14

So when you went to IYF, 2009 and that's, for our listeners, that International Youth Festival, that happens about every three years or so, the Spectacular that we have is every year. And those are usually connected. Did you go to SPEC as well?

Kahealani: 4:35

Yes, yes, yes, yes I did.

Robin Linkhart: 4:37

So you were already a member when you went to IYF?

Kahealani: 4:40

Yes, I was baptized in January, so IYF was in July. And so what's happening in that event at that time, brother David Schaal was a member of the first presidency. And during his message, something just throughout all my mind and my heart was just open to that. And the theme of that event was"One," and it was just huge, huge, huge. So it was very, and that was the big impact in my faith journey.

Robin Linkhart: 5:19

So the theme was"One," and that was O? N? E? One?

Kahealani: 5:23

Yes.

Robin Linkhart: 5:27

So tell us just a little bit about where you grew up and what your life was like before you got connected with Community of Christ.

Kahealani: 5:33

So I grew up in the Catholic and Protestant faith. All of my family. They were all Catholic or protestant, and I was Catholic, very active in the Catholic church. I was the real Catholic member. I prayed the rosary every day. I go to church every Sunday. A real Catholic mmeber. I went to the confessions with the priests every Wednesday to be able to take my communion on Sunday. Well, all of that stuff, and I don't know what's happening. When in 2015 I been to a young adult retreat because my dad was one of the young adult leaders of the congregation and he invited me to go with him and I don't know what's happened at weekend and it was a Pentecostal weekend. The activity was, so I don't know how to explain it. I have no words to explain, but it was maybe that who make me more questioning about who is this community, who, who is these people who would be a part of this amazing community. And also I remember I went to Tiona, one Sunday and it was communion and the person who who sat next to me was Mareva. She's now the apostle of French Polynesia. And before that, before communion, she invited me to be part of this table and I was just shocked, you know, as a Catholic member, Even, I'm Catholic, I cannot take my communion. Like then you're like, we have a process to take the communion. And for me it was just really, I'm not a member of the church, how can I be a part of this table? And there's one where she say, you're a child of God is all my goodness and just that have, you know, and many questions come to my mind. What is this community? Why are they doing what are doing? Why did you like this? Blah blah, blah. All of the things come to my mind and now I'm a part of this really fine Community in 2005. That was in 2005, right? That was in 2005.

Robin Linkhart: 7:58

So you went to this young adult retreat. You have the sense of being welcome to the communion table...

Kahealani: 8:04

Especially too, especially to see also the people like have a real family. You know, there was, the weekend was so full of love, full of joy, full of peace that I never felt that, you know, in, in my church, you know, and I don't know, it was just— for me, there's no words to explain that weekend because that was also the beginning of questioning myself to also think this decision to become a member of Community of Christ.

Robin Linkhart: 8:42

So we've kind of walked with you as you grew up. You were born and raised in French Polynesia and, a faithful Catholic, and you have this encounter at this young adult retreat and you start asking a lot of questions and end up walking with the church, fully engaged and being baptized and confirmed in January of 2009, you find yourself at IYF SPEC and David Schaal says something that just, wow, it just hits you big time.

Kahealani: 9:23

Oh yes. Oh yes. And after that, so many of these things coming at me like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, after that the mission center was asking me to become a youth minister for French Polynesia. And then, Ooh, so many— long story short, it was Wow! And now I'm in Brussels.

Robin Linkhart: 9:46

We know that you're an ordained minister and you've had at least a couple ordinations. So tell us about your first call to priesthood in Community of Christ.

Kahealani: 9:56

So my first call was a priest. And if I can, coming back to my story, when I was Catholic, I was studying to become, I was studying in seminary to become a priest in the Catholic church because for me it was a, that was my vocation to give my life for God when I was 12 in the Catholic church. But now I serve God in Community of Christ. Oh, amazing. Isn't it? So my first call was priest and for me it was really two years after my baptism, so it was really fast for me—was really fast, but it was easy to say, yes, I'm ready for it. So I served as a priest in my congregation. And then two years after I received a call, the call as the elder. I said, What? Really?!? Noooo." So you took a little bit more longer to give the right answer. And then three years after I received a call to the Seventy of the church, that takes more than one week. I will say one month or more than one month to give my, my answer to that call. So yeah, so many things, so many blessing, let's say. And also serving as a very young adult, active in my congregation and also in my mission center as a youth minister for four years,

Robin Linkhart: 11:57

Youth minister for four years and as a 70, the office of seventy, which is focused on mission and invitation and witnessing in French Polynesia. You were serving a larger area.

Kahealani: 12:12

Yes, I was traveling a lot. Every three months I was traveling in different islands to give classes or a youth conference. How amazing. Because even though we live in the same area, but the faith journey is so different, each islands and the young people–they are so different, you know, and how, how we can help them in, their faith journey, especially today because it's very challenging to interest young people to church. Well not just to church to God. Very challenging. So we, we did the best to make them also involved in the church, but also become a better person when they leave.

Robin Linkhart: 13:11

I think it's really important for our listeners to know that you did all that as a volunteer self-sustaining minister and we happen to know that you have, you had a great business. So tell us about your business, which supported you.

Speaker 6: 13:27

Great business. Yes. I really love what I do.

Kahealani: 13:32

So I'm a hula teacher. Hawaiian dance teacher, it's been now 12 years. I've done that and it is really helpful financially, just say financially and also helpful to pay my tithing to be a great good member to pay my tithing.

: 13:50

Yes,

Kahealani: 14:00

I started doing that when I was 15 years I was very young. Okay.

Robin Linkhart: 14:05

Hula teacher at 15.

Kahealani: 14:07

Yes. I left everything behind me, my school, my studies and then my family for a few month because they did not really agree with my decision o r you know, o f doing what I w ant t o do and what I love to do at that moment of my life of teaching Hula. Teaching my culture to people and also hula helped me in my ministry. So I more understand year after y ears that hula is also a way to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it's for me, it's a way to do my ministry and my mission as a full, learner of peace of Jesus Christ.

Robin Linkhart: 14:56

One thing I've seen in you Kahealani is you are a very serious, committed, deeply committed disciple, a follower of Jesus and you bubble with joy and it comes, I'm sure our listeners can hear that in your voice and your laughter that there is just this intrinsic joy that just flows out of you and through you and touches lots of people.

Kahealani: 15:22

Thank you. It is.

Robin Linkhart: 15:25

So here we are in Brussels, Belgium and you are far, far away from home. We want to hear the story of how you got here and what is happening here in Brussels. Belgium.

Kahealani: 15:37

So once again, IYF— once again, IYF for the last year, 2018 at I YF and after that we have SPEC. And I remember d uring SPEC I did the hula class and every day there's one a postle who was in my class every day. And I say, what? Why does the apostle come to my class? What is he doing there? And at the end of the week he come and a sked me, oh Kahaelani are you interested to go to to Brussels, to Belgium? And of course as a Seventy I s ay yes. Why not just go, you know, I didn't take that question seriously for me i t was, yeah, it was like a, okay, just a question. Not, you know, not really thinking that I will really go to Brussels. A nd t hen I remember one day, Apostle Richard sent me an email, you know, to go through that process. I said, Oh my goodness is really serious. He wasn't, it wasn't a joke. It is really something serious coming up. And I say, well, if that's God call, okay I will go, there was no reason for me to say no to that mission. It was the way, if I say, if I was saying no, for me it was saying no to that. And so for me there's no way to say no. So I say yes and it takes a month to give the right answer. But the answer was very easy also to take. But I know I will leave my family. And I will leave the people I love and also my business over there to do that. And I have no regrets because I also, my family, especially my mom, she's already always upset over me because I can't leave my hula business just to go to a church activity, you know, Once I close my studio for a week just to traveling and my mom and my family or always obsessing, you lost money, blah, blah, blah. But my answer is always that I know how much money I will lose, but I also know how many blessings I will receive and that's for me most important to receive more blessing than money. I don't, I don't say that money is not important, but that time of my life blessing is more important than receiving money. And that's the reason also, I say yes to that mission to come here because I know I will lose a lot of money and it's okay because I know how many lives, will be blessed and how many people we will have blessing me. So that's the reason also I say yes to that mission and yeah, this is God's call. So why not? You can go

Robin Linkhart: 19:02

A faithful disciple who says yes after yes after yes. And this last yes has been a really big yes. You packed up and you came to Brussels. When did you get here and how long have you been here?

Kahealani: 19:14

Oh, it's been already three months and I come here in May, in the middle of May with my dear, and close friend, t he president Joey Williams. I am very thankful for his support and his presence with me for the first few m onths

Robin Linkhart: 19:39

Just to mark the time because once this podcast posts, it's up forever. This is September 1, 2019 and Kahaelani has been here since May of 2019. Now, the really big question. I've been here a few days now and been privileged to be part of what's going on here and to be with the people. And without a doubt the spirit is moving in people's lives. We want to hear about that ministry, about what's happening here and what that experience is like for you and what you're doing to support that.

Kahealani: 20:24

Ooh. So first of all, It's a big change. You know, especially where I come from. A place that church is very strong in, you know, in, in faith it is very strong somewhere. And then you come to a place that you have to build something in different way. You have to discover spirit of— God's spirit— in different way. And sometimes if you're not very open to that, if you, if you just closed your, your heart or your mind, it will be a big shock. But if you're more open and, want to discover where God wants you to go, especially with those people who are, hungry for themessage of Community of Christ, just open your heart and go through it. So we have nice people here in Brussels. So, they are all Seekers here. They are all, friends of the church. They want to know more about Community of Christ. So what we do, we give classes about"Of Water and Spirit" the pre baptism classes. And, we did the, we do the best we can. But the first thing we do is give love to them and receive them as they are with the challenging life, with the difficulty also. But also the joy. So we've brought Elray and President Joey and we start giving classes every Saturday about the pre baptism of spirit and water. And every Sunday we doing worship—different types of worship. So we have a Bible study one Sunday, and yet, you have the type of worship, it's recreation and the other one is a real regular worship that you have, you know, worshp. And the last one is visiting families. We go out and doing the mission. So that's what we did today. We was visiting a family in Vervier. So really be able to be open and aware of where the Spirit is leading you to go— leading me to go—and just go and discover like as the mission prayer says: just risk something new everyday. So just be open to see—where does spirit we're living in today and are you ready to risk something and yes, just do it. You know, if you fall it's okay. But don't forget to stand up and continue your journey.

Robin Linkhart: 23:37

And the families that you work with seem to have risked something new too, because they come to Belgium from another country.

Kahealani: 23:45

Yes, other countries. Yeah. And it's, for me it was, you know,very interesting, because when he was saying Belgium, you just think of people who, who lived in and were raised in Belgium. But these families. They come from another country. So people call them the immigrants, right? Immigrant family. And they are so, they are so loving people, you know, they are all like us. They, there's no, there's no way to make them different to others. You know, everyone, they have challenges in their life where they all IQ, they are like million dollar like prison joy. They are like trash, you know, there's nothing, uh, different to others. So, um, yeah, it's challenging in both way for them but also for us. So how, how the message of Community of Christ can help them in that process of their life and what we can bring to them because we don't have money to give to them. The only thing we have is love is the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? Our beliefs, our mission initiatives, our enduring principles, our sacraments that's the only thing we can offer to, to this family and how they respond to that. It's just wonderful with sincerity, with humility, with excitement. And because all the time they come to the class or to the worship, they're so excited to be there. And even if there's just two or 20 or more than 20, it's just amazing time we spend together. And for me it's so, it's so nice to discover God through them because it's completely different to where they come from. You know? And that's why I say at the beginning, you need to be open to be really aware the spirit will using you to that mission here.

Robin Linkhart: 26:19

And do you have a couple language challenges? So not all the people are fluent in French, some are speaking Dutch, some are speaking Swaheli, some can speak a little English too.

Kahealani: 26:35

Yes, yes. But even if they don't really speak well in French, we have a way to communicate. So we have to just do our best or we have a good translator. So that's why I say, we are so glad to have President Joey with us so he can, you know, help us with translation, especially in Dutch,"hallo and Danke schon", that's all I can say for now.

Robin Linkhart: 27:08

I'm not sure how many members you have there are a lot of people that are engaged. I would say probably if everybody was here on the same day, you might have 40 or 50.

Kahealani: 27:21

So we have a mission team, Belgium mission team. It's not so official it is just a name we give for the regular people who come to the class, you know, and they are also the leaders of the congregation, the group over here and they were very involved. I mean, now we have two members, so we have Mithog who was baptized in Germany during a retreat and Donacien who was confirmed by Apostle Robin and President Joey. And there's more members coming, more disciples who want to be a part of this community. So you're ready to welcome them as they are, but also to be a part of this beautiful journey of building a place where people feel love here in Belgium.

Robin Linkhart: 28:35

Yeah. A real growing sense of belonging to one another and feeling enveloped and welcomed and loved by Community of Christ and seeing, what I'm hearing them say is they see they have a full place at the table and they can be their authentic selves and live out of their heritage and culture where they find themselves today and do a work. They're excited about peace and justice and how they can make the world a better place.

Kahealani: 29:11

I think for those people who come from a country, they have worries, you know, and these difficulties of life to hear the message of Community of Christ with a focus on peace. I think that makes them more involved in that. You know, and not all of them say why we didn't know about Community of Christ many years ago, but we can go back to our country and just give that message to people and you say, well, maybe it wasn't the right time before, but now is the time for you to hear that message. But also to live that here in Brussels and then maybe one day you will bring that message, that peace in your country. But starting on you first here where you live.

Robin Linkhart: 30:11

The other thing I want you to talk about, Kahealani is the joy of the singing together, the connection with the Community of Christ hymnal that has hymns that come from their origin nations and ties to their life in ways that are really exciting as the whole community sings together. How has that, like how did that come out and what does it feel like look like?

Kahealani: 30:46

We are very so blessed to have international hymnal, very plus, to have that hymnal who really help in that, in that ministry. We have so many language inside. Oh my goodness. So thank you to that team who worked so hard to make this hymnal available because it's very helpful in the process and the ministry of music, it's so amazing because it does speak to this family, like singing like the songsthat we can sing for 10, 15 minutes nonstop or even 20 minutes nonstop, you know, and just using our, hymanl here, you know, it's just amazing. Just amazing. But I also remember one day we did communion and Apostle Richard James was there, we sang the song"For Everyone Born" and I remember that guy, his name, Richard. He was so touched by the words really is it that what you guys believe that every one overcome on this table. It was just wonderful to hear his test demand money, you know. And so the minister of music here in[inaudible], it's just amazing. And so we've pressed enjoy. We try to every two times during the math to have a Sam's fun justice. So a way to share to him know that this the scenes we have but also the way to be open to other people who are interesting of peace for say our him. No you're so beautiful isn't it? The main stage they have inside. He just wonderful and people have to heard that song. A lot of the songs we have inside, cause the may say it's so nice is there is all about peace, love, joy and hope. So yeah.

Robin Linkhart: 32:58

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Zsa Zsa, we want to turn to you now. You and Kahealani are long time friends and ministers of mission and French Polynesia. And for the past nine days you have been fully immersed in this new ministry. We want to hear all about your experience. What it's been like for you and how you see the Holy spirit moving in the people.

Joey Williams: 33:30

(Translating from French) First of all, I'd just like to say hello everyone. So I got here nine days ago. And what I was thinking was, I'm going to go see my son, Kahealani. And when I heard that Joey was coming and when I heard that the apostle Robin Linkhart was coming, I was like, Oh, I want to stay. I said, Oh yeah, I remember. And I remember the tunnel we went through(laughter) I have to see her again. I'm also thankful to God And my children and my family that allowed me to come and travel here and also my husband who said I could come and I went to visit my sister who lives in Paris that I hadn't seen for 40 years. No, she'd seen her but not, hadn't visited her here And so when I arrived here in Brussels, as soon as I got off the train and I saw Kahealani, I m ean I dropped all my things and I just ran to him. I thought she was talking about her sister, but she was talking about Kahealani actually. And we cried. And we started laughing and we started screaming, And then we came here to this house. And I was asking myself questions, how is it going to be? What's it gonna be like, what am I, what am I going to discover here? And we started walking around. And there were these big buildings and things like that here in Brussels and we went to eat some ice cream right? And so I was thinking about Tahiti because they had vanilla ice cream. And then after we were walking around for a while, all of a sudden I realized, I'm in Brussels, I'm in Belgium. I'm here, I'm in Brussels. and I was filled with emotion to realize that I was here and it was like a film t hat just went really fast. And then Saturday that's when we had our class and where I met the leaders for the first time. So I was there a little bit shy, but when they walked in and it was, hello Zsa Zsa? Oh, here's our sister Zsa Zsa because Kahealani had already talked about me. And there were no walls that were separating us. It was as if we knew each other had known each other for a long time already. And we just started hiring and giving kisses. There was just something, a connection or in the exchange that we were having, it was as if we had been part of the same family for a long time. We were old friends and we laughed a lot.

Joey Williams : 38:48

A nd s o I was able to share a lot of things with them, for example, cooking

Joey Williams: 39:21

And there's this lady and her name Christine. And as soon as we met I said, hi, I'm Zsa Zsa. And she said, hi, I'm Christine. But there was a connection immediately.

Joey Williams : 39:43

And then they said, teach us what you know about cooking. Okay, I'm going to do that. And we made crepes, First we did it here.

Joey Williams: 40:10

And then we also made them Epa.

Joey Williams : 40:18

We were going to do it here, but then we were like, no, we'll do it over at Christine's house. And so we took all the ingredients there, And we prepared everything. We made these little balls out of.... and we and we put them to cook in the water and it's made out of flour and coconut milk and some water and you mix that up and make a little balls out of it. And you put it in a big casserole dish and you cook it. and I was with Martin who was also there, another one of the people that's in the group and we made them together and they really liked them. They really, really appreciated learning how to make those.

Joey Williams: 41:36

And it was funny because for me it's a really simple food to make. It's really nothing. But for them it was really neat because there was something different and new and it was something that when they eat it, it kind of fills them up. And I remember, uh, the father of the house, so it was over there. He, he took two of them and he said, these are for me, do not touch them and you put them in the refrigerator, And then of course I taught them that they could eat them in different ways with butter and sugar or they could use condensed milk or cocoa milk. I got coconut milk. There was this real spirit of what it means to live in a community, to live together, to share together and to share the love that each one had. I thought it was my job to bring that love to that situation But in fact it was them who had taught me about that love. And they also taught me about humility and simplicity. And at first I thought there would be a lot of differences among us, but in fact I figured out from that experience that we really are one and we can live it in unity with this diversity of language. We are really one unified our unity in diversity. Yeah. I'm so thankful that my son Kahealani and, and to Joey. And to you too Robin

Robin Linkhart: 43:58

It was so touching today. We all journeyed with the group here in Brussels who have been gathering with Community of Christ to Vervier, to bring ministry and share with a family there and extended family and new friends that came. We returned this evening and when we said goodbye at the train station, it was like friends who had known each other forever embracing each other. There were promises of seeing one another soon. It was a transforming experience. I know for Zsa Zsa and myself— and to be here and to be part of that and to realize, we came to share, but we take so much more with us. It was overflowing. Blessings. Zsa Zsa. did you grow up in the church? Tell us about how you came to community

Joey Williams: 45:02

I was born into the church and I have grandparents and their grandparents that were also members of the church. My great, great, great grandparents were the very first generation of church members in French Polynesia.

Robin Linkhart: 45:34

I did not know that about you. I just want you to know I've loved you to death, but in this moment I feel so honored to call you friend and to be connected together because I've heard the stories of the church planting in French Polynesia and it always warms my heart and I feel so deeply appreciative of the people of French Polynesia who have been a light to the world and shared the message of Community of Christ for generations. That's so special. I have a couple more questions before we end for a very special thing tonight. The first question is what tips do you have for people who want to engage in mission and the places where they live in serve? So Kahealani, I'm going to ask you to respond to that question.

Kahealani: 46:52

I think there are so many answers, but one who come to my mind right now is just to be you, just be you. You don't need to try to be another person. Be you and be ready to open your mind and your heart to love discovering something. Of course, sometimes we have an idea, we come with an idea, but when we go to a place just living and feeling that the moment, teh spirit of the moment, everything can change. So just, just be yourself, right? Be yourself and be aware of, of the power of the Holy Spirit. Open your heart, open your mindset down. Don't be stuck with ideas. Just be fluid go with the flow. Is it the right question? Right. A good answer?

Robin Linkhart: 48:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Kahealani: 48:04

Well there's no specific correct character, you know, to just, just being yourself. Of course, those for some people is easy to do. For someit's a challenging thing, but it's not impossible, you know? But just, just be yourself. Just be you. Just, yeah. Be you. Just be you, be you,

Robin Linkhart: 48:36

ZsA ZSA, this question is for you. And I'll give Kahealani an opportunity to answer it as well. Is there anything that you want to share that I didn't ask you about?

Joey Williams: 48:55

Yes I want to share something that's touched me profoundly. I was born in the church with my grandparents. I' ve s erved in 2014 I wanted my children to go to IYF in 2014 Because I had come to a place where I'd retired and so I went to Tahiti, the main Island to be with my children because they were going to school and to take care of them while they were going to school. Cause often children go to the main Island to go to high school, My last two children. And while we were there, we were talking about IYF And I met Kahealani.

Speaker 10: 50:27

I'd seen him before and you know, I knew I'd heard things about him and, and you know, I figured he was a good, guy. And I l ike to participate and help with youth fleeting and you know, w e're the youth classes and things like that and it was a Sunday, I think it was a Sunday. And he said, Zsa Zsa, do you want to come with me to a meeting that we're having for leaders? You don't have to do anything.

Joey Williams: 51:13

And I looked at him and I'm like, okay? Sure I want to do it, but I have no idea what it was going to be about, what was going to happen. And he's like, no, come, come, come. And there we go to the mission center office, the president was there? There are people there and all the staff of the mission center office. Were also there. And so I sat down, I felt really small in this group of people, staff. So Kailani introduced me and said, our sisters, she's going to be a part of this meeting today.

Joey Williams : 52:12

And I'm looking around and thinking, okay here I am, what's going to happen? I have no idea what's happening. And when we went outside, everything had been decided. They had already said what we were going to do in a meeting and I thought, okay, this is what we're going to do. So I come out and look at Kahealani and I'm like, all right, let's get to work. And he's like, yeah, let's do it. And from that thing on, we were always together.

Kahealani: 53:14

And it was, it was to be a leader f or IYF 2014 to be a part of ours.

Joey Williams : 53:24

And we've been together since that moment.

: 53:35

So this is how Kahealani became the son of your heart.

Joey Williams : 53:47

My mentor, my son and even my two last k ids, they say sometimes they're like, u h, your other son Kahealani, he's on the phone.

Joey Williams: 54:01

Often I come to church are looking at me and they're looking around and they go where's Kahealani. It's always like that.

Speaker 10: 54:42

So anytime I do, some time there's meetings I get called. It's Kahealani, are you doing anything yet? We're going to go to this meeting.

Joey Williams: 54:57

And the day you arrived, you know, he calls me and he says, come on, we're going to go get the apostle and take her around. I'm really thankful for that because he truly was a mentor to me. He taught me so many things. I don't really like being an up front person. And he would say, no, get up there, you need to be up front. And I'd say, no, no. And his mom has even like, I don't have any worries cause he's with you, Zsa Zsa. So maybe he would do a hula workshop at one of the other islands. And he'd call and be like, do you want to come with me? And I would say, sure, why not. For example, when we came back from IYF—Oh my gosh, did we have fun together? they even decided to go to another Island far away.

Robin Linkhart: 56:43

Well it sounds like an exciting adventure of mission and ministry and deep relationship.

Joey Williams : 56:51

Lots of adventure.

Robin Linkhart: 57:08

So, Kahaelani. How about you? Is there anything you want to say that I didn't ask you about?

Kahealani: 57:14

Well, I think my last message, my last thought was, is Community of Christ has changed my life forever. And I know that Community of Christ can chang the life of everyone who's ready to want to change. I don't know if it was ready to be a part of the journey. So, because I know that I just want people to hear the message. Because I know Communit of Christ can bring light where there is darkness, bring peace, where it is conflict. Because that's what's happened for me in my life. And this is my testimony of Community of Christ.

Robin Linkhart: 58:10

Thank you. Listeners, we have a really special treat for you on this podcast because the people gathered here, Joey and Zsa Zsa and Kahealani are going to sing for you"Tiona Nehe Nehe.' Tell the listeners what those words mean.

Kahealani: 58:32

So it means Zion the Beautiful. So in Tahiti and French Polynesia. When we sing that song, it just reminding us why we are here and the reason why we sing that song is to, to bring the kingdom of God here on earth. That Zion, the beautiful is coming. It's there where you are, where you live to make this place Zion the Beautiful.

Robin Linkhart: 59:07

All right. Take it away.

Kahealani: 59:11

Ready?

Speaker 12: 59:21

[ Singing]

Robin Linkhart: 1:02:25

Thank you so much for being with us today, Kahealani and Zsa Zsa. And thank you, Joey, for helping us with our translations. And of course a very special thanks to all of our listeners. If you would like to hear more stories about mission, check out our What's Brewing series. If you have questions for our guests, Kahealani or Jane Zsa Zsa, you can private message them on Facebook and we will put their names in the show notes so you can find them. If you would like to hear more about Community of Christ hymnal that we talked about on this podcast, you can check out the podcast interview we did with Joey Williams, who was one of the members on the hymnal project team. Thank you again. This is your host Robin Linkhart, and you are listening to Project Zion Podcast. Go out and make the world a better place. Bye bye.

Outro Music : 1:03:37

[inaudible].

Josh Mangelson: 1:03:39

Thanks for listening to Project Zion Podcast. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple podcast, Stitcher, or whatever podcast streaming service you use. And while you are there, give us a five star rating projects. Project Zion Podcast is sponsored by Latter-day Seeker ministries of Community of Christ. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are of those speaking and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Latter-day Seeker ministries or Community of Christ. The music has been graciously provided by Dave Heinze

Speaker 1: 1:04:35

[inaudible].