Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the land of flowers...

water... 

beauty... 

beach bums...

and the strange couple down the street.

Amazing Missionaries

Meet Rev. and Mrs. Hiram Bingham, first missionaries to Hawaii who arrived in 1820 from New England with the Congregational Church.  I read their story in a book of the diary he kept after returning to America after 21 years.  He preached the first message ever preached in Hawaii on April 23, 1820, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy."  They had several children, the whole family sleeping in one bedroom, with a study desk too.  You parents would be interested in knowing that they would send children back to America at age 7 for education.  She wrote that she cried for weeks before and after sending her children away.  

Hiram designed this church which is held in respect as the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii, after the New England design, but he never saw it completed.

In those twenty one years he reduced the Hawaiian language to writing, translated books, wrote and taught music theory (the Hawaiians had mostly chants), and translated the Scriptures into the Hawaiian language.  Oh, let me add, he led thousands to the Lord including kings, queens, and chiefs.  The stone above concludes, "From here amid loud wailings of hundreds of his flock, he sailed on August 3, 1840, to revisit his native land but never returning."  He left because of his wife's ill health and it took them 6 months and a few days to make the trip home to New England.  The church was dedicated the next year. 

The church was quarried from coral deposits several miles away in the Pacific and transported to the site.  There was a wedding going on when we visited, so we couldn't go inside. 
Hiram's legacy: Bingham's son, Hiram Bingham II, was also a missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. His daughter Lydia married the later Hawaiian missionary Titus Coan.

His grandson Hiram Bingham III was an explorer who discovered Machu Picchu and became a US Senator and Governor of Connecticut.

His great-grandson Hiram Bingham IV was the US Vice Consul in Marseilles, France during World War II who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. Another great-grandson, Jonathan Brewster Bingham, was a long-time Reform Democratic Congressman from The Bronx from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s.

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Hiram Bingham was named in his honor. It was hull number 1726. Bingham was caricatured as the character Reverend Abner Hale in James Michener's novel Hawaii.

Next to the church is a cemetery of many of the missionaries and families who died while evangelizing the islands.  Some familiar names Castle, Dole, and the stone below is of the first Hawaiian man ordained as a missionary, Rev. James Kekela.

In 1853, four years after his ordination, he went to the Marquesas Islands "where for 49 years he served as a pioneer missionary exercising remarkable influence against cannibalism and tribal warfare."  In 1864 he was recognized by President Abraham Lincoln for rescuing an American seaman from cannibals. 

After first living in grass huts, the Missionary Society built a New England style home on the east coast and then disassembled it, transporting it to Hawaii around Cape Horn.  Eventually a kitchen was added to the structure with a beehive oven.  Previous separate grass kitchens had burned down.   

Mrs. Bingham recorded that she baked 40 loaves of bread one day in the oven (with wheat shipped from the east coast which after six to nine months sea travel, had some additional protein, I'm sure). 

As we left the mission house tour, we looked down the street to see the top of a modern day sea going vessel parked in the Hawaiian Harbor.  What changes have occurred since those first missionaries arrived in 1820!

Blow Your Own Horn

Yesterday we took a walk by the Pearl Harbor Canal.  This was the same Canal that missionaries traveled into the actual harbor over a hundred fifty years ago.  As you can see, sequestration has meant that the lawns do not get their frequent cutting.  Good for the birds, but not for those who like a neat and trimmed look.

The kids brought bread to feed the fish while Tutu panicked about them getting too close to the edge and falling in.  Never fear, I was there to take pictures of whatever might have happened.

My circular polarized filter cut some of the glare so the fish could be seen.  It is like an aquarium  with much bigger fish.  Next time I will bring a whole loaf as the more bread was tossed the larger the fish seemed to appear.  

One long fish with a long snout and small mouth at the end is called the Cornet fish (below).

The blue-spotted cornetfish, Fistularia commersonii, is related to the trumpet fish, as are sea horses and pipe fish, all of which posses a flared, trumpet-like mouth. While the trumpetfish tends to be solitary, the cornetfish can be found alone or in small schools.  Distinguishing features include a whip-like extension at the end of the tail (called a caudal filament), and bluish dots along their pale bule-green bodies. They also grow larger than the trumpetfish, up to four or more feet.

As you can see, they liked whole wheat bread.  But when I read that they can get up to four feet in length, I was glad I didn't have to go retrieve a grandchild from the middle of them.

These beauties seem much less intimidating and they don't appear to have to "blow their own horn."

Life on an Island

Lest you think from my last blog that the weather or tourism was the attraction to Hawaii, I wanted you to see what the real attraction is.  Today we went for a walk by the Pearl Harbor Canal and I suggested a sibling photo.  It turned out much better than any I had planned since arriving here.

Here is an example of a staged photo shoot.  See what I mean?

We took some bread and fed the fish.  Interesting looking critters of brilliant colors.  This was one of the bigger ones slinking along with the yellow ones.

This "sign" greets the Navy personnel as they pass by Hickam AFB on the way to  Pearl Harbor.  Pearl Harbor and Hickam AFB are a joint base now with Pearl getting top billing.

I wish I had sound with this one as they bank with wheels down for their final approach very near our accommodations on base.  These F-22 Raptors are a constant entertainment for me.  Sequestration doesn't seem to have cut down their flying time.

Good Choice

Sometimes we make choices that upon reflection seem wise.  For example, this week we chose this...

For this...

And these...

We left this cold migrating traveler on a snowy branch...

For this Red-vented Bulbul feeding on a luxurious Royal Poinciana Blossom.

We traded sitting in an easy chair in front of the TV... 

For this and this.. 

Smart, huh?