"Let us REJOICE!!!!!"....remembering Benny Gapasen

I recently attended a memorial service that Rev. Parker had the opportunity to conduct. His openning sermon for this service was "Let us REJOICE!!!... Let us rejoice this day in honour of a man who brought so much love, life and laughter to so many people....can I get an Amen". I was probably about 7 years old when my "Uncle Benny" first came to Honolulu. My parents Vestre and Charing who lived in Waipahu heard the news that Benny wanted to start a life, and my parents helped him by giving an opportunity to start that life. Soon with hard work and delegence he was able to bring his wife Mary from the Philippines to be by his side, and within a short time their daughter May was born.


A carpenter with over 30 years experience under his belt, Benny created and molded his family and his life with his hands. He has made many friends outside of the industry and even more throughout the industry along the way. Rev. Parker couldn't make it any simpler for us to understand. "REJOICE!!! To know that we had the chance to know Benny, to love him just the way he is, and to remember his laughter and his smiling face, for he was a simple man. REJOICE!!! That he is in a better place, and he's there with the greatest carpenter we could ever know."

Ka'ena and Rev.Elias Parker

In the past couple weeks we have been in around the Waianae coast visiting family for evening prayers. I had ever so longed a hike with the family then Rev. Parker decided that today would be a good day for a new challenge.


As salty Ka'ena waters are bounty full of hawaiian sea salt, Rev.Parker gently scrapes the shorline rocks where the salty waves sit and rest under the heat of Ka'ena and crystalize to hawaiian sea salt.

Ka‘ena Point, the westernmost point on Oahu, is the
site of one of the last intact dune ecosystems in the main
Hawaiian Islands. Here beyond the end of the busy roads
of Oahu, is an area known since the ancient times as
leina a ka‘uhane, the “leaping place of souls,” where the
spirits of the recently dead could be reunited with their
ancestors. Today, you can walk there among the living;
Hawaiian plants and animals that have made the rugged
ancient shoreline their home for thousands of years.

Ka' ena Point Hike and Rev.Elias Parker

Kahu getting water to cool our bodies with Kaena's salty water.



Just around the bend lays Kaena Point, and we've come to a corroided road. Looking along the path way Kahu is concerened with the women and children along the hike. Nothing is impossible in a possitive attitude. We continue with the hike.


Reaching to the tip of the point we have come to a long wait to see the view.




Finally at the point of Ka'ena where waters meet. A journey home for Rev. Parker, and he has seen the old railroad tracks from his great grandfather a conductor from the old OR&L "Oahu Railroad & Land", rounding from Waipahu to Ewa Beach around Kaena point to Haleiwa. Known as "The In-between", Kaena Point, made it's name for spirits to leap off to eternal life. Scholars would see it as Oahu and Kauai channel waters, for others who understand the Hawaiian legends call it Leina Kauhane means "Leaping souls", Leina o'kaena, is the name of the place where the spirits leap, thus the in-between.

Happy to see such panoramic views of the pacific ocean, waves crashing against the a'a, and the dry grass surrounding the mountains, Ka'ena means "The heat", is why we call the hottest place on oahu. Along the way we've encountered how we endure our obstacles and challenges, how strong our will to stay along the path and back.

Angel