Imailkalani

Malachi 3:6-12

I want to tell you a story this morning, a true story about a miracle that has taken place in my life over the last year and a half, a miracle that shows the truth of this morning’s scripture which tells us that God will open the floodgates of heaven’s blessings, sometimes in unusual ways and at unexpected times when we are willing to believe. 

As I told you a couple of weeks ago, Nancy, the kids and I were incredibly blessed with the gift of a 2 week trip to Hawaii summer before last.   As some of you might know, about 5 years ago, I started playing the ukulele, and for my birthday that summer, Nancy and my mom went together to buy me a great little Applause brand electric/ acoustic uke, that I promptly named “Stitch” after the character in the Disney movie that was so popular that summer, a movie that featured 2 of my favorite things, Hawaii, and Elvis music.

And so, when I found that we were going to Hawaii, one of the things that I most looked forward to was the opportunity to buy a real Hawaiian ukulele, made by real Hawaiians out of real Hawaiian koa wood.  I wanted a 6 string Hawaiian Uke.

For the first week or so that we were there I asked around as to where I could find the best quality and price, and finally was told by one of my buddy Lee’s friends at church that the place to go was the KoAloha ukulele factory.  KoAloha, he said was locally and family owned and better yet, they were Christians, and good people to do business with.

So Lee and I looked up the address and on our next to last day in Hawaii, we wound our way deep into the heart of an industrial park where we found a small sign outside of an iron barred door that read KoAloha.  The door appeared to be locked and closed, but I tried the handle anyway and to my surprise, the door opened.  And as it turned out, I wasn’t the only one surprised as I entered the room to find about a dozen Hawaiian folks sitting around a large table eating their lunch.  Feeling awkward and embarrassed at clearly walking in on these folks at a point where they were not looking for visitors, I tried to bread the ice by saying, “Hi, I was told that if a Baptist minister came all the way from  Connecticut to buy a ukulele, this was the place to go.”   Nothing.  Not a smile, just silent eating.  Momentarily a fellow stood up at the other end of the room and introduced himself as Allen, the business manager, and owner’s son and explained to me that they did not sell ukuleles there, they only built them.  If I wanted to buy one, I could tell him what I wanted and when one was built, if I would leave him my contact information he would let me know where it was being shipped, I could buy it from them.

I shot Lee a look that sort of said, “OKAYYYY” as in “Is this awkward, or what?  Seeing our discomfort, Allen said to a kid named Ben, “Why don’t you show these young men around.”    So Ben took us back into the factory where we began to hear the story of the owner and founder, a man named Alvin Okami, also know as “Papa KoAloha” who had received a vision from God to build ukuleles.  And so with no formal training in wood working or machining.  He started making ukes.  And now his company is the leading ukulele manufacturing company in the world.

As we came out of the factory Alvin’s older brother who was helping out that day insisted that I play the limited edition ukulele that he had made for him, and when I asked how much a Uke like this would cost if I should decide to order one, I was told $1,500.  Now I was sure that it was time to go.  And so I began to make my apologies and say good bye when the brother suggested that we stay.  I started talking about last day on the island, wives and kids back at the hotel…..and he simply said, “You need to do what you feel is right, but if I were you, I’d stay.”  After hearing so much about this amazing guy who receives visions from God, Lee and I decided it might well be worth the wait.  Little did we know.

Within 10 minutes or so Alvin and his wife Pat arrived, and he was introduced to this crazy minister from Connecticut and we begin to talk about God, church and ukuleles.  He then opened the ukulele case that he was carrying and pulled out a well worn ukulele which he stuck in my hands, saying, here, this is #1, I want you to play it.   This was the first Ukulele that he ever made and he wanted me to play it.  This was an honor that I didn’t deserve.   For those of you who know anything about guitars, this was like Les Paul asking me to play his first electric guitar.  I wasn’t worthy. 

We continued talking and I continued playing and somewhere in the midst of the conversation, I mentioned that I had really come looking for a 6 string tenor, and Alvin stopped, looked me in the eye and said, “Really.”  He then unzipped the back side of his 2 sided Ukulele case and pulled out a beautiful 6 string tenor ukulele that had just been designed by his son Paul.  And as I began strumming on this beautiful instrument, Alvin said to me, “Do you know why I was late coming into work today?  I have been at the hospital playing for sister who died of cancer this morning.”    I, of course immediately shifted into pastoral mode and as I continued strumming that beautiful little work of art I began talking about faith and eternity and the certainty we had that his sister had gone on to receive her eternal reward that morning.  Tears were shed, prayers were prayed, hymns were sung, and then I knew that it was time to go.

It was our last day in Hawaii, the girls were back at the hotel, and there were no ukuleles here for me to buy.  So, considering the improbable possibility of me actually ordering one of these beautiful, but expensive instruments, I said to Alvin.  “So you know, if I go back to the hotel and tell my wife that I have ordered a ukulele, she’s not going to ask me how many strings it has or what kind of wood it’s make out of, she’s going to ask me, “How much does it cost?”  

Alvin grew quiet and looked over at his wife Pat and said, “You know what I’m going to say, don’t you?”  She just closed her eyes and nodded her head.  Alvin continued, “This morning I was at the hospital with my sister who has gone on to heaven to be with God, and also this morning God has sent us the gift of you.  You came here today to be with us and to ease the pain of my sister’s loss.  Therefore today, I am going to begin building for you a 6 string tenor.”   I insisted that this was too generous, that he had to let me pay him something, but he wouldn’t hear of it, saying, “God sent you as a gift to us, and you have to receive this gift from us in return.” 

About that time this older guy who had been sitting in the corner saying nothing the whole time stood up and everyone turned to look at him.  It was clear that he didn’t say much, but when he did, it was well worth listening to.  He walked across the room and up to me, and said, “ I had a vision from God that there was a reason why I was supposed to be here today.  At first I thought that maybe it for the free lunch, but then Pastor Greg showed up.  And now I know that I was supposed to be here for this beautiful gift from God.” 

As we prepared to leave Alvin said to me, “I know that the Bible says that we are not supposed to be anxious about anything, but I do hope that you will be anxious.”  And indeed I have been.  For the past year and a half Pat and I have been exchanging prayer requests and e-mails until about 3 weeks ago, the day that I shared the sermon with you about Hawaii and dreamed that night about my new ukulele.  That day I received an e mail from Pat saying that my custom made uke was ready to ship, but just to make sure, she wanted to confirm that the model I wanted was the “Imakailani.”   I told her that I didn’t know what an Imaikalani was, but that the one that Alvin had promised was the 6 string model with the electric acoustic pick up. 

I also told her that I have a tradition of naming all my instruments and that as I thought of what my beautiful new baby should be named, I decided that because it is truly a gift given me by God, it should be named “Gift from God,” And because it came from Hawaii, it would be neat to use the Hawaiian translation.  So I asked Pat, how do you say, “Gift from God” in Hawaiian?  Her answer?  You got it the Hawaiian word for “Gift from God” is “Imaikalani.”  The model name for the ukulele that I thought I would name gift from God was already named gift from God. 

And so here she is, my beautiful gift from God.  Imakailani, or Mike as I call her.  Oh, and by the way, when I called a guy in Virginia to order a case to carry her in, he of course, sent it to me for free.

Now, why do I tell you all this?  Because I want to remind you that sometimes in this world we can become jaded and think that no one ever does anything nice for someone else out of the kindness of their heart.  I tell you because sometimes we are temped to disbelieve that God really will provide for us, and provide lavishly and generously if we will just trust and believe in God’s goodness.  And my prayer is that my little gift from God might remind you of the generosity of God’s heart and the reliability of God’s promises.

And so, as we conclude our stewardship emphasis, and prepare for God’s gift of Christ at Christmas, I remind you of  God’s challenge in the book of Micah to trust him and see if He won’t open the gates of heaven’s blessings if we will trust and obey.  And I hope that from now on, anytime you question God’s promise, you will remember Imaikalani, my little gift from God and believe that God does and will provide….generously, and always.
Amen.