Island of Oahu

The first Common Grace partnership between a public elementary school and a neighborhood church was created in 2003 in Kaimuki. More than a dozen “Aunties” and “Uncles” from Kaimuki Christian Church went to meet with boys and girls at Queen Lydia Liliu’okalani Elementary School.

Since that first experiment with weekly friendship/mentoring on campus, more than 40 partnerships have been formed on the island of Oahu. Kaimuki, in the Eastern part of Honolulu, became the nucleus. Most of the schools in the Kaimuki High School complex now enjoy Common Grace. The next area to develop partnerships was Aiea, where Jay Jarman had been a roving storyteller in all the public schools: Pearlridge El. w/ New Wine Assembly of God, Aiea El. w/ Aiea United Methodist Church, Alvah Scott El. w/ Aiea Seventh Day Adventist, Waimalu El. w/ Calvary Chapel – Komo Mai, and Gustav Webling El. w/ Saint Elisabeth Catholic Parish.   

(I could give you all 43 school and church names if I just pull out some lists but these Aiea partnerships are vivid in my mind since I live in Aiea and have been hands-on with one --- Jay)

The most joyful thing about the growing number of school/church relationships is this --- more and more kids are being befriended. Somebody calculated that, by the end of this school year, we will have helped our 1000th lonely child!