Some people might say, however, that my influence on Sharon was not as positive.  When she first arrived at the UH in the days when mini-skirts were in, Sharon's dresses were unfashionably too long.  Her hair was long and plain, and she wore no make-up.  So there I was, the Makeover Queen, and I helped Sharon become more modern.  She hemmed all her dresses up above the knees, cut her hair short in a trendy bob, and I taught her how to use make-up.  It was fun watching the amazing transformation.
 
     Sharon was an accomplished pianist and often accompanied me when I sang at Kalihi Union Church.  We also enjoyed lunches at Mabuhay Cafe in downtown Honolulu on those occasions when she was homesick for Filipino food.  We had many happy memories together.
 
     Over the years, Sharon and I lost touch with each other.  So when Randy and I went to the Philippines in March, I asked Randy to see if he could find Sharon through Google on the internet.  All I knew was her maiden name, that she was from Iloilo City and was a graduate of Central Philippines University, an American Baptist university.  Randy googled her information and many links came up about Sharon Joy Ruiz Duremdes.  I can't believe how easy it was to find her!  I was because Sharon had become such a distinguished Christian women's leader in the Philippines.
 
     I tried to call Sharon at the office number found online, but her secretary told me that Sharon had retired but was staying on to finish up a project in a few months.  Unfortunately she was in Iloilo City and was due to return to Manila (where I was stayin) the night before I was to leave and return to Hawaii.  There was a window of a few hours for us to meet, but because of transportation challenges and Sharon's busy schedule, we were only able to talk on the telephone.
 
     We were so happy that we had both grown in the Lord and were serving Him in full-time ministry.  I told her, "I remember you had a boyfriend named Nery - did you end up marrying him?"  She said, "yes, at that time he was a law student; now he is a judge.  We have two daughters of our own and one adopted daughter who is in the fifth grade."  Sharon went on to explain that after she finished with her project, she was going to teach at Central Philippines Seminary.  In response, I told her about my music ministry and my family. 
 
     Sharon said, "thank you for coming to minister to my people in the Philippines; I will try to come to visit you in Hawaii someday soon."
 
     My telephone reunion with Sharon made me remember how God has taken care of my Christian growth over th eyears.  I had just become a Christian when I met Sharon, and she was such a wonderful example to me.  She was just one of many angels that God sent to help me throughout my life.  Now that I am 60 years old, I look back and thank God for all the people that have helped me in my Christian walk.  And I look forward to the day when Sharon and I can meet face to face - either here in Hawaii or on my next mission to the Philippines.
 
     Sorry I don't have a picture of my dear friend, but I will take one when we meet again and share it with you sometime in the future.
 
     During our eleven days in the Philippines, we traveled with a team of ten - five musicians and dancers, and five friends friends from the Southern Baptist convention.  We performed thirty concerts.  We sang at a rural school in Bacolod where the parents of the children were poor farmers and plantation workers.  Five hundred students stood in the rain for an hour watching us perform - there was no school auditoium; we sang on the sidewalk under roof while the students stood in the schoolyard.
 
     We also sang at two private Catholic school where I sang "Ave Maria" among our many songs.  We performed at Rotary Club meetings, government offices for politicans and governors, hospitals and orphanages.  What a blessing it was to be able to share the Gospel openly wherever we went.
 
     At a large evangelistic meeting of five hundred held in a dumpsite in Patayas near Manila, we performed our Hawaiian music with our hula team dancing, then gave testimonies and sang Christian songs.  A local evangelist then gave a message in the Filipino dialect of the people.  When the evangelist gave the invitation, over two hundred children and adults came forward to receive Christ.
 
     Through the generous donations from the Rotary Clubs and the Shiraki Foundation, our team host Stanley Togikawa was able to coordinate the giving of 280 wheelchairs, 16 dialysis machines, a birthing bed, gurneys and a 40 cubic foot shipping container full of medical supplies to a hospital in Bacolod.  Other boxes of donated sheets, towels and clothing were sent to churches to distribute to the slum areas.
 
     We praise and thank God for the opportunity to share God's blessings with the people of the Philippines.


A MEMORABLE CRUISE
 
     One of the most exhilarating experiences ever described to us is the inter-island cruise aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line's ship, Pride of America:  all-you-can-eat buffets throughout the day, startling vistas of the islands as seen from out-at-sea vantage points, shipboard activities from morning till midnight, total relaxation and contented bliss for those who choose the laze the hours away. 
 
     But the experience had never afforded itself to the Hongos; for one thing the cost was prohibitive, although we were told that savvy online hunters could find the occasional bargain-basement fare if they were persistent enough.  For another, we are always intent on spending our days singing and ministering the Word of God in some relevant way so a vacation like a ship's cruise just seem a little too luxurious and extravagant.
 
     Well, praise God that He is a God of luxury and extravagance!  Thanks to some dear friends from the Wailuku Door of Faith, we recently saild on the Pride of America and had an unforgettable week on the high seas - or at least on the inter-island water channels that connect our Hawaiian Islands.
 
     Pastor Barbara Tengan contacted us a year ago and invited us to be a part of a cruise she was planning for her classmates from Emmanuel College, a Pentecostal Holiness school in Fair Springs, Georgia in the northeastern part of the state.  Pastor Barbara asked that we conduct seminars on the Christian heritage in Hawaii - how God brought the Gospel to our islands through servants like Henry Opukaha'ia and the first missionaries who landed in Kailua-Kona in 1820.  Our other duties were to lead priase and worship in morning and evening devotion times.  What a perfect way to blend ministry with a vacation time.  "Yes, Pastor Barbara, the Hongos are on board!" (pun intended) was our reply after a very brief season of prayer (two seconds) on whether or not to accept.
 
     The week set for our cruise was April 5 to 12 and we looked forward to it with great anticipation and delight.  There were about 50 people in our group, amidst the thousand others on the ship; most of our fellow travelers were from Georgia, North Carolina and Tennesses with a handful from Pastor Barbara's home church.  It was special meeting and forming a bond with everyone.  For most, like ourselves, it was a first-time cruise experience.  And how we did enjoy ourselves:  getting accustomed to the massive ship, enjoying our stateroom with lanai overlooking the boundain main, eating delicious meals in beautiful restaurants, enjoying movies and live entertainment programs about the ship, stopping at Kailua-Kona, Kahului and Nawiliwili Harbor and going ashore to "play tourist," viewing the majestic shoreline of the Na Pali Coast and the dramatic late evening display of red lava-flow against jet-black coastline off the southern coast of the Big Island.  Above all, what a blessing to praise the Lord with our brothers and sisters and to share how God brought His message of redemption and salvation to the people of our islands.
 
     It was great to prepare for the Christian heritage seminars and review the contributions of Henry Opukaha'ia, a young man from Kealakekua in whose heart God planted a desire for something beyond his life in Hawaii.  Henry boarded a ship and befriended the captain who introduced Henry to life in the New England area.  Eventually, Henry came to know the Lord and was a student at Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut.  Desiring above all things to return to the islands and share the Gospel with the people here, Henry did not live to see that dream come to be.  He died of typhus fever at the age of 26 in New England.  But his life and testimony were inspiration for the first mission team of seven couples from the American Board of Foreign Missions, the team that first landed in Kona in 1820.  Through their efforts, God brought His word and His truth to the islands so that succeeding generations of Hawaiian people until this present day could come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.  What a marvelous plan God brought to fulfillment through the life of the young Hawaiian, Henry Opukaha'ia.
 
     It was also inspiring to re-read the testimony of Hawaiian leaders like King Kamehameha III who uttered the famous phrase, "ua mau ke 'ea o ka aina i ka pono," that has become our state motto:  The Life of The Lands Is Perpetuated In Righteousness.  The king was a believer; the righteousness he referred to was of God. 
 
     There was also Queen Kapiolani who defied the locals who worshipped Pele, the fire goddess, by standing before the pit at Halema'uma'u, offering a prayer to Jehovah God, and breaking and throwing the branches of the thought-to-be-holy ohelo berries into the volcanic cauldron.
 
     And who can forget Titus Coan?  A preacher from Connecticut, Coan arrived in Hilo in 1835 to be the minister at Haili Church.  Through Coan, God brought about the Great Awakening, a time of unprecedented revival in the islands that matched God's work anywhere in the world.  Here are some statistics: 
     15,000 - those who attended church on one Sunday
       5,244 - those who joined the church in one year
       1,705 - those baptized on one Sunday
       2,400 - those who sat down to Communion
     11,906 - those who came to the Lord under Coan's ministry
 
How we pray for that kind of revival to fall on our islands again.  It happened once, it can happen again.
 
     What the cruise did for us - apart from giving a fun and relaxing week - was remind us of the great value in the work we are doing.  God's Word came to these islands through men and women who were committed to proclaiming the Good News.  We are doing the same through Christian Vision and with your help we will continue to share the message that was shared by Rev. Hiram Bingham in the first sermon held shortly after the missionaries' arrival.  The message was based on Luke 2: 10-11:
           "Behold I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all people;
            unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord."