Just Hours Until Curtain/Russia Update

Well, it's Friday afternoon, just hours before our first performance tonight. If you're not a KC'er or are not on the island of Maui, then I'll have you know that this is a big weekend. Our Christmas show is the biggest event of the year for our Music Ministry. Birthday of a King is easily one of our most popular shows.

This year we are all in it. Pono is one of the main school kids, Tehani is in the preshow in the little manger scene, and she is an animal. Above she is being sung "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to by our friend Tish. Even Wehilani is taking part as the baby prince! Our fearless director has been working feverishly trying to tie up loose ends and making progress since he came back from his time away from us.

Most of you that read this are likely on the mainland so you don't know everything that has transpired in the last few weeks. I'll briefly summarize...

Our leading lady, Minister Melissa was diagnosed with a medical condition around the first of the month that required emergency surgery. This surgery knocked her completely out of commission, which meant that someone needed to take her place in the show. Not only the Maui show, but the Russia show as well. So now Pua is going to Russia with me and Pono! We're excited to have her with us. Even if she is barging in on our guy bonding time! Just kidding honey!!



Not only is Minister Melissa not going, but neither is Pastor Chris. That means I'm leading the team to Russia! Double Yikes!!! Please pray for us. We need traveling safety, and Pua and I need wisdom on how to combine the two casts (one of which speaks only Russian) to produce one great show. So as soon as we get done with this show. We have to get ready for our trip to Russia. We have a ton of stuff to do, and not a lot of time.

Thankfully my mom sent me some warm clothes to take with us. And baby Wehilani was very excited to have them to lay on!
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Now playing: Chris Botti - First Noel
via FoxyTunes

Gettin' Ready for a Party!

Well, not a REAL party, but we're getting ready for the busiest time of the year for the church. I apologize (to my one reader) that I haven't posted in a while. I've been super busy with the task of getting ready for our Christmas production, "Birthday of a King". It's taken quite a life of it's own now that I'm involved in 3 different performances. I'm helping out a lot with the Maui show, which has a cast of about 150 people, so I've been getting the set built (with lots of help, of course) and trying to arrange rehearsals and general background prep stuff.

We're also doing this show on Lanai, where I'll be playing the role that I'm doing in Russia. Lanai is gonna be tough because the cast hasn't really had a chance to do much rehearsing together, and the show is next weekend! Jesus help us!


Our Russia preparations are about to get under way as well, which one of the main things we have to do is record the audio for the ENTIRE show so when we get over there we can lip sync to it. The reason we have to do this is because the frequencies our mics run on here don't jive with what they have available. It's also going to be much easier to do.

With all the stuff that's going on, we've been doing all of it together as a family, so we get to spend a lot of time together. The schedule is hectic, but it's fun. Most of the time we all take it in stride...

But sometimes we just have to crash when and where we can!

Check out my mad Photoshop Skills!

Check out my mad Photoshop skills!  Without even having Photoshop!!!  I used a free program called GIMP to do this. 

"There is no charge for awesomeness...or attractiveness." - Kung Fu Panda

Glendon Cleo Pierce 1921-2008

My Grandfather in Ellisville, Mississippi passed away on October 13, 2008. I was privileged to travel back to Mississippi to serve as a pallbearer in his funeral.

My Grandpa was a man of very few words, but had an extremely strong work ethic. Whenever we would visit my grandparents down south, my Grandfather would ALWAYS be gone from the house before we were even awake. He was a farmer by trade, raising chickens, cows, and vegetables in his prime. Eventually he retired from each as he got older, with the cows being the last to go when he turned 85.

He was an avid outdoorsman, always taking me and Lance fishing to the "Big Pond" to catch bream and perch. He tried to teach us how to clean them when we got back to the house, scaling, gutting and popping the heads off. But it never really suited us and he was always happy to take over.

In his later years he was diagnosed with both cancer and Alzheimer's and his health deteriorated to the point where he had to stay in the VA. We had one last visit with him last Thanksgiving, and even though he didn't recognize us, he was a delight to the kids and a joy to be around.

I will miss you Grandpa.

To Russia, With Love...

Greetings from Maui! I just wanted to let all of you know of a wonderful opportunity my son and I have been given this Christmas season for a missions trip. Pono and I will be traveling to Perm, Russia to perform in one of our Productions called "Birthday of a King". Our team will be leaving on December 27th, 2008 and returning January 9th, 2009.

The place we will be visiting is a city in Western Russia called Perm. Perm is one of the larger cities in Russia and is a major hub of the Russian culture of dance, art, and music for the people in the Ural Mountain region. The city is almost as large area wise as Moscow and St. Petersburg, with over a million people living within city limits.








The production we will be performing tells the story of a little town that every year celebrates the Birthday of the King. The whole town gets dressed up, makes gifts, bakes cakes, and throws a grand party. But they don't know really who the King is, or why they are celebrating his Birthday. It's a colorful and allegorical retelling of the story of Christmas, and if you've never seen it, you're missing out! We will be doing the show here on Maui as well. So if you're here, come see it!





We are truly believing God to use us through this production to impact the people of Perm. Dance and drama are an incredible part of the Russian culture, and even though we cannot speak Russian, they will understand the language of art. But in order to do so, we need your help. First of all, please consider supporting me and Pono financially. Each member of the cast, must raise $3500 to be able to go. And since both Pono and I are going, that doubles what we need to raise in the Agawa family. We would appreciate any help you are able to give, no matter how great or small. Secondly, we want to ask you to please pray that God will use us and our team while we are in Russia. Without prayer, we cannot have the impact that we so desperately desire to have.


If you would like to donate and receive tax deductible contribution credit, you can mail a check made out to King's Cathedral to:

King's Cathderal
777 Mokulele Highway
Kahului, HI 96732
Attn: Pastor Chris Davis

DO NOT write anything in the memo line or on the check. To specify that it is to be used toward Pono's or my trip, please attach a note saying that it is for me or Pono. I can also send you a addressed stamped envelope that will have instructions to do so if needs be.

If you do not want donation credit, you can send it to me directly, or to our special PayPal account under email address BoK2Russia2009@gmail.com. Please email me for our address if you would like to send it via mail.

Thank you for considering supporting Pono and I in our first ministry opportunity together. I am excited to share in Pono's first international trip and can't wait to see the great things that God will accomplish through us both. God Bless!


Here's a clip of the production form 2 years ago. Pono (with dyed blonde hair) played the little prince!

Exciting Things to Come!!

We are right at the beginning of one of our busiest times of the year. The first thing is our School of Worship is getting ready to start up for the Fall Semester in a little over 1 week. NOt only will I be taking classes, but surprisingly, I'll be teaching Theory I, which is basically just rhythms, notes and building chords. Most of the stuff I knew before taking the course last year, but stuff like the "Circle of Fifths" and chord building were brand new to me. I definitely need to bone up on my note reading as well!

Our School of Worship does an amazing job of preparing people for a ministry in music by training students in playing an instrument, singing, running sound, lights, directing productions, etc. Not only does it train you how to do it, it places you in the ministry to serve and apply what you've learned.

The next thing to look forward to is the County Fair at the beginning of October. The Fair around here is the big thing we in Maui look forward to. You know, carnival games, puking off rides, crowds, good music, and TONS of food.


Our addition to the food selection is Hawaiian Style Spareribs, Tempura Fried Ice Cream, Fried Cheese and Fried Zucchini. Nothing but the finest ingredients. I think even our zucchini is organic. Delicious AND nutritious! Most of the proceeds will go to the Music Ministry, or other ministries that sell presale tickets. Some of the profits will go towards something really exciting I will be involved in, but will tell you about at another time.


Our Youth Department (InterGeneration Ministries) will be doing a live show called "Hotter than Hell" that features many of our youth dancing and singing to past and present secular artists like Michael Jackson's Thriller, Usher, P.Diddy, Alicia Keys, and MANY more. It's a pretty awesome show that draws a great crowd for Halloween. And salvations come through it! The music ministry will be helping out in providing technical aspects of the show and some direction.


I know it's crazy to think about, but we are already getting preparing for our Christmas Production as well. This year we will be doing "Birthday of a King", which is an original production written by our very own Pastor Chris Davis. Birthday of a King is an allegorical story about the TRUE meaning of Christmas. Basically, everyone in the town is celebrating the birthday of the king, but the don't know why they do it or even who the king is. The story is then intertwined with the real story of the King and how He came to create the town and all of its creatures and save them from the Jester. I will be heavily involved in putting this one together, as well as playing one of the roles.

But for now, time to just focus on the weekend!!

Here's some recent pics of Wehilani. Only ones I could muster were on my phone.

Her hair sticks straight up after a bath!!


Wahhhh! I want my daddy!

I'm Such a Slacker!

So sorry that I haven't posted any pictures or any updates on our lives in the last couple of weeks. We've just basically been hanging out at home until this past weekend when we had our annual Prophetic Conference at church. Our Prophetic Conference is a time where our church gathers from all over the world to Maui and get re-energized, and refilled with the vision of the house and God's Glory. It was a wonderful time to see Pastors and staff that have left to go start other extensions. This was my first Prophetic Conference on staff, and it really felt like a family reunion. The church was electric and God moved in every service.

We had a great prophecy spoken over us that made Tehani say in amazement "How did he know all that stuff about us?" It was pretty hilarious. It mostly spoke on the kids future and how they were going to be when they get older. He spoke out all of our characteristics to a tee. It was like he had been living with us for the last 2 years!

It was a busy weekend, as I was in charge of putting worship bands and all aspects of worship together for the weekend. We had a total of 9 services that we had to have worship for, and I led 2 of them. Try coming up with song lists for all those!

Now I'm back to work at the County, and I've got a big backlog of things I gotta do. But I'm blessed to still have a job, especially in these trying times. Praise God.

I'll leave you with some recent pictures: