Maui Churches Won’t Be Beaten by Mysterious Wildfires
Mysterious Maui wildfires have drawn quick responses from churches and pastors, in spite of their own losses.
King’s Pentecostal church (KC), which lost its Lahaina chapel in the fires, is sheltering over 700 in their Kahului Cathedral’s parking lot and auditorium.
Among others, King’s is working with a coalition of Christian organisations, including Franklin Graham’s Sarmatian’s Purse, to support Lahaina’s 12,000+ residents, Maui Now reported.
Our @SamaritansPurse team was busy building and weighing loads today that will fly on our DC8 cargo plane this Tuesday. These supplies are bound for the devastating fires in Hawaii. Please continue to pray for the first responders there and the local churches. #Hawaiifire #prayer pic.twitter.com/UwofmQcAYT
— Edward Graham (@EdwardG1911) August 13, 2023
150 volunteers from across Hawai’i are turning up at the church to serve wildfire victims on a daily basis.
Offering up thanks for supporters on their Facebook page, KC wrote,
‘Maui Strong! Our church and Maui Community rekindle hope together […] Amidst the aftermath of destruction, our shelter and community stands strong’.
Resilient
Senior Pastor James Marocco said in an August 4 video, “Much of Lahaina Town’s been burned, and even our own church” went under.
“But, it’s not buildings that are important. Those are wonderful things; it’s the people. They’ve been displaced. Families have lost their homes.”
“So, as God’s people, we are deeply concerned. Last night we became a refuge for over 200, that came to the church with no place to go,” he added.
Staff, he said, were “up most of the night, helping feed, and house as many as possible.”
One of those staff members told Marocco,
“We may have lost our home – lost everything – but we’re here, and we’re thankful.”
Quoting Psalm 41, the King’s pastor then urged people to pray.
“The greatest need right now if for people to turn to the Lord. He is our refuge, and ever-present help in times of need.”
Historic Maria Lanakila Catholic Church is reported to have been the only church building to survive the fires.
Of those lost was the 200-year-old Waiola (Living Water) church.
‘Founded by Queen Keopuolani’, the church building sat next to ‘the final resting place for early members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.’
An official FB statement announced the loss,
‘Waiola Church has faced many obstacles such as this one, and like all the others, we face the reality of this loss as a community in Christ.’
Defiant, a spokeswoman for the congregation, said the church has been hit before and has built back again.
“This church, this congregation, has a resiliency unlike any other. That’s why I know we will rebuild and be better than ever.”
Devastation
Lahaina is also author and Harvest pastor Greg Laurie’s “second home.”
A large number of their Harvest’s Lahaina congregation were affected by the yet-to-be-explained mysterious blaze, with Laurie saying the death toll could easily climb to over 1,000.
He reshared a CBN video report, which shows Lahaina before 80% of it was obliterated, taken ‘only days before the blaze.’
A bewildered Laurie reasserted Harvest’s commitment to ‘helping people in the name of Christ.’
It’s hard to believe that this story, done by @CBNNews ran only days before these horrific fires destroyed Lahaina and many lives were lost.
Our Church, @KumulaniChapel will be there to help people in the name of Jesus Christ!
To help, go to https://t.co/P7HTTvsQKP pic.twitter.com/qN6v5JHf3j— Greg Laurie (@greglaurie) August 11, 2023
The Jesus Revolution pastor told Newsmax, “We’re working hard on assessing the situation so we can work out how best to reach out and help the people who need it.”
According to Laurie, most of the early 20th houses in the coastal Hawaiian resort town were made of wood, creating the perfect “tinderbox.”
Puzzling
Although legacy media hyped up the cause of the fire as “fossil fuel-induced climate change,” they did acknowledge that over 85% of US wildfires are caused by humans.
Reuters said that as of late Thursday, 80% of the Lahaina fire in Maui was contained.
Contra to the “catastrophic climate change” narrative, social media speculation has been rife, with many suggesting the fire was deliberately lit to force people from their homes.
Lahaina’s residents were living on a real estate gold mine.
Locals, one netizen claimed, have been holding out against land developers for as long as he can remember.
Another popular claim is that Maui was the target of an ‘energy weapon.”
The wildfires are alleged to be motivated by the World Economic Forum, which might be looking at replacing the old town with a “you will own nothing and be happy” “smart city”.
As plausible as these might be given the political landscape, Trending Politics cautioned, while there are ‘unsettling coincidences, there appears to be no substantive evidence to back up the theories.’
Pouring more water on the theories, wildfires haven’t just affected Maui.
They’re being contained on the “big island” as well.
Fuelling tensions, Joe Biden’s response to the disaster is being viewed as sub-par.
“Thoughts and prayers,” offered before a speech, were accompanied by a formal woke White House press release allocating funding to individuals in distress.
The 2020 Democrat Presidential candidate is on holiday in Delaware.
When asked by Bloomberg journalist Justin Sink about the mounting deaths in Lahaina, the candidate-in-chief said, “No comment.”
___
Photo by Jess Loiterton.
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Yes, the “Climate Change” mantra was highlighted in the main news reports I saw, but also, almost as an aside (as though it were merely incidental), the fact that the island is covered by invasive non native grasses.
Perhaps our TV networks aren’t close enough to get the full story, but even the NY Times reported it, and the details give credibility to the possibility that it was deliberate, reporting that there were similar fires there in 2018:
“After West Maui was hit in 2018 by an earlier round of fires that destroyed 21 homes, Clay Trauernicht, one of Hawaii’s most prominent wildfire experts, warned in a letter then to the Maui News that the island was facing a hazard it had the potential to do something about. “The fuels — all that grass — is the one thing that we can directly change to reduce fire risk,” he wrote.
Fast forward to 2023, and Mr. Trauernicht, a specialist in wildland fire science and management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said the deadly Maui blaze has shown clearly how nonnative grasses — many of them on former plantation lands that have been left substantially unmanaged by large corporate landowners — can cause what might be an otherwise manageable fire to balloon in size.”
So, those corporates who left those lands unmanaged are at least culpable, even if there was no collusion or intent.