East Hawaii Ministerial Association Leadership

5 January 1993

Dear Colleague in Christ,

     Happy New Year! I am Mark Blair, pastor of the Haili Church and the new President of the East Hawaii Ministerial Association. I warmly invite you to our January meeting:

this Tuesday, January 12, 10 a.m. at the Haili Church       

Our speaker will be Chaplain (Major) Greg Hill,

from the Command Chaplain's office, U.S. Army, Pacific

I am thankful for this opportunity to serve in this way. I commend Elden Buck, Pastor of the First United Protestant Church, for the fine job he did leading our group the last two years.

     My prayer is that God would bring us even closer together in fellowship and ministry for Him in our community. If you have not been able to attend our monthly meetings, please make a special effort to come. It is more than just "another meeting." We need to gather as the Lord's servants, co-laborers not competitors, to "spur one another on to love and good deeds." As Paul said, "neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."

     Recently a pastor said to me, "I have been a pastor in this area for 33 years and I do not have one pastor I can share my struggles with." Have you felt like that? I confess that I have sometimes. Yet there are some signs of God bringing us closer together. I received a card from a Hilo pastor who wrote, "we prayed for you in our staff prayer meeting today." At our last meeting Harry Kim honestly confessed that he had not considered the spiritual and emotional needs of "disaster" victims and workers in the past. He asked us to be available to be of help to
people when needs arise. I sensed a responsiveness among our group to want to work together to help.

     As a means of promoting our fellowship together, I am asking different pastors to share at the beginning of each meeting, (dare I ask you preachers to keep it to about 10 minutes!), anything that God puts on their heart about life and ministry. As a new pastor I am eager to learn from you all. Another change will be an optional meeting for prayer and sharing, after the
regular meeting, for those who wish to remain. Henry Ayabe, who has served the Lord for over 30 years in Japan, much of that time working with different pastors, will lead our prayer time.

     I am not suggesting that we have no differences.  Do we all agree about everything? will we? Not yet, not until we sit together at the Master's feet and learn from Him. Until that day,
we are told to, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." In his new book "The Contemporary Christian" John Stott writes of how important it is for Christians to talk together:

"When we stay apart, and our only contact is to lob hand grenades at one another across a demilitarized zone, a caricature of one's 'opponent' develops in one's mind, complete with horns, hooves, and tail! But when we meet, and sit together, and begin to listen, not only does it become evident that our opponents are not after all demons, but actually normal human beings, and even sisters and brothers in Christ, the possibility of mutual understanding and respect grows. More than this: when we listen not only to what others are saying, but to what lies behind what they are saying, and in particular to what it is they are so anxious to safeguard, we often find that we want to safeguard the same thing ourselves."

The EHMA is one, but surely not the only, means of our listening to one another. I pray that as a new leader God will make me good listener to each of you. Your involvement will make our
fellowship more complete.

     I look forward to being with you this Tuesday, and throughout this new year.

Yours in His gospel, Mark Blair