Did you know that the world’s first Kingdom Hall is still in operation here today? It has undergone some renovations but it has been in continuous use for over 85 years. Today, there is 1 ASL and 3 English congregations that meet there plus one Vietnamese group. Sure would have been nice to say we went there from the midweek meeting since it was just 10 minutes away.
Instead, we enjoyed the Aina Haina Congregation meeting. It was a slim crowd but the friends were abuzz after their recent regional convention. We even had one family take us out to Zippy’s their favorite local diner afterwards. They had ramen, macaroni salad, cornbread and bacon and Stacy finally had Spam - and he said to tasted just like it did when he was a kid.
The very first meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hawaii was held in 1915 with 5 people in attendance. By 1928, the first convention was held with 150 people. This showed there was amazing potential in the area since in 1935, there were still only 12 publishers. After WWII which began with the attack on Pearl Harbor (here in Oahu), the witnesses had grown to 129 publishers by 1946 and 10 years later there was over 1,000!
Hawaiian Pidgin is now an official JW.org website language and a massive translation work is underway, This year’s regional convention drama series entitled “Good News According to Jesus” is translated to “Da Story of Jesus Life” in their native tongue. And the friends enjoyed their convention at their beautiful assembly hall with a koi pond in the near North Shore area (near Dole Pineapple Plantation).
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