2009-03-20 TGRACECHURCH - Laserfiche WebLink

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GIMPEL: Thank you. WOODWARD: And your testimony will be part of the record. And now, for you, sir. If you give us your name and address, and then you may begin your testimony. DETWEILER: Certainly. My name is Josh Detweiler. Address is 75-1083 Kamalani Street in Hlualoa. IÓd like to address a few things that Mr. Gimpel said. But let me start by addressing the reality of where we are right now, and the impact of this decision and, in addition to this decision, the organization itself is currently having on the community. I want to stress that Mr. Gimpel is correct; the church has been operating under at least the temporary authority of Chris Yuen saying that we can continue on. So we have been operating according to that. Let me tell you real briefly about the community impact we are having right now. Again, this is not a dream. This is not a hope. This is not a shovel-ready project. Well, the road is, of course. But the church is operating now and impacting the community. Every month, actually multiple times a month, we serve 60 mothers in our community through a MOPS program, including 50 children, totaling obviously over 100 people each time. We have religious services every Sunday morning reaching more than 300 members of our community. We have a Celebrate Recovery program, which focuses on individuals in our community, in the Kona community, that have addictions to drug and alcohol, helping them conquer those needs. We have an AWANA program, which is one of the most successful ones in the State, reaching over 100 children every single week at our facility serving their needs. We have Junior High programs and High school programs that are keeping kids off the street, serving the area, 100 young men and women every single week. We help with the Meet the Need Program, which serves the ever-growing need of the hungry and the community, serving 100 hungry people every single month. Again, the reason I share these numbers with you Î and of course thatÓs not everything we do, thatÓs just whatÓs needed by this body Î the important thing to understand is, not allowing this to continue on, giving us this extension, will force the disbanding of a 300-member church and organization serving hundreds and hundreds of people every week and every month in our community. This is extremely important that we are able to continue, not just for the body of believers, but for the groups that it serves in the community, which are not all believers; we serve the general community. Let me address specifically a couple of things that Mr. Gimpel said. Let me start by saying I agree with him; this roadwork is absolutely necessary. We are dedicated doing whatever we can to get it done. But I would like to correct a few mistakes that Mr. Gimpel made. One of them was pertaining directly to the requirement handed down to us for temporary occupancy. One of them was no left turns when headed makai on Palani. We are actively preventing that in every way we possibly can in short of putting a human out on the road, which would be very dangerous. Every week itÓs mentioned in our bulletins. ItÓs mentioned from the pulpit to every single member of our congregation. For every one of the programs we have, whether it be small one serving only five or ten or twenty people to our largest program serving hundreds of people, every single member that drives into, or every single individual that drives in to attend one of EXHIBIT A 5