Year in Review

AN Epic Year in Review

This has been an awesome and excited past year. The ministry has grown and flourished. We have made many, many new friends and created so many more incredible memories. Overall, it has been a great year for our EPIC Ministry. God has truly blessed us all. Let's take a look back at 2013 in EPIC Ministry.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH OUR PRIESTS
It's been one year since both Fr. Richard McNally, SS.CC., our pastor, and Fr. Yohanes "Yanto" Budiyanto, SS.CC., our parochial vicar, have taken the reigns as our parish priests.

Read these two exclusive interviews with each of our priests after being at Our Lady of Sorrows for a year:

JANUARY
January began under new leadership with Kainoa Fukumoto as the coordinator of the OLS Young Adult Ministry. The name of the ministry, Ever Present In Christ (EPIC), was also established. We restarted our Thursday night Faith Sharing in the OLS School Room 8 which included viewing "Restless Heart" (a movie about St. Augustine) with our friends at St. Michael. We also held our first (very successful) YAM retreat at St. Anthony Retreat Center centered on the theme, "Who Am I".

FEBRUARY
The ministry established a monthly e-newsletter and also began a new format for Faith Sharing focusing on testimony, Scripture, catechesis, and community/fellowship. We also welcomed two new priests to our parish as our former pastor, Fr. Clyde Guerrero, began preparations to head to Tongan for their new mission. Fr. Richard McNally, ss.cc., become the new OLS pastor and Fr. Yohanes "Yanto" Budiyanto, ss.cc., became our parochial vicar and an active supporter of our EPIC Ministry. All three priests each joined at one of our Faith Sharing nights to share their paths to the priesthood along with the many struggles and challenges that they endured since ordination. Lent had begun and our catechetical talk centered on the topic of "sin".

Sacred Hearts Fathers Clyde Guerrero, Richard McNally, and Yohanes "Yanto" Budiyanto.

MARCH
A huge change happened in the Church when Pope Benedict XVI retired and Pope Francis was elected. In our ministry, we again sponsored and coordinated our annual "Living Stations" production, a moving, inspirational, and dramatic presentation of the Stations of the Cross. The diocesan Young Adult Speaker Series was held in the hall of Our Lady of Peace Cathedral with Fr. Gary Secor, the Vicar General, discussing the origins of Mardi Gras...followed by an evening with the City's actual Mardi Gras. As we also prepared for the Paschal Triduum and Easter season, our catechetical discussion focused on this most important time of our liturgical year. Several our of young adults also took the opportunity to go to confession for the first time in years!

APRIL
Our good friend, Makana Aiona, joined us for a special talk on Scripture. We spent two evenings at Bethany, the Sacred Hearts Congregation motherhouse, for presentations on religious vocations as well as a special concert with internationally-acclaimed Catholic musician, Tom Booth. We also had the opportunity to lead Praise and Worship music before Tom Booth's concert. As we journeyed through the Easter season, our catechetical discussion centered on the Paschal Mystery.

MAY
The month of Mary began in our ministry with a General Meeting to assess and evaluate where we were in our ministry and how we could continue to grow. We held our first major fundraiser in which we used our OLS parking lot as supplementary parking for Leilehua's graduation and raised over $1,200. We also sponsored a Baccalaureate Mass and reception for our graduating seniors. Our catechetical discussion focused on the sacraments, and one of our Faith Sharing discussions from the readings for Pentecost challenged us to not be afraid, but to have courage in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

JUNE
In order to "change up" our ministry a little, our EPIC Faith Sharing nights were moved to Monday evenings and moved to the church. A special testimony was shared by Seminarian Alfred Guerrero, who talked about his life challenges and events that eventually led to his decision to enter into seminary. We also attended the diocesan Theology on Tap series at the Pearl Ultralounge. We also held an interesting and provocative debate on the existence of God. We cruised it at Sts. Peter and Paul Mission (Waimea) on Kamehameha Day while raising $400 for our ministry. And lastly, we began community/fellowship nights with our friends from Resurrection of the Lord; the last Monday of the month so happened to be Makana Aiona's birthday, which we joined in celebrating at Dave & Busters.

Seminarian Alfred Guerrero with members of our ministry

JULY
Stephanie Kamau, from Resurrection of the Lord, shared a very powerful testimony of the struggles she's endured and what led her to her conversion to the Catholic faith. To date, we have never had a Faith Sharing that has compared in size to the amount of people that attended her testimony. We held another parking fundraiser on the Fourth of July at Sts. Peter and Paul Mission, which raised nearly $1,500 for our ministry. Our ministry helped to plan and participate in the greatly successful Exodus Games, a family-fun event in the Year of Faith meant to promote vocations. We also participated in the final TOT series. Alfred Guerrero returned to lead a discussion on "hot topics" in the Catholic faith, especially those regarding morality. The month ended with our EPIC Summer BBQ, which welcomed about 30 young adults to the Fukumoto's house for a night of fun, food, and awesome fellowship.

AUGUST
The month began with a Young Adult Fellowship Day at Crestview Community Park / Resurrection of the Lord Church, coordinated by the Central Oahu Vicariate. It was a great, chillaxing day with young adults from around the island complete with a game of kickball and ending with a movie night and BBQ. Members of our ministry also helped to promote our church at the Wahiawa Family Fun Day. Sr. Celeste "CC" Cabral, OSB, shared her incredible candid testimony to religious life. Sacred Hearts Brothers Justin Carrigan, Michael "Maiki" Kamauoha, and Jeremy Sabugo, all friends of our ministry, made their first profession as religious brothers. Our Krispy Kreme fundraiser raised over $1,400. Our catechetical discussion focused on how we make choices. OLS parishioner, Terry Ignacio, taught us to make rosaries. And we prepared for Kalaupapa...

Top: Sr. Celeste "CC" Cabral, OSB; Bottom (left to right): Brs. Jeremy Sabugo, Justin Carrigan, and Michael "Maiki" Kamauoha, ss.cc.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR: KALAUPAPA
We ended August and began September with one of the most powerful and inspirational retreats any of us had ever experienced...Kalaupapa. This is definitely the ministry's highlight of our entire year. The retreat was filled with much testimony, discussion, fellowship, music and prayer. But the beautifully serene environment and the unplanned, unexpected changes were what really made this retreat awesome. We met with patients and heard their stories. We followed the footsteps of our two local saints, Damien and Marianne. There was much laughter and tears, building of friendships, and time to spend with our Lord. The Holy Spirit was truly present with us the entire time. It's an experience that would be impossible to replicate, but we do look forward to returning to Kalaupapa again, sooner than later.

SEPTEMBER
After returning from Kalaupapa, many of us were on a "spiritual high". We discussed an article titled, "Why the world doesn't take Catholicism seriously", and talked about faithful stewardship. We joined with the young adult ministries at Resurrection of the Lord for a special presentation on purgatory. We ended the month with a special movie night featuring "October Baby", an inspiring movie about one woman's journey to finding her true identity and finding the path to reconciliation.

OCTOBER
The month began with an awesome personal testimony by Yvonne Fukumoto, a testimony that touched many hearts that evening. We had a special opportunity to make Halloween crafts with children who were patients at Shriners Hospital. State Representative Marcus Oshiro joined us to discuss and explain the political process especially in regards to the same-sex marriage legislation. Ed and Christy Keaunui tied together a very inspiring talk about their personal experiences with an informative discussion on financial planning. Members of our ministry joined at the state Capitol for a Rally to "Let the People Vote" and preserve marriage as an institution between one man and one woman. The month ended with a general meeting that highlighted our strengths, challenges, and ways to improve and grow. Overall, our ministry has never been stronger, and as long as we keep Christ at the center, it will continue to bear much fruit.

NOVEMBER
Super-couple, Margaret and Soane Uigalelei, joined EPIC Ministry for an inspiring (and humorous) testimony on marriage, culminating with an impromptu praise and worship session. Speaking of marriage, Kainoa and Yvonne had the marriage convalidated in the Church with a great celebration. One of our most fun Faith Sharing nights happened to be the "Catholic Trivia" evening in which everyone competed for the top prize...a $15 Taco Bell gift card! Congrats, by the way, to team #WIN (Yvonne and Malcolm). EPIC Ministry hosted two games at the diocesan Year of Faith Cultural Celebration; the soda ring-toss was definitely a favorite! Iwie Tamashiro gave a talk on her ministry for persons with disabilities during a special Faith Sharing with our friends from Resurrection of the Lord, which inspired our ministry to hopefully get more involved in reaching out to those with special needs. Concluding the month was our EPIC Thanksgiving Gathering...and it certainly was epic! We began with a simple prayer service, enjoyed an extremely delicious Thanksgiving spread, and were entertained by karaoke and games.

Top (left): members of EPIC at the YOF Cultural Celebration; (center) Iwie Tamashiro; (right) Margaret & Soane Uigalelei. Bottom: EPIC Trivia night.

DECEMBER
We concluded our year with an awesome testimony by EPIC Ministry member, Brett Anduha. EPIC Ministry help to coordinate the Christmas display at the Honolulu City Lights on behalf of the Diocese of Honolulu. Our ministry participated in the final Theology on Tap series sponsored by the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. We had great discussions at our weekly Faith Sharing on the Immaculate Conception, the season of Advent, the readings for Christmas, and "bearing witness to joy." Finally, the year concluded with our EPIC Christmas Bash, an appropriate celebration for an awesome year in the ministry. Here's to 2014!