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The Salvation Army in Hawaii activated its emergency response network across the state in response to the 6.6 magnitude earthquake that hit in the early hours of Sunday, October 15.
Major Dave Hudson, Hawaiian and Pacific Islands divisional commander, reports that during the earthquake, many Salvation Army personnel were at Honolulu’s Ala Moana Hotel with the Divisional Women’s Ministries Conference, where they spent the morning bringing senior women and their luggage down 15-plus floors via dark stairwells. Meanwhile, Major Jonnette Mulch led praise and worship, and Hudson writes: “It was interesting to move around the hotel to see the stress on people’s faces, then go into the worship service and sense the calm assurance that God was in control. At one point during a testimony time, a man thanked the women for the calming confidence they were sharing with others. He also thanked them for making food available to others…These are the true ‘acts of God’—the things that the people of God do following ‘acts of nature’ or man-made disasters.”
At the airport—thanks to Major George Beauchamp of the ARC, the Leeward and Kauluwela Corps, Revolution Hawaii, and women from the neighbor island corps and Waioli Tea Room—The Salvation Army served over 3,000 people food, water and coffee.
Hudson recounts a special blessing that occurred while they waited for the food to arrive: “The neighbor island women decided to have a praise meeting outside the airport. As they started to sing people went over to see what was happening. Within a few minutes, hundreds of people were standing and singing. You could feel the sense of calm coming over the people who moments before were anxious. Situations had not changed, but there was the gentle reminder that God was still in control and everything was going to be alright—Acts of God.”