St. Jude Church in Kapolei celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year. (Courtesy Althea Estillore Rodrigues)
By Althea Estillore Rodrigues
Special to the Herald
We settled in Makakilo in 1963. Pilipono Street. There were no traffic lights. No stores. Just fields and fields and fields of sugar cane.
My dad would take us on the roof to watch the jets take off and land at Barber’s Point (now Kalaeloa). At night we would lie down in our driveway and he would point out stars, constellations and planets. We could see the Milky Way. I was 5 years old.
On Sundays we woke up early to go to Immaculate Conception Church in Ewa. Luckily the cane trucks were not working most Sundays. Dad would take shortcuts through the cane roads. We’d end up driving past the mango trees at Tenny Park.
Mom told me we were one of the first Makakilo families to join Immaculate Conception Church. As Makakilo City grew, Father Bernard Eikmeier watched the number of Makakilo members grow, too. Then he held a meeting with his Makakilo parishioners.
Father Eikmeier told them Makakilo will need a church of its own one day and the time to start planning is now.
The dozen or so members looked at each other and felt overwhelmed with a seemingly impossible task. They prayed for strength and guidance and invoked the patron saint of impossible odds — St. Jude — and the St. Jude Society of Immaculate Conception Church, Ewa, was born.
When Father Benito Caraballo came, he picked up the ball and ran with it. He got land from Campbell Estate. He petitioned Bishop Joseph Ferrario for more financial support. Members in Makakilo offered their time and their homes for weekly catechism classes, meetings, rosaries and Masses.
Our first official 11 a.m. Sunday Mass at the Makakilo Elementary School cafeteria was a full house, which became the norm thereafter whether the building was a cafeteria, community hall or old Army bunker.
We had bake sales, car washes and spaghetti dinners. We sold hot dogs, saimin and huli huli chicken at carnivals. We did Christmas gift wrapping at the GEM store until midnight. And the Ewa parishioners from our mother church, Immaculate Conception, were an enormous support, always coming with happy hands and hearts to help. It was such a group of friends where everybody knew your name. We became a blended parish, a blended family, and we had a single goal.
The Daclisons, Barbietos, Uncle Joe Fernandez, Woods, Ibanas, Mrs. Galiza, Tagamas, Mermasuras, Canoys, Estillores, Daites, Respicios, Nicholas, Cabudols, Simbahons, Matananes, Highlands, Anguays, Yees, Burkes, Meyers, Lariosas, Lum Lees … so many more families from the Ewa plantation to the slopes of Makakilo.
There was a time when a situation arose that divided the St. Jude Society. An unsanctioned decision was made, funds for the future church were misused and angry words were exchanged. Some members left. Those who remained prayed and persevered to recover and rebuild what was lost.
St. Jude heard their pleas and prayed with them for continued faith and courage. The dark cloud lifted and the members of the St. Jude Society prevailed with the light of Christ ever brighter in their hearts.
Feb. 25, 2024, marked the 25th anniversary of St. Jude Church. From where I sat, in the last row and farthest to the right, a gentle warmth of excitement and awe overwhelmed me. I realized this church building is God’s miracle to us, and especially to those first parishioners who decades ago prayed, planned, and pursued this impossible dream.
Inside, on the back wall, are plans for a new church, a new cathedral-size St. Jude Church for a growing congregation, for the growing needs of the Kapolei community. Father Khanh Hoang presented his dream, seeing how quickly the city of Kapolei is expanding.
Again, doubts and fears were voiced. Again, the question of enough money to build a church of this magnitude. Again, our faith is tested. And all we must do is pray and believe and let God work his miracle. For God, all things are possible.
St. Jude Church of Kapolei. It’s kind of awesome, being part of God’s miracle.
