 Aloha, Hawaii. I'm Wendy Lo, and I'm your friend as we journey to take your health back. We are coming to you live from downtown Honolulu from the studios of the Think Text of Hawaii. Today we, excuse me, today our discussion will be on a Labor Day weekend event that is very dear to my heart. It's a camp for the children of incarcerated parent or parents called Campagape. And I've been doing it for a few years now, so it's just so passionate for me. I just can't sleep at night, especially coming up this weekend. So Campagape is really a camp for these kids and is for the crimes forgotten victims, which is the prisoners' children. And we often forget that. We just think about one causing the crime, but truly the ones that really are affected are the children. And so this is where our heart is and we really want to focus on that today. So Campagape helps the forgotten victims of crime. The prisoners own children. How? By taking them to overcome the odds and succeed in life. What I would like you to take away from today's discussion as we don't help what? As if we don't help those forgotten, Kiki, now what's going to happen is we're going to face huge costs in our future. So please help donate your time by volunteering your treasures, your money, and or talent by in-kind donations to www.campagape.org. Today we are very blessed to welcome back a heart of a mighty warrior, a friend, Don O'Brien. Don is a dynamic volunteer and emcee for Camp Agape and a Choose Aloha ambassador, as she truly is, an ambassador of Aloha. Welcome back Don and Mahalo for being here again today. Mahalo, Mahalo for the Hanoho. All right, and you know, I was so excited when you did say something and you said that to me, Hanoho, and it's exactly, I mean, I'm going to Hanoho you every week, girl, because I mean, that 30 minutes that we had, we shared last time was like, boom, right? Here and gone, and then we didn't even get to the heart of it, we touched on it. And you know, all my friends and all the people that wrote into me that they said, wow, that's amazing. Can you give us more detail about these aces? So, and I said to them, you know, you don't have to be a cakey, you can be a 50 year old, a 60 year old. And yet, we still have aces, and if we don't uncover that and bring the light where the darkness shines, if it doesn't shine, I should say, we're all going to be afflicted in one way or another in our joy or how big will our smiles be, because it's something that we can't even see down there, but we know what they are. And so what we do is we not, first knowledge, we, now we have to take action. How do we get it cleaned up? Before we get started on a picture, a video is worth a thousand words. So is there a video that you want to share with us? Yes, I brought with me today the Campagape video from 2018. And as you were saying, Campagape is for children whose parents are in prison, but nowadays, Pastor Roy doesn't just limit it to those dear cakey because they have their own set of aces and issues. He's opened it up to any child who wants to come. And this is a free camp every Labor Day weekend for the last 14 years. Any child, because most children today suffer at least one trauma that could impact their healing and their health. Yes, wow. So we're going to have a look at your video that you brought. Awesome. I'm excited to see this and to share this with everybody who doesn't know what Campagape is all about. Let's watch this. God is telling me he is there, whatever. I know God is going to have great plans for us in our future, and he is always there. One out of two prisoners have children, and they're the forgotten victims. And they're left silently alone. They start to turn to the same generational sins that led their moms and dads to make bad decisions. These forgotten victims need our help. A lot of the children that come to the camp, they have so much hurt and so much baggage in them. And so they come to the camp where the walls are so, so high. God will use each and every step and every day to break down the walls. Campagape, a ministry started by Pastor Roy Yamamoto that not only helps and fosters the youth of this generation, but also, more importantly, to have them to get to know Jesus, that he will make a difference in their lives. Children and families gather together for an exciting weekend. These 200 plus young children are going to have the time of their lives. We do this rocket dodge ball where all the children come and they just have a blast. And even the toughest and the roughest kids, and even the shy kids come and participate in this. And then you see the wall drop down more and more. So many of the kids here, they live in Hawaii, but they never did surf before. And we get the surf team out there. We teach them how to surf. We put on a beginning surf meet for the kids. And to see the joy in their face when they catch the first wave, money cannot buy them. So we plan every event to break down the walls. They're going to have so much fun and enjoy God's love so much. The walls can be dropped down. And the love of God can be able to penetrate even the hardest of the hearts. The most powerful part of this whole camp, they're learning how to journal, how to get into the scripture. Lord, I believe you can bring my dad back into the Holy Spirit. Yes, Lord, I am going to forgive my stepdad. Even though he abused me, I'm still obedient. A lot of children struggle the most with unforgiveness because they've been hurt so much. It's hard for them to forgive. God started bringing healing into their lives. It's just so amazing. My dad was in and out of prison. He was an alcoholic and he would come home drunk every night, stumbling in, and all you would hear in the house were drunken slurs of hatred. I was really embarrassed. And soon friends from my school found out and they would tease me and they would call me names and they'd tell me that I was weird and that I didn't belong. I went to camp with a heart full of hatred. I didn't want to learn. I didn't understand why I needed to learn about someone who I didn't even think cared about me because I didn't think anybody cared about me. Today I want to share with you one word and one word only that helped me through all my struggles and helped me when I was sad and upset and that word is forgiveness. Going to camp changed me forever and it showed me that I could forgive my mom and I could forgive my dad for the things that they did to me and that it was okay to feel upset and angry and abandoned because God was always gonna be there and God always had a plan for me. I want to welcome up our dad because he's here. He serves on COVID-19. So Camp Agape really is about God's unconditional love and you see it manifesting in a very real way through the way that mentors who were once lifetime prisoners, their lives have been transformed 180 and now they're ministers ministering to these children who are the forgotten victims of crime. Forgiveness is setting a prisoner free. Listen to this angels now. Setting a prisoner free and finding out that that prisoner was you. So forgiveness is not for the person that hurt you. It is for you. What made me change my life is because of you kids. You guys gave me the motivation to become a good dad to my kids and when I prayed and asked God for help for open doors for me, God answered my prayer and the reason why I'm standing here to this because it's the love of God. God's heart because it's perfect will, you see all the different churches, all the different hearts and people. We get to celebrate together that he, we came together as a family and a team and we got to usher this, all this truth into the kingdom of God. No words again, every time you leave me speeches, how do you do that? That video that you all put together is, hold on. Top notch. Top notch, it gets right to my heart and if I had no knowledge of what Camp Agape is that really set it home for me. Thank you. And very successful because that's what you wanna do because the average person on the outside not knowing what is Agape love or Camp Agape, they're gonna watch that and they're gonna say now, Don, what can I do? Yes. What can I do and how can I do it and when can I do it and how much do you need? Yes. Now, campagape.org, campagape.org and as much as you like or can because it's this weekend and those babies you saw are just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands more children. We can't even get to the camp but this weekend we'll have over 250 children with us. Thank you, Jesus. Yes, thank you, Jesus. And I understand when the children come to us or we call them angels. That's right. There are angels and then the ones that have grown into leading and their mentors. They are junior mentors and then they become mentors. Wow. Very proud of them. That is so powerful but can you share with a story that really hit home for you after all these years? I wanna backtrack just a little bit and this would be to last Christmas. I go into the women's prison. It's my annual tradition and Pastor Roy and the Agape team, the A team came with us and when one child found out we were gonna go in on a Wednesday night, that's the chapel night and thank you to Chaplain Tammy and the crew that helps there with New Hope Winners. It's so faithful. But every Wednesday they do a Bible study and Tuesday night we had our Christmas celebration for the JMS, for the junior mentors and the Kiki and one little boy found out I was going into the prison and his mom is in prison and he's about nine years old, maybe eight and he said, Auntie Dawn, can I go with you? And I said, oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry but there's an age requirement. You have to be 15 years older. And he said, oh, well, can I please and it started to become desperation. And I kept saying as nicely as I could because I try not to freak out in front of children. I said, no, sweetie, baby, you can't come in with Auntie Dawn, you're too little. And he said, but I'm so little I can fit in your suitcase, Auntie Dawn. I can go in your iPad case. And he is a little guy, but he's not that little and he was begging and begging and finally we went and talked to Pastor Roy and he said, Pastor Roy, I can't go in and Pastor Roy said, but what would you like to say to your mommy? And he straightened up to his full height and he said, please, please, please, please come home. Please come home. Please tell my mommy, I love her. The next night, Wednesday, I'm MCing, I'm sharing the story. I did not share the child's name as I just told you the story without the child's name. I never compromise their trust or illegal condition. And as I began to share that story in front of 250, 300 prisoners, all the ACOs, the guards around the prison. And I start to share that this little man said, and please tell my mommy, please, please, please come home. And I love you. A woman jumps up. Many are crying now. These are criminals hardened. She jumps up and she goes, that's my son. And I kind of looked at her. I don't know which one's his mom, but afterwards I went to the side. One of his family members was there, his auntie, her sister was hiding in a back room. She was weeping and I said, is that his mother? And she said, yes, Don, I don't know how he knew. I'll tell you, mother's instinct, you cannot deny the power of a mother's love and a child to connect one to another. She had no idea that boy sent me with that message for her. It spoke to every woman, but it especially spoke to his mother. And that's the impact you can see on one child and one prisoner. Wow, and that's what we experience at Camp Agape. Yes. And you know, every year it's a lot of work. Yes. Unless, I will admit, it's hot, it's a lot of work, but we go with an open, cool heart. Yes. We receive these children, and we work, and my job is to cook and to feed. To deliciousness. To feed all of our sons, and Donald and the rest of the crew. Hospitality team. The hospitality rocks, man. I mean, we cook for like two to 300 meals per meal, Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Four days straight. And continue to do it every year after year. Yes. And taking monies from their pockets, begging for donations as we do in the community and yet our voices are heard. Yes. Because we're speaking from the children. Yes, thank you. And they hear the hearts of the children is why they dig deep and they continue to give. So now, Don, we were one of the most incarcerated nations in the world. The United States the most incarcerated nation in the world, and here's what it looks like for every child. A great article, it's called Bound by Blood, and you can see that 54% is the percentage of U.S. prison inmates who have a child, many over half of them under nine years old. That is over a million children or one in every 28 children. If I have a class of 28, which I do at Nanakuli High School, 28 children, at least one has a parent in prison and then you see the breakdown there with the races. I'm going to ask you to go to our next slide, which says there is a five-fold increase. This should shock us to see that within the last couple of decades, the numbers of inmates are doubling and the numbers of children's of inmates, children of inmates is quadrupling, it's five-fold. That is now, if I may be brief and yet shocking, we are facing a nuclear bomb mushroom cloud of epic proportions and exponential impact. It's not going to be one in 28 children. It's going to become double, two out of 28. It's going to become five out of 28 and then it's going to go exponentially large and that impact is going to be felt in every community, every school, every home. Yes, exactly. And whether you know a child or you know a person in prison or not, it doesn't matter. It affects, impacts all of us in one way or another. When you really think about it world, it impacts all of us. It does, it's in our community because our kids are with these kids and their kids are with our, they're all of our children. They're our Ohana, they're our Keiki and what we get with a child whose parent is in prison, very simply, you have abandonment, at least one parent, if not both. Number two, you have a lot of abuse. You have high levels of poverty. They are without money. There's family instability and then financial insecurity. And so what begins to happen on a spiritual scale, if you have eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to comprehend, spiritually speaking, it's called the orphan spirit. And I often have to face these beautiful little kids with tears in their eyes because at Christmas, they don't have a parent. On their birthday, they don't have a parent. They don't have their parent on prom night, on every day at school and they cry. And I say, sweetie, it's a fatherless generation. You might look a little bit like your earthly father, but you look a whole lot like your heavenly father because you're created in your father's image. And that's Abba father. Amen, amen. Wow, done. So powerful. I think I'm gonna need to take a break right now. Okay. Give us 60 seconds, let's freshen up and just re-calculate our hearts because you really touched it again very deeply. But I'm sure that she's impacted many of you out there. So just sit back, we'll be right back in 60, okay? Aloha. Aloha, I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, of Sister Power here at Think Tech of IE. And Sister Power is all about motivating, empowering, educating and inspiring all people. And we have various subjects here. Sister Power is here at Think Tech every other Thursday at 4 p.m. Again, my name is Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, host of Sister Power. We look forward to seeing you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at sistersandpowerandcoveye at gmail.com. Look forward to chatting with you soon. Aloha. Hi guys, I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health, regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. Aloha everyone. We are returning back with Donald Bryan, the great ambassador of Aloha. And I have a smile on my face, but it's not a real smile. Okay, because my heart is hurting. My heart is hurting, my heart is aching, and I'm sure yours is too. But Don is just bringing to us facts about what is out there. And a lot of us are not exposed to it, so really sit back and listen because she got a lot more to share with us. Thank you, Karen. I mean, it sounds like a lot, but then Don, just help us to understand, really get what is life like for the cakey? And can you just list some of the impacts that it has? It is hard to imagine some of these things, and I want to thank you, Wendy, for being a champion for our children in all of Hawaii and the great God beyond. As I know, many of your audience and viewing Ohana are. Now, we were just talking about some of the impacts of incarceration on the child who is the forgotten victim of crime. Number one was, again, abandonment. We see on the slide, we're going to have that orphan spirit to recap, family instability and financial problems. Now, this list that you're seeing isn't even a complete comprehensive listing, but out of the 12 or 13 items I have there, the top three are underlined. Those are the most problematic, and that is where I call it a door for the devil to come in. Then you're going to see things like the stigma of shame. These children that we get to minister to this weekend, they are easy targets of teasing, bullying, and then it gets worse from there. It becomes predators, and then it becomes gangs. And then you see things like the lack of resources, sadness, depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, which we talked about toxic stress on our last show together, and ACEs, withdrawal, and then skipping down to they are three times more likely to be in prison. That statistic is often very much a controversial statistic, whether it's more or less, but it's almost a guarantee. And I do want to emphasize the word almost, because I'm not speaking death over our children at all, it's almost a guarantee that they're going to repeat the sins of the fathers will be sown into the children. Yes, yes. Well, you know, last show we talked about the ACEs, and it was, I mean, to see all 10 listed there, and that's to realize my life and your life and people around me, their lives, just trying to understand how much of an impact all these ACEs has on all of us. So, you know, you spoke about the childhood trauma and ACEs, adverse childhood experiences. How do ACEs impact the agape angels? Excellent question. And as you see the 10 ACEs there on the slide, I would say that it impacts that angel has almost not just 10 out of 10 ACEs. It's exponential. I've seen a mom tell me, I get 100 of your ACEs, Dawn. And this was out in Nanakuli. Her daughter was being arrested right outside the high school. She's coming to me for help. Dawn, you're Dawn from 95.5 The Fish. I know who you are. And as I tried to minister to her, she goes, we get hundreds of your ACEs. I would almost agree with her because it's exponentialized in the life of a child who has a parent in prison or a child of high traumatic stress, which is ACEs. And in a very real sense, that's a big abstract picture. Let's break it down for that child. From the moment of conception, which they're being developed in mama's womb all the way till birth and then the early years, your brain is being developed just like your little body begins to grow with a beautiful little baby. And as they grow, their brain development gets reversed. The toxins from toxic stress reverses brain development for these children of ACEs, especially for angels. And I would say that is the most unfortunate truth. Wow. So not only are before birth, they're exposed to this inner womb, but when they're out and running about, they're still in that same environment. Yes, unfortunately, they're hearing the same words. They're unfortunately feeling the impact from some of the blows. They're feeling the impact from poor nutrition, poor sleep quality, poor everything for that child. Wow. So, you know, a great pastor once said to focus 10% on the problem. Yes. And 90% on the solution. Thank you. Keeps me on the street narrow. So we focused on the problem. What is the solution, Don? Well, as we said last time, the solution to ACEs is aloha and agape. The solution to trauma to this evil that is going on in the world. And the good book says it, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by doing good. The answer to ACEs is aloha and agape. Unconditional love. It means be there for the child. And we were just talking off air. Wendy, you get it. Be there, be consistent, and be loving. It's real simple to be safe, seen, and celebrated. The three Ss for a child. I'm sorry, celebrated starts with a C. C. C. C. C. C. Wow. Okay, so now this is getting to my passion. Take your health back. Yes, it is. I have to bring it for you. Let's talk about the angels' health. What are practical ways to help heal them? To help heal the kids, it's to have the always available adult, right? So you gotta have an anti-Wendy who comes and cooks them healthy food. They may not have a parent who is able to give that resource to a child, because if you look at the average dollar menu at McDonald's is so much cheaper than the whole foods, where I have to pay a whole arm and a leg for a healthy, organic apple. So then I'm gonna go get that beautiful quarter-pounder. But you gotta have an anti-Wendy who champions their health, champions and says, baby, did you sleep last night? Or were you up playing video games fortnight, all night for a forever night? And they'll tell you about their sleep patterns, their eating patterns. Oh, I like drinks soda. I like drink my energy drinks, monster drinks, all these things. And you think, sweetie, God made water, and it is the exact thing that 90% of your body is made out of. So it's the always-available adult. We call it also the M-A-M-A, the meaningful adult, meaningful activity, which our kids, our angels, get a taste of that on the four-day Labor Day Camp Agape. And that's what drove my heart to Camp Agape. God spoke to me and he said, you know what? We've got a steward and teaching to steward. There are temples better. Yes. And I know that they can't get this at home, but if we can at least introduce it. So good. And educate it while they are there. And that would be my responsibility. And so the neat part is, is that we have impacted the hospitality crew and some of them. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hey, Don, here's your kale smoothie. I'm like running and chasing you and just trying to get that into your body. We've got it down pat, where we have a few vegetarian dishes. Thank you. I'm now vegan. Yeah. I am. Yeah. Amen. That was a good joke, but it's a lot healthier for you. I am an ace who has transformed into healthy habits of eating. Wow. And that's the solution. That's part of the solution. Absolutely. You've got the agape love. You've got the right food to steward your body that he created for us. Yes. And so I'm so excited to hear that. Thank you. So last, but actually first in front of mind. Good. How do we answer the call of these forgotten victims? How do we act on this inspiration and information? www.campagapehawaii.org. We are a nonprofit organization, www.campagapehawaii.org. And there are three things we can give to anyone in the world that is treasure, time and talent. Your treasure is your money. We're going to flat out ask for money. It costs $800 to put all of these children, one child, into camp. And we have 250 kids. So you do the math. I am Hilo, I ain't doing no more math. And so it's $800 per child. That family doesn't have to pay a penny. They come, they get the free backpack, they get the free Bible, the journal, they get even the t-shirts on their backs. They get everything for free, including surfing, horseback riding, ropes course, archery, the whole shebang. And then you can also donate money. You can also donate in kind, which is treasure, time or talent. Your talent is if you're a chef like Chef Chai, donating that beautiful, delicious, Thai curry, vegetarian curry every year. Or you can donate ice. People pick up trays, banana bread even, from wonderful other people. And then the other one is your talent, your time. To come and volunteer. Now, if you can't spend four days because it's this weekend, you can't get off from work, you can come for an hour. Come up to the North Shore, enjoy the beautiful drive up, and then spend an hour because just like we say only surfers know the feeling, you'll only know Camp Agape by experiencing the Agape. And the other thing is I have a lot of friends who can't come out and give their time. But what they've done is they're gonna give products to make the food that we have to feed, the angels, the mentors and everyone there. So you know what? No, don't be afraid. You wanna help, just say hey, pick up the phone, go to the website. We take money, money works. Yes it does. Food, all of that stuff. And we need that. Or just come out, you can be our guest on Sunday night. Let me know that you are coming and I wanna expose the heart of the camp to you. And I invite you to just come and experience one evening that Sunday night when the children have been cleansed and learn to love and learn to trust and learn to respect. And this is so powerful because I just wanna give you a glimpse on Friday night when we get there, the cakey are coming in on bus loads and they're not happy campers yet. They're coming because someone said you need to be there. So they come and be grudgingly, they get off of the bus with this kind of long face. They have no clue. And then they come and we love on them. And then Don does her magic on stage. And then the brothers are there, hey, hey. She goes to them and then they start being awakened. Their spirits are being awakened. Then they have fun time and they go to sleep. And then the next day, as Don mentioned, horseback riding, surfing, rope scores, archery, pool, mom contests, hip hop, dancing. And these are things that these children normally don't experience. So you're thinking that's a lot of luxury for one child, but you know what? They get it all in one day and that's it. Whereas our normal, the other cakeies, that's their lives. So we wanna show them that they're just the same. God loves them all. And we wanna let them know God's love and his heart and just experience all of that. And then just start cleansing and changing their hearts. And that's how we can change one cakey at a time. One starfish at a time, with Agape and Aloha. And you know, Don, I'm so just so excited to be working with you. Thank you so much, friend. Ambassador Aloha. So you just continue doing what you're doing and just continue to just bring more to Kamagape because that's what you're all about. And we really, truly appreciate your heart behind you. It's a kakou thing, all of us together. Yes, amen. So we'll see you at Kamagape or we'll see your names pop up on www.Kamagape. Hawaii.org. Aloha, friend. From Don and myself. And Aloha, see you soon. Shee-hoo!