Mine is perhaps one of the most circuitous routes ever taken to ministry! When asked whether I had planned or thought it through in advance, I have customarily replied that "I could not have envisioned myself doing the sort of ministry I do today. It was God leading all the way and simply a step of faith for me." This is my story.
Early interest in public service
I grew up in the Adventist church in Hawaii. I graduated from Hawaiian Mission Academy. Mrs. Lynne Waihee, my advise, was an Adventist English teacher married to then Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii John Waihee, an Andrews University alumnus and a rising star in the Hawaii Democratic Party.
Fortuitously, I interned with the Lieutenant Governor's Office the summer before attending college. The experience reminded and convinced me that government could be a force for good. I wondered whether I might be able to be a modern Daniel or Joseph. I found the work intriguing, yet when I enrolled at La Sierra University that fall, I found myself majoring in biology. Because my parents were nurses working in the Adventist health system, medicine seemed the logical choice.
At La Sierra University, however, a number of experiences nudged me in a different direction. One was attending a Sabbath School class taught by professors Rennie Schoepflin and Richard Rice. I was intrigued by the inter-relationship between our ultimate beliefs and our social responsibilities. Another was that of feeling queasy while observing the dissection of a frog. God was clearly calling me to something other than medicine!
Over the next few years I enjoyed a rich intellectual life. I carried books wherever I went and had a voracious appetite for ideas from Adam Smith to Augustine and Kant; from the Federalist Papers to collections of U.S. Supreme Court cases; from Cotton Mather to Carl Henry; from Ellen G. White to George Knight. In 1989, I completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science with theology as my minor.
The world of work
By commencement day I had already volunteered for several political campaigns, including that of the 1988 U.S. Presidential candidate, George Bush. Though in all this I had only been a lowly "gopher," I was thrilled at having been part of a victorious effort. I had also served as student body president at La Sierra and had relished representing the students on various university committees.
I had also, and perhaps most importantly, served the Camarillo Adventist Church as its youth pastor. There, under the mentorship of Associate Pastor Al Frederico, I acquired a love for ministry. It was more than the hikes, water ski trips, campfire singing, or Bible studies. What I found so thrilling was talking about Jesus, pointing others to Him who made all the difference in my own life, and leading others to make the decision of a lifetime. At Camarillo I experienced the joys of full-time ministry.
I flirted with pursuing a public policy degree of sorts, and explored Claremont Graduate School and the University of Southern California administration program, but in the end I found myself applying to the Theological Seminary at Andrews University.
Graduate school
My acceptance letter outlined my financial package, but when I arrived in Berrien Springs, Michigan, it became evident that all was not in order. Disappointed and full of questions about whether I had misheard God's calling, I called one of my administrator friends to vent my frustrations. Niels-Erik Andreasen was then Dean of the School of Religion at what was then the La Sierra Campus of Loma Linda University. That telephone conversation led me to an M.A. in religion at La Sierra.
I studied Old Testament from Andreasen, systematic theology from Fritz Guy and Richard Rice, Church history from Paul Landa, ethics from Gerald Winslow, philosophy of religion from Dalton Baldwin, Christian psychology from Bailey Gillespie, and sociology of religion from Charles Teel. It was a fabulous experience.
While studying I served as a church elder at a local Adventist church and found myself on the preaching circuit. By then I was married.
All was going well until I started thinking about the pervasive threat to our young people posed by drugs, domestic violence, and gangs. As a pastor I could work with a congregation. But what of all the others who were outside my congregation? There were so many others who needed help.
Because of concerns and convictions like this, after a few years I found myself completing a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Southern California Law School and passing bar exams in California and Hawaii. During the time I prepared for those exams I was briefly an educator, first at San Gabriel Academy and then at La Sierra University.
I then returned to Hawaii with my wife and two children. For the next few years, I worked as a trial lawyer with a Honolulu law firm. I was making more money than I ever had before.
Elective office
But public service was calling me. Impressed by the need for genuine "servant leadership" in public life, I launched a campaign for the State House of Representatives. My goal was to be "part of conversation." I was going to give my unresponsive legislator opponent a "run for his money." All went according to schedule until election day.
When the television reporters announced that I had won, I asked out loud, "What have I gotten myself into?" But my wife, ever aware of the Christian perspective, asked: "No, what hath God wrought?"
And truly it was the work of God. In terms of the usual standards of political campaigning, I had been outspent and outmaneuvered. But I had won anyway. Now I began a new chapter serving in our state's legislature, while continuing to practice law. I found the work satisfy ing. Yet the winds of change again began to blow.
In 1999, halfway through my second term in office, the Hawaii Conference executive committee selected a new conference president, a veteran pastor and union conference administrator who had (years before) himself run for the U.S. Congress. We had worked together to introduce a religious liberty bill in the Hawaii Legislature. He now had an ambitious agenda to put together: a team with a passion for evangelism, a commitment to empowering the local congregation, and a sense of urgency reminiscent of our church's founders.
Return to full-time ministry
Months later I got the call. Elder Arnold Trujilio asked whether I would come on board with the conference office. Would I return to full-time ministry?
I had grown to consider the Legislature my mission field. I had become the unofficial chaplain there, holding Bible studies and organizing prayer groups among some of the state's political movers and shakers.
I was both a promoter of personal faith and an advocate for public separation of church and state in terms of government policies and funding. God was using me. And besides, my family had grown by another child and my wife was busy serving on the State Board of Education and as vice chair of the Hawaii Republican Party.
However, the offer was one I could not refuse. I immediately assumed leadership of the Hawaii Conference religious liberty and communications departments, and within a year became pastor of the Waiola Worship Center.
I still serve as a legislator. But when I'm not at the state capital, I'm writing for our Union Conference magazine, addressing Sabbath employment problems, and pastoring my parishioners.
For me there was no Damascus road experience. No thunder, lightning, or whirlwind, just the quiet yet profound whispering and nudging of God. My role models are still Joseph and Daniel.
I thank God every day for the privilege of being a servant to the servants of God.
