It was the first day of a new school year, and Lohelani Hoopii stepped into her new school’s second-grade classroom for the first time. That was the beginning of a nine-year educational experience at Kahili Adventist School that Lohelani now
It was the first day of a new school year, and Lohelani Hoopii stepped into her new school’s second-grade classroom for the first time.
That was the beginning of a nine-year educational experience at Kahili Adventist School that Lohelani now remembers with fondness. It was in Alice Hammond’s fifth-grade classroom that she learned a clear understanding of grammar, and as a high school student, it was the T.I.G.E.R. program, Bible camps, and outdoor school that helped her develop skills in confidence, self-esteem, character and values.
So it is not surprising that she and her husband Kaimi Nabeshima chose Kahili Adventist School for their son, Kaimi. And he has matured, both emotionally and mentally, under the guidance of principal Roger Brodis and his wife, Gerry, who assists each day with grades one to three. So much has he enjoyed second grade with Mrs. Brodis that he begged her to be his teacher “for the rest of my life!”
For nearly 30 years, hundreds of children on Kauai have entered and exited those same classrooms. Many dedicated teachers have come and gone, too, leaving their influence in the lives of students. As this school year comes to a close, the time has come for Kahili Adventist School and Preschool to move to a new location. And that location for next year, at least, will be the Kapaa Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“We hate to leave Kahili Mountain Park, but change is inevitable,” said Brodis.
Ultimately, the board and staff of Kahili Adventist School plan to have the school once again in a rural setting where they can incorporate outdoor learning through nature, and an agricultural program where students apply what they learn through planting, growing, harvesting and marketing various crops.
Assisting the school in its future development is Pastor Douglas Na’a. Na’a and his wife, Meliana, recently moved to Kauai after serving in Louisville Ky., for four years. They will be serving and leading the two Seventh-day Adventist churches on Kauai, in Kapaa and Lawai Valley. The transition into the Garden Isle is very natural to the pastor who has family roots in Tonga and grew up in New Zealand. Na’a said he feels a special bond with Christian education because it was as a teenager heading for trouble that he ended up at a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school in Tonga where he began to turn his life around.
“The gospel of Jesus is less about preaching and more about teaching,” he says.
And he knows from personal experience that education is not just about going to school, it’s a process of learning why we are here and what we are to do with our lives.
Na’a believes that education is the complete and harmonious development of the physical, spiritual and mental faculties.
“So it seems to be a divine appointment that Pastor Douglas Na’a would arrive on Kauai at the very time Kahili Adventist School is embracing a new beginning,” a press release said. “Just like Pastor Na’a, Mr. and Mrs. Brodis are people who believe unwaveringly in the providence of God. Faith, trust, and following the call of God are the heart of teaching, whether in the pulpit or in the classroom.”
As Kaimi Nabeshima left his second-grade classroom for the last time, his mom couldn’t help but remember that day years ago when she entered that classroom for the first time.
And she remembers what is most important: that classrooms are buildings, but it’s the teachers and their philosophy of education that make a lasting impact on the life of a second-grader.
• For more information about Kahili Adventist School contact principal Roger Brodis at kahilinews@gmail.com or Pastor Douglas Na’a at (808) 445-6258. For Preschool information contact Melba Gapuz at 634-5423.
