Today, we had the privilege of meeting a friend, Rebecca, at her ship to say "farewell" - for a time. She'll be back after her deployment. It was such a blessing to be there - but also humbling as we saw families having to say good-bye to dad or mom for a time. We'll really miss Rebecca - the joy she has in her new faith, her hunger for truth - but we'll be growing together in Christ over the distance. Pray for her and her ship. Pray for fellowship with other believers as well as time each day she can have to be alone with the Lord. (That's not as easy as you may think!)  See you again , Rebecca! We will miss you!

Aloha Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we have a new ministry website for Home Port here on Oahu. If you know of military members looking for fellowship on the island, please be sure to send them the link to our website. Mahalo! (Thank you)

Paul and Stacy

Website:  www.homeportoahu.com

Today, Jenna is 12 years old! We thank the Lord for giving us such a wonderful gift and we rejoice to know that she knows and loves her Savior.

Happy Birhday 'Little Lu' !!

Love, Mom, Dad and Hope

Aloha!

Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks . . .

• Easter sunrise service aboard the USS Missouri at 0630 hrs with nearly 1000 people in attendance. The Missouri is a magnificent battleship aboard which Japanese representatives formally surrendered to the Allied Forces on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay. As the crowd sang praises to God, we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise off the port side of the ship. What a thrill!
• Several friends have visited us over the last few weeks including Les, Gloria, and Brian Felker, Toby and Jennifer Magsig (friends from our years in Germany), and Sarah Herden whose husband, Jeff, is serving as a US Army chaplain in Afghanistan. What a joy to have Sarah and their two children, David and Lydia, with us for a week. Toby and Jenn stayed at Ko Olina with their two children (see pictures to the right).
• Stacy, Hope, Jenna, Sarah, and her kiddos enjoyed a wonderful luau at Paradise Cove in Ko Olina on the leeward side of the island (West).
• Paul was blessed tp preach at two chapels on base in MArch and he will continue to preach at the Submarine Memorial Chapel in the weeks ahead at the request of the Sub chaplain. We are very encouraged by the support we have received by all of the chaplains at Pearl Harbor.
• Our Friday night Bible studies have been engaging as we continue to work through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Our group continues to grow and we trust that the Lord will continue to lead sailors and airmen to be a part of this ministry in the weeks ahead.
• Our group has been blessed to be a part of a ministry called River of Life that feeds the homeless in Honolulu every day of the week. At the moment, we take a few individuals from our ministry once a month to prepare and serve dinner to over 200 individuals and families who have no place to live. What a joy to spend time serving the Lord's people in such a tangible way.
• God provided an opportunity for us to help the family of a young man named Joe who was severely injured in an ordinance explosion on Okinawa, Japan before being flown to the Tripler Army Medical Center here in Honolulu. Joe was joined by his wife, Melanie, and their four children a couple of weeks ago to be with him during his recovery. Please pray that this family would experience the power and love of Jesus during their time here on Oahu and that we would continue to have opportunities to reach out to them.
• Paul's parents will be visiting us on April 20th and we can't wait to see them!
  

That's all for now. Thank you for your love, support and prayers - we are thankful for your partnership with us!

In His Grace,
Paul, Stacy, Hope, and Jenna

The last few weeks have been packed with ministry, conferences, meetings, and company! We enjoyed having Justin and Amy Stair in our community for several weeks as Justin underwent delicate back surgery at the Tripler Medical Center (he's recovering well).  Justin and Amy are dear friends from our time at the Lighthouse in Yokosuka, Japan.

We also hosted Pastor Ed Regensburg and his wife, Sandy, for just over a week as they enjoyed a much anticipated vacation here on Oahu. We're pretty certain that they did more in one week than we have done in several months!! Ed is the senior pastor of Faith Community Church in Gambrills, Maryland, a church that has supported our family and ministry for  over  twelve years.

We also enjoyed a visit from our dear friends, Brett and Ann Medlin, a young couple that were in our first ministry many years ago in Baumholder, Germany. Brett was an E5 when we first met him but after many years of study and hard work, he flew to Hawaii with his family to be pinned with the rank of Major. Paul had the privilege of attaching one of his gold clusters during the ceremony. Congratulations Brett!

Most recently, we were blessed to host fellow Cadence missionaries, Paul and Beryl Metko, in our home for  couple of days. Paul is the ministry field director for the Americas West region and is responsible for the oversight of twelve hospitality ministries including three here on Oahu. Paul and Beryl joined the Hawaii team for the annual H.I.M. conference (http://www.himonline.org) in Honolulu that just concluded on Sunday. The conference was attended by over three thousand people and speakers included Francis Chan, Gary Haugen, Paul Sheppard, and many others. Hope and Jenna were involved in a separate youth track with over 700 kids! It was an amazing time of worship and fellowship for everyone involved.

Paul helped to organize a monthly men's prayer breakfast at the Pearl Harbor Memorial Chapel  in late February . We had thirteen men in attendance at our first event and we are praying that this number will grow significantly in the months ahead. He has also been asked to preach at both of the chapels on base which has been an unexpected blessing. We thank the Lord for the tremendous chaplain support that we have received since we first arrived.

Hope and Jenna are doing very well with their home-school classes, piano classes, and dance class (Jenna). Hope is also a part of two youth groups each week, one here at our base chapel and another that meets on the other side of the island at the Kaneohe Marine base. Jenna is looking forward to joining her sister at these meetings in the summer.

Stacy has been keeping busy homeschooling the girls, cooking for sailors twice a week, taking care of ministry finances, and participating in a local MOPS ministry as a mentor to young mothers. Please pray for Spirit-led interaction with these young women as some do not yet have a relationship with the Lord. Thank you!

That's all for now. Thank you for your prayers and support each month, you are a blessing to us!

In His Grace,
Paul

Here's an opportunity help those who desperately need the words of eternal life in their own language right from the comfort of your own home! Click the link below for details.

Link:  Bibles Unbound

I felt compelled to post this recent update from my dear friend, Chaplain Jeff Herden, who is presently deployed to Afghanistan. Please pray for our military chaplains as they seek to encourage and equip men and women serving in harm's way. Thank you!

In His Grace, Paul


Friends, Family and Fellow Servants,                    February 10, 2009

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Its my joy to give you encouraging news in this fourth installment of my ministry updates from Afghanistan.  I am now in my ninth week of service here with about another 45 left to go.  The ministry of the Gospel continues to bear fruit.  As I minister to warriors I cling to the promise that God’s Word never returns void and will accomplish all His good purpose.

The more time I spend in ministry, the more I learn that the key to our service is not giftedness but faithfulness.  God calls me to awake each day and put my nose to the grindstone through prayer, time in the Word, visiting with warriors, sharing the Gospel, preparing messages, counseling, preaching and teaching.  Every day, every week the cycle just repeats itself.  Not every day is the same but every day calls for the same complete yieldedness to God, presenting our bodies and minds to him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable (Rom. 12:2).  We do this in weakness and in strength, when feeling up and feeling down.  The calling is the same for each of us, no matter our vocation or day of the week.  I’m also learning out here how precious my devotional time is with the Lord.  It amazes me how easily worshipful time in prayer and the Word can slip away due to busyness.  Imagine being too busy with ministry to draw near to the Lord!  Yikes!

Recently the Army Chief of Chaplains, a Two-star General met with the various denominational endorsers to thank them for their sponsorship and appraise them of the challenges that Army chaplains face.  Its no surprise that chief among the General’s concerns was the “spiritual resiliency” of his chaplains.  I can identify.  I have by no means faced the challenges that many of my colleagues face, who often perform memorial services on a weekly basis or whose offices are flooded with troubled warriors whose lives are falling apart.  And yet, I feel the weight of my responsibilities before God and the ache of being away from my family and the uncertainty of a future where ministry will be done in hostile territory.  It can weigh heavily on the heart so your prayers on my behalf and my fellow Gospel-bearing chaplains are deeply coveted.

I’m encouraged to see that the ministry of the Word here is making a difference.  Recently, a former Marine who spent 20 years in the Corps before becoming a civilian contractor, came to my office- broken and ashen over a third potential divorce.  In tears and feeling desperate, he lamented that the woman he loved was on the brink of leaving him due to what he described as his selfish and overbearing nature.  His voice quivering, he spoke of how much he longed to change but always fell short of becoming the husband and father he needed to be.  We spent the next 45-minutes discussing why he couldn’t change, that the vice grip of sin in his heart made him a prisoner, a slave to his selfish way of living.  Then came the good news!  God specializes in emancipating us from our slavery to sin and sent us His One and Only treasured Son to be our Redeemer. God had a redemptive purpose in the shambles of a third dissolving marriage.  I could sense hope was breaking through the dark clouds when I explained to him that God had a higher purpose than just saving his marriage, and that was to save his soul and that of his wife.  These are the kinds of encounters chaplains regularly experience each week.  Marriages are often strained since couples undergo such long periods of separation.  A marriage not built upon the Rock is so at risk of crumbling to the ground.  That is where gospel ministry takes over and gives hope to people in darkness.  Please pray for this man and his wife.  They both need the Lord in their lives and there are signs that He is indeed working in their hearts.

Yesterday, I met with a soldier who wrote an essay on the Trinity that he wanted me to proofread for grammar and spelling as English is his second language.  He also invited my commentary on the accuracy of his theology.  It was apparent that his musings were based far more on speculation than they were on Biblical fidelity.  In his way of thinking, the Father is the harsh and cruel judge of the Old Testament while Jesus is the kind-hearted forgiving Savior of the New Testament.  We spent time correcting his misunderstandings.  Pray that this young man will visit me again and for the Lord to open his eyes to the reality of who He is and what He came to do.

Pray for my fellow warriors out here.  We have experienced a recent surge in enemy activity that will probably continue and even escalate as the weather warms up.  We continue to hear casualty reports of fallen Afghan Army soldiers and Coalition forces killed or severely injured in the line of duty.  Join me in praying for the safety and well being of our soldiers but even more that the fear and uncertainty they feel would lead to more fertile soil for the gospel of peace to be planted.

And don’t forget to pray for our Commander in Chief.  President Obama and his cabinet have a mountain range of tough issues ahead to climb over.  They are in need of God’s wisdom to navigate through the tough Bermuda Triangle of political, military, and economic unrest felt throughout the world.  Remember to pray also for him to fear God and seek to do what is right by God’s Word.  I was gravely disappointed to see that he appointed as Attorney General an ardent defender of the public right to pornographic material.  Not the sort of man seeking “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with His God.” (Micah 6:8).  May God open his eyes to surround himself with lovers of truth and justice, not selfish libertarians.

I thank you for your partnership in the Gospel and your faithful prayers. 

Chaplain Jeff Herden
United States Army

Today we hiked a trail at Makapu'u on the east side of the island and watched the humpback whales just off shore. The entire area is a sanctuary for these huge creatures and thousands of visitors come to see them each year. The trail itself was only 40 minutes to the top and the view was incredible. On the way down, I looked to my left and saw a huge humpback come completely out of the water (breach) and it made a tremendous splash as it hit the water. It was definitely a 'God-moment' for me! Such an amazing creation we live in and such a wonderful Creator to thank!!

Mahalo - Paul

According to the article below, more military personnel may have taken their own lives in January than died in combat. This is troubling news indeed.

Please pray that the Lord would minister to thousands of lonely, discouraged, and often traumatized  men and women serving in the U.S. military through the ministries of godly chaplains and the witness of thousands of other believers proudly serving our country. Thank you!

Read article: Army official: Suicides in January 'terrifying'

You're invited to check out our new ministry website:
www.homeportoahu.com

Let us know what you think and please send along any ideas or suggestions.

Thank you! 
Paul and Stacy

I encourage our visitors to click on the link below to read Dr. Albert Mohler's prayer for President Obama in its entirety. It is our privilege and responsibility to pray for all of our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-8) and I appreciate the spirit, candor, and tone of Dr. Mohler's prayer for our nation's president.

Excerpt:
Father, we pray that you will change this president's heart and mind on issues of urgent concern.  We are so thankful for his gifts and talents, for his intellect and power of influence.  Father, bend his heart to see the dignity and sanctity of every single human life, from the moment of conception until natural death.  Father, lead him to see abortion, not as a matter of misconstrued rights, but as a murderous violation of the right to life.  May he come to see every aborted life as a violation of human dignity and every abortion as an abhorrent blight upon this nation's moral witness.  May he pledge himself to protect every human life at every stage of development.  He has declared himself as an energetic defender of abortion rights, and we fear that his election will lead directly to the deaths of countless unborn human beings.  Protect us from this unspeakable evil, we pray.   Most urgently, we pray that you will bring the reign of abortion to an end, even as you are the defender of the defenseless.

Read the prayer in its entirety: http://www.albertmohler.com/blog.php

Today's Hero - Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, who safely landed US Air Flight 1549 on the Hudson river this afternoon saving 155 passengers and crew. Three cheers!!! (All praise be to God for his excellent mercy!)

If you are not familiar with the term 'Challenge Coin', then I invite you to watch this NBC Nightly News video clip with Brian Williams as he highlights an interesting military tradition that has been around since WWI: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#28663038
 

"Home Port", our new hospitality ministry here at Pearl Harbor, will be officially dedicated to the Lord for His glory this Friday, January 9th. We have at least 30 individuals signed up so far for which we are thankful. Please pray that God will bless our time together as we seek the Lord's blessing in 2009. Thank you!

In His Grace,
Paul, Stacy, Hope, and Jenna

Aloha Friends of the Cassidys,

I'd like to invite you to watch an incredible television special produced by FOX NEWS entitled "Escape from Hamas". The program documents the amazing story about the son of a top Hamas leader who left his home, his family, and his faith (Islam) after he encountered Jesus Christ at a Bible study in Jerusalem. I was so encouraged by the broadcast that I had to pass it on. Enjoy!

See the details with show times here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,474664,00.html

In His Grace,
Paul

For to us a child is born,
       to us a son is given,
       and the government will be on his shoulders.
       And he will be called
       Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
       Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 Of the increase of his government and peace
       there will be no end.
       He will reign on David's throne
       and over his kingdom,
       establishing and upholding it
       with justice and righteousness
       from that time on and forever.
       The zeal of the LORD Almighty
       will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7