Road to Hana (May 19, 2007)

They say that the Road to Hana is much more about the journey than it is about the destination. After experiencing it for myself, I would have to agree. While Hana itself is like stepping back in time, it is little more than a small town near the end of a road. It is remote and isolated, so there is little of the hustle and bustle of modern life that impacts it and I suppose that this in itself is a great lesson that could be learned by most of us. In fact, I think it has been one of the things I have been learning as I "labored to rest" for these past few weeks. The road itself is narrow and winding. It extends for approximately 68 miles around the North-East side of the island of Maui and is one of the islands top tourist attractions. That's right, the road and all the sites along the way, not the destination of Hana itself. Although in the end, everyone does end up there in the town itself. From Kahului (where the airport is located) to Hana itself is aobut 52 miles, but it takes at least 3 hours to make the journey due to the twists, the turns and the narrow one lane bridges. The road is paved now (although it didn't used to be), but it still has 617 curves - many of them what one would consider hairpin turns. In addition to the curves there are over 50 one lane bridges and that doesn't even take into consideration the multiple sections of the road that would have to be considered one lane as well. The sites along the way are beautiful. They inlude: more waterfalls than I could begin to take the time to describe, several spots to hike through untouched rainforrests, multiple breathtaking sea side overlooks, the top windsurfing site in the entire world, Honomanu Bay (where we caught sight of an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal) where there are no beaches but the lava rock simply flows into the sea, the Coral Miracle church (more on this later), Waianapanapa State Park (where the sand is black, caves boast fresh water pools, the sea arches rise from the water and a lava tube leads from the upper part of the beach right down to the water) and the Seven Sacred Pools (a series of pools formed by water cascading down the side of the mountain). Along the way we also got to see a stand of amazing Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees. I say amazing because as the bark ages until it ultimately falls from the tree it changes color. The trees were literally streaked with red, blue, pink, orange, purple and more. This tree alone, were it the only evidence I had, would be enough to convince me that there is a Creator God.Now, the story of the Coral Miracle church. If you take a slight detour from the actual Hana Highway, you can drive by a church made from blue coral. It is not large, nor is it fancy, but the story of its construction is amazing. The story goes like this: the people desired to build a church from a form of blue coral that could only be found deep in the ocean - though not so deep that divers could not obtain it with great effort. The construction was going slowly, as the community labored to dive for the coral that was needed. One day during the construction a storm blew in and the next morning the villagers found mounds of blue coral had been deposited upon the beach. They quickly finished construction of the church with the coral that had miracuously appeared on the shore. When construction was complete, a second storm arose and carried all of the excess coral back to sea. This story reminds me of a God who is known by the name of Jehovah Jirah (My Provider) and just how far He is willing to go to provide for me!