REVOLUTION HAWAII - BONZAI

The ending to this story is both heart-rending and heart-moving. Banzai, the subject of this video, was living homeless on a Chinatown Bridge in Honolulu, an outcast…

Banzai (his chosen nickname), the subject of this video, was living homeless on a Chinatown Bridge in Honolulu, an outcast not unlike this Biblical beggar:

"At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores" (Luke 16:20).

Enter “Upper Room,” a ministry of Revolution Hawaii, modern day disciples of Jesus gathering together Sunday evenings in an 'upper room' setting on the edge of Chinatown, it's leadership taking seriously the Biblical post-Pentecostal mission model:

"(They) pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. …At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate… to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout… Peter said, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you" (Acts 2,3).

After a Spirit-filled worship session together in the Upper Room, pooling their resources, these disciples gather in the basement to prepare for street ministry. Sandwiches made, First Aid Kits replenished and Bibles packed, they strike out for the Chinatown homeless encampments—"What I do have, I give to you.”

On this particular evening, they encounter Banzai on his bridge, feed him, bandage his sores, pray with him and leave a Bible. This turns into a four-year odyssey, as he becomes a recurrent member of their street congregation. Eventually, he begins to attend upper room, one-year later surrenders his life to Jesus and is saved from the bondage of addiction.

“The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God.”

The following became Banzai’s testimonial theme song, as he would often bound spontaneously onto the platform singing the following:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.

On one such occasion, from an eyewitness account: "There wasn't a dry eye in the room.”

Epilogue 1: Banzai ended up in the hospital with congestive heart failure, Rob Noland paying him a pastoral visit. In the midst of their conversation, he nonchalantly shares part of his formative life story, and to Noland's surprise: "After six years of knowing Banzai, he finally gets around to telling me that his teen years were spent living in The Salvation Army Boy's Home in Honolulu.”

Epilogue 2: We decided to tell Banzai’s story on film. After the shoot, it went to end of the editing queue. When in Hawaii, he would always corner me asking about his film. Many months later, when he approached me a third time. I called and asked for the editing to be expedited. A week later, via Fedex, it was premiered on Sunday evening in Upper Room. Following the showing, a grand smile on his face, Banzai bounds to the stage and sings:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’d first begun.

The following evening Banzai died in his sleep. Providential?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; think 10,000 here. In the Japanese language, "Ban" is translated "10,000" and "Zai" "Years," the cry, "Banzai!" literally interpreted, "Long live!" Forever! And he is! Singing like he’d first begun:

Banzai! (Amazing Grace!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-EFeJ5lFtc

RevHi: MORE! in perpetual motion.