August slowed down our pace after the craziness of Summer, but September is amping us up again as we lead up to Fall Break! Join us as we share about all that happened at Makanalani in September 2025!
- Wholehearted Worship Retreat -
This month we welcomed in the Wholehearted Worship Retreat! This batch of young adults came together for times of community Bible studies, worship, songwriting, and building up skills as worship leaders! Visiting was a combination of young adults across Kauai and some visitors from mainland, then at the end of their week they welcomed in many more young adults from around Kauai for a night of worship to wrap up their incredible time! The songs written and sang at this retreat were a blessing to hear and filled the Kids House with truly heavenly sounds.
- KCF Youth -
Returning for their annual Fall Retreat, Kauai Christian Fellowship brought in their youth for a weekend of fun and community this month! This group shows such intentionality into the youth of Kauai, and it’s always encouraging to host these students from all over the island with their passion to come together and dive into God’s Word!
- Boys & Girls Club Hawaii -
This month also saw the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii come to visit us! Arriving with their Young Leaders in Training, or “L.I.T.’ group of 12-18 year olds from across Kauai and Oahu, these teens were amped up for an unforgetable weekend! We were extremely thankful for them as they offered some community service time to Makanalani and with their help we were able to clean up a lot of debris in our animal fields! After all that hard work, we got a nice reward of time on the slip and slide! With our Hawaii Leadership Residency crew at the helm of the slip and slide, and joining in that evening to lead a night hike with the students, the Boys & Girls Club had a phenomenal weekend!
- Hawaii Leadership Residency -
Our newest session of Hawaii Leadership Residency has begun! Fall 2025 is off to a strong start with 17 new young adults coming from near and far to spend the next 3 months together growing in service, discipleship, and community!
The first couple of weeks have kicked off strong expectations! Even through their training time, opportunities have already popped up for the residents to work with groups at the Kids House while they are still learning the ropes of all other areas in Makanalani they will be working. The excitement and ambition of this crew is evident, and we would love it if you would join us in praying for this session and all God is going to do in the lives of this group!
A Piece of Makanalani History
- Farm Animals -
Farm animals that we introduced to Makanalani included sheep, mini donkeys, horses and milk cows. We also started bee hives and planted hundreds of fruit trees. Our 130 acres came with feral pigs (we had fun taming some youngsters) and in the early days we enjoyed paniolo roundups at our neighbors farms.
Sheep:
Our sheep arrived on Kauai in two double-decker livestock shipping containers, with all the necessary paperwork and inoculations. Two hundred ewes and twenty rams traveled for 6 weeks from Arkansas, along with a caregiver who fed and watered them during the journey. Many neighbors came to help us offload, bringing specialized ramps to get the animals down from the top decks. They also brought their working dogs to impose canine discipline.
Our Katahdin hair sheep soon produced beautiful lambs, with many twins. Where triplets were born, we often ended up with orphans who had to be raised by hand. Permanent fencing and water and a proper corral followed as we learned more about raising sheep.
Our Donks:
We shipped out 5 Mini Donkeys from Indiana, intending them as curiosities for visiting kids. Little did we know that they would become the stars of the show. Our first foal was born to Midnight on 9/9/09 and named Nina, and Midnight second foal (shown below) was born a couple years later on 9/11 and named Hope. We now have about 20 donks.
