Maui Fires and Love

by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D.

Here is a summary of my pre-planned trip to Maui August 14-29, 2023. Both of my entries below were written at the airport or on the plane going to or returning from my trip.

August 14, 2023

Sitting in the airport about to board my flight to Maui. At this moment in time, less than a week after the fires began, there was a lot going around on social media and the news discouraging people going to Maui.

Pastor Dwayne Betsill of New Hope Maui

Devastating fires destroyed the town of Lahaina, completing obliterating homes, businesses, with many live lost. After previously canceling my flights to Maui two different times earlier in the year for various reasons, I was about to cancel for a third time. When I called pastor Dwayne of New Hope Maui to cancel again, he shared his heart with me. He said the last time I canceled, it felt fine but that the time was ripe in Maui for God to move in a special and powerful way. I wasn’t coming as a tourist. I was essential to what God was pouring out for such a time as this. Because I was already on the fence and wasn’t sure which way I would go, I trusted that it was the Lord’s timing for my previous delays and that even though my trip was going to look different than what I had originally planned and expected, I was born for such a time as this. Maui had given me so much in previous seasons, and now, it was my turn to give back.

Usually on the other side of great turmoil and hesitation in my decisions is radical breakthrough. Same thing happened right before Destiny House as well as other significant breakthrough in my life. Because of noticing the patterns of God working throughout my life in the past, I now board this plane with great expectation for what God wants to do. I step into this new ground with fear and trembling, asking God to anoint me to bring His hope and healing. Isaiah 61. While I don’t know what awaits, I live yielded to the Spirit to move however He wants through my little life. One suitcase is packed with 30 Fasting for Fire books and 30 All Who Are Thirsty books the pastor asked me to bring to sow into the people there.

In 2018, I was ministering in Czech Republic when I heard the news of the attacks on Mozambique. Everyone was fleeing the country. The ministry school at Iris Global got shut down by the government and all the students were told to leave the country. Everything inside of me came alive and made me want to be there even more, even if it could cost me my life. Many of my family and friends urged me not to go, but I felt God on it and got the okay from the main leader to come. Because I flew into the south before heading north, I made it in without too much trouble. As I arrived, I saw many of the students at the airport leaving. Not many coming in, but a mass exodus leaving. The peace I felt when I stayed on the Iris base was incredible. Being in the heart of God’s will, no matter what is going on around brings a peace that passes understanding. I was so honored to partner at a time when few people remained.

Now as I write this at the airport, I am preparing to go into a place where everyone is trying to get out and discouraged from going. But God knew the timing of my second rescheduled trip and of the fires. I am humbled that those on the island feel that I can make a difference and are calling for me to come. I am expectant that God has something special and divine awaiting for me on this beautiful and anointed island. I haven’t stepped out in faith like this in a while, where I feel nervous, am uncertain, am going into territory I have never been in before. Let the adventures begin!

Though my flight was about 65% full, it wasn’t until I was midair that I realized we were making a quick stop in Maui, then everyone else was continuing to Honolulu. It was the eeriest feeling when we landed in Maui and getting up along with maybe three other people in the entire plane to get off while everyone else stayed on.

August 29, 2023

On the airplane back from Maui to Orange County, CA

What a trip and divine timing for me to be with some dear friends in Maui for such a time as this.

My first week on the ground, I got to minister at a Tuesday night young adult group with New Hope Maui. I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to bring up Ryan Jung who was the first person to introduce me to Maui in 2018. He grew up in Lahaina and barely escaped the fires with his family before his house completely burned down. I had him read Isaiah 61. I also invited my friend David Hanishiro up. He is from Kauai and was the first one to invite me to Kauai to minister a few years back. I met him in Ohahu at a Reinhard Bonnke conference several years back and he had since moved to Lahaina to pray and prepare the space for the revival he felt was coming there. The place where he was living there completely burned down too.

I went into Maui feeling that I was going to be weeping with those who are weeping and bringing the healing, comfort, and love of God. Instead, the first few days I was there, the hunger and passion for revival evident in those present, and even more so in the locals who grew up in Hawaii and lost everything in the fires, stirred me. I was so humbled and inspired by watching my brothers in Christ who had literally just lost all material possessions less than a week before hunger and thirst for the God of revival. After they shared their heart for revival on Maui, I continued to minister for a little before we went back into worship and into deep encounter. The environment was potent with the presence and heavy weight of God. Though I at first hesitated to come to Maui because of the news discouraging non-essential workers, I realized I had come for such a time as this. This was a door God has opened and invited me to walk through.

LAHAINA

Wednesday and Friday I was able to join a team of Foursquare chaplains who came out to partner with New Hope Maui to go to Lahaina and help where needed. As we drove past Lahaina and through it, everything became really real. Seeing the destruction up close made it personal in a whole new way. I think Lahaina Harbor was one of the first places I paddled out to ride waves on the island back in 2018. Now, the whole town is completely wiped out and in ashes. So heartbreaking to see the homes, businesses, and jobs lost, but even more so to know that many lost their lives.

On Wednesday, we were able to help at a distribution run by locals who decided to help their neighbors in need. It was such a beautiful representation of family working together to love each other in their time of need. There was a medical tent, a clothing tent, free food, a veterinarian tent, and other supplies available for whoever had a need. Many of those helping were themselves relocated nearby because their homes had burned down. To meet people who had just lost everything and watching them serve others was so inspiring. Besides helping organize stuff in the clothing tent, I had an opportunity to pray for a few people and listen to their stories. On the way back, I talked the team into stopping by one of my favorite beaches and a few of us went right in with our clothes on because it was too beautiful not to.

On Friday I went back to a different distribution that was run by firefighters. Some of these were local or those who had flown in from Oahu or other places to serve the community in need just outside Lahaina. They had a 1:00pm prayer time where every day everyone who was serving would stop, meet at the front, hold hands in a big circle in the parking lot, and take a moment to pray. It was really special to see how they made space to put God in the center and it was very well run. The local shops in the shopping center now turned distribution center opened up and made space to serve the community.

I heard there was a surf shop that opened to let people come and find clothes and I wanted to check it out. My friend Sarah and I went over there, and I ended up meeting a woman named Jennifer there who shared some of her inspiring story with me. I offered to pray for her and she allowed us to bless her and ask God to meet her every need. Probably less than an hour later, she came and found me and told me that God had answered our prayers and that someone had just offered her car and a job. She said that was exactly what we just prayed for! It was so special to see God so quickly bring breakthrough for her and celebrate together.

Though I wasn’t able to go out, a friend from New Hope Maui named David has a pizza and cinnamon roll shop in Lahaina and opened it up to give free food away to the people in the community. God is continuing to meet people with His love through David’s willingness to use what God has entrusted Him with and now giving it away. So inspiring.

MINISTRY at New Hope Maui

That same Friday, I headed back to where I was staying at pastor Dwayne and Janet Betsill’s house to get prepared to lead a women’s night with New Hope Maui. The theme was to be based off my most recent book of All Who Are Thirsty with a desire to go deeper into the rivers of living waters. I was able to sow 30 copies of my latest book into the community and later 30 copies of Fasting for Fire into the wider community at the request of the pastor (one person read it while I was there and already went on a 5 day fast!). After speaking about Ezekiel 47 and reading some encounters by Heidi Baker and Carrie Judd Montgomery on the theme of being all in and learning to breathe under the waters of the Holy Spirit, we rested in God’s presence and allowed Him to saturate us in His presence. Then, as led by His Spirit, we began to pray and bless those God was highlighting to us in the room. After chatting with a few who wanted to be all in again, we did the prophetic act of immersing them in water in the spa outside as a sign that they were fully surrendered and all in. It was super fun to see how the prophetic act of full submersion impacted them.

Sunday morning, I had the opportunity to minister at New Hope Maui and share about how when the Carr fire in Redding took place in 2018, it changed my life and helped me let go of my season of living in Redding which was really hard for me to do. I was in Maui at that time and because of that fire, my few week stay turned into 3.5 months in Maui and a shift in my life. Maui has always held a special place in my heart. I also shared about the Moravians and how it was refugees who has lost everything who were catalytic in launching the 24/7 evangelical prayer moved. Also, how it was these Moravians who decided to keep their eyes and worship Jesus in a storm that catalyzed John Wesley’s faith who would later go on to be a part of igniting the Great Awakening and founding the Methodist movement.

I shared the testimony of when I spoke about the Moravians in a meeting earlier in the year and did a call for those who would be willing to be martyred for the cause of Christ if it came to that when a mother with a baby strapped to her arms ran from the back to the altar and trembled under the mighty hand of God. Then I offered an invitation for those who are ready to be all in to come to the front to receive prayer. I also did a call for those who already are all in to receive a fresh anointing for such a time as this. God crashed in a special way. I was so humbled and honored to speak with this community at such a crucial moment in their journey, less than two weeks after the fires. It was inspiring to feel their hunger for revival even at a time like this.

My friend Chad Dedmon brought a team the following week and I got to attend some of the meetings he did with New Hope Maui. In one of those meetings the young adults leader asked me to pray for him. He also had lived in Lahaina and lost everything in the fires. The Father’s love came on him strong that he felt out in the Spirit on the kitchen floor for the rest of the evening meeting and God took him deep into encounter. God was doing a beautiful work.

The next day I got to go surfing with Chad and his crew before they headed out which was a treat. I also got to surf with a few other new friends I met who were on the island at the same time and divine connections. I also got to visit my friend Jimmy Hutaff at the Foam bodyboard shop and hear stories of so many people donating gear for those who lost theirs in the fires. My bodyboard friend shared how people walk in one way and leave with huge smiles on their faces after being blessed with new gear that people donated. Chad’s team also bought Ryan Jung and the young adult’s leader new surfboards since they lost theirs in the fires. It may seem like a menial thing, but for people’s mental health and sanity, being in the water and surfing can be one of the most healing things one can do in this time of crisis for their long-term health. I know that was one thing that helped me through the Covid lockdown.

I also was able to get a little time to connect with Ryan and Ivanna Jung and hear their hearts and how God positioned them there for such a time as this. To be able to be there for friends during this vulnerable and painful but hope filled time was such an honor. If you want to sow into Ryan and his family directly you can support them via their GoFundMe campaign or if you want it to be tax deductible you can give via Jen Miskov Ministries and make sure to put a note “for the Jung family.”

HALEAKULA CRATER

The one thing I had wanted to do this trip before the fires had come was to do the 11.7 mile hike through the Haleakala Crater. Me and my friend Kristen had the date set to do the hike a few days after I was to arrive but then the fires changed everything and we shifted to help and serve the community instead. Thankfully, my final full day in Maui she was able to come and so we successfully completed one of my most favorite hikes in just under 7 hours. We had a divine connection when a pastor and his family picked us up hitchhiking to the top which was super fun. Then on the trail we met a girl visiting from California and prayed for her father who has cancer. We also got to release worship over the island from that high place and declare God’s goodness and redemption over Maui.

While ministering on the front lines, there is importance in stewarding our minds, bodies, souls, and spirits. We are called to run hard and also rest hard. I am grateful to have had a chance to pour out while in Maui and also get refreshed in nature with friends. Such a key to running for the long haul.

While there will be a long road ahead for the people on Maui in the days ahead, God is continuing to pour out His Spirit and healing in a special way. The hunger for revival in the midst of this time is inspiring. The fires are refining and bringing things up in people’s heart completely unrelated. The healing from PTSD and trauma related to the fire will be an ongoing need. I am so grateful to know God is sending people who are using their gifts and talents for such a time as this to bring healing to the land. It was honor to be there to bring God’s love during this unique time. Thank you everyone for your prayers and for my faithful supporters for partnering in this important work of bringing God’s presence and love in the midst of this time. I am so grateful for your partnership in stoking the flames of revival for such a time as this.