In addition to this blog I write a blog on immigration–one of my areas of academic and ministry interest. It occurred to me that my two blog topics intersected recently when, vacationing in Hawaii with my family, I visited Mr. Ed’s Bakery in Honomu on the Big Island. Inside the store, formerly known as Ishigo`s General Store and Bakery and stillbearing the sign (see photo), I found the following tribute to the immigrant founders of the store.
“Inokichi Ishigo, an immigrant from the Japanese village of Kayumura and Maki Ishigo, his wife, from the village of Hugitamura in Fukuoka Ken, the founders of ISHIGO’S GENERAL STORE and BAKERY on the Island of Hawaii came to the United States with a dream: A dream of hard work, perseverance, and a confidence in themselves to be successful in a foreign country. From their first store in 1910 and through the years, they worked hard, scrimped, saved, and built up their business. For the Bakery, what they did not know, they learned from others. Wisely, they learned from the Chinese how to make pies, the Portuguese to make bread. That, along with their knowledge of Japanese pastries made their products in great demand to everyone. Cookies were their latest product. All the founder’s acquired knowledge and experience were passed on to their sons and their sons to their sons, who now carry on the family tradition. To this day, ISHIGO’S BAKERY products taste-tested through generations and shunning all chemical preservatives, boast of that good, old-fashioned home flavor.”
Such immigrant stories make up an important part of the American national mystique, and serve as an inspiring testimony to a world in which immigration has become a universal phenomenon. But this story also testifies powerfully to the role of networking in any form of success. First, the Ishigos made their way to Hawaii through the immigrant network. As Japanese families made their way to Hawaii and found a better life than they had left behind, they told their stories to relatives and friends back home, who followed in their wake. When the Ishigos saw that their products appealed well enough to Japanese people in Hawaii, but did not mean the needs of others, they networked with people from other places and learned to provide the products other people wanted. The more people they knew–and the more diversity they embraced–the more helpful their work became to more people. Not only did their store draw in more people, it began to serve as a meeting place for people from various cultures, knitting the community together into a tighter and tighter network of friends. God was at work in their networking!
Like yeast working through Ishigo’s bread, if God gets into a space, the Kingdom Net usually starts forming. The store now serves on Sundays as the meeting place for a daughter church of the Living Waters Assembly of God in Hilo. The young lady who attended us just beamed when I asked her about the church, so proud of her membership there and excited to talk about it. If you ever visit Honomu (perhaps to visit nearby Akaka Falls State Park), be sure to stop by the store. The home-made jellies are amazing! You may make some new friends too. Tell them I sent you.
Copyright©2013 by Joseph L. Castleberry.
Dr. Joseph Castleberry is President of Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington. He is the author of Your Deepest Dream: Discovering God’s Vision for Your Life and The Kingdom Net: Learning to Network Like Jesus. Follow him on Twitter at @DrCastleberry and at http://www.facebook.com/Joseph.Castleberry or contact him at joe@josephcastleberry.com.
The Kingdom Net 