The Shine Your Light Interview Series
- Inspiring Life Stories about Pursuing Purpose and Spreading the Light -
Each week this page will feature individuals working hard to “shine their light," choosing to make a difference in their communities and across the world. Included are leading voices, as well as people doing everyday work "in the trenches." You’ll hear their stories about their sense of purpose and calling, who influenced them, how they cope when life is challenging, and words they’d like to share with all of us. These are substantive, thought-provoking interviews that we hope you will find as meaningful as we have. Most of all, in this deeply divided world these committed individuals are a force for inspiration, shining their light in positive ways, addressing a diverse range of social justice issues. May you be blessed by the voices you hear, and may you continue to be inspired to Shine Your Light!
Bevanne Bowers
May 19 2021 - Bevanne Bowers, J.D., is Executive Director of Maui Mediation Services. She has a fascinating journey to share with us, beginning as an African-American child in St. Louis, MO, where she was bused to school for her education. She embarked on her career in radio as a teenager, becoming the youngest on-air personality in her state, at one of the top twenty radio stations in the nation. Meanwhile, she held leadership positions as a volunteer for non-profit agencies. She made her way to Connecticut, and eventually, Memphis, TN, where she was one of the leading radio personalities for R&B and pop stations with listening audiences in four states. On a bit of a dare, she ended up going to law school, which changed the trajectory of her life. Eventually, she landed on the island of Maui, thousands of miles from her Missouri origins. Today, she leads a successful, dynamic team which helps families and companies resolve relationship and workplace conflict. But that isn’t all – during this time of scrutiny involving police and long-standing calls for justice in the lives of black Americans, Bevanne was tapped by members of the state judiciary to train court officials and attorneys in Hawai`i on Black American history and the cultural issues which most Hawai`i residents have not had the opportunity to experience. She has much to teach us about the importance of listening to one another and finding better ways to communicate. She also shares her personal journey of perseverance and service. As part of the Shine Your Light series, "Stories of Light," Bevanne is interviewed by the Rev. Danette Kong of Maui, Hawai`i, USA. This is the first time we’ve done an in-person, live interview, and so the setting may not be comparable to what you’ve been accustomed to seeing on your home TV or computer screens. However, we hope you can hear and be inspired by what Bevanne shares with us today. Thank you, Bevanne, for sharing your story with us!
You may connect with Maui Mediation Services via their website at https://www.mauimediation.org
Their offices are located in the Cameron Center at 95 Mahalani Street, #25
Wailuku, HI 96793
You may also reach them at ph: 808-244-5744
Heather Wittenberg
May 12, 2021 - Heather Wittenberg, PsyD, is a psychologist and mother of four young children. She is known for her internationally acclaimed website, BabyShrink.com, as well as the parenting advice she provides to television programs and magazines. When she awakened on the morning after Election Day, 2016, she recognized herself as having been living in the "Obama Bubble," which had now burst to reveal the true state and vulnerability of American democracy. Rather than continue as a passive bystander, she decided to invest her skills into becoming an activist that could make a difference. She began organizing "postcarding parties" with other like-minded individuals on Maui, sending messages to key areas of the USA in an effort to encourage others to exercise their right to vote. With the onset of CoVid-19, an army of Maui volunteers upped their production of such postcards from 500 per party to over 10,000 per month. Heather incorporates her skills as an organizer to coordinate this growing, low-tech, massive outreach in partnership with the Sisters District Project. In this video, she shares inspiring anecdotes about volunteers involved in the movement, and how their individual passions and seemingly simple commitments create significant changes. She also provides valuable insight into issues she has had to confront within herself as an activist, how she has been inspired by black women activists, and what faith traditions have taught her regarding the significance of suffering. Heather is interviewed by Shine Your Light team member, Dr. Ellen Caringer of Maui, Hawai`i, USA.
*If you would like to be added to the newsletter list for the Sisters District Maui Chapter, please contact Heather Wittenberg at HeatherfromHawaii@gmail.com.
Mark Hamamoto
EARTH DAY - April 22, 2021 - Mark Hamamoto is the visionary Farm Director and Lead Farmer for Mohala Farms, a 6-acre organic farm and non-profit organization located in Waialua, on the North Shore of O`ahu. Since 2005, its team has been building the farm’s infrastructure and revitalizing the soil - -bringing land previously used to raise sugar cane back to a state of healthy productivity and abundance. The farm’s mission is to foster healthy local communities in Hawai`i through sustainable agriculture, lifelong education and cultural & creative arts. The team’s work is grounded on the life-giving qualities of the land and a village-model of mutual cooperation and local self-sufficiency.
Mark has a background working with non-profit and faith-based communities for the last 20 years. From 1995 – 2000, he worked at the Hoa`aina `O Makaha farm and initiated an Organic Agriculture project there. From 2001 – 2009, he was the Community Development Coordinator at Kokua Kalihi Valley (KKV) and instrumental in starting KKV’s Ho`oula `Aina program. And, that’s just an abbreviated listing of his varied experiences which reflect his deep interests in peace and social justice.
You may access the website for Mohala Farms at www.mohalafarms.org
Mark is interviewed by Shine Your Light team member, the Rev. (Kahu) Kealahou Alika of Maui, Hawai`i, USA.
Wendell Griffen
April 14, 2021 - Wendell Griffen is known as a lawyer, preacher, and activist who gets into "good trouble," much in the manner of one of his heroes, the late Congressman John Lewis. The story of his life is rooted in the nurturing, black community in Delight, in rural southwest Arkansas. Here, his elders and ancestors partnered with God to encourage his remarkable journey. As he relates his story we are reminded of how he grew up in the 1950s and 60s, experiencing firsthand the realities of segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, and the White Citizens Council. Framed and hanging on the wall of his office are his parents' 1964 poll-tax receipts, required of blacks who voted.
Today, Judge Griffen asks us to consider how ordinary people with "the Gift of Help" can make a life-changing difference in the future of others. He also challenges us to contemplate what it means to take on the cross of activism and advocacy for the people with whom Jesus spent his ministry. He writes and speaks to encourage and challenge us "in urgent terms" to bring an imperative message of Hope and Justice to the world.
Judge Griffen is Division 5 judge of the Sixth Circuit, for Pulaski County in Arkansas. He earned his J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1979. He also pastors the New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is interviewed by Shine Your Light team member, Dr. Ellen Caringer of Maui, Hawai`i, USA. You may access two of his most recent articles here:
1) "Hard Truth about the Hateful Faith and Our Endangered World," in Christian Ethics Today
2) "George Floyd's murder: knowing what cannot be seen," in Baptist News Global
Arun Gandhi
March 31, 2021 - Arun Gandhi is a journalist and activist who has made it a lifelong mission to promote non-violence. His parents and grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, played strong roles in leading him along this path, which has taken him from South Africa, to India, and to the United States. With such life experience, he has observed great diversity and provides many lessons to us regarding racism, materialism, non-violence, and our personal responsibilities. He is interviewed by Shine Your Light team members, Dr. Ellen Caringer and the Rev. Danette Kong of Maui, Hawai`i, USA.
Below: Arun and Sunanda Gandhi with friends, Maui residents Sandy Farmer-Wiley (at left) and Jean Walker (at right).
Mark Wingfield
March 24, 2021 - “This is one of the most fascinating and deeply moving interviews I have ever had -- and it was with someone who is normally interviewing others for articles with his own byline,” says Shine Your Light team member, Danette Kong. She interviewed Mark Wingfield, executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global, a non-profit, progressive, Christian news agency. He recently completed 17 years as associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Prior to that, he spent 21 years in denominational journalism.
In this interview, Mark shares very personally and vulnerably about his call to ministry, his interests in social justice, his struggle with a severe injury which brought him to the brink of taking his own life, his observations of the "root of our civic rupture," and his hopes for the future.
Mark's latest book is Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality (Fortress Press). He and his wife, Alison, are parents of two adult sons and live in Dallas.
You may also access well-resourced and challenging articles on the website of Baptist News Global at:
Baptist News Global – Conversations that matter
Bob Nelson
March 17, 2021 - Scott Landis of the Shine Your Light Team interviews The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Nelson. Bob is a retired priest in the Episcopal Church, a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, and resides in Hawai'i on the Island of Maui. He has served communities in California and Alaska as a pastor, pastoral counselor, and psychotherapist. For years he has coordinated volunteers for a ministry housed within a Maui Catholic church which provides meals to the homeless and homebound, and served as an on-call chaplain for the major hospital on the island. He is an active Associate Member of Keawala'i Congregational Church (UCC) in Makena, and – lucky us! – is also a member of the Shine Your Light team! But this is just the tip of the iceberg! Be inspired by the range of ministries and gifts, as well as the courageous stands Bob has taken throughout his fascinating and fruitful life!
Allan Boesak
March 10, 2021 - Ellen Caringer of the Shine Your Light Team interviews The Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak, South African Black liberation theologian who played a leading role in the anti-apartheid struggle. An author and global human rights activist, he teaches Black liberation theology and ethics at the University of Pretoria.