(Full podcast interview below)
In the middle of the night, the wind picked up on Maui. Erik Naylor, a pastor and dad, heard some noises and went outside to tidy up things that were blowing around. The unexpected strong wind was coming from Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of Hawaii. As morning came, the Naylor family was looking out their window at their neighbors’ homes “and the roofs from the houses are just slowly peeling off from the wind. Shingles are like flying!” They’d never seen anything like that.
“It was a normal day, besides like the crazy winds.” Erik’s wife, Danni, had invited some moms over to study a book about parenting. And Erik, “I’m like watching a dozen kids” as the women gathered. Pretty much a normal day, for a while.
But around midday, the Naylors got word about a fire a few miles away – and saw the smoke in the distance, “and slowly the smoke got bigger.” But by now, the power was out, and then cell phones went offline. The family couldn’t receive any updates on the fire situation “and the smoke just slowly creeped close and closer and closer.” By late afternoon the flames were visible and the family of seven opted to leave, even though they weren’t aware of any formal evacuation order. It just made sense to go.
“We completely thought we were coming back to our home in a couple of days,” explained Erik. “Little did we know as we were just leaving our home in the afternoon, the entire main stretch of the town (Lahaina) was just completely being burned down.” Cars were exploding. It was like a war zone. And that same fate would come a few hours later to the Naylor home.
By now, you’ve no doubt heard about the more than 100 lost lives, the many still unaccounted for, the massive destruction, and the blurry thoughts about the future of the Lahaina region.
Christians, through churches and relief organizations, are already playing a key role in helping traumatized residents survive emotionally and practically day-to-day, and pointing the way to hope for tomorrow. Pastor Erik, who is in the process of launching a new church (still unnamed) in Lahaina, shares that they had planned to start meeting as a church team on what turned out to be the day after the fire. But everyone was now scattered across Maui. And the same day had been set for the Naylor Family’s first day of school for the girls. But the school was lost. All the plans were literally up in smoke. So much was now in flux.
For the first days after the fire, Pastor Erik traveled to check on friends and church members, and bring them safe water and food. No one was entirely sure if friends and family were even still alive.
God kept his hand on the Naylors. “People are figuring out where they’re going to live. Ourselves, we – by God’s grace – we have a place right now, we have a place for the next month, and we’re trusting four or five weeks from now, that the Lord is going to provide again for us with permanent housing. All of our church members are in similar situations. Where are they going to live? What is their work going to look like?”
As for his church ‘planting’ mission, “A lot of the practical things are going to look very different. But the things I was convicted about, when we came out here, what we were going to do, we’ll continue to do – which is, we’re going to be a church focused on God’s Word, teaching small groups, one-on-one discipleship, individually, completely engrossed in God’s Word.” Pastor Erik intends to love on the people of Maui.
The mission has not changed. It has just gotten much more complicated. The Bibles, books, and teaching materials are ashes now. But, “We’re going to continue to be a people of prayer. More than ever, we feel the need for prayer. We always needed it, but now – just emotionally – we sense that we need to be a people that pray to a God that hears.” Pastor Erik, more determined than ever, plans to walk with new believers “life on life” and “We know that God is going, and can, and will do great things out of tremendous tragedy.”
“With Job, we can say, whether the Lord gives or takes away, blessed be his name!”
There are many ways to help the Naylor Family’s mission. Prayer is #1. And if you’d like to come alongside to learn more, click here.
Listen to our complete one-on-one interview with Erik Naylor:
