Aloha St John’s!
Dear St. John’s Anglican Church Vestry,
Aloha! My name is Jonathan Fant, I am the lead planter for the Big Island Anglican Mission and Queen Emma Hall. Warren Goolsby and I met at a family dinner a few weeks ago and we were both surprised to find an anglican connection, he as your senior wardern and myself as a missioner and priest. It was so encouraging to connect with another fellow ACNA-er and hear about your parish, St. John’s. We will be praying for your parish at the next gathering of our mission.
We are so excited to share with you the story of this mission and the needs that we currently have. Our hope is that you will partner with us first in prayer and also, if the Lord leads, in financial giving. Below you will find a short description of our mission in the Puna district of the Big Island as well as a timeline of our plan. Following that, I outline our financial need and give an invitation to pray about how God might use St. John’s Anglican to meet a portion of that need. Thank you for your consideration and please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Peace of Christ, Jonathan Fant
Lead Planter Big Island Anglican Mission fr.jonathanfant@gmail.com 808-284-4154
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Vision
We seek to plant a church and a school in the Puna district, pursuing the mission of evangelizing generations through proclaiming the gospel in Word and Table and discipling families in their walk with Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that Puna becomes a land more and more marked by the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
We have begun Sunday services here locally in Puna as Heritage Anglican Church!
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Values
We want to be a people who follow the movements of the Holy Spirit, worship God passionately, preach the Bible faithfully, and evangelize and disciple families and generations. This is all shaped by the Gospel grounded rhythms of our Anglican practice and liturgy, and enriched by our local culture on the Big Island.
We are passionate about equipping men, women, and children to live under the lordship of Jesus Christ, allowing the gospel to permeate their land, homes, and workplaces.
We believe that the traditional values of Hawaiian culture are God given and find their truest expression within the grand story of the God’s redemption of the whole world.
Our Story
In 2020, a year of shaking and change for everyone, I (Jonathan) was called into ordained ministry. Jessica and I were then asked by our pastor to pray for where God might have us plant a church. We prayed and immediately were impressed with a call to go to the Hilo side of the Big Island. Both of us love that side of the island and had always imagined ending up there with our family. But we had never considered a ministry context until this call came.
3 years later, after visiting more than a dozen times we have begun many friendships, cultivated strategic partnerships, and began casting vision for a church and school community in the Puna district. God has given us a heart for the broken places of Puna; for the lonely, oppressed, unchurched, and forgotten families in our state’s poorest area. We are confident that God will provide our needs in going and will continue to equip us for the gospel work we are called to.
Timeline and Goals
2024 - 2025
Move to Puna
Move to Puna. We are planning and committed to moving late February 2024. To this end we have both ceased our employment at Saint Benedict Hall and are full-time fundraising this winter.
Gathering our team
We are praying for two specific families from Oahu (our current island) and a few folks from the Big Island to join us. We have two individuals and two Big Island families who are committed to joining our gatherings as soon as we move.
Partner with Ohana Church
We are partnering with the awesome people at Ohana Church in Hilo. Jonathan will serve in some capacity there until the launch team grows to where we can begin regular Sunday gatherings. Meanwhile, at Ohana Church, we can learn from those already doing effective gospel ministry among local families and where we can learn more about the family networks that run the island.
Midweek Evening Prayer
We will begin a midweek evening prayer service at our home as soon as we land. We will spend a season doing Sunday mornings at Ohana Church, while also actively gathering a group around a vision for liturgy and family worship in our home. We aim for this gathering to grow enough in the first 12 months to begin Sunday morning services by Christ the King Sunday, 2024 (November 24th).
Seeds for a School
Gather a group of like-minded families to lay the groundwork for a collaborative Christian education program to meet the desperate educational needs in Puna. We aim to gather together starting in the school year 24-25 for weekly meetings for classes and prayer, developing into a full-fledged collaborative Christian education program for grades K-8 by the Fall of 2025.
Begin Weekly Eucharist Gatherings
By Christ the King Sunday 2024, begin weekly Sunday Eucharist Servies.
Needs
As you may know, church planting is a resource intensive work, especially in the context of Hawaii. We are seeking to be as well equipped and resourced for the mission that God has placed in our hands. To that end we are thinking like missionaries and raising monthly support to cover the cost of living and ministry.
Our church planting network Diocese of the Rocky Mountains) is giving a significant grant, but we need to make up a gap of around $60K-80K per year. This is being raised primarily through small individual pledges of $50 per month and we have raised about 90% percent of our funding goal in this manner.
In addition the personal support and church planting efforts, we do need to raise about $150K to plant the school, Queen Emma Hall. This school will meet the desperate need for affordable, Christian, and quality educational alternatives in the district of Puna. The choices most parents face is between failing public and charter schools, massively expensive private schools, and homeschooling with very little support in a rural area. We believe the model we’ve developed at Saint Benedict Hall on Oahu could meet the need in Puna and even be expanded to other districts on the Big Island as well. There are many factors that need to be in place, a crucial one is sufficient seed money to be able to subsidize a portion of the cost for a few years in the beginning of the program.
We are asking St. John’s to consider two actions:
1.) Please send out the link to our website and giving page to anyone in your church who you think may be interested in a.) signing up for our prayer team and b.) financially partnering with us.
2.) Please pray amongst your missions team as to how God may lead St. John’s to partner with the Big Island Anglican Mission. We are looking to raise $150K in seed money for the school as well monthly support for Jessica and I. We are asking church partners are to consider giving anywhere from $50 to $500 a month. Giving to either or both of those two ways would be a massive blessing. If anyone on your clergy or vestry wants to dive deeper into our financials (projected budget, previous budgets, controls, etc…) please let me know and we would be happy to supply any information we can give.
For whatever God leads you to do, we are deeply thankful. Thankful to have brothers and sisters in Christ who share a vision for the spread of the gospel in Hawaii and the flourishing of the people of Puna.
Helpful Links
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Giving Page
https://www.bigislandanglican.com/give
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Diocese of the Rocky Mountain Church Planting Page
https://rockymountainanglican.org/church-planting/
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What We Believe
https://www.bigislandanglican.com/what-we-believe
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Big Island Anglican Mission QR Code
