THE ALOHA PEOPLE by H. L. WEGLEY

THE ALOHA PEOPLE by H. L. WEGLEY
Thursday, April 18, 2024 by Patti Shene

FEATURED BOOK: Facing the Darkness (Against the Darkness 1)

AUTHOR: H L Wegley

PUBLISHER: Trinity Press International

GENRE: Medical Thriller

SERIES OR STAND ALONE: Book 1, Against the Darkness

TARGET AGE: College age and up

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AUTHOR H. L. WEGLEY TO THE OVER 50 WRITER. H. L. SHARES INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE POLYNESIAN PEOPLE AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

THE ALOHA PEOPLE

H. L. Wegley

When my wife and I retired and spent six weeks in Maui to wind down from stressful jobs, I became interested in the Polynesian people, their history, and culture. After reading several books and observing the people firsthand, I’m providing my nutshell description of the breathtaking history of this special group of people.

First, a principal: regardless of what modern anthropologists say—anthropologists whose findings are often tainted by inadequate theories of human sociology, psychology, and evolution—cultures grow darker the more the knowledge of God is removed from them. “Pristine” cultures are not always beautiful. Some are horrifying. If you don't believe me, read Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman's Story by Mark Andrew Ritchie, a real eye-opener.

According to Daniel Kikawa, in his well-researched book, Perpetuated in Righteousness, the Polynesian people migrated eastward from the Middle East, the cradle of civilization, eventually reaching the Pacific. They became great navigators and, a little before 400 A.D., using the stars, they made a miraculous journey in small boats, hitting a minute target in the middle of the Pacific, the Hawaiian Islands. They brought with them much of the Old Testament in story form, including stories of the flood, Joseph, Moses, and much more. In fact, their word, aloha, derives directly from this retained knowledge of God. “Alo” means Divine Son of God in their high priestly language. “Ha” means spirit of life. So, to say aloha is literally to say, “May the spirit of the one true God go with you.” Aloha is much like “shalom” used by the Jewish people.

For nearly 1,000 years, the “spirit of aloha” and the stories of God they preserved characterized the culture of this Pacific paradise. But around 1,300 A.D., Pa’ao, a pagan priest, arrived from Tahiti and began to rule with force and fear, introducing evils such as gruesome methods of human sacrifice and perverting God by characterizing Him as a violent god of war. The priests of this religion controlled the people, demanding from them what the religious leaders needed to live in wealth and luxury, enslaving the people and forcing them to fight in their armies to conquer more territory. But the stories of God were hidden in the hearts of a few people who refused to forget them.

Eight hundred years later, in the early 1800s, several things happened that prepared the islands for a return to God. King Kamehameha unified the islands, freeing them from the former system of rule, kapu. The people openly defied the laws of the kapu system.

A new priest began quoting an old prophecy announcing the imminent coming of the Prince of Peace, who was supposed to arrive on a ship with white sails and give them back the knowledge of the God of peace. He would come by way of a small black box. At that very time, the first missionaries were onboard a ship on their way to the Hawaiian Islands. When the ship landed, the first thing the missionaries brought to the people was a black Bible box.

The Hawaiian people’s hearts had been prepared for this event and the gospel spread in a huge revival beginning in 1837 and lasting more than 20 years. By 1860, the island population was 90% Christian, and it had the highest literacy rate in the world because people wanted to read and study the scriptures.

I chose to end the story on this high note because the last 40 years of the 19th century were a sad time in Hawaiian history. I pray that the people of the Islands will return to their historical beliefs in the one true God, that they will be made whole again, and that their many wounds will be healed.

Back Cover Blurb for Facing the Darkness

She scuttled the CCP’s biowarfare plans. When they catch her, she will pay.

Dr. Meiling Chen, a brilliant young virologist from the Hong Kong Medical School, is on the verge of a major breakthrough for manipulating the entire class of RNA viruses that would make gain of function hardly more than child’s play. She is offered an attractive postdoctoral fellowship at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to complete her work, and she accepts.

Knowing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plans to use her work to create deadly bioweapons, she memorizes her important findings, deletes all her files, and tries to escape to America with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents in pursuit.

Escaping China with its surveillance and social credit system is not easy. And even if Meiling is successful, can she find someone she can trust in the U.S. who will allow her to continue her work, using it only for good? But treachery is a capital offense to the CCP and PLA, and it never goes unpunished.

Ryan Adams, a meteorologist at a Bend, Oregon TV station and a self-taught Christian apologist, said he’d give his right arm for a reliable source of info on China’s bioweapons program. He might get his wish, but it could cost him more than just his right arm.

Set in Wuhan China, Hong Kong, Oregon, and Colorado, Facing the Darkness is a clean medical thriller that paints a picture of the cost of Facing the Darkness.

Purchase Link for Facing the Darkness

Available on KU

H. L. Wegley served in the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. In civilian life, he was a weather forecaster and a research scientist in atmospheric physics. After earning an MS in Computer Science, he developed computing systems for Boeing before retiring in the Seattle area, where he and his wife of 57 years enjoy small-group ministry, grandchildren, hiking Olympic Peninsula beaches, visiting Maui whenever they can, and where he writes inspirational thrillers and romantic-suspense novels.