"Aloha” is the most often-spoken word in Hawaii. Said with enthusiasm, it signals love and affection and can be used both as a greeting and a farewell. It was a word frequently on the lips of a Virginia Baptist minister during his recent trip for the Baptist World Congress in Honolulu. And there was another word which Bill Tuck of Richmond was quick to use when he visited Hilo on the beautiful Big Island. He expressed “mahalo” or “thank you” to members of the Kinoole Baptist Church where he had served as a student missionary in the summer of ’55.
Fred Anderson
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“This church meant a great deal to me,” he told a roundtable of the church’s WMU members. “I made no salary but this church gathered a love offering and I needed every amount of any love offering in those days. I appreciate what this church meant to me.”
In 1955 Bill Tuck was 19 years of age and between schools. He had finished at Bluefield College, a Baptist-affiliated school in Southwest Virginia, and was bound for Virginia Baptists’ senior college at the time, the University of Richmond. He had learned of the summer missionary opportunity and applied. It was expected that the summer missionary would lead Bible study and coordinate Vacation Bible School for the children. An unexpected opportunity awaited the Virginia college student. Bill Tuck arrived to find that the church was between pastors.
For two months the young man filled the role of a preaching pastor. He had no theological library from which to draw resources. He had no ready barrel of sermons. The situation gave him an opportunity to explore the Scriptures and find applications from everyday life. “I did not do much playing,” recalls Tuck who — despite living in a Hawaiian paradise replete with orchids growing in the yard — had to keep focused on the work at hand. He had no automobile and had to depend upon the kindness of the church folks to provide transportation.
Bill Tuck and his wife, Emily, were greeted by pastor Daniel Tomita (left) and Gail Inamine, minister of education.
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It was not until his return visit this month that he saw the other side of the Big Island and the bustling town of Kailua-Kona. He drove to view the volcanoes — active Kilauea and majestic Mauna Loa — and he re-visited Rainbow Falls which has been reduced to a mere trickle in the island’s current drought. But it was the sentimental return to Kinoole Baptist Church which meant the most to the visitor.
Kinoole was constituted in 1946. It had been gathered under the influence of Southern Baptist missionaries who, with China closed to them, had been sent to the Hawaiian Islands to begin mission work. The first building had been constructed of salvaged lumber from army buildings destroyed by a tsunami. The first baptistery was a sugar mill tank.
The present brick building was erected in 1952 and Bill Tuck immediately recognized it from the road. When he arrived, the doors were open but no one was around. He made his way to the auditorium and immediately found changes from 55 years ago. The pews were gone; and in their place, there were cushioned movable seats and picnic-style tables for dining. There was an array of equipment for sound and contemporary music.
In a few moments, the Kinoole pastor arrived from a local ministers’ conference. Daniel Tomita graciously greeted the visitors from Virginia and began sharing experiences from his pastorate of some 16 years. He introduced them to his associate, Gail Inamine, who has served as minister of education and administration for the last 31 years. Both ministers attended Southwestern Seminary in Texas and both are native Hawaiians. Daniel Tomita described the Hawaiian Baptist churches, including Kinoole, as being “in the heart of the community” and added: “That is where God wants us to be.”
The church’s location enables effective ministries. Kinoole offers an after-school program for about 60 children and public buses stop near the church’s door. Like many churches in Virginia, the Kinoole church has experimented with offering two worship styles. The drums and microphones in the auditorium indicated the contemporary service which draws about 60 worshippers and the pastor added that the traditional style service attracts an equal number.
Pastor Tomita shared that the greatest challenge is for a pastor “to stay awhile.” His wife is a “mainlander” and trips to her home require a large expenditure. “The challenge for our churches is that if they have a pastor with a mainland connection, there always is a strong draw for them to return. When people know you are going to stay, they begin to trust you as their pastor.”
For the summer missionary of ’55, there never was any doubt that he was temporary. The word “summer” said it all. Bill Tuck had reasons to return to the mainland. He had his sweetheart, Emily Campbell, waiting in Lynchburg and they had been sweethearts since high school. (The Hawaii trip coincided with their 50th wedding anniversary.) He also had his education before him.
William Powell Tuck had a career waiting to unfold. While at UR, he kept a long-distance student pastorate at Good Hope Church in the Shiloh Association. After college, he completed theological work at Southeastern and New Orleans seminaries. He undertook additional graduate study at Emory University.
His pastorates included Harrisonburg Church and First Church, Bristol, both in Virginia; St. Matthews Church in Louisville; and First Church, Lumberton, N.C. In retirement, he has served as interim pastor of First Church, Raleigh, N.C., as well as several Virginia churches: Hampton, Walnut Hills in Williamsburg and currently Cool Spring in Hanover County. He has taught at Southern Seminary and BTSR.
The teenage missionary who had no theology books is the same man who has amassed a large personal library. And long ago Bill Tuck began writing and publishing. He is the author of numerous books and frequently has a new book in progress. It all began for him that summer at Hilo in beautiful Hawaii. It is no wonder that Bill Tuck wanted to return and say “mahalo.”
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, located on the campus of the University of Richmond. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.