HANALEI — Walls exploding with toys and goodies, like flying helicopters and dolls in pink boxes, candies and crack seed, might not be the sort of things one would expect to find inside a ministry. But it’s the vision of
HANALEI — Walls exploding with toys and goodies, like flying helicopters and dolls in pink boxes, candies and crack seed, might not be the sort of things one would expect to find inside a ministry.
But it’s the vision of Damarys Baptiste, owner of the new Hanalei Toy and Candy Store in Ching Young Village.
“I have a great love for children, and this will be a great way of teaching them about the ministry,” Baptiste said. “The ministries need money, and the idea is the toy store will cover it; and I want kids to have a hanging spot, if they might be bored or be by themselves. This is a place that they can come.”
With only a few days before Christmas, the shop was hopping with customers, including parents with children in tow, trying to sneak about the small store and buy gifts without the little ones noticing.
One customer, who came in with a keiki, picked out an educational toy and handed it to Baptiste to put on “Santa’s list.”
“She’ll text message Santa,” the woman told the child, “and let him know that’s what you want.”
“But I don’t want that,” the little boy exclaimed while looking around the shop at the colorful displays.
Sporting a big smile on her face, Baptiste said it’s rewarding to watch kids run around with toys. “There’s a gift in giving.”
Ching Young Village usually has 100 percent retail occupancy. So when a spot opened up for a lease, Baptiste said she decided within 24 hours to take it. She opened for business in October, but she won’t hold the official grand opening until February when Christian Life Mission pastors are expected to arrive.
The pastors, who are also musicians and counselors, said Baptiste, will hold Sunday services in the back of the store. Baptiste also plans to eventually have a food bank, would like to teach children Spanish, and is preparing to soon offer puppet shows.
She already has the six-foot puppet theater frame ready to decorate as a stage. “We’re creating the script that has a king and queen that are stranded on an island, and pirates and animals,” she said.
Baptiste first learned of Christian Life Mission in Puerto Rico, where its church is called Iglesia del Nuevo Testamento Pentecostal. Ten years ago, she did a project with the ministry in Honduras, which involved taking sewing machines and Cornish hens to the needy, and compared it to teaching people to fish so they can feed themselves for a lifetime rather than giving them a fish so they can eat for a day.
“Those families are still surviving as a sewing business and a hen business,” she said.
Baptiste, originally from Puerto Rico, says her efforts are Christian-based and spiritual, but for her it’s not about religion.
“Religion says you have to be a certain way, and pushes people to do certain things. That’s not for me,” she said.
Christian Life Mission, started by Pastor Jill Barlock and Reverend David Barlock, is a Pentecostal movement that started in 1978 in Puerto Rico through the ministerial efforts of the American couple. Now, the ministry has churches all over Latin America.
Baptiste is the founder of Christian Life Mission Kaua‘i.
“I always wanted a ministry,” she said, “and a way to support it is through children’s things. Why burden the community. We can see what the needs are and figure it out. When there’s a need, you plant seed.”
The store opens Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 826-4400 for more information.
