Nearly 70 students took advantage of a unique learning opportunity Thursday morning.
The Damien Memorial School students visited a downtown church that is a special place.
This small church is special because it's where the soon to be canonized Father Damien was ordained as a priest.
Michael Weaver, the school's principal says, "When I walk in and see the tomb of the Bishop who ordained him. And I can sit in that church, I can actually feel Father Damien's spirit in their." He adds,"It never fails to give me chicken skin."
Students too, 68 of them walked in and around the very church where Father Damien spent many of his days, before being assigned to Kalaupapa. 9th grader, Jacob Glasgow says, "I think it is special because knowing as I go to Damien I know he walked this place. And I know that I can do the same thing he did."
Principal Michael Weaver led the tour. Showing them such things as this tree stump, the first Kiawe tree ever planted in Hawaii. "What I wanted them to see was using it as an instrument to bring Damien alive. The fact that this tree was the first tree planted here is significant in the history of Hawaii. But then as I pointed out to them Father Damien probably sat right under that tree right there."
Walking in his footsteps learning more about a soon to be Saint Damien.
9th grader, Zak Yamauchi says, "He was a very, very kind man. And he did everything in his power to help people who weren't so fortunate."
Weaver says, "He said I hope that many will come to know God by my actions."
Weaver read a letter Damien penned more than a century ago on Molokai.
These are lessons Damien Memorial School intends to teach these young men. "In a sense we want you to be Father Damien in whatever way you can. Whatever way you can impact the world. He's an extraordinary person, there is probably not going to be another one of him, But they can each, in a way, be what he did to other people."
Lessons they can carry with them forever.
