Ministry During the Disruption

[12] Being There For Students - Amy Shiroma

• InterVarsity Christian Fellowship • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Amy Shiroma is an instructor of hotel and resort operations at Kapiolani Community College. As the tourism industry in Hawai'i shut down due to the pandemic, Amy felt a stirring from the Holy Spirit. She made a short video to encourage her anxious students. In the process, Amy began to focus more on the Lord and started sharing her faith in ways that feel warm and inclusive. And it's making a difference for her students.

LINKS

We wanted to share one of the videos Steve and Amy discuss on the episode: Life Lessons (Kindness) // https://youtu.be/3qpxflHfmGc.

Amy shared about feeling inspired by the song "The Blessing" from Elevation Worship. Click here to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ55mDL7dA0.

We've created a website (updated daily) full of resources to help you with Ministering Online Through COVID-19: intervarsity.org/online.

Steve Tamayo:   0:12
This disruption has sparked remarkable creativity. Today on Ministry During the Disruption ,we're gonna bring you a story about just that. My name is Steve Tamayo, and joining me on the podcast today is an instructor at Kapiolani Community College. Did I say that, right?  

Amy Shiroma:   0:29
Yes.  

Steve Tamayo:   0:30
She's an instructor of hotel and resort operations. She has been teaching for four or five years now. Ratemyprofessors.com has multiple different people who describe her as creative, as dedicated, and as very fun. I think one person even described her as compassionate, not what you often hear from a college instructor. Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Amy Shiroma.  

Amy Shiroma:   0:56
Thank you, Steve. I can't believe you looked at "rate my professor."  

Steve Tamayo:   1:00
Of course, you always look at "rate my professor" before jumping on with a professor. So, how long has the campus been closed?

Amy Shiroma:   1:08
The campus closed right around spring break, so that was mid March.

Steve Tamayo:   1:14
And tell me a little bit about your situation when the campus closed down.

Amy Shiroma:   1:19
Well, we had heard all about what was happening, you know, in China and things were getting kind of crazy. And we all said it's just a matter of time, especially for Hawai'i, before we start seeing cases here. I think we were all feeling anxious already because there was a cruise line that had come through Hawai'i, and there were infected crew and passengers. So I think we were all knowing this was coming, but we had maybe a couple days to prepare before we broke for spring break. So some students we were able to tell directly and others, we already had class. So you had to, you know, get in touch with them virtually to let them know, "Oh, it'll just be for a couple of weeks, you know? See you guys in mid April."

Steve Tamayo:   2:06
I think that's what we all thought at the time. How did your hospitality and tourism students respond?

Amy Shiroma:   2:12
I think a lot of them were anxious. I was a bit stressed and not thinking my students were stressed.I thought, "Oh, Gen Z, Gen Y - you know, they're not even gonna be bothered by it. But in that first week, when they were starting to ask me, "Should I change my major? Should I go into nursing? Oh, maybe tourism's not going to be around after COVID-19." I was like, "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, no." And there was a lot of reassuring that had to happen that first week or two.

Steve Tamayo:   2:46
I think sometimes we look at the younger generation and we think, "Oh, they're so resilient with the technology stuff; they're so comfortable with technology." It's very tempting to think this is going to be easy for them. And because you do have a reputation for being caring and engaged with your students, there is a chance for you to see a little bit up close how they're responding,

Amy Shiroma:   3:10
Right, I think, you know, half of them were telling me before we broke for spring break, "You know, I I never signed up for online classes." "Yeah, I know. And I'm gonna make it as engaging and painless as I can, you know, you're really gonna be okay. And I won't be there physically, but and that I'm here for you, You know, now it's even easier to get a hold of each other. You know, with technology."

Steve Tamayo:   3:37
What does "I'm here for you" look like for your students?

Amy Shiroma:   3:41
Being here for them initially meant, you know, I'm here for you to help you through your assignments and understanding we were going to start going through some complicated work. And then after that first week, you know, I realized well, being here for you means, "Do you need someone to talk to? Do you need to vent because your house is so full of kids and parents and grandparents that you can't focus? Or are you so anxious and you don't want to talk to your parents because they just lost their job? You know, you want to be strong for them, but you're having trouble with that."

Steve Tamayo:   4:19
You've been so responsive to your students and so available to them. I imagine that's been very meaningful to them. I do also want to ask you about this story that I heard that you haven't just been responding to your students but that you've also been taking initiative to engage them in ministry. Could you share a little bit more about what you did?

Amy Shiroma:   4:39
After the first week we were off, like spring break was spring break. Everybody was, you know, doing their own thing. I don't think it hit the students, or us even, until we were back in school, and we're all trying to get through the first week of online classes. And, you know, I'd have these student hours where we do a Zoom thing and everybody, you know, whoever needed anything would chime in and the students were chiming in, "Oh, how do I navigate the course? How do we go through these different things?" And then students started to share, "You know, I'm scared. My husband, he won't let me even get on the bus now, you know, so I can't go anywhere. Like I can only walk my dog a certain route, you know, because I think everybody's infected." I'm like, "Oh." You know, and another girl was crying because she can't see her boyfriend because she has to stay at home and her father picks her up outside of WalMart after she gets off work and brings her straight home. I don't think I was prepared for that - the emotional part. I'm a very empathic person, but I was like, "Oh, you don't want talk about class? You want to talk about life?" You know, and digging deep to encourage them in the midst of my own anxiety about what was going on.  

Steve Tamayo:   5:46
So you're feeling this deep well of compassion, and I think a lot of times we feel that compassion, but it can be very hard to translate that compassion into action.

Amy Shiroma:   5:58
Yeah, so that week I went on a walk around my neighborhood and I was like, "Wow, that's so pretty. Oh, they really made this area nice. Oh, look at the families walking." And I started to feel -  of course I had worship music on on my ear pods - and I felt stirred. For me, every time the Holy Spirit starts stirring, you know, I don't want to listen sometimes, but then they're stirring. And then your heart start shaking, and I come home and I'm like, "I have an idea!" I thought, "Well, I'll just do a short video that tells them to be encouraged, you know, to show kindness, to be thankful, and it's all going to be okay because we're all in this together." You know, that was the theme we're hearing - that we're all in this together. And I thought, I'll just do that one video for the second week. So when they open up the lesson plan they'll be like, "Oh there's a video. Oh, I feel better." And then that was it.  

Steve Tamayo:   6:51
So what was in the video?

Amy Shiroma:   6:53
For me, it was just things I learned on my walk around the neighborhood. It was just a reflective thing about what I was learning and thought that what I was learning would encourage them. On the walk, there was some sidewalk chalk on a rock. It had just rained the day before, so there was no writing on the sidewalk. But I walked past the chalk, and then I turned around and I looked around like "Who's looking at me? Somebody's got to be looking. Oh, nobody's looking." So I grabbed the piece of sidewalk chalk, and I wrote, in chalk, "Be encouraged" on the sidewalk. Then I put the chalk back, and I continued my walk. So a half hour later, I'm coming back down the same route, and there's two other messages. There's a family taking a picture with the messages, and I thought, "Wow, you know, somebody left that out there. Maybe it was a kid in the neighborhood." And then people are walking around the chalk art because they don't want to walk on it, and I think people were looking for something. You know, people are always looking for something to encourage them during this time.

Steve Tamayo:   8:01
So you've released four videos so far; they've been watched several hundred times, and I imagine that your students are starting to hear not only this message of encouragement, but also some elements about your faith.

Amy Shiroma:   8:15
So, I had gotten an email from a student that she was feeling overwhelmed because, you know, people were hoarding, people were rude in the store, and she said she'd go home at night and cry because people are just so horrible. And her email, now it brings me to tears, her email was that she has family issues and all kinds of issues that she didn't get into. But she said that she was gonna withdraw from school because it was just too much. And then she saw my video and she said, "I just watched your video every day before I go into the store to refuel my encouragement, and I hope you do something next week." I was like, "Oh, next week? Oh, I was just gonna do that once, you know?" And I was feeling low, you know, I had actually been kind of "church shopping." I just think this time has really helped me to focus back on the Lord and focus back on my relationship with him. And I wanted to share that. It was risky for me to think about that: "Oh, I'm gonna share the love of God somehow in these videos." So that Easter week, I did a video and I was blown away by, you know, "The Blessing" worship song from Elevation Worship. And I was, you know, encouraged by an Easter message. I think I went to three online services, and I wanted to share that with the students. And so I looked for background music that was worship instrumental. I was never the one that was comfortable with the person that sat next to me on campus and said, "Do you know Jesus?" And I'd be like, "Yikes! No, get away from me!" You know, I was never that person, but I found in my walk with Christ that building relationship and sharing hearts with people brings them to want to know more. And I wanted to be able to do that. And so I did a video that offered the blessing from Numbers 6 at the end, and I got scared, but I did it and put it out there

Steve Tamayo:   10:32
In the videos, something that really struck me - well, two things that really struck me. The first is how kind of warm and inclusive your talk about your faith was. I would feel like even if someone was not currently engaged with God or didn't share your Christian beliefs, they could still see that this was something you're offering generously, not forcing on people or arguing with people about. There was an inclusivity to it that I thought was really beautiful. And the other thing is that in all four of the videos, it seems like this theme of "aloha" shows up. Now, I'm from Tampa, so you know, not from Hawai'i. And so being from Tampa, we hear "aloha" as like that's like how you say hello and goodbye. And I gather that there's more to it as I hear you talk about aloha and the spirit of aloha.

Amy Shiroma:   11:26
So aloha, for us in Hawai'i, aloha is actually 2 words placed together in the Hawaiian language. It's "alo," which is the "connection to" and "ha," which is "the spirit within" or "the breath of life." So "aloha" is the connection of spirit that's breathed forth by your action in what you say. There's a Hawaiian proverb that says, "Aloha aku, aloha mai." "Aloha aku," meaning "give aloha" and conversely, "you will receive aloha" - "aloha mai." You know, that correlates so well to what we learn in our Christian walk, right? It is better to give than receive. And aloha is that spirit in the Hawaiian understanding, aloha is a connection to spirit. So for the ancient Hawaiians it was a connection to the land, to the ocean, to the sky, to the wind, and to the Hawaiian gods that they believed in. You know, to the contemporary Hawaiian who loves Jesus, you know, it's a connection to God's Spirit. And so my students might think, "Oh, aloha. Yeah, oh, I feel so good about it." It defines who we are in Hawai'i and for me, with this time in these little videos I'm making, I mean, I feel like it's a way of sharing that blessing and connecting that, you know, emotional learning to God.

Steve Tamayo:   13:04
Wonderful. One of the things that we do on the podcast is we like to pray for our guests. Amy, is there any way that we could pray for you or for your students?

Amy Shiroma:   13:13
I think I still feel, and I know my students feel it, and I think our whole community still feels anxious. 30, almost 40% of Hawai'i is unemployed because of our dependence on tourism. Prayer against anxiety that we're feeling and for financial provision in a time when we think that there's nothing out there that that we hold strong, that you know, God's going to provide for us in another month of being home.

Steve Tamayo:   13:46
Okay, let's pray. Lord God, we ask that you, God, who created the islands of Hawai'i, who created the people of those islands, that you would also create peace for them in the midst of this time of great disruption, that you would create provision for them and this time of great want, and that you would create the sense of connectedness with each other in this time, even as you've been doing this for Amy. We ask that you would make yourself so abundantly clear, Jesus. Would they know you and know that they're loved by you. We pray this in your name. Amen.  

Amy Shiroma:   14:33
Amen. Thank you.  

Steve Tamayo:   14:34
Well, thanks. Mahalo and aloha!

Amy Shiroma:   14:38
Oh, thank you, Steve, it was a pleasure being with you today. Aloha!