Bay of Dreams: Stand up paddling to new perspectives

Bay of Dreams is an outreach ministry that provides free paddle board lessons, offering people an exhilarating experience designed to bring them closer to God. Salvation Army member George Kalilikane, whose life was transformed by his love of stand-up paddling, provides community to those he instructs, hoping to inspire similar transformations. 

His passion for people and faith drive him to encourage others to spend time on the water for a fresh outlook on life. If you’re ever on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, you won’t want to miss out on a free lesson that could change your life.

Below is a transcript of the video, edited for readability.

George Kalilikane: 14 years ago, I was sitting in the doctor’s office, and I was told that I was two months away from diabetes. I understood that challenge because my father-in-law passed from diabetes. I watched this man lose his toe, lose his foot, lose his life. I said, I refuse to let one disease control my life. And because I had grown up on the water, surfing and hanging out in ocean, I thought the best way to exercise was to go catch me some waves.

I got myself a paddleboard. I figured out how to surf and catch waves. When I returned to the doctor’s office three months later, I had lost about 30 pounds. And once I was told by the doctor that I no longer was at risk of being diabetic, I taught it as a gift from God. So I decided to give away that gift. I said, Lord, I’m going to do these Stand Up Paddling and lessons for your glory.

At first, no one came. It took me two weeks to realize that God was the only one I told. I never told anybody else. I said, if somehow, some way, you send the people to me, I will give them the knowledge, I’ll give them the information, shoot, I’ll give them the equipment to spend quiet time with you, Lord. And then shortly after that, people started showing up. 

My purpose of actually getting people out on the water is to create separation from their existing life and so that they can be in God-created environment, so that they can feel his goodness, they can feel his joy. They can come away from this time at Bay of Dreams and Uncle George with a different perspective. You just hope that it multiplies.

John: Coming out to Bay of Dreams, we get a different feeling. Looking at the mountains and the ocean, it just takes us away from everything.

Crickett: Lots of times when you take out the noise of life around you, you get a chance to kind of sit and think about what’s important. He’s going to talk story for a little bit, and then he’s going to get up, and he’s going to teach you a lesson, and then you can take the board and go out and paddle.

Majors Osei and Lynn Stewart: Our first time Paddleboarding was with Uncle George. He is one of our soldiers, our members of our church here. And to hear the passion that he had and the love he had for Paddleboarding, but also for people, was just a great thing. He could very well be just staying within the church, but he has decided to be bold and to go out and to meet people, hear their stories, and to journey along with them. And that is a huge part of the mission of The Salvation Army.

Amanda: Uncle George is somebody who really sees you and cares and wants to know, not just like, hey, how’s it going? But how are you?, like, what’s going on? He’s invited me kind of into his community because he saw that I didn’t really have a lot of outlets for that. I’ve been here almost every week ever since.

Sabra: It’s not always the same people. You show up and you kind of like, look who’s here. For us it’s kind of fun now because with our boys, they get so excited to come out here, too.

John: Our Bay of Dreams ohana have been very supportive throughout our time. When we got married to when we had our second son, Zealand, he was actually born with challenges.

Sabra: I ended up having, like, a complete placental abruption. When he was born, he had, like, no heartbeat, nothing.

John: While I was at the hospital and Sabra was in surgery, I felt really alone, and helpless. We reached out to Uncle George through his fellowship here. He’s built up a huge prayer network and he told us that he would help pray for Zealand and us. Even though people weren’t with us in the room, we had a lot of people supporting us. Thanks to God, our prayers were answered, and that was a big part of it, just having that support through that tough time.

Crickett: Just recently, my uncle came over. He was a soldier. He happened to get exposed to some of the chemical warfare. He got Parkinson’s and started to kind of feel like he had no control inside. I said, Uncle George, can we set up a time to see you? My uncle did not know he was going to get on a board. He’s like, what? I’m going to fall. Uncle George says, Sergeant Westfall, we got it. And he puts him on the front of the board, and then Uncle George stands on the back. It was just so moving. Uncle George was his legs to stand up, Uncle George was his arms to paddle. He comes back and he’s in tears and he’s like, that man is an angel. He felt so strong, so motivated and so inspired.

Sabra: I feel like Bay of Dreams, I think for both of us, it’s just been like such a family and source of support and such a positive thing in our life. It’s been life changing.

John: I think God works through Uncle George to help people in time of need.

Uncle George: It’s been pretty amazing how I got to be that person in the front row when really I always was the person in the third row that never really wanted to participate because I never thought I could talk to people about my God. But our world needs it because people are hurting. People need to know that somebody loves them. We got to say, dude, how are you doing?  Do you know God loves you? Can I pray for you? God makes it feel so good when you touch another individual that you want to do it again and again and again.

Do Good:

• See more videos like this in our video feed.
• Are you a Do Gooder, someone who cares about bringing goodness into the life of your family and community? Subscribe to The Do Gooders Podcast to be inspired by those doing good and find tangible tips for simple actions you can take today.
• Did you know The Salvation Army served more than 23 million Americans last year fighting hunger, homelessness, substance abuse and more—all in a fight for good? Where can you help? Take our quiz to find your cause and learn how you can join in today.