By federal statute, our parish had to switch from a cesspool system to a sewer system that hooked up to the City & County sewer line. Failure to comply could lead to a fine of up to $10,000 per day. The County sewer line was too far away from where our school and church restrooms were. The estimated cost would be extremely high. On top of that, there was no way that we could make the change by the deadline date set by the federal government.

       Luckily, very few other business, as well as State and County facilities, could not meet the deadline either. Everyone was seeking an extension. The government gave in and said that as long as an identified facility was making an “earnest” effort to put in a sewer system, it would not be fined. That bought us a little time.

       Meanwhile, the land behind the parish school was being developed for residential housing. They also had to put in sewer lines. Since they had to run their sewer pipe all the way to North Road, perhaps we could hook up with them by running a sewer pipe from our school yard to their private road. That would save us a bundle. Top save more money, could we use the same heavy construction company that the housing development was already using? “Mother Mary, HELP US!” And she did, and we were able to put in the sewer line for a much lower cost ($165,000.00), than the $300,000 or more that it might have cost us.

      With the sewer line completed, we could now turn our attention to our parking situation. The driveway on the Campbell High School side of parish property that we had been using for years, belonged to the new housing development. Since this was gong to be a private “gated” community, that meant we had no exit on that side of the church. In order to put in a our own driveway, we needed to apply for a variance from the County. Since there already were two driveways in close proximity— at Campbell High School, and at the new housing development— it did not seem likely that the County would agree to our request for a third driveway. Our hopes and plans stalled. After the white fence was put up, not only was the parking on that side severely limited, but you had to drive back to the other parking lot on the Honolulu side, to exit onto North Road. This would cause a lot of congestion for parents dropping off and picking up their children at school, not to mention the added congestion on Sundays.

      With a lot of prayer, I decided…. I took a chance to have a temporary driveway cut on the Campbell High School side parking lot. I asked the construction company that was doing the road paving for the housing development if they would cut out the curbing in our parking lot fronting North Road. They did. I worried about what would happen if the County got wind of this, or even if the police were to ask questions. I did a lot of praying, and a lot of worrying. This went on for months while we waited to hear from the County about our request for a variance. Finally, we got it. How? I didn’t ask. I just thanked God and Our Mother. One more hurdle to go.

      Now we had to get the permit. Do you know what it’s like to get a construction permit from the County. It could take months! This called for more prayer. “We’ve come this far, please Mother Mary, help speed things up!” The call came from the Diocesan Office. We got the permit!

      We had budgeted around $100,000.00 for the driveway and parking lot on the Campbell School side. The engineering and drawings required to get the permit already cost us $12,000.00. The bids went out and the proposals came in. The lowest bid was for $45,000.00.  ALLELUIA!

      So we finally did it! The sewer system was complete, a new driveway put in, the Campbell side parking lot reconfigured, and we could finally move on to plan for our future. The history of this parish has been a history of Divine intervention with the intercession and assistance of our Blessed Mother. She really has lived up to her title of “Perpetual Help.”. May we, in turn, live up to our call and to our mission as the parish community of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Next:  Part VI - Where Do We Go From Here?.