Our Story
Breath of Life was started on Mother’s Day in 1996 by Pastor Tom and D’Lissa Iannucci. Along with a long time friend Dondi Ho (daughter of the legendary Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho) they met at the newly opened Kauai Veteran’s Center in Lihue. In a small room, with a stack of chairs for a podium and a total of five people, including Pastor Tom, Breath of Life was born.
Pastor Tom was ordained during that same time period by Pastor Derald Skinner and Pastor Heath Habbeshaw of Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor on Oahu. Pastor Derald and Pastor Heath had been guiding and mentoring Pastor Tom since their time at Calvary Chapel Honolulu in the early 1990’s. It was Pastor Derald and Pastor Heath who initially took Pastor Tom aside prayed with him because they felt he had a calling on his life while he was serving at Calvary Chapel Honolulu.
Thus the church was originally called: Breath of Life Calvary Chapel, because they had come out of Calvary Chapel Honolulu. After only a few months the church continued to grow and they had to expand to a larger room and a smaller one for the children that began to accompany their parents. Having bought his wife a guitar only a month or two earlier, D’Lissa became the worship leader with Dondi Ho accompanying her. Not knowing how to read music and only knowing only a couple of cords, D’Lissa began to write her own worship music. Those songs became quite popular within the church and it developed into its own style of worship that continues on today. Not only was she just learning to play, but in those days she had to learn to play while pregnant with their third child.
Within a year and a half the church had to move into a new location at the Kauai Fruit and Flower Stand just north of the airport in Lihue. They rented the back half of the building and they had to renovate the space in order to utilize it. A lot of work was done and the church continued to grow, so more work had to be done in just a short time. Knocking down a wall or two and turning the sanctuary around to accommodate more people the church eventually went to two services. During this time Pastor Tom continued to work full time as the island manager of the Sears Service Center in Lihue. He had to carefully balance family, work and church for the first six years of the ministry. There were some trying times, but the Lord was always faithful to see them through.
The church had many people rise up and help, one of which was a man who had been there from the beginning: Bob Castro. Bob along with his wife Irma came along side Pastor Tom & D’Lissa in the big brother, big sister way. Bob Castro became Pastor Tom’s first assistant Pastor and was truly a blessing to the ministry along with his wife. During the end of 2001 Pastor Tom and Pastor Bob began a search for a new building because the church continued to grow. They settled upon a warehouse in the Rice Shopping Center. Unfortunately Pastor Bob would pass away a few months later. He died on Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday of 2002. He was missed greatly but was also a catalyst in seeing the warehouse completed.
Around this time for many reasons, Breath of Life decided not to affiliate with Calvary Chapel, which was moving to have official affiliations and regional governing. Although coming out of Calvary Chapel Honolulu under Bill Stonebreaker and being ordained by Pastor Derald of Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor, Pastor Tom decided Breath of Life should become an independent ministry outside of the Calvary Chapel affiliation. Although the church remains associated with Calvary Chapel, they are not an “official” affiliate.
Pastor Tom says:
“During this time we were looking at what “church” was all about and what it really meant. We loved Calvary Chapel and we saw in it a successful ministry template that we could draw on. We also saw how God moved through Chuck Smith, who is an awesome man of God, in the creation of that ministry. At the same time, we also saw the uniqueness of Kauai where Calvary Chapel didn’t derive from. The question we had to ask was: What was God’s plan for Kauai? What did God want to do through us? Did we have the faith to step out on our own and see God do a new work, a unique work? There were many questions we had to ask ourselves. There was also a little turmoil and shuffling about on Kauai with new Calvary Pastors and new Calvary’s Chapels coming in. We had been ministering on Kauai since we had moved back in January of 93’ and we had saw many ministries come in and then go back out over the years, ministries that had come from outside of Kauai or Hawaii. Kauai was also my wife’s home, where she was born and raised and we really had a heart for the local people. To be focused on them. It became apparent to us that the Lord was moving us in our own direction, one that was specific to the island we were living on. Through prayer we understood that the Lord was calling us to do something new and develop our own island style of ministry that was Kauai focused. I also realized that I was trusting more in the Calvary Chapel name, than I was in the Lord and what He could do. It was challenging and a step of faith to not affiliate and go on our own, but we withdrew the affiliation papers and settled on becoming Breath of Life Christian Ministries. There was some heartache and headache over it, but in the end we see it was the right decision and we see the fruit of it. This was a step of faith that I think we needed to take. A step of faith that would have us trust in the Lord for something new, which was birthed and focused on Kauai.”
Breath of Life continues to be associated with Calvary Chapel and still sees them as one the most solid ministries around today. The styles of ministry are very close and Pastor Tom maintains a strong relationship with Pastor Bill, Pastor Derald, Pastor Heath and other Calvary’s both on and off of the island.
In 2002 Breath of Life took over the old Big Save warehouse that Pastor Tom and Pastor Bob prayed about. At one point the entire church went inside the warehouse and had a time of prayer and agreed to make the move. The warehouse is located at the Rice Shopping Center in the heart of Lihue where they wanted to be. The steel framed building itself was comprised of four black painted metal walls and one line of electric light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. No plumbing, no bathrooms, no anything. Four metal walls, a concrete floor and a two hundred pound sliding metal door that tested many men. Opening and closing that door became a test in itself. It was truly a step of faith to take over this 8000 square foot building with no money or supplies. It had been used as a Teen Rave Spot where they would cram hundreds of kids into it, with no bathrooms or running water, running generators for electric and pounding loud music well into the night.
Pastor Tom remembers: “You had to have vision, really. It was a step of faith because it was hot, dark and void of anything we could utilize. There were some small black offices that we had to tear out and paint the walls white just to begin to work. There were no windows, many rats, a lot of heat and tons of work. Unfortunately a decent amount of people left the church because of it. Some lacked the vision, some just didn’t want to be inconvenienced. But many others did stay and stuck it out. They all were blessed by the completion of the work and the reality of the vision and just how this location has been used over the years.”
Interestingly enough, in the valley below the building, as the loud blaring music of the teen’s raving away into the night played, there was an elderly woman who would pray for that building to be made a church. Breath of Life was the fulfillment of that prayer. Years later should would come up and tell us about her prayers, and we saw it as a testimony that God had directed us to that slot. With only two thousand dollars in the bank and the contractors telling Pastor Tom he would need in excess of $275,000, Breath of Life stepped out in faith and took over the building signing a six year lease.
During that first week a woman in the church explained that she believed in the vision that Pastor Tom had to build a church in this warehouse and she proceeded to give a check for $20,000.00 and the ball began to roll. Other visitors on vacation also stepped up with a $10,000.00 donation. A month or so later another visitor dropped in $7,000.00, another five and many one thousand dollar gifts as well came in. Later on Breath of Life received another $10,000.00 donation. Someone even donated a timeshare for the church to sell. A Christian contractor from California, Myron Manion, moved over for a few months to work on the project helping out tremendously. The church also paid for Pastor Tom to fly over to Honolulu to take a one week certification course in grant writing.
The cost of the course and trip was $1,300.00 which was a huge amount at the time, but off he went and he got the certification. The next week or so later, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had a free Grant Writing certification course and Pastor Tom attended it as well. One month later he submitted his first grant and was awarded the most money that was ever awarded to a church by the Vidinha Trust, a whopping $45,000.00. He would go on to write another four grants for $9,000.00 + to gain supplies and equipment for the Christian Self Defense Academy Dojo, which is a free Martial arts outreach program that is operated in the church.
The building phase of the church took quite a long time as the church itself did most of the work on weekends and after hours. But there was much help. It could not have been done without the help of Mark & Nadine Begley of Stone Tree Construction. They came along side of us from the beginning and got us rolling. There were so many helping hands it would take a mile to list them all.
One of the earliest offers of help came from Mission Valley Christian Fellowship out of San Diego and their Pastor, Pastor Leo Giovinetti. Pastor Tom had called Pastor Leo after hearing him on the radio with his “Real Life Radio” program and they developed a relationship that had Pastor Leo and a team from his church come to Kauai, do an outreach and help build the church. The team was led by Carl Starrett of Starrett Construction Inc. and the people of Mission Valley.
This relationship led to many outreaches with Pastor Leo on Kauai and Pastor Tom being a guest speaker at MCVF’s men’s retreat as well as during one of Pastor Leo’s Israel Tours. The relationship between Mission Valley and Breath of Life continues to this day.
During this construction phase Pastor Moki Okami was raised up as Pastor Tom’s assistant pastor and deacons were commissioned as well. Breath of Life also sponsored the Kauai House of Prayer’s 24 Hour Prayer and Worship events, brining all churches on the island together for a time of non-stop prayer and worship. These were powerful events and the island saw God move throughout the churches. Pastor Tom encouraged the people to write scriptures in the walls at these events and the sanctuary was covered in God’s Word. He also had bibles placed in all the walls before they were closed up in the hopes of witnessing to those who would come later when the facility was being torn down or renovated once again. His hope was for those construction workers who would come later, to find the Word of God and the testimony of his people all around them.
In 2004 the Mayor of Kauai called all the pastors on the island together and asked if they could help in fighting the Ice epidemic (Crystal Methamphetamine) that was besieging the state. Pastor Tom saw it as an open invitation for the church to be used and bless the island in some way. Already a speaker in the schools and at County Anti drug events, Pastor Tom along with Conrad Ramos founded the Christian Self Defense Academy in the loft of the church. Originally slated for offices, this area became a training dojo. With money received from grants, the Christian Self Defense Academy quickly became one of the best equipped dojos on the island and remains so. It also pleased the Mayor who wanted the school located at the County Recreation Centers in Lihue, Kapaa and Hanapepe. They knew however, the school needed to stay in the church and they declined. They saw it as an outreach opportunity to bring people in.
The school is run by Sifu Conrad Ramos, a fifth degree black belt in the Tony Ramos Kajukenbo style. Kajukenbo is a style that derived from Hawaii and has grown internationally. Under the direction of Sifu Conrad, the Tony Ramos system (his father’s style) is taught for free at Breath of Life. For Pastor Tom, a Karate Sensei himself, and Sifu Conrad as well, they wanted to be able to give back to the community and offer free classes to the youth of Kauai. They felt that the martial arts was a way to help steer Kauai’s youth away from drugs and back to something positive as well as a tool to change lives through the Gospel. The ministry is Christ centered, starts with a time of devotion and ends in prayer. It has been a great blessing to many in the community and many have come to the Lord because of it.
At the same time the Mayor asked Pastor Tom to be a Police Commissioner on Kauai. It is a position that is appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Kauai County Council. To be on the Police Commission at the time was a daunting and challenging task, because there were many problems at that time within the department and on the commission. The Mayor told him he wanted someone with integrity and some similar background. Pastor Tom accepted, appeared before the counsel and was unanimously approved, and reapproved for his second appointment.
He has been a Police Commissioner for over five years, was selected as the Chairman in 2008 and is currently one of the longest serving commissioners on the commission. The Commissioners are not paid, but the time spent has opened many doors for the ministry and granted him a vast amount of experience in Law Enforcement and State and County operations. Both Pastor Tom and D’Lissa have done much volunteer work for the County of Kauai and continue to do so.
With the completion of the larger church facility, the church has grown again and moved to two services on Sundays, a midweek service on Thursday’s plus a host of other ministries that take place during the week such as: men’s, women’s, sewing, hula, hip hop, youth, mom’s in touch, prayer, home fellowships, children’s Sunday school, grappling and many others.
Breath of Life also supports The Blast FM a Christian Rock Internet Radio station and has supported Gospel for Asian, YWAM, Campus Crusades, New Tribes Missions and other ministries and outreaches. Breath of Life continues to do outreaches itself, concerts, retreats, marriage seminars as well as helping community sources like the Red Cross and others.
Fourteen years later Breath of Life still has not taken up an offering or passed the plate during any of its services or events. They continue to walk by faith and trust the Lord to provide its needs. A simple tithe box is placed in the back of the church and the Lord has always been faithful to provide. The church and the people of Breath of Life are generous and faithful to give and help others in need.
Currently Breath of Life is looking to move one more time to its own piece of property and build its own facility with a vision for even broader ministry opportunities. Once again with little money and no land, they will trust the Lord to do the work as He has done before! Please pray for us on our new journey as we continue seek and serve our Lord and Savior Jesus and to shine the light and love of our Lord to a lost and dying world around us in as many creative ways as we can. Aloha.
