Interviews of and commentaries by members of the LCH church family.

Jimmy Castro

Jimmy and his wife Olivia prepare plates for serving at IHS as part of the dinner served by LCH on the third Friday of each month.

He speaks with a genuine voice. That is, his words seem to come directly from his heart, carved out of his own observations, colored with his own deep passion, and characterized with a humility that is etched with the wisdom of experience. Jimmy Castro is a person worth knowing at Lutheran Church of Honolulu.

He is a friend to many—young and old, in and out of the church community. He speaks about a wide variety of friends from many backgrounds and traditions. One knows that many of these people have been helped and blessed from knowing him.

“I served on the call committee at the church twice, once as chairman. You get to know the others on the call committee very well by the time you go through the process. You know what their expectations are, their hopes and fears, besides their own experiences and spiritual thoughts and feelings. And part of the responsibility of that committee is being sensitive to the other members of the congregation.”

It would seem that Jimmy was on the call committee twice for good reason. For he listens well with an open mind, and yet is unafraid to speak his own mind. He knows his own mind.

When one sits down to talk with Jimmy, the conversation can go in many different directions—from his tutoring activity, to friends and family, to ideas about church and society, to politics and to experiences about baptism and then perhaps on to movies. In all of this there always seems to be a thoughtfulness and reflection in his comments.

“You know,” he said, “I’d much rather refer to myself as a Lutheran rather than a Christian. The term Christian, for me, has become tainted.” I had to agree with him that I, too feel uncomfortable about the use of the world Christian in our society. “As if,” Jimmy added, “they think of themselves as being superior.”

“Maybe I’ll get back to working with my bonsai plants. I did that for a while when I needed some settling of my mind and thoughts.”

Jimmy was interviewed by Fritz Fritschel
November 15, 2010

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