“Brother Sage” draws on his own experiences to bring hope and sustenance to Hawaii’s homeless

The Rev. Sadrian “Brother Sage” Chee has endured more loss than most 50-year-old men should have experienced at this phase of their lives. He’s pastor of the nondenominational Christian church Uhane Hemolele Piikea in Hauula, taking over the congregation from his father, who died last year.

First married when he was young, he lost his wife in 1980 and his daughter in 2003, both to car accidents. And yet it is relieving the persistent loss others experience, especially homelessness, that has become his life’s work.

A major part of his focus is the Ohana Family of the Living God, the service arm of his church that, until recently, concentrated its charity meal service to the homeless at Aala Park and other, largely outdoor sites.

More recently, the Abercrombie administration’s new homelessness initiative has urged the faith community and other volunteer groups to shift that outreach to more institutional sites — on this day, Chee and his crew were at the Institute for Human Services — because that way the attraction of meals could help bring the homeless to places where social services are available and can help them.

Chee is part of the network of social services, some professional, some faith-based, that is shouldering much of the assistance. In 2006, he joined Utu Langi and others to assist the Lingle administration’s homelessness response, rallying volunteers to open Kakaako’s Next Step shelter in six days.

Long since remarried and happily sharing in the care of nine children and their kids, Chee is the picture of contentment.

“I’m glad I’m in the work I do — who am I to complain?” he said. “Total, I have 11 grandchildren. So I have some interest in making sure that our community continues to share that aloha.

“I’m hoping that when those children grow up, we’ve somehow got a handle on homelessness. We’ll see what happens.”