KAHALU'U — Easter Sunday services already will be under way when the sun rises this morning over Windward Baptist Church, where rebirth and redemption are part of everyday life.

The church's three seafoam green buildings began to emerge 11 years ago from the ramshackle remains of an old tourist kitsch shop right behind the Hygienic Store at the confluence of Kamehameha and Kahekili highways.

Inside, men who have been in and out of jail and prison primarily for their addictions to crystal methamphetamine have found a place to live, three squares a day, jobs, new clothes and a new purpose in life beyond getting high.

So out of all of the days of the calendar, Easter Sunday is particularly significant at Windward Baptist Church.

Howard Kahue III, the new, 36-year-old executive director of the church's Rebuilders Addictions Ministry, or R.A.M., stood next to a 20-acre, flood control lagoon filled with turtles, sharks and fish behind the church last week and thought back on his life — and ahead to the celebration planned for this morning.

"I'm a thief. I burglarized homes. I robbed people," Kahue said. "Before I came here, I was a rough guy. So Easter is very significant for me. It's going to be a resurrection, a rebirth for me."

For most of the 100 or so congregants who are not trying to kick addictions to crystal methamphetamine, Windward Baptist Church is a place to worship beside a bucolic setting where the mountains meet the sea, at a corner of Windward O'ahu that many consider the gateway to the country.

But, like the symbolism of Easter Sunday, the church's separate, in-house, drug treatment program was born out of personal tragedy for Windward's pastor, Kevin Akana, who turns 40 tomorrow.

Akana grew up adoring his father, Thomas Akana, a Honolulu firefighter with the Pawa'a station's search-and-rescue team who succumbed to the temptations of crystal meth, or "ice" late in life.

NEW DREAM

As a boy growing up in Kahalu'u and going to school at Castle High School, Akana dreamed of becoming a carpenter or even a firefighter, just like his dad. Instead, Akana ended up in the ministry and chased a new dream of starting his own church back home in Kahalu'u.

In 1998, he took out a lease on the old buildings that were falling down next to the notorious banyan tree, where generations of people have drank beer and smoked pakalolo — and the current crowd gambles, drinks and smokes or injects crystal meth.

When it opened, the church next to the banyan tree could count its members on two hands. But Akana was always more interested in teaching the lessons of God rather than packing in large crowds.

"We're not a big show kind of place, 'Lights, camera, action,' " he said.

But Akana's spiritual path took a new direction in the early morning of March 4, 2004, when the Honolulu Medical Examiner's office called Akana with the news that his father was found dead on King Street at the age of 59. The subsequent autopsy revealed drugs in his system.

"I was crying, I was mad, I was frustrated," Akana said. "He was my hero growing up. Drugs took him down to the bottom. I needed to do something."

And R.A.M. was born.

WAITING LIST

There is a waiting list to get into the six-month program, which includes about 35 male clients who begin with in-house treatment and eventually move to separate apartments in Kane'ohe to prepare them for clean and sober lives on their own.

During their time at Windward Baptist Church, the men work in teams performing yard work for a steady roster of clients.

The church gladly accepts donations of food, clothes and money to help defray its $15,000 to $20,000 monthly operating costs. But Akana prefers that the men work to generate income of their own and pay for their room and board.

"Let us work for the money," Akana said.

Each client earns $10 an hour doing yard work, and $2.50 of that goes toward their housing, food and toiletries. The rest is held in an account for each client and given to them upon graduation, which could add up to a lump sum of a couple of thousand dollars per client, depending on how long they're in the program.

LOSS OF PURPOSE

Akana isn't sure exactly what happened to his father in his final years. But he's pretty certain that his dad spiraled downward when he lost his support system, daily routine and purpose in life.

"I know what my father needed," he said. "He needed a positive environment, someplace to go during the day and people to treat him with respect. He needed accountability."

David Henkin, chairman of the Kahalu'u Neighborhood Board, said the banyan tree next to Windward Baptist Church has been an issue in the community but the church's meth ministry "has not percolated up as a concern before the board."

"The banyan tree is a major landmark that no one wants to lose," Henkin said, "but it allows for a lot of things to happen in the shadows."

Fellow board member Ken LeVasseur, who has known Akana for at least a decade and considers him a friend, said, "That whole area's inhabited with people with drug problems. The interesting thing is you have a drug rehab program directly in the middle of it all."

Before Windward Baptist Church moved in, LeVasseur said, the buildings behind the Hygienic Store "were abandoned and slowly getting damaged. The homeless and druggies were breaking in and creating further damage. It was a bad state of affairs. Kevin came in and cleaned up everything."

BUILDINGS RESTORED

Brandon Hall, 29, was one of the first R.A.M. clients and one of the first to begin the hard work restoring the old buildings.

"I was homeless, jobless, on drugs, stealing to support my habit and to eat," Hall said. "I was a bad case, really skinny. I was like a skeleton. Pastor Akana took me into his home and fed me."

Hall, like many of the current and former R.A.M. clients, used to hang out beneath the banyan tree and can look back at how far he's come by measuring the few steps he took to Windward Baptist Church.

"It could be a temptation for the people in here to look at the guys out there doing that," Hall said. "But at the same time, they're looking at us and seeing the changes in our life. When they're ready, they'll come in because we're right here."

Pastor Akana hears those kinds of stories of hope and redemption every day at his church by the sea. Last week he was turning his thoughts to today, the biggest day of the year for Windward Baptist Church.

Akana was still fine-tuning today's sermon, but clearly knew the main theme.

"I'm going to preach about resurrection," he said.