A few Southern Baptist missionaries stopped in Hawaii for short periods of time between 1937 and 1938 but it was not until 1940, when all of the missionaries in China and Japan were forced out of these countries, that the International Mission Board (then known as the Foreign Mission Board) began thinking about opening work in these islands.
In 1941, the Olivet Baptist Church was constituted in Honolulu out of the work which was started by layman, Joseph Tyssowski.
Dr. and Mrs. Charles Leonard felt led to go to Hilo, Hawaii, to open work there and were influential in starting the Kinoole Baptist Church.
Meeting in school buildings, groups of people studied the Bible, were converted and eventually constituted churches throughout six of the islands.
The Baptist Bible School of Hawaii opened staffed by missionaries appointed by the Foreign Mission Board.
Two acres of land on Heulu Street at Liholiho was purchased for a Baptist secondary School.
A 16-acre campsite on the leeward coast of Oahu, the former home of the Waianae sugarcane plantation manager, was purchased.
With the coming of statehood to Hawaii, Foreign Mission Board support began to diminish in 1951 and the churches were challenged as never before to reach more adults, to increase in stewardship, to grow in total dedication to the cause of Christ, and to continue in their missionary outreach.