As Christians around the world celebrated Easter yesterday, two men in Hawai'i were especially thankful for their rebirth.

Take Steven Obara. The 50-year-old Honolulu man had been homeless for about a year. Today, thanks to Next Step and H5, a homeless outreach program, Obara and his wife, Susan, live in an apartment.

He's thankful for that, and to show his gratitude, he regularly volunteers in a kitchen serving up meals for homeless men and women.

Yesterday, he was flipping pancakes at the First United Methodist Church kitchen with a team of other volunteers serving breakfast for about 80 people. His wife helped hide Easter eggs for children to find in the grassy area at the church.

"God got us this far from where we started," Obara said. "Because of that we have a chance. We had nothing and now we have a home."

For nearly six years the Obaras were in and out of family homes and shelters. The lowest point for the couple was when they slept in a tent at Ala Moana Beach Park. There they had to clear their campsites every morning by 6 a.m. and push shopping carts filled with their belongings until after dark. Then the routine would start all over again.

"The church gave us a chance to prove that we deserved a place," Obara said. "I've learned that it's important to turn to the Lord. He will help you like he helped us."

Easter Sunday culminates one of the busiest weeks of the year for Christians, commemorating key events in their faith, which teaches that Jesus Christ was arrested, crucified and resurrected. Along with Christmas, Easter is a day on which the pope delivers his "Urbi et Orbi" address, to "the city and the world."

The 80-year-old pope prayed for peace in troubled parts of the world yesterday from St. Peter's Square, singling out Darfur in Sudan, and Somalia, "the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon." He also mentioned Tibet.

In Hawai'i, the message from nearly a two-hour morning service at Calvary Chapel of Honolulu in Pearl City was more personal for Joe Boehm, a Pacific Palisades resident.

After seven years battling methamphetamine addiction, this Easter represented his own version of rebirth. Clean for 14 months, Boehm attended services with his wife, son and daughter. The 35-year-old had a lot to be thankful for, he said, but mostly that his wife had stuck by him, that's he's held onto his job and he's found a higher power than himself.

"I tried to quit many times on my own," Boehm said of his alcohol and drug addiction. "And I couldn't. I would shoot up every day all day.

"When I realized I couldn't do it alone, I found the Lord and he encouraged me to look into myself and seek help."

Several times over the years he brought his family to the brink of financial disaster, wracking up credit card bills to pay for his habit. But his wife, Melanie, hung in there, he said.

"At times faith was all I had," Melanie Boehm said. "It was a long journey. We give all the credit to the Lord."

Boehm found his own salvation in a program called "The Most Excellent Way," a religious-based drug and alcohol support group that he attended in Kapolei. Next month, he will start his own group at the Pearl City church on Komo Mai Drive. Starting April 5, at 7 p.m. every Saturday at the church there will be meetings with Boehm leading group sessions.

"We use the teachings of the Bible as a way to reach sobriety and to maintain sobriety," Boehm said. "The Lord has blessed me to help others who are in the same condition I was in.

"It was a rough ride, but only through the power of Jesus Christ was I able to make it."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.