Hawaii Escapades

Ah, the joy of having access to a car and to get off the "compound" to go on adventures!

It's been so hard to be here in Hawaii and to hear of everyone else's road trips, volcano runs,  snorkelling,  dolphin swims etc. while I stay on the base and have the occasional "wheel" into town.  I hate to sound ungrateful, as it is such a privilege to be here in Hawaii, but sometimes I can get to feeling a title sorry for myself and then I have to repent again.  Good thing Anita and I have been having communion on a fairly regular basis!!

So I have been so happy to see some sights and to experience a wee bit more of the Kona Coast before I head home.  Today we went to the City of Refuge and to a beach near by.  While Patrice and Anita were "beaching" I found some local Hawaiians and presented some of Luke to them.  Ha!  A captive audience.

We went to a Japanese Coffee farm that had a beautiful garden and an infinity pool

We saw very cute little pineapples growing, about 5 inches tall. 

And we were terribly excited about the huge lemons that we could pick for free.  We like putting them in our smoothies in the morning.  

We found these wonderful safari hats to keep the sun off our faces.  Too bad they're not purple with flowers!

We even made it up to Mauna Kea to watch the sunset, but alas we were stuck in a cloud so things were a little foggy!  It was refreshing to feel the cold air though!

I am so grateful for the fun and change of scenery.  Even though I really should be spending lots of time preparing for my "Luke" presentation in two days!  Ah well, I'll get through it and hopefully remember enough to make up an hour so I can pass!


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I am inserting a letter here that I sent home during March ... kind of an encapsulated version of my time away.

Dearly Loved Family & Friends,

ALOHA from the sunny Big Island of Hawaii!  I feel safe saying that to you all now that I know the sun is shining more consistently and things are warming up back home as well!  So excited for all of you to be experiencing Spring Weather (well, most of you…) after a very long, cold winter.

I just wanted to give you a last peek into our lives here at YWAM since we're on the home stretch with only 2 weeks left to go.

The Word by Heart course I have been taking has been a huge blessing for me on so many levels.  I found out I CAN DO IT!!  I can memorize huge portions of scripture by the grace of God and with a whole lot of effort!  But the work involved has been so very worth it.  The word of God has come to life for me in so many amazing & wonderful ways. Often I am brought to tears as I repeat the lines and realize afresh the beauty of the stories and character of Jesus, and the power of the Gospel.  And I know I am still only scratching the surface!  We memorized a very "modified" gospel of Luke, as the whole book would have taken so much longer to memorize and about 3 hours to present.  I think it now takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to recite the modified version.  Which is what I am now preparing to do for an audience.

Next Tuesday is my final presentation and I have invited the Gerber's & the Hromek's to be my audience along with my instructors and anyone else that comes by.  We will be sitting under a large Banyan Tree around a table and I will be going right through the whole life of Christ from his birth to his resurrection!  Wouldn't it be fun if you could all join us?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to share a portion of Luke in front of hundreds of people at the Ohana Court and it was so much fun!  The lights were so bright that I couldn't see anyone clearly so I felt so much freedom to use silly accents, wild hand motions and loads of passion to tell the stories.

Patrice has been continuing to enjoy her work in the kitchen  and she gets down to the beach often with her European friends and goes on all kinds of exciting adventures with them.  One of her highlights was swimming with the spinner dolphins when she was just paddling around down at the local beach one afternoon.  She put on a snorkel & mask and was able to see them swim around her and she could even hear the clicking and squeaking sounds they made.

This afternoon Anita, Patrice and I are all going up to Mauna Kea (to see the SNOW!) and to watch the sunset from up there.  We have rented a car so that I can go on a few adventures while I'm here as well.  Anita has been a wonderful room mate for me.  We laugh ALOT together as we work through our various learning experiences all and as we deal with all the noise that surrounds us here in the Go Center.   We have learned to utilize ear plugs, eye shields and pillows over our heads when necessary to cope.  Cars and mopeds and huge trucks going by our front window, singing coming from different directions, parties outside our room, prayer & worship meetings at 6:00 am (Patrice's group) at the fountains outside our front window, random doors slamming, babies crying, and construction going on in the room right next to ours!  There's nothing quite like life in community!

I have had the privilege of being in a class of the most amazing people.  Ages 19-70 and about 13 different nationalities.  From Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, New Zealand, Holland, Norway, Germany, China, Mexico, Brazil, USA, CANADA….   These are people that I have fallen in love with and it has been such a joy to get to know them over these last 3 months.

Patrice and I will be HOME at the end of March and Anita is going on to do an outreach with her Medical DTS to Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) to work with the Refugees and then to Israel to work with Holocaust Victims.

I look forward to seeing you and send you all lots of LOVE!!
Shalom!