Our First Week In Kailua-Kona, Hawaii: Some Bullet Points

Our first week is completed, here are our observations:

J     The Day to Depart for our Adventure. Friday, Oct. 6^th, we were full of anticipation, anxiety and desire, we must not be late for the flight, we arrive three hours early. Phew, we barely make it.

J     Started and finished a book in-flight and finished twenty minutes before landing in the tiny Kona airport. That’s the way to fly baby, it was like a flight on the Concord.

J     Bare bones room, life here will be bare bones. Yes, it’s Hawaii, but this is not our first Hawaiian rodeo.

J     We meet our Canadian friends, nice and fun, but little did we know how attached to them we’d become. All our best friends are Canadians; it’s our next vacation trip.

J     The first week-end seemed long, like we’d been here a week.

J     The first day of work seemed long, like we’d been here a week.

J     The next day of work seemed easy, like we’d been here a day.

J     The next day of work seemed long, like I’d spent the week in a hospital.

J     The next day of work seemed really easy. I’m Mr. Fix it, this of course cracks me up, but once I realize that 90% of Mission Builders are in their early 20s, it’s no wonder I’m the fix it guy, you can’t own homes for forty years, be poor and not know how to fix things with wire and duct tape. I’m a Giant amongst midgets.

J     Friday has ended, our first week is done. A lot of bone weary fatigue for both of us. We wake up at 5:00 A.M. each day; work starts early and stays late. We eat on the run; so far, even relaxing time is wrapped up within minutes.

J     Last night, Buck and I played cards with three sets of Canadians, too fun, they are great people. Canadians apparently are very funny people, and very real, and very spiritual. Canada is my new favorite place.

J     Our hearts have been deeply touched by Brenda, a Mission Builder from the U.S., who gave her testimony one Tuesday morning for our devotion time under the nation’s flags. She lost her husband a year ago, they have four children, and they were on their dream vacation. The second day they found him dead. Her faith amidst this horror story was riveting and very sobering. They had just made great faithful mission casting vision for their future, to serve the Lord in some great ways, now she’s here, feeling led by God to come, she still doesn’t know why. The loss of her children’s dad is equal to her own missing. The pain is double, the reason for God’s behavior is a mystery, her beauty is thick.

J     The beauty of this place can’t compare to the beauty of the YWAM people, all of them, the young, the old, the staff, the Mission Builders. Carol and I are stunned about the physical beauty of all the national peoples here; they all look like their models. The vibrancy of their eyes exposes a deep faith, a happy faith, an honoring to others faith. The young people from around the world are all so mature, so humble, so social, so fun.

J     These are the people on point. They are spiritually in tuned to a sacrificial button that is missing with the normal Christians, they are faith people, living by faith, hearing by faith, giving up by faith, they breath the fumes of Angels, the reek of substance.

J     Today is the first day of a glorious long weekend, which is full of spiritual promise for Buck and I. Finding God amidst the Island will be our only obligation, walking, reading, having coffee, and breakfast, on the sand, at “The Rock” coffee shop, amidst it’s crashing waves against our beach wall, while we look unobstructed at the beauty of this Island home of God, will be…priceless. Carol and I walk hand in hand everywhere, it is at once fast and slow, it is hurry, hurry, only to find yourself walking home under the moon lit sky. The Island breeze ushers in smells of flowers and hope. Our only obligations are to work well, be with God's people, worship Him, and to love and enjoy each other, which is unhindered by the superficial.

Thank you Lord for physical, mental and spiritual recovery. Fill our hearts with your Aloha and presence, Lord, may Carol and I become as beautiful as all these national peoples attending YWAM are, and thank you, thank you, for this rich experience, and to see you amidst all the peoples of the world. Your Holy Spirit knows no boundaries, only that of the unwilling heart.