In the Middle of the Ocean

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Friday, June 10, 2011

It's Friday! Amy and I are off today because it's King Kamehameha Day. I believe he is the Hawaiian King who united all the islands of Hawaii. This is a good thing as it provides summer missionaries like me a day to hike and go to the beach (which I haven't been able to do all week).
Last night was our first night of 4th-6th grade girls bible study. It went pretty well I think, but of course not exactly as I had hoped. I had forotten how little fourth graders are. The girls were great though. We played telephone pictionary, ate apple dip, and made friendship bracelets. Our bible study time was a little too short, and I wish we could have (as bad as it sounds) incorporated God more into our discussion questions. Overall, the night didn't go as I planned, but God should still be praised for the nine girls who showed up. Pray that God will give Amy and I the words to speak to the girls next Thursday so that the holy spirit will move during our time with them. Also, pray for strength and energy for me and Amy and confidence in knowing that it's not about how well we speak or how fun our games are, but it's about how God chooses to reveal himself through our leadership.

And now, because I promised pictures and because I have been neglecting to take any of what we've been doing....here are some pictures of my current food obsessions!

This is some AMAZING salsa that one of the girl's mothers made for us.

This chili cheese dip stuff was also a gift from the same lady...it looks questionable, but trust me it is great!

Li Hing Mango Pieces...that's all I can say about that. Perfection.

Kona coffee = love!!!!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Brain Bacon!!!

Yesterday was a long day of work. By the end of it our brain's were completely fried and in danger of information overload. In the past two days, Amy and I have put together two bible studies and we are fixing to start planning out how we will equip the volunteers for summer fun. This will involve gathering curiculum as well as making up some ourselves, getting in touch with each volunteer, putting together an orientation for the volunteers, and setting up one-on-one meetings with a few volunteers. You can imagine how big our eyes got as we realized how much we need to get done. It's going to be long days ahead, but Amy and I are learning to work as a team, and we are optimistic.
Today is our first night of 4th-6th grade bible study with the pre-teen girls. Amy and I have been working hard on the bible study, and we had all the youth girls helping us make friendship bracelets during our meeting with them on Tuesday. We forgot to make the apple dip last night that we are planning on serving, so we'll have to find some time for that today.
This post is going to have to be cut short because I have to leave for the church soon. As you can see, we have a lot going on here, so keep praying that it all comes together in time! Thanks!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Dino-Nuggets

This morning was the first day of Summer Fun Pre-school. Amy and I were at the church by 8:30...Dani Beth kind of told us the wrong time, so we were late for chapel, but it wasn't a big deal. We were just in time for introductions, however. As we walked up to the front after our names were called, we began to notice that everyone was dressed fairly nice in comparison to our grungy, athletic clothes that we wore to help set up the water slide. One little girl insisted that I give her a hug as we made our way to the stage, so that was nice. After chapel Dani Beth informed us that the slide wasn't going to be put up for the day, but she said our attire wasn't a problem. She was right. None of the kids cared at all what we were wearing, they still wanted us to sit by them and play with dinosaurs when we visited each classroom.
After rotating through each pre-school room, Amy and I began working on the curriculum for our 4th-6th grade girls bible study that we'll be leading. This week our topic is going to be friendship, and I am really excited for it because we are using one of my favorite bible stories. The story of David and Jonathan has always had a special place in my heart because it is a friendship based on a deep love that makes the two men as close as brothers even though Saul (Jonathan's father) wants to kill David. What follows is an epic tale of battles over power and all the while the two friends remain loyal to each other with a covenant of mercy between them. In the end, David does come to power and Jonathan dies. David, honoring his promise to his best friend, finds Jonathan's remaining, crippled son and has him always sit at the king's table.
So halfway into writing this whole bible study out, we got to break for lunch. Dani Beth and two of the other women from the church joined us as we all shared in a delicious pre-school lunch of dino-nuggets and corn. Delicious!!! After some good, entertaining conversation, it was back to work. I finished writing the bible study on construction paper, and then Amy tried to make sense of it all as she typed in into the computer so we could print it out. Hopefully the girls will really get something out of this study on Thursday.
Tomorrow we will be starting our bible study/prep-group with the teenage girls. We will be reading Crazy Love with them as well as going over the stuff for the pre-teen girls (since we will be training them to take over the pre-teen bible study).
It was a pretty long day of work I suppose, but everything went by so fast! I really enjoyed the broad list of jobs and activities we got to take part in today. We went from playing with kids to writing bible study curriculum to mailing acceptance forms for Summer Fun. In short it was a productive, but not so stressful day that I have just decided deserves a nap time soon. Hopefully I can get some more pictures up soon so ya'll don't get so bored and keep checking in on me here. Until then, just bear with me and keep praying! Love love love!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Diving In

Today was my second Sunday at Hawaii Kai Church, and it was just as good as the first. I helped out with the pre-schoolers once again with great success. Our speaker for this month is Pastor Todd Clark. He is doing a sermon series titled Modern Family. The lesson for today was about wives...mostly it was about how men should treat their wives. I wrote down the list of things men must do in order to glorify God and be a good husband:

1. Men must set the pace for understanding women.

Children will be as disrespectful toward their moms as they are allowed to be.

2. Men must set the pace for honoring women.

Women are delicate and precise creatures and were made that way purposefully. God loves them because of it, and they should not be looked down upon for it.

3. They shouldn't fool themselves into thinking they can live at odds with their wives and be at peace with God.

"You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered." 1 Peter 3:7

After church I came back to the house and wrote out some thank you cards for all the kind people who have taken us to dinner, let us play on their jet skis, and made us beautiful leis. We've been so blessed by the hospitality of complete strangers who have quickly become like family. Yesterday my hosts took Amy and I shopping at a huge, three-story mall with them, and today they let us use their kayak in the bay behind their house. Also, they have provided meals for us every night since I moved in. It's this amazing sense of joyful sharing that keeps overwhelming me. These people don't just give to feel good, or look good, or even just because they're nice. To me they exhibit a true picture of unconditional love in the way they give of their time, space, and resources so freely with the expectation of nothing in return. Relatives and friends who read this, I hope you will pray for the families who have been hosting us as well as others who have provided both openly and anonymously for us. Please ask God to bless them for their generous and gracious hearts.

Tomorrow summer pre-school classes begin at the church. Amy and I will go and observe chapel (since we will be taking charge of it eventually), and then I believe we will hop from class to class and sort of act as cheerleaders. We will probably also do some planning for the Summer Fun program which will start on June 27th.
I'm so excited to start working more with the kids, and I can't wait to see how everything comes together. I've gotten to know about nine of the pre-schoolers pretty well, so it'll be fun to get to see them everyday. Hopefully everything runs smoothly tomorrow and the rest of this week! I'll update tomorrow with details about how it all goes. Keep praying and reading, loves!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Moving Right Along

So I just returned from my summer missions orientation today, and Amy and I moved from the house we were living at together into separate houses for the month of June. Orientation was not at all what I expected it to be. All the people I was able to meet and fellowship with were an incredible blessing. The four days I was at first dreading turned into a great time of meeting new friends who are also on mission in Hawaii. Rather than sitting through lectures about how to behave myself this summer, I was given information that I really think will prove to be useful in my own ministry.
Moving into a new house after being so comfortable at the first one has also turned out to be another huge blessing. Not that I wasn't looking forward to living with the family I am now with, but I was afraid of the transition and how I would fit into the new setting. Sometimes I think God just really enjoys surprising me in the sweetest ways! As soon as I entered the home of my new host family I was recieved with so much love and kindness. They had the cutest room all set up for me when I arrived complete with a gift basket and a note welcoming me, and the three women living in the house have made me feel right at home.
After getting settled, Amy and I went to a meeting with Dani Beth and some of the youth girls to work on some Summer Fun* stuff. This was my first taste of the planning Dani Beth has been telling us about. Basically for about and hour and a half, me and two of the youth girls sat down and drew out a rough eight day outline of bible-based, life-changing lesson plans. It sounds like it would be easy, but sitting there trying to prepare all of this I realized some things. 1) I don't know as much about the Bible as I though I did. 2) Organization, creativity, and abundant amounts of energy are all things I could use more of. 3)It's important yet challenging to not half-heartedly create a lesson plan for kindergarden through third grade kids when taking into account their comprehension level and attention span. I'm starting to see what ministry looks like from a leadership perspective, and I'm beginning to understand that it's a lot of work. I'm nervous about the upcoming events and if I'll be able to keep up, but I'm trusting that God is going to really allow me to grow in this area in the weeks to come, and I'm excited to see what He will do.