Hitchhiking, Dodgeball and Black Sand

This weekend was another busy one. I drove shuttle friday night and saturday morning and when I got back from driving shuttle I wanted to go to the beach, but everyone who wanted to go was already gone, so I decided to hitchhike since everyone says it's safe...well apparently nobody wants to pick up a long-haired hippie because I walked about 4 miles before someone picked me up, but Clay was a nice guy from New Mexico and he drove me all the way to the beach i wanted to go to(mile 88) and when we were there, I saw a whale breach(jump out of the water) for the second time ever! I was excited!

Saturday night I was asked to be the ref for the dodgeball tournament, and although dodgeball is fun, I can not see how anyone could be an effective judge. balls going everywhere, people yelling at each other, man, I was a terrible ref.

Sunday morning I rented a van and a dozen of us hiked down to waipio valley(almost a 45degree angle on the road) on the north side of the island across a black sand beach through a small village in attempt to find a hidden waterfall, but our fearless leader got lost, so we ended up asking directions from a 7 year old girl who was out by one of the houses with a couple dogs...she knew exactly where we wanted to go. The waterfalls were not very big, but there was a series of waterfalls and pools that we hiked around and jumped in, and it was delightful! Some people thought we should have stayed at the big falls by the beach, but it was so nice to be outside hiking around. I hiked almost the whole way there barefoot. The black sand was amazingly soft. It was nice because the rain came on the way back and it cooled us down...and a few people found umbrellas. All in all it was fun to be outside.

Dan Baumann

This week we have been talking mostly about our pasts and what the Bible says about how to deal with past sins and hurts. Last night we had a guest speaker who was imprisoned in Iran for 9 weeks. He told his story of being there and it was shocking! briefly stated, he went to Iran to preach the gospel because he felt like God called him to. He went there loving people and they (literally) were running up to him asking him who Jesus was. After his visa was about to expire (2 weeks) he got on the bus, but at the border he and his friend were told to go back to the capital to get their passports. They ended up getting imprisoned without knowing why and interigated daily in a 2x3 meter room. He wrestled about whether God is good, and he found out about 5 weeks after being imprisoned that he had 2 death sentances, but didn't know why. So even though he was scared to death, he figured he was a dead man and he ended up preaching in the courtroom for 30 minutes. He didn't know how long he would be in jail, and he contemplated suicide, but after 9 weeks, he decided that no matter what happened, he wanted to follow God, and no matter what he would surrender to His plan. 3 hours later he was given his clothes back (he had been stripped of all his clothes and belongings on day one) and he thought he was going to be executed, but rather, he was set free. His whole talk was about trusting God and that through even the depths of darkness, He was there.

Green Sand, Lightning and a Steep Valley

Wow, what a weekend! Saturday I went with 10 guys to the Waipio Valley (where they filmed part of Jurassic Park) and we hiked through the clouds, huge plants, bamboo, and steep ledges. It was so cloudy that we could hardly see more than 20 feet in front of us until we got over part of the valley ledge. We waited and waited looking for this waterfall and then the clouds cleared and we saw a waterfall that probably fell over 2000 feet! It was spectacular! The clouds quickly covered up the view, but not before I got a pic.

Sunday was another adventure to the Southern most part of the United States. We traveled to the south point of the island and then we hiked over 2 miles (in flip flops) to go to this green sand beach! It was extremely soft, but still really grainy. It made no sence. Quite an amazing sight!

Sunday night I was out talking with some people and we kept seeing flashes over and over, but the people who had been here for 1-2 years said they had never seen lightning here, so it couldn't be lightning because we weren't hearing thunder. But we looked northeast and we saw lightning. So I stayed up until midnight watching the storm move from NorthEast to NorthWest truly hoping for rain. The storm moved around us, but today in the mail, my buddy Angie mailed me some rain in a spray bottle from Bellingham. So I got the rain I really desired...just in a different form than I had expected. Isn't that just the way that God works? I wish I could post more pictures, but I have limited space. It was amazing!

Destination unknown revealed!

Tonight I learned where our group is going...it is still disorganized so bear with me. The trip to Fiji and Vanuatu and the Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji trip got combined. But Since the islanders relate very much on a relationship level, spending a couple weeks in each spot would not accomplish much. For this reason our trip will be split into two parts. The first part will be going to two of these countries for the two months of our DTS and whoever has the time and money to stay, can go on to the other 2 countries. We plan on praying more about the order of our visits, so please pray for wisdom and discernment of when to go where and finances for those who want to stay longer.

Birthday at Bubba Gumps

So for my birthday I had class all day with a couple breaks to eat and do chores. Durring chore time(while I was vacuuming and washing a van) I decided that I wanted to go to dinner for my birthday because the food here is....well....how do you say nicely that you would rather go a week without food? Anyways, we had a "manditory" session from 6-8:30(ish) and I just wanted a good meal...so a couple people (who felt the same way about the food) decided to come eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I had "I'm stuffed" Shrimp. Pricey, but really good. The leaders said afterwards that they didn't mind a few of us going...so that was nice. So here's a pic of us at dinner.

My favorite thing present(yet?...I accept gifts late) was that my sister's 4th grade class decided to make me birthday cards, so I was reading those today and they are awesome! I'm going to put them up by my bed. Thank you all for your notes(big and small).

Spear fishing

This weekend was really fun. There were 8 of us that went to some beach 20 miles south from here (can't remember the name even though I asked a million times). It was really fun. We attempted to go Spear Fishing, but only two people caught anything. There were lots of really small fish but nothing big enough to eat. When I first started, I saw quite a few fish between 8 and 12 inches, but I didn't know how to aim the spear, and by the time I about had it down, I couldn't find any fish. So I was tired and exhausted that I decided to take a break, and after I said I was done for the day, someone pointed out that the dolphins were out(no wonder there were no fish). So I put my fins back on and swam out to where they were, and then they were just a little bit further out, so I swam further...And the same happened until I saw them swimming 30 feet beneath me! An I could see the sea floor 30 feet beneath them! I turned and looked, and I could have easily fit 3 football fields in between me and the shore, so I kinda panicked and swam back to shore, but it was really cool to see the dolphins.

Yesterday, I was really tired and took a nap and woke up with a mild heat stroke...so keep praying about my adapting to the heat. Also please comment or email me if you're praying about locations and God tells you anything about any of the trips. It would be a blessing to me ane everyone here. Your prayers have been keeping me safe even when I'm not thinking about what I'm doing...so mahalo!

Locations

Today we were given a list of possible locations that we might go to for our outreach. If you would pray about this for me that would be super-duper! Here's the list:

1) Saipan and Tuvalu
2) Fiji and Vanuatu
3) Samoa and Tonga and Fiji
4) Cook Islands and Fiji
5) Australia
6) Australia and Fiji

We were asked to not discuss this with others in the group so we don't attempt to sway each other. So I would more than love to discuss with you all if you have any spiritual insight. It was unclear, but they either want our answer by Monday or Wednesday...I can't remember. We are asked to pick our top 3 choices, but so far only 2 have appealed. So if you want to just leave a vote for me if you're praying, that would help me . I love you all. Seriously; I do.

Climatizing

So the weather is still rediculously hot for me, but it is becoming more bearable. We wanted to go spear fishing but the tide was too rough, so we're going on Saturday. A few of us are talking about going in on a car. Pray for us about that. Also, a number of you have asked what book we're reading. It is called "Is that really you God?" by Loren Cunningham. I just finished it today and wrote up a brief paper on it. So no new adventures yet. Hopefully this weekend I will have some good stories from spear fishing...apparently you can spear any fish but the huma-huma-nuka-nuka-apa-waa(spelling might not be right on that) because it is the state fish...I think. My laptop battery is about to die. I'll write something new this weekend.

Daily Adventures

So it's been a couple days since my last update. I cleaned my room and finally found my gizmo to transfer my pics to my computer. We had quite the fiasco on New Years Eve and they had more fireworks and displays than any 4th of July I've ever had. Our group had a hawaiian roasted pig, and they left the head out for us to see...or eat if we chose(none did.) I went to church on the beach...very beautiful, but not exactly my type of church really. You can see what I saw durring service. We rented a van on saturday and went to the beach. I saw a sea turtle, and we swam through a tunnel to a cave that had air...it was pretty awesome! Afterwards some of us went to pizza because we didn't have to walk. A couple people are considering buying a car because it is virtually impossible to do anything with a large group, and we all want to get to know each other without leaving anyone out...(this is why there were 36 people in 4 vehicles(the van had 15). I thank you all for praying for me. I feel your prayers and they have helped me a lot so far.

A Brief Update

Today was our first day of class. I just watched a gecko run accross our floor. Anyways, I have raised up most of my funds. Currently I have approximately $3000 left to raise for my outreach and I would like to ask for a little extra prayer about my new roomate. One of our roomates moved back home, and our last roomate came yesterday. There seems to be some cultural differences and he doesn't get allong with one of my roomates at all. They updated the UofN site so if you want to learn more about my trip I will be taking in 3 months, you can check out http://www.uofnkona.edu/dts/mdts.html. We have a 12 week school schedule, and just as I'm done with college thinking no more schooling, here I am with a book report due in a week and a half (friday the 13th.) My team so far seems great, and we're all so different, it could pose a problem, so prayer that we can mesh without frustrations would be good. I think we'll be fine, but these are the things I would like prayer for. Email me (joeloliver@gmail.com ) if you want to chat. I have easy internet access. Thank you all for your prayers. I will work on my newsletter soon to get out to you all.