BULA!!!

I MADE IT!!! I arrived safely. I need to send out a mass email telling people that. But for now, you get the brief version(probably more fun to read anyways.) We left Honolulu Sunday night at about 12:30am and flew all night through the roughest turbulance I've ever felt. Ethan(a 3 year old on our team) was sleeping in the seat next to me(and on my lap at times) and flew in the air at one point. We stopped in Samoa to refuel and arrived here went straight to our home base. We are staying in a building that is completely vacant, but 3 stories tall, and the ministry is called Marine Reach. We are about a 5 minute walk from town.

After we got here, we did some team time (which takes so long because our team is so big - 26) and then went to buy a lava lava (a long skirt with pockets...all the guys need them). We basically did nothing at all the first day and recouped from the trip. We sang worship songs on the roof and watched the sunset and the stars from there while singing. It was basically amazing. The weather changes rapidly and the humidity is always high so far. The first day people said it felt like it was 100 degrees. I would say at night it drops to the upper 70s. We get some rain briefly, but when it rains...it RAINS. Every night so far we have had lightning storms and the thunder is loud in the afternoon.

Prices here change frequently and vary greatly in prices. It is definately a barter economy, but not at all like Mexico. Internet costs from F$1- F$3 an hour...the lab i'm in now supposedly costs F$6 an hour, but they're having a F$1 special.

The internet here is really slow! It took me over 10 minutes just to open Gmail, but I figured it out. ALL the computers run on the same internet feed. There are only 3 people in here now and it's okay. So I need to check my email at times when the labs are empty(like 8am on saturday)

I will post pictures when I can. If you could pray, pray for team unity and communication(due to our huge team, it has led to miscommunication and frustrations). Our ministry here is based on prayer. Most of what we do is walk around the "villages" (which are not like I pictured Fijian villages to be like.) and talk about "the word of God". We have a translator and they just put us on the spot and said "Go ahead"...It was scary for us all, but we now know what we'll be doing from now on. Outside the city(where we live) is village after village after village. There really isn't a break. But the churches we've been helping out are tiny and need lots of work.

That's all for now. The computer lab is getting really hot. Send my love to everyone. I will be checking my email 1-2 times a week...but if it's slow I won't be able to reply...but know that I read every email and will reply when I have time. I love you all!

Leaving on a Jetplane...

Today we leave for the airport tonight at 4:30...which means we show up to the vans at 4:35 and we leave at 5:00. However, if you want to know my flight plans over the next few months, here is my itenerary...well a brief version.

March 26 7:38pm hawaiian flight307 hawaiian
March 27 12:35am air pacific flight 821
April 18th 8:00am air pacific flight 211
May 9th 11:20am air pacific flight 210
May 11th 9:30pm air pacific flight 511
June 13th 4:05pm air pacific flight 260
July 18th 11:59pm air pacific flight 822

I just passed my roomcheck so now all I need to do is finish packing up everything, take my last shower in who knows how long, and call home(no, mom, I didn't forget)...Less than 1 hour til I leave for the airport....pray for me! I will keep you all updated as much as possible.

Saying Goodbye

Today the majority of everyone leaves for their trips all over the world. One team left tuesday, two left wednesday, one leaves tomorrow, my team leaves sunday, and everyone else leaves today(none of the teams are bigger than 20 besides mine). So we have dozens of teams leaving today....very emotional. Excited that they're off to change the world, sad that I will never see them again. Pray for safety for everyone. (oh and pray that I can get my tooth fixed before I leave)

So soon...

I can't believe we're leaving so soon...Today we were commissioned by Darlene Cunningham she talked about the pile of stones that the Israelites left after crossing the river jordan. What we need are these stones. We need to remember what God has done in the past in order to keep our faith alive. She told a story at the begining of YWAM and how her and Loren needed $500 in a matter of hours, and it was totally unexpected. She prayed "Lord I believe, help me overcome my disbelief." A contractor came over and gave them the $500 specifically because he felt that God told him to do so that morning. So this was one of the first stones in her life....she walks around campus saying "Lord, I remember the $500." When God does things in our life, we need to be thankful and remember. So her charge for us as we leave is to write down and pile stones as a reminder for our future and for future generations.

Jeremy West

The speaker this week is talking about the Cost of Discipleship. He is very passionate and dedicated to what he speaks about. Yesterday he talked about what it means to be a disciple of Christ. He defines sin as an act of rebellion to God. He went over the steps of discipleship today. The five steps he used in class are
1) submission to God
2) Identity in Christ
3) Commitment to Christ (not just believing, but being unswervingly committed)
4) Love...(how God loves us unconditionally and he just wants us to love him back. If we don't love God, we turn our relationship into religion)
5) Obedience to God (Christ demonstrated this in his obedience to die for us)

...and I would drive 500 more!

This weekend I rented a dodge neon and I had another good weekend! Friday a group of us rented kayaks and went out to Captain Cook's monument and snorkeled (I'll try and get pics later...I didn't want my digital camera to get damaged in the kayak). Saturday after I did my chore, 6 of us drove 2 1/2 hours to the volcano and hiked 2 miles and waited for dark, but we didn't see too much of a glow. We were about a mile away(as close as we could safely get), so it was a fun hike, fun people, but I sill want to see lava better. The internet is slow, so I'll try and upload pictures later. Sunday a group of us drove around the whole island and stopped at rainbow falls, hilo(where I bought a pink american eagle shirt...$4), puna for hot springs, south point in attempts to see the sunset(too many clouds), then back to campus....6 hours driving at least...but fun. We ended up driving 651.5 miles! It was so much fun!

Just Another Update...

I have been told a few new details, so I would like to pass the information. First, the official date that we are leaving for Fiji is March 26th. We will be staying at the Fiji YWAM base and most likely taking trips for a couple days to the villages. Tonga will be next and apparently we will be doing pioneering type of ministry...not sure what that means, but sounds like fun! Vanuatu, there are 2 YWAM bases that we will stay at and we will be there during their country's 400th anniversary. Not sure what we will be doing there, but then we'll go back to Fiji and be back to Kona July 20th for debriefing. In class we have been starting to learn more about prayer, worship, language(what not to do an say also), and the like.

Thank you all for your notes, emails, letters, packages, prayers, support, and just being a part of my life and my adventures! I would love to talk to all of you before I leave for Fiji, but in case I don't, know that I love you!

Pictures

I posted 60 pictures...I think you can flip through them...let me know if they work.

http://wwu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017161&l=edfae&id=25902808

Jeep Adventure

WOW...Quite the weekend! I rented a Jeep from 8am Saturday until 8am Monday...and boy did I get my money's worth! I started with 3 of the guys who are going on outreach with me and we went to southpoint, then drove the 4WD road to the green sands beach where we saw a mother humpback whale teaching her baby how to breach! I couldn't get a picture though. We then went to a beach called road to the sea and it was a black and green sands beach. We jumped into the sand because it was so soft. We had some good pre-outreach bonding.

We returned about 4:30 and I ate dinner, and grabbed 4 more of my friends, and we drove to a beach called Makalawena which is a rugged off-road to the most beautiful beach I have seen on this island! Sand so soft and fine as powder! We got there just in time for the sunset(amazing!) and we camped overnight(pic of the jeep and tent), had a bonfire(Min had never had smores before!), then in the morning we went and swam at the beach(just 5 minute walk away) Then we packed up and we made it back to campus at noon.

I showered, repacked and grabbed two of my roomates and two of the girls going on outreach with me and we went to turtle beach where the top of the water was cold ocean water(about 65 degrees) and then there was a hot underwater stream flowing and the deeper you got the warmer it was. So about 6 feet under the water was about 85 degrees. SO warm! Beautiful too. After we hiked back to the jeep and went up to Mauna Kea. Our goal was to watch the sunset...we had to layer up and by the time we made it to the top of the mountain, we missed the sunset by about 15 minutes. We stayed and watched stars and left for campus at 10pm. We returned to campus at about midnight and we decided that since we had the vehicle, we would go back for sunrise. So we went to denny's and ate breakfast at about 1:00am and then we drove back up mauna kea and waited for sunrise. It was SOOO beautiful.

We returned the jeep a little after 8am monday and we hitchhiked back. I drove over 500 miles in the jeep and Took over 400 pictures. It was the most amazing weekend ever! I wish I could post like 50 pictures, and still it would not do justice to the beauty and the adventure I went on. So I've been spending quite a bit of time catching up on sleep, prayer, and the like this week. So sorry for the delay in this update and my emails and phone calls. I love you all!