Been A Month

   Last Thursday I failed to tell you about Wednesday. Now it's Wednesday again. Let me fill you in on the week.
   First of all - all night prayer was awesome. It was a group of four of us (one SLS girl, one staff guy, one intern gal from my room and I). We sat in room 101 with Phoenix, the giant blue macaw (I'm pretty sure that's what it is), and prayed for each other and a bunch of other requests from the departments and people here for one hour. It went by so fast. I really love opportunities to pray for people and with people. I don't know why, but I get so jazzed.
   Now for last Wednesday. We did the usual, except we didn't have local prayer because we'd prayed through the night before and we worshiped instead, which I LOVED. I truly wish I could start out every morning a band of friends singing loudly and praising God to usher in the morning and lay a foundation for a solid day. It's not the same alone, but I'm determined to figure out something to attain the same effect. Later we had outreach, which was different. We're broken into three groups and each month we rotate outreaches. So this last month I've had Wahiawa Outreach. Last week was our first week of Ulu Pono. Kids. Lots of wild, Hawaiian kids. Kids, kids, kids. I don't usually like kids, and when I do I'm quite selective. Something I've been kind of working on. Fortunately these kids are wild. They are SO different from kids back home. They're wild, they don't listen, they love you, they can't stand you, they don't respect you, they want you, they DANCE like nobody's business, they don't want to do homework, they have no boundaries, they're awesome. I'd gotten a taste of what these kids are like the week or two before, when we had Feeding the Hungry in our parking garage. I was handing out pears - hardest thing to get rid of that day, I swear - and I had two boys around 12 or 13 years old, Ewon (I think, he won't give you a straight answer...) and Carlson. Or Carson. They think it's so funny when you can't figure out their name. They were hilarious, everything's a joke. They don't have a lot of respect and they'd get rough with the pears, which kept making the bags break, so I wrangled them. I told them to handle the fruit gently and greet people. I got them to say, "Hello, how you?" and "Have a nice day!" It was awesome. We also just made fun and gave each other a hard time. It was great, and that's how the younger kids in Ulu Pono are. You have to laugh and roll with the crazy. This is what our Ulu Pono days look like: we go around Ohai Street and round up the kids. It's usually a group of 10 to 30 kids (yeah, big difference), ages 3 to 10ish. Lots of siblings and cousins, and whatnot. We take them over to STN and start with a half hour virtue lesson. Last week's was courage. We interns are broken into three teams. Setup, games and virtue lesson. The virtue team put on a goony skit and then had some interactive time. In the skit one of the guys swam out too far and started to drown, so the lifeguard ran over and started CPR. While Christian was pretending to perform CPR on Jonathan, all the kids crept closer and closer to help/see what was going/really, they have no boundaries. It was totally hilarious Jonathan came to and spit water everywhere - getting on the kids that got too close. Anyway, it was the wildest two hours, and it ended with dancing. These kids can DANCE! They truly put me to shame, not that I ever claimed any dancing ability, but my goodness I want to learn from them. 
   Anyway, it was a tiring yet delightful day. If I ramble, my apologies, I'm totally tired. Thursday it was team Uncle's turn to stay around and do property projects! Megan (Intern Director) stole a few folks for some other project, but the rest of us got to start cleaning out the old trip club! Here's the deal. We are situated between Ohai and Kam Highway. On Kam, We've got the Surfers Coffee Bar, which used to be the Top Hat Bar. The longest standing bar on Oahu. It was here during WWII and hit at some point during Pearl Harbor. Next door, to the right, is the Yamada building, which used to be the 24hr porn shop. Quite a gnarly place. It's been converted to STN office space and giant room on the street side has been where we have worship, Surfers Church, testimonies, prayer time, almost everything we do as a big group. To the right of that is the market building, where we have classes. It used to be a liquor store that sold porn. And lastly, on the end we have the old strip club. A business has just decided to rent out the Yamada, so we've moved all the happenings there into the Club Texas (the old strip club), which we now call the Artis building. It's named after a local artist who died in the last few years and has murals seriously everywhere. He painted a rainbow on top of the Club Texas a long time ago. Something about a promise over that place from God. I'll learn the story behind sometime. Anyway, we now have church in an old strip club, bible classes in an old liquor store, STN offices in an old porn shop, and coffee and community gatherings in an old bar. God is good. Also, to continue my tangent - our apartments are directly behind the coffee bar, and right on the other side of the apartments is Ohai Street. Ohai used to be known as Blood Alley. A lady from the worship team at the church we attend every Sunday was here today telling us about it. She said she'd never be caught walking on Ohai. There were constantly gang fights and shootings. Prostitutes roaming around, drug dealers everywhere. In the middle of the parking lot between the two apartment complexes (one has us STN folks, the other is owned by STN but rented to the public) is the Bali House, where the SLS girls live. It used to be a drug house. Behind the market building is the Sunset House where some of the staff guys live. I don't know what that used to be, but right next to it, behind the Artis building is the Surfers House, which used to be a brothel. Can you imagine this place when all of this was still that way? Tom Bauer said there's a scale the nation uses to rate cities level of danger, or good and bad. From 1 to 100, 1 being the absolute worst of cities, Wahiawa ranked 3. Sheesh. Not to worry though. Dad, take a deep breath. Though it's still rough here, I've heard a single gunshot or witnessed a gang fight since I've been here. Apparently they do happen once in a while, says our neighbor, Wes. We live across the street from some Hawaiian gangsters who are a bit scary, so I'm not surprised, but I'm not worried either. We make sure to have guys with us if we go out at night and use discretion. So far so good. 
   On to the rest of Thursday. After lunch, Sayler asked and got me transferred from cleanup crew to art team! She had been given the task of making a bunch of signs for the car wash we were putting on that Saturday. She had one giant sandwich board tormenting her and then a bunch of smaller ones to do. She had me take on the big sign while she worked on the rest. It was glorious. That was the second time I'd been put to work painting with Sayle and I love it. Normally I abhor having to work on anything with other artists. It frustrating and stressful to no end. Not now! I'm learning to work with other people, even in my most sensitive, delicate situations. It was a blast and I was very satisfied with my work. Not usually the case. 
   Friday. These are our big teaching days. They also start off with small groups, which I love. This was an especially good one because we all shared awesome things happening. One gal shared about her sister realizing her need for Christ again, I shared about my friend realizing the same thing and it may or may not have been quite a cry fest. This is was happens when you get a bunch of girls together and talk about the beautiful things God does. 
   After that we had like four hours of teaching. These days are always a little much because there's so much to soak in, but I love them anyway because I love what I'm learning. That day we had Tom Bauer, co-founder of STN, speaking on evangelism. He's super visual like me, which made it fun to be taught by him. He made a great diagram to illustrate evangelism and how it works. He also made the point of how often if we're in missions, we want to do missions comfortably. We don't want to sleep on dirt or be around bad smells or nasty places. That's where we need to be willing to go. He emphasized being "available." We aren't the ones making things happen. It's God working through us, and the more available we make ourselves to him, the more he can use us. Awesome. I'm working on truly, truly being available to be used wherever he calls me. I look at it as the ultimate adventure and the idea totally scares, but mostly totally excites me. 
   Saturday was fun. They're big outreach days and this week, I and a few others were picked to go with Megan to help at the keiki surf competition in Haleiwa. Keiki means kids. We were there to hang out and play kids all day. There were so many of them, mostly pretty young, and they were SO beautiful. Imagine a bunch of beautiful little surfer children, tan and lovely running around the place. Not running actually, ripsticking. They all had those little mutant skateboards and cut back and forth real sharp and these tiny kids would just bomb this little hill like it was nothing, and if any of them ever biffed it - no crying. They'd just get right up and keep going. SO unlike kids back home. I'm raising my kids here. Mom - this is where can retire. Dad can have his dreads and run a food truck, selling gyros. No one has those here! This place is practically screaming your names. 
   So that was cool. I was super hoping I'd meet Jack Johnson there, he was there last year and some STNers got to meet him. I had no luck. Oh, well. A bunch of interns saw him in traffic the other day, so I have hope. 
   That night we had Surfers Church. It was great, as usual, and especially special because it was the first official Surfers Church in the old Club Texas! There's something about praising God in a former strip club that just makes it that much sweeter and him that much bigger. Plus I saw my homeless friend, Cody, there and that made me happy. 
   The next was church. None of us wanted to go because we'd had a long week and testing Saturday morning (books of the bible and timeline, i chee waaa) and were just being lazy. Though it was rough, I was determined to go and rely on God to give me energy and motivation to do so. And he did. And I'm glad. The message was so good and so powerful, and guess what. Cody was there! Homeless and broken as he is, he was up there praising Jesus and I can only be excited for what God has in store for him. 
   Later, we packed in a van and headed to the east side. Sayle and I tagged along to get dropped off at Lanikai while the rest of the group went on a hike in the mountains. Sayle's foot wasn't ready for a hike and I was in need of a solid beach day. It was glorious, though I have to say Lanikai's definitely not my favorite beach. It was totally beautiful, but I'd probably take Waimea or Sunset over Lanikai almost any day. Loved it nonetheless and it was great to explore. 
   Okay. Adventure Monday. This was the best day. Normally Monday mornings are stressful. Everybody wants to do something, but it's hard to get anywhere when car space is super limited. That's why we usually end up hitching. This week I decided not to be apart of it. I would sleep in and see what was going on when I got up. Hopefully I could get to the beach somehow if nothing else was happening, but if not I wasn't gonna cry about it. Boy, did I get a treat. A few folks were going for a hike, one of them a guy who was leaving staff the following day. He was the one who'd put the adventure together and I asked him if there was any chance he had room for me to join. He let me cram with three other gals in the back of his Volvo. We were headed to Sacred Falls. An illegal hike to the most beautiful place I've almost ever seen. Once we were passed all the signs threatening thousands of dollars in fines if caught, it was like we'd entered a Hawaiian version of Narnia. We were in another world and it was magical. Why was this incredible hike illegal? There was a landslide in 1999 that killed 8 people, and sometimes rocks fall. Thankfully we didn't die. Dad, don't be mad. After walking through Hawaiian Narnia, we entered Avatar. I kid you not, the creators of that movie MUST have come here for inspiration. There were even birds that seemed like pterodactyls from far away. Everything, EVERYTHING was gorgeous and different. Enchanted. When we arrived at the fall, we were taken by the beauty. It didn't seem like we should be allowed to be there, it was so pretty. Technically we weren't allowed to be there - heh. 
   We swam around for a while in the cold, fall water and goofed around. It was so refreshing. Looking up at that waterfall was one of the most beautiful sights. The light would catch the loose drops flying off the rushing water and somehow it almost looked like slow motion. I hope I never lose that image.
   Later that evening, we drove out to a beach near a little airport next to the mountains - kind of near Haleiwa. We were going to have a bonfire to celebrate Mike, the guy leaving, but wood's hard to get a hold of and it didn't happen. Instead, we lied on the sand and watched the stars for an hour or so. Even though the moon was bright, we saw a few shooting stars. It was lovely.
   Tuesday was our fasting day and it was a good one. The media department lead worship and Sabbath and they taught on spiritual warfare. Dang, how real it is. It was really good to hear what they had to say and what it says about it in the bible. If you think about it, God gives us armor. What the heck do we need that for if we're not fighting something? He gives us the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, shield of faith, shoes of the peace of the gospel and the only offensive piece of armor - the sword of the Spirit. Notice there's nothing to protect the back. I could talk for an hour about what each of these means, but I'm falling asleep. Look it up in Ephesians and really study what the purpose is for these and why they're needed. It's so interesting and so often unidentified in our lives, but it's real and needs attention. 
   Today we had a pretty normal day, and the best local prayer time I'v ever experienced. It was lead by Madeleine and Lovisa. They really got good and creative. They had a station to paint, one to write or draw, one to pray for the kids of the community that had a poster with pictures of some of the kids around here. You could write a prayer on a sticky note and put it on the poster. They had a station for the homeless, where you could write a prayer on a sticky and post it on the window. A station with candles where you could pray for the parents of the community and light a candle for the ones you were praying for. That's where I went first. Lastly, a station where you could get prayer for yourself. They had a few staffers available to pray with and for you. That was my second stop. They also had an outside option. They had an envelope by the door, with names of places around town in it. You could grab a slip with a place on it and pray over in that place. So creative, so great. 
   We also had Ulu Pono again today. First day of it in the Artis building. It was great. Those kids are difficult, but such a hoot. 
   Got to talk to my mom, my friend Emilie and my best friend Mary after work today. It's been a good, solid day. We had open mic night in the coffee bar, where the kids performed some hula dances they'd learned in the last week. Totally great. Uncle Perry, one of our homeless friends, came and played. He's left handed, but uses a regular right handed guitar and he's fantastic. What a treat. I got to hang out with friends and listen to live music all night. Life is good. Tomorrow we Uncles will be feeding the hungry in Kalihi and I need some rest. Till next time!