The Best Saturday Ever There Was

   Why was today the best Saturday ever there was, Milo? LET ME TELL YOU:
This morning we had quiet time like usual, but this time I decided instead of sitting on my bed trying not to fall asleep I would sit in the coffee bar with earplugs and a big cup of joe and draw while praying. It was delightful. I had some creativity sparks a flyin' and now have some art ideas in the future. Next we had a testimony from our girl Mikaela. She's Swedish, and she rocked it. She's pretty quiet in general, and then she whips out this strength and independence in her speech that just catches you off guard. I can't explain it, but I love it. NEXT, I had the happiest thing happen. Cap, if you're reading this - you made my day. An old friend of mine, who I grew up with, fell away from, reconnected with, then fell away from again when she moved to Cali for nursing school. That was a couple years ago, and since then I haven't really talked to her at all. The other day she contacted me on facebook and I was DELIGHTED. Then today she sent me an email giving me a look at her life these days. It sounds beautiful and I'm so happy for her. I don't know if I've just become way sensitive to encouragement or something, but holy crapola I could not have floated on a higher cloud today. I was off-my-head happy. Cappy happy, heh. NEXT. We had Wahiawa outreach where we cleaned some trash from the lake down the road, Lake Wilson. It's this potentially gorgeous lake that everyone loves to destroy by dumping their junk in it. So sad. I'm pretty sure I was cleaning up a hobo's former dwelling most of the time. We did that for an hour or two, then went home for lunch/made a dump run. Lunch is always good. I kept forgetting about my lentils on the stove, but they turned out alright. Next we had an ADVENTURE! My favorite! They made it seem like we were working more, in an adventuring kind of way? We couldn't figure out what they had planned, but they said to wear swimsuits. They took us to a water tower up town. A few of the guys had already been there and knew what was in store. A GLORIOUS HIKE! People, it was so great. SO great. We started on a path past the water tower, into some woods where the trees were real spread apart from each other and the forest floor was super leafy. Then came a steep decline through some more trees and then it became a bit more of a jungley path through bushes, over a stream or two and along steep hillsides. One thing I love about forest here in Hawaii are the white trees. Not like birch trees, but more majestic, like giant pillars of marble. So incredibly beautiful. Sayler and I were studying at the fresh water park down the road the other day and as were leaving, I realized we'd been near this HUGE tree with this silvery bark, like the ones I'm talking about, and we just stood in amazement for a few minutes at how insanely beautiful these things are. Anyway, we hiked about a while and finally we came to it. Down another slope and we came to a river. A gorgeous, WARM, shallow river! And guess what else. There was a tiny section of MANGROVES along the water's edge! Mangroves remind me of macaque monkeys. If I were to be any animal in the world, it would be one of the little macaque monkeys they show on Planet Earth with tiny, little fohawks, splashing and swimming around together in mangroves all day. It looks like so much fun. Once I got passed my excitement on that, I floated around on my back in the sun and gazed up at the gorgeous silver trees and the fantastic clouds cruising through the blue, blue sky. My heart was afloat. I love this place.
   When we came back, I had to quick get ready to work in the kitchen for Surfer's Church. Have I explained Surfer's Church yet? Every Saturday night at 6:30, all of STN and a bunch of folks from the community (friends of friends, homeless folks, whoever folks), all gather at the Surfer's Coffee Bar for free dinner. We all eat and hang out for a while, then head next door to the Yamada building for worship and a message, then head back over to the coffee bar (these doors are literally 10 feet apart) for dessert, coffee and more social time. I totally love it. After that, I crashed. I was so happy with my day and then exhaustion punched me in the eyes. They got all puffy and I got a headache behind my left one. My beautiful Saturday came to an end and it was time for bed.