There's Lots To Be Said About Kauai

   Hey folks! My apologies for the last few weeks of silence, I hope I haven’t lost ya. So much has happened. We went to Kauai for 10 days. We jumped right back into the swing of things the week we got back, and this last week has really brought the realization of how much time we have left here. Only another few weeks, AH! Not willing to acknowledge it. Let’s start with Kauai.

   All internship we’d been hearing how the Kauai trip changes your life and it’s the best part of the whole program. Needless to say it was being quite built up in our minds. I fought against this best I could, but I still ended up with the expectation that it would be a spiritually intense 10 days. It was and it wasn't. 

   Our giant group trekked to the airport early in the morning, watched the sunrise as we drove along the highway. It was gorgeous, I never get tired of the sun and it's beauty. We spent an hour or more figuring out the baggage situation, then boarded the tiny little puddle jumper. We had a lovely stewardess who was a hoot. We took off and as soon as we had completely ascended, we were preparing to descend onto the lovely island of KAUAI! No cities, just towns, beaches, "mountains" and country. It was almost like coming home. Familiar, but so different. 

   When we arrived and captured our baggage from the claim, we said our sweet good bye's and split into two groups: Alpha and Omega, of course. We embrace corny Christian style here. We parted ways in our groups of about 20, including leaders, and set off on our adventures! My group had 4 leaders. Andy, the Aussie. He turned 29 while we were there and back at STN he's one of our internship leaders and helps with Surf Outreach. Vanessa's from California. She's 31, I think. She's been a big part in STN Bangladesh and she's awesome. I loved that she was put on our team because she was a part of the team that had come back from Bangladesh about a month into the internship and there hadn't really been opportunity for interns to get to know her yet. The work she does at STN doesn't really give her a lot of time to spend with interns. John's also from California and he's our registrar at STN. Another one you don't get to know that well unless you try. He's 21 and kind of sassy. We get along pretty well. Lastly, we had Anna. She's from Montana and only 19. You'd never know it. That's the funny thing about STN. Half the staff is younger than me and I had now idea until a few weeks in. Age really has little meaning here, maturity level is what speaks the loudest. Anna's a total goon, but very serious, intentional and mature at the same time, which is why she was leading folks 18 to 27 on this trip. Those were our leaders, and as for our intern group... they did such a good job. They made sure to split up the bonds. Sayler and I were separated, as were the other best friends among the group, and I ended up with most of the people I hadn't connected with much so far. Wasn't even bummed, I was stoked to have to get to know everyone else.

   We drove a while to the place we'd be staying for the first half of the trip. Kauai Christian Fellowship, a big church in the middle of nowhere. Truly, other than the lush mountains a few miles away, it almost looked like Arizona with a tropical touch. There were cacti. Heh. We slept upstairs on the floor in their gym area and their youth fellowship area, which was this cool red room with vinyl records covering the ceiling and multiple couches facing a little stage. It also the only air conditioning upstairs, so the girls claimed it the first couple nights. 

   After we got settled in, we went to the beach and had a nice, restful afternoon. Later that night we headed to KBC's youth group (Kauai Baptist Church, I think). John and Anna had visited these guys last year when they were on internship. These kids were nuts. It was pretty much completely student lead. SO refreshing to see. It made me miss my days as a youth leader, except that on Bainbridge it's like pulling teeth most of the time, getting comfortable with kids and getting them to open up. At KBC the kids were leading worship, they made the announcements, gave the message and toward the end, they called up a few of our people to pray and prophesy over them. God is alive in those kids. It was really cool actually, they called up one of our guys who's real quiet and doesn't open up a whole lot and they just poured their hearts out for him in prayer, and spoke over him and God was telling them. It was awesome. Our leader, John, and one of my friends, Matt, were the other two. We ate dinner their with them, got to know them some more and then it was time to go home. We'd see them again later in the week.

   Not much else happened that night, except that as were getting ready for bed, Anna was suggesting that we pray over the night and let it slip that weird stuff had happened there in the red room last year. Instantly the mood got tense. Christians and church especially like to focus on the goodness of God, which is fantastic, but sometimes are too nervous or unwilling for whatever reason to address the fact that their is darkness, evil and Satan that we need to be aware of. Apparently in Sweden you never talk about the devil. In fact the swear words we use here are just normal words to them over there. Words regarding Satan are their cuss words. Seems more appropriate. Poop is poop, but using a different name for it makes it offensive. Anyway, last year they had some experience with a demonic presence. Scary stuff until you talk it out and decide to trust that God is truthful when He says He's greater than the powers of hell and Satan himself. I felt fine about it, though one of our gals was kind of terrified. She'd never talked or learned about Satan at all. She slept in the middle.

   I forget the order of events throughout most of the week, but I think it was the next day we helped build a church. They've been building this place for a couple years now, John and Anna helped work on it last year. It was so great because they had just reached to the drywall stage of construction and they needed our help. We helped them carry in probably over a hundred big ole sheets of drywall. They were stoked and it felt good to a part of it. We did a bunch of other chores around the property and I even got to put my window cleaning experience to work. I was made head of a little group of us designated to clean all the windows and screens of the two small buildings on the property. One was I think the pastor's house and the other was their offices and what looked like a youth lounge. I did the screens and delegated the windows to the others... OH, this is after he had tried to give me windex and news paper to use. WHAT. I am a professional and honestly how could newspaper be any help at all? I got him to find me a scrubber and let me cut up a couple towels for rags. We did alright. Halfway through, we feasted. All the little aunties of the church cooked up a beautiful feast for us and the other volunteers. Our meals were planned and provided by STN and PB&J ended up being a common theme throughout the week, so at this thanksgiving-like feast, we went for it. By the end of the day we were beat, but felt good. 

   I think it was later that night that we went out to a delicious ice cream shop for Andy's birthday.  Since we'd skipped our STN lunch that day, they had money in the budget to buy us each a cone to celebrate. The ice cream was SO good. Afterward, we headed to the beach again for star gazin' and worship. We'd been there maybe 10 or 15 minutes when we were going around, tellin' our high's of the day. I said my high had been all the laughter throughout the day. I mentioned a specific point in the day back the church when I'd hid behind the kitchen door as I walked out, leaving Martin in there for a minute. When he walked out, I jumped out and scared him SO bad. He leaped in the air and though he says it was just gibberish  I'm pretty sure he yelled obscenities in Swedish. I nearly peed myself. We were all cracking up when someone asked why he wasn't laughing. We looked around and realized HE WASN'T THERE. We'd left him at the ice cream shop! He'd gone off to use the bathroom and we left him! I think it was John that ran off to get him. Turns out he had come out right as we were leaving without him. He even ran behind us for a while without us noticing. Oops. 

   On Sunday, we attended the church where we were staying. It's a funny church because they started out as a youth group disconnected from a church. The youth group was welcoming to adults as well, and it ended up growing like crazy. Eventually it evolved into a regular Sunday morning church with a thriving youth group. The first folks we saw showing up were older men. Refreshing to see. I feel like a lot of times I'm wondering where all the guys are at church. Guys, where ya at? The music was totally rock 'n' roll, classic rock style and the message was pretty short. The funniest thing was that they had nice couches in the front row. A chunk of us gathered up there, naturally. Then we realized, maybe these were meant for old folks to be comfortable. Pastor Rick later explained that it seems the most fought for seats at church are in the back, whereas at a concert everyone fights for the front row. Not that church should be a concert, but why is that so different? They decided to try out the couches just to catch people's eye and lure them to front row. It works. He also let us in on a couple other little secrets. We hadn't noticed, but they have absolutely no flowers around the stage. Nothing girly, specifically to make men more comfortable. Apparently it really does help. The somewhat short message was also a conscious effort to enable better focus and retention. It's neat to see into those thoughts behind the scenes. After church, a few of us went with a couple of the leaders to grab some things that had accidentally been left with the other team. We pulled up to the church they were at and it was ridiculous. We'd been away from the other team for two nights, yet there was so much cheering and hugging. So much bonding had already gone on within our separate groups that it was like visiting beloved family you hadn't seen in ages. It felt good, especially because you detect just the slightest change in some people already. Good change, like a sense of freedom in their demeanor. Foreshadowing. I can't remember what else we did that day, but we probably went to the beach. We didn't have a whole lot to do in the middle of nowhere, except visit this tiny little town, Koloa, witch was mostly just tourist shops, or hit the beach. 

   Monday I think was the day we hit up the schools. Half of us headed to the high school the 16-year-old gal who'd given the message at the KBC youth group attended, and the others to the middle school. She and another couple kids hold a Bible Club in a science classroom during break. We got to come in, get to know some kids, introduce ourselves to the group, share about STN and then hang out, answer questions and pray with the kids. Later that day we met some of them at the beach for volleyball and hang out time. 

   Tuesday we headed up to Kokee, a place kind of up in the mountains. We met up with our other team for a hike near the camp we'd be staying at that night. We had two cars the whole time we were on Kauai, a blue minivan and a big white giant van that could cram all 19 of us if we tried. We usually took the two everywhere though. I rode up in the minivan with John driving, Anna and Katsu. We had a ball. The big white van overheated pretty quick, so we had to stop and wait for them. The first time we stopped, I went and peed down the side of the mountain. It was a lovely experience, what a view. We went a little farther, then stopped at a gorgeous viewpoint. We climbed up a little hill to the most gorgeous view. We hung out for a bit, then left John to pee into the wind. Bad choice. 

   I'm ending my tales of Kauai there for now. The rest of the trip (the good stuff) and everything since will come tomorrow. Till then!