Or how about "so, what is Surfing the Nations?" Well, let me tell you! Those of you who've heard it a million times, tune out for a minute.
STN, once and for all.
Surfing the Nations is a non-profit humanitarian organization where I am on full time staff as a shift manager/barista in the Surfers Coffee Bar. We are one location - right off Kamehameha Highway in Wahiawa (pronounced: WA-hee-wa), Oahu. We're in the ghetto area of town, between Kam Highway and Ohai Street, which used to be called Blood Alley (known for its violence and drug use). Our facilities consist of an apartment complex, a couple little houses, and four storefronts along the highway. These four storefronts used to cause respectable folks to walk on the other side of the street. The Top Hat Bar is now our Surfers Coffee Bar. Divine Pleasures Adult Arcade/porn shop is now rented to a mobile phone store. Market 88 liquor store, where porn was sold, is now The Vintage Hawaii, a humanitarian boutique. And finally, Club Texas strip joint is now a safe place we call the Artis Building, where we hold after-school programs for youth at risk, church services, worship sessions, local and international prayer hours, and more. The heart of STN is all about transformation - personally, locally, and internationally. We seek to give back to the community through the sport of surfing - and everything other creative gifting we hold. We're made up of several departments that operate different outreaches aimed at youth at risk, the poor, the underprivileged, and the hungry, all to accomplish our goal of spreading a message of love and hope.
That's STN, truly in a nutshell.
So, what do you do there?
Let me tell YOU! As I mentioned before, I work in the coffee bar! I struggled with this fact a few months ago, realizing I left home and all my security for a year... why? To work in another coffee shop, and not even get paid this time? Ah, time to reflect. Thank God for reflection. I stepped back and saw God slowly fulfilling some of my dreams. Silly ones, and awesome ones. I'm currently pretty much living out my 5th grade dream of living on the North Shore of Oahu and being Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush. I can't quite surf Pipe Masters, but I'm satisfied with hearing how much I look like her from time to time. A bigger dream that's in development is another I've had for a long time - to someday run my own cafe. My mom and I have had dreaming sessions about what it would look like, what it would feel like. I love warm, peaceful, joyful atmospheres and I love the idea of creating one myself that I can share with others. Create. Welp, here I am gaining managerial experience, growing my barista skills, learning about specialty coffee, learning the ins and outs of running a non-profit business, serving up awesome Stumptown coffee, discovering what lifestyle evangelism looks like in a business setting. I'm doing part of the accounting (what the heck), managing volunteers, managing social media for a community centered business, and more! All for free (kinda), all with amazing people who are challenging, irritating, ridiculous, fantastic, inspiring, hilarious and beautiful. We're a mess, but we're solid. We're ridiculous, but totally serious. Clueless, but grounded. I've learned about honoring my coworkers and what it looks like to love each other as God loved us so that people will know that we're his disciples. We don't even have to say anything, just live it and let God speak through it. I've gained vision for what I want my life and future to hold. I've dreamed for what this place could look like and how to reach more people. Last year Surfers Coffee Bar trained a local young man how to make coffee so that he could get a job at another coffee shop nearby and earn money for school. I want to develop that experience into a full fledged program here, where youth at risk can learn a skill and open up opportunities in life they couldn't see before. I want to see our girl Sharise from down the street learn how to make coffee in a few years, when she's old enough to work. See her claim her worth and view the world with full access. To be an example for the rest of the kids from this rough Ohai neighborhood. I want her to experience God's love for her through us, for her to see herself as God sees her. I want to be a part of starting this up here, and pioneering it somewhere else. Washington, Sweden, Turkey, who knows. Something bigger than myself, something that brings positive transformation barreling through communities and the lives of people like a bull through a china shop. I want to bring God's Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven, and I want to follow Jesus. And that's where I am, what I'm doing, and what I'm striving for here. In a fat nutshell.
Feel free to join me by supporting me. This doesn't just mean financially. That's definitely a required part of living here, but prayer and encouragement are just as sustaining and necessary. An encouraging word feeds us in ways that money, no matter what it's used for, just totally cannot. And the effect that prayer has is insane. So, however you're able or willing - please join me. Life's an adventure to be shared, so be a friend.
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