Kona Part 1

My time in Kona was good but I am glad to be back in Maui. It was pretty crazy trying to organize a trip for 38 people. We got to the airport with plenty of time but the power was out. This meant an incredibly long line. It turned on again while we were waiting but that didn’t make the 100 people in line in front of us disappear. Because we made up such a large percentage of the plane, they made the plane wait for us. They tried to let us skip the security line but then the TSA people started throwing a fit. It was pretty funny.

On the way back, we had some travel troubles as well. The Kona base only had two vans to take us to the airport. We had too many people for two vans so we had to make two trips. I was with the second group and we didn’t get to the airport until 30 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. I freaked out when I saw the very long security line. I was so nervous about making our flight but when I finally got through security, I saw that our plane hadn’t even started boarding yet. My prayers were answered. Unfortunately three of our guys had to stay and go on a later flight because their seats had already been given away. One of our students almost missed the flight because he wasn’t wearing shoes. Luckily someone had an extra pair in their carry-on. I didn’t know that you have to wear shoes to get on a plane. I have never desired to walk barefoot onto a plane but I guess now I know I won’t work.

I liked some of the lectures in Kona but some things they had us do were weird or juvenile. There was an altar-call type thing at every lecture. They would say something like- “Who wants to experience more of the Lord?” or “Who wants God’s heart for the nations?” Then they would tell everyone who wanted what they were saying to come up to the front. It seemed pretty pointless because everyone went up to the front. I stubbornly refused to give in to the peer pressure. The funniest thing they did was some activity where we hit beach balls and were supposed to say an attribute of God when we hit it. I really didn’t understand the correlation. I just laughed and tried to peg my friends. One time I hit the cross in the center of the room. What is that supposed to symbolize?

Overall I enjoyed praying for the nations of the world and finding out what God’s doing in other countries. Our group was very international and probably represented more than 50 countries. It made me wish I was from somewhere more remote like Myanmar or Azerbaijan. I did display my Texas pride with a lovely “Don’t Mess With Texas” t-shirt.