Media Reprieve

I was under the impression that I would be starting a media fast today. It turns out that is not the case. We will be doing some form of media fast each week. This Wednesday and Thursday I can't listen to music or read books or magazines. Then another week, I have a two day computer fast and another couple day span I have to give up all media AND (longing sigh) my cell phone. This one will be the hardest for me. I love my cell phone. Luckily this one won't occur until next month. I will let you guys know when I have those particular days of mourning.

This lady donated a trampoline to our base and Amy and I have been trying to put it together. Unfortunately we are not as mechanically inclined or strong (despite obsessive working out) as boys so the process has come to a standstill until we find willing boys. We have to keep the whole operation on the down low since the leadership team will likely deem it a liability and try to take it away. BY being covert, we should get in at least a couple weeks of jumping. Although, our friends may rat us out when they keep seeing our heads appear above the hedge.

Everyday I have a new opinion about my car. I am back to the idea of fixing it but I am still not sure. We'll see.

Bye Bye Media

Starting tomorrow my DTS school leader is making us have a three day media fast. This means we can't watch movies or tv, listen to music, read magazines or non-Christian books or use the computer/the internet. It is only for three days but I think it will be tough. I am sure it will be good for me to focus instead of distracting myself with my toys. So, I won't be answering emails for the next few days. Luckily I can still use my cell phone.

This weekend I went to another baby shower. This was for another one of the base wives, Libby. This will be their first, so it is really exciting. I won another shower game. I am getting the hang of the baby shower circuit. This game was where you divide into teams of two and write down a boy and girl name for each letter of the alphabet. The mom to be picks her favorite. Amy was obviously my partner and we spanked the competion. We were rewarded with earrings.

Amy and I have discovered that praying before hitching is beneficial. Since we started praying, we haven't gotten any pot smoking, alcohol drinking, acid dropping, leering, speeding, used to be incarcerated rides.

Last night I learned an important lesson. I drank an energy drink last night so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. I decided to counteract the effects of the caffeine by taking two benedryls. This was not smart. I went to bed around 1:30am and had to wake up at 8 for church. I woke up feeling dizzy and almost fell out of bed. I felt like I was still asleep. I was in a fog until some intense napping after church. I felt I could sleep forever.

So, I am definitely going to the big Bang!

I just realized that I haven't written in my blog in a while. There is no excuse for this.
I have been pretty busy lately. We have meetings for DTS staff every morning and every night. We get afternoons off but Monday we had a staff meeting most of the afternoon and Tuesday we had the dreaded base clean-up in the afternoon. This has made the week seem much more hectic.

We found out officially where we are going and who we are going to lead with. I am glad it turned out this way since I was already telling everyone where I was going and who I was going with. It will be good to lead with Matt since we were in DTS together and went on outreach to New Zealand. We have both seen each other at our worst. Also, we already know each other so we don't have to go through the awkward get to know you/ fake first date stage. Co-leaders always have to spend all this time together to get to know each other but Matt and I can forgo some of that. One annoying thing about co-leading with someone is that people try to match make the two of you. I am not interested in that at all.

The students are coming in two weeks. I am getting excited. I have talked to half the girls on the phone. It is hard to tell what they are actually like on the phone. I will be interested to see how accurate my first impressions are.

I have finally moved into my new room and got my stuff settled in. It is nice to be rooming with Ashley again as we were roommates for about two months before my visit home. We get along well as roommates. Our room is at the girl student house but it is set apart from the main house. The problem with that is that we have to go outside to go to the bathroom. This can be creepy late at night since we have had robberies at this house. Also we need to be careful early in the morning since the students will be eating breakfast in the car port, right outside our door. I need to make sure I am dressed appropriately.

I miss really sleeping in

I finished my first week of DTS staff training. It's mainly a lot of meetings but so far it hasn't been too bad. I looked some of the future students on Myspace to see if I could find out any dirt about them. No dirt yet, but still interesting. I can't wait to meet them! Maria told us to enjoy this weekend because it will probably be our last free one for awhile. I hope she is exaggerating. I do enjoy my free weekends.

I tried to sleep in today until 9am. Despite sleeping in Amy's room where the sun doesn't shine directly in my eye like in my room, I still woke up about 20 times before 9am. I refused to give up, though and get out of bed before 9. Here in Hawaii, the sun rises around 5:30 am and sets around 6:30pm. Because of this, it often feels earlier than it really is.

This morning we went to a baby shower for one of the wives on base- Jen. She will be the second of three YWAM wives to have a baby this year. We are definitely being blessed in the baby department. We played some baby shower games. This was only my second baby shower. I have been to a ton of wedding showers but not as many for babies. I won this game where you have to see how many clothes pins you can grab off the line with one hand. I don't know how this relates to babies but I won and that's all that matters, right? I got a lotion/body wash set.

Then this afternoon, I laid out at the beach. I have been trying to get more beach time since I won't live in paradise forever. Unless you count Texas as paradise.

I told you so

My roommate here bought a car and kept putting off getting insurance. Amy and I think this is wrong and we have told her this but she won't get it. The other day she was driving down the street and someone hit her from behind. Since Jacki was driving illegally with no insurance and the other lady was here on an expired visa, they decided to each pay for their own damages. Pretty crappy, if you ask me. I want to say, "I told you so," but that's nice but I really did tell her so. And now despite the costly accident, she has still not gotten insurance. Not smart!

I have started DTS staff training. I really like it so far. It is me, Matt Laskey, Ashley Bacchara and Josh Cordy. Maria is our school leader. So far, it just feels like talking with friends. We are trying to get to know each other better. We are also beginning to pray for our students. We have been calling them to see how they are doing as well. I am very excited and I am expecting big things.

On a really sad note, my friend, Jane's dad died of a heart attack yesterday. That just hurts my heart. I found out shortly before my DTS leader meeting and I had to show up late because I couldn't stop crying. I looked at pics from Jane's wedding this summer and I have one of her parents and one of Jane and her dad. Looking at these did not help with the trying not to cry game. I definitely prefer a short illness, then death to sudden death. Sudden death is just so hard because of the shock value. Jane's dad was a strong Christian man so I know he's in heaven but this is still really sad. It hurts my heart. Please pray for her family.

About to get busy... not that kind of "get busy"

I can be a sporadic blogger at times. I will write everyday and then I forget for a few days. That's probably good because no one wants to read my thoughts everyday.

I had another celebrity sighting. The other day, Amy and I were walking down the hill in our town and spied Kelly Osborne. I recognized her right away even though she has lost a lot of weight. After I saw Owen Wilson, I had come up with this plan where I would just say, "Hey, (insert celebrity name here) as I walked by to show that I knew who they were but I wasn't going to pee my pants in excitement. Well, Kelly should have been my first chance but she looked pissed and I lost my nerve. Next time, though, I will do it. I adapted this celebrity greeting idea after hearing about my friend, Sam, who saw Ice Cube and said, "sup, Ice?" Classy!

Today it has rained all day. Usually in Maui it rains and then sunshine appears, rain and then sunshine. Not today, though. It is the kind of day where you want to stay inside and watch a movie. We watched the old John Candy movie, The Great Outdoors. Good times!

I am supposed to be moving soon. I have lived in the cooler of the two girls' staff houses for the last eight months but now that I am going to be DTS staff, I am moving into the girl students' house. But the DTS students aren't here yet so the only people in the house are the three School of Worship girls. My old/new roommate, Ashley got back from Thailand yesterday. We were roommates for a couple months before I went home and will be again since we are both DTS leaders. She has moved into our little dungeon-like room at the girl DTS house but I am taking my time. The room is small and she found a giant spider in there last night. Also my main friends live in the house I am in now. I do need to just move my stuff to my new place. I figure I will just sleep there and still hang out at my old house. It is right next door. Also, when the students come, I will hang out with them but that's not for another month.

I am starting training on Monday. It will be weird to start being busy since I have been a slacker lately. I will mainly be busy in the mornings and nights and have the afternoons off. I would rather have nights off but I will survive. I still get weekends off. Also my friend, Katie H, just made a plane ticket to come visit me in the middle of June. Hooray! I am pumped!

Relationship stuff

I want to express my opinion about dating here at YWAM Maui. People here have different opinions about how it goes down. The way I see it, you can't casually date here. We live together, eat together, work together. You will see that person so much and if it doesn't work out, the potential for awkwardness is incredible. I would never start dating someone here unless I thought there was a serious chance we could get married. And I don't see that happening any time soon or ever. Also, we are all friends by default. I think that when you start dating a friend, it gets serious right away. So, there again goes the idea that you can casually date. You just can't.

This can be a great place to meet a mate but you have to be serious right away. There is currently a girl on staff who is kind of on the prowl. This rubs all the other girls the wrong way. Not smart!

God taught me some stuff the other day. I was rereading the story of God's promise to Abraham. I didn't realize that it took 25 years between God promising Abraham a son and Isaac's birth. That is a long time. God was still promising him over and over again during that time but I can totally understand why he would doubt. Then he took matters into his own hands and slept with his wife's servant to create Ishmael. Despite this, God still blesses Abraham.

I feel that through that prophecy in January, God has promised me that I will get married and have a family someday. I need to trust Him and know that He will make it happen His way. I have met guys that really liked me, really wanted to get married in the near future and would make amazing husbands. I could settle for one of those just to get married like Abraham did when he had Ishmael but if I hold out for God's best, He will fulfill His promise. I need to stand back and not try to make anything happen on my own.

Shout Out to Lil' Joe Morrow

This weekend has been pretty good so far. I still have a small list of things I have not yet accomplished but it is not even noon yet so I have hope.

I want to give a shout-out to Zach and Erin Morrow. I have confirmation that they had a baby boy about a week and a half ago named Joseph Robert or "Lil' Joe" as I have decided to call him. I can't wait to see pictures especially since his uncle, Lee claims he is particularly well-endowed. Congrats to the Morrow family.

Kari, Amy and I went to the mall on Friday night to see our new friend, May Lee. She is in our Bible Study and seems really fun. She works as a make-up artist and at the MAC make-up counter. She gave Kari and Amy make-overs but ran out of time before she got to me. I didn't mind since we were going to the gym afterwards and I knew I would just sweat it off.

After the gym, we had one of the craziest hitches I have ever had. This guy picks us up and soon after asks if any of us know how to roll a cigarette. None of us know how so he asks Kari to take the wheel while he does it himself. Kari holds the wheel as he is rolling the cigarette and not looking at the road at all. He is continuing to accelerate with his eyes at his lap. Kari warns him just in time not to hit a car in front of us. SCARY! I made sure to fasten my seatbelt. He finally finishes rolling the cigarette and takes control of the wheel. He starts to tell Kari about his ten years in prison. This is all happening with the Tupac Greatest Hits cd blaring in the background. Amy and I sat in the back, laughing at the absurdity of it all but also filled with fear. Luckily we made it home safe and sound. I want my car to hurry up and get fixed so I don't have to experience any more near-death experiences.

Yesterday morning, some of us participated in a community clean-up day and cleaned the main street of our town. It was pretty dirty. I think this is something YWAM should at least do every couple of months. It is needed and it shows our community that we care. At one point, I was with our base director's six year-old son, Timmy. He found an almost full 40 oz bottle of alcohol. He kept trying to get me to let him take a drink. I told him he would be arrested if the police saw him and that the stuff was kind of like poision. I didn't know how else to explain it to a 1st grader.

Last night we went to a carnival. It was not as cool as I had hoped. It was very crowded with families and junior high kids. Gena and I rode the Zipper and she won a mini stuffed monkey. The carnies there were not near as good as those on the mainland. There were a few traditionally gnarly looking ones but most were just local Hawaiians. I did get to snap a few good mullet pictures. Always a pleasure.

YWAM gets fancy

If you read my email prayer requests, you will know some of the following:

Yesterday I found out that Sherelle, one of Sherry's bridesmaids, was just diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I really bonded with her and Char, the other bridesmaid when they were in Maui. This kind of news makes me want to puke. She is 23 and just found out she has cancer. I looked on the internet to find out more about this kind of cancer and it said the survival rate is 80-90% even if found in a late stage. This is comforting but she may still have to go through chemo and all that scary stuff. Please pray.

My friend, Wil hit a deer with his motorcycle. I didn't know they even had deer here. They seem out of place. He and Melika were thrown from the bike with Wil breaking Melika's fall. Wil is in pretty rough shape but in very good spirits. He is covered in bandages so his road rash won't get infected. He has to wear these little booties and his hands are bandaged making him look a baby with mittens on so it doesn't scratch itself. He has to get a skin graft on his ankle. The phrase "skin graft" makes me want to puke. Luckily none of his tattoos were ruined. That was one of his biggest concerns. Pray that he doesn't get infected by Maui's rampant staf infections.

Last night we had a commissioning ceremony for our new base director. Tom, who used to run our School of Biblical Foundations in Missions has been named our new base director. I think he will do a great job. He is such a solid man of God. He is meek in the good Biblical way and strong and wise. The ceremony included dinner and was held at this plantation place. A bunch of the YWAMers tried to use this as an excuse to get really dressed up. It was a bit ridiculous how people were freaking out about what they should wear. I dressed fancy but not over the top. Some people didn't get the fancy memo and came in t-shirts and cargo pants. Before the whole thing started, Amy and I were sent back to the houses to pick up more people. We had to drive Sara Engler's car. That car is so funny. It is an 1989 Toyota hatchback painted in camo. Some kid once exclaimed to his mother that it was the GI Joe car. You must also have the heater on at all times when you are driving. Great for hot Maui.

This morning we woke up in the 6's. Anyone that knows me knows that I despise waking up in the 6's. I don't even like waking up in the 7's. Ashley borrowed a car from a lady she babysits for and we wanted to take advantage so we drove to the Bamboo forest. It is a hiking trail to some waterfalls through a forest of bamboo. I was wearing my hiking boots that while comfortable, lacked grip. I couldn't keep my balance to save my life. I was slipping and sliding everywhere. I actually fell at least 10 times. It was very humbling since no one else seemed to having as much trouble. By the end of the hike, I was soaking wet and covered in mud. It was fun but I feared for my life a few times.

If you read my email prayer requests, you will know some of the following:

Yesterday I found out that Sherelle, one of Sherry's bridesmaids, was just diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I really bonded with her and Char, the other bridesmaid when they were in Maui. This kind of news makes me want to puke. She is 23 and just found out she has cancer. I looked on the internet to find out more about this kind of cancer and it said the survival rate is 80-90% even if found in a late stage. This is comforting but she may still have to go through chemo and all that scary stuff. Please pray.

My friend, Wil hit a deer with his motorcycle. I didn't know they even had deer here. They seem out of place. He and Melika were thrown from the bike with Wil breaking Melika's fall. Wil is in pretty rough shape but in very good spirits. He is covered in bandages so his road rash won't get infected. He has to wear these little booties and his hands are bandaged making him look a baby with mittens on so it doesn't scratch itself. He has to get a skin graft on his ankle. The phrase "skin graft" makes me want to puke. Luckily none of his tattoos were ruined. That was one of his biggest concerns. Pray that he doesn't get infected by Maui's rampant staf infections.

Last night we had a commissioning ceremony for our new base director. Tom, who used to run our School of Biblical Foundations in Missions has been named our new base director. I think he will do a great job. He is such a solid man of God. He is meek in the good Biblical way and strong and wise. The ceremony included dinner and was held at this plantation place. A bunch of the YWAMers tried to use this as an excuse to get really dressed up. It was a bit ridiculous how people were freaking out about what they should wear. I dressed fancy but not over the top. Some people didn't get the fancy memo and came in t-shirts and cargo pants. Before the whole thing started, Amy and I were sent back to the houses to pick up more people. We had to drive Sara Engler's car. That car is so funny. It is an 1989 Toyota hatchback painted in camo. Some kid once exclaimed to his mother that it was the GI Joe car. You must also have the heater on at all times when you are driving. Great for hot Maui.

This morning we woke up in the 6's. Anyone that knows me knows that I despise waking up in the 6's. I don't even like waking up in the 7's. Ashley borrowed a car from a lady she babysits for and we wanted to take advantage so we drove to the Bamboo forest. It is a hiking trail to some waterfalls through a forest of bamboo. I was wearing my hiking boots that while comfortable, lacked grip. I couldn't keep my balance to save my life. I was slipping and sliding everywhere. I actually fell at least 10 times. It was very humbling since no one else seemed to having as much trouble. By the end of the hike, I was soaking wet and covered in mud. It was fun but I feared for my life a few times.

Weekend Fun

I feel that this weekend was pretty productive. Amy worked a lot of the weekend so I had more alone time than usual. It was pretty good. Yesterday I rode my bike for the first time in a long time. It was fun but hard with the wind. I also played some basketball and had some contemplative God time at the beach.

Today I tanned on the beach. I have been trying to go to the beach more often. It is so crazy how living here can make you immune to the place's beauty. I realized that it had been way too long since I had enjoyed the beach. I know I will miss it a lot when I am back in Texas so I am trying to take advantage.

Tonight, Sherry, Matty and I went to see our DTS friend, Cherish in a play. The play was Sweeny Todd and it was a bit weird but pretty good. It was a musical. I am not that in to musicals. I can't pay attention to them very well. It was cool to get to see Cherish. She had a pretty big part. She wore this ridiculously cheap looking long blonde wig. It made me giggle quite a bit. Then we all hung out at Border's afterwards. It was fun times.

Crazy dancing with everyone I know

Last night I went to the Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson concert. It was part of the Kokua festival, a save the earth kind of thing. I originally found out about it when I looked at Ben Harper's website. He was the one I wanted to see the most. Unfortunately he played first and only played about four songs. Pretty lame! It only left me wanting more. It seems pretty crazy to have Jack Johnson as the headliner when he is the newest artist of the three. Luckily they had Ben come back out at the end and play several songs with Jack. There was even one song with Willie, Jack and Ben. This redeemed the concert for me though I still felt slightly unfulfilled by my Ben time.

It was nice to go to a concert. On the mainland I go to one at least once a month but this was my first one here. We don't get a lot of big names here very often. The venue was good for people watching but not as good for music listening. Where we sat, there were large groups of people walking by in between us and the stage. It was still fun but it was no Stubbs or the Backyard in Austin.

The event was a festival, which meant there were booths with free stuff. I love free stuff. I got lots of stickers, misc. health food-type snacks, recycled bottle opener, recycled shoe laces and some organic feminine products. The snacks were especially nice because I didn't have to buy much food.

I think half of my YWAM friends were there as well as a large percentage of the non-YWAMers I know or recognize on Maui. It makes you realize how small Maui really is.

Ben Harper and Jack Johnson are the type of artists I like to listen to while chillin on a blanket with my friends. Their music is not that conducive to dancing. This did not stop a lot of people. I am not much of a dancer myself but I like to imitate other people's dancing attempts. This brought me and my friend, Gena tons of amusement as we imitated all the crazy dancers around us. One girl had some seriously spastic Elaine Benes type moves. It was hard to keep up. While imitating one of her twirls, I fell onto the people next to me. There was also a very strange new age man who was basically having stand-up sex with his clothes on with a new age young lady. It was frightening and made me feel uncomfortable as it felt like they needed to get a room. So, to combat my fear, Gena and I danced like crazy around them. It was great! I have pictures that I will be posting on my website shortly.

Car Envy

This weekend was pretty good and relaxing. I was hoping for nothing but sunny skies but that didn't work out. It was rainy and sunny on and off. Often rain would start with no warning. Nice!

My roommate Jacki is buying a car tomorrow and lately I have really been wanting to get my car fixed. I have been unable to sell it so far. I guess a car that does not run is not in high demand. If I got it fixed, it would be easier to sell when I leave and I would get more $$. I am going to talk to some people about pricing. We'll see. I am just tired of hitchhiking everyday to get to the gym. Hitching isn't as bad when it is done in moderation.

Amy is doing this work trade thing where she works at a local boutique in exchange for clothes. We met her co-worker the other day and she is the epitome of new age. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it is basically someone who is searching for spiritual fulfillment in a variety of ways. The person may practice yoga and meditation. They make study Buddha and witchcraft. They often talk of karma and energy. They would likely say that whatever religion works for you is right. They don't see all the contradictions between their beliefs and the tenets of the major religions.

So, this co-worker of Amy's, Kristin- She was asking about what we do with YWAM and tried to say that what she was trying to do was very similar. She is trying to buy the property that most of our base was on before we moved because of a rent increase. She wants to create some sort of group that will go to other countries and spread loving feelings, good will, healings and meditation. We are currently allowed to use this basement room in the building as a prayer room. She said that she would turn that room into a "reading" room where there would be two people seperated by a curtain that gave readings. I was mildly offended by her nonchalantly suggesting that she would turn our prayer room into a psychic reading room. Not cool. It was mainly crazy to me to think that she sees no difference in what we are trying to do. I have a very hard time reasoning with New Age people because they are so quick to say that everything is okay and they don't use logic.

At church today there were a ton of kids. It feels like the church gets bigger everytime I go. There are a lot of brand-new Christians, which is cool. It seems like almost everyone from church is related. There is one lady at church who kind of bothers me. Her name is Catherine and she sometimes sings these long songs that she makes up in the middle of the service. She also speaks in tongues and keeps trying to make me and Amy pray so that we can do it too. I don't want to and no randomly singing lady can make me. Today she talked about healing and I simply did not agree. She said that if you are sick and people pray for you to get healed, you are healed automatically but sometimes you don't see results because you don't have enough faith. The fact that you still have symptoms is all in your head, because you have been healed. You just have to realize this fact. I don't agree at all. I think God promises healing but that may not happen this side of Heaven and He has his reasons for that. If you are not being healed from an ailment, it is not your fault. People don't die of cancer because they just don't believe hard enough. That is not true and not biblical.

Training for free

I think I am finally out of my post-home funk. I have felt pretty homesick this past week. I got to talk to some of my friends on the phone which you would think might make things worse but actually made things better. It's like I get a little home fix when I talk to my home friends.

Amy and I have been working out like crazy. We went seven days in a row and then we decided that we should probably take today off. We actually went walking in the morning because we are pretty addicted to this whole exercise thing. We are hardcore because going to the gym means hitchhiking and since it keeps raining here, it is a wet time. Amy is very good at manipulating people. That is how my rental car got upgraded from a Dodge Neon to a convertible PT cruiser. Her latest conquest has been figuring out how to get this trainer guy at the gym to train us for free. He is a nice guy who may or may not have a crush on her. This doesn't really matter since the only place we see him is at the gym and he is not inappropriate. Yesterday, he led us through an arm workout. It was good. Then, when we were hitching home, he picked us up. Not a bad person to know.

Today Amy and I went to a Bible study at her friend, Moana's house. Moana is a great Christian lady who happens to be a millionaire. Her house in Maui overlooks the whole island and is really cool and funky as it was designed by her artist husband. The Bible study consisted of me, Amy, Moana, Holly-used to be a YWAMer, Melissa-current YWAMer, and four of Moana's friends. It was good times. We also ate a lovely feast of Salmon patties and pineapple afterwards. That sure beats Build A Whatever, which is what we likely had on base. For lunch we usually build a sandwich, build a wrap, build a burrito, or build a salad. That is of course unless we have taco salad day or tomato soup and grilled cheese day.

Gym People

I would like my blog readers to get a feel for my gym experience since I spend so much of my time there. So faithful readers, I present a segment I call "Gym People." These are real people I encounter during my times at the gym.

Flat top man- This guy is great. He is a fifty year old black guy with a "kid n play" style flat top. He also wears a visor and matches in a way that puts me to shame. He has a camo outfit, a blue and grey outfit, among others. His shoes, shirt, shorts and visor ALWAYS match.

Grey Outfit man- I have only seen this guy once but the image of him will stick in my mind for eternity. He was wearing a grey shirt and grey shorts and had the most unorthodox workout style I have ever seen. He performed familiar exercises with an elaborate gusto. It was like watching a train wreck. I couldn't look away. I can't believe that his spasmatic methods did not cause him some serious back injuries.

Big butt guy- This guy wears some strange tight men's dance pants. He has one of the biggest butts I have ever seen on a man. He wears a black leotard-type top. He also has unorthodox exercise methods that often include a bizarre serious of punches and kicks amidst the exercise equipment. He once left the gym in a huff after being told not to kick the exercise balls.

Amazing Mullet man- It's a shame they don't allow photos at the gym because this guy would for sure be in my hall of fame. From the front he looks like your average middle-aged Asian guy with a short spikey do. But when he turns to the side, he reveals his wild side with a snazzy little ponytail. I mean, from the front you would never see the pony tail coming. It is A-Mazing!

Hitching to a death metal soundtrack

So, it still feels a bit strange to be back but not near as much as the first few days. I have come to realize that a lot of it is having so few people on base. We have teams in Thailand, Borneo, Bangladesh and Nepal right now so the base feels empty. We do have two smaller schools starting up- our SBFM and our School of Worship. There are currently four Texans on base including myself, who I can reminisce with when I get to missing my beloved home state.

I found out yesterday that my brother is scheduled to go to Iraq for a year starting in October. He is in the army so going to Iraq was pretty much a given. It is weird to have an actual date it's supposed to happen. The army seems to change its mind a lot so I will believe it when I see it. I am not that worried about the actual Iraq part. I figure my parents will do more than enough worrying to cover my family. I know that Andrew is more likely to die in a car accident than he is to die in Iraq. What bums me out the most is the idea that I have to go two whole years without seeing my brother, who happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole world. If I think about it too much, I will cry.

On a happier note, Amy and I have picked up right where we left off, spending 90% of our free time together. I have already gone to the gym three times and I have only been back three full days. Amy and I are going to try to guilt trip each other into eating better. I know that this is the only way to make my working out really pay off.

I also went hitchhiking today. We got in the back of a pick-up truck where there was already a guy hitchhiker in the back. He had yet to discover the concept of deodorant. At one point, the truck stopped short and he flew into my lap. Lucky me! The driver of the truck was agressively friendly and kept yelling back to us to figure out exactly where to drop us off. Then he pumped up some horrible music that sounded like someone yelling until they became hoarse and then yelling louder. To make matters worse, the guy was singing, or maybe I should say yelling along. Mmmm.... hitchhiking!

Good bye bluebonnets, hello plumerias!

I am back in Hawaii. It is weird. It is much stranger than I expected. Actually I did not expect it to be weird at all. But, alas it is. I have been trying to put my finger on why things are weird because this feeling is quite disconcerting. The conclusion I have come to so far is that three weeks at home was too long. It allowed me to become too attached to home and the amazing people I have there. When I am here, I am loosely attached to home and tightly attached to Maui. Then when I went home I became tightly attached to home and lightly attached to Maui.

I know I am supposed to be here and that I am supposed to go to Bangladesh in August but it sure doesn't feel like it right now. I miss home quite a bit. It doesn't help that the students left for outreach while I was gone as did many of my friends here. Luckily, Amy, my best friend here, is around to hang out with me in my melancholy. When I come home at Christmas I need to make it a shorter trip because this is hard.

I have posted home pics on my website so check it out: www.ywamconnect.com/sites/hightower

The bouquet toss

So I feel that randomness is abundant right now and there is likely more randomness to come before I leave Texas. Today's installment of randomness quarterly:
I was having dinner in Kemah (a collection of restaurants and out of place carnival rides and games next to the ocean) with some of my fun college friends. My friend, Sarah Thompson Musselman is pregnant so her bulging belly brought me endless amusement.

Anyway, we were sitting and minding our own business at our table outside when a party boat thing came by with a wedding party aboard. We could see a bride and groom and a few of their attendants. They slowed as they passed the restaurant. Then the bride just chunked her bouquet at some randome people at another table. She was way to far away and the bouquet fell into the ocean. The bride looked sad but she should have known she didn't have much of a throwing arm. So then she appears with another bouquet and the boat draws near to our table. She doesn't say anything to warn us. I guess she assumed a table full of girls would automatically swing into action. By the time we figured out what was going on, she had thrown the bouquet at us. It landed on the canopy above our table and slid into the ocean. This was definitely the first time I have had a random stranger/bride chunk her bouquet at me. If she had given me some warning, I could have sprung into action. I actually like catching those things but I was too confused to go for this one. Weird!

First a graveyard pick-up attempt and now a random bouquet toss. I can't wait for what tomorrow will bring.

Graveyard pick-up lines

Today was a first for me. A guy tried to pick me up in a graveyard. Here's what went down: As you have rightfully assumed, it was hilarious.

I am now car-less after returning the car I had been blessed with for most of my time here. I decided to go to the cemetary by my house to take pictures. Cemetaries can make for some cool pics and this cemetary is old and gigantic. I walked around reading grave stones and taking pics. This guy in a white Explorer stops me and asks if I know where Howard Hughes' grave is. (He is buried in the cemetary.) I tried my best to explain it to him but the cemetary is like a giant maze. He drives off and I go back to my pensiveness and photography.

Then when I am in another part of the cemetary, he rolls up again. I tried to head in the other direction, but he calls out to me. I go over to his car and he introduces himself as Smiley. I immediately notice that his name is tattooed on his arm. How lovely. He tells me that the Howard Hughes question earlier was just his excuse to talk to me. He used to work at the cemetary until he got fired. He says he is in the military now and stationed at Ellington Field. He makes me hold his puppy, Tiny. He tells me that he thinks I am cute and beautiful so he had to talk to me.

The man is clearly near-sighted as I am wearing a baggy shirt and work out shorts, I am sweaty and have a serious case of cloud hair frizz. He has a strange definition is beautiful. I usually use these types of situations as a chance to lie but this time I gave it to him straight. I told him I was going back to Hawaii and would not have time to get together with him. I did not mention the part about not being interested in someone with Smiley tattooed on his arm. We shook hands and I walked home, constantly looking over my shoulder to see if Tiny and Smiley were following me. Pretty funny! Who tries to pick up a girl in a graveyard. So romantic!

This is my second funny experience in this particular graveyard. The first was right before I went to Maui the first time. My dad convinced me, Emily and Sarah Morgan to go on a walk through the cemetary at night. The place was closed but we didn't think that was a big deal since we were just going for a walk. We walked deep into the cemetary for about twenty minutes before we noticed headlights in the distance. Then came a big spotlight that began searching the woods. We realized they were after us and that we were technically trespassing.

My dad started freaking out about how he is lawyer and that trespassing would look really bad. So, we decided to try to sneak out of the cemetary without getting caught. We crouched behind gravestones and traveled in the shadows. Emily was not dressed for the ocassion, wearing bright white pants. She was running, crouched down with her gleaming white butt waggling in the air. It was quite a sight. At one point we lost Sarah Morgan. I wasn't worried, though, because she is the most competant person I know. We finally all made it back to the entrance and ran out. Moments later, we looked back to see police cars at the entrance of the cemetary. We had narrowly escaped.

What a sight it must have been to see four adults: a lawyer and three teachers: one with white pants running like guerilla soldiers through the darkened cemetary. What an adventure!

Day of Discontent

Yesterday I felt moody and melancholy. I hate those feelings. I think being home has aroused some emotions in me that I was not prepared for. I have noticed an annoying pattern within my post-college self, I am not content to chill where I am. I constantly feel the need to think and daydream about the next step. When I was at home after DTS, I couldn’t wait to get back to full-time ministry in Maui. But now that I am so briefly home again, I find myself longing for stability, money, and a family. This probably has something to do with my friends buying houses and having kids. I think I get nervous that I will never settle down. I like security and I don’t like change so the thought of settling down in Houston, sounds really appealing right now.

If I were God, I know I would be thinking something like this: She didn't like living in Houston. She wanted to go back to Maui and I let her go back to Maui. Now, she wants to be back in Houston. Can't she just make up her mind?

At the same time, I know that when I am settled in Houston with a husband and kids, I will miss my missionary days and the crazy adventures. I need to become like the apostle Paul and be able to say that I can find content in every circumstance. Constantly thinking about the next phase in my life is only going to cheapen what I am going through now. I am excited to return to Maui and lead a team to Bangladesh. I just think that being in Houston has made me think too much about how my life will be when I return in a year. I know that returning to Maui will make a lot of this future plan stuff seem less pressing. I am also trying to spend more time with God and let his word speak to my insecurities.

An ode to Kitty

For those of you who know me well, you may remember my family cat, Whiskers (otherwise known as "kitty"). This is the cat my mom was given at Christmas time in 1990. My dad let me in on the secret gift and when my dad saw the cat food my mom bought, he knew I had squealed.

Kitty did not care for me and I did not care for kitty. He was a Siamese cat, which meant he was mean. He would be in your lap purring and then turn on you. His eyes would turn red and he would pounce on you. He scratched my brother in the head and made him bleed. The only person he liked was my mom.

David Ray tried to make kitty love him but it did not work. When David came over to my house, he would immediately cuddle with kitty. He would insist that despite the fact that kitty was hissing and struggling to get out of his arms, kitty loved him. I was not buying it. I always feared for David's life during these exchanges.

I knew kitty was going downhill the other day when he came and laid on my lap. If he was in his right mind he would have been able to clearly see that I was not my mom/his only fan. He stopped eating this week and my mom said he smelled like death, whatever that means.

He had been close to death during the Hurricane Rita scare. My mom wanted to take him to the vet to be put down but the hurricane shut everything down. As my dad said, kitty got a reprieve from his death sentence. He liked to yell, Dead Cat Walking!

This time my mom tried to get me to do her dirty work. She tried to make me take kitty to the vet today to get killed. Now I was not opposed of getting rid of this cat that never did anything nice for me. I just didn't feel right about forcing kitty to spend his final hours with me, who could care less about him. My mom needed to do this herself. So, she did it and Whiskers "kitty" Hightower is no longer of this earth. My mom thinks kitty will be in kitty heaven but if there is a kitty heaven (i have seen no evidence for this in the Bible), kitty was far too nasty to gain admittance.

Despite my animosity towards kitty, it is strange that he is gone. So, rest in peace kitty. You will be missed, well kind of.
Whiskers "kitty" Hightower November 1990- March 28, 2006

Bluebonnets a plenty

This weekend I went to Austin. It was a short trip but good times. I got to see Jocelyn and Jason, Lucy, Lindsay, Julie Schwarz and my old pal, Paul Dabney. I got to go to some of my favorite eating establishments: Magnolia Café, EZ’s, Spider House, Jimmy John’s and that excellent little snow cone stand near Barton Springs. Mmmm. I love visiting Austin but there are always moments of sadness when I realize that I no longer have a home there. I am no longer a resident but a mere visitor. There are always a lot of changes and I hate change.

Unfortunately my Longhorns lost in basketball to LSU. I was a bit torn because I had enjoyed watching LSU win the other day and had grown fond of this team that includes a player called “Big Baby.” Though I root for my alma mater, UT, over any other team, I had a hard time with this game. In fact, when we started sucking in overtime, I actually wanted LSU to win. I will be rooting for them to win the whole thing.

There were some amazing bluebonnets on the way to Austin. John and Sarah and I stopped and took some pictures on our way back. I am posting them on my website for all to enjoy.

I can’t sleep lately and I think it is some sort of mutant jet lag. I tried to stick to Maui time and go to bed late and wake up late. That quickly turned into go to bed late and wake up at a reasonable time so you don’t feel like a total slacker. This meant I was going to sleep at 4am and waking up at 9:30. This is not an adequate amount of sleep. Then at 9pm each night, I felt dreadfully tired but could not fall asleep until way after midnight. This cycle sucks! It is like my body is already trying to get back on Maui time but it is not doing a good job. Luckily I can call Amy in Maui when I am up late at night. Hooray for drastic time changes.

Random Japanese woman

Last night I watched my Texas longhorns win due to a three-pointer with .8 seconds left. It was amazing! Have I mentioned how much I love college basketball? Well, I do. Right now I am watching a b-ball game whose teams I don't care about but it's college basketball so I am enjoying it. I just like college sports. With the exception of the Rockets in the early 90's I think college sports is where it's at. It doesn't hurt that my alma mater has some awesome teams.

Today I felt kind of anxious with an overall lack of peace. In Maui, I feel peaceful because I understand my role and I know what is going to happen next. Here in Houston again, I am not sure what I should be doing with my time and I feel uncertain about the eventual outcomes of life situations. I pretty much need to be patient but that is something I constantly struggle with. I tried working out but this did not aleviate my uneasiness. Then I came to the logical decision that I need to spend more time with God. I went to a coffee shop with my Bible, journal and a book I'm reading called Velvet Elvis. My time with the Big Guy was all that I had hoped. I came to this semi-insightful realization. The bible talks about fruits of the spirit- Galatians 5:22
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." When we are obviously lacking in one of these areas, like me with patience and peace right now, we need to go back to the source of this fruit- God. When you reconnect with Him, you will find as I did today that it is much easier to have patience or peace or whatever you're lacking.

After my coffee shop God time, I felt much better. As I was walking in the parking lot, an older Asian woman stopped me. She had been sitting near me and noticed me reading my Bible. She proceeded to tell me herr life story in broken English. She had tried a lot of different religions including: Budhism, Judaism and New Age. She had recently become a Christian by watching TBN. This seems like a miracle in itself since that lady with pink hair frightens me quite a bit. She felt like God wanted her to come to Texas and marry this doctor. She has been here five years and is not even close to marrying the doctor. Now her job prospects here are slim but she has had offers in Kentucky. She is confused about what God wants her to do next. I mainly listened to her and then I prayed for her. It was an odd experience but a cool chance to encourage a fellow believer. It really pays to spend time wth God.

Oh college basketball, how do I love thee?

Blog 3-23

Time is going by more quickly here than I expected. Sleeping until 11am most mornings is a contributing factor for sure.

I did not purposely time my trip around the NCAA Basketball tournament but being able to watch tons of good basketball games on an HD cable television is amazing! It is a big change from my TV in Maui that looks like fuzz at all times. During college football season, I often had to hold the antenna above my head to make it no longer look like it was snowing on the field. Ahhh….. the perks of being at my parents’ house.

Last night I visited some of my Young Life kids. Due to lack of leaders, they have had to combine my Northbrook High School kids with their rival, Spring Woods High School. It was good to see the kids but most of my favorites were not there. I hope they will be there when I go next week. They did a skit where the kids had to wrap a live chicken in wrapping paper. Some of the kids and leaders just spazzed when the chicken would get near them. It was so funny! I guess I am used to random chickens after living in Maui.

Today I went bowling with my friend, Katie H. It was good times even though I really sucked. I’d been wanting to go bowling for a while since the only bowling alley in Maui is supposedly so local that they would refuse service to haolies (Howlies or white people). Then we ate lunch at a café that my mom refers to as “the lesbian deli.” Lesbians or no lesbians, they make some great food. Everything I have ever had there is excellent.

Later I played disc golf by myself. It was ridiculously cold so I tried to play fast. I just really wanted to play and I wasn’t going to let the fact that I could see my breath stop me. It was also a good time for me to get away from distractions and spend some time with God.

Then I watched an excellent game of basketball. LSU played awesome and beat Duke, the number one seed team. It was so good! I kept yelling out loud. Thankfully no one else was home to make fun of me. Now I am watching my Longhorns, who are doing good so far. Hooray for college basketball!

Too much Dr. Pepper

I have caffeinated myself too much this evening and that is why I find myself writing in my blog at 3am. I thought about calling my Hawaii friends but even they might be asleep at this hour.

Yesterday I visited my old work, Soundwaves. I saw pretty much all the people I wanted to see. I also found out that I still get my discount even though it has been lowered from 45% to 35%. It was nice to be able to get it without sneaking around and having a friend buy my stuff. When I was shopping, I kept feeling like I needed to get back to work. It was a bit weird. I have considered working there if I come back from YWAM in a year to get a teaching job. The job wouldn't start until August so I would need something until then. Maybe Soundwaves. We'll see because that is a long way off.

I went to my friends, Sarah and John's new house. They have finally moved back to Texas and have settled in Pearland, which is apparently the new cool place to be. Their house was cool and bigger than I expected. They are officially real people. I on the other hand, am definitely not a real person right now. My dad would object to this kind of labeling so maybe I should say that my life is more unorthodox than theirs right now.

I watched part of the show Dog the Bounty Hunter today. It was funny because they were looking for a big Samoan guy wearing a grey shirt and black shorts. My friend, Terry is from the Cook islands, so he looks Samoan, he is big and always wears a grey shirt and black shorts. It turns out Dog the bounty hunter was not looking for my friend afterall, but it was a funny thought.

I have received some disturbing news that people in Maui are watching my boxsets without my permission. Normally I would not mind but certain YWAM people are not careful with stuff and things that get left in the living room get trashed. The worst part was that the offenders were watching my Season 2 of Arrested Development, which I have not even watched yet. Shady! I think Amy is going to regulate on them. She has my back.

Blog lessons

I have had a blog epiphany. I read someone else's blog who wrote about someone but withheld enough details so that I couldn't figure out who they were talking about. I decided to use this technique to discuss some frustrations I was having. Unfortunately I tend to over-detail rather than under-detail and my attempt at being vague ended up being ridiculously obvious to most people I know. I tried to back peddle by erasing the aforementioned posting but it was too late. Several people had already read it including the person I was not so vaguely talking about. Smooth move. It ended up facilitating a much needed conversation, but I think I will stick to being funny and stop with the vulnerable stuff.

So far, being at home is still going well. It is so nice to be free of responsibility for a bit. I have decided not to worry too much about seeing people this week and let stuff happen naturally. Then next week I will make more of an effort to see my friends. This three week thing is nice because I don't feel rushed. This is very unlike my two previous visits where I barely had time to breathe.

I already got to go on a mini roadtrip. It was just to College Station but it felt so nice to drive. Road trips are one of the things I miss the most on Maui. Next week i am going to Austin, which is a little bit longer drive. The bluebonnets are out and they are beautiful. I have missed them. I will definitely live in Texas for most of my life. This place is just too great as are the people I love here. I have decided that all my friends (excluding the YWAMers- though they are welcome to participate) must live within an 8 hour radius of Houston, TX. This seems more than reasonable since this includes parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and even Mexico. This way I can take a one day road trip to visit those that I love. This seems like an excellent arrangement.

I am very excited about all the babies my friends are bringing into the world. Hoku, a YWAM wife just gave birth to Elias Osterhus. There are two more YWAM babies on the way. Then there will be little Joe Morrow and baby girl Musselman and baby Muir. So fun! I can't wait to see what they all will look like.

Sleeping in a V shape

Blog

So I am back in the Lone Star State! Yay!

The day I left Maui, I felt kind of apprehensive about coming home but I am not even sure why. Now that I am actually here, it feels good.

The day I left I got to go with Amy and her visiting Canadian youth group kids to Kaanapali. It is fun playing tourist. It was also good to hang out with Amy since my friendship with her is one of the best things about Maui.

I took some Tylenol PM to try to sleep on the plane. I thought it wasn’t working but then I woke up four hours later. There was a strange spunky old lady sitting next to me on that flight. In the middle of my nap, I wake up to find her leaping over me. It was a bit strange since she was old and the normal action would be to shake me awake and ask me to move; not vault over me.

I have decided to just stick to Maui time while I am here. I will just stay up late and wake up late. This is my ideal schedule anyway. Most of my friends work during the day anyway. I have already gotten a chance to hang out with Sarah, John, Thama and Emily. I was worried about not having much car access since my mom needs her car for work. I have been so incredibly blessed. One of my supporters is letting me use her car while I am here. What an amazing surprise! I was speechless. This unexpected generosity will make my time here so much better. Yay God!

My parents have changed my room around. When I was living with them before, I started out in the room on the bottom floor and later moved to the third floor. Now I am back on the first floor. The bed in the room is one of those craftmatic adjustable beds like you see on tv. My grandparents bought it but didn’t like it. You push a button and the end of the bed raises up. Another button makes the head of the bed raise up. If you press both of them, you end up making a V shape. I tried squishing Emily in the V shaped bed. It was fun.

Here are some things I have missed while I have been in Hawaii.
-carpet- it feels amazing
-clean- with constantly open windows and Maui dirt, nothing is ever really clean
-my own indoor bathroom with a bathtub that won’t give me hepatitis if I lay in it
-stocked refrigerator where I don’t have to write my name on everything and I can eat whatever I want
-No bugs or spiders in the house. They burned the cane fields right before I left causing spiders and roaches to infiltrate our house.

Despite all these amenities, I do miss my YWAM friends.

Plane Crash

On Wednesday night, Amy, Carrie and I were working out at the gym when there was a big boom. Even through my music I could hear and feel the boom. It seemed weird but since I was running on the treadmill and listening to music, I didn't really know what was happening. Then several fire trucks and police cars came racing by. I figured that something must have exploded.

When we finished at the gym, we walked outside and saw a commotion. We walked closer to the chaos and saw what had happened. A small plane had crashed into the BMW dealership. It destroyed about ten cars. When we got to the scene, it was still on fire. You could see the damaged cars but you couldn't see the plane because of the thick cloud of smoke surrounding that area. There were so many other curious people around: primarily lots of Hawaiians and mulleted people.

The next day I found out more information about the crash. It was an air ambulance- a small plane that was coming to transport a patient from Maui to Oahu. The occupants were the pilot and two nurses. These three people were the only casualties since the BMW dealership was closed for the day. They are not yet sure exactly what happened to cause the accident. It was pretty crazy and sad for those involved.

Hard decision: Surfing or Work?

Yesterday I skipped work and went surfing. Tuesday is a day that I do not have much to do so when my roommate asked if I wanted to go longboarding, I just had to go. We had a fun time. The waves were decent and I had not been in so long. I am thinking about selling my shortboard, which I suck at and putting that money towards getting a longboard with my friend, Ashley. We'll see. I have had little success selling my car so I don't know why I think I will be able to sell my surfboard.

Surfing yesterday was a good step towards me getting a better tan. I need to look dark when I come home. It is expected since I have been in Hawaii. I can't believe I come home in a week. I am so excited! I wish I could bring Amy home with me since I know I will miss her a lot. Oh well, it is only for three weeks.

It looks like I won't get to see Andrew after all. I even canceled my flight. There is still a chance I can still see him but I don't even know at this point. It is frustrating to me. I can only imagine how much more frustrating it must be for Andrew and Shella.

And Now... Two Hitchhiking Stories:

Amy and I hitchhiked to Wal-Mart yesterday. This is pretty much a standard thing. After Wal-Mart we went to the corner where we always hitch back to Paia. As we rounded the corner, we saw another hitchhiker. This is problematic when you are trying to get picked up. Amy and I have good luck at hitching because we are two girls. This makes us seem non-threatening/ vulnerable to women and ego-boosting to men. Amy also wears these tight lululemon work-out pants that I think help our chances a bit. So, this guy is trying to hitchhike right where we are. We tried to distance ourselves from him so as not to seem like we were with him. Then he walks over to us. He asks us to go to the Big K and buy him a thirty pack because he forgot his ID. I don't know what he wanted a thirty pack of but we knew we would not be going to be going to the Big K for him. Then the guy kind of stumbled into traffic. It was bizarre, for sure.

Earlier in the day, Ashley and I had been driving by the same corner I spoke of above. There was a 13year old kid trying to hitch with his skateboard. Ashley decided to pick him up, but he was walking and didn't see us so I rolled down the window and called out, "Hey buddy!" He totally didn't hear me. Then we saw a creepy old guy trying to hitchhike in front of the kid. We didn't want to have to pick up creepy guy too so we kept driving. But when I think about it, I must have looked like some sort of creepy pedaphile trying to lure this kid in my car. "Hey buddy!" Haha

Coasting down the volcano

This weekend felt long. This was not in a bad way but there was a lot of stuff going on. On Friday night we had graduation. It was good except that we ran out of food. People kept inviting other people to the graduation so the caterer had constantly changing numbers. She almost cried when she ran out of food. We reassured her and showed her grace. She is not a Christian and it was good to show her that we were not mad at her. My theory is that some of the parents gorged themselves. There were two chocolate fountains that did not run out. That seems to be a more important detail anyway. Who needs real food when you have chocolate literally flowing? I know that I don't. I am the one who pioneered the fondue fountain technique of actually sticking my plate into the fondue. I skip the dipping and go straight to the good stuff. I must admit that I always feel pretty sick after some quality time at the fondue fountain. It is worth it, though.

I am going to miss these students a lot. There are several of my favorites that I did not get to say goodbye to but I figure it is easier that way anyway. Sometimes goodbyes are too much. And in the YWAM world, who knows when you will get to see them again but the chances are good.

One of our current students is Jill whose brother was feared dead. She went home to be with the family and while she was there, his body was found under a bridge. So sad! My heart hurts for her. She is still supposed to be coming back. I think she is planning on being there about two weeks. Apparently her family supportd her coming back to Maui even though they aren't Christians. Please pray for all of them during this tragic time.

Yesterday Kristy, Amy (of course) and I went to Kaanapali-the resort place on the other side of the island. It was painfully cloudy and cold. Not cool. Kristy felt guilty about hanging out at the Hyatt pool so she laid out on the beach. Amy and I have no shame and claimed lounge chairs right by the pool. Some sketchy hotel guest tried to hit on us so we made up personal info about ourselves. We said we were from Minnesota- funny for a girl from Toronto and a girl from Texas. We told him we had never been to Maui and that the day before we rode bikes down the volcano. This is probably the lamest tourist activity in our opinions. We see the poor tourists riding past our house twice a day. Just coasting and coasting.

Then at night we had a rousing game of Loaded Questions. I just love that game.

I am a blogging fiend!

So this is like three days in a row of blogging. Look at me! I think this means I am a dork but I am not sure.

Oh well, I like to write. What can I say? Yesterday I took some of our students to a hospital/clinic to get vaccinations. I volunteered because I wanted extra hang-out time with the students but I had to miss dinner. Korean chicken! That's some good food. Luckily I got a reliable DTS student to save me some.

The hospital place was really far away. It looked like a scene from a movie. The building was old and antique looking with beautifully manicured grounds. To top it off, there was a peacock inexplicably walking around. That's right, a peacock. So strange. It felt like a deserted mental hospital/rehab place. It was after hours so no one was around. This further contributed to the bizarre feel of the place.

After the students got shot, we heard a lengthy talk about the dangers of malaria and sexually transmitted diseases like Hepatitis. Then we rushed back down the volcano to get the students to their night lecture.

One of our girls, Jill, went home last night. Her older brother is missing and has left suicide notes around. They don't know where he is and he is feared dead. Please pray for them. She is planning on coming back here and continuing her DTS and then going to Bangladesh. I really hope everything turns out for the best.

Tonight is graduation. This is a chance for us to dress fancy and eat good food. We are having it catered by a local lady and it is supposed to be awesome. I know there will be a chocolate fondue fountain so it will be good by default.

Crying and Crowd Surfing

Yesterday was a good day. I finished fixing the spelling and grammatical errors on our base's website. Now we don't seem so uneducated. Then I took the afternoon off in order to have some one on one time with one of my favorite Fall students, Leah. It was really good. I like that girl. She is considering coming back on staff, which would be awesome! I try not to get my hopes up when people say that while they are still here. A lot can change when they go home.

Amy and I started watching Arrested Development. I got season one and season two in a package. A great gift! I had never seen it before. We've only seen the first two episodes but Amy and I are pretty hooked already. It is a very randomly funny show, which I appreciate. I am excited to watch more.

Last night was testimony night on base. This is when a few returning students from each team get up in front of the entire base and share things they have learned. This is an awesome time especially for those of us on staff here in Maui. Sometimes we can lose sight of our higher purpose and get too focused on the daily stuff here. But the reason we are here is to send teams out to spread the love of Christ to other countries.

I could see changes in several of the students just from hearing them speak. There is a new confidence in them and a greater sense of their identity in Christ. One of the students, Derek gave an emotional testimony. He said that he had been praying for his dad to become a Christian for years. He gave up for awhile but recently renewed his prayers for his dad. While he was in DTS, his dad became a Christian. While Derek was sharing, he asked his dad to come up to the front with him. It was very emotional as Derek was crying and his dad's eyes got watery. My eyes got watery but I refused to release the tears.

Then Maria, one of our staff members, came to the front and said, " A lot of times when someone becomes a Christian, we are happy but skeptical and reserved. We remember the other friends we have that became Christians and fell away. We figure we'll just wait a year and see if they really change." I totally agree with what she said. Then she said, "We need to break out of that skepticism. The angels are rejoicing in Heaven over one lost soul being saved. I want you all to scream and yell that Richard (Derek's dad) has become a Christian." So we all started cheering and screaming and jumping up and down. I was trying to cheer but I just started to cry. It was really emotional but in a good way. I definitely wasn't the only one to cry. Then Maria had Derek and his dad crowd surf over us. It was so cool. The worship was awesome and really got me pumped up! What an awesome night!

Boys

The Fall students are still here and I am having fun reconnecting with them. They are so great! This afternoon I am going to have coffee with one of my favorite ones. I am going to try to be more intentional at hanging out with them before they leave.

I wish that I understood men. Actually I probably don't because it would make life less mysterious. I just wish they could be more straight-forward sometimes. Instead it seems like I am constantly trying to decipher the signals they send out. I am sure they feel the same way about me but I feel like the guy is supposed to be the head in the relationship so he should be the one to come clean with his feelings first.

When I was younger, I had a guy friend who I unitentionally led on for a long time. I thought we were just friends and he thought we were dating. I still hold that we were not dating- no kissing and he never paid for the stuff we did. Anyway, not knowing that he thought we were dating, I basically told him he was annoying and I didn't want to hang out with him so much. This, admittedly was not the nicest thing I could have done but I didn't know that he would consider this a break-up. A friend told me later that I broke this guy's heart. I had no idea. I think this experience has contributed to my hesitance in becoming friends with guys outside of group situations.

I also know of a guy here who likes me right now but I just don't feel the same way about him. Lots of people would like us to get together but just because other people think it would be good doesn't mean that it would be. I wish I liked this guy as more than a friend because he is an incredible guy- a godly man that would treat me like a queen. Yet, I don't think I will ever be with him. The feelings simply are not there and I cannot forsee them ever being there.

The guys that I like never seem to be able to consistently like me. It can be frustrating for sure.

It is crazy to think of a time when I will be married and no longer experiencing boy drama. I am sure I will create a new kind of drama then, though.

Hobos in my office

Today was a good mail day. I got three letters and a package. Good deal! Thanks to the Fowlers, Thama and Lee. I love mail. Today was Rachelle, a staff girl's birthday and she got like twenty letters and two packages. This made my mail haul pale in comparison. I still get way more mail than the average person here. Thanks guys.

The weather here has been cold and weird lately. It was really rainy and windy the last few days. My room has two windows facing different directions which causes a wind tunnel to occur in my room. It is nice most days but when it gets super-windy you are almost blown to the ground. Yesterday Amy and I wanted to go across the island to suntan with the rich people at the hotel pools but the weather was too gross. We ended up eating junk food and laying around.

Today I had what could best be called a tangerine explosion. I passed below the tangerine tree and all of a sudden rotten tangerine squirted all over my pants and my hand. I smelled like garbage! Eww. Not cool.

I found out today that a homeless guy was found sleeping in my office. And by office I mean that room down the hall with the waterbed and the.... Actually the housing office is located in what we call "the dollhouse." This is this building that looks like a large kids' playhouse. It is in front of our girls' DTS student house. We used to keep it locked and I guess we will have to start doing it again. Sometimes homeless people are found sleeping in our vans and I think some of them stole about ten rolls of toilet paper from the bathroom. I would like to help them out but we can't let them sleep on our offices and vans. We also don't have a big enough budget to allow for toilet paper thievery.

Tornado in the living room

Our Fall DTS students are back. This makes life on base hectic and exciting in a good way. It feels like having a bunch of old friends back. I love it though it is sometimes inconvenient. The students are divided by team and dispersed among our houses. We have the Borneo girls living in our house. They have taken over our living room and it looks like a tornado blew the contents of someone's trailer into our house. There is stuff and people everywhere. Walking from my room to the front door is quite the adventure. I like having these girls here better than the summer girls because I actually know these girls.

Last night, Amy, Kristy, two Fall students and I went to a ladies gathering with ladies from our church. There were about 15 ladies there and that is pretty much most of the ladies in the church. They were so funny. We had some amazing food. I gorged myself to the point where I could not even make room for tiramsu. I did not know that was even possible. We went around in a circle and had to tell a funny story or a joke. It was pretty funny to hear what the ladies chose to tell. There were several stories about nudity, bowel movements and tampons. Crazy! Some were border-line inappropriate. But then again so am I.

I want to watch more but Amy wants to watch Lost so I gotta go.

Is Coffee a date?

I have recently become aware of a phenomenon sweeping the Christian circles. It may also be affecting the non-Christian circles but I am a bit out of touch on what happens in those circles right now. So, a guy asks a girl for coffee and they go out and have coffee as friends. Getting coffee seems harmless, right? But the guy decides based on how the coffee time goes, whether or not it was a date. This puts the girl in the strange postion of not knowing if she is simply having coffee with a friend or having her marriagability judged by a potential significant other. Tricky. I am not saying that all coffee times are dates but I just feel that it has become a cop-out way for a guy to ask a girl on a date with no fear of rejection. He never has to officially ask her on a date. Afterall, it is just coffee. I am not that big a fan of this getting coffee pseudo date thing. I know I have gone to coffee with guys assuming it is not a date but then getting the feeling that they think it might be. Awkward! Guys and girls need to be more straight-forward with their intentions. I know I am not the best at this but it's still true.

It seems weird to think that there will be a day when I don't have boy angst. I have had boy angst on and off for the last five years so it will feel really weird when it is no longer there. I am sure when I am happily married some day I will find something else to have angst about.

Pregancies A' Plenty!

I just realized that I know a lot of pregnant people lately. On base there is Hoku, Jen and Libby. Then on the mainland there is Erin Morrow, Sarah Musselman, Nikki Thompson and Tiffany Muir. I can't wait to see what all these kids look like. I have not come to the point in my life yet where a lot of my friends have had babies. I guess it is just beginining. Yay!

I ordered a Mormon on the internet for one of my housing students. Two girls came. My girl, Brittany, said it was a good talk but other YWAMers kept coming and getting on it. It ended up being seven YWAMers and the two poor Mormon missionaries. I think they got a bit intimidated. They invited Brittany to church and I think I am going to take a group of interested students there after our churches one Sunday. I am very interested in Mormonism and I have read a great deal about it. But I have never gone to one of their churches so I hope it happens.

We had a girl go home because her parents did not like what she was learning. This was hard for all of us to take. It was hard not to take it personally. God totally made up for that experience. The parents of another student came in town and they sat in on lectures and got to know the students. Students and staff need the first half of their outreach fees really soon. They wrote on a dry erase board how much each person needed and had everyone pray about them getting their finances. The student's parents decided to contribute $7500 to cover everyone's first half of outreach. What a blessing! It was also good to have such a positive reaction from a parent to counteract the negative reaction of the other student's parents.

This weekend we went to Kihei and picked up some bookcases donated by a feisty older woman named Gail. We took the maintenance van and that thing is quite ghetto. It is rusted through in some parts and drives weird. The spedometer said I was going 100 mph until halfway through the trip when it mysteriously righted itself. We were driving behind a pickup truck when we noticed that the girls in the back were some of our students. They were going to Kihei too so they motioned to the truck driver to pull over and they got in with us. It was cool to be able to spend more time with them. We got to Gail's apartment and she said she would come out and meet us. She described herself as old with blond hair and shorts. She gave us some nice bookcases. Then we went to the beach but it was cloudy so we did not enhance our bronze looks much.

Amy has had a friend in town for the last two weeks so our working out has not been too regular. We will be going back to working out six days a week starting tomorrow. I am going to buff! Watch out when I get back to Texas! I just need to stop eating so many baked goods. They are just so tempting!

Unexpected Valentine

I know I wrote halfway through Valentine's Day but the second half turned out to be memorable as well. I went to eat crepes with some of my YWAM friends. It ended up being seven girls and one guy. It was very reminiscent of a group date from The Bachelor. We tried to play up the Bachelor angle by behaving like stereotypical contestants. We all tried to buddy up to Todd in order to go home with a rose. I took a proactive approach and tried to woo him with humor and by subtly bad-mouthing the other contestants. Ashley played coy and managed to snag a little one-on-one time before the rest of us became wise. I thought I did pretty well but I did not get a rose. In the most shocking rose ceremony ever, Todd did not give any of us a rose. This was probably because we weren't actually on The Bachelor. Better luck next time.

My favorite part of the night occured as we walked back from our Bacheloresque crepe date. We were passing by the DTS girl students' house when a DTS student, who will remain nameless for the sake of his personal diginity, approached Amy with a card and chocolate bar. He wrote in the card that he wanted to get "coffie with her" sometime. He also tried to super-spiritualize it with a part about how the Lord wanted a romance with Amy. Oh and he used the wrong form of there and spelled it thier. I am unashamedly prejudiced against bad spellers. That must be the English teacher in me. Anyway, the student had not done much research before his ill-fated "coffie" proposal. Amy does not eat chocolate bars and the student manual expressly prohibits any dating by students. We had a great laugh! What a hilarious unexpected valentine!

Then we watched "The Forty Year Old Virgin." It was better the second time I saw it. It reminds me of Office Space and Dumber and Dumber, which both get better the more I watch them. There are definitely some scandalous parts and some foul language but I am not very sensitive to those things. We did have to turn it off once as one of our Swedish mission builders came in. I did not want to corrupt poor little Gustav.

Later the students tried to hold a very unsuccessful dance party. They could not get their hands on any speakers so some people tried to sing. This is never a good call. We went and gawked at them for awhile but soon grew bored of their unexciting hyjinks. Overall it was an excellent day.

The Bachelor is Back!

It's Valentine's Day. I am not one of those people who hates Valentine's Day just because I don't have a love interest. I enjoy the plethora of free candy and baked goods that arise on this occasion. So, yay it is Valentine's Day!

Yesterday Amy and I worked out for the first time in a very long time. It felt good and I was not as out of shape as I had feared. I still need to eat less of the afore-mentioned baked goods if I want to get in better shape.

Last night my house watched The Bachelor. This is only the second episode I have seen of this season and without cable it looks a bit like snow. Nevertheless we had a group of about ten people that watched it together last night and it was magical. It was so fun and it reminded me of my college reality show parties. Those were the days! Temptation Island, Love Cruise, Boot Camp, The Bachelor, we watched them all and we had no shame. It makes me miss college a lot but it was great to see a reality show in a fun party/sarcastic atmosphere. I will regale more reality show memories at a later date.

A seven foot inflatable birthday turkey

I have had a very lazy weekend. I felt sick at the end of the week so I tried to get some extra rest. I thought I might be getting really sick but I think it may be an allergy build-up. This is good and bad because I have not gotten worse but it also means I have to figure out a way to have less dust in my life. This is difficult since open windows serve as our ghetto air-conditioning here.

So, most of the weekend I spent lounging around my house in betweeen some intense napping. The island life is not what people think. On Saturday I mustered enough energy to surprise my friend, Gena on her 24th birthday. I had previously found an inflatable 7 foot turkey at Wal-Mart on clearance for only $3! I would have been a fool to pass up that sweet deal. I decided to fashion a sign that said, "Happy Birthday Gena" and have this large poultry hold the sign. She came out as the turkey was being inflated but I think I made my point. I am sure it was her first 7-foot inflatable birthday turkey, or at least she made it seem like it was her first. Later she and I went out to dinner and watched a movie at my house.

Today I went to church. I have been getting a bit frustrated by how much our church talks about speaking in tongues. I am so over speaking in tongues. With the constant bombardment, I decided to see what the Bible has to say about the subject. From what I read, I have come to the following conclusions: There are three different types of tongues. One kind is where you are miraculously able to speak another language for ministry purposes like at Pentecost. This kind seems cool and useful. Then there is one that is like a prayer language between you and God. It lets you communicate with God beyond what you can do with words. Then there is the kind used in church, but the Bible says that you should not speak tongues aloud unless you or someone else can interpret what is being said. The Bible also says that tongues is only one type of spiritual gift and that some of the other gifts like prophecy are more important. I think all this stuff is true but I think that many churches put too much emphasis on this stuff and then other churches pretend it doesn't exist. It can be annoying. For now I am content to not speak in tongues and I am still a bit wary of the way I feel that it is being exploited as a test of one's spirituality. No tongues means no faith. I don't think so.

This afternoon Amy and I hitched into town so she could buy a laptop. Now she has become very technologically advanced being the new owner of both a digital camera and a laptop. She is going on a research tour this Fall to the countries that we have committed to. She needs to be able to document her experiences properly. If I was not staffing the summer school then I would seriously consider joining her. It is cool that she will be visiting the country I will be doing outreach in.

Right now she and her friend from home, April, are on an adventure with a bizarre little man from our church. He had been offering Amy for a while to take her to the top of Haleakala, our local volcano, to watch the sunset. Amy finally consented today and included April and I in her affirmative answer. By the time it came time to leave, I was feeling a bit sick again and the prospect of spending an extended amount of time in the little man's company did not sound very appealing. I decided not to go. Amy was not happy about this but I had done her some favors that day so she couldn't be too mad at me. If April was not going and she would have had to go with small bizarre guy alone, I would have sucked it up and gone. Instead I took a bit of a pseudo nap and a shower. I feel confident I made the right decision.

Amy is back! Yay!

Amy made it back to the United States after her scary deportation experience. I am so glad she is back! I had to fax her some documents and then she tried to cross the border again. This time was much more successful. She had been told that this new visa she needed would cost up to $900 but it only cost $6. Then the airline had said she lost the ticket to her missed flight and would have to buy a new one for $1000. It turns out that a kind airline official only made her pay $100 to change her ticket. Then the hotel room that they missed out on when trying to cross the border let them stay the next night for free. So, Amy was emotionally abused, had to arrive a day late and had to pay about $150 more but she has made it back to the U.S! Oh, and her plane from L.A. to Maui broke down and she had to run to another flight to get here. Crazy adventures!

I have been getting a bunch of packages. It has been lovely! I got a hula hoop that came unwrapped with postage directly on the hoop as well as one of those fun frisbees with a hole in the middle sent the same way! Thanks Emily Stone! I also got a package from the illustrious Sarah Lavellechelberger. Keep them coming friends! Amy's mom sent some of this delectable Skor bar treat she made with Amy as well. Good stuff!

Amy got deported and other news

It has been intense at YWAM Maui for the past few days. I already wrote of my intense prophecy and that one of our girls sadly chose to go home. These things coupled with the events of the last few days have made things hectic. I do feel an underlying peace about things but I still feel anxious at times.

My friend, Amy went home for a week to Toronto in Canada. She comes and goes from Maui with such a frequency that her passport has been flagged as a drug runner. This means she always gets hassled at customs. She usually tries to avoid this by crossing the border in New York and flying out of the Buffalo airport. She was supposed to fly out yesterday but got stopped at the border for three hours. The unyielding immigration official gave her a really hard time about being a missionary, which included him asking if God told her to come to Maui. She said yes and he said that God would have to tell him personally for him to let her over the border. He said that she has the wrong kind of visa. The kind she has would cover her if she worked in the kitchen or housinfg or pretty much any other department but since she uses a computer and does administrative stuff, she has to have a different kind of visa. He denied her entry into the U.S., took her picture (mug shot) and fingerprinted her, her mom and her best friend. She was officially deported!

Today I have been trying to help her by faxing and mailing letters from YWAM that might help her situation. Please pray that something works. This is a very busy time in the quarter for Amy's job here on base and since she is my best friend here, I miss her like crazy! Also her friend is flying here tomorrow for a visit. Her plane tickets were non-refundable. She will be here for two weeks and I guess I will be her buddy until Amy gets back. Crazy!

Also I don't want to go into detail, but there is a guy on base here that I believe may be struggling with mental illness. He is my friend and it is really hard to see. His behavior is very erratic and unlike him. Please pray that the base will know how to handle the situation. He is actually scaring me. The leadership team is aware of the situation and they are figuring out how to deal with him.

On a random rather undramatic note, I met a guy from Pasadena, Texas today. I was wearing one of my many Texas shirts. This particular one is a little league shirt that says Pasadena, TX on the front. He stopped me on the street to tell me that he was from there. It turns out that he was a pastor at a church there and has recently moved to the island to pastor a church here. I gave him the base's info and invited him to come to worship. It is always nice to have non-YWAM connections.

What a Weekend Phase 2!

That last post was getting pretty long so I thought I would break it up into two chunks. So the prophecy thing totally blew me away and even other people on base are talking about it. Crazy! It put me in a good mood. When I went home, some of the girls said Jaws was breaking. If you don't know what Jaws is, look on the internet. It is one of the biggest rideable waves in the world and it is here in Maui. It only breaks a few times a year and I had never seen it before. Ashley, Jess Bedogne, Merry, me and the two Swedes, Gustav and Andreas decided to go see it.

We drove to where we heard it was and parked our cars. You have to have a four wheel drive to get out there so we set off on foot. It is about a 45 minute hike. When we were almost there, some hippie girls in a ghetto Explorer offered us all a ride. So, we all piled in. It turned out that the girls were not alone. There was a big blue and yellow parrot perched on the driver's side headrest. A little strange but hey, this is Maui. They drove crazy and even sideswiped a windsurfing van. Eek. We got down there and watched people looking like ants descend the face of this mountain of water. It was awesome. It was easy to marvel at God's creation as well as the combination of fear and stupidity it took to get those surfers out there.

Then we started walking about. When we were halfway there, the same girls came and picked us up again. They drove crazy again and dropped us off at our cars. What an adventure!

Then we went to a little Super Bowl party that our mission builders, Retha and Jeff hosted. I am not really into the Super Bowl but I like parties and I like football. Unfortunately for our seahawk die hard hosts, the game did not go the way they would have liked. To me, however, I have already had my best footbal game ever- do the words ROSE BOWL mean anything?

One of our students went home today. It is sad. Her name is kelly and she is one of the girls I felt like I knew better. She went to my church too. She was getting pressure from her boyfriend and parents back home to come back. She had told them about some of the more charismatic stuff and this alarmed them. The thing about YWAM is that it exposes you to the full spectrum of Christianity. From the holy spirit to logically defending your faith. They don't force anything on you and everyone is encouraged to test the teaching with the Bible and personal experience. I remember all the holy spirit, speaking in tongues, healing and prophesy stuff seeming weird to me as well during DTS. I am still not fully comfortable with it all and I don't think I need to be. I read the Bible and test things that seem strange using that. I have heard people speak in tongues, for example, but it is not something I want for my life. I think it was hard for her to go to my church too where every service has healings, prophesy and/or speaking in tongues. I know that stuff can be hard for me to handle too. I am sad to see her go and I know she would have done great on outreach. She has two weeks to change her mind but I can't see her coming back. What a shame!

What a weekend!

I had an action-packed weekend. It was so good! This past week I spent most of my freetime hiding in my room and relaxing. I just needed some recoop time. I fear that my new roommate, Ashley thinks I am a hermit. At least when Amy gets back, I will be going to the gym again and not always in the room.

So after lounging around so much, I was up for a trip to Kaanapali when Ashley suggested it. Ashley has a car and is pretty good about inviting people along when she goes places. I went with her and two other staff members- a fun brother/sister pair named Rachel and Josh Cordy. There are six kids in their family and like most kids I have met from big families, they are laid-back and easy to get along with. We went to the touristy part of the island to get out of Paia. Even though we live in Hawaii, it is easy to forget you are in paradise when you remain in our little hippie town too long. On the way, we saw a ton of whales jumping out of the water. I am not much of a whale aficionado but seeing them is cool.

We hung out on the beach but the weather was weird- getting hot and cold, cloudy and windy at random intervals. Also the sand was blowing. We went to the pool at the Sheraton. We swam around, went on the slide and went in the hot tub. Then we were lounging on chairs by the pool when a very polite woman asked us for our room numbers. When we told her we were not guests at the hotel, she asked us to leave. Amy and I never get kicked out of the Hyatt pool. We even managed to score hotel towels but I think the fact that Rachel was loudly talking to her dad on the phone about the fact that she was pool hopping did not help our cause much.

Then we met up with a majority of the surf team and watched them jump off cliffs. Afterwards we got pizza and then I spent the rest of the evening working on my book and lounging around.

Today I went to church. It was weird not having Amy there. A guest pastor was there named Pastor Helena. I had heard of her before and I think she comes to the church about once a month. I had never seen her though. She had an intense in your face kind of style that was not my favorite but she had some good things to say in her sermon. Then she announced that she would spend some time prophesying. In YWAM I have been to a number of events where someone was prophesying. But the person never has any words for me. I am not even 100% sure what I believe about this kind of stuff. It is definitely out of my suburban Presbyterian box. I have come to the point in my faith now that I think prophesy definitely happens and that there are false prophets- Benny Hinn types and real ones. The Bible says that prophesy happens too and that is what I try to measure my experiences by. With that said, back to the prophesy lady:

Before it even started, I leaned to the girl next to me and said that I never get prophesied about. The way it worked was that everyone was seated as we were during her sermon and she just pointed to random people, asked them their name and had them stand up as she shared a word from the Lord with them. As this was going on, I was praying that God would speak to me this time. She talked to random people in the congregation mainly telling them how they resembled important Biblical figures and how God was going to use them with those gifts. They were probably true but slightly vague. She told Eric, one of my DTS students that he was going to the nations to spread the word. She said that God was proud of him and that he would be coming into money soon that he would have to pray about using. She told another DTS girl, Brittaney some stuff about how people are drawn to her positive attitude and other nice things that I can no longer remember but seemed true at the time. For me and Paul, another YWAM staff member, she was less vague, especially with me but I will tell that part of the story last.

Paul was told that he is a gifted teacher. He will have a big ministry but he needs to beware of Delihahs shady women that will take his focus. If he gives into them, his ministry will not be what it can be. There is one good girl for him but he needs to wait and resist the others.

Now to set mine up, I have been thinking and praying about a lot of stuff lately. I have been thinking about what I will do after YWAM and I have also been thinking a lot about if and when I will get married. 25 seems really old sometimes and I wonder when and if I will get married and have kids. Most of my closest non-YWAM friends are married so I think it is a pretty natural thing to think about it. I am in no way obsessed by these thoughts. I have not yet become that girl but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. So, Pastor Helena points at me and my heart starts racing. I stand up and she says, "So, you want to know if you're going to get married? I was shocked. I mumbled yes. She said you are going to get married and you are going to have two children. You are going to have two children but I see a third child. I don't know about this third child. Maybe someone is going to give it to you. You will remember me when this happens. Then she said, you are a teacher. You will be a Sunday school teacher and you will change the lives of your students and they will tell their parents about your teaching and you will draw them in. THen she was like, I don't know if you even like kids but I see you building things with the kids.

That is what she said as far as I can remember. The church gave me a cassette tape of it that I plan to listen to again. This totally squelched my remaining doubts about prophecy. It had to be God who told this woman what I needed to hear. There is no way a perfect stranger could be so alarmingly accurate at addressing my latest struggles. It was so cool. I thank God so much for that. I have a real sense of joy and peace after all this. It was so amazing!

Meeting Myrtle

For some time now I have used the name "Myrtle" as my fall back alias when I am asked my name at a restaurant. I have become quite quick and natural at spelling it. I have a few other aliases such as, CoCo and Bertha but Myrtle is my favorite. Last week I got a note in the office that a hotel had responded to my letter asking for free stuff. The note said Myrtle on it and I thought that was a joke the message taker had written. I soon discovered that I had indeed been contacted by a woman named Myrtle. Yesterday I met up with Myrtle, who gave us a ton of free bedding from the hotel where she runs the housekeeping department. I am now even more proud to call myself Myrtle.

My guests have all left now. It was fun to have them here but a bit stressful since they were on vacation and I was still supposed to be working. I ended up taking Monday and Tuesday off to spend more time with them. On Monday we drove to Hana. I had heard from many people that the drive was intense and exhausting and they were definitely telling the truth. I had to drive the whole way. It is only about 35 miles but it takes about two hours each way because of the crazy curves and slow speeds. It was draining. When we finally got there we went hiking at a place called the Seven Sacred Pools. It was beautiful and fun but I wish I had been wearing hiking boots instead of sandals. I went with Abbey and Misti and it was good to spend time with them.

Yesterday morning, I said goodbye to Misti. It wasn't that bad since I am pretty sure I will see her again. With YWAM friends there is always the possibility. Then Gena, Abbey and I utilized our last hours with the PT cruiser to go to Kaanapali, the tourist part of the island. We did not have much time there but it was still fun. Later we dropped off the car. It was nice to not have to drive so much anymore. After Hana, I am in no hurry to drive anytime soon.

I miss Amy. She is home in Toronto until next Tuesday. Before she left we had been spending about 90% of our free time together. Things are not the same here without her. I can't wait til she gets back. I thank God for her friendship and companionship.