Week 2 and 3

Week 2

As I mentioned in my previous post this first full week for students (my second full week being here in Kona) was about orientation things and recovering from jet lag and getting settle on campus. Students come from all around the world; for example in Crossroads we have students from England, Norway, Japan, Korea Germany, Chile, Colombia, Canada, and different places in the US, so there is quite a time change for some and most are very tired from traveling. Students learned about their tracks and work duty. Many of the students have children and this was the first week of Foundation School for these kids (Foundation School is like DTS for kids!). 

One of the morning teachings for the Crossroads class this week was given by Brett Curtis; he has been part of YWAM for a long time and helped to found YWAM Ships, a base very near the one I am at (YWAM Kona) and that we partner with on many things. He shared some amazing stories about how God moved in miraculous ways to make that base a reality and how God is using the staff, students and the ships that have been given to them to serve people in hard to reach island locations. Some main points from his teachings were:

1) When God speaks: listen, obey, and never quit

2) Never take your eyes off Jesus

3) Gratefulness and complaining cannot coexist

4) Don't run ahead of God; His timing is perfect

Another morning teaching was by Paul Childers. He talked about having a love for God's Word (the Bible) and how increased intimacy with God comes from hearing His voice and obeying. Reading God's word is one way that God speaks to us and reading it helps us learn to recognize His voice when He speaks in other ways.

There is an inner healing prayer ministry available here on campus called Restoring the Foundation (RTF) that is open to students, but also to staff. I have been interest in learning more about this ministry/ministry tool for about a year now, so I was excited when two of my school leaders on separate occasions ask me if I wanted to learn more. In order to learn to facilitate RTF  you get to go through it first; so this week I went to an RTF inner healing prayer appointment on Wednesday. It was good and I am still processing some of what the Lord talked to me about but I know He used it to bring healing into some hurtful memories and places of shame.  I have seen, and now experienced, that it is an effective ministry tool so I am hoping to reach out later in the quarter to learn more about what it looks like to be trained to facilitate RTF.

Week 3

With orientation things completed last week this was our first full week for students to settle into a routine of a "normal week": in class every morning, small groups and one on ones once a week,  tracks twice a week, doing work duty everyday, corporate worship on Monday morning, ministry night on Monday night and corporate teaching on Thursday evening. 

I am still learning what a normal week looks like as staff :) As staff I don't have track or work duty; I have other responsibility that happen at other times. 

Our speaker this week in the Crossroads classroom was named Daniel Hoogteljling. He was a very good speaker and lead our students in some very impactful ministry/prayer times too. He talked on Character and Nature of God, God's loves as a Father, bring pain in our lives to God, and God's grace. 

Some things that stood out to me from the teachings this week were:

• The work of God in our lives is always to cultivate love.
• People build their identity on what they think is the most important thing about them; people take something true (maybe good, maybe bad) and over identify with it. The real truth is the deepest thing about you is that you are a child of God. 
• The devil knows your name but calls you by your sin; God knows you sin but calls you by your name 
• Discouragement=distorted perspective
• Measure success by obedience to God 
• Luke 7:19-28: John the Baptist's life mission was to announce the coming of Jesus but when John is in prison and feeling discouraged and wondering if Jesus is really the Messiah as he announced him to be, Jesus responds in a way that is gentle and kind and reminds John of two messianic prophecies from the Old Testament that John would know well. In John's weakest moment, Jesus publicly honors him. 
• Let God be bigger than what you can understand and continue to trust him!

As staff this was our first week for outreach training; once a week for the next three months we will have 2 hour meetings related to what it looks like to take a team on outreach. We talked about some strategies for how a short-term outreach (2-3 months) can have a long term effect in the location visited by a DTS team, the importance of setting specific attainable goals and we finished by beginning to talk about control vs. leadership.

The outreach locations were revealed to students on Friday morning and they were given the day to pray about them; Saturday morning they had to submitt the location where they think God is leading them too.

The possible locations are: South Africa, Thailand, and Cambodia/Thailand. Outreach is two months long: the South Africa team will probably stay in one town the whole time, Thailand team will probably visit different location in the country and the third team (Cambodia/Thailand will probably spend 1 month in Cambodia and one month in Thailand. Outreach teams will be announce on Monday. Students don't know where each staff are going yet so I can't tell you where I think I am going yet either...but I will let you know next time I post! :)  I will hopefully be able to update on what I need to fundraise raise to cover outreach cost in that post also.

I did not come for any of staff training here inYWAM Kona which stated December 9 because I was still finishing my last two grad school class, working, packing and getting ready to move. Also I have not gone through leadership track either, which is another way people prepare to be YWAM staff. So the school leaders are giving me some grace in responsibilities and letting me ease into what it looks like to be staff. I am incredibly grateful especially since I was sick and so jet lagged my first week here and have been struggling with sleeping well. I have also struggle with homesickness and missing friends who were part of my DTS last year but are not here now. I really am very happy to be here in Kona but have realized there is also a grieving process as I transition from what I was doing over the past year to what God has me doing now.  I will not be doing any official one on ones with students right now during the lecture phase. If other staff end up needing help later in the quarter I might do some. I do get to help one of the other staff with a small group and I think we are going to work well together! I will lead some part and she will lead others. The students all seem really exited for the teachings every day and what God is doing in each of their lives. I am enjoying gettin to know them and their life story and also learning to ask the Lord each day to guide me in which students to talk to and who to pray for/with.

Monk Seal

This Saturday when I walked down to the pier to swim and look at tropical fish there was a Monk seal on the beach!! These are an endangered species that is native to Hawaii

Answered prayer:
1. I am mostly over my cold! Still some coughing but this has been an issue since before I had the cold.
2. I slept good a couple nights this past week!

Prayer Request:
1. Good health for students and their kids-several are starting to get sick with cold and flu symtoms and one had some more serious stuff happening health-wise this week
2. Good sleep for me and the students I am still not sleeping restful and I know there are students that are having this problem too.
3. Unity among the staff; that we would communicate well and know how to work as a team.
4. Courage, wisdom, understanding, patience with myself and others, humility
5 God's provision for financial support ($2,670 raised so far total needed $7,415-$10,535)
*I will hopefully have a better idea of the cost of outreach and health insurance for that time soon; I think it is going to be considerable less than the cost of outreach I had as a student and thought was the same for staff.
6. Clear direction during DTS and Outreach

Week 1

Christmas in California

I flew to southern California on December 23 to visit my Grandpa, and two of my aunts for Christmas. Unfortunately, because I was fighting a bad cold the landing on both of my flights really messed up my ears and I ended up very nauseous and was totally wiped out for my first day. I enjoyed time with family on the next two days while continuing to rest a lot. It was very low key but so good to see family!

Flight and arrival in Kona

On December 26th I flew to Kona! I learned my lesson from my flights to Cali and took some meds which helped a bit with the landing in Hawaii. I still had issues with my ears over the next couple days and being very tired but thankfully did not get nauseous.

Below is a picture of me with some of my friends who picked me up at the airport! I was very tired and not able to hear much when this picture was taken but happy to see these friends who were part of my Crossroads DTS when I was a student. The friend on the left is also Crossroads staff this January. The friend on the right is my Norwegian little brother from my Cambodia outreach team when I was a student; his mom is who picked me up at the airport and is also Crossroads staff this January.

The First Week

The first few days were mostly about resting and getting settled. I was pretty exhausted from the flight, time change and fighting being sick so very grateful to have some days to rest.

I have an incredible room; what an amazing and unexpected blessing! I really liked the room I had when I was a student and the people I lived with, so I had no idea it could get even better. Like last time, my room is in one of the dorm buildings that is newer, but this time the room doesn't have 5 bunk bed it only has 5 single beds. Right now, I only have two other roommates and one of them is a friend from when I was a student. Our room has its own bathroom and we share a living room/kitchen space and balcony with another room that has 5 single beds.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked as staff to get things ready for students to arrive. Monday was beatification day across the whole campus; Tuesday and Wednesday were focused on getting our Crossroads classroom ready and making sure our students rooms were ready for them to move in.  I was still pretty tired from being sick, but was able to help with some things each day.

Thursday the students arrived throughout the whole day! It was fun to welcome them, to begin to meeting them and help them get moved into their rooms.

Friday morning we spent some time in our classroom worshiping together and as staff praying over the students individually. Children from the families were all at Foundation School orientation during this time. (Foundations school is like DTS for kids!) In the afternoon the kids whose parents are Crossroads students joined us in our class room and we played a "get to know you" game called Never Have a I Ever. We also went through some orientation things, worked with students that needed help with late registration and in the evening there was a fun welcoming ceremony for the entire campus with Hawaiian dancing put on by a ministry group called Island Breeze. Tonight (Saturday) we have an ice cream social with our Crossroads students.

Next week some teaching will begin in the mornings in our Crossroads classroom and more orientation things will happen as students learn about the tracks they picked and get assigned and begin work duty. Tracks are special teaching/training that students get to attend a couple times a week  in the afternoon and work duty is 2 hours everyday in the afternoon when all DTS students help out in some way around campus. (When I was student I helped clean classrooms and bathrooms.)

The week after that things begin to fall into more of a routine: time in our classroom every weekday morning learning from a new speaker each week, time in tracks and doing work duty for the students, time in the prayer room and weekly corporate worship.

I think small groups will start sometime this second full week or the next, and 'one on ones' will be assigned then too!  I am looking forward to both small groups and 'one on ones' and learning more how to walk along side the students listening to them, encouraging them, praying for them and helping them to process what God is working on in their life.

One exciting thing that happen for me on Thursday (student arrival day) was that one of the people I was helping move in to their room had some pain in their leg; I offered to pray for it. The first time I prayed the pain was the same so I asked if I could pray one more time and he said yes. After this second time he seemed to think the pain was less and the next day when I saw him he said the pain had definitely reduce! Very cool and encouraging I think for both him and me to see God already working physical healing in him!

Prayer requests foe:
1. Healing over my body as I am still struggling with a cold and the symptoms that come along with that.
2. Good sleep; it is taking me sometime to adjust to the time difference and some night sleep s a challenge.
3. Courage, wisdom, understadning, patience, and humility
4. God's provision for financial support ($1,820 raised so far; total needed $7,415- $10,535)
5. Clear direction during DTS and Outreach