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
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