It has been warm in Kona, just over 30C (87F in American) every day with humidity in the 75-80% range. 🙂

I will start this week with our Work Duty as I missed that detail in my last blog, and I only mention the weather because of work duties. We have to do 10 hours of work per week as part of our credit hours. I get to work on the construction clean-up crew from 3-5pm, awesome! I had been hoping and praying for an outdoor chore. Although, it has been far from a chore working with some other older-youth from our Crossroads DTS and many younger-youth from the aPAC DTS (Pacific Asia), God has built some great relationships through digging holes and filling them  up again.

We have dug some drainage ditches, along paths and around buildings, and filled them with rock; we have dug postholes and filled them with fenceposts and concrete; we have dug trenches and filled them with irrigation pipes; and without digging, we have filled a dumpster with construction garbage. The warm temperatures, the physical labour of shovels picks and wheelbarrows, along with careful eating (and no drinking) has led to my shorts getting quite loose and the need for a belt.
Glenda prayed for an indoor work duty and has been blessed to work out in the library. She gets to climb up and down a step stool in very narrow aisles lifting all the books off the shelf to lovingly remove the never-ending dust. The job also involves using a computer to check books in and out; assisting students to find books; the sale of cold drinks and praying for and with students using the library. This is shift work as the library is open until 11pm, her shift this week has been 9-11, making sleep time shorter than preferred, next week is 7-9pm, much better!

Our classroom has fans and, occasionally, a refreshing breeze blowing through. Last weeks talks by Dr Doug Richardson the “Nature and Character of God” and “Hearing God’s Voice” were excellent, Doug is an accomplished and entertaining speaker, he has a couple of books available online and a new one coming called ADVENTage Points, an Advent reflection for not-yet-believers, is going to be worth a read for all. He also shared a paraphrase of John 1:1-14 that uses conversation as the translation for logos, read it here and ponder.
Takeaways from the talks? As Christians we are to join God in the renewal of all things, be a generous listener, our life should be an invitation for hope, and we need to have a beginner’s mind. A beginner’s mind is what Jesus talks about when he says we are to be child-like, not experts.
Friday we had a DVD teaching by Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM and University of the Nations. The subjects covered were “Working in the Opposite Spirit” and “Relinquishing Rights” both excellent. There is nothing more powerful than lambs amongst wolves, and relinquishing rights, not responsibilities, to God. This book by Loren expands on his message Making Jesus Lord: The Dynamic Power of Laying Down Your Rights

On Tuesday evening, Innovision Studio showed The Pink Room an Emmy award documentary made by YWAMers. Filmed on site in Cambodia it is about human trafficking and the sex trade, the movie tells the story of Mien, a young girl who was rescued and has a happy ending, this is not so for most girls.

On Wednesday evening the Word by Heart School put on an amazing demonstration of scripture recital. Jackson Ambe Ndecheck one of the presenters shared this video link of his worship at the Easter 2014 Service at Mokuaikaua Church, the oldest church in Hawaii. The school is going to run a seminar while we are here and we intend to be there. They told us that it is not memorizing, it is learning the story. We will see.

Thursday we had dinner with Stephanie Armbruster, a friend from YWAM Turner Valley who is working with YWAM Ships here in Kona. Afterwards, we went to Thursday night worship in Ohana Court which was hosted this week by Heartbridge Performing Arts DTS, wow!

Saturday saw us volunteering as security for the IRONMAN world championship. 2,187 athletes entered the race – a 2.4 mile rough water swim, a 112 mile bike ride, through lava fields in 32C with strong crosswinds blowing in from the sea, and a full 26.2 mile marathon. Astonishing! The winner finished in less than 8.25 hrs, the 1,985th contestant, the last to complete the course, crossed the finish line after almost 17 hours.

We had a great time and learned a bit of a scriptural lesson. We quickly became aware that very few of the 2,187 athletes, aged from 19 – 84 years, enter to win, they enter to finish. When I was writing about finishing well as I left the U of C, my hardships, trials and tribulations, my stamina, my persistence and determination pale when compared to what these athletes put themselves through. 12,000 – 20,000 KCals of energy are burned off during the race, (barely 300KCals/hour can be consumed while competing). Keeping going through it all, the temperature, humidity, wind, hills, sunburn, blisters, sweat, mind-games they must keep their focus on the one thing! As Christians our one thing is Jesus, will we endure and persist? Will we give him 20,000 KCal in 8 hours? even 17?  Will we be an Ironman for Jesus?

Our Outreach Options: The school will be split into 4 groups for outreach in Fiji, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam – we got to pick a first and second choice we will know Monday afternoon which we get. We selected 1. Vietnam and 2. Malaysia.

Now back to homework, I still have 4 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles to read and summarize.

Have an awesome week, we love you all and miss you, please be blessed and be a blessing and join with God in the renewal of all things.

’til next week.