Author Archives: andysread

Week 5 – YWAM Kona, At the Crossroads – Unveiling the Cross

WOW! What a week! The teaching “Unveiling the Cross” by Jean Norment is by far the best and most comprehensive teaching on the importance of the cross and the blood of Christ we have ever encountered. Jean has almost 30 years of Bible teaching internationally, mostly on the cross.

Isaac Watts understood the cross, back in 1707, when he published his well-known hymn…

The Wondrous Cross
“When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died; my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God; all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Results of the Atonement, these are the foundation of our faith, our Biblical Identity.
Substitution
Atonement
Blood/Redemption
Propitiation
Repentance/Forgiveness
Identification with Christ
Justification/Righteousness
Sanctification
Reconciliation
Regeneration
Adoption

The New Covenant reveals God’s blueprint for what he intends to do for all who put their trust in Christ and enter into covenant with Him.

Our greatest sin in life is our unbelief.

Each week I find myself amazed by the quality and depth of teaching here at YWAM Kona, it is well-grounded in scripture and solidly supported by contextual chapter and verse. Modern theologians like JI Packer, NT Wright, Tim Keller, AW Tozer, Ronald Rolheiser, Richard Rohr, Brennan Manning, and even, Welsh revivalist Jessie Penn-Lewis are referenced alongside some of the early fathers of Christianity. If you want to grow in Jesus come here for a Crossroads DTS!

Having completed the landscaping around the Aloha Cafeteria in time for the grand opening we were rewarded with a day off from work duty on Monday. The Work Duty was back Hame’aina Hale, the low-income housing area that is a neighbour to the University of the Nations. It is/was owned by the state local government and has run at a loss for many years. Many properties are in a very poor state of repair and part of our work is to help restore them to habitable condition, for low income locals, an outreach component.

From Sea to Sky

Saturday we took a full day of R&R, Rest and Recuperation. We rented a 4X4 and went from 30.5C (87F), while swimming at the beach, to 5C (41F), lower with the wind chill, in under 2hours as we climbed from sea level to 13,880 ft at the top of Mauna Kea, where we wore lots of extra layers of clothes. The weather was odd we drove through cloud on the way up and then we broke through into bright sunshine, way above the clouds.

While on top of Mauna Kea, I took these photos two minutes apart, as cloud rolled in over the mountain top, you can see the cloud in the distance and sunset has barely changed.

Glenda and her Ladies Small Group visited a coffee farm, Mauka Meadows, for lunch on Thursday, just as the Men’s Cursillo weekend was starting in Calgary, and she had this rooster following her around, palanca? It is also included as a wildlife shot for those who enjoy them. Technically not wildlife here on the Big Island I have been told they are the dominant species of bird over on Kauai.

Now Wily Coyote in the sunset says “That’s it, that’s all, folks!”

Be blessed, be a blessing, and believe!!

A&G

Week 4 – YWAM Kona, At the Crossroads – Family Week

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This week was Family Week, all the DTS students, over 620 of us, were in one class in Ohana Court. WOW! So much good content, supported with real life stories and experiences of Darlene and Loren Cunningham as they shared important Biblical principles that are threaded throughout the foundation of Youth With a Mission and the University of the Nations. The YWAM story is full of miracles, they work in more than 1,100 locations in over 180 countries, with a full-time staff of over 18,000 and not one is paid. They have birthed many ministries and sent Christian missionaries to every country and into many, many workplaces. This week’s takeaway is that washing dishes for God is just as important as raising the dead for God. We received a YWAM Study Bible this week. I really wasn’t aware how big a move of God we were joining. Nor was I expecting the quality and depth of teaching that we have been sitting under while here.

On Thursday afternoon the men of our DTS watched The Ragamuffin, it is the life story of Rich Mullins, the Christian singer/songwriter who wrote Awesome God. The movie is named for Brennan Manning‘s book The Ragamuffin Gospel . The movie illustrates through Rich’s story how much our relationship with our earthly father influences who we think we are. It is definitely worth a watch.

Friday was the Grand Opening of the Aloha Cafeteria, part of the Defender Building, so named for it’s major donor. This is the new cafeteria that we have been blessed to enjoy since the first day we arrived, having seen the old one when we visited the base in February, we can only thank God for the faithfulness of his followers. What a great celebration day. It was divided into parts, the first session recognized the contributors, the owners of Defender, Scenic Ridge, KJ Walk and Design Team represented all the generous folks. The second part recognized the government workers, the tradesmen, and other local people many of whom volunteered many hours. According to an article seen here in West Hawaii Today newspaper this is the biggest building on the Big Island. To God be the Glory.

Aloha Lanai, the Defender Building

Donor List

We walked lots this weekend, on Saturday we walked to Target and back, about 9 kms round trip. Then on Sunday from Living Stones Church to Disappearing/Magic/White Sands Beach at La’aloa Bay Beach Park and back to University of the Nations, almost 10 kms. Glenda has volunteered to help out in the nursery for the 9am service so we went to the 7:30 service (they have 5 services on Sunday and so far I have been to three of them). The beach visit was my reward for hours of shopping on Saturday :-). I got to use my snorkel, mask and fins for the first time since arriving a month ago. It was not a good snorkelling venue, but I got some exercise and I did see a dozen or so fish and I was able to swim along with a turtle below me which was fun. Another first was wearing swim shorts to church. We stopped on the way back at Da Poke Shack for lunch, it is pronounced po-kay, it is Hawaiian sushi.Footwashing

Foot Washing Ministry

The reason for the trip to Target was to buy some foot washing supplies for a new ministry. Glenda and Lori from our Crossroads DTS decided to offer foot washing ministry to Jon and Joyce our suite-mates who have their 10 hours/week of Work Duty in the kitchen every Sunday. They were both blessed by the gift.

Hawaiian sunsets come with more variety than the weather :-), 30C everyday with rare showers that really don’t reduce the air temperature.

Finishing the landscaping and cleaning up around the Aloha Cafeteria was Andy’s Work Duty all week, along with having some fun…

A collage of shots from Andys – Work Duty

Four whole weeks at “youth camp” and finally, we got our first hot dog on Thursday!!! Then on Friday evening we had steak for dinner as part of the Grand Opening Celebration.

Someone asked me for more wildlife pictures, so here are a couple more. The spider was about 5 cms on the diagonal from toe to toe and the gecko was after our nuts and raisins.

Spider on web

Gecko on our nut cannister

Our contribution in preparation for our Outreach Project is to research and present to the team information on “Religions, churches, habits and not to dos” in Vietnam. More to come on this, but we also need to avoid jeopardizing not only our ministry but also that of those who are there for the long-term. I have heard from YWAM Turner Valley that they are sending three people to teach in VietNam in January and February so maybe we will get to meet them.

Until next week, be blessed and be a blessing!

A blessing that is not shared becomes a burden.

Week 3 – YWAM Kona, At the Crossroads – Plumbline

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The past week is known as Plumbline around YWAM Kona.

Our teaching, Divine Plumbline, came via DVD presented by its author Dr Bruce Thompson. The seminar is an excellent teaching based on the prophecy of Amos and follows Israel’s return from the Babylonian exile in Ezra and the rebuilding of the walls as described by Nehemiah, paralleling our own life journey, how we use false plumb lines and even when we do use God’s plumb line the weight is often swinging causing us to build crooked walls. Thursday was a ministry day, a day of tearing down and rebuilding walls so they are plumb.

Friday was a chill day.

After morning worship and a time of sharing testimonies from earlier in the week, the men took off to the south. We had planned to visit beaches for swimming but Hurricane Ana was threatening the islands. We stopped at a bay with lava rock cliffs and caves overlooking Maihi Bay, (Neil and Susan you may recognize this is the bay where Neil capsized us all).

“I love to stand at ocean shore And feel the thundering breakers roar…
How could I say there is no God? When all around creation calls!!” – Brian Doerksen

We threw rocks far out in the water to symbolize God taking our stuff and burying deep into the sea, never to be taken back. Here are a couple of the guys doing just that…

We then shared Communion with each other on the clifftop, it was an incredibly meaningful time.
We did find a beach that is protected by the pier and had a quick swim, my first opportunity to get in the water since getting here. I had forgotten how salty the water is and how difficult it is to sink here, even when standing up with my arms at my side I was floating with my nose almost out of the water!

Glenda and her ladies group had a wonderful time walking around Kailua-Kona and enjoyed a coffee shop overlooking the bay.

Hurricane Ana and Water Baptisms

This was the sunset the night before we were to have a visit from Hurricane Ana. Thanks to lots of prayer it became Tropical Storm Ana and passed 250 Kms west of Kona leaving us with just a wet Saturday with some bigger surf but by the time Sunday came around we were able to witness 6 water baptisms in the ocean by Living Stones church. If you look carefully at the picture on the right you will see a turtle checking out how its Creator was working in peoples lives that morning.

Crossroads has Talent night

This event was organized by Einar, one of our Norwegian Crossroaders, who is playing and singing here. It was an enormous success, everyone had a lot of fun after a fairly heavy week.

Outreach Location

Our outreach location has been confirmed. We will be visiting Hanoi, Vietnam from around Dec 19th to February 18th, 2015. We should have the actual flight dates this week. Trying to learn some Vietnamese, I found this helpful video teaching on youtube.