Tag Archives: Kona

Back at the Crossroads – Preparing for students

It is now Arrival Day! Thursday October 1st, our students will be here soon.

Bob & Carolyn Hopkins

Our second training week was spent with Bob and Carolyn, our school leaders, getting some Crossroads specific training and preparing for the students arrival. It is wonderful to be working alongside this couple. They have been leading Crossroads DTSs for 28 years, and they still have loads of joy and passion, energy and wisdom to share. We are truly blessed to be serving under their guidance and counsel and are thanking God for them daily.

We are meeting in a different classroom from the one we had last year, it wont be quite as tight. Our 34 adults will fit comfortably, even with their 19 children on occasion, though we will miss the beautiful ocean view. I’m not sure how we will know it is Wednesday without being able to see the cruise ship. We spent some time at the end of last week cleaning the classroom: dusting, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning widows. Setting up and learning the audio video system; the name badges and room door tags are printed. The school, our students and staff have been prayed over each time we meet.

We are completing Transition week: the week between quarters where staff get to do the jobs normally done by mission-builders and students on work duty. We spent most of Saturday helping in the kitchen, we worked two shifts in the dish-pit. That is Eric, one of our new friends, at the sink. We had a lot of fun, and met many more people, somehow working together is a great way to get to know one another. Then Monday was Campus Beautification Day. All staff are volunteered, at least strongly encouraged to volunteer, to prepare the campus for Arrival Day on Thursday. This summer had only a couple of mission builders to look after the grounds, so there were many, many weeds to be pulled, plants to be trimmed, dead foliage to be hauled and grass to be cut. All the common areas in and around the buildings, patios, laundry rooms, and hallways had to be swept, dusted and cleaned.

On Tuesday I had to take a Driving Test — I passed. So now I can drive University of the Nations vehicles, 15 passenger vans mostly, some minivans and maybe a car or truck, once in a while. This will be helpful for picking up guest speakers from the airport and getting snack supplies from Costco, and transporting students to Walmart to get some supplies the first Saturday. We spent a few hours in corporate prayer meeting for the upcoming quarter. We began with worship, then Darlene Cunningham shared an encouraging message, which was followed by small group prayer, one on one prayer, Korean-style prayer and prayer led from the front – lots of prayer!! We need it.

Wednesday was spent cleaning rooms for the students, really each room could have used more time but we gave it all we’ve got.

Like the last time we were here most of our exercise is working and walking. We are averaging 25 – 30 kms per week on foot which includes ascending the campus’ many stairs at least twice a day. We have had less rain this week as well, so maybe the torrential downpours are over.

The US Canadian exchange rate is harsh. Each dollar we spend here is now costing us around CAD 1.40, along with some un-budgeted charges for staff activity cards and meals, everything is costing much more than last year. Still very good value, we are so blessed!

I am thinking that I should start up the “Wildlife this Week” section again…

These guys were about 100mm (4″) long.

Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing, A&G

PS You can leave a reply by clicking on the “Leave a Reply” link at the top of this post, we enjoy your comments, thank you.

Back at the Crossroads – The Arrival

3 Replies

Okotoks, AB

Leaving Okotoks felt much harder this year. When we came to Crossroads Discipleship Training School at YWAM Kona as students, last year, it was an adventure that was about our own pilgrimage. It was a time of exploring our life/lives and choosing a direction from the crossroads we found ourselves at, we were seeking a ministry direction where we could both travel together. The theme verse for the Crossroads school is taken from Jeremiah 6:16

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Selling the house and buying a condo apartment, shedding clutter, moving, taking early retirement from a secure and meaningful job and setting off into the unknown (all within 12 months) should have been very stressful and yet there had been an inexplicable peace about the steps we were taking.We really didn’t experience a lot of difficulty. Saying farewell to family and friends after reconnecting through the summer was harder.

In many ways we are heading into the unknown again. Yes, we know the YWAM base, we know what the excellent teachings are, we know people here, we know the prayer room is air-conditioned yet as staff our responsibilities have changed, this is not about our journey, although we will see growth and transformation ourselves, it is now all about serving others.

This time we saw evil trying to overcome good, times when our peace was being stolen. We had spent a few weeks after returning from our DTS to allow the emotional attachments we had made in Kona and Hanoi to cool before considering the next steps. We knew that teaching english was to be an important part of “next” so we did get TESL certificates quickly. After the “cooling off” period we prayerfully considered the options before us. We felt led to return to Kona as staff, so here we are.

Our first Hawaiian sunset occurred while still 40 minutes out of Kona, we saw it from the plane window and it was quite amazing, even the pilot commented and told passengers to look. We were above the clouds which helped, the two nights we have been on the ground we haven’t seen the sun go down due to rain clouds but it is brighter during the day. This morning we have clear blue skies to start the day and we heard that the trade winds are due to return which will help lower the humidity. That will be a relief!! The rain does cool things down a bit but we don’t want to see any more Flash Flood Warnings showing up on our phones.

Our room is very nice, we are feeling very blessed and praying in faith that we don’t have to move when the students arrive in a couple of weeks. Queen size bed, kitchenette and our own bathroom. As you can see there is no propane tank outside the window for those who recall our “room with a view” last year.

We begin our staff training on Monday. We have the schedule now; it looks full and some of it will be quite intense. We appreciate your prayers. I, Andy, have received 2 words from different places that seem to affirm each other. The first commanding me to “Step into it!” and the second equally direct “Don’t resist!”, pray that when the time comes to step into it without resistance that I will be bold and faithful. Thanks.

Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing, A&G

Heading out – to serve at the Crossroads

2 Replies

The time has come, we are in the final stages of packing and preparing the condo for our friend Curtis to use while we are away.

BTW If you want to know when we post updates to this site, scroll down until you see “Follow by email” on the right hand side, just above the photos, enter your email address in the space provided and press Follow. I think you will get an email confirming that you want to follow which will contain a link you will need to click. Then every time we post you will get an email to let you know. Of course, a message will go out to Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, Twitter followers, Tumbler, etc. as well.

We have been passing out many of these Prayer Cards to our friends, we are already grateful for all your prayer support. If you like you can print one from this image or we could send you one via snail mail, if so leave us a comment or send an email. At this time we will be appreciating prayers for peace and travel mercies as we get all the last bits and pieces together. Then as we move into staff training we will be looking for God to equip us as we prepare for the students to arrive. We are still praying that God will provide more staff as we are still quite short compared to last year.

We are now officially YWAM Missionaries, with an account at YWAM Project Funding Office. As I have shared before in this blog Youth With A Mission has more than 20,000 full-time staff worldwide and no payroll. Quite incredible, really. I did read in one of Loren Cunningham’s books that in the early days of YWAM Loren was persuaded that he needed a paid assistant, the experiment was short-lived and since then YWAM has not issued a paycheque to anyone. All missionaries and staff are responsible for funding their own needs, our needs are mostly for ministry supplies. You can check out the Donate tab above to learn more.

Our next post will report from staff training at YWAM. Thank you all for following and sharing in our pilgrimage.

Until next time, Godspeed, be blessed and be a blessing, A&G