Hey everyone!! It’s been a crazy last couple of days: Thursday,
I headed out via Portland
airport and my flight thankfully went great. I got to San Francisco and it was neat because I was
able to talk to a couple people while waiting for my flight, and got to share
my story a little! Unfortunately, my flight kept getting delayed and the
airline kept having us move gates---probably over 10 times. Finally they told
us that our flight was cancelled. I was expecting to sleep in the airport and
try to figure something out for the next day and I was trying to figure out what
I was going to do about food since I hadn’t eaten much that day. It was while I
was in a 3 hour line trying to rebook my flights, that I found 2 fellow YWAMers
and we were able to stick together and got the same hotel for the night
(provided by the airline) and thankfully dinner and transportation were also
taken care of. I was feeling so blessed to have an actual place to stay for the
night and felt so blessed that it was an amazing hotel. The next day we left at
3 am for our flight to Arizona
and then finally made it to our flight to Kona! It was about 8 hr flight but it
was a good one and very restful (not like my previous 2 haha). As soon as I
walked out the plane I could tell that it was going to be an adjustment—it’s a
lot hotter than Washington !!
:P The dynamic here is so different-each time we have a speaker, we have
someone (always a girl) give a lei to him and kiss on the left cheek and then
we give a gift. I was so welcomed when I arrived…most of my class was on the
sidewalk waiting for me and one of the guys from a different country kissed my
hand and gave me a gift lol. At first the room arrangements were all mixed up
so I wasn’t sure where I was going to stay but God provided! The coolest part
was that I was in a room with most of the girls from my class. :) We all bonded
pretty fast and then we had a welcome ceremony. The next day, we went to the beaches
(where I got really sunburned haha) and then the following day (Sunday) we went
to a church on the beach. There were a lot of lessons that I learned this week.
One of the first ones that I really remember well was the one on Sunday where
we were learning the importance of keeping our love turned on even with people
that are the hardest to love. In all the things that I’ve been experiencing
whether unpleasant or way fun, God has been showing me so much about himself
and about me. The way we worship here is crazy and open which I love. We all
pray out loud at the same time, and every time someone gives their testimony,
we have them stand in the middle of the room and we all come around them and
pray for them. We all support each other and there is no judgment. My teacher
told us from the get go that we need to put all insecurity, comparisons and
fears etc out. We need to rebuke those things in Jesus powerful name and not
live in their influence. I’ve been learning so many things about the Bible and
the thing that makes that such a big deal is that I’ve been a Christian so long
that I’ve pretty much heard every story and yet they’re coming alive to me. I’m
going to try later to write out some of the notes on the different lessons from
the classes I’ve gone to, but one thing I learned today for example, is that
God shows himself through the things that we go through. We all got this really
cool Bible which is called the Sourceview Bible and its basically the Bible in
script form and the chapters aren’t separated. Auditions went pretty
well..though most of us have found that we’ve been put in places that we either
didn’t expect or didn’t want as much as other places. I really feel that for me
personally that God is really stretching me in every way. Its crazy and awesome
how you ask God to stretch you and partially don’t expect him to, and then he
stretches you more then you would be comfortable with. I’ve been doing things I
never thought I would do: traveling alone, stayed in a hotel by myself, plane
ride for the first time alone, moved away from home to a totally different
state, sharing a room with 9 other girls, praying in a big group, praising God
out loud…it doesn’t end. God is showing me things about myself that I never
really noticed before. Something I feel like I’ve been learning is that (and I
could be wrong with this) God might be using this to prepare me for marriage. I
just feel like all the things that I’ve been learning through this process and
the things that I’ve been learning in class, are just really helping me become
more of a woman. It’s weird cause at 5pm tonight it will have been a full week
and yet it feels longer in some ways because of all the things that are
changing in my life. I definitely don’t think I’m going to be the same person
when I go home in hopefully October. I mean I’m cleaning men’s bathroom for my
job which is something that has been growing my character as well lol. There are
many more stories but in short, God has been showing me so much and he is so
very good. Please be keeping me and my school also in your prayers. Pray that
the devil will not control our minds and that we’ll notice when he is and that
we will turn to God to throw those thoughts out. Thank you so much for the
support and if you have any questions about what I’ve been learning or if you
would like to support me, please let me know! I still need money for my flight
home and a little more for outreach. School is covered though, God is so good!!
Blessings, love you guys!
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