Adventures in Change

Well, this blog has been a long time coming. I wasn't really sure what to say.

I wouldn't trade my time in Hawaii for anything in the world. God met me in a radical way that I never knew was possible, and I didn't leave it behind there, I'm still experiencing it.

During the lecture phase of my DTS (from late September to early December), I struggled with my depression a lot at times. My school leaders heard from God that it is not the right time for me to be going on outreach. Even watching films and hearing stories about Africa was negatively affecting my depression to a point that it wasn't safe for me to go deeper into sharing in their suffering.

I wanted to go to Africa right now more then anything. More then I cared about being happy. God has plans for me at home right now though. Even on the trip home I saw how He wanted me right where I was. I was able to pray with another girl who was travelling home and was in the unique position of understanding what she was feeling at that moment.

My plan is to go back to DTS later this year and finish. It will be a new group of people and new leaders, but I know God will lead me to the right school.

Leaving my YWAM "ohana" (Hawaiian for family) was and is very hard. Going from having 19 roommates to having none is a blessing as well as an ajustment. I have never experienced sisterly and brotherly love like I did at YWAM. They really just love you from the moment you get off the plane and they don't stop loving you when you go home.

I know there is a reason that God has placed Africa on my heart. I've been doing a lot of intercession for Uganda and Ethiopia since I got home. God is working powerfully in these nations. I also feel that I will go to Africa sometime in the near future.

God has been doing a lot of work in my heart and after working through some more things I feel that I will be ready to finish my DTS. Some people tell me that I need to do the lecture phase over again, other people say I can just do the outreach. I'm not sure yet which it will be, but whatever the requirements I know God will provide.

I am praying right now about whether I should apply for DTS that begins in April, July, or September. Each of these quarters have special focuses I am interested in. I will update you when I know more.

Adventures in Photos By Grace

Life at Makapala...

YWAM Foundational Value # 9 skit

Grace and I at the Masquerade (She was Tigger, I was Little Red Riding Hood)

Tina (from Montreal) one of my staff buddies. She taught me how to make lei's and also leads a hula class a few times a week.

Cynthia... what to say? another staff buddy whom I love.

Grace and Kara

My staff buddy Jen. I like this picture cause it's her usual facial expression.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Dan Shannon
He was our speaker the first week and we liked him so much we keep kidnapping him from kona and bringing him back. Everytime he comes though there is an earthquake.

Staff Chele with Grace at the beach (Grace took all these pictures). I don't know Chele very well but we have good hugs. I like her.

The Care Bears at the Masquerade. (Brit, Amy, and Deborah)

Kara and I in town. Kara is one of my outreach leaders and also my one on one. She is beautiful and kind. I love her.

The one and only Sara Biggs. One of my favorite people in the entire world.

Adventures in more photos

Brit and I at the beach.

Adventures in Uganda Preparation

Tonight's outreach team meeting was so exciting! We heard from a guy named Dan Shannon who actually taught the first week of our school. He has been to Uganda and showed us photos of an orphanage where we could be going.

About every six months a child dies there. The place is called "Heaven's Gate" because it is to prepare children for heaven. Each child is either HIV positive or has full blown AIDS. They teach them hope and how much Jesus loves them. There is a wall in one of the main areas where there is a photo of every child who has died there.

We saw video clips of the children skipping rope and singing. They looked so happy. All the girls have their hair braided with little beads on the end. They are so beautiful. We also saw photos of babies in cribs. All these babies and children are HIV positive and have either been abandoned or have lost their parents to AIDS. With the help of medicines provided at this orphanage many of them live to be teenagers and beyond. A small infection or virus however can deteriorate their health very quickly.

Tomorrow is never promised to them. Yet they have come to have hope in God.

The children are so beautiful. Nothing in me is worthy of getting to meet them.

Adventures in Photographs

(above) the main campus in Kona. This is where we line up for food every Thursday when we travel to Kona.



(above) The stairs up to the main campus. They lead from the front gate (below) up to the GO Center (Global Outreach Center).

Adventures in Destiny

Hey everybody.
This week at DTS is very exciting. We are studying Destiny in Christ. The speaker is a lady named Gwen (I can't spell or pronounce her last name so I won't try). It's really exciting to learn what God's dreams for your life are. Especially because He's usually put the desires in our hearts already.

Tonight we have a special session by our very own Dr. Carey Gear about HIV/AIDS. He is on our DTS staff and is leading the outreach to Zambia with this school. I am looking forward to learning more so that we can teach it when we get to Africa.

I have a little cold right now, but it's not getting me down. I napped for about two hours this afternoon on the lawn. I also took the shuttle into the store after class and bought some kleenex and halls.

Well, I need to go make a Lei for Dr. Carey because he's speaking tonight. We honor each speaker that comes with a Lei, and it's part of my work duty to make them.

Love,
Em

Adventures in a Hawaiian Sunset

Adventures in Makapala

View from lecture hall door.

The lecture hall where we have class.

Makapala area.

What the roads are like.

my friend Jenn (DTS staff)

My friend James the Gecko.


Girls playing in the rain.

People sticking their God-dreams on a giant map of the world.

The dorm (the Canadian flag on the right hand corner is on my bed).

My space in the dorm.

Adventures with Outreach

The Ugandan Flag


Map of Uganda



Check out Uganda in Eastern Africa.

Adventures with Grace

Hey!

Here is my friend Grace and I at the market in town this past Saturday. The market is "under the Banyan tree" in Hawi (the name of a town, not the state spelled wrong). Everything in Hawi happens under the Banyan tree. If you ask someone where anything is they just say "under the Banyan tree" and they won't tell you WHERE the Banyan tree is. Country directions.

On Monday I'm going to try and post photos of the dorm where I live and the classroom, etc..

I am officially going to Uganda for my outreach! Sara and Kara (two of my favorite people in the world!) are leading the outreach so I am very excited. God is being so good to us already. We have prayer times asking Him where in Uganda we are to go. A few places have come up but nothing is finalized yet.

I'll let you know when I have more details.

Love,
Em

Adventures with EARTHQUAKES

Earthquake damage. We raised more then $7000 from all the ywam students at Kona to restore the Makapala base.
The boys shower block.

An uprooted hot water tank.

Adventures at the Beach

I don't have time to write a whole lot. There was a huge earthquake here and we were only 20 miles from the epicenter. Everyone is fine although a little shaken still because the quake was 6.5 which is fairly large.

Five buildings at the base aren't safe to live in anymore. A few have cement floors cracked in half.


I'll post more pics when I can.

thanks!
I made some wallpaper from a photo I took at a bon-fire the night of the earthquake. I didn't change the picture I just added the text. Thats actually how it turned out!

Students cliff jumping (incase you are wondering, I just took photos, no jumping for me).

The rocks we went hiking on, on saturday. Check out the color of the water!

My friend Beth (from Illinois) and I at the welcome ceremony.

The welcome ceremony when we arrived in Makapala.

The buses we take to and from our base to Kona.



Some computer wallpaper I made. The photo was taken on the beach on Saturday. The person is Kara, my one-on-one/Hui group leader.

Adventures at Makapala

Hey!

It will be a while longer until we have Internet at our new base. It was ordered a month ago but is still on the way from Florida (a satellite dish). The base is nice. It’s in the middle of nowhere but very peaceful and beautiful. Being surrounded by trees reminds me of home.

I share a room with 18 other girls. It’s not bad though because most of the younger girls are in the other room. Somehow I ended up with mostly the 20 – 25 year olds. So it is usually quieter then the other room.

Right now we are in Kona for the Gathering that takes place every Thursday with all the other DTS’. We also get our mail and have a Wal Mart stop. Good times!

The building we are staying in was built in 1840. There is no glass in the one wall, just screens. There are huge spiders up in the roof but I haven’t seen any come down yet. The showers were just installed (there was no stalls before), so they are nice. The beds are comfy and I got the bottom bunk so I hung photos above me. I’m having a great time and learning a ton. We do an hour of intercession three days a week. I absolutely love it. It’s so cool to get a verse and have someone else in your group be like “look I just wrote that down!”

I’ve been very healthy so far. My allergies are better then they are in Canada. Today the lady who was cooking lunch made me a special lunch with chicken instead of pasta. I bought some soymilk yesterday and I’m able to keep it in a fridge near the kitchen. So I had Rice Crispies for breakfast today. They were yummy.

This week we are learning about “The Character and Nature of God.” It’s heavy stuff, but they explain everything with Bible verses and strongly encourage you to study it for yourself.

I would say the main ways I’ve grown so far is a deeper desire to read and study the Bible. The words really come alive. Also, I’ve learned a lot and grown in confidence about hearing God’s voice.

I’ve been sleeping really well because I’m such a heavy sleeper. I’m tired but we have almost every afternoon off.

God really blessed me in my work duty that I was assigned. One of the staff shared last week in their testimony about some medical problems and how they struggle with having energy sometimes. Afterward I had gone to talk to her and told her how I related. It turned out that she is the one in charge of assigning work duties and because she knew of my situation she assigned me to the speaker hospitality team (which over 40 people applied for and there were only two positions). So my responsibilities are making sure the speaker has water, decorating the table at the front of the lecture hall, making the speaker breakfast in the morning, making thank-you cards and welcome cards, and a few other things. I’m really enjoying it!

There is a couple here that just lost their 18-year-old son in January. Their son had wanted to do a DTS and so now they are completing their sons dream. They are Christians as well and they are a really inspiriting with their faith in their time of pain. They are extremely open about talking about it and super, super nice people. The lady takes care of everyone and loves to chat.

I think my favorite times are the intercession times. Its so exciting to hear God speaking about what we are to pray about and spend time listening. My friend Sara (I’ll put up a picture soon) leads the intercession times. She is on staff but we just clicked and we’re buddies now. She’s a super sweetheart.

I’m going to buy some plastic bins at Wal Mart to organize my stuff.

I miss you all but I love it here!

Hopefully we’ll have Internet at the base soon and I’ll be able to write you all back.

Adventures with More Photos

Hannah, Janet, and I are hanging out at a sweet coffee shop. It's called "badas" not really but I don't want to have cuss words on my website. Its all about donkeys and they have signs like "donkey x-ing" and stuffed donkeys.

The breeze off the ocean is beautiful. Its cool in the shade and the breeze is warm and gentle. I'm sipping on a fruit smoothie and surfing the internet.

Hannah and Janet hanging out at the coffee shop.


The view from the coffee shop where I am updating the blog from.


Rachel (left) and Hannah (right), two of my roommates.



Two girls from my extended Hui group (we got together with two other Hui groups). Me (middle), Brittany (sitting on left) and Beth (sitting on right).

Photos By Hannah Greene (excellent roomie)

Adventures in Worship on the Beach

NEWS BULLETIN: For the next few days I won't have internet because we are moving to the Makapala base and it's not installed yet.

So last night we had an impromptu worship service on the beach outside our hotel. We had already sung for an hour in the Ohana Court on campus, but it just felt right.

The ocean was beautiful. The light reflected off the surface and the waves rolled in gently. There was a violin and two guitars and they just took requests and we sang standing around in the sand. There were about twenty of us.

One 17 year old girl was baptized in the pacific as we sang. I got to sit with her and listen to her testimony after. In the last 24 hours her relationship with Jesus had become real and she had begun to fall in love with Him.

A few people came out from the bar and listened to us sing. A few drug addicts walked in off the pier and watched. One man became a Christian and made an appointment to meet with a student next week and learn about how to walk it out. Another woman was prayed for and held for a while as she listened to our songs of worship.

It was beautiful.

Adventures with Photos

Loren Cunningham dedicating the new "Village 2." They had worship music and then speaking. Brittany and I left early because it was sunny and hot and some people were talking, and talking, and talking, and talking, and we were about to fall asleep.

My friend Brittany at the dedication. By June 2007 they hope to have 200 more beds.

On one side the view is of the ocean and cruise ships and out the other side you see the mountain. It's beautiful.


Today is pretty much a day off since it's Saturday. We have a BBQ at 1pm but thats all.

Once they open up, Brittany and I are going to go to the "Aloha Cafe" Campus Coffee shop and maybe the campus store. They sell U of N pens, tshirts, sweatshirts (not that you need them here), water bottles, just about everything you can imagine.

We got the book "Is that really you God?" By Loren Cunningham to read this week, then we are going to talk about it in our "Hui" Groups (small groups, they like to use Hawaiian words here).

Last night at the presentation I went into the washroom and found all the Hula girls getting dressed. One of them was like "I look like a tree!" it was funny. They had leaved around their hands.