Campus Life

Hawaiian culture is easy going and I feel I have settled  in really quickly. You can't help but smile when the sun is shining and you can see how beautiful creation is. The sun set above is the view from my room, I can see the sea which is fantastic. The sun sets are like this most days, spectacular.

I was so surprised when I arrived to find there was 800 of us on campus. Its massive!! Its the biggest intake this year which is no coincidence as it is the 50th anniversary of Youth with a mission and we are in the last quarter before the big celebration in November.

We had a massive Hawaiian welcome with hula dancing which was lovely. A student representative from each of the nations participating in schools came out with their nations flags and I was thinking wow I really don't know any flags (this is important u will see why later) and then they fly them all on campus (pic above) .

We have over 50 nations represented here in Kona anywhere from Cameroon, Khazkhstan, Afghanastan and many others. It is such a cool environment as we get to know how God influences us all to move amongst every nation and we do this alongside each other not as a homogenous group but as muiltcultured ethnic group of authentic Jesus lovers who are desperate for the world to be as it was originally designed to be.

The digs are basic but completely sufficiant, I am so glad that I was put into a room with 5 others who are all similar ages to me. Funny story when I was staying with lovely Sarah and Roger before I came we were looking at the Community TRansofrmations DTS (this is my school name)facebook group and Sarah spotted a girl called Janelle Goetz who is Canadian and my age. I was so pleased that there was at least 1 other girl my age. Sarah prophetically said I think she will be a great person to know and u will be good friends. Well we are and we share a room. God is so Good like that.

We have a little bathroom and kitchenette so can store the essentials like TEA!! We all have a lot of hair so there is a lot of that everywhere but we have had alot of fun and feels like we've known each other for ages. Four of us are in the same DTS Janelle, Vicky (from Philadelphia) Ameris (from NYC) and then Allison and Sueji from South Korea who are doing another DTS. They all cover similar topics but with different teachers, approaches and some different focuses.

The campus is pretty big, there is a small pool and weights room, library, new outdoor cafe which is the social hub and outdoor dining area.

There are 64 in my DTS (pic of us and our classroom above) Community Transformations is our focus (see next Blog), they usually have 30 but another 30 applied and they felt that they should accept double!! There is mainly a young bunch 18-21, with 8 over 30 which is more than I expected. We have four famalies including my leaders Jeff and Bethany,who have a 5 week old baby and still have enough time and energy for us. All the famalies have at least 3 children and sold up their houses and lives to come and serve Jesus as a family. The campus is totally set up to make the children as much part of things as the adults. This has completely humbled me that they have come as a family to serve that just because they have children they cannot be called to missions but Jesus talks about how children are integral to his heart in reaching the lost and the broken (Luke 18:16). They are all great and serve Jesus in a way that I have been learning alot from their simple and beautiful approach to people.

We generally get up at 6 am and have classes until 12pm then, prayer room 1-3 where we worship and pray for different nations as God puts them on our hearts, then work duties until 5. Except our school has work duty every other weekkend for 8 hours each day which I think I prefer so my days in the week are not so packed. This means I can consolidate all that is taught in the day, or go running etc!! My work duty is in the kitchen preparing and serving food (for 800) it busy but we have fun as a team.

We have fitness stuff first thing in the morning, I am so pleased about this as I wondered how I would fit in exercise. Our class has to commit to at least 2 hours a week and they have provided options, so I am running and doing circuit stuff at least 3x a week. Our leader feels passionately that we should honour GOd with our bodies, so true!! so hopefully I WILL WIN THE CORN SYRUP WAR!! As I work in the kitchen I get to read all the labels and it is in everything and one of the reasons why America has an obesity problem.  I am trying to avoid it but not always possible... but it is tough to cater for that many people on a budget.

Campus is quiet on the weekends so I am happy to work one then have the next free to get some alone time with "the Big guy" as our weeks can be frenetic and with people 24/7. We can still get to the beach too so don't feel my tanning is being deprived. Not surfing yet as the local beaches are mainly for snorkelling which is so fun, turtles everywhere. I need to plan a weekend where I do at least some body boarding!!

Aloha from Hawaii

　
After a fun party saying goodbye to good friends I have finally made it to this pacific island.
Thanks again to all those that helped make it possible, it would not have happened with out all your amazing friendship.
The first ten days I was getting aclimitised to Hawaii and its culture. I met my dear friend Cath from NZ (old flat mate) and we had alot of fun travelling around the island. We hired a car and I had to quickly get used to driving on the left. We made a rule I was only allowed to veer to the right and over 2 rumbles before I had to correct myself!! The car was a little bigger than I'd anticipated by the fact we got an automatic upgrade as this was the only vehicle left.
We travelled over to Hilo which has a very different feel to Kona, the people more alternative, The terrain is mainly rainforest. We stayed in a hostel with a beautiful tropical garden, which had an amazing variety of flowers and trees which I have put in a few photos. The Guava trees smelled so good. At night the tree frogs (or as I first thought birds) were so loud all cherrrrping away, like a all night frog rave. It became quite entertaining. Never actually saw one but there must have been thousands.
We did a couple of trips, one snorkelling where I got to swim with a turtle (the others were hiding) and reef fish. It was just so lovely to be with these creatures. There was no sand beaches in hilo mainly rock the surrounding grass area were coconut groves where any moment you could have one fall on you!
We met a cool guy called Chris who used to be in a band the impossible shapes, he was from Indiana a former psychadelic rock band ( my spacr them have a listen). We did a hike around the Volcano Crater Rim. It was weird, u descend and ascend through rainforest and then hit a massive crater with in places steaming lava tubes. The crater was formed by a big explosion millions of years ago. Amazing how any thing grows but there are places where there are plants and trees bursting out of the hard lava. I also walked through a Lava tube that was about 300 metres long and pitch black even with e head torch you can only see a little way in front of you. At one point there seemed to be a big drop off into the bowels of the earth, it was only a metre but felt more. It was really fun.
Our next big adventure was a night hike out the live lava flow, where it pours out into the pacific ocean, and where it is forming a new island which won't be above sea level for thousands of years. We trekked at dusk and gradually approached this billowing smoke. We went up and down over old lava tubes, which make weird patterns like rope or hair and then some have what seem like gold and silver patterns on. some crazy people have built some houses out on the lava field. Apparently the tax is only a $1.00 a year but in our opionions not worth the risk of the lava changing direction and taking the house out.
As we drew closer to the smoke the night drew in and we could then see the red of the molten lava in the middle of the smoke. When we were about 100 meters away the lava beneath our feet was so hot and between the cracks we saw the red glow of lava. It was really scary as this is the ledge and can be dangerous. We trusted our guide and lots of other groups were there too but they kept saying it can be here one day and gone the next, very encouraging. Super amazing though, one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The lava as it hits the waves shoots the lava up 40 feet into the air and it was really hot standing there!! As time went on and the tide shifted the lava started to come up to very near where we were standing our guide still seemed unconcerned, anyway we eventually made our way back. Great experience.
We then headed back to Kona which has a sweet chilled feel to it, lovely ocean views and breeze. We were able to sit and watch the waves as we ate breakfast which was just so relaxing.
A few days R and R and that was just a perfect way to end a perfect holiday.