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!!