Friday and Saturday afternoons/evenings are dedicated to local lovin', or hanging out with the people that we've met over the last week. The idea of me calling some random person with whom I had one conversation and asking them if I could hang out with them really made me uncomfortable. I mean, if someone asked me to take a survey, asked for my phone number, and then called me a few days later asking to hang out, I'd be pretty creeped out. Tony (project director) says that this is because I'm from NYC...To you non NYC people out there, would you be creeped out?
Anyway, as of Friday morning I had no contacts to hang out with for the weekend, so I went with a bunch of local-less teammates to the beach. The guys met a few locals by playing a pick-up game of football, and a few girls and I were playing with a volleyball. I noticed a young girl sitting and watching us, so I invited her to come play with us. We chatted a little and found out that her name's Raven and that she's 11, has 5 older brothers and stepbrothers, is from WV, and is currently vacationing here until Tuesday, but will be moving here permanently along with her dad and his girlfriend at the end of the summer. She's a really sweet girl who seemed lonely and in need of someone to play with her and to love her. As we were leaving, she asked us if we were coming back the next day . I told her that we didn't know what our schedule would be like, but I gave her my phone number so that we could arrange a play date before she went back home.
Saturday afternoon, we went to another beach to evangelize, and as we were wrapping up and getting ready to leave, I got a phone call from Raven asking "Are you guys gonna come back today?" Here I was, somewhat worried about not having any plans to meet up with any locals later that night, but God had someone call me instead and make plans! A friend and I went to meet her and we got to toss a volleyball with her and her dad and just get know them both better. They're Christians (she was baptized less than a year ago!), and just really friendly people. We ended up going to play with her again today (my free day), one last time before they left, and we asked if we could pray for them. It's been a blessing to meet her and spend time with her, even if it's only been for a few hours. My heart really goes out to her because she's been through so much brokenness in her family at such a young age. My hope and prayer is that she will find healing and security in Christ as she grows in Him.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Recap: The first two weeks
Hey everyone!
I hope you all are doing well. The first two weeks have been filled with great bonding time with my teammates and lots of training and opportunities to practice what we've learned. In the first week alone, we went evangelizing on the beach on Monday, on campus Tuesday
and Thursday, and at the mall on Friday. We had our first fun day on Saturday where we got to go to Pali lookout (a natural wind tunnel with a breathtaking view of the island), the Dole plantation, and Waimea Bay on the north shore. I've posted pictures of these and more details below.
This week was a more typical week, which looks something like this:
Monday: free day (I went to Pearl Harbor with a bunch of friends)
Tuesday-Thursday: on campus (with training on TR mornings) (midmorning
to mid-afternoon), dinner, inreach (men's/women's time, Bible study, team building)
Friday: ministry planning (morning), "local loving" -- hang out with people you met on campus (evening)
Saturday: outreach (morning), local loving (evening)
Sunday: church (morning) and ohana time (like a giant small group for the entire team)
Initiating conversations with random people definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone, but it's getting easier the more I do it. I've been really surprised at people's willingness to share with us about their lives and thoughts on spirituality. I've had some really interesting experiences, including sharing the gospel with a girl who had never heard it before, and listening to a Chinese man talk to my partner (in Mandarin) for nearly an hour and a half. Even though the fear of sharing is definitely subsiding, some days it just feels like I'm doing it because I have to, not out of any excitement about how good this news really is. I think that God has been working slowly
but surely in my heart, but please continue to pray for a passion for His name.
Finally, please also pray for the following:
- For my teammates who are still raising support, that support may come in generously.
- That we will be open, vulnerable, and accepting of each other as we learn more about ourselves and each other
- That we will have a heart for the campuses we're assigned to and for the passion to share the good news
- That we will rest and learn to depend solely on His strength (Isaiah 40:31)
In Him,
Jessica
I hope you all are doing well. The first two weeks have been filled with great bonding time with my teammates and lots of training and opportunities to practice what we've learned. In the first week alone, we went evangelizing on the beach on Monday, on campus Tuesday
and Thursday, and at the mall on Friday. We had our first fun day on Saturday where we got to go to Pali lookout (a natural wind tunnel with a breathtaking view of the island), the Dole plantation, and Waimea Bay on the north shore. I've posted pictures of these and more details below.
This week was a more typical week, which looks something like this:
Monday: free day (I went to Pearl Harbor with a bunch of friends)
Tuesday-Thursday: on campus (with training on TR mornings) (midmorning
to mid-afternoon), dinner, inreach (men's/women's time, Bible study, team building)
Friday: ministry planning (morning), "local loving" -- hang out with people you met on campus (evening)
Saturday: outreach (morning), local loving (evening)
Sunday: church (morning) and ohana time (like a giant small group for the entire team)
Initiating conversations with random people definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone, but it's getting easier the more I do it. I've been really surprised at people's willingness to share with us about their lives and thoughts on spirituality. I've had some really interesting experiences, including sharing the gospel with a girl who had never heard it before, and listening to a Chinese man talk to my partner (in Mandarin) for nearly an hour and a half. Even though the fear of sharing is definitely subsiding, some days it just feels like I'm doing it because I have to, not out of any excitement about how good this news really is. I think that God has been working slowly
but surely in my heart, but please continue to pray for a passion for His name.
Finally, please also pray for the following:
- For my teammates who are still raising support, that support may come in generously.
- That we will be open, vulnerable, and accepting of each other as we learn more about ourselves and each other
- That we will have a heart for the campuses we're assigned to and for the passion to share the good news
- That we will rest and learn to depend solely on His strength (Isaiah 40:31)
In Him,
Jessica
Pearl Harbor
If you ever intend to visit Pearl Harbor, know that in order to see a documentary and to take the boat out to the memorial itself, you have to have a ticket. While they are free, they are also pretty limited, so come early and hang out in the museum and the other displays at the center.
The USS Arizona memorial
A piece of the hull still above water
The shrine room, where the names of the 1177 who died on the Arizona are listed.Sunday, June 22, 2008
Island tour! (Saturday, 6/21)
Pali lookout
A natural wind tunnel with a breath-taking view of the northeast coast of Oahu
The city of Kaneohe and Kaneohe Bay
The Dole Plantation:
Home of dozens, if not hundreds of varieties of pineapple
A young pineapple
Red pineapples
Dole whip, topped with crushed pineapple. It's a cross between ice cream and sorbet, and probably the most intense pineapple flavor you've ever tasted.
Waimea Bay (North Shore)
Light sand, calm, blue (extremely salty) waters that make this beach great for swimming
"Da Jump Rock," as locals call it, is about 25 feet high. I jumped off it twice :)
A rainbow on the way back from the beach. Rainbow sightings are fairly common here. In fact, the official mascot for the University of Hawaii is the Rainbow Warrior.
A natural wind tunnel with a breath-taking view of the northeast coast of Oahu
The city of Kaneohe and Kaneohe BayThe Dole Plantation:
Home of dozens, if not hundreds of varieties of pineapple
A young pineapple
Red pineapples
Dole whip, topped with crushed pineapple. It's a cross between ice cream and sorbet, and probably the most intense pineapple flavor you've ever tasted.Waimea Bay (North Shore)
Light sand, calm, blue (extremely salty) waters that make this beach great for swimming
"Da Jump Rock," as locals call it, is about 25 feet high. I jumped off it twice :)
A rainbow on the way back from the beach. Rainbow sightings are fairly common here. In fact, the official mascot for the University of Hawaii is the Rainbow Warrior.Thursday, June 19, 2008
Day 2 on campus
Today was our second day on campus, and we were supposed to start out by prayerwalking around the campus and then start talking to people to "decode" the campus (get a better sense of the campus, the student life, where people hang out, general atmosphere, etc). Today, I was in a group of four (one was a staff member), and it was really helpful to learn how to prayerwalk and to see an example of how he starts conversations). As an introvert, the thought of starting conversations with random people kind of weirds me out, and I didn't really want to do it. On top of it all, I'm still feeling like my heart is lacking in the "Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Matt. 22:37).
He encouraged me with the story of Jonah, and the fact that God used a racist, reluctant prophet to bring about the largest revival in history simply because Jonah finally made himself available to be used. He then told me, "I'm going to encourage you to take a step of faith and start a conversation. Actually, I'm not going to encourage you as much as I'm going to force you. See that girl over there? Go talk to her." And what would you know, she ended up being an NYU student who was home for summer school. What a blessing it was to talk to someone from NY as my first person of the day!
He encouraged me with the story of Jonah, and the fact that God used a racist, reluctant prophet to bring about the largest revival in history simply because Jonah finally made himself available to be used. He then told me, "I'm going to encourage you to take a step of faith and start a conversation. Actually, I'm not going to encourage you as much as I'm going to force you. See that girl over there? Go talk to her." And what would you know, she ended up being an NYU student who was home for summer school. What a blessing it was to talk to someone from NY as my first person of the day!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Aloha from Oahu!
Aloha everyone!
I hope you all are doing well. I arrived safely in Honolulu Sunday afternoon and was stunned at the colors and the beauty of these islands. As we approached the island, I could see the lush green of the mountains in the middle of waters bluer than I could have ever imagined. It seems that everywhere I turn on campus there is another bush or tree with flowers of another color, but my favorite tree is the one outside my window with the violent orange flowers. (I've posted them below)
Yet in spite of all this beauty, there is much darkness on these islands, and the vision of this trip is to help push back this darkness and bring the light of the gospel. We hit the ground running
on Monday with a training session followed by beach evangelism, going out in pairs and initiating spiritual conversations with complete strangers. People were pretty friendly and open to talking, so my partner and I had some good conversations, including one with a nursing student, a young local, and a French man (in French...we managed to chat for a good 10 minutes before we reached the limits of our vocabulary). All together, our group spoke to 50-60 people on Monday, and of those, 5 people came to Christ! Praise God! Please pray for our new brothers and sisters in Christ
Today, we were assigned to one of three campuses, and we went to orient ourselves with the campus and student culture as well as to pray over it for the work that God will do while we're here and for the people we will meet. I am assigned to the campus where we're staying, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the other two campuses are Kapiolani Community College and Hawaii Pacific University. We will be on these campuses three days a week, and after the first two weeks, the staff will no longer come on campus with us -- they have made it very clear that we, the students, will have ownership of the movements that we're launching (or rather, God is launching through us). It's a frightening thought that we're being entrusted with so
much, so please pray that we will be continually reminded that we are not doing this on our own but through Christ (Philippians 4:13), and that all the glory belongs to God.
I know this has been a long update, but I do have a few more prayer
requests before I go.
- Praise God for bringing all of our staff and team members safely to Hawaii. Several people had ridiculously long delays and reroutes, but they are finally all here.
- Praise God for the bonding that is quickly occurring within our team! It's only been three days, but I feel like I've known them for much longer.
- Pray that we would be honest with and supportive of each other.
- Some of my teammates have not yet finished raising their support and still have a long way to go. Please pray that God will bring in support like a flood and that their supporters will give generously.
- I've been feeling quite mechanical and dispassionate about the work I'm doing here. Please pray that God would restore the joy of his salvation (Psalm 51:12) and that the knowledge of the gospel would move from my head into my heart.
- Please pray for the students that we will meet and get to know this summer. Thank God for the ways that He has already worked in each of their lives and pray that He will continue to pave the way and guide us in our conversations.
Thank you for all of your support.
In Him,
Jessica
Picture time!
The view of Oahu from the airplane. The inlet on the right is Pearl Harbor.
I hope you all are doing well. I arrived safely in Honolulu Sunday afternoon and was stunned at the colors and the beauty of these islands. As we approached the island, I could see the lush green of the mountains in the middle of waters bluer than I could have ever imagined. It seems that everywhere I turn on campus there is another bush or tree with flowers of another color, but my favorite tree is the one outside my window with the violent orange flowers. (I've posted them below)
Yet in spite of all this beauty, there is much darkness on these islands, and the vision of this trip is to help push back this darkness and bring the light of the gospel. We hit the ground running
on Monday with a training session followed by beach evangelism, going out in pairs and initiating spiritual conversations with complete strangers. People were pretty friendly and open to talking, so my partner and I had some good conversations, including one with a nursing student, a young local, and a French man (in French...we managed to chat for a good 10 minutes before we reached the limits of our vocabulary). All together, our group spoke to 50-60 people on Monday, and of those, 5 people came to Christ! Praise God! Please pray for our new brothers and sisters in Christ
Today, we were assigned to one of three campuses, and we went to orient ourselves with the campus and student culture as well as to pray over it for the work that God will do while we're here and for the people we will meet. I am assigned to the campus where we're staying, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the other two campuses are Kapiolani Community College and Hawaii Pacific University. We will be on these campuses three days a week, and after the first two weeks, the staff will no longer come on campus with us -- they have made it very clear that we, the students, will have ownership of the movements that we're launching (or rather, God is launching through us). It's a frightening thought that we're being entrusted with so
much, so please pray that we will be continually reminded that we are not doing this on our own but through Christ (Philippians 4:13), and that all the glory belongs to God.
I know this has been a long update, but I do have a few more prayer
requests before I go.
- Praise God for bringing all of our staff and team members safely to Hawaii. Several people had ridiculously long delays and reroutes, but they are finally all here.
- Praise God for the bonding that is quickly occurring within our team! It's only been three days, but I feel like I've known them for much longer.
- Pray that we would be honest with and supportive of each other.
- Some of my teammates have not yet finished raising their support and still have a long way to go. Please pray that God will bring in support like a flood and that their supporters will give generously.
- I've been feeling quite mechanical and dispassionate about the work I'm doing here. Please pray that God would restore the joy of his salvation (Psalm 51:12) and that the knowledge of the gospel would move from my head into my heart.
- Please pray for the students that we will meet and get to know this summer. Thank God for the ways that He has already worked in each of their lives and pray that He will continue to pave the way and guide us in our conversations.
Thank you for all of your support.
In Him,
Jessica
Picture time!
The view of Oahu from the airplane. The inlet on the right is Pearl Harbor.
Another view from the plane. I couldn't believe the blue-ness of the water
The view from my room window. Downtown Honolulu is in the top left corner.
UH at sunrise as viewed from my front door. I was up early because of the jetlag (a 6 hour difference from Eastern Standard Time)
Pink clouds over downtown Honolulu at sunrise
The view from my room window. Downtown Honolulu is in the top left corner.
UH at sunrise as viewed from my front door. I was up early because of the jetlag (a 6 hour difference from Eastern Standard Time)
Pink clouds over downtown Honolulu at sunrise
My UH campus team
Thursday, June 5, 2008
10 more days!
Hello friends!
God has been so good to me since I've been home! I am recovering quickly from oral surgery, with no complications so far, and I finally had solid food again today! A week of congee, yogurt, and smoothies has given me a new appreciation for solid food. Please pray for continued healing before I leave for Hawaii in a little under 2 weeks.
In addition to healing, God has been so faithful in providing support -- He has provided the full amount I needed and more! Thank you all for being part of that support, and please pray for my teammates who have not yet finished raising support. Please pray that:
- They will have full confidence that God will provide all of their needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
- We would not become spiritually tired in this last week and a half, but continue to spend time with the Lord, not just out of habit, but out of a desire to grow in our relationship with Him.
- We would not become complacent, but continue to thirst for God
- Our staff will arrive safely in Hawaii this week and that God would give them the wisdom to guide and lead us
- God would pave the way for us logistically (paperwork, arrangements with the campuses where we will be living and serving and the churches we will be working with, transportation shuttling from the airport, etc)
- God will be glorified
In Christ,
Jess
God has been so good to me since I've been home! I am recovering quickly from oral surgery, with no complications so far, and I finally had solid food again today! A week of congee, yogurt, and smoothies has given me a new appreciation for solid food. Please pray for continued healing before I leave for Hawaii in a little under 2 weeks.
In addition to healing, God has been so faithful in providing support -- He has provided the full amount I needed and more! Thank you all for being part of that support, and please pray for my teammates who have not yet finished raising support. Please pray that:
- They will have full confidence that God will provide all of their needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
- We would not become spiritually tired in this last week and a half, but continue to spend time with the Lord, not just out of habit, but out of a desire to grow in our relationship with Him.
- We would not become complacent, but continue to thirst for God
- Our staff will arrive safely in Hawaii this week and that God would give them the wisdom to guide and lead us
- God would pave the way for us logistically (paperwork, arrangements with the campuses where we will be living and serving and the churches we will be working with, transportation shuttling from the airport, etc)
- God will be glorified
In Christ,
Jess
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