The Father Heart of God

Our speaker this week, Peni from Samoa, spoke about the father heart of God and gave each of us a specific scripture and word from God. He was so generous with us all week long - making all of us leis, bringing doughnuts and banana bread! We were definitely spoiled!

The scripture he gave me came from II Corinthians 9:6 - 11 and it says "The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, 'He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.' He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God."

Roommates

Last night we had a semi-formal banquet. We have what's called a "boutique" here on campus - you can give and/or take whatever your little heart desires, for free! Many people went boutiquing to get their evening attire. After our 3 months of lecture, we are all going on 3 months of outreach. The entire group will start in Panama and then we will be divided into smaller groups and different countries from there. The evening was to announce our groups and locations. I am part of the Central America group, which has not quite finalized which country or countries we will go to after Panama quite yet. I finally got a picture of all my roommates, so I would like to introduce (from left to right): Hannah (USA), Tina (USA), Brittany (Canada), Amanda (USA), Sarah (USA), me and Joanna (USA).

Haka

Our fearless leader, Paul, has avoided performing his native New Zealand's traditional dance called the haka. . .until today! He struck fear into all of our hearts!

VOG

Living on a volcano presents various different issues. But other than the concern of the earthquakes that forewarn or the possibility of eruption, it gives the island of Hawaii what is known as vog: volcanic smog. It is formed when sulfur dioxide and other gases mix with oxygen in the presence of sunlight (thanks to wikipedia!).

My Truth - My Stake in the Ground (cont)

I am still waiting on a classmate for a picture, so I will just go ahead with my posting and hopefully I'll be able to add the picture soon. Every week has a different theme in regard to our study of the Bible. The second week of classes was confession and we ended the week with public confession, which is more than a bit intimidating! Those of you who know me best, know that I like to keep it real and I feel like I haven't been as truthful with all of you as I would like to be. I never wanted to burden anyone with my "little secret" and that is still my hope, but I feel that in order to move on in my life, this is something you should know.

I confessed that I have been unforgiving in my life (most of my life actually) towards an uncle because he sexually abused me as a child. There's no nice or easy way to say it, but I feel like I have to embrace my truth. As a public statement, after confession, we hammered a stake into the ground to remember this change. I am not forgiving to excuse what happened (forgiveness has never been asked of me by this relative), but I am forgiving to free myself and not be angry and bitter. I am sorry if any of you have been at the receiving end of my anger or bitterness - it truly all stems from this. The whole experience in Hawaii (and beyond) will definitely be a time of healing for me and I hope to use my experience and pain to help others who have probably experienced much more pain in their lives.

Picture thanks to Jeanette!

South Point

We drove for about 2 hours, down winding roads in passenger vans to get to South Point today. Normally I do not get carsick, but being in the back of the van proved to be a bit much for my stomach! Thankfully we all made it without throwing up! South Point is at the south tip of Hawaii, which is also the most southerly point of the United States. Many people took the 45 foot plunge into the ocean below - I was not one of them. You can barely see me in the picture, compared to the cliff, so I'm sure you'll understand why I "chickened out"!

Another Week

So another week is coming to an end - time has just been flying! Early this morning (while we were still trying to sleep), we experienced lightning and thunder, but no rain. Of course, when the rain came, it downpoured! As for photography, we have been working on aperture and shutter speed settings. This week's assignment was to go fully manual. I actually had a lot of fun with this - hopefully that means that I'm starting to get the hang of it! Here's my submission:

It's the Little Things!

Food has been pretty good out here, especially considering that I don't have to cook or clean up after! But today, we had plain old cheese and pepperoni pizza and it was simply WONDERFUL! It's amazing how the little things make such a difference in your day, being away from home. Enough said!

I Have an Idear!

Being at the University of the Nations provides so many opportunities to find out about people's cultures, languages, food, etc. Our leaders, for example hail from New Zealand (Paul) and Germany (Susi). Certain things that seem different at first, kind of fade into the background, while other things just always seem unique. Both of talk about having "idears" instead of "ideas" and it's so cute! I remember when I was teaching in Turkey, every time I talked to my students about catch up work, they would laugh like there was no tomorrow. My "catch up" was their "ketchup" and they laughed EVERY time I said it! So I was thinking, I have an idear. . .

SCORCHING!!

Apparently we had not experienced true Hawaii until this past Sunday (weather-wise, anyway). It had been hot (mid-20's) and humid, but VERY cloudy. That all changed this Sunday and Monday when the clouds moved away and many people turned into lobsters, not being used to the Hawaiian sun. Today is not quite as scorching! I'm not trying to brag about the weather - I know many people back home are still dealing with some snow and flooding. My body is still just trying to acclimatize from the 0 degree temperature that I came from.

Our Own Backyard

We had a speaker come in today - it was all very last minute, but so important for us to hear. I don't want to name her or her specific job, as it may be detrimental to her position. I will say that she works in the United States and her job deals with the commercial exploitation of children (trafficking, prostitution, etc.). Sitting on the continent that is North America, we like to think that such things only happen "out there" or that foreign children are brought into our countries. Did you know that the trafficking of U.S. children brings in more money in the U.S. than drug trafficking? It is a HUGE problem that is affecting OUR children. And it is happening in our own backyard.

My Truth - The Stake in the Ground

I am waiting for a picture - so PLEASE check back and check out this very important post!

Playing Catch-Up

This has been a long, intense week in class (which I get back to at some other point). Saturdays are field trip days, but only 1/2 of our large class can go at a time. I decided to go next Saturday and so I have some time to catch up on life. I have had issues with my computer (the motherboard and memory had to be replaced), so I'm sorry if I haven't been able to be in touch that much this week. Plus, it's been busy with meetings and assignments. Please do email if you have a chance or post a comment on the blog - I do check!

All Things Edible

For those of you who have to make meals day in and day out, you will understand when I say that I have a little extra tolerance for the meals around here, simply for the fact that I don't have to prepare them! Actually the food has been pretty good - of course, some meals are better than others! I have only had a peanut butter sandwich once (there's one food table that is just bread, peanut butter and strawberry jam and trust me, it gets a lot of attention!). Breakfast is the same (usually we get an added bonus on the weekend like scrambled eggs or biscuits) - cereal, toast, fruit (papaya, pineapple, melon), yogurt, oatmeal, hard- and soft-boiled eggs. Lunch is the bigger meal over supper, but we always have lettuce salad and more than likely rice (potatoes are a real treat!). We've had a variety of meals including lasagna, goulash, tacos - pretty regular stuff. I got extra excited to have cucumbers the other day - it's the little things that add up! On the weekends, we pack a bag lunch for lunch time and then have a sit down meal for supper.

Daylight Savings

I never really understood the significance of daylight savings until I moved to a place that does not participate - now I get it! The sun is up really early (right along with the rooster that crows just outside our building!), which would be o.k. if we had curtains but not so great because we don't. It also means that it gets dark really early. For the first number of days, I thought it was incredibly late already, just to find out that it was 7:30!

A Typical Day

Now that we're well on our way into week #2, we have a bit of routine. Half of my roommates get up at around 5 a.m. because they are on breakfast duty. I roll over and sleep a bit more - I get up around 5:45 a.m. I get ready for the day and head to breakfast (served from 6:30 - 7:15). We have quiet time until 8. From 8 - 9, we have a time of worship - on Mondays it is with the whole campus and for the remainder of the week it is just within our program. The rest of the morning is lecture time. After lunch we are slotted for skill development, which includes some photography or other skills like public speaking, etc. I have work duty from 2 - 4 p.m. Every student on campus needs to contribute in some way and I work in the photogenX office. I've been able to do a variety of jobs including filling orders of books to be sent out, doing some data entry, etc. My free time is from 4 - 5, followed by supper. Our evening activities vary - Monday is movie night, Tuesday is photography class, Wednesday is small group night, Thursday is corporate worship, and Friday is free. I usually fall into bed (later than I would like) and catch a few zzz's before doing it all over again!

Hakani

Other than photography, another major emphasis of this program is looking at various women's and children's rights around the globe. Last night we watched the docudrama "Hakani" which deals with infanticide (burying children alive) in Brazil. I urge you to go to their website at http://www.hakani.org/ to find out more. Many tribes believe that children of single mothers, those born a twin or triplet, or disabled children are born with an evil spirit. Any child from birth up until the age of 12 can become a victim of this cultural tradition. They are buried alive so that the spirit is also buried in the ground - if they were to die above ground, their evil spirit would continue to dwell within the tribe.

My Grandma

I would really appreciate your thoughts and prayers for my Grandma Doerksen this week. She fell yesterday and broke her hip. The hope is that she will be able to have surgery some time this week. It is really difficult for me to be this far away from her right now because she's very dear to me! I admire her tremendously for her constant faith and how it has pulled her through both the good and the bad times. It was so hard to leave her - she is one of the sacrifices I had to make in leaving home.

Easter Sunrise Service

VERY early morning - I woke up at 4:30 so that I could catch the 5 a.m. shuttle to the old airport. It was the community Easter Sunrise Service. Many of the local area churches get together to organize the event - singing, kids story, human video by teens, hula dance and the message. After the service we got back for breakfast to enjoy hot cross buns. If I'm right, the volcano in the background of the picture is Huala lai.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Today is Hannah's 21st birthday (she's one of my roommates) and so we went out to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (yep, the very same from Forrest Gump) for dessert. It completely satisfied my chocolate and ice cream cravings! Going around the table starting at the front left is Hannah, Sarah (also a roommate), Rachel, Ashley, Tina (also a roommate), me and Savannah.

Happy Easter!

I want to wish all of you a very Happy Easter weekend, shared with family and friends! We, too, have a holiday on campus. We had a community worship service this morning and then lunch together. I was very excited to be able to eat potatoes - we have a lot of rice around here, which is fine, I'm just used to potatoes. Enjoy your time off, some good food and fellowship!

Snapping Away

We received our first photography assignment. We were released into the campus and community to start snapping pictures at different angles and using our different lenses. Some people have a lot of experience in photography and others (like me) have just fiddled around a little. We were only to submit one picture - what do you think?

The Track

We have amazing leaders in Paul and Susi Childers. I would say that Paul is a preacher by training and Susi is a photographer and they have combined their talents and interests in this photogenX program. Many of the 50 students in the program will only be doing the first 6 months (which is known as DTS), but for those of us looking at the full 2 years of travel, we are doing the Track. Check out the following video from youtube showing you what the last track looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6bBD9iXrkM

The (Mennonite) Teacher in Me

I forgot to mention that part of my introduction yesterday included me saying that I'm a teacher. It was incredible how many people came up to me and said that I have the teacher stance and teacher voice (but they have yet to see my teacher stare!). I guess some things just will never change! I don't even know how I got those traits and I don't even realize that I have them, until people note it about me.

In getting to know other people, I've met a Mennonite guy (well, he's 1/2 Mennonite - a Friesen on his mom's side, from California). Of course, I've also talked about what being a Mennonite means (not just the food and low German) including our pacifistic beliefs.

Today we started into our lectures and this week we're studying how to hear and recognize the voice of God. It's really interesting to hear other people's opinions and beliefs. This evening we will have our first photography class. And just in case you think I'm just lying on the beach, soaking in the rays, I do have assignments and readings to do. . .so I should get running and do them!

Introductions

So we are finally in the classroom and we spent the time really getting to know one another today. The assignment was to share what brought us to the DTS (discipleship training school) and people really opened up about their lives and experiences. It was kind of scary and there were a few tears, but we seem to be bonding really well. Once we shared, we received a hawaiian lei!

Some Peace & Quiet

Finally, a day to catch up. My computer's hard drive is causing me problems, so it will be a little more work touching base with you all, but still doable, so keep in touch. I will try to give you snapshots of my time travelling, and will post more pictures through Kodak, like I did when I was in Turkey. I have met a lot of really good people so far and not everyone is 20, so that's nice.

Classes officially start tomorrow and I'm excited to be in the student chair versus the teacher chair for a bit! Good luck to all of you heading back into the classroom after Spring Break! And I told you before I left that I was sure I would meet up with someone I knew and I already have! One of my students from Winkler (when I was student teaching out there) and her husband are volunteering out here until June. Cherry LaDawn is her name and she went to Prov with Lee & Kelsey, so there you go - it really is a small world after all!

Hapuna Beach

No rest for the weary! We piled onto a bus and took a 1/2 hour drive out to Hapuna Beach today. It was time used to get to know one another and enjoy the beach. It was overcast (which was nice) but incredibly windy (not so nice - will be digging sand out of my ears for a while!). My feet - touching the middle of the Pacific Ocean!!

Home Sweet Home Away From Home

Well, I have arrived in one piece, with all my luggage! Almost lost my guitar in Vancouver, but we're all good. Flights went well and it's good to be back on solid ground again. When I arrived late last night, a wall of humidity was here to greet me (plus 24 degrees Celsius was quite the change from 0 back in Manitoba).

It's been a long first day as we were officially welcomed to the island. A lot of orientation information and many names bouncing around in my head (my program has over 50 people and there are many programs running right now). There are a few married couples, some little kiddies in the group and only 6 single guys, so the ratio is definitely in their favor (and don't worry, they're too young for me!!).

You'll be happy to know that the campus is on high enough ground that we're o.k., should we experience a tsunami. The first day of every month at precisely 11:45 a.m., they test the warning system, so we'll see what that's like. Of course, there are also earthquake concerns - the pitfalls of living on a live volcano!