The First Few Weeks

Over 2 weeks have passed since my last update, and a lot has happened in that time. I'll try to fill in the highlights here.

We go to the beach nearly every day, the closest one is only a mile away, and a nice beach is just a short car ride. We often go jump in the waves to clean ourselves off, especially at the beach that has a public shower to rinse off with. The water here on campus is a bit sulfuric, it smells like rotten eggs.

The weekend 2 weeks ago I got to explore the island a bit, there is a water reservoir that is a big lake you can jump in. There's a platform in the water about 15 feet high that you can jump off of. I tried to do a front flip and smacked my back on the water, that didn't feel good.

That Sunday I went to a beach called "Rock Quarry". It's only rocky on one side of the beach, the other side of the beach has some relatively tame waves, and there is a rivermouth so you can go swimming in the calm fresh water if you want. One of the guys from church brought some surfboards and gave me an intro to surfing. I'm not any good, I got tossed of a few times and didn't catch any waves.

Labor day weekend we went camping on the west side that Friday night. I showed up early to help gather firewood, and got to watch the sunset over the pacific. It flashes green for just a moment as it goes over the horizon. I brought my hammock to sleep in, but most of the people just slept on the sand in a blanket or sleeping bag. It was a full moon, one of the brightest nights I've seen, huge visibility. There were plenty of locals camping out on the beach playing loud music. One of the guys had a pretty big crab crawl into his sleeping bag, that was a nasty surprise. In the morning we could see people hunting goats up in the cliffs, there were gunshots.

That Monday I went to a beach called "Tunnels". That is a good snorkeling area, there is a reef right next to the shore and one farther out you can swim to. I saw a sea turtle and some cool tropical fish.

Saturday a family from church had the guys from Bible College over, they fed us and took us to the beach. On the way back the truck ran out of gas, and we had to wait for someone to bring us some extra. Then it started to rain as we pulled away, the guy in the back of the truck wanted to switch vehicles but the driver didn't give him enough time and he got soaked. Once we got back to their house they gave us free shirts and fed us again, then we watched a movie. (Joseph)

The campus is located at the bottom of a hill on church property. The church meets in a big tent on top of the hill, and we walk up their for classes. The tents are split into two groups, one for the guys and one for the girls. The girls have electricity from a generator, but they pay the price by being close to a rooster that keeps them up all night. One of these days I'll put up a post about classes and what I'm learning.

Why Kauai Bible College? (Part 3/3)

So I knew that I was going to quit my job to attend Bible College, but I didn't know where. One night I went Soul Dancing in Seattle. I was planning on meeting a friend there, but he showed up late, so I introduced myself to a few girls and ended up talking with them for about 2 hours. They were telling me how they liked to take vacations in Kauai, they go every year. I hadn't heard of it before, I didn't even know it was an island in Hawaii.

Fast forward a week. I'm at work, and I go for a little walk to get away for a bit. I walk and pray for 20 minutes or so. I get back to the office with a brilliant idea: "Hey, I should search for blogs from students that have gone to Bible College, to see what their experiences were."

Top Google search result for "Bible College Blog"? Kauai Bible College Blog.

There's a connection there: I had been praying about where to go, I just heard about Kauai a week before, and now I find out there's a Bible College there. A pretty loose connection I admit, but I decided it was enough.

Our Director of Work Projects

We have some interesting characters here at the Bible College:

Wky Kauai Bible College? (Part 2/3)

It's January 2009. I already know I'm going to quit my job after our project ends in the summer. I don't know what I'm going to do after that; I've been praying for guidance, and Bible College is one option I've thought about.

After church one day I went out for lunch with a few friends. Some of them had been to Bible College before and were talking about their experiences. At one point, someone turns to me and says "Jonathon, you should go to Bible College!"

Now, this was just a random comment that flowed from the context of the conversation. Still, it was something I had been praying about, and it's not exactly something you hear everyday, so I couldn't get it out of my head even though I figured it didn't mean anything. I went home and prayed about it, and I asked for God to make it really clear whether or not He actually wanted me to go to Bible College.

Later that night I went to a service at Mars Hill Church in Ballard. After the service I got talking with a guy sitting next to me and we ended up grabbing some dinner. It turns out that he had gone to a Bible College in California, so I asked him about it and as he was answering he looked at me and said "Dude, you should go."

So on the same day, two different people both told me I should go to Bible College. It's moments like these when I just have to step back and say "OK God, I got it. I got the message." That was when I knew I was going to Bible College, but I didn't know where.