We had a tsunami warning on February 27th, from the earthquake in Chile. They woke us up at 4:30 am to warn us of the coming alarms and evacuation. The campus is not far above sea level, and everyone on the island was required to go to at least 65 feet elevation. It made for a hectic day, but fortunately it amounted to nothing, we couldn't see any difference in the water level from our vantage point near Kapaa.
I've been learning a lot about time management and goals lately. Pastor Bob taught on time management last week in Discipleship 102 class, and one thing that stood out to me was that if you discipline your time and set goals properly, it doesn't mean your friendships will suffer due to being busy with work, it actually means you will have more time to effectively invest in friendships.
This past Wednesday I taught at the church's Wednesday night Bible Study on Isaiah chapter 37. It was my turn, as part of the Homiletics class. I've taught some classes on programming before, but this was the first time doing something like this: I had 30-50 minutes to teach on the Bible for 50-100 people. I studied for 5 weeks, but I was still cramming this past week. I prayed a lot about it, what to teach on and asking for God's help. A few hours before the service I practiced a dry run, just delivering the message by myself in my tent, and it went terrible: I was disorganized, stumbling over my words and having trouble forming any coherent ideas. I prayed about it more, and by the time I got up to speak I was really nervous. But then once I actually got up to speak, everything clicked, and it all went smoothly! I can only give God credit for helping me out.
I'll summarize my main points from Isaiah 37:
1. Pray to God with humility and honesty. Don't hide anything from Him, lay out the whole situation.
2. God hates pride, but not because God is proud and thinks we infringe on His territory: In fact, God is loving and humble. He hates pride because it is the opposite of His perfect nature.
My family is coming for a visit next week, I'm looking forward to spending a week and a half with them.
