Back in Washington

Back in Washington

The semester is over. Done. And I arrived back home in Washington on May 29th.

The whole last month in Kauai was a ton of fun. I built deeper friendships with people from the Bible College and the island, and got out to do lots of fun stuff. I went on some good hikes, went to some great beaches. Made some trips to Donkey's beach where the waves just manhandled us.

My friends Nick and John came out to visit for a week on April 23rd. They stayed on campus at the Bible College, and got the full experience. We went hiking at Hanakapia falls (a waterfall several hundred feet tall), we had bonfires four nights in a row, we enjoyed the Bible College talent show: it was a blast.

The talent show was actually really good. Much better than what you would expect from something called a talent show. There were some skits, some excellent singing, some really good and funny videos that students had made. And of course some sweet slam poetry.

The first weekend in May was the church's family camp, where people from the church take a weekend to hang out together and have a good time, along with Bible teaching. I hiked back to a beach on the trail to Hanakapia falls, but this time the tide was low and we found a sweet cave with openings to the ocean on both ends. It was fun playing around in the water where the waves came from both sides and met in the middle. The whole weekend was pretty great, I enjoyed being around some awesome people.

I taught another Wednesday night service, for the second and last time. Because the semester is over, not because I used Bruce Campbell in an illustration.

Finals week varied in intensity. Some people put a lot of effort into studying for it, others had an easier time (and lighter class load). And then we said goodbyes. I stuck around about a week and a half after most other people left, it was nice to have a week of intense, hardcore relaxation.

Since I got back, I've been spending some time seeing friends and family. I also went out to a camp for a work weekend, and made it over to a couple Mariners games. Saturday my dad got some sweet seats, about 6 rows behind home plate, in a special section where they have a buffet and all the food is included.

I was expecting the rest of the summer to be just as easy. Go out to camp for a few weeks, but other than that take things easy and look for a job this fall. But my plans changed: an opportunity jumped into my lap, and I actually started work today! Back at my old company, Airtight Games. It will be fun seeing where things go from here.

Spring Break

My family was in town for nearly two weeks, my parents got here on Sunday the 14th and my sister showed up with her family on Friday the 19th. It was a blast, we did lots of stuff around the island and I got to spend a lot of time with them. I got to do some stuff I haven't done before, too: visiting Maha'ulepu beach, Waimea canyon (the grand canyon of the Pacific!), golfing, kayaking the Wailua river up to Secret Falls. The time flew by, it was a full two weeks, I took several naps to recover once they left.

This week is Spring Break, which means meals aren't provided, just snacks. We've been making do, I've managed to get over to a house for dinner a few times. I didn't get much homework done while my family was here, so I've been using Spring Break to catch up.

This semester has proved to be harder for some of the students. A couple of returning students from last semester dropped out. (One might be coming back, I'm holding out hope.) I've still been growing steadily though. I realized that in all my focus on things like time management and goals, I was losing focus on the most important thing: a relationship with God. So I'm trying to get back to that, to really focus on getting closer to God. Another thing I realized has to do with guidance, I was sort of giving God options: "God, do you want me to do this, or take this other opportunity, or do this thing over here?" When really I should start from nothing and just say "God, what do you want me to do next?"

Only about 6 more weeks of the semester is left. It creeps up so fast!

Tsunami!

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.

Sky Shots

Week 4

Working long hours back home, it felt like the days were busy, but empty. Here there is not a huge workload, but every day feels full. There is always something to do, whether it is hanging out with people at camp, praying, getting involved with people at the church, or just spending some alone time with God.

Probably my favorite group outing so far was on Valentine's Day. The pastor had the students over for dinner and fun, he had a giant slip & slide set up, and a nice relaxing hot tub.

In sadder news, one of my tentmates left last week. He disappeared for a couple of nights, and once he came back he had decided that Bible College wasn't for him. He flew back to the mainland on Saturday.

Discipleship 102 is looking to be an interesting class. It could be called "leadership training": we break up into small groups twice a week and the students alternate on who leads the small group. On top of that, we are going through the book Spiritual Leadership by J Oswald Sanders, and the teachings have mostly been about leadership. And on top of that, the main homework in the class is to disciple a younger believer, taking them through a curriculum going over the basics of Christianity.

Last week in D102 we took a personality profile test. I met with our teacher (Pastor Bob) yesterday to go over my results, it was an insightful time. There wasn't anything really new, it was just a profile of my own personality and a lot of it I was already aware of, but it really confirmed what I have been learning and inspired me to grow faster. Basically I need to learn to communicate better with people, to share more openly rather than making it hard for people to get to know me. He picked a verse to share with me, 2 Tim 1:7, the same verse that I had picked for myself earlier this semester!

We've been setting traps in the kitchen area to catch some mice that have started roaming around. Some of the girls were upset when we killed one they had nicknamed "henry". We are starting to get flies around the food area again, soon we may be overwhelmed.

Kauai Ranch Photos

Campfire in the rain. It was pretty cold and wet the whole time.

Tents by the reservoir. I managed to avoid sleeping in a puddle.

I'm not a fan of horseback riding. I had a bad experience.

The tiny but delicious pineapple guava.

Warming our feet by the fire.

I think everyone had pruny feet by the end of the day.

Took the kayaks out exploring.

Back in Hawaii

I'm back at Kauai Bible College! I flew in Wednesday night, and was greeted at the airport by some familiar faces. I have been keeping busy since then, there are some changes this semester.

First of all, I'm in Tim Brown's tent, and I am a dorm steward. Tim has a knack for building things, his tent is the only guys tent with electricity, which he has hooked up to a solar power array. I didn't know what I was missing last semester! It's odd being dorm steward (in charge of the tent), since Tim is on his fourth semester and I'm only in my second.

This is the biggest semester the Bible College has ever had, despite Spring usually bringing a downswing on attendance. Most semesters don't see very many returning students, but this year only three students didn't come back! Combined with the incoming students, we are up to 26 students, and with staff there are 35 people staying on campus.

Student orientation brought up a changing focus for the Bible College: this semester they are emphasizing the context of the whole experience, rather than focusing mainly on content. The idea is that in the information age all the knowledge can be obtained without leaving home, so the Bible College should provide an experience. This includes things like constant fellowship with the other students, opportunities to serve, and even a new healthier meal plan this semester.

Friday night we joined with a local young adults group to go camping at the Kauai Ranch, a beautiful 4,500 acre property owned by a wealthy couple. Several movies have been shot there, including Jurassic Park and Tropic Thunder. Unfortunately it was cold, overcast, and rainy for us, and to top it off we didn't have any food due to fasting! It was a good time though, some people went horseback riding or took ATVs around the property, and I took a kayak to track down some pineapple guava. Saturday night was the best Chinese food I have ever tasted!

Sunday the weather turned hot and sunny again. I went to the beach and hung out with some of the students. Classes started today, but my first class is tomorrow. I'm signed up for four classes and debating whether or not to add an apologetics correspondence course. I'm taking homiletics, which means how to teach the Bible, and the big part of that class is actually teaching a large crowd of people on Wednesday nights! It sounds scary, but there probably aren't many places where I would get that opportunity.

The church here is very healthy, making a real effort to do things Biblically. They are trying to give people chances for leadership and to get plugged in at the church, and to that end there are over twenty small groups going on. Pastor Bob has a desire to allow other people to teach on Sundays, giving him a chance to train up more people for leadership. The young adults group is also hoping to train up some leaders to go start new groups on other parts of the island. Even the kids in the youth group are stepping up, giving mini messages every week.

For me personally, I'm trying to grow in the areas of courage and self-discipline. Being a dorm steward and teaching via the homiletics course should help in these things. I picked a verse that exemplifies what I'd like to learn this semester:

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. - 2 Timothy 1:7