lily
10-08-2004, 09:53 PM
Hey you all! I just wanted to say hi and give whoever is interested an update on what's going on here in Kona.
I don't know if I can even put this into words. These last 2 weeks have been so good... just awesome, and I can't even emphasize enough that this place absolutely rocks. And I'm not talking about Hawaii (although of course Hawaii is beautiful and great), I'm talking about this campus, the class I'm taking, the people.. and all of it comes down to this... learning more about the living God, developing a better relationship with Him, finding out who I am in Christ, and of course getting prepared for missions work... those things are why I'm here!
Before I write anything else, I want to get one thing out of the way. Regarding that negative stuff, those extremely negative charges about YWAM that you might've read on another thread before I left... Now that I'm here, I can tell you first hand that from what I have seen so far, that stuff was a big load of cow manure. The staff here, the things we're learning, it's all 100% Biblically solid - if it wasn't, I would not be here. If I was taught things that are unBiblical, pagan or whatever, I would get on a plane and go home, because I have zero interest in learning anything that is not truth, and for me as a Christian, that means it has to to be Biblically rock solid. But in addition to it being scriptural... I have to know deep in my heart, that it is genuinely Christian, or of God, and the things I have learned and experienced so far are definitely that.
Getting back to my post.... let me tell you how great it is here. :p For one thing, there are people here from all over the world. And so many of the people here are precious. Very cool people, genuine 'salt and light' type Christians, with a real heart for God, and for other people. I have met people from Norway (a lot of Norwegians here) Denmark, Switzerland, England, France, Korea (lots of Koreans), Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Canada, etc...and of course the U.S. All these people are great, and I think all of us are here for the same reason - to know God and to learn how to let other people know about how good He is. In the all-school meetings, there is usually a Korean translator because there is a large number of Koreans here who are taking ESL and speak very little English. I've even learned a few words in Korean, and sometimes when the whole campus gets together, we even sing praise songs in Korean. :D (try, anyway)
I have 7 roommates... living in one big room with a loft, and one bathroom! (I know it's the grace of God that has allowed 8 women and one bathroom to have worked out so far, trust me on that) Of my 7 roomates, I have one from England, a Canadian, another Californian, 3 Koreans and one from Singapore. I love all of them, and we have already bonded and they are all so cool in their own ways. I definitely think we were put together for a reason, we are learning from eachother, helping eachother, and we're doing a lot of talking, laughing, praying together, and just hanging out, eating meals together, etc. I have pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet... when I do, maybe I'll post some. :)
I went to the beach last Saturday, the first time since I got here, with all my roommates, and we went snorkeling. I have to say, it was amazing, I had the best time swimming around, the beach we went to there are TONS of colorful tropical fish, and they aren't scared of people, they're just swimming along right beside you. Next time I'm going to buy one of those cheap underwater cameras, because I couldn't believe how many different kinds of bright, colorful or striped or polka-dotted fish there were, it was something else! We also saw 2 big sea turtles, and as you can tell by my avatar, I love sea turtles... :nice: they are so cute! I wanted to touch one, but it was a few feet below me, too far for my snorkeling thingy to go. (turns out, we're not supposed to touch them anyway)
What I have learned in the first 2 weeks has been mostly foundational things, about God, but the teaching has been excellent, we've had 2 speakers so far and they articulated things I already believed or knew intuitively, in such a clear, good way. But in addition to the basic foundational things, I've learned some new things in this first 2 weeks, new revelations, and it is so great when that happens. I think there are many christians in the world who have 'head knowledge', which means biblical or theological knowledge in their mind, but has it really sunk in to their heart? It has to go from the head to the heart, for any true Christian, and that's what we're praying for, and that's what I've already seen happen... but of course I feel like I have a long ways to go... I've got a lot to learn and growing to do, but it does feel like I'm at the beginning of something very cool and good. :)
Oh, I almost forgot one of the most important things... I didn't know what country I'd be going to before I left, but I found out that our group (84 people) is bigger than usual, so for the outreach, we'll be going in 2 or 3 groups, to different countries. One of the countries for sure is going to be Malaysia. The other country might be Thailand, from what I heard, and the third country I'm not sure yet... but I have a feeling it might be China (which could be an amazing thing, I didn't expect China to be one of the countries)
I still don't have the money for the outreach phase, but I'm not too worried about it, I know that if it's God's will (which I think it is), money won't stop it from happening. I think I'm going to be (hopefully) putting up a website, so if anyone wants to make a donation, they'll be able to do that. There already were a few people on this site who helped me with a donation, and I'm so thankful to all of you who did, every person who helped make this happen I'm grateful to, thank you for trusting me, that means a lot to me. And I am so glad that I trusted my own intuition, and God, even after that drama of all that bad stuff that almost caused me to not go... this has already been (and I know will continue to be) one of the best things in my life, and I'm really happy and thankful that I took that leap of faith. And trust me, it was a big leap of faith, I quit both my jobs before coming here, had to raise a few thousand dollars in about 3 weeks, and I don't even know where I'll be living when I get back. So, even just getting here was a miracle... and again, I'm really thankful to my friends and family.. you all are a blessing. :)
I better sign off for now, cause this is probably getting too long. Thanks for reading this all, and I hope you all are doing well.... I don't have a lot of time to get to the computer lab to use the internet, but i'll probably be back again at some point and I might post some pics... if I can get them uploaded and all that. And I'm gonna be sending a postcard or letter to a few of you... Kat, Doug, Cinda, Alan, and if anyone else wants to keep in touch, send me your addy! See ya all later... Mahalo! Aloha, and God bless.
in His Love,
cindy
I don't know if I can even put this into words. These last 2 weeks have been so good... just awesome, and I can't even emphasize enough that this place absolutely rocks. And I'm not talking about Hawaii (although of course Hawaii is beautiful and great), I'm talking about this campus, the class I'm taking, the people.. and all of it comes down to this... learning more about the living God, developing a better relationship with Him, finding out who I am in Christ, and of course getting prepared for missions work... those things are why I'm here!
Before I write anything else, I want to get one thing out of the way. Regarding that negative stuff, those extremely negative charges about YWAM that you might've read on another thread before I left... Now that I'm here, I can tell you first hand that from what I have seen so far, that stuff was a big load of cow manure. The staff here, the things we're learning, it's all 100% Biblically solid - if it wasn't, I would not be here. If I was taught things that are unBiblical, pagan or whatever, I would get on a plane and go home, because I have zero interest in learning anything that is not truth, and for me as a Christian, that means it has to to be Biblically rock solid. But in addition to it being scriptural... I have to know deep in my heart, that it is genuinely Christian, or of God, and the things I have learned and experienced so far are definitely that.
Getting back to my post.... let me tell you how great it is here. :p For one thing, there are people here from all over the world. And so many of the people here are precious. Very cool people, genuine 'salt and light' type Christians, with a real heart for God, and for other people. I have met people from Norway (a lot of Norwegians here) Denmark, Switzerland, England, France, Korea (lots of Koreans), Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Canada, etc...and of course the U.S. All these people are great, and I think all of us are here for the same reason - to know God and to learn how to let other people know about how good He is. In the all-school meetings, there is usually a Korean translator because there is a large number of Koreans here who are taking ESL and speak very little English. I've even learned a few words in Korean, and sometimes when the whole campus gets together, we even sing praise songs in Korean. :D (try, anyway)
I have 7 roommates... living in one big room with a loft, and one bathroom! (I know it's the grace of God that has allowed 8 women and one bathroom to have worked out so far, trust me on that) Of my 7 roomates, I have one from England, a Canadian, another Californian, 3 Koreans and one from Singapore. I love all of them, and we have already bonded and they are all so cool in their own ways. I definitely think we were put together for a reason, we are learning from eachother, helping eachother, and we're doing a lot of talking, laughing, praying together, and just hanging out, eating meals together, etc. I have pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet... when I do, maybe I'll post some. :)
I went to the beach last Saturday, the first time since I got here, with all my roommates, and we went snorkeling. I have to say, it was amazing, I had the best time swimming around, the beach we went to there are TONS of colorful tropical fish, and they aren't scared of people, they're just swimming along right beside you. Next time I'm going to buy one of those cheap underwater cameras, because I couldn't believe how many different kinds of bright, colorful or striped or polka-dotted fish there were, it was something else! We also saw 2 big sea turtles, and as you can tell by my avatar, I love sea turtles... :nice: they are so cute! I wanted to touch one, but it was a few feet below me, too far for my snorkeling thingy to go. (turns out, we're not supposed to touch them anyway)
What I have learned in the first 2 weeks has been mostly foundational things, about God, but the teaching has been excellent, we've had 2 speakers so far and they articulated things I already believed or knew intuitively, in such a clear, good way. But in addition to the basic foundational things, I've learned some new things in this first 2 weeks, new revelations, and it is so great when that happens. I think there are many christians in the world who have 'head knowledge', which means biblical or theological knowledge in their mind, but has it really sunk in to their heart? It has to go from the head to the heart, for any true Christian, and that's what we're praying for, and that's what I've already seen happen... but of course I feel like I have a long ways to go... I've got a lot to learn and growing to do, but it does feel like I'm at the beginning of something very cool and good. :)
Oh, I almost forgot one of the most important things... I didn't know what country I'd be going to before I left, but I found out that our group (84 people) is bigger than usual, so for the outreach, we'll be going in 2 or 3 groups, to different countries. One of the countries for sure is going to be Malaysia. The other country might be Thailand, from what I heard, and the third country I'm not sure yet... but I have a feeling it might be China (which could be an amazing thing, I didn't expect China to be one of the countries)
I still don't have the money for the outreach phase, but I'm not too worried about it, I know that if it's God's will (which I think it is), money won't stop it from happening. I think I'm going to be (hopefully) putting up a website, so if anyone wants to make a donation, they'll be able to do that. There already were a few people on this site who helped me with a donation, and I'm so thankful to all of you who did, every person who helped make this happen I'm grateful to, thank you for trusting me, that means a lot to me. And I am so glad that I trusted my own intuition, and God, even after that drama of all that bad stuff that almost caused me to not go... this has already been (and I know will continue to be) one of the best things in my life, and I'm really happy and thankful that I took that leap of faith. And trust me, it was a big leap of faith, I quit both my jobs before coming here, had to raise a few thousand dollars in about 3 weeks, and I don't even know where I'll be living when I get back. So, even just getting here was a miracle... and again, I'm really thankful to my friends and family.. you all are a blessing. :)
I better sign off for now, cause this is probably getting too long. Thanks for reading this all, and I hope you all are doing well.... I don't have a lot of time to get to the computer lab to use the internet, but i'll probably be back again at some point and I might post some pics... if I can get them uploaded and all that. And I'm gonna be sending a postcard or letter to a few of you... Kat, Doug, Cinda, Alan, and if anyone else wants to keep in touch, send me your addy! See ya all later... Mahalo! Aloha, and God bless.
in His Love,
cindy