Journey Begins
My first journal in Hawaii! I am so excited to share my first experiences on the island and with YWAM! This entry was a difficult one to write because just from Thursday-Saturday night so much amazing things happened. God has continuously showed himself already in The first 3 days. I wanted to post this last night but I have kinda always been on the go. I advise you to read the whole entry because the ending is so cool. I have been writing this from Thursday when I left, to the time in which I publish this which is Sunday night. I hope to write another by Wednesday and I will talk about what did today because so much happened just on Sunday! I hope you all enjoy and if you feel led, leave some support or feedback in the comments!
University of The Nations YWAM. Kona, Hawaii.
Arrival Day
Imagine, you are one day away from leaving to go live at a new place and you are not even packed. Actually it was 12 AM on Thursday the day of departure and I still had bags to fill. I spent a little too much time with friends and family that I kinda put packing off until the last second, but it was definitly worth it. I woke up early on Thursday and did my last workout in Windom then finished packing. I left from Windom at 8 AM and would not arrive in Hawaii until 7 PM, don’t forget about the 5 hour time change and layover at LAX. As we drove to the airport I started feeling anxiety. After my parents dropped me off and my mom left with my tears on her shoulder and hers on mine. I relized I was not anxious to say hello to new people or a new environment, but instead i was anxious at the thought of saying goodbye to the people who gave me life and raised me so amazingly. I did not feel sadness or pain, but instead the tears came from the gratitude I felt relizing all the things both my Mom and Dad did for me throughout my life, and now they are letting their youngest kid go. I am so thankful for everything they have bleesed me with and the amount of gratitude I have for them is ineffable. Thankfully the anxiety dissapearded after the goodbye, and i was ready to get my bags checked and start my journey. God showed himself numerous times throughout my day of travel, making it stress free. Like how my checked bag was perfectly 50 LBS so i did not have to pay extra. Then I was eating and saw a guy wearing a Jesus Loves You hoodie, and I could just feel something inside me that he was going to YWAM too. When I went to my gate i saw him there again so i asked him if he was going to YWAM and he said yes and he was so surprised that I was going too. Then to top it all off when i got on the plane he was one seat away from me. His name is Roman and he is from blaine Minnesota. Now I had someone to be with until I arrived at the YWAM campus in Kona Hawaii, 12 hours later. I got there while it was dark so i did not see much, but one thing off the bat that I loved was that most of the buildings, classrooms, and even the dining hall is roofed but open to the Hawaiian Breeze. I got to my room and was initally surprised when I saw a roughly 600 square foot room filled with 5 bunk beds and one bathroom. Yes for the next 3 months 10 dudes will stay in a room the size of a two bed hotel suite. But while in bed laying uncomfortably I remembered the last thing I wrote before I left, paraphrased, no matter what happens i will say it is well with my soul and I remembered why I came to YWAM in the first place. To be surrounded by likeminded people that would help me grow spirtually, mentally, and physically, so what better blessing than to have 10 guys strengenthing each other every day sharing a room. I also did not come on this journey to be comfortable. For if I wanted that I could have just stayed in Minnesota living my comfortable life. Instead I want to be stretched and pulled, I want God to break me, mend me, and fix me all for his glory.
Day 1
I slept a little rough because i did not have sheets or a pillow. They were in my checked bag that got left at the airport to get pcked up later because the bus we took to campus did not have room. I Started the morning early, waking up at 5:30 and could not fall back asleep. I went on an adventure to go find my checked bags and then got ready for my day. The first thing we did for orientation was have all the students meet at the flags that are in the picture above. These flags are each a country that has attended YWAM. From the flags we went to the Ohana Court at the sound of a conch horn which would symbolize the start of a Hawaiian welcome. The conch is apart of a Hawaiian welcoming tradition. When we got to the Ohana Court which is the schools auditorium, we took off our hats and shoes and took a seat because that is respectful to the Hawaiian’s during a greeting. Once we sat down we watched a leader from each class at YWAM Kona present a gift to the Hawaiian natives from the student's home. Then we went on to watch them sing and dance while wearing a pa’u hula skirt. After the dancing and singing a speaker informed us on the rich Hawaiian culture and its longevity and values. He went on to explain how Aloha means “to speak life” and how the island truly adopted Aloha throughout their 1500 year history. He also told us that Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind… (okay, that might be a quote from Lilo and Stitch). But It is true and the Hawaiian people love family. After the beautiful welcoming we ate our first lunch then had a small group meeting with my 9 roomates. Not that small sense we have 10 people in it. We all shared our testimonies and something I realized about my roomates is we all come from very different backgrounds, but all have similar storys regarding the pain, depression and anxiety that is so common thoughout this broken world. The most important thing we have in common is that we share the same Heavenly Father. Each one of my roomates has a burning desire to grow and learn more about themselves and the character of God so that they can share with others. The night ended with some more Hawaiian culture and worship. Click to see https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjKj4IRjStm/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Day 2-Renewed and Reborn
Day two was amzing! I started it with a beautiful 4.6 mile run on a road right along the beach. The Iron Man World Championships ( which is a triathlon on steroids for those of you who do not know) is taking place here in Kona next week so their are tons of runners and bikers along the streets. Us YWAM students actually get to help with it, and I am super excited! After my run I ate breakfast. It was pancakes, oatmeal, eggs, sausage, and fruit. This breakfast was very heart warming because it reminded me of a breakfast my mom would make me all the time this past year. After breakfast we headed to the Ohana Court for dodgeball. My team ended up winning, it was super fun and lowkey intense. The rest of the day was free until worship at 6:30, so me and some friends went out into the town to explore and later would go jump off a pier into the ocean. For supper I had these amazing street taco's from a local, they were only 3 for $8 which is a really good price for Hawaii. Then we went to worship, during it I could really feel Gods presence and felt the sanctified feeling of the Holy Spirit. As it went on I could tell God was going to do something in me. During worship there was a song talking about how Jesus’s blood is powerful and covers us and our sin. It made me think of the poem I wrote and posted called life is a beach Journal. In that poem I make the connection of the ocean being Jesus‘s blood Entry 3: Photosynthesis - 9/14/22 and I thought to myself I think I want to get baptized again to renew my mind and allow all of my life to rest in God’s hands, not just some aspects. I have been baptised before, but i was pretty young. I do not think i fully understood when I was that age. I do not regret it because baptism is supposed to be a public display of your faith, and that is what it was. Baptism is also suppose to be the death of your old self and a renewal of tee mind and soul through the baptism of righteousness by the Holy Spirit. We continued to worship and I felt led to have a talk with my room leader. The day prior he told me his testimony and we had so much in common I had to let some stuff off my chest and so I wanted to talk. During worship I could feel somethings stirring in my mind, something I wanted to get out but it had a grasp on me. After worship I found my leader Ethan and I asked him if we could talk, he said yes. We went for a cruise in his car and talked, then I was super surprised when we pulled up to the beach and he said let’s get out. We walked to the beach and talked in a small tiki hut. As we shared with each other we got deeper and deeper and he prayed over me. I asked him is it too dark to be in the ocean? He replied no then I said could you baptize me? and he said that is why I brought you here. I was so surprised and in awe because I had not told him that I wanted to get baptized again, let alone in the ocean. So in the middle of the night under the stars in the ocean, Ethan baptized me and after I came out of the water I felt completely renewed and reborn. My spirit was overwhelmed with joy, my soul overflowed with vitality and love. I started praising God, thanking him for bringing me to Hawaii and to this beach specifically. I was yelling in exuberance and felt an entire part of my mind changed. The chains that held me back from surrender were now gone, dismantled, destroyed. The whole car ride back I had a smile on my face and what was once a sick feeling of constant anxiety turning in my stomach was now replaced with a burning desire to live life in Truth and through Christ. I now felt purpose and was ready to be used in any and every way in accordance to his perfect will for me. Now I live in peace because I am no longer trying to be in control but instead I am dead to thyself and alive through Christ. If any of you can relate to the anxiety or unfulfilling feeling of emptiness I was feeling, I want you to know there is an answer. You are not supposed to feel like that, you do not have to permanently feel anxiety or depression. God can take it all and enlist peace in the deepest parts of your mind and soul. If this is you, I encourage you to reach out to somebody and talk about it. Why live in a state of fear and pain when you can live in extravagant Love and Joy. When we got back to campus I spent a couple hours in the prayer room reflecting and praying. I am so excited to see what God does through me and around me during this journey. I cannot believe all of the above has happened and it was the first three days. I cannot wait for the next 6 months!
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