Ups and One Down

Hello Everybody,

This week had its ups and one down. We went camping in a random valley on the Northern part of the island this past Friday We stumbled down the switchbacks, in the dark, all the way down into the valley. Only to be met by 20mph wind gusts, which are awesome for starting fires and trying to tie tarps to trees. Seriously, we slept under that tarp, on the ground, and it took forever to put up. When we went to bed it so hot and mosquitoes, ants, and spiders were crawling all over me. It was good training for Cambodia, however, I didn't get much sleep between swatting the bugs, cursing the existence of the rocks beneath me, and trying to fight for room between the two people next to me. That next morning we woke up, grabbed a muffin, and went down to the beach that was just down this hill we camped on top of. We "bodysurfed" for much of the morning. The riptide at this beach is one of the worst on the island. Needless to say, it was really strong and I was beat by lunch time. That afternoon we started to pack up and head back to the campus.

We came back to campus just into time to make a campus wide dodgeball tournament. It would have been really awesome, but I was beginning to feel pretty sick. I still played for the two rounds we survived. As soon as we lost I went to bed, which was at 7:30pm. I didn't wake up until 10am the next morning. After that long slumber though I felt fine. Though, I was hurtin' the night before. I think it was a combination of being really dehydrated, eating junk the previous 24hrs, and not getting any sleep the night before. So that kinda sucked this week, but other than that I haven't had any health problems.

This week the speaker was a young, 31 year old dude named Trent Sheppard.Trent spoke on "The Story of God." He is seriously an awesome speaker. He could tell you a story about anything and you would be so interested. He just has a real gift for teaching and speaking. I was amazed at the humility of this guy. He really blessed us this past week. Funny side note for Nik, this dude is really good friends with Jon and Leah Judge. Anyway, I took away a ton from this week, however, it would take me a bunch of time that I don't have to write to write all of it. So here are a couple of (paraphrased) quotes to think about:

NT Wright - Instead of trying to fit Jesus in to your idea of God, look at Jesus and
reshape your ideas of God around Him.

Mike Yaconelli (Dangerous Wonder) - Christianity, today, is no longer life changing,
it's only life enhancing.

Ignatius - Do not make the mistake that Christianity is believing the right doctrines.

Trent - We are not out to convince the World that we are right and they are wrong.
Humility will change the world. That's what Jesus did.

That's just a couple of things I am still thinking about. I know you don't know the context of these, but I still think they are worth giving some thought to. If you have any questions about this stuff just ask me and I will do the best I can to clear it up for you. Know that it will, more than likely, be the blind leading the blind seeing as I am still chewing on this. Anyway, I will get back to you guys next week. Take it easy.

Dan

hitch hiking...check.

So, yeah, we finally got picked up while we were hitch hiking. Her name was Corey. Funny enough she was from Homer, Alaska. So we talked about "The Homer Spit" for a while. It's kind of awkward when someone picks you up and they don't talk. Anyway, I think the secret to getting picked up is to have one or multiple girls with you.

This week in our lectures we had a man named Steve Bartell teaching us. This dude is totally rad. He has been working with street kids in Bogota, Columbia for over 25 years. He has so many stories, of God's provision and miracles, that he shared with us. He also has about 25 kids who he raised in his home, not counting the 4 biological children he has. He taught on both street kids and God as our father. I would love to tell you more, but I don't have time to type out all of my notes.

On a completely separate note, last night we went night boogie boarding at Magic Sands. It is so scary to boogie board or body surf at night. You can't see anything in the water and you know that you are in shark territory. It's very rare that you will be attacked by a shark, but you still think about it. Another crazy thing is that you can't see the waves at all until they are breaking right on top of you. There were a couple of huge waves that just destroyed me. One took my feet back over my head and flipped me, while at the same time taking my shorts halfway off. It was a lot of fun though. I went with my small group, which is 5 guys and a staff person, which is where we can really process things we have been learning through out the week.

So, today, I am going to be security for the world championships of the Ironman. There are a ton of people converging on the tiny town of Kona to see this race. So my school leaders thought it would be an excellent way to serve the community if we helped out as volunteers. So anyone who tries to touch one of the athletes is going to get taken out by me. I'm just kidding, I don't think we are allowed to touch anyone. I think we are just supposed to call the cops if there is a problem. I'll try to get some pictures and put them up on my flickr page. So check it tomorrow if you want to see them. Later.


Dan

Week One...

Hey Guys,

After the first week things are still good. It was a pretty
busy week. We were in class from 8am-8pm with breaks for lunch and
dinner. We had the pastor from a church in Kona, called Solid Rock
Ministries, giving lectures this week. He talked about the difference
between a cause and a vision. His name is Pastor Tex and he's not your
typical pastor. He is a half Japanese and half Portuguese and looks
Hawaiian, loves to ride his chopper, when he was younger he would
chase random tourists around and beat them up for fun, he used to fix
cars for crime syndicates and murder-for-hire gangsters on Oahu, and
last but not least he led Dog the bounty hunter's son to the Lord.
Pretty sweet dude. Ryan, if you are reading this, he speaks Pidgin
English so I think I will be able to track down some copies of "Da
Jesus Book."

Today I got to go to the beach again. We went to a beach called
Magic Sands. It's called Magic Sands because half of the year it's a
sand beach and the other half it's all lava rock. The waves were like
6ft. and we were boogie boarding and body surfing. It was a lot of
fun.

I don't know why everyone says it's so easy to hitch hike in
Hawaii. I have tried every time I am walking on a street, whether I
need a ride or not, and no one has stopped. You just walk on the side
of the road and stick your thumb out, right? Do I need to show a
little more leg? I'm just kidding, but seriously I think I need a girl
with me or something. Apparently, thats the way to go. Talk to you
later.

Dan