Face-to-face - Kona Week 4
Hi everyone,
How are you all? I can't believe it's February already and I've been here for a month! I continue to wake up every day in amazement and thankfulness that I live here on this stunningly beautiful island in the middle of the ocean! I continue to be undone by the thickness of the presence of God in this place, by the nations, languages and testimonies that I am surrounded with, and by roommates, classmates and leaders who are just so much fun to be around, worship with and do life with. It is an utter privilege to be here - I feel like the most blessed and favoured girl in the world!
This week has been interesting - an awful lot has happened! It seems strange that it's only been a week since last week! Our teaching has been focused on Jesus. Looking into His face whatever our circumstances. This incredible man of God called Dan Baumann has been with us. He was imprisoned in Iran 20 years ago (see video below for the story) and he fell off a cliff a couple of years ago and medically should have died - he lost 60% of his blood and someone had to physically hold his skull together until the helicopter could reach him: he has a really mind-blowing testimony of God's faithfulness in the darkest nights of the soul.
What struck me the most about his stories was that God is better and kinder than we often imagine. He really likes us as well loving us. He wants to be involved in the smallest and most mundane parts of our lives - it's the reality of Jesus in our everyday walk. He just wants us to be with Him first rather than getting so caught up in doing things for him. That is really what I'm feeling too right now in this place. God is romancing me - I see Him all the time in the insignificant, unimportant things and it's blowing my mind and melting my heart. For example someone will give me a hug just at the right time, a song that is really significant to me will be played during worship, I will see raw beauty in nature, I will receive a note or a text with a verse in that I had been reading that morning etc etc etc.. (I could go on forever!)
I properly started my job as a barista in the campus cafe this weekend! It's been an intense weekend of working - 10 hours Saturday and 6 hours Sunday! It's been really fun though, we have a great team and I've been on the till so I've met a lot of people!! Loads of people from our school came into the cafe to support us too which was awesome too.
Beautiful things that have happened this week:
- We went adventuring around the island last weekend and saw: humpback whales, turtles, a black sand beach and an active volcanic crater with lava splashing.
- I taught ceilidh dancing to some of my outreach team! It was great fun :-)
- Family worship including a slo-mo mexican wave and a joy tunnel!
- Going out for dessert - always amazing!
- Getting really lovely messages from people back home and people here. I've been really honoured and encouraged!
PRAYER
- For a good balance of work and rest, intensity and fun, time with people and time alone. This is a very different life rhythm to my UK life but there's so much depth, spiritual intensity and heart stuff to work through that it is exhausting in a very different way.
- For continued protection over me, over our room and over our school as a whole.
- For our leaders, Tim and Wanda, they are amazing. I am learning so much from them. They have a lot on their plate though with all of us to look after!
Some fun British-Americanisms to leave you with...
So living with Americans is a blast! I love them so much. I do semi-often find myself saying things that they don't understand or would just not say.. for example "sellotape", "skiving", "crumpets", "do you fancy...", "daft". There are many more random words - these are just the ones that I can think of at the moment (sellotape and crumpets don't normally feature in my conversations - I've not lost the plot completely yet - don't worry!)
Also, as I am working with money in the cafe, I find it peculiar that their 5 cent coin (nickel) is larger than their 10 cent coin (dime). As they are both silver, the 5 cents looks like a 10p coin and their 10 cents looks like a 5p coin which is confusing for me! They also have no 50 cent coin.. which is surprising! I love the whole "quarter" thing though and definitely feel like a 25p coin would be helpful in the UK! I also am loving the coffee here (it just tastes SO good) and how normal it is to have peanut butter with everything! I have recently discovered the most amazing breakfast: banana, granola, dried cranberries, raisins, greek yoghurt, peanut butter. Try it - you will not be disappointed!
I will stop the ramblings here!
Have wonderful weeks all of you. Thank you for your prayer, support, encouragement and kindness. I think the world of you all and would not enjoy the adventure half as much without you!
With much love for a happy Monday,
Hannah xx