Week 3

video again

Week 1

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Back Again!

If you are reading this then you most likely know that I am headed to the Big Island once again. While waiting to be accepted to HSU for the fall semester I decided to use this gap in schooling to offer my service to the Lord at the University of the Nations. I will be working as a volunteer through YWAMs Mission Builder program. Having already shared in this experience in 2008 I have my expectations but also know there are the unknowns. This trip will be different and i am confident that the Lord will mature me and challenge me in new ways.

I flew out of Sacramento today and already have seen God use me and encourage me on the journey from Eureka to Sac. While leaving Eureka, Jessica and I were able to stop and give some hitch hikers a ride to Ukiah. That entire 3+ hours we talked about God, creation, and Christ! It was so amazing to share with these 2 (Mckenzie & Johnny) the Love of our Lord. Jessica was totally bold and sharing things fearlessly. The Spirit was moving in our car. So yeah keep them in your prayers. They are spiritual people but have a conglomeration of mixed ideas. Pray that God gives them clarity on the Truth.

After that Jessica and I were able to visit with Luke and Melody Stone and wow talk about living church. They had just got back from a Common Ground conference which teaches people how to reach Muslims by using the Qur'an to point our Jesus. Powerful stuff. It was so so so good to be able to just encourage, teach, and love one another. We got into the Word and prayed. It was seriously like wow, this is church, and this is how its supposed to be. We talked about Kingdom things for 10 hours straight and then when Luke and I got up at 430am we continued our talks. WOw. GOd is Good! So now im sitting at he Phoenix airport wondering who the Lord will sit me next to and if I will be bold in the Spirit. Lord I pray that you will fill me so i over flow!

Will keep you posted as life unfolds and God reveals Himself more.

Isa (Jesus) is Good!
Josiah

Extended Stay

I have had the opportunity to extend my stay here in Kona by three weeks. I had considered doing this earlier but when i saw how much it would cost to change my ticket I dismissed the idea. A few days before i was schedualed to leave a friend of mine told me that they would give me enough air-miles to go home if i wished to stay longer. At first i began thinking that i was actually ready to go home and that i didnt really need to stay longer because i had fulfilled my commitment of 3months and was feeling a little worn down. At the weekly night meeting for the whole campus God really showed me how staying would give me a chance to talk to some of my friends who don't seem to have a personal relationship with Him. I saw that if i didn't use this time to tell them about how much Jesus wants to be a part of their lives, that they might go back to their countries and be unchanged, lost, alone. I had the perfect opportunity to speak with one of my friends as we walked from the campus back to Hale Ola (our housing). God has really put him on my heart and i didn't know what to tell him so i just shared my testimony. I told him how i had always considered myself a Christan even though i didn't know what it was to know God on a personal level. Im hoping to expand more in the short time i have left. Please pray for him and the others i have met that they will come to know Christ as their savior. Those that could really use this prayer are Lucas-from Switzerland, Kimbo-from Korea, and Benjamin-from Germany. They are so close!

God is SO good! i have been continually blessed to be here in this place. Thank you so much for your support and prayers I am proud to call you my brothers and sisters. As far as what i do from here goes, I'm really still in limbo. I still have no idea if i will receive financial aid for UCSC because my parents have been unable to find some paperwork that got lost in their moving boxes. So its possible that i will be there this fall and if not then... well we'll see what Gods got in store either way. Yep yep... that's about it for now.

Finishing Up

(Pictures by Benjamin Blass)

To think almost three months is up blows my mind. My time here has been exactly what I needed to recover from LA and the 2 months of down time i had before I arrived here. God is so good. I find it hard to imagine living here for long due to the fact that you always are having to say goodbyes to great friends. Philippe, my swiss roommate left last night and it was hard to see him go. People filter in and out of here so frequently its almost madness for you brain to handle it. There are no people left from when i first arrived, but a few remain who showed up a few weeks after myself. Its sad to see so many of these wonderful people head back to their countries but also exciting to see who else you'll meet and knowing in your heart that if you travel to any of these countries they'd welcome you as a brother in a second.

I have had the privilege of experiencing many wonderful things on this island. I had one of the best surf days I could have asked for a week ago. Me and my friend Quintin went out to Lymans and found only one surfer out in the water with perfect 4-6ft beginner waves... I don't think you realize the profoundness of this. Lymans is always, and i mean ALWAYS packed. Usually there are a minimum of 15 people out there. It was amazing. The guy out there left shortly too, so it was just me and Q, with perfect waves, longboards, and an excellent sunset. It was also the first time I didn't get cold cause i had a rashguard so pretty much the best day ever. If only ever day was like that I'd perfect surfing in no time.

This last weekend I went camping for the first time to a beauitful place called Pololu Valley with some of the mission builders. It was such a fantastic memory building trip. There were 10 of us 8 guys 2 girls. One girl is a model from Finland who had never done any sort of hiking in her life. She came wearing fake nails and a miniskirt! Ha ha oh man that was funny. We hiked over into the next valley and found the original trail had been washed out so more than half the way down into this valley was using ropes to get down because it was so steep. Fortunately Silvia (our model) loved every second of it. Once we got down into the valley the trail seemed only to go back up the other side and not down to the beach we had seen so we treked down a stream till we got to our private beach. It was so sweet. Our own small private "booey beach" for all you who know what i mean. We scouted the area found the best place to make camp then just enjoyed the rest of the day. That night we made our fire a ways off from our sleeping location and when the rains started we hustled back to our camp to find one tent blow across the creek (still dry thankfully) and the tarp we'd found ripped and shredded. Ha ha o how i love stuff like that. My tent of course was perfectly fine where id left it. With the wind ripping through our camp and the rain pouring we made best we could and called it a night. The next morning we had to have one of the rental cars back before 10 and still had to hike out and drive back 2 hours. So we split into 2 groups and my group raced back to return the car in time. Overall another excellent adventure.







Another journey I got to go on was to Southpoint which has some excellent cliff/ cave jumping spots and and Greensands beach which we discovered was the perfect body surfing beach.





As far as trying to figure out what i do next and where I'll go from here I've left doors open for the time being but don't know where exactly the Lord will lead me. I accepted UCSC's invitation to join them in the fall but am not sure that'll actually come about. There have been many difficulties meeting deadlines for financial aid and such so I don't know if I'll have the funds necessary to attend. Its not a dead end yet and God could totally open wide the doors no matter the situation, I just don't have a feeling of clarity at this time. There are a few other options that have come to my attention so I am praying about those things as well. Thinking about returning to the mainland soon makes me sad that I will be leaving all this behind. That thought has been put in the back of my mind so as not to think of it. I just don't want to get caught up in the mundane, ordinary, money oriented lifestyle again. Trying to hear what God is saying to me has been difficult. Am I supposed to be involved with hands on missions, or be part of the home church to send others out? I think its the first of the two but have mixed opinions and thoughts.