As I approach the end of the internship...

As the end of my internship quickly approaches (less than two weeks away now), I’m beginning to feel more connected to my place here.  Youth ministry itself continues to be an adventure with a few trips up to the north side of the island, movie outings, and Crossfit.  A definite highlight of my time here though was Hume Hawaii camp.  Hume Ministries sent a team of talented people over for a week to run a camp for KCF and another church youth group.  Camp was held up near Waimea Canyon (where the cooler air, rain, and abundance trees made for one happy PNW kid).  Youth were kept busy all week at camp between recreation and chapel.  It was powerful to see young kids choosing to stay in chapel longer to pray and be vulnerable before God.  On the last night there, the kids managed to maintain a sense of worship (involving prayer, a short message on prayer, and singing) for almost 4 hours!  It’s been great to continue to be involved in the lives of these kids and see the lasting impact camp as they return to normal life. Overall I left camp very impressed with Hume ministries and thankful for the opportunity to spend time with the youth in that setting.  (Hume made a video of the camp which can be found at: http://www.humelake.org/yohoho-hawaii/)

Right when I got back from camp, my parents arrived on the island for a brief visit.  I have loved spending time with them as we have traversed the island sightseeing and enjoying some of the great food (best item: a grass-fed Kauai beef and wild boar burger followed by a dark chocolate soufflé for dessert).  While I enjoy having some time with the parents to myself, I am also missing my brother and am looking forward to sharing a few experiences with him later this summer when we both return to the Pacific Northwest.

Youth are back in school now, which means I have more time to work on a few academic pursuits (reflections for internship, Hebrew, Greek, and reading for an upcoming study abroad trip).  I am also hoping to incorporate a bit of time for more photography adventures and hanging out with new friends, though it is incredible how fast these last few days are slipping by.  

At the beginning of the internship, I was already excited and a bit anxious to get home.  Now, I am still excited to go home, but not anxious.  I have finally established a sense of place here, enough to the point where I feel as though I am about to be partially uprooted as I return to my original place.  This experience has caused me to grow in several ways, such as in interactions with youth and learning to adjust to a new culture.  Most importantly though, it has facilitated growth in my reliance on God as my source of strength and stability.

Part of the road leading to the canyon

well... at least we got to see the view last year

Shipwrecks hike with parents!

I feel obligate to note we only did the first 1/2 mile

Wild orchid

one of the best study buddies available (bread pudding from a local bakery)

God remains the same...in the mountains of Tall Timber (Cascades) and in the mountains of Kauai

More Pictures

Week 5

A post meant for last week...

This week it was my responsibility to ensure that all the kids who wanted to go to Crossfit had rides there (meaning I went to Crossfit four times this week).  Overall, I am enjoying the Crossfit program as it provides an opportunity to connect with students on a regular basis and is helping me to be in better shape.  One of my favorite parts about Crossfit is getting an acai bowl in the adjacent grocery store/juice bar (an occurrence that has happened only about 3-4 times since I have arrived here).  An acai bowl is a large bowl filled with a thick, cold, smoothie like combination of strawberries, bananas, peanut butter, and acai (possibly yogurt too).  This is then topped with granola, fresh cut strawberries and bananas, chocolate chips, and honey.  Simply put, it is delicious.

I had the opportunity to deliver a message to the high school students this week.  I spoke on the story found in John 8 (the woman caught in adultery).  I chose this story since I remembered hearing a message on it back when I was in high school, and thought if it stuck with me this whole time, maybe it has a chance of sticking with these kids.  The one thing I really remembered from the message back when I initially heard it was the youth pastor slowly clapping his hands to resemble the sound of the stones hitting the ground.  At the end of my message, I combined this idea of using sound with a spoken word piece, or rather retelling of the story from the woman’s perspective assuming she had lived to also see the crucifixion and understood how it related back to her story.  Overall, even as I begun the talk, I wasn’t sure if I would read the piece at the end, yet I did and am glad of it now since it seems to have connected with a few of the kids.

July 3rd was particularly crazy.  The interns took a group of middle school students out to the U.S. Military base to see a firework show.  We arrived at the base around 5, and the fireworks didn’t start till 9:45 (in hindsight, we did not need to arrive as early).  After a 15 min. firework show, we were all tired and ready to head home.  We got off the beach quickly and moved back to where the two whales (large vans) were parked.  With the kids in the vans, we pulled out of the parking spot (or rather spot on a grass field) and waited on the field in a car grid-lock for almost two hours, not moving anywhere.  We blasted country music and more popular music (at least popular among the middle school students) and waited.  The kids ran back and forth between the vans (I was slightly surprised at one point when I looked back in the van to discover all of the six/seven kids who had been in my van had quietly exited the vehicle and went to the other van to hang out with kids there).  Eventually I, immensely thankful not to be the one having to drop off all of the kids at their respective homes, made it back home around 12:45 am.  Youth ministry continues to be an adventure.

Weeks 3 and 4

The adventure of hanging out with youth on a tropical island continues.  I’m surprised at how many activities the youth ministry does with youth where no message is presented.  For instance, in high school ministry we recently had a dodgeball night, which consisted of an hour and a half of playing dodgeball in the church to the sound of secular music being played so loud that it was difficult to talk to anyone there.  When I was in youth ministry, I was used to dodgeball night meaning playing a game of dodgeball for twenty minutes as part of an organized Wednesday night program with worship and a message immediately following the game.  While activities, like dodgeball night, may keep youth coming to events, I’m not sure it is as effective as it could be.  For instance, the middle school ministry does a ton of fun activities with kids and gives the kids opportunities to come on Sunday morning to worship and hear a message and on Monday mornings for a short Bible Study (typically followed by a trip to the beach).  The fun activities work well in attracting kids (the middle school ministry here boasts roughly 80 kids attending during the school year), however keeping those kids engaged, especially when they earn the freedom of a driver’s license in high school, is still a struggle for this youth ministry (only a small handful of seniors were present on a Sunday morning when they were called to the stage so that they could be celebrated).  Seeing the issue here, I’ve been pondering the idea of what would happen if there was a more formal program in place to teach these kids the fundamentals of Christianity (I’m gaining excitement to begin researching in the fall how the catechumenate, an early church practice of helping people transition from secular society to membership within a church, may be somewhat present and could continue to be applied today in youth ministry).  

I was encouraged this week to see three instances where high school kids were grappling more with the Bible.  The first instance was a spur-of-the-moment Bible study held after a Crossfit session.  While it was short, it got the kids thinking and engaging with Scripture.  The second instance was on the Thursday night program.  The middle school director spoke to high school students about freedom and the importance of going all the way rather than returning to their previous life.  He was open with confronting the students with the numbers of those attending middle school ministries vs. those who graduated within the church.  Talking with a few students afterwards, they all loved the message.  The third instance was on Friday morning.  I started an all girls Bible study with the promise of donuts for those who showed up.  I got six girls to come and they all quickly agreed they wanted to study Proverbs.  Originally I was a bit thrown off by them wanting to study Proverbs, but as we worked through ch. 1 that day, it was amazing to see how different things that had come up throughout the week, such as the message about freedom the night before, all were able to come together in this study.  I’m looking forward to continuing this study and hoping to see further instances where the focus is on God as we hang out with the youth.

On a different note, I enjoyed going to see two movies with middle schoolers this week: Inside Out and Jurassic World.  When going to the movies on Kauai, there is really only one place to go, a small theater (4 screens), which only accepts cash.  I found it entertaining that the one Pixar movie that comes out during my time in Kauai has an opening short that is based on tropical islands.  I also found it amusing that the line about Hawaiians ruining pizza got more laughs from the audience than the line about San Fransico ruining pizza (Inside Out).  You can also tell that you are watching the movie on Kauai when after seeing Jurassic World you feel like you are driving on the island of the park (fortunately, one can tell by the numerous wild chickens on the island that no land animal is about to eat you).

Sunset at the lookout

Spent the night with high schoolers at Hale Koa last night.  Some of the kids had the grand idea to go further up the road to see the sunset from the lookout.  Needless to say, my heart was happy to be back among trees at Hale Koa and stood in awe of the majesty of God at the lookout.