We made it! An update of our first few days in Kona

We made it!

We are here in Hawaii on the YWAM base and have just finished our second full day of classes. What a whirl wind these first few days have been! Let's start with the plane ride...

Let's just say that flying with 3 kids 4 and under is not for the faint of heart!!! We have definitely learned a few lessons about flying now that that trip is over.

Tip #1- make sure you confirm your flight 24 hours in advance even if the app crashes after 25 minutes of you trying to scan your passports from a smart phone. OK, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, let's just say that united airlines has an app that lets you check in the night before your flight. It involves using the camera of your smart phone to scan passports but this is one of those annoying technologies that is just a little bit ahead of its time and doesn't quite work as smoothly as it is supposed to. I was trying to scan all 6 of our passports the night before and just gave up when the app finally crashed and wanted me to start all over again. Well, I should have persevered because when we went to check in at the airport we discovered that even though we had selected our seats when we originally bought our plane tickets, you must confirm them 24 hours in advance otherwise you just get randomly placed somewhere on the plane. This is not ideal when two of the passengers are a two year old and four year old who clearly cannot be in some random seat by themselves on an air plane! Luckily right before we boarded each flight a flight attendent took pity on us and even though the original airline people assured us this was a full flight and that nothing could be done, she rearranged our seats so we at least had 3 seats together and 2 seats together.

Tip #2- Make the children practice watching movies with earbuds before the plane ride. Oh my...that made for a few screaming fits when neither of the boys could keep the earbuds in and watch their show. Eventually we just gave up and used our tablet with a bluetooth speaker we had brought. Although it is "against company policy" according to the flight attendant to watch a movie over a speaker, we figured a very low volume movie was better than the constant screams of a two and four year old who had no idea how to handle themselves in an airplane for 5 hours!

Tip #3- give each other grace and understanding. I think Jody and I really learned how much grace we needed to give each other and the kids as we were running from place to place in the airport and dealing with screaming kids on the plane. That day was definiltey so hard as we had to wake up at 1:30am to get to our flight on time and our connections were very close so it felt like we couldn't catch a break the whole time. I think Jody and I both asked ourselves a few times on the plane "what were we thinking taking 3 kids on a huge trip like this?!?"

But now we are here and jet lag is gone and we feel so so blessed to be here. Hawaii is a place filled with so much of God's beauty and so many beautiful people. The YWAM base is such a special place filled with people from all over the world coming to seek God and serve him with all their hearts.

A few of the big things that have stuck out to me in these first few days.

1- there are SO many families and children here! It is so encouraging to see that we are not the only ones and that God calls families to missions ALL the time!  Even the leader of our DTS (who is SO awesome) has 3 young daughters and another little one on the way. Their kids are so amazing and have grown up traveling around the world and interacting with adults and other kids of all different cultures- what a blessing!

2- YWAM is an amazing organization that is serving the nations in so many more areas thanI could have imagined. On orientation day we learned about just a few  of the ministries that come under the YWAM umbrella. There are mercy ships that sail to remote locations that can only be reached by boat bringing doctors, nurses, dentists and supplies to people who may have never had access to health care before. Our base here in Kona has an aquaponics farm to train missionaries how to farm in this way that uses no soil but only water, fish, and fish manure to grow amazing, nutritious food. They can then teach people around the world to farm in this way which is highly cost effective. There are also schools of midwifery (that sure  got me excited!) and primary health care that teach essential medical skills to students who  can then bring healing and health to people who have never had health care or materity care before.

3- Living in community is so wonderful! Back in Chilliwack we have an amazing community of friends who support us and love us in our journey with God. But there is something unique in this place about the fact that everyone who is here has taken a time out of normal life to sacrifice a comfortable life to come and seek God and serve others. It is so amazing to have corporate worship services with hundreds of people all worshipping God in their own language from many nations around the world knowing that we are all here for a season and a reason. I love seeing Korean subtitles under the english worship lyrics and having our lectures translated into Portugese for one of the students in our class who speaks Portugese, Korean, and is still working on his English. I love hearing the incredible testimonies of how God has brought people here against all odds.

Well, I could go on and on, but I will stop for now. Jody has taken the kids to the aquaponics farm (one of their favourite places) and will be back soon. I didn't even write about the heat, but if you think about it, please continue to pray for us and adjusting to the heat. I am so far from a heat lover and I am a little sad that I am missing my absolute favourite season of fall in Cananda. I long for a sweater and a cool, crisp morning. Hawaii is HOT and we don't have any AC as electricity is extremely expensive here and we are missionaries, not tourists lol! I am still occasionally getting headaches from the heat but it is getting much better. Please also just continue to pray that our hearts would be completely open to recieve whatever God has for us. We are still in the early stages of diving into what exactly God has brought us here to do! Love to all of you my dear friends :)

This is Ohana Court on registration day. Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family. This is where we have all of our big campus meetings and worship times.

Jonah napping Hawaiian style- always gotta have a fan!!! He has gotten so good at sleeping through just about anything! 

Here is our classroom and the names of everyone in our DTS. That is one of the staff holding his 3 week old baby son! Awesome mama and dad doing missions with a newborn :) 

And here I am at my "blogging station." My tablet set up with our bluetooth keyboard and of course a fan!!!