Being here has been such a blessing and faith building experience. Daily we are seeing God's faithfulness. There are so many stories of God providing for people physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I'm learning about generosity and compassion, and I'm growing a lot. I've been working through a lot of forgiveness. Realizing that when certain things excessively bother me here that there is probably a deeper thing going on and I need to ask the Lord to show me why it upsets me. Through a lot of that, I have been able to release forgiveness to a lot of people that I have been holding on to.
Things are great here. I'm sitting here trying to put into words everything that has been going on. So much, it is so crazy! I'm just going to start rambling and hopefully you will understand some of it. God has been showing me a lot. I definitely had to work through some acceptance issues. I was so self-critical when I first got here. God spoke to me about it though. He's been telling me that as I want to become a more beautiful/better person, it is not about what I should be and shouldn't be doing. I just need to look to Him. He will work on me. If He wants me to work on something He will convict me of it. I don't need to be so hard on myself all of the time about who I am not. That gave me so much peace. It has been awesome. God loves me exactly the way I am. He created me with all my strengths and my weaknesses. If I was anyone else, I would not be able fulfill the calling God has on my life. He has been revealing His love to me more and more. This week I was wrestling with the fact that I didn't really have anyone to talk to about some stuff I was working through. I closed up, withdrew from people. God totally met me where I was at. He showed me that when no one else is around, when it seems like nobody cares or is listening, He is there. He has not forgotten me. He wants me to recieve Him as my best friend. The one that I run to. When I am lonely, I turn to Him. When I am totally excited, I will run to Him. It was really cool that God met me where I was at. It was actually funny because I fell asleep during the speaker's talk and I woke up and he was asking if anyone needed prayer and I raised my hand and God met me right where I was at. It was amazing. So far our topics for classes have been The Father Heart of God, Hearing the Voice of God, the Holy Spirit, and Discipleship and the Cross. It is all good stuff.
God is so good. I love Him more each day. Even when I feel like crap, He loves me and He is there for me even if my emotions tell me otherwise. I've been challenged to make the Bible my standard for everything. We are living in Bible times today and it is so cool to see what God is doing and hear what He has to say.
Well, besides all the spiritual growth stuff going on, we have been having a good time. (Just check out my pics at myspace.com/coachmold ) Some of us walked 4 miles to Magic Sands beach, we only thought it was 1.5 miles away. But we pressed on and it was so worth it. It was awesome. We stayed in the King Kamehameha Hotel the first week here, it was so sweet! Air conditioning is so great. I went snorkeling a few times while in Kona. I got to see some sea turtles(adorable! I so badly wanted to touch it, but it is illegal), lots of colorful fish and coral. We went as a school to Haupuna beach for a day and that was awesome. I bought a boogie board and had a lot of fun. We walked to a cave that was carved out of the lava rock by the waves and jumped off of it (8ft drop). I cut my foot pretty good on a rock on the bottom though and couldn't wear shoes for a couple days, but it is getting better now. After Kona, we moved up to Makapala which is totally different from Kona. It is 60mi north at a little christian retreat center. We have 2 girls dorms with 20 girls each in them, a house with 4 rooms with 4 girls each in them(I live here), a bunch of little bungalo cabins for the guys, and a house with 4 rooms for the 4 married couples we have with us. It is a neat little place and really pretty, but it is in the middle of nowhere. Basically anything near by is really pretty, but there is nothing to do there. Even at the 2 beaches we can go to you can't swim in them because of all the rocks and crazy swells. We've been bonding a lot over Friends episodes, ping pong, movies, and random fun activities such as capture the flag at night, open mic night, and next week we are having a costume masqarade. We don't have internet and have really bad phone reception too. So it is interesting to say the least, but our team is really getting close. We have people from all over the world on our team; Thailand, Korea, Japan, Austrailia, UK, Holland, Mexico, Canada, New Zeland, and USA. It was pretty crazy here during the earthquake we had a few weeks ago. I had been in plenty before, but most on our team hadn't. It was really big and really long and it happened at 7:15am when most of us were still sleeping. Talk about a wake up call. FEMA came the following days and tagged 4 of our buildings as condemned (on the whole island 30 were tagged as condemned). We've been cleaning up and adjusting. We went into the closest town and helped people clean their homes and shops. It was a great opportunity to serve the people in the community and show God's love to them. We were able to volunteer at an aid station for the Iron Man (look for me on TV). We had a blast!
So I think you're all caught up. Every Thursday we come down to the Kona base to worship and gather together with the other schools here. We get here early and head over to Walmart for supplies and then plop down and type away at our computers until the meeting.
If you could be praying for me, I have a couple of prayer requests. Pray that God would provide financially for everyone on our team. So many people need money still. I still need $1500 or so to cover my outreach fees. Also pray that I would continue to submit under the Lordship of God over my life and be obedient to what he calls me to do. Lastly, start praying for our outreach. I found out that I'm going to Rwanda! I can't wait. Pray that my compassion and love would grow for the people there and for all of the lost in the world. I want God's heart to be my heart and I am far from it, so pray that God would work in me.
I hope you are doing wonderful, and that God is meeting you where you are at and drawing you into His presence. I hope to hear from you soon!
Keep Worshipping,
Love,
Janet
