Goodbye Kona, hello St. Croix

Greetings from St. Croix, Virgin Islands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Sunset in the Caribbean :)

Ok, lets just say wow, wow and wow. I have been in St. Croix for 2 days-ish now and LOVE it. But first...let me back up to the last week of DTS in Kona before I begin to inform you about this island I am now on.

The weekend before our outreach teams began to leave we had this fancy banquet dinner called "LoveFeast" in our classroom. It was a jumble of delicious food, fancy dresses, Christmas music, more delicious food, honoring our leaders and staff, lots of pictures and good fellowship. It was a ton of fun, and such a blessing to be able to have a nice dinner to relax, reflect and have fun. My team wrote a song about our outreach leaders, Melissa and Josh, to the song "Party in the USA" (lyrics changed of course) and sang it to them at the LoveFeast. Good times. :) Someday maybe we will record it and you will all get to hear it...or maybe not. :) Enjoy the pics!

Our classroom set up for the LoveFeast

The U.S. Virgin Islands family photo! :)

All Dressed for LoveFeast!

Our Delicious dinner! nam, nam, nam

Mindy and I

Kelli and I

Hannah and I

Rachael and I

     The last week before I left Kona was one of the most emotional weeks I've ever had. Ending classes, work duties, small groups, etc was alright and I was honestly ready to be done and move on to outreach. Then came saying goodbye to those whom I've lived with and learned with or 3 months. It's amazing how close you can become with strangers after just 3 months...3 months of living together, crying together, growing in our faith, laughing together, celebrating holidays and birthdays, going on adventures and discovering your purpose in Christ....3 months of becoming a family.

One of the last pictures of Rachael and I before we both left..we had a relaxing movie night with roommates

     My roommate Rachael was the first to leave and thats when the tears started...and continued to when I left 2 days later. My roommates and I found ourselves laughing and crying off and on during these hard days of saying goodbye...as Madisen also left the next morning after Rachael and then me. I hold on to the hope of seeing my compassion family in March, but sadly my roommates Staci, Amber, Amy and Kathryn will not be there when I return to Kona because they are in a different DTS. :( But I will for sure be planning a nice long road-trip to visit them all as I love them and will miss them all so much.

Goodbye Roommate picture!

Rachael and I

:)

:)

All of us roomies at the bus stop about to say goodbye :(

Oh yes...this is how we do it

Madisen and I before she left...

Getting ready for my trip! :D

Christmas time is here...

As Christmas approaches I wanted you all to see how I am joining in the holiday spirit...even in Hawai'i.

Our worship time is decorated...including some Christmas songs!

Our room...complete with tree, fireplace, and stalkings that Staci made for each one of us roommates! :)

My stalking. :)

With the lights off...so special to have this in our room :)

As roommates we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" next to our tree and fireplace!  :)

Down town Kona is decorated for Christmas as well...so weird seeing greenery with an ocean in the
backround...



More pictures will be soon to follow as we have several holiday events approaching quickly before I leave for outreach! :D

12 Days

12 days...12 days is how many days I have until I leave for St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, 12 days is how many days I have left with my roommates (half of whom I won't see again when I come back in March), 12 days is how many days I have to mentally get ready for outreach for 2 1/2 months!!! This is so crazy! The last two weeks have been a blur of meetings, fund-raising, more meetings, outreach prep, etc. Because of this crazy business I have failed to update you all this last week...so for this I am deeply sorry. I know how some of you live for this blog...that you wait in anticipation each week to see what I'm up to and can't make it through the week until you do...breath easy all, here come the updates and info you've all been waiting for. :) But first...I must say GOD IS SO GOOD!!! As many as you know this last week all the rest of my finances were due...which was about $2900 but in miraculous ways God PROVIDED!! One moment I was preparing to go home and the next I was rejoicing in His every provision. GOD IS SO GOOD!!

Only in Hawai'i will you find a decorated palm tree next to a pine tree in Walmart...

HOLY SPIRIT

For week 8 we as a class had Kristen Williams as our guest speaker...speaking on Spiritual Warfare. Well, it started out as learning about Spiritual Warfare...and really he ended up teaching on the Holy Spirit...so good. Kristen spent a lot of time teaching on the gifts of the Spirit, what they mean, how to use them, and how to ask for them. It was an intense week to be sure. I learned so many new aspects of the Holy Spirit..I had a new eye opening understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, what He is to me, and how intimate he is. I have a whole new relationship with Him now...more then ever before I'm learning how to call on my Lord as the Holy Spirit instead of always calling how to my Abba or Savior...even though they are all one in the same. :)

WEEKEND TEAM BONDING

On the weekend of week 8 my St. Croix Outreach team went  on a little adventure...We all jumped in the back of Melissa and Josh's truck made a pit stop at Cost-Co and went on a small hike to see some lava tubes. Now some of you may be wondering, what the heck is a lava tube?? Basically it is a dark cave of rock that is difficult to hike in, that has FRESH water in it! Very cold water I might add...so after climbing through rock, in flip-flops, risking life and limb we arrived to this pool of fresh water in the cave...which some of us, myself included, proceeded to swim in. :) One of the most scary and neat experiences of my life...swimming in cold dark water that you cant see the bottom of the cave to, while trying not to bump into rocks with the light of flashlights...amazing to be sure! I only received on wound from this adventure...

Riding in the back of the truck on the highway! :)

Me standing on a natural made rock bridge that only one person could walk across at once...this is pre hiking into the caves

Mindy and I swimming one of the lava tubes! This one was not quite as dark and scary as the first one...

Standing on a lot of old lava while on our hike..you can actually see the island of Maui in the back round!!

One of the many turtles we saw just chilling on some rock...so cool!

My wound I received while on this hike...a nice scar will be left to be sure ;)

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!! TIME TO PAR-TE IT UP!

So this last weekend was Thanksgiving for us here in the states...my first big holiday away from home. I thank the Lord for this big family here in Kona that has helped with my homesickness  especially with the holidays. Although I missed home and it was very odd to be sweating and have an ocean view while eating dinner, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. One thing that had never really occured to me until this year was that North Americans are the only ones who have a day set aside to give thanks. It was very unique to be able to explain the story of our history to my Korean, Norwegian, and Chilian family. So neat. The food was delicious as well of course...so good. The occasion called for us all to dress up, and we ate in our "classroom" which is tent overlooking the campus with the ocean view.We we're served all the traditional fixings that I quickly devoured in a matter of minutes :) There was also a time of giving thanks and much fellowship. Such a wonderful time with my Compassion family... :)

Rachael and I dressed up for Thanksgiving!

Un Hi, me, Rachael, and Allison...3 of my wonderful friends! :)

Our classroom set up for Thanksgiving!

The tables set up

View from the classroom

Me with  my delicious food! :D

This past weekend because of Thanksgiving, we had a longer weekend so some of my roommates and I decided to rent a car and take a trip to the other side of the island. :)  Since I'm on the "dryer" side of the island we wanted to visit the more lush side of the island as well as to see some sites that we may not have the chance to do again before we leave. So Rachael rented a car, we hoped in and headed off for an adventure! One of our goals on this trip was to see this beautiful waterfall that required a 5 hour hike in a jungle, through small rivers, over boulders and through more jungle...but so worth it. :) check out the pics. :)

Madisen, Kathryn, Rachael, Amy and I  with the car pre-trip!

Riding in the Car

The lookout area of this beautiful place. 

Ahhhhh!!! This is one of the places that the movie Jurassic Park was filmed...beautiful!

Me!

Walking through the jungle...literally

Jungle that we hiked through

After 2 1/2 hours of hiking we came to this beautiful waterfall....truely one of the most beautiful  things I've ever  seen in my life. God is amazing :)

:)

Looking up to the sky

After our hiking for so long we were hungry...so we ate. :)

Huddled together for warmth on the top of a mountain to see stars :)

After a long day...headed home :)