an epic weekend

this weekend me and 15 other students went camping on the west side of kauai in pohihole.  this was real camping, we slept under the stars on the sand at the beach.  it was so fun! we left kapaa about 3:30 on friday afternoon and got there about 5pm.  in order for us to get down to where the beach is we have to drive down a dirt road about 5 miles thru the mountains.  it was so different from home to drive in the middle of mountains and then bam! there is a beautiful beach there! as soon as we got there we jumped out of the van and ran to the water.  we swam/surfed for a couple hours and watched the sun set. here are a few pictures that i took and dont do much justice but at least you can get the idea.

 this was the beautiful sun set that we sat on the beach and watched.  after it was dark we went up on the bluffs got our stuff and made a fire to roast some hot dogs and make some smores.  we all sat around sang some songs and enjoyed our time around the fire.  we eventually went to sleep on the sand under the stars.  i got up and was in the ocean by 7am.  i dont think i have ever been swimming in the ocean at early before.  the waves were so strong! it was fun until i thought i was going to never get back to the shore.  thankfully i made it in after getting pounded by a good amount of waves.  we packed up and left the beach at noon and started up the mountain to waimea.  we went up 4000ft to the top and looked over into the mountain.

This is a snipit of what we were able to see at the look outs. it was so amazingly beautiful! after we saw everything we went out for some fish tacos and headed back to the school campus.  one of the off campus students wanted to cook dinner for everyone so we all went over to his house soon after we got back.  today we slept in till about 7 and then got ready for church.  we are going to be helping at a coconut festival next week so we had a little training to prepare for that.  then it was on to homework! since we have had fun all weekend we decided to dedicate the afternoon and evening to getting homework done.  i am a little distracted by this blog but other than that i have been getting it done! :]  on that note i should go and finish up because i have class in the morning.

Pictures!

Since I have not posted to many pictures so far I thought I would share some with you! 

        
                                        This was the first beach we went to when we got here

 
                                      One of the first weekends we went to shipwercks beach

                  One morning as I was walking to class this is what I saw when I got to upper camp

                                       

                             These are some of the wonderful girls I have become friends with here

                                         This is Sleeping Giant...I will hike this before I leave

                                      These are the nice bathrooms at upper camp...be jealous

                                              This is Chelsea, also my tentie and bunk mate

                                                   Part of the view from upper camp

                                                               Me, Sara and Chelsea

                                   Once we fit 11 people in this mini van...not this time though!

                                                     Welcome to Calvary Chapel Kauai!

                    
                                                                  Me and Miranda!


      This is a little look as what I have been doing and what it looks like where I'm living right now.

I serve a great God!

Well I have been here in Kauai for 19 days now and it feels like I have been here a lot longer than that!  The days seem so long but the weeks go by fast! I have been a little tired because we have to be up by and ready by 7 everyday and sometimes I don't always get to bed on time.  It's so hot here that you almost can't take a nap in the day time.  It has been raining more and more so we have to keep the windows zipped up on our tents which makes it even more hot in the mornings.  Even if we could sleep in I don't think that we would be able to because it gets so hot as soon as the sun rises.  Other than it being really hot here I am still enjoying every minute of being here.  I am still in awe that this is my home till December.  How can you not love it here when you can go to the beach and still enjoy your time there at 5 in the evening?  Today I had my 1 Corinthians class and my 1 and 2 Kings class. As I said earlier I have been more tired than normal so I was happy when I accomplished staying awake in both of my classes today. After my classes me and a few friends went down to the beach and swam for about an hour.  When it was starting to get cold we decided to come to The Coffee Bean and get some homework done (and update my blog :]).  It's so awesome to be able to study the bible especially the old testament and see how God still loved his people and was always faithful to them even though they messed up over and over again.  When I was in my Kings class today it was cool to see that God was still fulfilling his promises that he said he would.  God is always faithful time and time again.  King David was called a man after Gods own heart.  David was in no means perfect, he messed up a lot and big time yet he always came back to the Lord.  When he was king God told him to ask for anything and God would give it to him.  Do you know what he asked for?  He asked to know God better and to be close to him.  How many of us would ask that as our first and only request?  That was not the first thing that came to my mind.  It is in human nature to ask for selfish things of God, but not David.  When God asked the same question to Solomon when he was king he asked for great wisdom.  That too is a great thing but king Solomon did not do as well as king when compared to his father David.  I wonder how the kingdom would have gone if king Solomon would have asked for the same thing as his father.  I do not mean to say that what Solomon asked for was wrong or bad in any way because great wisdom from the Lord is indeed a great thing.  But just think and ponder for a moment how or if it would have been different.  David is defiantly someone in the bible I look up to.  That is such a humbling thing to ask for in my opinion.  I really like the old testament and enjoy reading about the people who were worthy of making it into the bible.  When I think about my life sometimes I wonder if what I have done and will do would be worthy of being in the bible if it was not written yet.  God is showing me some really cool things and I am reminded time and time again what a great God we serve!

Week one

I have now finished a full week of school.  I have lots of classes, we only have class once a week.  I'm taking 1 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Kings on Mondays, Systematic Theology and Inductive Bible Study/ Hermeneutics on Tuesdays, On Wednesdays I have worship class in the afternoons and then on Wednesday night the students lead worship for Wednesday night Church, on Thursday nights I have a discipleship class and Friday mornings I have a class on women of the Bible.  I also have to do 8 hours a week of M199's which is service hours to help the upkeep of our property and to cook meals so we have food to eat.  When I look at it like this I think to myself wow thats a lot of stuff but when I am living it day to day it does not feel that bad.  I am still getting the hang of balancing my time between doing homework and having a social life with some of the other students here on campus.  My goal for the semester is to get my homework done in the week so that I will have the weekends to hang out more and go to the beach.  Something that is hard for me is not having electricity so I am not able to do my homework when the sun goes down and that is when I usually like to do my homework, after dinner before I go to bed.  So I am adjusting to changing that so I don't have to do it on the weekends.  I don't have time to write more but when I get the chance I will!

Labor Day!

 Sept 5, 2011 

Today is labor day and also our first day of classes.  I had 1 corinthians this morning and 1 & 2 kings this afternoon.  1st Corinthians seems like it is going to be a great class!  I’m really excited to see how this book of the Bible is going to relate to our world today.  It may seem like the times now are very different from Bible times but when you really take a look at it you can see that times are very similar.  

My 1 & 2 kings class is very fast paced.  We have a lot to go through in only 16 or so weeks of class.  For our first day of this class today we went thru the first 4 books of 1 Kings.  A lot goes on in these 2 books of the Bible but it is very interesting to see how God is still merciful on His people who continue to sin and do things that are not pleasing to God.  

You might be thinking well what do your class rooms look like? Well we sit in a big white tent for every class except one, where we get to go to the pastors house and sit on couches, feel the ocean breeze and look out the “window” and see the ocean in the distance behind the palm trees and grass fields.  This might lead you to ask about my “dorm” situation.  I live in a tent about 20 feet by 10 feet. Currently the zipper to my screen is broke and as you can imagine it gets pretty hot as soon as the sun comes up and never really cools down to where we feel cold.  I have 2 roommates and we are getting along pretty well for the little amount of space we have.  We have almost the same class schedule so we are usually all there or no one is there at all.  We will have to see as the semester goes on how that will work out with the three of us.  As i mentioned before I do not have hot water or electricity and we have porta pottys for our bathroom.  We do have a shower house that has 2 very small shower stalls and 2 little sinks.  It seems to be going better than I had thought.  There are many many different kinds of bugs here.  I’m not used to that yet, I have slept with ants for the past 2 nights and the bugs seem to be multiplying.  Spiders are everywhere and they are massive!  Despite all of the ruggedness of where God has me right now I feel at peace about it all.  I’m sitting at the beach as I write this listening to the waves crash against the shore and am reminded how blessed we really are.  God is so good! 

                                                                     Babies Beach

                                                Ship Reck Beach with lots of new friends!

                                                     Jumping off the cliff at Ship Reck

                                                                                     The view from my tent

First few days in Kauai!

Aloha!
I have finally arrived in Hawaii! It is so beautiful here! I left yesterday about 6am from my house in California and landed here in Kauai about 2:30 Hawaii time.  It was a long day but I'm glad I made it safe and sound.  We started the semester off with a BBQ at one of the pastors house last night so we could get to know everyone and have a little fun with a nice homemade slip and slide, which I did not do but it was fun to watch.  When we got back to our tents we went right to bed because we were so tired and had no lights.  It's a little more rustic here than I thought, we have one porta potty for the 16 girls that our here and 2 showers with no hot water.  There are lots of bugs here, I have 12 bug bites already, bug spray is at the top of the wal mart list!  We have orientation today and tomorrow.  So far we go to the beach whenever we get a free hour or so! It's so great here! The coffee shop is closing so no more internet. I will try to write more when I get internet again!
9-1-11