Week 9 (Last week in Palau)

2-17-14
     Hey ya'll!!! Well, I'm back in Kona now, traveled all day yesterday (40 hour day haha) and so... outreach is over, but our last (debrief) week was great. 
     Monday we had our last free day.  We spent it mostly at the café and watching movies, but we took time to have dinner with Malo and Lisa and a few others from Koror Evangelical Church and Emmaus High School. 
     Tuesday we had a bit of a relaxing day.  Brandon and Alicia were both out trying to get some possible flight complications figured out, and Max had Malo over to work on some music, so Max sent Colton and I out on a faith journey of sorts... where we found Keizer (I learned the correct spelling of his name... oops). So we spent a good amount of time with him.  That evening we had our last dinner out with Fuana.
     Wednesday I exhausted myself.  We spent the morning finishing the concrete for Fuana.  The afternoon we spent cleaning her house before we left.  In the evening we had Keizer over and hung out with him for a bit, but when it was over I was pretty darn tired. 
     Thursday was our official debrief day.  We spent the morning pondering and praying over some reflective questions Max had given us about outreach.  After lunch we went with Fuana to a waterfall (minus Brandon) and spent some time swimming and climbing the various falls.  After that we checked into our hotel that we were spending the night at, and then Alicia, Colton, and I were off to get massages.  After we came back we all met up for dinner and discussed the answers to Max's questions together.  After dinner we used our day passes to the Palau Pacific Resort to go use their pool, and even better, their jacuzzi which was amazing.  After that we all enjoyed hot showers, comfy beds and pillows, and air conditioned rooms that felt amazing! In the morning we all just kinda hung out at the hotel, laying on the beds, using the hotel pool and hot showers again. 
     Friday, after leaving the hotel haha, we hung out a Fuana's for a bit before helping to set up for a concert that the other team was putting on that Max was helping sing at.  We had an amazing night!Almost all the youth that we had worked with attended and it was a great way to say good bye to them.  But the best part of the night was finding Nolan there.  We had tried to see him the week before, but he hadn't made it Friday and instead got to be in Koror for a week, Wednesday to Wednesday.  He showed up to the concert looking for us, hearing that we were putting it on.  We spent as much time as possible with him that night and convinced him to come to the rock islands with us on Saturday. 
     So, as I just said Saturday we went to the rock islands, and they were amazing!!! We started off going to Jellyfish Lake, then saw the giant clams at Clam Cove, and then stopped at the Shark Sanctuary, but we didn't see any.  After that we had a wonderful Palauan lunch before heading back out going to Milky Way (it has sulfuric mud in it, which is supposedly really good for the skin, and looked really funny too hehe), stopped at The Cemetairy (great snorkeling spot) and then headed back to Koror.  That evening Keizer made it over late and we talked to him and hung out with him for a bit.  That was the last day we saw Nolan and Keizer.
     Sunday we went to church together at KEC one last time.  Fuana made us lunch, and then we finished backing before going to a bit of a bbq near Emmaus, where we were able to say goodbye to the other team and Malo before getting on the plane.  Fuana, Wilson and Ester, Prima and Hedrick, (all a part of the Palauan YWAMers) took all of us to the airport where we said goodbye to them.  Then we were off.  We flew to Taipei, Taiwan and then to Honolulu and then Kona.  It was something like a 40 hour day... we left Koror at 7:30 pm Sunday and landed in Kona at 4 pm Sunday.  Weird, right? But yea. So now we are back in Kona. 
     Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are our debrief days, before graduation tomorrow night.  Its nice to be back in Hawaii, I DO love these islands so very much, but my heart aches and longs to go home. I am trying not to think about how much I want to be home, and I'm trying to enjoy this last week in my favorite state, and enjoy my last bit of time with my DTS and Outreach team.  So maybe that's what you guys can pray for me... just that I would be able to keep my head and heart here, and in the moment.  Also pray for healing.  I got some inspected spots on my limbs, and now have an antibiotic, but I would love it if I could heal quickly and not have any issues from the antibiotic either... So ya. 
     Thank you guys all so much! Your prayers and support have carried me my whole trip! God bless you for that!!!!! Love you all and see you SOON! :D

Outreach Week 8

2-10-14

​Heyyo! I can’t believe we just finished up week 8… and that we only have one more week here. So mind blowing! Only two weeks until I’m back among all of you!!! I really can’t believe how quickly it all went by, even this past week went really fast.

​Monday (Feb 3rd) was another free day.  We spent the time at the café, I had a nice long cry about missing home (don’t tell Max ;) … I think I just needed to get it out of my system because I’ve felt fine and done much better after I had my cry), and then just hung out with my team for the rest of the day.  We took it super easy to try to recuperate and rest some from Kayangel and the youth conference.  We also determined at the end of the day, a bit of a plan for the week.  It is a common thing on outreach to have days where a student leads, and when Jim was here he encouraged Max to do that with us, so we prayed and each were told a day that we were supposed to lead.  Alicia- Tuesday, Brandon- Wednesday, Colton- Thursday, and me on Friday.  

​So Alicia lead on Tuesday, and she felt it was just to be used as a day for each of us to do whatever preparation we needed for our own day.  It was a relaxed day. I have to be honest, I don’t think I left the house once, and spent quite a lot of time in mine and Alicia’s room listening to music and just taking as much alone/personal time as I could get away with.

​Wednesday, Brandon led.  We started the day by going to Emmaus (the boys high school we’ve been working with) to do their chapel, where Max, Alicia, and I lead worship, and Colton gave an amazing sermon.  That night we attended the Palauan Baptist Church, which we all thoroughly enjoyed and got a lot out of.

​Thursday (Colton’s day to lead) we again spent most of the time at the house. We spent the morning waiting for someone, who we found out a few hours later wasn’t able to make it.  That night we went to the prison ministry where Max helped with the worship some, and Alicia and Brandon spoke.  We were able to converse and pray for some of the inmates, which was really cool.  

Friday (my day to lead) we got Fuana a new front door and were trying to watch and help as it was getting worked on to fit perfectly.  We also spend some time hanging out with another Palauan YWAMer (who is a good friend of Max’s and also teaches music at Emmaus), named Malo. (Whom we had waited for Thursday) He spent several hours over, chatting, hanging, and jamming.  After that I gave everyone some personal time, mostly because I needed to pray and talk to God about the day.  I was feeling very unsure, unqualified, and unhappy about the whole leading thing.  Earlier in the week when I had been thinking about my day I had thought about how the best leader should be the best servant, so I had wanted to try to find some way that I could bless my team and just serve them as much as possible. But when my day actually rolled around I couldn’t think of a way to actually make that happen, or what I could do.  As I was finishing up praying and trying to listen to God’s voice, He sent Alicia to me.  She told me she’d been avoiding talking to me about some stuff, and that God told her she needed to do it now.  She confronted me a bit about my attitude the past few days/week.  She pointed out how there are almost two sides of me… the normal side of me, where I am happy, joyful, sweet and just who I am, and who I am created to be.  The other side is a negative, grumpy me.  I have some infected bug bites (on my arm mostly, but there are a few on my legs as well), and she pointed out that even thought they are painful, gross, and just no fun in general (she knew from experience because she had the same problem) she told me that I can’t let it get to me and bring me down the way I was letting it.  She challenged me to try to be less negative, and to focus as much as possible on the positive.  She also challenged me to be more bold, and to stop looking and asking for confirmation or ideas from other people, but to make sure I’m really going to God.  The things she said were exactly what I needed to hear, in so many ways! And they also helped me to reconnect with God enough that I knew what to do with the day.  When we all gathered back together (Brandon was gone doing his own thing though) I told my team, that as their leader for the day I was taking them out to lunch for burgers (a novelty in and of itself haha).  After lunch we walked the town a bit just praying as we walked and trying to find ways to bless the people we had had multiple encounters with.  We met back together at the café and then hung out for a bit.  We spent the evening hanging out with the guys at Emmaus, playing guitar, comparing and learning songs, just trying to invest in them as much as we can as our time with them ticks down.  

Saturday we all enjoyed being able to do some physical labor.  We took the day to lay some concrete for Fuana’s back porch.  We spend most the day doing this, from mixing the cement, to dumping it and smoothing it.  I got to be the “smoother” and actually really enjoyed it and was just starting to really get the hang of it when we stopped for the day haha.  But it was not only a nice change to do something physical (even with all the soreness we got from it haha), but Fuana was so grateful and it was so nice to be able to bless her in such a way.  By evening we were all tired so we took it easy and hung out.

Sunday was the best day of all! We got up a bit earlier than most Sundays to go back to the prison to teach again today.  Max and I taught (first sermon I’ve ever given haha) and it was just so good! After prison we attended our favorite church, Koror Evangelical Church, and were just blessed and amazed by the wonderful service.  After that we took almost a team nap haha, but some quiet time to rest before heading to Emmaus mid-afternoon.  When we got to Emmaus we spent some time playing sports and just general hanging out with them.  The other team was there and I got the opportunity to soak up some worship time with Caleb.  I realized that a lot of the things Alicia had lovingly pointed out to me stemmed from a lack of worship time. By leaving on Sunday for Kayangel I had missed the worship at church that week and it had ruined my week.  So on Sunday I found myself soaking up every ounce of worship I could get, at the prison, at church, and even more sitting with just Caleb, a guitar, me and God. It was wonderful. After that we all got to eat dinner with them before Max played some worship songs and then spoke a little. He told the seniors he wanted to give them a night they would never forget, and I think he succeeded! He challenged them to be the world changers they were set apart to be, and after that he asked that we all gather around them and pray for them, which they all were blessed (and made a little uncomfortable) by.  Caleb and the three leaders from the other team also took the time to bless the guys and to impart what they could to them (especially the seniors). After that we had even more worship time (to my delight) and then hung out a bit before heading our separate ways.  It was getting late when we got back, but for some reason we decided to watch a movie and proceeded to do so haha. It was a fantastic day, a memorable day, and probably one of the best days of outreach so far.  

This next week is our debrief week of sorts.  We will be taking it kind of easy.  We plan to go to Pelelu for a few days (the only island we haven’t been to yet, its by Angauar). We are taking a day to go to the Rock Islands, and then just not much on the other days.

​Well… that’s all folks.  I’m counting down the days until I get to see you all! It will be here so very soon.  Take care of yourselves J Love you all! ​

Outreach Week 7

2-2-14

            Hello all!!! We did it! We made it to Kayangel! So Saturday we spent the day packing and prepping for leaving, as well as working with the youth a the Evangelical Church for a bit.  Sunday was spent traveling to Kayangel.  It was a 3-4 hour boat ride, and the last half we battled some rougher seas, …that was an adventure I wasn’t too fond of.  But after that we landed safely and spent the day setting up and talking to a few people.  At the dock leaving Koror we met two wandering travelers named Mary (from Quebec, Canada) and Andreas (from Italy and Costa Rica) who were also headed to Kayangel with us.  I can’t give you a step by step view of this week, because I didn’t really journal at all (which means I have no memory, my journal is my brain! Haha, its only partially true, but still), but I’ll tell you what all I do remember. 

            It was a pretty laid back week to be honest.  We knew we would be helping with the typhoon relief, we just weren’t sure how that would play out.  What we ended up doing was helping with the deconstruction of the elementary school.  We spend the first couple days taking off what was left of the wooden supports of the roof, and saving all the long, reusable pieces of wood we found.  We burned all of the rest of the wood that we couldn’t save. The next day the only thing we did on the school was to take all the unbroken pieces of glass out of the windows, to save them as well.  The last thing we did on the school, over the last couple of days was to take all the books, and what was left of the bookshelves and a few desks out of the main classroom.  All of the books were ruined, most were soaked through so thoroughly that they were unable to open, and weighed twice as much as they were supposed to.  To dispose of them we tried to burn as many as possible (we felt like Nazi’s until we got used to it), but quite a few were so wet that we could not burn them.  Due to that, we spent the last day simply pushing the rest of the rubbish outside and clearing the floors.  They were going to be bulldozing the rest of what was left, and through the support and funding from other countries they were going to get a completely new school.  We got to work with 6 Palauans every day, making things seem to pass quickly and efficiently.

            But working definitely did not take up all of our time.  We spend quite a lot of time hanging out with and get to know the guys we were working with, and managed to succeed with the 3 guys closest to our ages… we think Nolan is somewhere around 25, Bob is 22, and Kan-Lee is 21.  We tried as often as possible to get them to swim with us, and we played many games of ping-pong with them. (All three of them were impressed with how good I was at ping-pong… so thank you Danny and Dustin J haha). We also were able to watch a movie or two with them in the evenings (we only had electricity from 6pm to 6am-ish).  We also spent many hours with Mary and Andreas, who after their beach camp got ruined by the wind, came and lived with us in the community center, allowing us lots of time to spend with them, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. (And Andreas was a bit of a chef and so we had some FANTASTIC meals there!)

            I have to say it was a very interesting week, looking back on it I see it as a great week, but at the time I wasn’t so sure.  The rugged living bothered me less than I thought it would, but at the end of the week I described it to myself as a dry week.  My favorite times where when I was hanging out with Bob and Nolan (and Kan-Lee, but he was quieter and harder to interact with).  My body was doing weird things half the week too, making the days difficult, whether it was an upset stomach, itchy infected bug bites, or a headache I always managed to feel the worse when we were trying to work on the school. I managed to sleep well most of the nights, but it never felt like quite enough.  But no more complaining…

            Someday I would love to be able to go back to Kayangel and see it as it was.  The destruction was not as bad as we had pictured in our heads, but it was enough to make you look twice.  There were more trees standing than we expected, but the palm trees had no coconuts on them, and the non-palm trees were mostly stripped of their leaves.  The underbrush was full of fallen limbs, branches, and even full trees sometimes.  But the brush was beginning to grow again. And there were plenty of new growth throughout the brush.  Most of the buildings were pretty well devastated.  There are only about 20 people living on the island, but to me they held the most scars from the typhoon. Most of them were living in one or twos trying to working on rebuilding.  There were few women and only one child on the whole island.  I remember listening to Nolan talk about how things have been for him, and it made my heart ache.  He described how they miss people and how they were so excited and glad to have us because we were outsiders, we were new people to interact with, and we cared.  He told us how there were many visitors who wanted to see the “island destroyed by the typhoon” and how they would come for a day and leave, not staying for more than a few hours.  They appreciated that we were different and we not only came, and stayed for a few days, but that we came to help and get to know them.  Nolan also told us how bored and frustrated they are.  They say they try to work, but there’s not much to do, and how they don’t have the supplies and funding (its been promised) to actually do anything, and so many days they sit around because they cannot do anything yet.  He said it has been that way for the past two months, and that they seem to just sit and wait, sit and wait, and wait some more.  He works for the state government of Kayangel and so he is required to stay there, but from what he said it seemed like he is going nuts. Most of them also are separated from their families who have stayed in Koror (like Nolan has three kids who live in Koror without him).  I think the night that Nolan was telling us all of this was the night my eyes were really opened.  It was then that I saw the island with new eyes and saw what was really going on, unfortunately it was on our last night there.

            We had originally planned on leaving Friday morning, but the water was too rough (there had been a LOT of wind the whole week we were there).  So we were told we would be leaving Saturday instead, and Friday turned out to be the best day we had there.  Brandon, Alicia, Colton, and I took advantage of the low tide in the morning to walk to the next island (there are technically 4 islands of Kayangel, only two are really big enough to really live on).  It was a great adventure, the water never got more than chest deep there or back, and all 4 of us loved the trek, and even thought the sunburns were worth it.   In the afternoon we did a bit more work on the school (pushing all the rubbish out), before spending the rest of the time swimming, playing volleyball, ping-pong, and watching a movie with the guys.  The night was the clearest and most beautiful as well, I have rarely had the opportunity to see the night sky so big, beautiful, and starlit. 

            We left early Saturday morning, had an incredibly smooth, calm boat trip back, and then found we were gonna be helping with another church youth retreat that afternoon and night.  So we went back to Fuana’s, got repacked for the night, and actually took real showers (which felt SOOO good! Haha) before heading to the church.  We spend that afternoon exhausting ourselves even more than we already were by playing games, doing skits, teaching, and hanging out with these young people.  We were to spend the night with them at the church, and I think all the kids thought we were crazy because all 5 of us went to bed before any of them haha.  (Alicia and I slept in an air conditioned room, right under the AC… and we froze! Shows how we’ve adapted lol).  Sunday we were woken up at 5 with all the kids, and we did the morning devotional for them and then hung out until church time.  After church was volleyball again.  The evening we had Mary and Andreas over to cook dinner for/with us (they came back from Kayangel with us to head to another island for a few weeks before they leave to go to their next adventure spot, which is Australia).  We were blessed to have not only the 5 of us, and Mary and Andreas, but also to be joined by Fuana and Linda (another Palauan YWAMer who we met in Kona before we left) for the amazing dinner of tapas that Andreas and Mary fixed for us. 

            So yea, I think that gets you guys all caught up, doesn’t it? We aren’t exactly sure what this week is gonna look like, but God always seems to provide something so we are excited to see what He will give us.  I can hardly believe that we only have two more weeks in Palau and only three weeks until I will be home.  I realized this morning that I’m finally used to being here… and that going home might actually be a little weird. Not to say I’m not excited to go home! …but it will be a little weird… I definitely feel that it’s time though, I've started dreaming of home and people from back home almost every night for the past couple days… I’m ready, I think haha.  It will be interesting to be back home, I feel like outreach has changed me much more than lecture phase did.  Not just “outreach” though… Palau, and the amazing people I have met here.  Yup.  That all came out of no where haha, but now you all know exactly what I’m thinking I guess. I really didn’t mean to write that much, but oh well.

I miss you all so very much, and even if I do love it here, I’m counting down the days until I get to see you all! Talk to you soon, and take luck! J