Watch the 50th party with us LIVE

We have been setting up for the past couple of days preparing for the 3,000 people that will be joining us this week from around the world. One of the things we did today was set up thousands of plastic chairs in the Jubilee Gathering area (main meeting area for everyone everyday). The ground is dirt which is totally ghetto, but its the YWAM way and I love it. We also use duct tape to hold together vents that blow up the big screens. But hey, it works.

Please feel free to join us: there will be livestreams up on the website so you can watch whats happening and while its happening. I will be singing with my work duty manager in his band opening night (tonight. sorry for late notice) and you can watch online Live if you want me to make you go deaf ;) Nah, Im sure I'll do ok. The Lord my God goes with me up on stage (Duet 31:6).

Livestream starts 11:30 Tallahassee time:

http://www.uofnkona.edu/

GO FSU! WE ARE BACK!

Gators, now you're wack

Happy Thanksgiving! Jesus Day, no Turkey Day

So it is thanksgiving and I am getting to know my Dutch friend Vincent. I asked him "how do you say 'i like to eat turkey' in dutch?" And Vincent said..."what is a turkey?" And I said..."really? or are you joking." He was serious. So I decided to make it fun:

I gave him four options of what a turkey might be...

A) a tool
B) a vehicle
C) a bird
D) a friendship

I guess he forgot about the kind of question I asked him because he said B) a vehicle.

I googled 'turkey' for him and we laughed a while haha

Thanksgiving was good by the way. We ate together as a class and it was all set up really nice. We spent a couple hours expressing what and who were were thankful for. Lots of wonderful prayers to the Lord. We like turkey, but we LOVE Jesus.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(if you cannot click this video on, just move your curser around slowly until 

the curser turns into a little hand. It is kind of messed up)

                        Oh MAN! Theese iss good!

P.S. Be sure to scroll down to check for new pictures to old posts ;)

Today we did something very significant:

When I say the word 'class,' I'm sure something similar to a regular class comes to your mind. It would come to my mind too, because that is really all I have ever known. I would visualize desks and a white board and a teacher's desk and the students would be wearing shoes. Well, we do have a white board but no desks, and I dont wear shoes. You dont have to sit in a chair either. I lie on the floor in the isle sometimes to get a better view.

I would like to tell you everything that takes place during class, but I am afraid that if I did tell you it might weird you out. It is like nothing I have ever seen or done. But I will tell you that it is amazing, and doing a DTS is the 2nd best decision I have ever made in my life. I say that without doubt. I cannot thank my supporters enough ;)

Today we did something very significant: we made personal proclamations in front of the class. These proclamations were toward the Lord, agreeing with the steps that it takes to live a non-wasted life. It was VERY hard for the students to do and many decided to lay down treasures they have stored up on earth and run after their One True Treasure, Jesus Christ. Our class has a special thing with the significance of a door, and we laid a door flat on the ground for this part of class. It had to do with closing the door to the old and putting on the new. We 'slammed it shut to our old ways.'

Class ends at noon every day. Today we didn't finish until 2:00. Our classroom is right near the lunch-line and the rest of the campus came and went, getting their lunch right outside our class. They probably heard us yelling a lot. They were good yells, please understand.

My yelling was pretty exciting. It'll take time for more details to arise from the Lord, but I part of my declaration has to do with going wherever He wants me to. To the ends of the earth for the lost, if He leads me to. There is nothing I can do without Him. He's my strength and He's my rock. I want to be closer to Him...

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Rainy night

It never rains here during the day, but today it did. My work duty was a little different and today: There has been a man named Charlie working in media on new signs for the campus before the 50th celebration that starts next week. I was to saw down the old sign for the Global Outreach Center so we could upgrade it to Charlie's. We put up them up in the pouring rain. There are a lot of other things we have to do to prepare for 5,000 additional people to join us on monday.

But now that class and work is done for the day, I get to edit some of the photos I have recently taken. I love photography : )

30 new flags were added to the Plaza of Flags for the 50th celebration next week. Representing all the countries of the world.

Give me some sun to set on this island!

People use white rocks to write out stuff on the hills by the road. This hill says Samantha. No significance to that really

                                                Off of Ali'i Drive on the way to the pier

Baptisms by the pier in the morning before class

Healed on the spot, Glory to God!

Our outreach is Treasure Hunting, and I've mentioned a little bit about it before. It is the same kind of mission as when I got the fish vision and was led to Naa'uao. This time I went with my friend Nathan and a European family from the Crossroads DTS. They had two little boys, Ben and Chris. As we walk down toward Coconut Grove where the frozen yogurt is near the water, we run into Daniel. Daniel is a friend that I met through Katie, who is in my DTS. Daniel is a local and he rides his bike everywhere. Apparently he became a follower of Jesus Christ just this past week.

Well, last night he had his arm bent by his side and we found out that he sprained it in a bicycle crash. Nathan asked if we could pray for him before we took him to see the campus nurse. Daniel said yes. So I called Ben and Chris over and their mother stayed nearby. I had Ben put his hand on Daniel's upper arm and Chris on his elbow, and we prayed healing over him. I had my hand on his shoulder. We all prayed. As the younger boys prayed I could feel Dan's shoulder shake violently. When we were done praying Daniel told us: something happened, I feel better! "On a scale of 1 to 10, how does it feel?" I asked him. "It went from a 5 to an 8!" he said. So we prayed again until he said it was almost a 10. "9.5!" He said. He could now bend his arm out almost perfectly straight.

I was a little discouraged that it didn't end up a 10, but Nathan reassured me that it wasn't necessarily his arm that God wanted to heal. The Lord wants healing for everyone, but what matters more is spiritual healing in a person. God wants His children to trust that His love is sufficient. Good point, I thought. It is amazing that Jesus cares enough about this guy... that he would give him a bike accident only bad enough to have a slightly painful sprain... only to be healed of it later that day. He just wanted to show Daniel He cared about the small things in his life!

Ben and Chris played a huge role. With faith like a child, I thought.  Glory to God!

Daniel hangs out with us the next day while we watch the FSU game. 

(Fresno State University, not Florida State ;)

Happy Happy Birthday y-WAM!

So YWAM is turning 50. Good thing it is and organization and not a person, so it cant get offended.

Check out this video! I'm in it...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1423679239380

Talent night explodes

Our DTS had talent night tonight in the classroom. I decided that I might make an okay rapper. So my brother Javier and I covered Joyful Noise by Lacrae. He beat boxed while I rapped. It took off.

Angels surrounding His throne and

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

The whole earth is full of His glory

All nations bow to His name

His majesty fills the Heavens

Our hearts give thunderous praise

Declare the Lord is forever

Make a joyful noise in this place

Inner Peek

My dad is wanting more of a visual of where I am and what I do. So I put together these little satellites. With detail galore of my schedule. You probably wont get as much of a kick out of this as my dad.  

Quite often a group of us will take the red route. The red route ultimately leads to the pier where baptisms are done. But this route is also taken for many other things. Such as wednesday night outreaches (where He led me to Naa'auo), small group outings, one-on-one-fun, personal Jesus hangouts, and fro-yo (frozen yogurt). Also at the pier is where I met my friend Gille. Gille is an older man who has special needs. He sits in the sun a lot in his mobile chair that is decorated to the max in hawaiian gear. Gille is an amazing artist and he paints. With his nose. He has a brilliant smile and he smiles even bigger when I say so. His wife is a sweet dedicated women and reminds me of Jesus in a way. Might be how she saw Gille and took to him, caring for his every need. Such a love. Definition of unconditional. 

Its rare that I take the blue route. But every once in a while I need to walk there with a group so I can stock up on grape juice and shampoo.

Typical schedule includes waking around 6ish, rushing to get some oatmeal at the food line, then heading to the Flags of the Nations to sit with Jesus and watch His sun rise. Then a quick stop at my room for a swig of grape juice and to grab class notebook. Then to class at 8:00. Either worship, book of James study, intercession, or announcements until 9:00. Then the speaker goes till 10:30. Then we have a coffee break. I normally go back to the room for another sip of juice. Then class again till 12ish. Drop off books in room, grab shoes (required for food line), then head to lunch. Always sit outside. Its lovely and breezy. After lunch sometimes we have free time or we have DTS meetings. Today we met with our outreach teams at the Banyan Cafe. If there are no meetings, you might find me eating mangos with friends, watching John Piper, or going down to the water with Jesus to look into tide pools. At 3:00 p.m. I head to Work Duty. Right now I am finishing up a logo for an organization birthed from YWAM. Its a lot of fun, and the other workers are brilliant servants for the Lord. At 5:00 p.m. I am done and I go back to the room to grab my shoes. Yea I'm always barefoot. Then food line. Chill with food and persons at the tables till about 6, then head on. If there isnt intercession in the prayer room, worship at Ohana Court (we really have amazing worship experiences. Nothing I have ever seen/done before), or outreach down the red or blue arrows, its free time again. This is when Katie, Jonas, Brandon, Seth, and I typically find something to do. Around 9:00 or 10:00, I will hit the prayer room on my own. Then crash. Im typically one of the last to go to sleep out of 8 girls. Climbing to the top bunk with the lower bunk occupant asleep is not easy.

Sundays are quite special: Go to food line early then head to church with Katie and Seth. We go to Living Stones now. Last Sunday we had three breakthroughs while we prayed together with some other new friends at the church. I sit in a tree during this service. Barefoot. Then we catch the shuttle back. Often we go do something fun now. Like cliff jumping at the End of the World. This last sunday in particular is when we reconnected with Naa'auo and played piano, ate sushi, and talked about Jesus. At 3:00 is when I play soccer and get huge bruises. After soccer we head straight to the food line for dinner. By this time each week we are all half asleep and can only watch Lord of the Rings at this point. 

Now you have tasted a YWAM DTS student's schedule. I would recommend this schedule to anyone, too. If interested in seeing whether or not the Lord has you doing a DTS, investigate www.uofnkona.edu. 

Off Ali'i Street on the way to the pier

The Vision of the Fish, and Our New Brother

One of our 'jobs' here is called Treasure Hunting. Every tuesday some of us on campus meet up, intercede with God, and set out down to the streets to meet new people and share with them something extraordinary. We split into groups. Mine consisted of Faith, Jonas, and Brandon. Three of us got word from the Lord to go down Kuakini Highway. Two of us, Faith and Brandon, got the word 'fish.'

So we are walking, looking for some sort of fish when we stop and pray again. At a sushi restaurant. This time I saw a fish in my mind. I thought- well I probably just got it because they said they got that. But this image I had gotten was quite detailed, and I felt it was significant. It was swimming to the right too. One in the group said that didn't matter which way it was swimming, but I felt God nudge me that it did matter.

We keep walking toward the sea wall and start to get discouraged; all the pictures of fish we see are swimming to the left. Then Jonas says- "I just saw a fish that looked like what Sarah described around the corner." I got curious and went down the alley (it was safe and lit, mom). All of a sudden I see another sushi restaurant and outside, a sign. The sign had a fish on it, the same in my mind, and swimming to the right. And there was a freakin arrow pointing to the right too! I smiled and said Lord, let's do this. I slowly walk up, and a dinner host about my age walked out and asked if I wanted to buy sushi. I said, "no, but what's your name?" "Naa'uao," he said. [pronounced nu-uh]. It went from there.

I told him how the Lord led me to him with a fish in my head, and that He cared about him that much that He would do so. He responded saying, "man, dat so cool cause other YWAMers have said dat too man.'' W began talking more and I found out he knew of Jesus but not about grace. "I try to do pretty good things I guess," he said. I started to explain how we are saved by grace when his manager pulled him away to do work. Determined, we stuck around and we eventually got his phone number...he seemed anxious to know more!

So last night, Jonas and Katie and I went back. We had arranged a hangout with this guy. He had just gotten a new keyboard, so we played away. I learned a few beats myself. Then his mom, who worked at the sushi place, brought us California Roll and a huge bowl of soup. Fo' free. So we played piano, ate sushi, and talked about Jesus and grace. In the end, we had a new brother. Praise God, yes?? He loved this boy so much that He kept sending YWAMers his way. Naa'uao also mentioned he wanted to do something radical- wanted to change the world. No knowing what kind of plans our God has in store for this young Hawaiian.

Me with Naa'uao and his mom

Sarah's Life Chapter 6

Ezra and me working at Candyland: a Jesus-honoring

 way to have fun on Halloween. Kids dig it

A baptism of our friend at the pier

Blue as His eyes, pure as His heart

A project I was working on for Crown Media Ministry

Do YOU like YWAM Kona Facebook?

My small group

Jonas and Brandon kickin it up

Try this sometime ;)

Top Banana and a Bandana

Friday we had no class. Instead we tied bandanas around our heads and headed to the back of the campus near the banana trees and pulled weeds that were as tall as I am. Part of missions is to give of ourselves, so I was all for it. In fact- I had a lot of fun. I did get a deep cut on my finger and blood went everywhere. But in a way that was interesting too.

While working I mentioned to someone else that if people back home heard about this, they might think: "you mean you raised $4,000 to go pull weeds?" In fact thats exactly what dad said when I talked to him on the phone after lunch. But that is the most fun I have ever had pulling weeds, and for some reason, knowing I was "paying to pull" made me want to work harder. And after hearing our first speaker, I know why. We werent pulling weeds for ourselves (if we were, we'd be getting paid). We were pulling them out of love for Jesus! Amen? God glorifies in dirty work like that. And it was dirty. I was three shades darker in the end and made dirt warrior marks on my face. You gotta have fun. Oh and we ate bananas right out of the trees. ;)

This One Goes Out To Mom

I was in the Cafe on campus one day looking at the menu, just out of curiosity. I didnt expect to get anything, but figured I would have a look because it is only a few yards from my room. And as I looked at the muffin section, I saw Poppyseed muffins. I thought: could they be the way mama makes them? No, they couldnt be, because the only place I could ever get poppyseed muffins without lemon flavoring in them was in mama's kitchen. But I asked anyway...


...and they were lemonless. Whenever I rarely go to the cafe, I get a poppyseed muffin. At first I thought: well that money could go somewhere else! True. But this is not just any muffin. When you buy one of these muffins, its like it comes with a hug from mom. Every child deserves a hug from mom. Even if it does cost 2 dollars.