Aloha!

On April 9th, I took a leap of faith, hopped on a plane, and began a new journey two years in the making; I was on a plane to Youth with a Mission in Kona, Hawaii. Having never really done much mission work or traveling, and having a particular dislike for hot and humid weather, I was, and still am, not entirely sure why I’m really here. What is God’s purpose for bringing me here at this time with these people in this place? 

I’ve been here four days now, adapting to the heat and campus life and preparing my heart and my mind for the months to come. Six months seems like a long time at this moment. I’m away from my family, which I’ve never done, I’ve had to leave my boyfriend behind and switch to a long distance relationship, I’ve left all my friends at home, the foods I love to eat, air conditioning, etc. If God likes getting us out of our comfort zone, He’s definitely succeeded, which brings me to the topic of my blog post today; It’s not about me.

I come from a town where people are very self involved and have everything handed to them on a silver platter, and I fear I spent the majority of my life very privileged. I miss air conditioning, of all things, and I think that really says something. But it’s a constant need for a reminder that my life is not about me. It’s about God. I think so easily God will ask us to do something, and we’ll say no because it’s well out of our comfort zone, or it’s not what we want to do, or we’d like to try something a different way to hopefully get to the same place (this usually ends up in us having to do things by God’s plan in the end anyway). So while I’m here, I have to keep reminding myself in the food line when there are a lot of people, and I’m hungry and tired of waiting, it’s not all about me. If my dorm mates are up late having conversation and I can’t fall asleep, it’s not all about me. If it’s hot and I’m sweating and I need to walk all the way across town, it’s not all about me. 

My goal this first week is to start putting other people before me. During some of our opening events here, they told us that island culture has people putting other’s first, and as visitors, we should definitely aim to do the same out of respect. The island is all about respect.

The second thought I had was regarding Matthew 6:25. “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Coming to an island in the middle of an ocean, I worried. I’ve never traveled before, and certainly not on my own, so there’s plenty to worry about, but the day before I left, God blessed me with incredible peace over this trip, I wasn’t stressing about packing, I had no fears at all, and now that I’m here, I’m still a little worried about the next few months, but I’m really looking forward to starting classes and start diving into what God has in store!

I’ll be finding out this week where I might be going to, and the week after, I will have a definite answer as to where I’m going, so please check in again next week and I will reveal where I will be going!

Thank you and aloha!