I took out part of my last update (the Thursday afternoon part), because I did not want to put up anything morbid for Christmas, so now I'm just spoiling New Year's.
Our leader doesn't really want anyone to be online right now, but I miss home, and I hate not hearing from everyone back home, so I really don't care. Happy New Year's!
Outreach
We were in the village of Busanza, about 30 minutes away from Kimironko, our suburb of Kigali. We split up into groups and went around inviting people to church, which a pastor affiliated with YWAM is planting here. One group met Rosette. She's a widow. She had children, but they passed away. She's raising her grandchildren and one other orphan as well. She had surgery about 8 years ago, but it didn't go well and she ended up with the right half of her body paralyzed. She has AIDS. She's very poor, and very joyful. They told her God loves her and she said, “I know God loves me.” “Can we pray for you?” “Of course!” They prayed for God to heal her and asked if she felt anything different. She said, “Yes, my heart feels better. I'm very encouraged by you guys.”
Another group met another woman raising three children. The husband isn't around much at all. He infected her with HIV, and her three children are HIV+ as well. She's paying the rent on her housing, but she has a very hard time with it.
Elijah
Nine of us came from YWAM in Kona. We have a Rwandan teammate, Elijah who joined us and coordinates our outreaches and does interpreting. His dad was a Hutu and his mom was a Tutsi. His mom had 46 relatives, and every one of them was killed in the Rwandan genocide. That happened when he was a teenager, and he said he spent the next few years in a haze, numb to his surroundings, without hope or dreams for his future. But then, when the grace of God rescued him, he learned there is forgiveness and peace about the past, comfort and love for the present, renewal and encouragement for the future; there is life after emotional death, because God delights in raising the dead.
The Genocide
1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus murdered.
1,000 people murdered every 20 minutes.
300,000 orphans
An estimated 500,000 women alive today were raped during the genocide.
100,000 people have been indicted for these crimes.
General Romeo Dallaire estimated that 5,000 UN soldiers would have been enough to contain the militia and completely prevent the genocide. When he made that statement and request to the UN, none were given. Instead, that number of soldiers was used to evacuate foreigners from the country.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
A Week of Days in the Life
Tuesday
We went to a village about 40 minutes outside of Kigali. There was a church building with wobbly benches that could hold about 50 people at capacity. Kids were excited about the white people that arrived in a van and ran up to say hi. We played with them for a while and then got them to come inside when we started playing music. There were about 25 people, mostly kids and a few mothers. After a few songs, we had a teammate, Katie, share a few minutes about what God's been doing in her life. Then Luke spoke for about 15 minutes (30 with translation) about how God loves them. Then the pastor gave an altar call for salvation. Everyone came forward. Many of the little kids may not have completely understood what was going on, and many of them may already have some sort of relationship with Jesus. But it was still a great thing for the kingdom. They came forward, and we prayed for them for a while. Pastor Sylvan was extremely happy about the event. This was only his second week of church planting out here.
Our team had spread out and sat down so that kids could next to us. There was one kid that chose me; he sat down next to me and put my arm around him. We went forward at the altar call cause I suggested it and he was all for walking while holding my hand. I kept asking him his name but he was extremely shy and wouldn't tell me. I asked a mom what his name was, and it was Karri. Very close to “Cory.” Neat.
Wednesday
Our Rwandan teammate/coordinator is the leader of a ministry called Vida. Today was a meeting in a room about the size of a normal bedroom. There were 12 Rwandans, all between 16-22. We did the same pattern of songs, testimony, and quick sermon. Then we asked for prayer requests. A few mentioned headaches, a couple mentioned stomach aches. One girl mentioned bad dreams, involving seeing dead bodies. The genocide was 15 years ago. So a lot of young adults have lost relatives, and others were participants in the genocide, because a lot of the killing was done by youth in the Interahamwe. (Forgiveness is just as much meant for them as it is for me; to believe anything else is not the gospel). Coming into this outreach, I wanted to make sure we were providing for physical needs of a third-world country, but the emotional and spiritual needs are so strong here. Our teammate Jacinta asked anyone who wanted to make a first time decision for Christ to stand in one part of the room, and anyone who wanted to repent and rededicate to stand in another part of the room. Two girls were in the first-time corner, and four people were in the rededicate corner. We prayed for everyone for a while.
I was ecstatic about working with this age group because when people get saved when they're little kids, it's kind of like they have to get saved again anyway when they get older. I've also heard about low retention rates of converts; going from converts to disciples loses a lot of people. But I think they'll keep coming to this ministry and so it's actually sustainable.
Thursday
We taught art and music at the Christ Gospel Church. There were maybe 17 people at the art workshop; it taught the color wheel and its applications and the value scale. There were maybe 20 people for the music workshop, which split into a group for piano and a group for guitar. Both groups learned chords to play worship songs. I assisted the art workshop for most of it and then went and helped the guitar group.
Friday
I co-taught guitar today to 9 Rwandan beginners at church today. They're learned chords to play worship songs. Yesterday, they started to learn their first chords. Today, I had them working on switching between chords. We had 3 guitars that were circulating around the group for the two hours of class. I would kneel in front of each student and wrestle with his or her fingers to get them into place, because frets are really hard for them to reach in the beginning. It all went really well, but it was exhausting. It's a steep 15-20 minute walk to the church from our house, with a guitar in its case. I'll be teaching every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
This afternoon, I taught English to 12 Rwandans for two hours. It was our first lesson so we went through the alphabet and worked on pronouncing the sounds that don't exist in Kinyarwanda. It was really helpful to know so much Kinyarwanda but I knew what they'd need to work on. They can do “a” as in “bat” fine; they can mostly do “e” as in “bet” ok, but “i” as in “bit” is really hard them. And the English “r” is almost impossible. Even before the DTS, I've spent hours and hours reading about linguistics for fun, and I put a lot of that to use when I was describing what to do with their tongues to make certain sounds. They were really happy with the class. I'll be teaching every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.
At the end of class, we asked the people who didn't own a Bible to raise their hands. There were four respondents, including the two new believers, so we handed out four Kinyarwandan Bibles. One of the girls, when she got her Bible, gasped with excitement. I found it really moving that she was so happy to get a Bible. We asked for prayer requests and two of them prayed that they would get to go back to school. I asked Elijah about it later, and he explained that secondary school in Rwanda is six years (as is primary school) and that the drop-out rate is pretty high for various personal reasons and it's a huge barrier for high school dropouts to opportunities like a decent job.
We went to a village about 40 minutes outside of Kigali. There was a church building with wobbly benches that could hold about 50 people at capacity. Kids were excited about the white people that arrived in a van and ran up to say hi. We played with them for a while and then got them to come inside when we started playing music. There were about 25 people, mostly kids and a few mothers. After a few songs, we had a teammate, Katie, share a few minutes about what God's been doing in her life. Then Luke spoke for about 15 minutes (30 with translation) about how God loves them. Then the pastor gave an altar call for salvation. Everyone came forward. Many of the little kids may not have completely understood what was going on, and many of them may already have some sort of relationship with Jesus. But it was still a great thing for the kingdom. They came forward, and we prayed for them for a while. Pastor Sylvan was extremely happy about the event. This was only his second week of church planting out here.
Our team had spread out and sat down so that kids could next to us. There was one kid that chose me; he sat down next to me and put my arm around him. We went forward at the altar call cause I suggested it and he was all for walking while holding my hand. I kept asking him his name but he was extremely shy and wouldn't tell me. I asked a mom what his name was, and it was Karri. Very close to “Cory.” Neat.
Wednesday
Our Rwandan teammate/coordinator is the leader of a ministry called Vida. Today was a meeting in a room about the size of a normal bedroom. There were 12 Rwandans, all between 16-22. We did the same pattern of songs, testimony, and quick sermon. Then we asked for prayer requests. A few mentioned headaches, a couple mentioned stomach aches. One girl mentioned bad dreams, involving seeing dead bodies. The genocide was 15 years ago. So a lot of young adults have lost relatives, and others were participants in the genocide, because a lot of the killing was done by youth in the Interahamwe. (Forgiveness is just as much meant for them as it is for me; to believe anything else is not the gospel). Coming into this outreach, I wanted to make sure we were providing for physical needs of a third-world country, but the emotional and spiritual needs are so strong here. Our teammate Jacinta asked anyone who wanted to make a first time decision for Christ to stand in one part of the room, and anyone who wanted to repent and rededicate to stand in another part of the room. Two girls were in the first-time corner, and four people were in the rededicate corner. We prayed for everyone for a while.
I was ecstatic about working with this age group because when people get saved when they're little kids, it's kind of like they have to get saved again anyway when they get older. I've also heard about low retention rates of converts; going from converts to disciples loses a lot of people. But I think they'll keep coming to this ministry and so it's actually sustainable.
Thursday
We taught art and music at the Christ Gospel Church. There were maybe 17 people at the art workshop; it taught the color wheel and its applications and the value scale. There were maybe 20 people for the music workshop, which split into a group for piano and a group for guitar. Both groups learned chords to play worship songs. I assisted the art workshop for most of it and then went and helped the guitar group.
Friday
I co-taught guitar today to 9 Rwandan beginners at church today. They're learned chords to play worship songs. Yesterday, they started to learn their first chords. Today, I had them working on switching between chords. We had 3 guitars that were circulating around the group for the two hours of class. I would kneel in front of each student and wrestle with his or her fingers to get them into place, because frets are really hard for them to reach in the beginning. It all went really well, but it was exhausting. It's a steep 15-20 minute walk to the church from our house, with a guitar in its case. I'll be teaching every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
This afternoon, I taught English to 12 Rwandans for two hours. It was our first lesson so we went through the alphabet and worked on pronouncing the sounds that don't exist in Kinyarwanda. It was really helpful to know so much Kinyarwanda but I knew what they'd need to work on. They can do “a” as in “bat” fine; they can mostly do “e” as in “bet” ok, but “i” as in “bit” is really hard them. And the English “r” is almost impossible. Even before the DTS, I've spent hours and hours reading about linguistics for fun, and I put a lot of that to use when I was describing what to do with their tongues to make certain sounds. They were really happy with the class. I'll be teaching every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.
At the end of class, we asked the people who didn't own a Bible to raise their hands. There were four respondents, including the two new believers, so we handed out four Kinyarwandan Bibles. One of the girls, when she got her Bible, gasped with excitement. I found it really moving that she was so happy to get a Bible. We asked for prayer requests and two of them prayed that they would get to go back to school. I asked Elijah about it later, and he explained that secondary school in Rwanda is six years (as is primary school) and that the drop-out rate is pretty high for various personal reasons and it's a huge barrier for high school dropouts to opportunities like a decent job.
Monday, December 20, 2010
The Long Blog Post
Hey guys!
We stopped in Brussels for three hours. It's really cool how energy efficient Europe is. The escalators don't start until you step in front of them. Everything was really expensive so we didn't buy anything.
In the US, you're allowed 2 oz. of fluid, so I drank all buy 2 ounces of water from my water bottle. At the security check point, they saw the water and said they allow 0 oz. I asked if I could drink it or if we could just pour it out. They said I first had to go through again and then they directed me to an exit, so I walked around and spent another half an hour going through security with my empty Nalgene bottle. I wish we just did profiling.
We are staying in a really nice house. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and living room.
I saw what looked like a crow, except it was white-breasted. The rest of it was black though. Neat.
Kinyarwanda. It's been awesome. There was a little bus with four Rwandans in it that picked us up from the airport. Elijah, Pastor Claude, Jazelle, and Eric. I started chatting with them in Kinyarwandan. They understood and answered my questions, which is awesome. “Have you been to Rwanda before?” “No.” “It seems like you've been here before.” Sweet. They were all interested in how I learned, and a bunch of them knew Gabi and Margret (my Rwandan teachers).
We're living with Elijah and Sam (Bizimana).
Sam and Jazelle are both 20, but anyone would have guessed their 13.
Gabi and Margret didn't come with us because Margret was having a baby, with the due date in mid-December. The day after we got here, one of our Rwandan contacts said he heard from Gabi, and Gabi was really sad, because the baby was a still birth. They were really looking forward to their little girl. We were crushed to hear that and prayed for a while.
-----------------------------------------
That was all written on Friday. It sounds really upbeat. That jumps out at me more now that we've had four days of jet-lag. I also have hayfever- itchy, watery eyes and itchy, runny nose. I've had a cold for three weeks. It's better now in that my voice is back, but I keep coughing. I think it might be because of the pollution. It smells like exhaust downtown.
I got a bunch of mosquitos on the second night, so our leader gave me her mosquito net. I was pushing for us to buy mosquito nets for the team, but she disagrees, but we're going to talk about it as a team soon.
We're eating really well here. The fruit is really good here. Mangos, amazing passion fruit, fresh bread, great tea. We're making our own meals here, and we have great cooks on our team.
We even have toilets. Most places have squatty potties here. Just a hole in the ground.
Me and a couple other leaders went shopping on Friday and couldn't take a bus, so we each took motorcycle taxis. I hear Portland driving is a bit crazy to some people, though I don't think so, and I am a very moderate Portland driver. Seattle driving is crazy compared to Portland driving. But people who take taxis in third-world countries know that Seattle driving is actually extremely cautious. But these taxi drivers are extremely skilled so the actual risk was extremely low.
We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was soooo weird. The bride was a white Norwegian marrying a Rwandan. She did not look happy at all. At all. They served Fanta in the middle of the wedding. There was no pastor, just an MC making jokes and telling stories. Then we went through a crowded room to dish up awful food and returned to our seats to continue the wedding. We were all hoping that they had already gotten married in Norway and this was just for his family.
On Sunday, we ran Sunday school. We acted out the story of Jonah. I was Jonah. We had a great time with it. Then we broke into age groups. Katie and I had the 4- to 6-year-olds. We reviewed the story and did songs, and then had them draw, and then did more songs with dances. Then we were introduced to the main gathering at Christ Gospel Church, and then we met back with all the kids again. We did more songs with dances, and then sat among the kids. I had a couple on my lap, and I was putting my sunglasses on them, which they really loved. These kids think we're awesome. They loved shaking our hands. I think they're going to think very highly of white people when they grow up.
We're running workshops of music, art, and English this week. I don't know any of the details though.
We did a whole lot of worship and prayer for the first few days. We had a neighbor come over and pray for him. He's a Christian named Eric. He said he was extremely blessed to be prayed over by us, and that he's always wanted that and he feels changed now. Sweet.
I'm in charge of finances for the team. I keep track of every expense and how much money we have and can spend. The team money was dumped into my bank account before we left. I asked if they were sure they wanted me to be the person that both has the money and keeps track of where it goes, which I think is a ridiculous system, but the school leader was all for it. It's harmless this time, but that's a terrible system to have for the long run. Anyway, the staff leader, Mikaela, designated two student leaders, Luke and Michelle, and they're great leaders. Mikaela said she didn't want to add any burdens to me since she says I have the hardest job, but since I'm making all the team purchases and she consults me for decisions involving money like if we can eat out or not, maybe it would have been more consistent to have me in the meetings where Mikaela takes Luke and Michelle aside to pray and plan, but it's just a title so it really doesn't matter at all, cause I think “Accountant / Financial Consultant” is already a really awesome thing to put on my resume when I get back to Portland.
My team gets along great. It's a lot of fun.
I'm really looking forward to how much I'm going to get to do for God here. God is worth it, and plus we get rewards. Sweet deal.
That's all I can think of to write right now. A bit scatter-brained, but pretty candid. Hope you liked it.. :-)
We stopped in Brussels for three hours. It's really cool how energy efficient Europe is. The escalators don't start until you step in front of them. Everything was really expensive so we didn't buy anything.
In the US, you're allowed 2 oz. of fluid, so I drank all buy 2 ounces of water from my water bottle. At the security check point, they saw the water and said they allow 0 oz. I asked if I could drink it or if we could just pour it out. They said I first had to go through again and then they directed me to an exit, so I walked around and spent another half an hour going through security with my empty Nalgene bottle. I wish we just did profiling.
We are staying in a really nice house. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and living room.
I saw what looked like a crow, except it was white-breasted. The rest of it was black though. Neat.
Kinyarwanda. It's been awesome. There was a little bus with four Rwandans in it that picked us up from the airport. Elijah, Pastor Claude, Jazelle, and Eric. I started chatting with them in Kinyarwandan. They understood and answered my questions, which is awesome. “Have you been to Rwanda before?” “No.” “It seems like you've been here before.” Sweet. They were all interested in how I learned, and a bunch of them knew Gabi and Margret (my Rwandan teachers).
We're living with Elijah and Sam (Bizimana).
Sam and Jazelle are both 20, but anyone would have guessed their 13.
Gabi and Margret didn't come with us because Margret was having a baby, with the due date in mid-December. The day after we got here, one of our Rwandan contacts said he heard from Gabi, and Gabi was really sad, because the baby was a still birth. They were really looking forward to their little girl. We were crushed to hear that and prayed for a while.
-----------------------------------------
That was all written on Friday. It sounds really upbeat. That jumps out at me more now that we've had four days of jet-lag. I also have hayfever- itchy, watery eyes and itchy, runny nose. I've had a cold for three weeks. It's better now in that my voice is back, but I keep coughing. I think it might be because of the pollution. It smells like exhaust downtown.
I got a bunch of mosquitos on the second night, so our leader gave me her mosquito net. I was pushing for us to buy mosquito nets for the team, but she disagrees, but we're going to talk about it as a team soon.
We're eating really well here. The fruit is really good here. Mangos, amazing passion fruit, fresh bread, great tea. We're making our own meals here, and we have great cooks on our team.
We even have toilets. Most places have squatty potties here. Just a hole in the ground.
Me and a couple other leaders went shopping on Friday and couldn't take a bus, so we each took motorcycle taxis. I hear Portland driving is a bit crazy to some people, though I don't think so, and I am a very moderate Portland driver. Seattle driving is crazy compared to Portland driving. But people who take taxis in third-world countries know that Seattle driving is actually extremely cautious. But these taxi drivers are extremely skilled so the actual risk was extremely low.
We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was soooo weird. The bride was a white Norwegian marrying a Rwandan. She did not look happy at all. At all. They served Fanta in the middle of the wedding. There was no pastor, just an MC making jokes and telling stories. Then we went through a crowded room to dish up awful food and returned to our seats to continue the wedding. We were all hoping that they had already gotten married in Norway and this was just for his family.
On Sunday, we ran Sunday school. We acted out the story of Jonah. I was Jonah. We had a great time with it. Then we broke into age groups. Katie and I had the 4- to 6-year-olds. We reviewed the story and did songs, and then had them draw, and then did more songs with dances. Then we were introduced to the main gathering at Christ Gospel Church, and then we met back with all the kids again. We did more songs with dances, and then sat among the kids. I had a couple on my lap, and I was putting my sunglasses on them, which they really loved. These kids think we're awesome. They loved shaking our hands. I think they're going to think very highly of white people when they grow up.
We're running workshops of music, art, and English this week. I don't know any of the details though.
We did a whole lot of worship and prayer for the first few days. We had a neighbor come over and pray for him. He's a Christian named Eric. He said he was extremely blessed to be prayed over by us, and that he's always wanted that and he feels changed now. Sweet.
I'm in charge of finances for the team. I keep track of every expense and how much money we have and can spend. The team money was dumped into my bank account before we left. I asked if they were sure they wanted me to be the person that both has the money and keeps track of where it goes, which I think is a ridiculous system, but the school leader was all for it. It's harmless this time, but that's a terrible system to have for the long run. Anyway, the staff leader, Mikaela, designated two student leaders, Luke and Michelle, and they're great leaders. Mikaela said she didn't want to add any burdens to me since she says I have the hardest job, but since I'm making all the team purchases and she consults me for decisions involving money like if we can eat out or not, maybe it would have been more consistent to have me in the meetings where Mikaela takes Luke and Michelle aside to pray and plan, but it's just a title so it really doesn't matter at all, cause I think “Accountant / Financial Consultant” is already a really awesome thing to put on my resume when I get back to Portland.
My team gets along great. It's a lot of fun.
I'm really looking forward to how much I'm going to get to do for God here. God is worth it, and plus we get rewards. Sweet deal.
That's all I can think of to write right now. A bit scatter-brained, but pretty candid. Hope you liked it.. :-)
I'm Alive and Well
I wrote out a blog post on my laptop, but right now I'm not on my laptop cause I'm at an Internet cafe that has computers but not wireless right now and doesn't serve coffee. So later I'll have another blog post that's a lot longer. For now I'll just say that this is our fourth day in Rwanda out of 51. It's been packed. I love my teammates.
We ran Sunday school yesterday. It was awesome.
Rwanda has the highest population density on continental Africa. And we're in Kigali, the capital and largest city. It's definitely a third-world country.
We get Internet access once a week. For Christmas, I want to get online next time and see lots of social networking activity- emails, Facebook notifications and messages, and blog comments. Even reading other people's blogs is awesome. Pretty please. Thank you. I miss you guys a lot.
I'm going to go try to get online with my laptop.
We ran Sunday school yesterday. It was awesome.
Rwanda has the highest population density on continental Africa. And we're in Kigali, the capital and largest city. It's definitely a third-world country.
We get Internet access once a week. For Christmas, I want to get online next time and see lots of social networking activity- emails, Facebook notifications and messages, and blog comments. Even reading other people's blogs is awesome. Pretty please. Thank you. I miss you guys a lot.
I'm going to go try to get online with my laptop.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Just a Quickie...
I just looked at Google maps and learned that our airport (Washington Dulles) is not in DC. It's a half hour drive into Virginia. We have a 12 hour layover. That would be enough time to go look at the Washington Monument / Clinton Memorial, but most my team is sleeping right now. I don't think anyone else would go, and I'm not that motivated myself to do any sightseeing.
Our first flight was 1:40 PM Hawaii time, we landed in LA at 8:40 PM Pacific time, left at 10:40 PM, arrived in DC at 6:00 AM local time. I slept really well on the plane so I'm going to go walk around and get food.
Our first flight was 1:40 PM Hawaii time, we landed in LA at 8:40 PM Pacific time, left at 10:40 PM, arrived in DC at 6:00 AM local time. I slept really well on the plane so I'm going to go walk around and get food.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Pre-Update
I recorded a video for the purpose of posting it here, and I've tried uploading it over the last couple days. It's failed probably 5 times here because the Internet is not fast or stable enough. I intend to conquer this giant eventually.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Drinking the Cool-Aid
YWAM is more charismatic than most everything. Every day you hear, "God gave me a word/picture/vision for you." I've always said, "Sometimes I think of neat things to share, but should I say God put that in my mind?" It's so easy to say, "Hey! I thought of this..." But it's so much more spiritual to say, "Hey! I FELT this..." or especially, "I felt led to share this..." Then there's the compromise way "This came to mind..." cause that could totally be from either me or God, and they pretty much assume I mean from God. But how do you know?
One friend suggested to just share it anyway, and if it strikes the receiver as meaningful or if other people have shared the same thing, then it's probably from God. Makes sense. I also figure if it's something I thought up purely on my own, it's still nice to share it.
As a bit of background, I spent a lot of the weekend praying and reading the Bible over the weekend, so I was a much better Christian and ready to hear from the Lord. Heh.
So I tried it yesterday. Our lecturer stopped talking and said to pray and then go bless someone. So I prayed about it, and I felt like blessing Michelle, and I prayed and thought about what to say, and then I went and prayed for her, and as I was praying, she started crying because it was very moving stuff for her. Neat.
Then today I misunderstood our lecturer. He had all the staff leaders come up for prayer. Turns out, it was so that they could pray for other people. I thought it was for them to receive prayer. So I prayed about who to pray for and then I saw my small group leader was standing there without someone, and I prayed and thought about what to say. And then before I went up to him, I saw all the leaders were the ones doing the praying, and I went up to him anyway and explained to him my misunderstanding and can I pray for him anyway and he said yes. (I didn't think it's funny at the time, but now that I'm writing this, it sounds funny. Imagine people being told to come up to receive prayer and then someone comes up to pray for the prayer minister. Heh.) Anyway, he said he was blown away by what I prayed for. Sweet. This was at the end of worship.
At the end of the lecture (which is after worship) he had us stand back-to-back with someone, wait on the Lord for a word to share with them, and then share it. I grabbed our school leader Dawn cause she was right next to me. Her youngest son is leaving for college next year. My word for her was about one of the difficulties of empty-nester-ness, the transition of identity for the mom who has always said, "I see who I am as a mother raising kids." The word was three-fold...
1: You're still a mom, even if the roles have adjusted.
2: The next chapters in your story are good too. Keep looking forward.
3: God never intended a church community to be a single generation of peers, so it's providential that you're caring for these kids here.
She said that I was echoing things Joy Dawson had told her the previous day and these issues have been on her heart, so she was going to write down what I told her. Cool. I'm pretty sure I only thought of what to say cause my mom would be an empty nester without Molly and Mia, and the third point came straight from Ian Nelson, but God still can get credit for those circumstances, so I won't worry about how supernatural my word of encouragement was.
One friend suggested to just share it anyway, and if it strikes the receiver as meaningful or if other people have shared the same thing, then it's probably from God. Makes sense. I also figure if it's something I thought up purely on my own, it's still nice to share it.
As a bit of background, I spent a lot of the weekend praying and reading the Bible over the weekend, so I was a much better Christian and ready to hear from the Lord. Heh.
So I tried it yesterday. Our lecturer stopped talking and said to pray and then go bless someone. So I prayed about it, and I felt like blessing Michelle, and I prayed and thought about what to say, and then I went and prayed for her, and as I was praying, she started crying because it was very moving stuff for her. Neat.
Then today I misunderstood our lecturer. He had all the staff leaders come up for prayer. Turns out, it was so that they could pray for other people. I thought it was for them to receive prayer. So I prayed about who to pray for and then I saw my small group leader was standing there without someone, and I prayed and thought about what to say. And then before I went up to him, I saw all the leaders were the ones doing the praying, and I went up to him anyway and explained to him my misunderstanding and can I pray for him anyway and he said yes. (I didn't think it's funny at the time, but now that I'm writing this, it sounds funny. Imagine people being told to come up to receive prayer and then someone comes up to pray for the prayer minister. Heh.) Anyway, he said he was blown away by what I prayed for. Sweet. This was at the end of worship.
At the end of the lecture (which is after worship) he had us stand back-to-back with someone, wait on the Lord for a word to share with them, and then share it. I grabbed our school leader Dawn cause she was right next to me. Her youngest son is leaving for college next year. My word for her was about one of the difficulties of empty-nester-ness, the transition of identity for the mom who has always said, "I see who I am as a mother raising kids." The word was three-fold...
1: You're still a mom, even if the roles have adjusted.
2: The next chapters in your story are good too. Keep looking forward.
3: God never intended a church community to be a single generation of peers, so it's providential that you're caring for these kids here.
She said that I was echoing things Joy Dawson had told her the previous day and these issues have been on her heart, so she was going to write down what I told her. Cool. I'm pretty sure I only thought of what to say cause my mom would be an empty nester without Molly and Mia, and the third point came straight from Ian Nelson, but God still can get credit for those circumstances, so I won't worry about how supernatural my word of encouragement was.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
A Full-On Rant
It's been a good experience, but I would not be able to commit to YWAM forever, and I have absolutely no desire to do so. Here's my critique.
This week was the celebration of YWAM's 50 years of existence. They didn't say this overtly all the time, but a lot of it was about how great YWAM is. It reminds me of Ancient Egypt, in that the Pharaohs might have thought the pyramids were symbols of how great Egypt was, when really, it really just told you a lot about their workforce. In the same way, the whole base has worked really hard to put this gala together, including working on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It's different than the Egypt analogy however, because we're paying them to work here.
The 50th Celebration had a 3-hour morning session and a 3-hour evening session. Our school leader has been very emphatic about how mandatory they are. There's optional sessions throughout the day too. What the sessions have lacked in substance, they made up for in long-windedness. To give you an idea, yesterday's evening session was a graduation ceremony. Like graduation ceremonies for a real college, the long ceremonial formalities were a complete waste of my time, and I'm not insulted, but I think it would be reasonable to be insulted that they would have such a long mandatory session that I had no connection to. Yet the whole thing didn't feel any different than every other session. They were all that bad. David Hamilton makes Jose Zayas look like a great, concise speaker. The other night, I had a headache, which I dubbed a "David Hamilton headache."
The food situation has taken a turn for the worse this week too. We used to be limited to one portion of meat for lunch and dinner. Now, they're limiting the rice too, to just one scoop. They've also stopped setting out peanut butter and jelly sandwich stuff at lunch and dinner, so it's even harder to get filled up. So after the night session, we've all been going to McDonald's. Except tonight we went to Jack in the Box, and it was the best trip to Jack in the Box I've ever had. I had 4 tacos, a Jr. bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and 2 leftover portions of a girl's Oreo milkshake that they couldn't finish.
While I'm at it, I might as well mention a few other shortcomings of the YWAM setting in general...
Everything is over spiritualized here. Everything does involve God in a way, but our school leader has guilt-tripped us about keeping our rooms clean and not being late to anything. As I've been saying, "It sounds like they don't want us to break any of the big commandments. You don't sell drugs to children; you don't commit murder; and you keep your room clean."
At home, I'll get to do engineering and entrepreneurship. I fix computers and cars. I do skilled stuff! Here, I'm a peon of the masses. It may be humbling/character building/good for you to do labor that would normally pay minimum wage, especially when you're not actually getting paid at all, but still, it'd be offensive to God to throw away the ability to do more in the world. Even if I got invited to be on staff, I'd be underutilized.
The minimum wage job is a really good comparison because it also hits on the supervision aspect of things. Some managers really suck. YWAM's philosophy on putting people in charge seems to be based on the verse "My strength is made perfect in weakness." ("No qualifications? You're perfect! We're just going to trust God.") I think a big part of it is what I mentioned in the previous paragraph about being underutilized. YWAM can't hold onto skilled guys because they move on.
Lastly, related to being productive, I would make a much, much better supporter than a supportee. Money/lifestyle are limited here, which I can do really well, and I live simply anyway but not to the extent of people living on a missionary base. Here's what I mean for the luxuries that everyone currently not living on a missionary base gets to enjoy.... It's annoying that I can't get any white shirts clean-looking at all cause the washers here don't use hot water. I wouldn't choose to have 6 roommates for an extended period of time. I don't like having to walk to Walmart; I miss having a car. I don't like having my food as rationed as it is. I would almost be tempted to just cave in and flat out ask for a care package with snacks in it to be sent to me, but we're only going to be here for 11 more days, so it'd be too late anyway.
This week was the celebration of YWAM's 50 years of existence. They didn't say this overtly all the time, but a lot of it was about how great YWAM is. It reminds me of Ancient Egypt, in that the Pharaohs might have thought the pyramids were symbols of how great Egypt was, when really, it really just told you a lot about their workforce. In the same way, the whole base has worked really hard to put this gala together, including working on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It's different than the Egypt analogy however, because we're paying them to work here.
The 50th Celebration had a 3-hour morning session and a 3-hour evening session. Our school leader has been very emphatic about how mandatory they are. There's optional sessions throughout the day too. What the sessions have lacked in substance, they made up for in long-windedness. To give you an idea, yesterday's evening session was a graduation ceremony. Like graduation ceremonies for a real college, the long ceremonial formalities were a complete waste of my time, and I'm not insulted, but I think it would be reasonable to be insulted that they would have such a long mandatory session that I had no connection to. Yet the whole thing didn't feel any different than every other session. They were all that bad. David Hamilton makes Jose Zayas look like a great, concise speaker. The other night, I had a headache, which I dubbed a "David Hamilton headache."
The food situation has taken a turn for the worse this week too. We used to be limited to one portion of meat for lunch and dinner. Now, they're limiting the rice too, to just one scoop. They've also stopped setting out peanut butter and jelly sandwich stuff at lunch and dinner, so it's even harder to get filled up. So after the night session, we've all been going to McDonald's. Except tonight we went to Jack in the Box, and it was the best trip to Jack in the Box I've ever had. I had 4 tacos, a Jr. bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and 2 leftover portions of a girl's Oreo milkshake that they couldn't finish.
While I'm at it, I might as well mention a few other shortcomings of the YWAM setting in general...
Everything is over spiritualized here. Everything does involve God in a way, but our school leader has guilt-tripped us about keeping our rooms clean and not being late to anything. As I've been saying, "It sounds like they don't want us to break any of the big commandments. You don't sell drugs to children; you don't commit murder; and you keep your room clean."
At home, I'll get to do engineering and entrepreneurship. I fix computers and cars. I do skilled stuff! Here, I'm a peon of the masses. It may be humbling/character building/good for you to do labor that would normally pay minimum wage, especially when you're not actually getting paid at all, but still, it'd be offensive to God to throw away the ability to do more in the world. Even if I got invited to be on staff, I'd be underutilized.
The minimum wage job is a really good comparison because it also hits on the supervision aspect of things. Some managers really suck. YWAM's philosophy on putting people in charge seems to be based on the verse "My strength is made perfect in weakness." ("No qualifications? You're perfect! We're just going to trust God.") I think a big part of it is what I mentioned in the previous paragraph about being underutilized. YWAM can't hold onto skilled guys because they move on.
Lastly, related to being productive, I would make a much, much better supporter than a supportee. Money/lifestyle are limited here, which I can do really well, and I live simply anyway but not to the extent of people living on a missionary base. Here's what I mean for the luxuries that everyone currently not living on a missionary base gets to enjoy.... It's annoying that I can't get any white shirts clean-looking at all cause the washers here don't use hot water. I wouldn't choose to have 6 roommates for an extended period of time. I don't like having to walk to Walmart; I miss having a car. I don't like having my food as rationed as it is. I would almost be tempted to just cave in and flat out ask for a care package with snacks in it to be sent to me, but we're only going to be here for 11 more days, so it'd be too late anyway.
Friday, December 3, 2010
A Tribute
Madi had to be put to sleep this week. Few people know it's life story...
Once a upon a time, there was a group of people mining into the mountains of Moria, and they dug deeply and greedily. They awakened something in the deep, something not fit for the surface of the world. But it came out into the world and then came upon a hideous creature addicted to the One Ring. These two beings got together and had offspring. Amazingly enough, the first one to come out was even rejected by its parents. It lived as a homeless, abused creature, until one day, this Mother Theresa figure, henceforth just referred to as Mom, received a call about a missing cat. Mom answered the call, trying to find her own moderately ugly lost cat, but instead was just presented with this thing. She took it in and cared for it more than most people care for creatures that have not escaped from Tartarus. It haunted that house for a handful of years, until its equivalent of a heart stopped beating. My theory is that it ran out of food, since it only feeds on the souls of small children. In the end, we tried to cremate it, but the fire had no effect. Looking on the bright side, even though it has passed away, it has become much more pleasant to be around ever since.
Once a upon a time, there was a group of people mining into the mountains of Moria, and they dug deeply and greedily. They awakened something in the deep, something not fit for the surface of the world. But it came out into the world and then came upon a hideous creature addicted to the One Ring. These two beings got together and had offspring. Amazingly enough, the first one to come out was even rejected by its parents. It lived as a homeless, abused creature, until one day, this Mother Theresa figure, henceforth just referred to as Mom, received a call about a missing cat. Mom answered the call, trying to find her own moderately ugly lost cat, but instead was just presented with this thing. She took it in and cared for it more than most people care for creatures that have not escaped from Tartarus. It haunted that house for a handful of years, until its equivalent of a heart stopped beating. My theory is that it ran out of food, since it only feeds on the souls of small children. In the end, we tried to cremate it, but the fire had no effect. Looking on the bright side, even though it has passed away, it has become much more pleasant to be around ever since.
The Computer Conundrum
My laptop wouldn't turn on a couple days ago. It sounded like it was powering up, but the monitor stayed black. So I learned about 808 Computers. It's a 30-40 minute walk away, and it does free diagnostics.
A day ago, I learned the verdict. The motherboard is busted. That's the most expensive part in the computer. It costs a bit over $200 to get a cheap one online. I read online that motherboards can overheat. I think the heat did it in because the "room temperature" is so high here, it's had the sun shining on it before, and leaving it on just makes it hotter.
So here's my options...
Get the cheap motherboard online. Except it would take longer to deliver to Hawaii than the time that I will even be in Hawaii. The same goes for buying a laptop online.
Go to Rwanda without a laptop. Then I'd get a better deal on a laptop when I do buy one. Except I want to have a laptop in Rwanda. I might do a lot of writing while I'm there.
Buy a used laptop. I realized that I only use a computer for low-demand tasks. So there's no point in me buying a really nice laptop. I just need it to do the basics. Alas, the laptops available on Craiglist were crappy deals on laptops of dubious/worthless quality. But thinking along the same lines, I looked into buying a little netbook. But the sizes of the keyboard and monitor annoy me enough that I think it's worth spending the extra hundred dollars to get a full laptop.
Buy the best deal for an entry-level laptop at the closest superstore that sells computers. This is the winning option. I pretty much only ever use the computer for Wikipedia, Facebook, blogging, Skyping, writing, and studying the occasional language. More powerful computers were made for gamers, which I am not. Costco mainly deals in nicer laptops, but Walmart has what I want. I found that Walmart is just as good as various computer company websites for having the price and quality that I'm looking for.
Also, I think I'll get the motherboard I need in March for $200, get the information out, and then sell that laptop for $300.
A day ago, I learned the verdict. The motherboard is busted. That's the most expensive part in the computer. It costs a bit over $200 to get a cheap one online. I read online that motherboards can overheat. I think the heat did it in because the "room temperature" is so high here, it's had the sun shining on it before, and leaving it on just makes it hotter.
So here's my options...
Get the cheap motherboard online. Except it would take longer to deliver to Hawaii than the time that I will even be in Hawaii. The same goes for buying a laptop online.
Go to Rwanda without a laptop. Then I'd get a better deal on a laptop when I do buy one. Except I want to have a laptop in Rwanda. I might do a lot of writing while I'm there.
Buy a used laptop. I realized that I only use a computer for low-demand tasks. So there's no point in me buying a really nice laptop. I just need it to do the basics. Alas, the laptops available on Craiglist were crappy deals on laptops of dubious/worthless quality. But thinking along the same lines, I looked into buying a little netbook. But the sizes of the keyboard and monitor annoy me enough that I think it's worth spending the extra hundred dollars to get a full laptop.
Buy the best deal for an entry-level laptop at the closest superstore that sells computers. This is the winning option. I pretty much only ever use the computer for Wikipedia, Facebook, blogging, Skyping, writing, and studying the occasional language. More powerful computers were made for gamers, which I am not. Costco mainly deals in nicer laptops, but Walmart has what I want. I found that Walmart is just as good as various computer company websites for having the price and quality that I'm looking for.
Also, I think I'll get the motherboard I need in March for $200, get the information out, and then sell that laptop for $300.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Technology Spotlight
I've been neglecting blogging lately. I think the main reason has been how focused I am on learning Kinyarwanda. But here's some pieces of technology that I've had a strong appreciation for lately.
I love mopeds.
100 miles to the gallon. The tank is 1 1/3 gallons. When I rented a moped, he asked that I not return it empty but would instead put in $1.00 of gas for the next person.
Hawaii's laws are awesome. I don't need a motorcycle license to drive one. My moped was limited to 37 mph. So on highways, I drive in the bicycle lane. Which is a huge plus when there's traffic.
Polymers.
Metal water bottles really suck. They expand with temperature and get scratched easily. The grooves got worn down enough that the cap wouldn't stay on and I couldn't carry it around like I normally do. It was really frustrating.
So I got a Nalgene! It's awesome. It holds 750 mL. I don't have to take off the top to drink from it. And it's easy to clip on to my belt during construction.
Artificial sweeteners.
I did an experiment the other day. I got two little styrofoam cups of coffee. I put a pack of sugar into one and a pack of sweetener into the other. The one with the sweetener was so much sweeter. I had no idea they'd be that different. I liked it.
The Internets. (A Series of Tubes)
I'm probably spending an hour a day learning Kinyarwanda on the Internet. Spanish divides nouns into masculine and feminine, and adjectives are conjugated accordingly. Kinyarwanda has 12 divisions of nouns, and every word in the sentence is conjugated (more correctly, inflected, which includes conjugation and declension) accordingly. I'm learning to say a lot, but my listening comprehension is really lagging because I'm still really slow at it. I have a list of 80 verbs that I'm memorizing, and it's a bit frustrating sometimes, because there's some words that I look at that I can't remember, even though I've looked at them 10 times. And when I read my Kinyarwanda Bible, I can't understand most of the words I read. It's a tiny bit overwhelming, but I'm pushing through. I can't get any sympathy about this here.
One thing I love about blogging is that when I have a rather witty cultural reference, I can just put the link in so that people can brush up on the reference and get it (e.g. The Internets and A Series of Tubes). Because there's so many girls here that give other girls a bad name by not getting anything I say unless it's not subtle at all.
I love mopeds.
100 miles to the gallon. The tank is 1 1/3 gallons. When I rented a moped, he asked that I not return it empty but would instead put in $1.00 of gas for the next person.
Hawaii's laws are awesome. I don't need a motorcycle license to drive one. My moped was limited to 37 mph. So on highways, I drive in the bicycle lane. Which is a huge plus when there's traffic.
Polymers.
Metal water bottles really suck. They expand with temperature and get scratched easily. The grooves got worn down enough that the cap wouldn't stay on and I couldn't carry it around like I normally do. It was really frustrating.
So I got a Nalgene! It's awesome. It holds 750 mL. I don't have to take off the top to drink from it. And it's easy to clip on to my belt during construction.
Artificial sweeteners.
I did an experiment the other day. I got two little styrofoam cups of coffee. I put a pack of sugar into one and a pack of sweetener into the other. The one with the sweetener was so much sweeter. I had no idea they'd be that different. I liked it.
The Internets. (A Series of Tubes)
I'm probably spending an hour a day learning Kinyarwanda on the Internet. Spanish divides nouns into masculine and feminine, and adjectives are conjugated accordingly. Kinyarwanda has 12 divisions of nouns, and every word in the sentence is conjugated (more correctly, inflected, which includes conjugation and declension) accordingly. I'm learning to say a lot, but my listening comprehension is really lagging because I'm still really slow at it. I have a list of 80 verbs that I'm memorizing, and it's a bit frustrating sometimes, because there's some words that I look at that I can't remember, even though I've looked at them 10 times. And when I read my Kinyarwanda Bible, I can't understand most of the words I read. It's a tiny bit overwhelming, but I'm pushing through. I can't get any sympathy about this here.
One thing I love about blogging is that when I have a rather witty cultural reference, I can just put the link in so that people can brush up on the reference and get it (e.g. The Internets and A Series of Tubes). Because there's so many girls here that give other girls a bad name by not getting anything I say unless it's not subtle at all.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Staff Appreciation Night Preparation Craziness
(I'll have a blog about the weekend later.)
One of the girls in the Compassion DTS, Emily, decided to have an appreciation night for the staff. She created groups to help her organize it. I volunteered for the food prep group. Today she said she needed someone with a Costco card, so I raised my hand and joined in on the Costco run today at 5:00.
There were 8 of us walking into Costco with one card. A bunch of people were nervous that that wouldn't work (that they'd stop us and say a large group can't walk in with one card). I said that'd be ridiculous. We walked in just fine without a second glance. Sweet.
Two of the girls wanted to take advantage of the Costco run and get personal food in addition to the event's food. I saw no problem with that. I just scan my Costco card before each of them goes, and then they pay with their card. I wasn't sure that you could pay with a different person's card, in which case, I would just pay and be paid back. But again, there were a few in the group that didn't think it'd be allowed for one member card to be scanned three times, which I found a ridiculous idea. And so they suggested schemes of throwing everything into one batch and subtracting the personal goods from the cost and dividing the remainder among the supporters. There were a few people suggesting schemes, and whenever that happens, I pretty much always stay out of it, to not further contribute to the cacophony. It went on for long enough that I took the two girls through the lines and scanned my member card for them, so that I could show the others that it could be done, and then we'd simply pay for the group things with the communal money.
And it almost completely worked, except with one problem. The lady behind the counter was personally offended that I was taking advantage of my membership powers. Perhaps she felt I was cheating the system. If I were breaking a rule, or if she at least thought or felt I was breaking a rule, then that would have been understandable. But this was different. She started out perfectly fairly, informing me that I would not be entitled to a third receipt for the third purchase, motioning to the receipt that had just been printed out for the second purchase. So I ask, "K. I can still do a separate purchase, right?" "Yes." Wonderful. I take the second receipt out of the machine and hand it to the second girl, Lauren. The lady sees the receipt no longer there and then asks me if I took it out of the machine. I say, "I'm sorry, I thought you gestured for me to take it." She said nothing, but she appeared very annoyed with me. She then starts running the last group of food, for the event. Emily waits at the register to pay. I forget who got handed the third receipt, but we were all surprised to be handed a third receipt since we didn't pay. I see that the card number on the receipt was the same number as on the second receipt. She had charged the $100.34 of food for the staff appreciation night to Lauren's card. We hand Lauren the cash to make up for it, but she started freaking out because her account didn't have much money and she is living month to month.
We know Walmart has a money transfer service, so I hop out of the truck with Lauren and Emily (who needs more personal food). I wait with Lauren in line, and for at least ten minutes, the guy in front of us is returning a handful of items, one transaction at a time. (I don't know if this is relevant, but one of my roommates used to steal things from Target and then return them to Walmart because of Walmart's lax return policy; he said it was really easy.) At this point, I remember I was approaching the time for a phone date, but just then, we get called to the counter and we ask if they can transfer money into an account or deposit checks, and no, they cannot. They can transfer money between people but not into accounts, and they can cash welfare/government checks but not personal checks; Walmart knows its key demographic/customers. Lauren will have to mail the cash to her mom for her mom to deposit, because her bank does not have a branch in Hawaii. She said her mom probably wouldn't deposit anything for her until she gets the cash in the mail, which is sad.
So we check out of Walmart, and while we had been in line at customer service counter, the truck driver had texted me to say take the Walmart shuttle back so he wouldn't have to come back, cause shuttle vans come every 20 minutes anyway. We walk outside and there's 5 YWAMers waiting for the shuttle, including a CommTrans person who wanted to tell me how hilarious my jokes were last week at the open mic night. Also as we're walking outside, we see an empty YWAM shuttle driving away from those 5 people that are waving at the van. They all expect the van to turn left for another loop to actually pick up people, but it didn't. It just drove away. Ha! Did it think we were waving goodbye?
So we wait and talk. Ten minutes later, another van shows up. I wish Lydia a good night and hop into the van.
It's really good I was in on all this, because I feel I did a pretty good job of making the crew laugh as our plans went through the blender. Crazy night. :-D
One of the girls in the Compassion DTS, Emily, decided to have an appreciation night for the staff. She created groups to help her organize it. I volunteered for the food prep group. Today she said she needed someone with a Costco card, so I raised my hand and joined in on the Costco run today at 5:00.
There were 8 of us walking into Costco with one card. A bunch of people were nervous that that wouldn't work (that they'd stop us and say a large group can't walk in with one card). I said that'd be ridiculous. We walked in just fine without a second glance. Sweet.
Two of the girls wanted to take advantage of the Costco run and get personal food in addition to the event's food. I saw no problem with that. I just scan my Costco card before each of them goes, and then they pay with their card. I wasn't sure that you could pay with a different person's card, in which case, I would just pay and be paid back. But again, there were a few in the group that didn't think it'd be allowed for one member card to be scanned three times, which I found a ridiculous idea. And so they suggested schemes of throwing everything into one batch and subtracting the personal goods from the cost and dividing the remainder among the supporters. There were a few people suggesting schemes, and whenever that happens, I pretty much always stay out of it, to not further contribute to the cacophony. It went on for long enough that I took the two girls through the lines and scanned my member card for them, so that I could show the others that it could be done, and then we'd simply pay for the group things with the communal money.
And it almost completely worked, except with one problem. The lady behind the counter was personally offended that I was taking advantage of my membership powers. Perhaps she felt I was cheating the system. If I were breaking a rule, or if she at least thought or felt I was breaking a rule, then that would have been understandable. But this was different. She started out perfectly fairly, informing me that I would not be entitled to a third receipt for the third purchase, motioning to the receipt that had just been printed out for the second purchase. So I ask, "K. I can still do a separate purchase, right?" "Yes." Wonderful. I take the second receipt out of the machine and hand it to the second girl, Lauren. The lady sees the receipt no longer there and then asks me if I took it out of the machine. I say, "I'm sorry, I thought you gestured for me to take it." She said nothing, but she appeared very annoyed with me. She then starts running the last group of food, for the event. Emily waits at the register to pay. I forget who got handed the third receipt, but we were all surprised to be handed a third receipt since we didn't pay. I see that the card number on the receipt was the same number as on the second receipt. She had charged the $100.34 of food for the staff appreciation night to Lauren's card. We hand Lauren the cash to make up for it, but she started freaking out because her account didn't have much money and she is living month to month.
We know Walmart has a money transfer service, so I hop out of the truck with Lauren and Emily (who needs more personal food). I wait with Lauren in line, and for at least ten minutes, the guy in front of us is returning a handful of items, one transaction at a time. (I don't know if this is relevant, but one of my roommates used to steal things from Target and then return them to Walmart because of Walmart's lax return policy; he said it was really easy.) At this point, I remember I was approaching the time for a phone date, but just then, we get called to the counter and we ask if they can transfer money into an account or deposit checks, and no, they cannot. They can transfer money between people but not into accounts, and they can cash welfare/government checks but not personal checks; Walmart knows its key demographic/customers. Lauren will have to mail the cash to her mom for her mom to deposit, because her bank does not have a branch in Hawaii. She said her mom probably wouldn't deposit anything for her until she gets the cash in the mail, which is sad.
So we check out of Walmart, and while we had been in line at customer service counter, the truck driver had texted me to say take the Walmart shuttle back so he wouldn't have to come back, cause shuttle vans come every 20 minutes anyway. We walk outside and there's 5 YWAMers waiting for the shuttle, including a CommTrans person who wanted to tell me how hilarious my jokes were last week at the open mic night. Also as we're walking outside, we see an empty YWAM shuttle driving away from those 5 people that are waving at the van. They all expect the van to turn left for another loop to actually pick up people, but it didn't. It just drove away. Ha! Did it think we were waving goodbye?
So we wait and talk. Ten minutes later, another van shows up. I wish Lydia a good night and hop into the van.
It's really good I was in on all this, because I feel I did a pretty good job of making the crew laugh as our plans went through the blender. Crazy night. :-D
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Beaches
I'm serving the Lord, I promise!
Children's Beach. There's a rock wall that lets in water but kills the waves, and on the side the rock wall closest to shore, there's like a pool maybe bigger than a football, and it's all about five feet deep, and so it's the perfect place for snorkeling. We also saw a turtle there. There's no sandy beach here though.
Mile 88. A very white sandy beach with very clear water. Small waves, but it's a big beach. It also has a rock you can swim out to and jump off of. It's popular but not super crowded.
Hapuna Beach. We went here the first weekend. It was the biggest beach, and it had pretty good-sized waves. There's a good area for playing football and soccer. There's a park canopy for having lunch in.
Magic Sands Beach. Short stretch of sand with huge waves. Crowded and fun. Very close to base.
The beach by the pier. Closest beach to the base. You just have to walk down the boardwalk to get there. It's the smallest beach, but it's perfect if you just want a quick getaway.
Other tourist attractions include the farmer's market, the weekend flea market, the froyo place close to the base.
Great tourist activities are snorkeling, boogie boarding, cliff jumping, going to the movies, and napping.
Children's Beach. There's a rock wall that lets in water but kills the waves, and on the side the rock wall closest to shore, there's like a pool maybe bigger than a football, and it's all about five feet deep, and so it's the perfect place for snorkeling. We also saw a turtle there. There's no sandy beach here though.
Mile 88. A very white sandy beach with very clear water. Small waves, but it's a big beach. It also has a rock you can swim out to and jump off of. It's popular but not super crowded.
Hapuna Beach. We went here the first weekend. It was the biggest beach, and it had pretty good-sized waves. There's a good area for playing football and soccer. There's a park canopy for having lunch in.
Magic Sands Beach. Short stretch of sand with huge waves. Crowded and fun. Very close to base.
The beach by the pier. Closest beach to the base. You just have to walk down the boardwalk to get there. It's the smallest beach, but it's perfect if you just want a quick getaway.
Other tourist attractions include the farmer's market, the weekend flea market, the froyo place close to the base.
Great tourist activities are snorkeling, boogie boarding, cliff jumping, going to the movies, and napping.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
A Snapshot of Sermons
We have lecture everyday from 9 to noon. Same speaker every weekday for a week. We have really good lecturers here. Here's a sample of one day of preaching.
"
When I grew up, I was in a gang. Our school building was made up of 4 halls, arranged in the shape of a giant rectangle with the blacktop courtyard in the middle of the rectangle. Once, my gang members and I stole a tombstone, lifted it over the school building into the courtyard, and cemented it to our turf (our piece of the courtyard that stood around at all day). Once, I stole a teacher's car, and did donuts in the lawn of the school. I had teachers who would give me an A as long as I agreed to not show up in their class and to leave them alone.
There was this girl in our school who was really good-looking, and she was a Christian. Every single day, my best friend and fellow gang member, Mike, would ask her out, and she would say no. But then after a couple months, she says yes on the condition that she drives. She took him to church and he got saved.
Everyday he started telling me about Jesus, and I would hit him and spit on him and excommunicated him from our gang, so he started telling me about Jesus from a distance, for two years. One of my friends, an enormous guy, said he heard about these church services where they were praying for people and the people were falling down whenever they got pray for. He decided to go to one so that he could prove that no one could knock him down. At the end of the sermon, they ask people to come down for prayer, and he jumps out of his seat and starts running down because he wants to be the first one for prayer just to prove that it wouldn't affect him. When he gets ten feet from the stage, it's as if he ran into an invisible concrete wall. He fell over backwards and was knocked unconscious for 30 minutes, even though, as everyone in the church could see, there was nothing there in the spot he seemed to crash into something. He got saved that night.
After a couple years, I eventually gave in to my best friend Mike's invitation to go to an evangelistic meeting. I went and hated it. But at the altar call, I couldn't explain it when I felt myself stand. I tried to sit back down but my knees wouldn't bend. People were pushing me to the front, but the stage ran out of room, so the speaker told us to just stand there. I stood and listened, but then ran out. But then I went home. My mom freaked out that I was home on a Friday night, because I never came home on Friday nights. I just went to bed and woke up in the morning.
When I woke up, I started freaking out, because I wasn't shaking. I'd been heavy into drugs from ages 11 to 18, so it was normal to me. (He's describing DT.) Anways, I went to work that morning.
I worked as a cleaner for high rise buildings, because as soon as the supervisor left, me and my friends used to steal massive amounts of equipment from the buildings everyday so that we could buy drugs. But this morning, my friend said, "Let's go." And my knees locked again. And then I couldn't believe it when my mouth said, "I don't want to steal anymore." I called Mike and said, "What did you do to me?!" He said, "It's Jesus! It's Jesus!"
So he gets me to church and I pray, "God, it's me, Don Gillman. I'm down here. (As if saying 'here' would clarify things for Him.) I know I've done a lot of bad things. I'm sorry."
I became a Christian, met and married my wife, started a construction business, and then joined YWAM.
One of the guys I met in YWAM was an Indian guy named Simon. He was weird cause when we'd hang out in town he'd want to walk and hold hands with me, cause men do that in his culture, and I had to always keep hitting his hand away.
Simon used to be an alcoholic street fighter. One night, a white lady throws something out of a cab towards him, and he was curious what a white lady would throw out of a cab, and so he bends down and picks it up, and he's too drunk to read it. So he sticks it in his pocket, and the next morning, he reads the gospel tract. He becomes a Christian from that. He joins YWAM and eventually helps the Bible get translated into the dialect of his tribe in north eastern India for the first time. All that came from the courage of a white lady who was too timid to do anything more than toss a track out the crack of a window, and she will never know what all that little act of faith led to.
"
The End. I left out a lot from that day. But there's a snapshot of it.
"
When I grew up, I was in a gang. Our school building was made up of 4 halls, arranged in the shape of a giant rectangle with the blacktop courtyard in the middle of the rectangle. Once, my gang members and I stole a tombstone, lifted it over the school building into the courtyard, and cemented it to our turf (our piece of the courtyard that stood around at all day). Once, I stole a teacher's car, and did donuts in the lawn of the school. I had teachers who would give me an A as long as I agreed to not show up in their class and to leave them alone.
There was this girl in our school who was really good-looking, and she was a Christian. Every single day, my best friend and fellow gang member, Mike, would ask her out, and she would say no. But then after a couple months, she says yes on the condition that she drives. She took him to church and he got saved.
Everyday he started telling me about Jesus, and I would hit him and spit on him and excommunicated him from our gang, so he started telling me about Jesus from a distance, for two years. One of my friends, an enormous guy, said he heard about these church services where they were praying for people and the people were falling down whenever they got pray for. He decided to go to one so that he could prove that no one could knock him down. At the end of the sermon, they ask people to come down for prayer, and he jumps out of his seat and starts running down because he wants to be the first one for prayer just to prove that it wouldn't affect him. When he gets ten feet from the stage, it's as if he ran into an invisible concrete wall. He fell over backwards and was knocked unconscious for 30 minutes, even though, as everyone in the church could see, there was nothing there in the spot he seemed to crash into something. He got saved that night.
After a couple years, I eventually gave in to my best friend Mike's invitation to go to an evangelistic meeting. I went and hated it. But at the altar call, I couldn't explain it when I felt myself stand. I tried to sit back down but my knees wouldn't bend. People were pushing me to the front, but the stage ran out of room, so the speaker told us to just stand there. I stood and listened, but then ran out. But then I went home. My mom freaked out that I was home on a Friday night, because I never came home on Friday nights. I just went to bed and woke up in the morning.
When I woke up, I started freaking out, because I wasn't shaking. I'd been heavy into drugs from ages 11 to 18, so it was normal to me. (He's describing DT.) Anways, I went to work that morning.
I worked as a cleaner for high rise buildings, because as soon as the supervisor left, me and my friends used to steal massive amounts of equipment from the buildings everyday so that we could buy drugs. But this morning, my friend said, "Let's go." And my knees locked again. And then I couldn't believe it when my mouth said, "I don't want to steal anymore." I called Mike and said, "What did you do to me?!" He said, "It's Jesus! It's Jesus!"
So he gets me to church and I pray, "God, it's me, Don Gillman. I'm down here. (As if saying 'here' would clarify things for Him.) I know I've done a lot of bad things. I'm sorry."
I became a Christian, met and married my wife, started a construction business, and then joined YWAM.
One of the guys I met in YWAM was an Indian guy named Simon. He was weird cause when we'd hang out in town he'd want to walk and hold hands with me, cause men do that in his culture, and I had to always keep hitting his hand away.
Simon used to be an alcoholic street fighter. One night, a white lady throws something out of a cab towards him, and he was curious what a white lady would throw out of a cab, and so he bends down and picks it up, and he's too drunk to read it. So he sticks it in his pocket, and the next morning, he reads the gospel tract. He becomes a Christian from that. He joins YWAM and eventually helps the Bible get translated into the dialect of his tribe in north eastern India for the first time. All that came from the courage of a white lady who was too timid to do anything more than toss a track out the crack of a window, and she will never know what all that little act of faith led to.
"
The End. I left out a lot from that day. But there's a snapshot of it.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Week 5
Relationships Week.
Most of it was good, and then she spent the last day reinforcing stereotypes about ministry subculture. She endorsed the Christian side hug (instead of real hugs), and guys and girls not hanging out in a one-on-one setting. Real quote: "Does holding hands cause you to stumble? You have to know yourself." (Context = A guy the speaker knew started out a relationship without being willing to hold hands because he had a crazy sexual history and wanted to be at the other extreme.)
We're learning more about the Rwanda mission. They haven't had any student deaths for two years now (just kidding, mom!). We're all going to be living in a house away from the YWAM base. A few of my teammates love to cook. I'm learning Kinyarwandan still, but I haven't put as much time into it as I'd like. I really need this weekend. I really want to sleep in. I'm surprised how easy it is to spend a week here without reading the Bible. It'll be a good weekend though.
Brazilians (male and female) are the most touchy-feely people in the world. A conversation with one of them is quite an experience. I think it's really cool.
Basketball tournament tonight. My team lost. Our Hawaiian big guy left the game at 16-16 (games to 15) to go play on the other court with a Hawaiian friend. Lame.
Most of it was good, and then she spent the last day reinforcing stereotypes about ministry subculture. She endorsed the Christian side hug (instead of real hugs), and guys and girls not hanging out in a one-on-one setting. Real quote: "Does holding hands cause you to stumble? You have to know yourself." (Context = A guy the speaker knew started out a relationship without being willing to hold hands because he had a crazy sexual history and wanted to be at the other extreme.)
We're learning more about the Rwanda mission. They haven't had any student deaths for two years now (just kidding, mom!). We're all going to be living in a house away from the YWAM base. A few of my teammates love to cook. I'm learning Kinyarwandan still, but I haven't put as much time into it as I'd like. I really need this weekend. I really want to sleep in. I'm surprised how easy it is to spend a week here without reading the Bible. It'll be a good weekend though.
Brazilians (male and female) are the most touchy-feely people in the world. A conversation with one of them is quite an experience. I think it's really cool.
Basketball tournament tonight. My team lost. Our Hawaiian big guy left the game at 16-16 (games to 15) to go play on the other court with a Hawaiian friend. Lame.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Crazy Halloween
There were 6000 people that came to our Halloween event yesterday. It's put on by a church here called Solid Rock. True story.
The Compassion DTS showed up at 7 AM and worked til 11 AM on setting up Candy Land. There was a guided tour through candy-themed tents that we set up. We also had a row of games (dart throwing, bean bag toss, "fishing" for a candy, etc.). And we had a huge tent covering for serving hot dogs and baked goods. We showed up again at 4. The event started at 5 and went til 8.
I was a greeter and then I helped run the candy fishing game. It was almost non-stop work, except for a few texts and then a few-minute verbal text. I did the entire night in a Scottish accent, which led to a few wonderful conversations."
Christine (college-age church girl): "Where are they from?"
Tracy (older church staff): "They're from YWAM and Scotland."
Christine: "Oh so that's like real! (To me:) I thought you were wearing that kilt a bit freely, like it wasn't your first time."
Me: "Aye."
We talked for a little bit and then she left quickly enough that I never got to clarify that I was just joking.
Me: "Go ahead laddie. It's your turn."
Boy didn't respond, so I turn to the old person on the side.
Me: "What do Americans say for laddie and lassie?"
Oldie: "Well, 'boy' or 'girl' works just fine, except 'boy' is sometimes used for (quieter, with intensity:) 'negros' so I wouldn't use that. It's not Kosher."
Old Person #2: "You know, I have a friend with a condo in.... I want to say North Umbridge, but that's not it. Oh, it's Newcastle."
Me: "Sounds like a good place for a castle."
She "knew" I was Scottish, but she doesn't know Newcastle is actually in England.
Friday, October 29, 2010
So many adventures...
I went snorkeling at the Children's Beach on Thursday. The whole cast of Finding Nemo was there. There were moorish idols and regal tangs. It was a perfect shallow snorkeling place without waves. There was coral growing everywhere too. It was really cool watching a turtle on the rocky shore while it was feeding.
Friday was the deadline for the $2500 outreach deposit. There were maybe a dozen people who owed an average of maybe $2000. There's so many people here who just did not have their lives together at all before they got here. And a few people just came from really poor countries, including Jacinta from Uganda, who's on my Rwanda team. On Friday, the people who still owed money sat in front of the class on the edge of the stage. We had worship music playing and people who wanted to share money would give them a slip of paper with a number of dollars committed to them. It was very emotional and very moving. It convinced me to write support letters for my team. By the end of the hour of that meeting, there was $15000 less owed, and now only 5 people owed money.
I went with my roommates to a MMA (mixed martial arts) gym on Friday. We did jogging, bag hitting, offense/defense drills, and then just normal sparring. Then we did a drill where someone standing over you drops a medicine ball on your abs while you're doing crunches. I like that drill. It's a good way to work the abs pretty hard. I was sore the next day, but only on my left side where I took a harder hit.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
So awesome...
Camping was cool. Fresh guava on the trees that lined the hiking trail was amazing. I used a guitar case for my pillow. Pictures are on Facebook.
But the main part of "So awesome..." involves my first acting experience since 8th grade. I auditioned a few days ago. Three other guys auditioned too. I got the part.
I was a narrator for a 13-minute film. We recorded takes for just over an hour. We did at least two takes for 26 different chunks of lines. I feel like I did an almost decent job. The director/writer/recorder is a YWAM staff guy that had to fly to Atlanta, Georgia tonight because he's on the board for International Christian Visual Media. So he said normally he would do 7 or 8 takes, but he feels pretty good about what he got.
He's going to enter the film into film festivals and see if it can win any prizes.
I'll get a copy by December to show to everyone.
---------------
Our speaker, Matt Rawlins, is speaking to both us and the Justice DTS together. So Dawn and Pieter asked us to be very welcoming to them. I told Dawn I could name them all like she had me do our school when it started, and she loved the idea. So on Monday, she gave me the microphone. "You guys, this is going to seem really, really creepy, but will all the Justice students please stand up." And then they sat down when I said the first and (sometimes middle and) and last name and where they're from. Since I had studied the Facebook group they were part of, I got 47 of the 50 students. The weird part was how many Justice students said they were really grateful and thought that was really nice. I guess they felt like I was just introducing them to the Compassion students. Cool.
But the main part of "So awesome..." involves my first acting experience since 8th grade. I auditioned a few days ago. Three other guys auditioned too. I got the part.
I was a narrator for a 13-minute film. We recorded takes for just over an hour. We did at least two takes for 26 different chunks of lines. I feel like I did an almost decent job. The director/writer/recorder is a YWAM staff guy that had to fly to Atlanta, Georgia tonight because he's on the board for International Christian Visual Media. So he said normally he would do 7 or 8 takes, but he feels pretty good about what he got.
He's going to enter the film into film festivals and see if it can win any prizes.
I'll get a copy by December to show to everyone.
---------------
Our speaker, Matt Rawlins, is speaking to both us and the Justice DTS together. So Dawn and Pieter asked us to be very welcoming to them. I told Dawn I could name them all like she had me do our school when it started, and she loved the idea. So on Monday, she gave me the microphone. "You guys, this is going to seem really, really creepy, but will all the Justice students please stand up." And then they sat down when I said the first and (sometimes middle and) and last name and where they're from. Since I had studied the Facebook group they were part of, I got 47 of the 50 students. The weird part was how many Justice students said they were really grateful and thought that was really nice. I guess they felt like I was just introducing them to the Compassion students. Cool.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
My time here is so hard to condense...
For my small group meeting on Thursday, we went cliff jumping at a place called the End of the World. For real. I’m still alive though. No picture this time.
Dodge ball tournament tonight. It was fun. Even though my team was pretty awful. Dodge ball is such a great sport. It really tests your reflexes. I love it.
McDonald’s Run Tonight. I had two McChickens, a large fries, and a hot fudge sundae. Such a great meal.
The speakers this last week were Trent and Trey Sheppard. They were all over the place in what they talked about. They were just filled with stories. The stories mostly centered on influencing the world and the humanity of Jesus. Everything was being translated in Korean too. Hence the joke, “I think our speaker is really good, but that Korean guy keeps interrupting him!”
Our speaker next week is speaking to both us and the Justice DTS.
I’m learning Kinyarwanda. It’s really cool and crazy. They have 10 different classes of nouns.
I'm leaving to go camping in two hours with the guys.
Dodge ball tournament tonight. It was fun. Even though my team was pretty awful. Dodge ball is such a great sport. It really tests your reflexes. I love it.
McDonald’s Run Tonight. I had two McChickens, a large fries, and a hot fudge sundae. Such a great meal.
The speakers this last week were Trent and Trey Sheppard. They were all over the place in what they talked about. They were just filled with stories. The stories mostly centered on influencing the world and the humanity of Jesus. Everything was being translated in Korean too. Hence the joke, “I think our speaker is really good, but that Korean guy keeps interrupting him!”
Our speaker next week is speaking to both us and the Justice DTS.
I’m learning Kinyarwanda. It’s really cool and crazy. They have 10 different classes of nouns.
I'm leaving to go camping in two hours with the guys.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Rwanda
I don’t know what we’ll be doing in Rwanda, but I am going to start studying Kinyarwanda like crazy. I always run into a few Indians at engineering companies, because so many of them are engineers, so it would have been more auspicious if I were learning Hindi and going to India, which would include building houses (which I’m well trained for). India’s also one of the fastest growing economies in the world, so it’s really interesting to me. I also think I'd like Indian food much much more than Rwandan food. The other 7 Rwanda people had Rwanda as their first choice, (Rwanda was my second choice), but our leader Mikaela said she stole me away from India cause she wanted more guys.
So at first I had mixed feelings, cause if the entire world revolved around me, I might have made a couple adjustments to my destination and team. But dude! I’m going to Africa. And anyways, before the DTS started, I’ve always told people I’m going to Rwanda.
Meet the Rwanda Team
Mikaela Joy Moxness. The staff member who will be our leader. A missionary kid. She’s from Indonesia, but her parents are from the States. I immediately felt nervous about having a hyper 19-year-old girl as a leader, but her first words could not have been more perfect. She called us all together and said “I know some of you may be nervous about have a 19-year-old girl as a leader, but I really see you guys as the leaders and I’m just helping to send you out to be leaders.” Well done.
Now, in order of favoritism…
Luke Cook. He probably enjoys my humor more than anyone else here. He’s a former college football quarterback and a very cool guy.
Kara Dannenberg. She is 18 but seems much older. We’ve been hanging out a bit, and she’s a lot of fun. She has an awesome thunderous laugh, especially at most of the things I say. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 2 months now. She’s the one that loves her boyfriend “more than a really good dump after not having had one for a really long time.”
Michelle Berry. She’s 25. Her boyfriend is 35. There are three 25-year-old girls in my school. They’re all very down-to-earth and are fun and easy to hang out with. We make fun of the 18-year-olds together. Well, mainly, I do, but they participate as the audience.
Jacinta Kanyunyunzi. She’s from Uganda and grew up in her later years in Philadelphia. She’s nice and she’s acculturated with American humor, which is great. She’s also graduated from college here in the States. She speaks a bunch of Bantu languages so that will be helpful.
Sam Loewen. He had a blog about fashion before the DTS started. He’s an art major. The way he talks is very effeminate. He is awesome. He’s really nice and easy to hang out with.
Madi Kozacek. She’s nice. Not super outgoing, but she is somewhat approachable. She’s from Washington. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 6 months.
Katie Green. She is the Canadian patient. I’m not saying this to be funny or mean, but she has low self-esteem and doesn’t understand guys at all so she reminds me of bad past experiences, which is unpleasant to me, so I’ve been more distant with her lately. Cause she says something really mean, and then she doesn’t understand at all why what she said crossed a line, and then when I explain it to her, she says she doesn’t understand guys at all. She also often frets about her problems. I am very motivated to read that book on counseling. I believe that the majority of the time, people’s general well-being doesn’t improve drastically or maybe even noticeably, and any changes are hard-earned. I’ve grown more cynical from having failed so much at trying to help people over the last few years. But still, I don’t want to let that compassionate part of me die. I’ll just have to cut my losses and try, try again.
So at first I had mixed feelings, cause if the entire world revolved around me, I might have made a couple adjustments to my destination and team. But dude! I’m going to Africa. And anyways, before the DTS started, I’ve always told people I’m going to Rwanda.
Meet the Rwanda Team
Mikaela Joy Moxness. The staff member who will be our leader. A missionary kid. She’s from Indonesia, but her parents are from the States. I immediately felt nervous about having a hyper 19-year-old girl as a leader, but her first words could not have been more perfect. She called us all together and said “I know some of you may be nervous about have a 19-year-old girl as a leader, but I really see you guys as the leaders and I’m just helping to send you out to be leaders.” Well done.
Now, in order of favoritism…
Luke Cook. He probably enjoys my humor more than anyone else here. He’s a former college football quarterback and a very cool guy.
Kara Dannenberg. She is 18 but seems much older. We’ve been hanging out a bit, and she’s a lot of fun. She has an awesome thunderous laugh, especially at most of the things I say. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 2 months now. She’s the one that loves her boyfriend “more than a really good dump after not having had one for a really long time.”
Michelle Berry. She’s 25. Her boyfriend is 35. There are three 25-year-old girls in my school. They’re all very down-to-earth and are fun and easy to hang out with. We make fun of the 18-year-olds together. Well, mainly, I do, but they participate as the audience.
Jacinta Kanyunyunzi. She’s from Uganda and grew up in her later years in Philadelphia. She’s nice and she’s acculturated with American humor, which is great. She’s also graduated from college here in the States. She speaks a bunch of Bantu languages so that will be helpful.
Sam Loewen. He had a blog about fashion before the DTS started. He’s an art major. The way he talks is very effeminate. He is awesome. He’s really nice and easy to hang out with.
Madi Kozacek. She’s nice. Not super outgoing, but she is somewhat approachable. She’s from Washington. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 6 months.
Katie Green. She is the Canadian patient. I’m not saying this to be funny or mean, but she has low self-esteem and doesn’t understand guys at all so she reminds me of bad past experiences, which is unpleasant to me, so I’ve been more distant with her lately. Cause she says something really mean, and then she doesn’t understand at all why what she said crossed a line, and then when I explain it to her, she says she doesn’t understand guys at all. She also often frets about her problems. I am very motivated to read that book on counseling. I believe that the majority of the time, people’s general well-being doesn’t improve drastically or maybe even noticeably, and any changes are hard-earned. I’ve grown more cynical from having failed so much at trying to help people over the last few years. But still, I don’t want to let that compassionate part of me die. I’ll just have to cut my losses and try, try again.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Week End.
I can't believe it's only been two weeks. We're all such good friends.
On Tuesday night we learn where we'll be sent.
We went cliff jumping today. It was about 40 feet up. I thought about diving in, but I heard my mom in my head say "Cory! Remember you have a mother." (seriously.) There was also a blow hole (pictures on Facebook). It was maybe 50 feet up. The crazy thing was having to jump into the right area, because it's surrounded by rock on 4 sides. I almost chickened out, but I heard my dad in my head say "Remember you have a father too." (just kidding.) Anyway, I totally jumped into the blow hole. And climbed back up. The water level in there changed by maybe ten feet between when it was filling up and when it was at its lowest, so it was a lot of fun to swim in that area.
Then we watched part of the Fellowship of the Ring. We didn't watch the full movie. You see, we watched all of the non-extended version. Now I want to watch the scenes that were left out.
Then I went with a bunch of people to McDonald's.
On Tuesday night we learn where we'll be sent.
We went cliff jumping today. It was about 40 feet up. I thought about diving in, but I heard my mom in my head say "Cory! Remember you have a mother." (seriously.) There was also a blow hole (pictures on Facebook). It was maybe 50 feet up. The crazy thing was having to jump into the right area, because it's surrounded by rock on 4 sides. I almost chickened out, but I heard my dad in my head say "Remember you have a father too." (just kidding.) Anyway, I totally jumped into the blow hole. And climbed back up. The water level in there changed by maybe ten feet between when it was filling up and when it was at its lowest, so it was a lot of fun to swim in that area.
Then we watched part of the Fellowship of the Ring. We didn't watch the full movie. You see, we watched all of the non-extended version. Now I want to watch the scenes that were left out.
Then I went with a bunch of people to McDonald's.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The Canadian Patient
If I could do any job, and ambition and finances were not factors at all, two vocations that I would absolutely love are stand-up comedian and counselor. This post is about the counselor part.
Going into this DTS, I had heard that 90+% of the students will have experienced abuse and come from broken families. That sounds like the case here, except I would add you could also throw in problems with sex, drugs, and/or alcohol.
Here’s the story of one of my friends / classmates. I take confidentiality very seriously, except everyone reading this is 3,000 miles away and will certainly never meet her in person, so I think this is appropriate. We’ll call her G.
G’s parents separated when she was around age 13/14. She developed anorexia and bulimia. She was hospitalized for it at one point. She’s better now, but it still acts up when she’s stressed.
She’s had one four-month boyfriend and 2 one-week boyfriends. She likes a guy here, but she knows not to date right now. But she’s having a hard time being content in singleness.
She felt like a loner in middle school and high school. She currently feels disconnected with her roommates, but she says it’s getting better.
She’s very pretty, but she hates the way she looks. She’s convinced she’s ugly. A small part of it stems from when she was rejected for her looks by a guy she liked at age 13.
Her mom has MS and is in a wheel chair. Her dad is legally blind because of a drug addiction. They’re both on disability. She says her mom is controlling and doesn’t trust her. She doesn’t get along with her dad at all.
I am not in danger of having a savior complex. She has plenty of real help here. But I have no idea where I’d start if I were a counselor.
It’s happened a handful of times where I’ve had a “counselor-patient”-like relationship with somebody. I don’t actually look for that at all, but I must have just struck some people as trustworthy/wise/approachable. And when it happens, I mainly always just listen. And then at the end sometimes I throw in my two cents on something, and that normally proves to be a bit helpful, which is cool. But no one has ever reversed into being a completely well-adjusted person. So I want to get better at helping people. So I got a book another book on counseling. I’ve read Christian Counseling: A Comprehensive Guide by Gary Collins. It was very disappointing. So now I am awaiting The Professional Counselor: A Process Guide to Helping. And after that I'm going to get Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically by John MacArthur (or something like it).
Going into this DTS, I had heard that 90+% of the students will have experienced abuse and come from broken families. That sounds like the case here, except I would add you could also throw in problems with sex, drugs, and/or alcohol.
Here’s the story of one of my friends / classmates. I take confidentiality very seriously, except everyone reading this is 3,000 miles away and will certainly never meet her in person, so I think this is appropriate. We’ll call her G.
G’s parents separated when she was around age 13/14. She developed anorexia and bulimia. She was hospitalized for it at one point. She’s better now, but it still acts up when she’s stressed.
She’s had one four-month boyfriend and 2 one-week boyfriends. She likes a guy here, but she knows not to date right now. But she’s having a hard time being content in singleness.
She felt like a loner in middle school and high school. She currently feels disconnected with her roommates, but she says it’s getting better.
She’s very pretty, but she hates the way she looks. She’s convinced she’s ugly. A small part of it stems from when she was rejected for her looks by a guy she liked at age 13.
Her mom has MS and is in a wheel chair. Her dad is legally blind because of a drug addiction. They’re both on disability. She says her mom is controlling and doesn’t trust her. She doesn’t get along with her dad at all.
I am not in danger of having a savior complex. She has plenty of real help here. But I have no idea where I’d start if I were a counselor.
It’s happened a handful of times where I’ve had a “counselor-patient”-like relationship with somebody. I don’t actually look for that at all, but I must have just struck some people as trustworthy/wise/approachable. And when it happens, I mainly always just listen. And then at the end sometimes I throw in my two cents on something, and that normally proves to be a bit helpful, which is cool. But no one has ever reversed into being a completely well-adjusted person. So I want to get better at helping people. So I got a book another book on counseling. I’ve read Christian Counseling: A Comprehensive Guide by Gary Collins. It was very disappointing. So now I am awaiting The Professional Counselor: A Process Guide to Helping. And after that I'm going to get Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically by John MacArthur (or something like it).
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Week 2
I have my laptop now, which is awesome. I can have Skype dates and spend time on Wikipedia. One of my roommates says I'm on Wikipedia every time he sees me on the computer.
Staff members gave testimonies this week. I am so eternally grateful that I do not have Korean parents. "On top of doing my school work, my parents gave me workbooks in each subject so that I had to do extra." When a Korean American guy said this, all the other Korean Americans started laughing, one of them saying, "That's so Korean!" One of the staff members, a Korean guy, had parents that chose his high school classes and his major in college- Computer Engineering, so that he would become a successful person. After a year of that, he did three years of art, without telling his parents, and then they found out. But before he finished, he decided to do dancing and studied that for 3 years. Before he finished that, he changed to singing. Then he joined YWAM. He's 28 and does not have a degree.
I remember when I was choosing between whether or not to skip two years of math in high school. I choose to do it, and it was a great decision, but I don't think I even consulted my parents about it. It's such a dangerous parenting style, but it totally paid off. I'm very lucky.
I did another Safeway run last night with my roommates. I got fruit for in between meals. I also got French Vanilla creamer for the plain coffee we get during break.
I built my first frame today. We're building a two-story, eight-unit residence. One really nice thing about doing construction is that it makes me appreciate desk jobs more. I would hate to do hard labor for 8 hours a day for a career.
Staff members gave testimonies this week. I am so eternally grateful that I do not have Korean parents. "On top of doing my school work, my parents gave me workbooks in each subject so that I had to do extra." When a Korean American guy said this, all the other Korean Americans started laughing, one of them saying, "That's so Korean!" One of the staff members, a Korean guy, had parents that chose his high school classes and his major in college- Computer Engineering, so that he would become a successful person. After a year of that, he did three years of art, without telling his parents, and then they found out. But before he finished, he decided to do dancing and studied that for 3 years. Before he finished that, he changed to singing. Then he joined YWAM. He's 28 and does not have a degree.
I remember when I was choosing between whether or not to skip two years of math in high school. I choose to do it, and it was a great decision, but I don't think I even consulted my parents about it. It's such a dangerous parenting style, but it totally paid off. I'm very lucky.
I did another Safeway run last night with my roommates. I got fruit for in between meals. I also got French Vanilla creamer for the plain coffee we get during break.
I built my first frame today. We're building a two-story, eight-unit residence. One really nice thing about doing construction is that it makes me appreciate desk jobs more. I would hate to do hard labor for 8 hours a day for a career.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
It`s Friday! But Sunday`s coming!
It`s weird to think that it`s only been a week cause it feels like we`re all age-old friends. Maybe it`s sharing our life stories, or maybe it`s doing everything together 24 hours a day, but our team unity is top notch.
Also, in the last two days, I`ve had maybe five people tell me I`m the funniest person they`ve ever met.
On the work duty side of things, I`ve installed two door knobs and installed two sheets of ply wood onto wall frames in the last two days.
After working for a full day`s work for so many years, the 2-hour work duty we have here is really nice. It`s like nothing.
It`s amazing how well I sleep here. I think I`m averaging between 7 and 8 hours. I fall asleep so quickly. Maybe it`s because of how much energy I`m spending all day, or that we have such a regular schedule, or how nice life is these days, or that my consciously chosen, deliberate, pre-meditated sins are pretty much down to zero.
We are volunteering as security guards for the Iron Man World Championship tomorrow from 18:00 to 24:00 (21:00 to 03:00 for you).
Also, in the last two days, I`ve had maybe five people tell me I`m the funniest person they`ve ever met.
On the work duty side of things, I`ve installed two door knobs and installed two sheets of ply wood onto wall frames in the last two days.
After working for a full day`s work for so many years, the 2-hour work duty we have here is really nice. It`s like nothing.
It`s amazing how well I sleep here. I think I`m averaging between 7 and 8 hours. I fall asleep so quickly. Maybe it`s because of how much energy I`m spending all day, or that we have such a regular schedule, or how nice life is these days, or that my consciously chosen, deliberate, pre-meditated sins are pretty much down to zero.
We are volunteering as security guards for the Iron Man World Championship tomorrow from 18:00 to 24:00 (21:00 to 03:00 for you).
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Tuesday
I can't believe it's only been 2 days.
I'm a construction worker for two hours a day. I like it. It'll get me to be a pretty good handiman, since we're putting up walls and installing toilets and doing plumbing and electrical installations.
I have snacks. And I have a system of going through the lunch and dinner lines at the beginning and at the end. Sometimes I miss the end. But I'm definitely getting enough food here.
The speaker talked about grace, the glory of God, and a history of the world through Christian eyes. It was really good.
I can't wait to find out how long it takes for something I mail here to make its way to the mainland.
I'm a construction worker for two hours a day. I like it. It'll get me to be a pretty good handiman, since we're putting up walls and installing toilets and doing plumbing and electrical installations.
I have snacks. And I have a system of going through the lunch and dinner lines at the beginning and at the end. Sometimes I miss the end. But I'm definitely getting enough food here.
The speaker talked about grace, the glory of God, and a history of the world through Christian eyes. It was really good.
I can't wait to find out how long it takes for something I mail here to make its way to the mainland.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
We still haven't officially started yet...
Today we went to the beach. No sun burn. Score. SPF 50 every hour did the trick.
The beach in Hawaii is nothing like the beach in Oregon. It was a completely different experience. It was awesome. Among other things, it was at least as warm as the pool at Oregon State.
We played touch football, guys against girls. We invented ridiculous rules to try to level the playing field (like we could only catch one-handed), and we still crushed them.
If I'm going to go through the dinner line a second time, I need to go right now.
One last parting thought- I have a really hot date tomorrow. I think things might even work out to upgrade it from a phone date to a Skype date.
The beach in Hawaii is nothing like the beach in Oregon. It was a completely different experience. It was awesome. Among other things, it was at least as warm as the pool at Oregon State.
We played touch football, guys against girls. We invented ridiculous rules to try to level the playing field (like we could only catch one-handed), and we still crushed them.
If I'm going to go through the dinner line a second time, I need to go right now.
One last parting thought- I have a really hot date tomorrow. I think things might even work out to upgrade it from a phone date to a Skype date.
Friday, October 1, 2010
I am alive and well.
In the last two days, I have had conversations in Norwegian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
The leader noticed that I hadn't forgotten a single name during any of the introductory stuff and so at the first gathering he announced to the school that I knew every person's name. If anyone is creeped out by that, I wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway.
Walmart is only a 30 minute walk away.
My work duty will be construction. I'm in the special skills category because of my house building trips to Mexico and a few weeks of volunteering at Habitat for Humanity.
I suppose I could go through a play-by-play of my day, but that would result in an extremely long blog post and would require a bored, desperate personality that I don't have. :-P
The leader noticed that I hadn't forgotten a single name during any of the introductory stuff and so at the first gathering he announced to the school that I knew every person's name. If anyone is creeped out by that, I wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway.
Walmart is only a 30 minute walk away.
My work duty will be construction. I'm in the special skills category because of my house building trips to Mexico and a few weeks of volunteering at Habitat for Humanity.
I suppose I could go through a play-by-play of my day, but that would result in an extremely long blog post and would require a bored, desperate personality that I don't have. :-P
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