A Final Thought from Hawai'i

Hey all!

 

I can not believe it's been over a month since I've last blogged, time's been flying by. Well I only have 5 days left on this beautiful Island, and as often happens I have mixed feelings about this season ending, but mostly I am so excited about coming home.

 

It has been the most incredible journey, I have gone through 12 books of the bible, an overview of the Old Testament and an overview of the prophets. I have learnt how to use the Inductive Bible Study Method at studying the text, which involves looking at what the text says for the original readers and hearers, the reason it was written and learning about the culture and context of the time before interpreting how it can be applied today. It has shown me how bad I was at reading the scriptures with my eyes only, wanting to know how it can speak to me. But the books and the letters in it wern't meant for me, they were meant for people 2000+ years ago. And learning what it meant for them and how it applied in their life and their context has brought so much light to difficult passages and put so much more meat on the rest of it.

 

I have fallen in love... with sushi, the ocean, big leaves, warm nights, kareoke Asian style, thai food, and mountain top views. I have been snorkeling, hiking, night scrambling, night swimming, surfing (clean, warm waves!), wathced many sunsets, experienced 4th July, seem tropical beaches and much much more, and through it all have had some pretty awesome people to do it with. Best of all I have had the chance to get to know a little more of God, and am so thankful for him bringing me here. You will all know that I am a Christian, and I came to study the bible, but it didn't mean I was someone without questions, and I am relieved to find that some of them have been answered, some of them havn't been, of course, but I now think about them in a different way. Mainly that the Bible needs to be taken with it's context in account, and if we want to understand it, study and seek to apply it to our lives and our world then we need to understand where it has come from. Christianity does not have all the answers, and neither should it pretend to, it is made up of imperfect people worshipping and trying to understand a perfect and humungous God! Personally this whole experience has just left me more in awe of him and what he has done and continues to do for us. I am grateful to serve him and honoured to be called his.

I don't think my accents been contaminated to much being here, though I do catch myself saying the odd thing that annoys me, like 'pants' instead of trousers. Mostly I'm just going to have to stop calling people 'dude'! But I am really looking forward to be surrounded by the post English accent again and not have to repeat myself three times when I want to say something. I am also really looking forward to proper food and a proper bed. But mostly I just can not wait to see you all again. I have listed some wonderful and amazing things here, but my heart is not sad to leave this place. I will miss it, of course, I will miss the colours, the smells, the people and the prices(!), but coming here has shown me how lucky I am to have so many awesome people back home and I am so excited! I am also really stoked about the future and what's going to happen next. Nothing is set yet, but God has been growing a vision in my heart, a big and scary and exciting one, but for now I am taking it a step at a time in faith. And the next step, well tomorrow I have my final exam (I hate exams!) a beach day with the whole class, a camp out on the beach sat, maybe another surf sesh, graduation on sunday and then leaving the base at 5.45am mon morn! From there I have a month of friends, family and weddings, a youth camp and lots of traveling around. After that, we shall see...

Thank you again everyone who has supported me through this,

See you on the other side,

Kas xx

Hey!
So, in Hawaii 'i'll write soon' means next month. Theres another little piece of cultural info for you all!! As you can imagine I fit in really well with Hawaiian time keeping, hang loose.

So, I've just got over the half way point and life is really starting to pick up pace, I can not believe how quickly everything is going. I feel that if I tried to hand on to it it would just slip through my fingers. So I'm trying to just ride it as it comes and I pray that the lessons and things that I need to learn and remember will stay.

Study wise I have now gone through Philemon, Ephesians, Mark, Acts, Romans, Genesis, and Galatians, and this week am doing an overview of the Old Testement (OT) - it's quite a big chunk of time and we litterally are just skimming a stone over it. But after doing Genesis really in depth things are easier to grasp (though that is still surface level stuff). We had Dr Ron Youngblood talk teach us Genesis. Among other things he helped to put together the NIV Bible, and it was so cool to have the chance to quiz him and draw from his knowledge. The whole week he didn't use any lecture notes, just his Bible. I guess being able to read and speak hebrew helped him in this. He is one of the most knowledgeable guys I have ever met and one the humbleist, and helped my view of the OT switch around. I had struggled with how wierd it all seemed, and how some of it just didn't seem to fit in with my understanding of Gods nature and character, of how I see him act in my life and in the NT. Studying it two weeks ago helped me to understand that the areas I struggle with are the areas I don't understand, either because of cultural differences, wrond interpretations, translation difficulties or just because they are a mystery. This last one is not a cop-out answer, rather it is submitting to the fact that I will never be able to fully understand God or his ways and I am glad of it. I am mostly happy to fully realise that there isn't a differnt God betweem the old and the new, God is the same God always, and there is rest in that.

So last weekend I was shown by the Pacific Ocean that it is as faliable as any other Ocean and doesn't always have what it takes to make waves. It was a sad and frustrating day...I mean I expect it in England but 0-1ft waves in Hawaii...now that's not what I signed up for!! I also got to watch a bit of local surf contest yesterday and was shown just how far I have to go! But I've still got 6 weeks to become a pro and get signed, I think it can happen!

What else is there to report...It's my birthday today in Hawaii, yay! I hope you all celebrated it yesterday for me back on your side of the time zone (the correct side). I'm having a very chilled day inbetween lectures, and it's nice. Tomorrow we're heading down to Waikiki to watch the sunset over us, heading over to rise over you guys. That will be nice. Last week I went up to a chinese cemetary to watch the sun set, sounds wierd but it was beautiful. Check out pics on facebook if you can. And on a sad note my computer has got ill and is in a coma which is just frustrating, but I'm hoping a friend will be able to work some magic on it.

Anyway, I could keep going on all day but should probably stop now. Will try and up-date more regulary with things here and revelations of how great and big God is.

Hope your all well!
Kas xxx

I promise -

will post soon!!

A wee little update of my life...

I have been here for two weeks to the day, that’s a little scary! Time has its own unique bubble here - in one sense I feel like I’ve been here for months and England and cold weather feels so far away. But then I wonder where the heck these last two weeks have gone? It scares me to think that I’ve already ripped apart Philemon and Galatians, have put them down and am now onto Ephesians. I have learnt so much in a matter of weeks and yet with each verse that is unpacked a world of questions is opened up, to which there is not enough time to study them all. I guess this keeps things exciting. And then inbetween all the studying and cramming of facts in (8.30am!) lectures I have managed to explore some of the places of Hawaii and lose myself in wonder and awe and beauty.

The base here is described by the long term workers as a ‘3^rd world base in a 1^st world country.’ Well I did argue the other day that it’s not exactly 3^rd world, for example we do have toilets with doors on them, and they do flush…just. But it is very minimalistic. And yet we are in such a rich neighbourhood, surrounded by big old American houses all with two cars and nice drives. We live in tin and wooden huts. It’s quite a contrast – and I enjoy it. Town is 20min away on a jiggle bus, which I have just about got the hang of (after ending up in another valley for two hours) and town is MASIVE! Big streets, big cars, huge skyscrapers, and then a long beach stretching out to the big Pacific. It’s completely different from anything I’ve ever known, and yet this is home for three months. It’s madness. It really is.

Surfing isn’t happening as much as I would have hoped, but that’s ok, there is so much other stuff going on that I wouldn’t want to miss out on. My hope is to get on the board at least once a week, but I’m getting in the water at least 3 times a week. If only I had my own board! Hopefully this way I’ll still come back with skills to put Sam to shame with… But the waves are so different to anything I’ve ever seen in the UK before. Standing on the shore line and seeing virtually no white water is still a mystery to me!

The course is AMAZING though! And completely exhausting! There is so much to take in everyday and the Bible has just been blown wide open for me. Learning about the context of what was going on in places like Ephesus and Galatia just makes the letters make so much more sense and puts a whole other meaning to the words, it’s crazy. The most wonderful thing is how they approach it here. They give you historical facts, and a formula as to how to observe and pick apart the text, like highlighting repeated words; names of people; and discussions of contrast etc. and then using the historical information and the text (and other parts of the bible that relate to the book or passage) we then have to interpret the text and show why. It makes you think and opens your eyes to how the readers might have felt about the words they were reading. So far, for my last two pieces of work I’ve got a 99 and a 98 – what a boffin! Honestly, I have never scored so high in my life! But then they’re no theology essays and you don’t lose marks for bad grammar or speling!!

The people here are really lovely. Though Americans are so loud! But, they’re fun. Sharing a room again is fun, though sleep isn’t as easy when people go to bed at different times and breakfast is always at 7. Still my body is adjusting. Anyway, I should probably go and hang out with people. Will try and keep you updated more in what’s going on. Feel free to test my knowledge and faith in any way you wish to. I won’t pretend to always have an answer (by any stretch!) but enjoy the challenge and there are a lot of cool and knowledgeable people around to ask!

Thinking of home and the wonderful people there. Stay in contact.

Kas x

So my camera is most definitely dead! But here are some pics I took of the base and managed to uploaded before it drowned.

My Front door

The base is made up of lots of terrapins and huts. It's basic but lovely...

Our Dinning Room!

Yes! In true Hawaiian style our dinning room is a picnic area. Normally the weather is sunny and hot so its not a problem, when the storms come its run for cover!

Dinning Room and Girls Bedroom

The white building to the left is the girls room. Theres 8 of us bunked up in there, I've got a top one of course which means every morning, evening and any other time I want to chill out I get to do a litle acrobatics!

The trees are one of my favourite things about this place. Unlike in the UK most of the trees here grow slightly to one side with short twisted trunks and huge thick branches. There are some trees down by the Sea front called a Banyan trees, these are my favourite as they look completely magical. Heres a pic of one:

How crazy is this - the main trunk grows, then the branches, then it sends roots down which plant themselves into the ground and the tree just keeps expanding out! If you look on the pic at the rope like things haning from the branches then you'll notice they're actually roots growing down to the ground - I love it!

The Tin Cathedral

This is where we have worship and some lectures. It reminds me a little of something of the farm - I love it!


Manoa Valley

The YWAM base is situated in the Manoa Valley, these are the hills around us and they are just stunning! I would take sharing a shower with cockroaches for this any day! Tomorrow we're taking a hike up part of these hills passing three waterfalls on the way, I cannot wait!

We had our first lot of lectures this morning (at 8.30am!!) and learnt a bit about our learning styles and about what it means to study the bible inductively. I forgot how much I enjoyed learning about the Bible. The focus of this school is so about learning about the bibles context and taking it for what it is, for the reasons it was written, for seeing it as a whole book of Gods revelation and not about picking out parts just to support our own opinions and arguements. I am so excited to learn more.

Anyway, I guess I better rest up for that hike!
Hope you're all doing well! x

Aloha Day

Good morning... or goodnight over here...
So it's the end of our first programmed day - Aloha Day - and I've finally got to meet everyone all in the same place. It's been really nice.

I slept for about 11hours solid last night - went to sleep at like 7pm Hawaiian time and slept till 6.30 - it was good! The day then kicked of at 7 with breaky, 8.30 we had our introduction meeting with the whole base together, some dumb and funny ice breakers and some awesome worship. Then the SBS (School of Biblical Studies) went off for an introductory morning. It was really nice finally getting some sort of structure and starting the journey.

Then the afternoon was spent down at Ama Mona beach where I spent most of the time in awe. I went down yesterday afternoon with some of the girls and spent an hour just watching the waves and the surfers in complete shock - it is actually paradise! Sometimes I'm just full of excitment, sometimes a typical Kas sense of slight guilt of having the opportunity to live in such a beautiful place! But most of the time I am just in wonder and trying to take in this beautifully diverse place. I also got very burnt! So today I kept the sun block and t-shirts on! Stupid English skin!

The beach has a natural reef which we swam out to, it also means that the waves break a good swim and then walk out, and creates a calm swimming area, the colours are breath taking. I took my camera out wanting to get some pics of the reef but it stopped working! I'm gutted, as not only do I not have a camera now but I've also lost some of the pics I had on there. Just to clarify - so you don't think I'm a complete div, my camera WAS waterproof! But isn't any more, when I got out there was water on the inside and that aint meant to be there!

The day was then completed by a good old barby. Good relaxing times!
I have to say I am excited and anxious to get stuck into everything - the beggining stages of things are always wierd!

Anyway, am off to sleep now, as you are all getting up to start your days. Sorry this hasn't been very interesting, partly cause I'm tired, partly cause It's just been quite a chilled day. This is a nice little way for me to process the day though - I wonder how long it will last!
Hope your doing well,
Kas. x

Aloha!
So, I've made it to Hawaii! And I have to say I am completely spaced out! So many different thoughts and feelings, mixed with 3 days of broken and sporadic sleep... it's a lot! But I am safe and well. It’s 9.49am in Hawaii, the sun is out and it is hot already! I’m sat outside my dorm, which is a wooden terrapin hut, writing to you under the shade of a tree. And if you’re reading this then you can guarantee that you have been in my thoughts over the past 12 hours.

The journey from leaving Chester took me a total of 33 hours. Every flight I got was delayed which didn’t affect my connections, just meant the whole trip was long. Still, the journey went smoothly until I got into Seattle, where I got stuck in customs for a bit. They just couldn’t seem to understand what or why I was doing what I was. It felt like I was talking a different language to them thought they were American. But, after an hour of waiting and explaining the purpose of my trip etc. etc. I was interviewed by someone who actually seemed to want to help - which was nice! And got in. So I was meant to arrive in Seattle at11.25am (Seattle time – 7.25pm British), after getting through customs and having the delay on the flight it was actually 3pm. I was the only one in customs when I left, went down to get my bag, which was the only bag in baggage claim, went through to go leave and they had closed the security gates! So had to have a gate opened just for me, it was a sad moment. But the whole procedure is probably exaggerated in my head just because I was so tired by this point! I was meant to meet Katie and Sam KNOTT in the airport but thought there was no way they’d still be kicking around almost 4 hours later, and had no idea where to get to the caracole where we’d arranged to meet. So I started to head towards my gate when I heard on the overhead speaker: ‘Can Kaylee Sadler please make her way to caracole 1 where her party is waiting for her.’ Ah, it was the most refreshing feeling ever, thank you guys!

We had about 1 and a half hours to see Seattle. They drove me in (in a mini cooper!) and we walked around the ma-hosive buildings, saw the first Starbucks and got some good pastries. Then before I knew it was back on a plane and was heading towards Hawaii! This flight dragged out so much, I tried to sleep again but still only managed a couple of hours. But was kept company by a classic Hawaiian-Polynesian for most the way, he filled so many of the stereotypical boxed it was brilliant! Then arrival into Honolulu was easy (no customs) and I did get picked up from the airport – whoop!

By the time I arrived on the base I had completely lost all sense of time and reality. I think it was around 11am at home, 12am here. And man I missed home so much! There were already 4 girls in the room (there will be 8 of us) and they all knew each other from there DTS, were all very loud, it was a lot to try and take in. Lying on my bed that night I was running through all of the friends and faces I had left behind. I guess you don’t truly appreciate what you have until it’s gone. I knew I was going to miss Chester and fiends and family but didn’t expect to miss you so much.

Today breakfast was at 7 – they have everything so early - dinners at 5! But the adjustment is happening and everyone is lovely. The place is absolutely beautiful, the colours and greens, the flowers, the smells, the sounds, everything is tropical and different and new. I cannot believe I am living here! The base is also so basic though, which makes it fun! The showers and more like taps dripping from a height and friendly cockroaches to keep you company when you’re washing you’re hair! And doors are never shut or locked here, it truly is something different. I know this is where I am meant to be, and I am grateful for what I have waiting for me at home. I feel a mixture of emotions at the moment, but am hopeful and excited to see what God’s got in store!

Lots of love from across the waters,
Kas x