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