Sunday, October 20, 2013

Relaxing finally,

Yesterday was a good day, finally. Not that we have had bad days, just yesterday was a relaxing, no deadlines, nothing pressing sort of day.

Well, actually it began Friday night. We and 2 other couples went to our leaders' home to watch a movie. It was a really good movie, "Tucker, a man and a dream" and we really enjoyed it.

Then on Saturday, we invited a couple here that are working with us to accompany us on our adventure. Whatever that means.
We all went and ate a good American breakfast at Denny's then off to tour a coffee plantation and processing facility.
Talk about informative, our little guide, who was also the "official roaster" for the coffee was full of information. After we left there, she had told us everything you can imagine about growing coffee, as well as avocado and bananas. The farm we were on, is private and now has it's fourth generation family running it. Too much information to relate, but I now appreciate my coffee a lot more. Almost entire process is hands on, especially the picking. We tasted ripe coffee "cherry" which contains the bean and it was different. Usually the cherry has 2 beans inside and they are oblong and flat, but if it has one bean it is called a "peaberry" and a more expensive coffee is made from that bean. The guide said it was only more expensive because of "marketing" and actually was a defect in the cherry.

We then headed out north to the Hilton hotel. We walked in and road the tram through the hotel and viewed all the stuff that people were paying to enjoy. They had a large lagoon fed by the ocean with white sands a waterfall were we spent a few hours swimming.

Peggy spent her time watching the 14 dolphins which they have in 3 large lagoons. Sort of like SeaWorld with trainers and people interacting with the dolphins. She ended up taking over 100 pictures of all the dolphins and stuff. I told her one was enough, because if you have seen one dolphin...you have seen them all. She didn't think that was funny.

After a relaxing time at the lagoon, we headed back to Kona and had a late lunch at Kona Village Inn. I did something I never do....I shared a large plate of nachos with Peggy even though I really wanted MEAT! But, I must say it was delicious and very filling..We then topped it off with a large slice of Kona Coffee mud pie, shared by 4 which tells you how large a slice we got (it was huge). Our sweet friends with us, gave us a special blessing, which we reluctantly accepted by paying for the entire meal...Sweet Godly man and woman from Canada whom God has placed in our lives...so blessed. We then listened to Bosco the one man band, and he is truly a one man band. He plays a gazillion instruments as well as his own recorded background track. He sings and is funny. We absolutely love sitting and listening to him because he plays "Our music"....not this stuff being sung now . Got to view the sunset over the Pacific and you could actually watch the sun quickly sink below the horizon with a foreground of boats and people...truly something we wanted to see before we left. God is so good !

It is 25 days (workdays) and counting down to our completion. It has been hard, fun, hot, blessed, and completely an education for us to be here. Island life is kind of growing on us and who knows, maybe some day God will call us back...

Monday starts another work week for us so this was a blessed weekend for us.

See you later, Aloha...













Ken

Monday, October 14, 2013

PICTURES

Tonight I will post some pictures of the past week events here in Kona.

Sorry they are late in coming.

God Bless,
Ken   Peggy 
 2nd van of people to the church
 children doing the welcome song
     singing praises to God
 Iron man
     Iron man banquet
 part of the show at the Iron man banquet
fish at the church dinner !  eyes and all !!!  (:

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Past week in Kona

Hello Family & Friends:

     WOW !!!!  What a week it has been !!  Don't even know where to start.... Monday pm we did our volunteer work for the community dinner for handicapped triathalon and it was very rewarding and interesting to see and be a part of.    Will post pics later.   We actually have one of the Ironmen staying in our Hotel on the University campus where I work.   Very nice young man and his wife.

Tuesday night devotion was simply wonderful, by our Mission Builders wife:  JoEllen.
She gave us scriptures of  "Who I am in Christ"   I will be posting one each day on facebook. Soo uplifting and true.   Then she showed a  short video clip of "who are we being validated by" ?   Great for all the young people to see and think about.    Do we seek validation from our work, others, friends, family, things or GOD ???   Then this week,  God placed one of my young ladies in my path to love on and pray over, as she was feeling not worthy and not meeting other peoples expectations.   These young people come from all walks of life and truly want to be doing what GOD has for them.  She asked me  "why does God not speak to me  "   I keep telling him I want to hear from him and do what He wants but He does not talk to me.   I told her sometimes we just have to "Be still and know that I am GOD"  and to "Wait on the LORD" .  Most often HE speaks to us when we take time to be alone with him out of our busy schedule and /or thru HIS Word. 

Wednesday Ken had to work in "The Jungle" !!!!   He was in a briar patch and his legs and arms got all scratched and cut up !!!   Just made me sick !!  Of course he had on shorts and did NOT know his day would take him to such a place so he just worked right on thru the briars.   He got the job done but was a MESS!!!!   Still is !!   I'm putting Neosporin on him 2 times a day !   Probably will scar!  Battle scars of Hawaii.... along with some others..... haha   Michelle said "Wow,  who would have thought Hawaii would be so challenging "  to be such a beautiful place !!

Friday night we ate at Wendy's and walked downtown and with some friends and watched a "One man band"  he played instruments and sang oldies songs.  we all enjoyed that a lot !
Today 3 of us left at 4:15 am to go to the water and get a seat to watch the swim part of the Ironman.  It was worth getting up for !   :)  :)
The whole process made Ken & I tired just thinking about their triathalon not to mention watching them.  haha

Tomorrow we take another van with 15 to the Hawaiin church for a BLESSING from the Lord and lunch at the church !   Then Ken & I may try to go snorkel some at the pier???  Not sure.

I do NOT feel so "BAD" now with Ken & I being soooo tired,  all these YOUNG people males and females are ALL dragging by Thursday and barely keep up !!  Good for us to see..... haha  misery loves company !!!  Right???  ha

We want to Wish our SWEET Daughter, Michelle a very  HAPPY   BLESSED  Birthday this coming Tuesday !!!  She has been a joy, laughter, tears, and Blessing all in one for us !   GOD bless her and her life to come, as she loves Jesus !! 

Maybe do a blog again later in week,  just not enough time in a day here !

Peggy  :)

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Sunday October 6

Today took a van load of girls/ladies to the Hawaiian church.

It was a great service with a lot of children and singing. During communion, the Pastor and leaders had all the children come up and anointed them and prayed over them. Very touching and I know it pleased us so it had to please God.

This little church is training all the children in the ways of the Lord and in service.

Had a wonderful meal, again, and they were so excited to have so many of us visiting. We were told that in the past they ran 2 van loads of Mission Builders to their services, but each group that comes is different and go to different ministries in town. We will try again next week to take a van again.

Tomorrow night we have volunteered to help with a banquet for the disabled Ironman athletes at the Hawaiian church in Kona.  Don't know exactly what we will do, but we said OK to anything they want us to do.

Speaking of Ironman, it is officially the week of....and lots and lots and lots of people. They say so many the streets will be unable to have cars because of the people. This is the original Ironman competition with over 1000 athletes competing in a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. We hope to be able to see some of it, but I am not one for crowds and I think there will be a crowd.

Everything here is going good, and I get to do a lot of different jobs, which I like. Peggy is in her environment with her reception job and meeting and loving the people.
This campus is over 50 years old and with the weather and all here, the buildings are in a mess. I am afraid at times, to touch something for fear it will disintegrate in my hands but they are surely wise stewards of their finances and keep things repaired as best they can.   They do not proceed with any building until they can pay for things as they go,  once again great stewards and BLESSED.

So many stories here of God's provision for these young people. We have heard time and time again how God has called so many of them here, and they sell everything they own and come here with nothing. There is one Chinese girl here who we prayed with when we first got here because everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for her. She told us today that since that prayer, everything has changed for her and now she is going on a mission trip to Finland. She is so funny telling in her childlike faith, how God and HIS provision is truly there for her in all things. She lost both parents last year, and was afraid of having to go back to China. But she prayed and asked God not to send her back to China and now she is going to Finland. She said I wanted to go to Thailand because I have warm clothes with me, but now he is sending me where it is cold. We are going to try to find her some warm clothes here, but that may be hard to find since we are in Hawaii. So keep little Corrie in your prayers as she steps out in faith to follow where God has called her. She has to pay for her trip there as well as her time here in Discipleship Training.










Saturday, October 5, 2013

Past wk. in Kona :)

Each day at work is pretty much the same..... other than Thrs. Ken had to crawl UNDER  a
building
and he was there on his back over 2 hrs. working on elec. problem
that was causing people to be shocked by elec . ea. time they touched a sink !!!!   But  PTL
he was able to find and fix the problem !!!  When he came out..... he looked like he had been
drug thru a rain forest !!   (:   not a good sight to my eyes !  He is sooo BLESSED with his hands/mind
to be able to fix MOST of what he does !!   His supervisor stands in amazement at him ! We are not EVER  together so that I can get any pictures of him working !   (: 

Thursday night service was POWERFUL !!!   Many people called forward for all types of sickness
for healing and the power of GOD was truly there !!   PTL    Just a small amount of "faith" is all
that is needed ......  God is willing  and able to heal !!    The court of praise was over-flowing with
people..... we are soooooo FULL now with students/staff/mission builders !!   One amazing campus
to see in progress !   :)

Seems like each time Ken & I go to the "town" part of Kona..... God puts needy people in our
paths to minister to and how rewarding it is to witness/love these people !!  PTL

Next Monday 5:30-8:30 p m  we will be volunteers at a banquet for the Triathlon  here in Kona
for the disabled people.    We are looking forward to this event !  The Triathlon starts on Saturday
with 2,000 people participating !!!!   They say Kona will be  wall-to-wall with people everywhere !

Tomorrow, Sunday Ken will drive a van with 14 people to the Hawaiian church in Captain Cook area
for the services !   We are excited to be able to go again !   Of course we will have Korean lunch with them again !

Just a "funny" note:    It is sooo HOT  in our room that some of my medicine all melted and ruined
in the bottle and I had to throw them away and get another month of meds !!!   Now where to keep these so they don't ruin and melt????  Hummmm !

God Bless till we post again....
Peggy   :) :)
ps... pls. pray for our closest friends   Norma &  Phil   McClary, she has been put on hospice

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Friday night & Sat. in Kona

What a wonderful experience we had last night as we observed the Call of the Nations with the flags from each nation that is represented at this university.    Prayers over all the nations and flags everywhere.   God was truly present.  

On a fun note they had a luau and special acting, singing and interpretive dance from students of their local culture. Very fun and interesting, especially 2 little girls from Korea, probably 3 or 4 years old and they brought down the house. They did very well on their dance and were so cute.

Today we wandered around our side of the island and went 25 miles to the north to explore new beaches. What a variety from very white sands to black lava beaches. Saw several wild goat, not the bighorn variety, but looked like regular farm goats that have been raised in the wild. They are very hard to see as they are as black as the lava rocks, but once you see them they are obvious.

Tomorrow we will go back to the Hawaiian church and after services we will stay and help with their beach clean up and hot dog lunch.

Monday back to the work....oh well, we are blessed to be able to be here and help.

Ken and Peggy








Thursday, September 26, 2013

Missionary Dan spoke

WOW.... what an incredible evening,  we heard Missionary Dan Bauman speak on his life in
Afghanistan.    He was there for many years and has a real LOVE for the Muslims people.

While there he was in prison 3 times,  beaten,  put in solitary confinement and hungry.
Each time he "felt" the presence of GOD, even at times that he was really scared.   He knew
that h would loose his life but he was ready..... BUT GOD  was not thru with him yet.   Once
while he was in prison his mother's prayer was:   God do not release him until you are thru with
him and he has done all you have for him to do.    What a prayer !!!!!   He said he was sure thankful
there were "others" praying besides his mom...... haha   but not funny at the same time.    Later I
spoke to her and told her I could NOT imagine a mother praying that kind of prayer.  She told me
it was not a prayer of her own but truly led by the Holy Spirit !!!!   Amen to that !! 

After he was beaten by a guard,  God spoke to Dan and asked him to shake the guys hand and
ask him to be his friend.   Of course the guard knew better and would not shake hands or be his
friend !!!!   BUT  GOD.....  Dan asked  3 times and finally the guard looked around and saw no
one was looking so he reached out, shook his hand and called him friend, then asked Dan if
there was anything Dan would like...... Dan said YES,  I would like a bigger cell,  so within
hours they moved Dan into a regular cell and he NEVER saw the guard again!     Could I
shake the hand of someone who just beat me and ask them to be my friend????  Only God
knows that !   What love..... CHRIST like Love for humanity !!

Sure was challenging to us all not just the young people.

There are  70 Mission Builders here now and we are stuffed !!!!  We are EVERYWHERE and so
are the 600 "NEW" students !!!  I've never seen such a campus filled with CHRISTIAN people
of all ages !!!!!   Mostly young adults/ teens !!!  God's heart must be OVERJOYED and smiling
at Kona, Hawaii now !!!   Just think after their 3 months then they are all sent out on an
outreach all over the world.

Ken and I are adjusting somewhat to the heat, early hours and long days !!!   PTL
We are both finding FAVOR with our supervisors as only GOD can do !!!!  PTL  for this !

Here is a sample of what I read today:
    T   talk positive about ea. other
    E   Encourage one another in word/deed
    M   Marvel at God's faithfulness to ea. other
     P   Pursue God's dream and what HIS heart is for
     L   Love like CHRIST
     E   Embolden our Faith

Love from Kona University of the nations!
Peggy     :)