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

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 !!!  (:

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

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.

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

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

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     :)
      

A weekend in Kona

Well, it is Sunday night 5:27pm Kona time, (10:27pm Texas time) and we are wrapping up our weekend here.

Yesterday we attempted to ride the local trolley to a nice area to snorkel, I mean attempted by we missed it. We were used to seeing an open air old time trolley to pick us up but they slipped in a big enclosed van on us and we didn't realize it until it went by.  No problem, we decided to walk until we got about a half mile down the road and asked "How much further?" The answer was 3 miles (uphill) and I said, "NO WAY". Then Peggy decided since all the young Mission Builders (And pretty, I might add) hitchhike to the beaches, she would give that a try. Everyone she tried to give the "Pick us up thumb", just shook their heads and laughed. I told her I wouldn't even stop and pick us up if I was driving by. So we decided to walk back to the pier which is not too far from our apartment and snorkel there. It is very pretty and calm there with nice sandy beaches and nice grass to lay on.

So we get there, and get in the water and WOW, it is cold to say the least. Peggy is not that much for water, much less cold water so she stayed in a short time and then got out. It really wasn't that bad if you stayed in because the sun was very hot. We didn't try snorkeling, we just swam around and saw the fish and watched people.

We then left this area, caught the CORRECT trolley, and headed back to our original destination. It is a snorkel paradise, very shallow but rocky and protected by a wall of lava on the sea side. We saw sea turtles up close as we waded out on the lava and they just swim right up to you with no problems. The water here is shallow enough to stand, but they ask that you not stand due to the coral reef on the bottom.  We were about to rent some snorkel gear until a lady and her husband came up holding their arms. They told us they both had been bitten by the fish while snorkeling and had some pretty bad teeth marks where the fish had bitten them. Well, that was enough to keep Peggy out of the water because if ANYONE will get bit by a fish in the middle of the ocean, it would be her. We decided to come back later while we are here after we explore a bit more of the island.
 We found out from the local reef expert who was giving information on the reef, that there is one type of fish that will actually attack and bite you if you are too close to their nests while they are nesting. I asked him how will you know if you are too close? He said, "They will bite you!", that is how you know.

Sunday morning, we had a ride to a Hawaiian church about 20 minutes from here that we had planned to visit last weekend but didn't make it. Let me tell you, it was an awesome experience. We found out that this church is probably the second church built on the island and goes way back in Hawaiian history. I wish I could relate the entire story of Christianity in Hawaii but I would leave something out. It all started when a young man named Henry who was the son of a Hawaiian King became an orphan and ended up on a sailing ship back to Connecticut and became a Christian. He had a great desire to return to the Island and teach about Christ, but died before he could return. However, due to his desire, some of the first missionaries came  back to Hawaii, and I have found out that Hawaii has a long history of Christianity here. Pictures below are of the church and Henry's grave. He died in Connecticut, but years later they brought his bones back for burial.

The church service was very much like we grew up in. Open windows, kids everywhere in the sanctuary, open prayer request and testimonies and good preaching. It was so sweet. They had us come forward as first time visitors and the little girls did a Hawaiian Welcome dance, and they really poured their hearts into it. After church, they have a traditional Hawaiian meal and it was delicious. They even had seaweed for us to eat, I guess from the Oriental background. Next week, we are invited back (and told to bring our swim suits) because after church everyone is going down to the beach for hot dogs and clean-up on the shores. They are teaching the kids how to "Give Back" and not always "Take" from the community.

After returning home, we went to a local market and Peggy bought a "Dragon" fruit and something that looks like a strawberry porcupine, and some apple bananas. Wish us luck as we have no idea what we are eating, but we will let you know.

Getting ready to start our week number 3, so pray for our strength as we trudge these hills and steps.
I must say, it is getting easier for me. We lose some Mission Builders tomorrow, but we are getting 15 new ones on Wednesday.

Ken and Peggy

                                            Hawaiian Church

                                          Henry's grave

                                            Worship time, choir and music by children

                                         Our Hawaiian Welcome dance

                                          View from the church

                                         Hawaiian food, very good

                                          Trumpet tree

 

Hawaiian dragon fruit, unknown, apple bananas

 

 

Sat. Sept. 21 2013

Good Morning to All:

      It is Saturday morning in Kona, Hawaii and we slept in today as 4:30 am ea day calls for
some LONG days !   But we are BLESSED !      We plan to ride the trolley today around the
Island again and stop at one of the beaches that everyone is talking about.... so we will see,
even though neither one of us are "beach" people.

The little lights all over the campus that I talked about earlier,  I am SLOWLY getting them
one by one.   This week as I worked,  I had so "many" people on campus (especially the mother
of the small children here )  stop to Thank me for fixing them.  Truly made me glad that is was
worth doing.

This wk. has truly taken a toll on a lot of people here, that is YWAMer's .   So many people
with sore throats, ear aces, headache's, and one of our sweet lady friends had to go home last
night due to some heat exhaustion and other health problems.    So pray for the staff on campus
as this Thursday we will have   the 600 new students come.   Even  2 of our leaders have been
sick !    I know GOD is able to stop this sickness and satan would delight in disrupting this university
but he will NOT win this !!

There are no meals from Friday evening till Monday AM so if you could only see the process they
have here of sending all those meals home with everyone...... it is amazing how they do it!
I'm really impressed with that !   Something we have both noticed here :

                             We do NOT hear complaining of any kind from ANY of the students,
                              staff or YWAM'ers ever about "anything" !!!!  Just unreal for this
                               many kids  (people all ages) to not have something to complain about !!
Everyone is truly  just     THANKFUL !!

GOD Bless your wk-end with HIS LOVE!

Peggy     Ken

                                   Morning devotions, 3 days a week

                                          Three new Mission Builders, Australia and Spain

                                         Yoko and Joyce, our peers and Joyce had to leave, very ill