blessed.birthday.week

When volunteering to help with Vacation Bible School at church this past week, I had no idea what I was getting myself into!  It was a great time and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but God, of course, took it to a whole new level inside my heart!  I didn't realize that the four hours I spent with the kids each morning would actually begin to stir things up inside of me.  It really renewed my passion for missions and being used by God to bring hope to people!  It was incredible watching these kids grow in their knowledge of who Jesus is and how much He loves them!  One little girl ran up to me in the morning saying 'Auntie, I went home yesterday and started looking around for all the things God made!!'  I loved seeing their hands raised up in the air, dancing and singing about Jesus!  

It goes both ways, however.... I don't know if the church knew what THEY were getting into when they agreed to me helping with VBS!  I had the privilege of doing the Bible story on day two and it was the story of Elijah and his contest with the prophets of Baal.  The kids helped me build an 'altar' out of legos and then as I told how Elijah poured water all over the altar I spritzed our legos and the kids' hands with a water bottle.  I had paper crumpled inside a jar and as we prayed to the One True God, I lit the paper on fire!  The kids were thoroughly impressed, but as I tried to extinguish the fire we ran into a bit of a problem... it wouldn't go out!!  I grabbed the water bottle and sprayed inside the jar but the fire just licked up the 'water' and the flames grew bigger! Amidst much gasping, I gave it to another teacher who ran it outside and dealt with it!  Turns out, the 'water bottle' I had used was filled with rubbing alcohol!!  Yikes!  Thank you, Jesus, for your protection!!  

Derek was quite a trooper, working every morning while I was off making sand art and eating PB&J's! Every day I would come home to a new section of weed wacked fields and round two is officially DONE!  Our work has slowed significantly, but there's always something new to tackle.  One project for this new week will be wacking down all the weeds growing up the side of the bird net around our greenhouses.  They are crawling right up the sides and are so heavy that they're starting to pull the whole net down, cement poles and all!  We're not in imminent danger, but that net coming down would lead to our greenhouse coming down, which is not exactly the greatest scenario for our living arrangements!  However, I love that we are truly learning to hold everything with 'open hands'; living in a constant place of surrender and knowing that things could change at any moment.  We have seen God provide in unbelievable ways and we can trust that if He takes things away it's all part of His plan; He has something infinitely better in store, or it's part of His molding and shaping us in preparation for a new part of our journey.  

Since my birthday was this last Friday we took advantage of every opportunity to celebrate!  It's not every day you turn 21 and between God, Derek and some incredible family and friends it was, hands down, a week for the books!  For starters, a friend and I had an unexpected and incredible swim with about twenty dolphins while the guys were out spear fishing on Tuesday!  We had seen them from shore, doing their flips and twists, but didn't know if they'd still be out there by the time we swam out.  We weren't disappointed, though!  They came from behind and in front, there was some underneath us and some on the sides... it was breath taking!  The birthday presents 'from above' continued when Thursday turned into a rainy day in the field but a gorgeous day on the water!!  We took a kayak and the longboard and took turns surfing and 'kurfing'!  Even Kai gave it a go!!        

Festivities continued in the form of a chocolate eclair from my favorite coffee shop and free lychees at the Post Office when we went to pick up birthday packages!  We went on our first coqui frog hunting expedition and I actually spotted the first one!  We did a little myth-busting of our own (animal rights activists plug your ears..) and sprinkled baking soda on it, realizing that it actually DOES kill them!  I must say, if you listened to their 'coooquiiii' sound every night you'd feel slightly justified in this action, too. 

Our garden wished me a happy birthday in the form of  PEAS, more green beans and radishes!  And Derek is perfecting his crock-pot pork recipes.... mouth wateringly, delicious might actually be an understatement, regardless of whether 'wateringly' is a real word or not :)

I woke up early Friday night/morning and, realizing it was my birthday, just began to talk to God about the coming year.  Although I surrendered my life to Him a long time ago, it's important to constantly be working on my priorities; remembering who's actually in charge.  As I laid my hopes, fears, relationships, time, finances, LIFE at His feet.. "I love you with an everlasting love!" popped into my head!  Things like that happen to me on occasion, but the thought is usually along the same lines as what I'm thinking and I can explain it away as my own thought.  This time, however, I KNEW it was my Papa God speaking His everlasting love to ME, on my birthday!  When THAT's how you start your day, how can it be anything but extravagant!?  Derek's birthday omelets were top of the line, and phone calls from my family and sweet friend, Ali, all the way from INDIA, made my day!!  I finally got to rip open the package that had been tormenting me for eleven days and found BOBA!  (Quick in service for those of you in the dark.. these are tapioca balls that you boil and they become delicious, chewy additions to your drinks/smoothies!  Since leaving Keva Juice and no longer having them at my disposal I have experienced severe cravings!)  Leave it to my husband to actually order me two bags of the uncooked pearls so that we can have them anytime we want!!  Most Ingenious Husband Award right there!  Sushi, for the first time in four months, was the perfect lunch and I finally purchased the cutest pair of flip-flops on the island!  The surprises continued all weekend with hugs and gifts from my sweet 'family' at church, as well as their taking advantage of each and every opportunity to sing to me!  Talk about an excessive amount of blushing!  Home-made lei's, twenty-one candles stuffed into a cupcake, watching Madagascar 3, a great bon-fire on the beach, my first manta ray spotting... I can't begin to describe how thankful and grateful and BLESSED I feel!!  

Now I begin my twenty-SECOND year (nope, not a type-o, just a little bit of knowledge passed down from my Dad :)  No one believes that I'm only 21 because of how wise and scholarly I appear!  Okay, THAT might be a bit of a stretch.. I could probably still pass for seventeen! But because of all that I've been able to do and see and experience, people feel like that's enough for an entire lifetime and I'm just getting started!  Which makes me realize, once again, how incredibly gracious God has been to me.  I'm on an extraordinary journey and I'm honored to be able to share bits and pieces with you all!!  I pray that you might feel the everlasting love of Jesus this week and be open to whatever He may have for you!  Until next time... Aloha!