Catching Up

I was trying to write in my journal every day but that fell apart last week. It's funny how when you skip one day, it soon turns into two, and then before you know it - it's been 10 DAYS! Anyway, even though my sense of continuity and consistency with journaling has kind of been tossed to the waves at the moment, things are still going well and it's just been so exciting to see all that God is doing in this place. Since I have no journal entries for pretty much all of last week, I'm just going to give a brief summary/highlight of what has been going on lately in the beautiful land of Kauai: 

DAY SIXTEEN - TWENTY FIVE

- The body of believers here at Calvary Chapel Kauai are amazing! So many people have gone out of their way to show us love and make us feel at home here, including letting us come over to their homes to hang out, do laundry, get internet, and eat a meal! 

- Cammy and I have been tree-climbing! We have some beautiful trees here in the camp, and Cammy has been leading the way, giving me more confidence and teaching me her tree-woman ways. It's so much fun! Not to mention we discovered a Mango Tree which has provided several delicious-if-a-bit-small snacks for us and fellow students. It's so satisfying to eat something you had to climb up and pick yourself! Not to mention it's FREE! (a desirable thing for college kids who are broke) 

- I made it through my first week as a TA for two classes! I've found that I enjoy it tremendously, and I know it takes a huge load off of the teacher. I'm also finding that it's really encouraging and interesting to read/grade the papers and quizzes of my fellow students. It's helping me gain better insight into a lot of things, and also get to know them better as people. I feel so blessed! It is challenging at times, but God is teaching me how to show grace and uphold a standard at the same time. It's been great. 

- On Thursday I took the bus into Lihue (bus fares are free until March 10th!) by myself and had a fun afternoon of walking around town and shopping. I got to meet this really cool hippie couple while waiting for the bus back to Kapaa, and I had a really fun conversation with them. Meeting new people has to be one of my favorite things in life! 

- Play rehearsals are now on-going for the Easter Play and I have a ton of lines to memorize! It's coming along slowly but surely, but I'm hoping to really crack down and memorize a lot of it soon. It feels so weird to be in a production again, but I know it will be good and I love the people who are also participating. 

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: 

Today I woke up feeling sick and spent a lot of the time in my favorite port-a-jon. However, it ended up being a good thing because I ended up hanging out in Alyx and Mary's tent (their's is the closest to the port-a-jon) and later I spent the whole afternoon hanging out with Alyx in town. She is such a joy and so much fun to be around; we had lunch at Olympic Cafe and then shopped around all the little stores. We got two job applications for Dejavu Surfwear, so we'll see what happens! I wouldn't mind getting a job to make some extra $$, but only if it's what God wants me to do. 

DAY TWENTY-SIX: 

RAIN RAIN RAIN! Thunder, wind, lightening! It's so beautiful and terrifying. It POURED all night and all morning - pretty much everything is wet and muddy. I even sat in the sunday service wet and muddy, but God is so faithful! The church members here still showed up for church even in this dreadful weather, and we had worship accompanied by rain and thunderclaps. At one point in the sermon the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard sounded at the most appropriate moment. It was great! 

Now I'm at this wonderful lady's condo with two of the girls from camp. So many people from the church invited us students to stay at their houses today because of the weather, and it's so nice to be somewhere dry and warm with food, internet, and showers. SO blessed!