Hello everybody! No pictures to post right now, but I thought it would be fun to walk you through a typical day/week for me at U of N Kona. So, in the mornings I get up around 5:30 to pray and read my Bible, then go for a run by about 6:00. Sometimes I run with my friend Amy, and sometimes I go alone. The thing about Kona, is that even when it's still dark out in the morning, it's probably not less then 65 degrees. So, it's never really cold when I run in the mornings. After a run, we have until 7:15 to grab breakfast. Then I shower and get ready for the day.
So, Monday through Friday, class starts at 8 am. A couple mornings a week we begin with worship. Other mornings are for intercession (praying together, but asking God what He wants us to pray about, and praying on behalf of others), and then one morning a week we have a pretty intense Bible Study with teachers from the School of Biblical Studies here (it is a really intense school that studies and reads through the entire Bible 5 times in 9 months). We usually start our class lecture time by 9, and our speaker for the week talks for a while. These times can be pretty intense. I have learned a lot from the speakers so far. Last week we learned about spiritual warfare and I was blown away. So, lecture goes until 12:30 pm and then we grab lunch. After lunch I have free time on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. But on Wednesday and Friday, our class meets up again at 1:30 for additional class time. Wednesdays are for small group meetings, which are so cool because now we are meeting with our Outreach Teams for small groups and really getting to know each other. Then, Fridays at 1:30 is our school's process time. So, we talk about the week and have time to share what we've learned. Sometimes we do this in discussion groups, other times we make play-dough sculptures or do creative activities to demonstrate what we've learned.
Later in the afternoons(during the week) is work duty, from 3 to 5 pm. Pretty much everyone on campus has a work duty. I personally think mine is the best: hospitality. But anyhow, some people have work duty from 3 to 5 every week day, other people have it early in the morning and help out with breakfast, and then some people have it on the weekends. My work duty schedule is pretty flexible, and I can usually get the work done whenever I have time. But my team is so fun, so we usually work all together at the normal time. We pretty much lucked out with our Hospitality work duty. I make birthday cards and thank you cards, we clean the classroom, and plan the menu for our school's snack and then we go shopping at Costco every Friday. Other people spend their work duty in the kitchen, or out mowing lawns. I got hooked up with hospitality!
Once work duty is done in the afternoons, people go to dinner. This is usually a pretty mellow time. Everyone eats kind of slow and just relaxes. One thing that does make me sad, though, is that we hardly ever have dessert. But what a silly thing to complain about! I don't know why I even wrote about it! After dinner, our evenings are totally free to do whatever we want. Except for Thursdays, when we have our weekly corporate meeting in Ohana Court. It's kind of like a church service. We sing worship and then usually hear a message. Sometimes it is REALLY boring. And sometimes it's really good.
On the weekends, we are totally free. Sometimes people rent cars and take day trips to the beach or to the volcano. Other people hitchhike or walk to get around. And if you're really lucky, you make a friend who has a car here and then get a ride with them whenever they go somewhere. One of my staff leaders, Jessica, has a car here, so that's been a blessing. She is super generous with giving people rides and stuff. That's the great thing about this place. Everyone is so willing to give! That is what the church is supposed to look like...everyone working and living together and making sure that people's needs are met. I could tell so many stories of how people provide for one another here, whether it's finances for Outreach or random things like cameras. God really speaks to people, and the people here are listening and obeying!
Well, this was kind of a long entry. I hope those of you who actually read the whole thing find it somewhat interesting. If not, I'm sorry for taking up your time :) But thanks to everyone out there...you have been so encouraging and I'm really loving it out here in Kona. God bless you all today!
*j
