Sunday, January 17, 2010

God in the Raw ~ Unprocessed. Unfiltered. Undiluted.

Authentic community, centered around the presence of God,
leading to revivals and reformation in the nations of this world.
    This is the vision of Fire & Fragrance, the school we’re attending here at YWAM Kona, Hawaii.

We’re so thankful to be here, beyond the amazing weather (I’ll hit that later), we’ve been here just over a week and have been immersed in a community of love, humility, honour and heartfelt unity that's just so rare. Where openness, vulnerability, true honesty and the freedom to succeed and even fail are embraced and encouraged. Where this vision is really a reality. We all come from different nations, cultures, family backgrounds and denominations that if we don’t make God and His values the priority and centre of everything, then their vision would just be empty words. So it’s really been refreshing and motivating.


   The week’s been packed with events, one was the Ohana Gathering, where Ohana means family in Hawaii. It was a few days where the YWAM Kona staff did worship/teaching, fun activities and meals together – and I don’t mean just a few. We’re talking over a hundred comprised of different generations of different nations. It was powerful to witness. It’s probably what Heaven’s like…maybe just without the eating. We even got a chance to meet Loren Cunningham personally, who is so down to earth and humble!Then once all the students had arrived, there was a protocol ceremony where we honoured the elders and natives of Hawaii with gifts for allowing us to make Hawaii our home for the time being…and thus, honouring God for making it all possible. It’s protocol that before you enter a town or village (at least in most countries), you visit the elders/chiefs and get their blessing to enter it. Then at night, they had the opening ceremonies where the native Hawaiians did dances inspired by Polynesian islands and like the Olympic ceremonies, people came in representing their country with a flag (videos to be posted soontime).


    Whew, then on top of all this, to be surrounded by such beauty (check out what we have in our photo album so far)! Everyday it’s like, “Jesus, you made all this?!?!” From the moment we stepped off the plane, it was like watching Planet Earth in the flesh! The sound of waves crashing onto the shore, picturesque sunsets, birds chirping, wild hogs, turkeys…gecko’s catching their morning meal! And it's whale season, these whales just came from Alaska and are here to date and mate, and of all the whales, they're humpback whales!!! Obviously!!! haha! So there’s no shortage of entertainment here. Sorry, I’ll stop talking about the weather, but as you can see, we're really grateful we’re not in Toronto right now.


   School starts tomorrow, I can’t believe it. It feels like we’ve already been here for months, so much has happened. And that’s why we’re so excited, because it hasn’t even really started yet!! Everyday will be filled with teaching, worship, serving, fellowship and more. The school leaders have really set the standard, that it’s really about passionately going after God’s presence through worship and prayer, to experience God in the raw; unprocessed, unfiltered, unconcentrated!! And in His presence, getting healed, restored and transformed. And from being filled by His presence, going out and loving on others through community outreaches so we're looking forward to the powerful ways God's gonna reach the people on this island.


  Wow, this note's gotten way too long!! AAHHH!!! If your still here, congratulations!! You made it through, haha! But seriously, we'll make them a lot shorter, it's just this is our first time so now that you know what everything's about, it's all good! I'll get Jon to write the next one and it'll be like a paragraph long! And "on the legit" as the islanders say, thank you for being a part of our lives and for sharing with us in all God's doing! Love ya and miss ya,

No comments:

Post a Comment