It's New Year, a New Day

Well today seemed like a good enough day to finally write my first blog of the year, ha! Oh well. I originally started this blog to journal about the shift taking place in our family as we moved to Hawaii, added a daughter to our number, and basically started a whole new life here on this beautiful island. A year, 1 month and 10 days later... things definitely look different than we expected. But that's to be expected, right?

I didn't even look back at what I last wrote about or if I've written about Camp Hawaii being put on the shelf. We recently had a meeting with Jenny & Sully to wrap up what he had begun with them here, at least in regards to the camp and worship school on their land. I still believe 100% that we're exactly where God wants us to be and we've been faithful with what He's given us. He knew this camp thing wasn't going to fly, at least not in the way we were all going about it. I think it was all a ploy to get us to move here to Kohala, haha. Why else would we have moved to the ends of the earth on this distant island?

A lot has happened in the past year, during our month-long trip to California and since our return to the island. To sum it up... Mark is finishing up his senior year and turned 18 in December. Just last week he got his Hawaii provisional driver's license. Alex is thriving at his Kohala Elementary School in 1st grade. His reading has just taken off and so has his love for building, drawing and learning about God. His desire to read the Bible (the children's version) is fueling his desire to learn to read even more. Aaron is working out his issues at a ripe 2 years of age. He is now sleeping in a pack 'n play in our room because his fear of an earthquake in his bed was so great that he couldn't sleep at night. He presents daily challenges for us and we just love him to pieces. He's as charming and adorable as he is wild-hearted! Alyma Joy was born in Hawaii, right where she was always meant to be born, our little Hawaiian flower. :) At 9 months of age now, she's cruising around wherever she wants to go and already playing hide-and-seek with her brothers.

Peter sold Mammoth Front Desk to his dad as of January 1. This was something the Lord prompted us to do and it's been a great blessing for all involved. Peter has been freed up from the operations side of the business and is now putting in some hours for his dad managing the business accounting and month-end process. Selling the business allowed us to FINALLY pay off our debts which had loomed over our heads like a great weight since we started college. So after a year of rest (or sabbatical), we returned to Hawaii entering into a year of jubilee. In biblical times, this year of jubilee occurred every 50 years following a year of sabbatical (when the land would rest). The year of jubilee meant that all debts were cancelled. We didn't arrange it that way in our own lives, but God did. It's been fun to see everything line up as we realized jubilee occurred every 50 years, we live in the 50th state which just celebrated it's 50th anniversary. Also YWAM, a major missions center here on the island, is celebrating their 50th anniversary and calling it a year of jubilee. They are celebrating all year around the world in various ways with a grand party wrapping it up here in Kona at the end of the year. We're looking forward to being a part of it all as we increase our ties with YWAM.

Selling the business has brought many blessings to us. Along with being debt-free we actually have a savings account and money in the bank that is budgeted for various things like finally buying a kitchen table (yeah!) and going to the dentist! On the top of Peter's list was to buy me something he's wanted to buy me since we first got engaged almost 13 years ago...a new wedding ring! He presented that to me on Valentine's Day with all the kids there while we were having dinner in town. I LOVE IT and I love my husband and I'm excited about what God has in store for us this year.

Which brings me to my final point... we don't really know what God has in store for us in Hawaii now, we just know He wants us here and we're to trust Him. So we've set aside the next 21 days to seek the Lord, spending time in prayer and worship, and we're believing He's gonna show us what's next. Peter already had an interesting meeting today, on day 1 of 21. He met with Pastor Tom, a new (and possibly interim?) pastor of a local historical church (cool info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Bond). A friend of ours who attends the church put he and Peter in contact in hopes of getting a Friday night worship service going with Peter leading it. The original 151-year-old building belonging to the Kalahikiola Church was destroyed in the 2006 earthquake and just recently rebuilt. Peter got a tour of it today.

Tonight I will be starting a new women's Bible study I'm calling Living Free. I'm very excited about it and surprised to have at least a dozen ladies--most of them in my age group--who are going to be a part of it. After taking a year off from ministry, it feels right to be heading back into it like we are now.

So that's enough for now. If you're reading this and feel the urge to pray for us over the next 21 days, we'd be very grateful!

Aloha