The Blind Journey

The Journey - Trusting in What's Ahead

After struggling to understand my long-term vision of being in the Bay Area of California, I began to ask God if my time there was done. The origin of this internal debate dates back to January of 2010. I began questioning the idea of stepping back from Young Life staff - only to continue serving as a volunteer. My notion was to serve wholeheartedly out of my own ambition, not to fulfill an external pressure of meeting organizational goals as a paid staff member. This unsettling quandary continued to grow. Eventually, the conclusion finally gained clarity: if my time and energy should be maximized - if you want me to serve and get your biggest bang for your buck - then I need only to serve out of the bottom of my heart. . .for free. In other words, I simply want to be a leader amongst volunteer leaders. I wanted to relinquish the pressures of meeting a status quo. I no longer wanted to concentrate on counting numbers as a success rate. I wanted to go back to the basics of outreach ministry. Let someone else do my job, I just want to be a volunteer. 


In the short of it, I was struggling a lot with being paid by the ministry. I considered donating my income back to our campership fund, just to help support kids going to Young Life camp. I realized I wanted to be that guy - the one that writes a check to the ministry - all while still volunteering to walk along side kids in life. We spend so much time and energy fundraising, I figured I could simply be that guy that takes the stress off the staff folks. No need to fundraise as much any more if someone is donating without all the "showiness", lights and banquet invitations. 


In light of the internal struggles and questioning, I was able to undergo some serious spiritual transformation. My outlook had a fresh perspective. I reexamined everything I was doing in the ministry. I was rediscovering the unfailing love of God. I rediscovered the passion of Jesus and his desire to reach the lost sheep. I was loving kids more passionately than I ever had. Suddenly, I felt the ground beneath me moving as if my time in the Tri-Valley were coming to a close. And all I wanted to do is make sure I allowed God's love to pour out of me, while never forgetting nor forsaking the relationships I was blessed to find myself in. Without a doubt, I was right where I was supposed to be all along. I needed to learn those things in order to become more in touch with who God wants me to be.

The Boys at Woodleaf

But without going on, I must say, I miss the boys of Foothill High School. I miss the leaders I served with. I miss my boss Jeannette, our conversations over food and her family. I miss hanging with Kim in the office, having Mandarin Chicken and being around her boys. I miss driving by Amador Valley High School, Hart, PMS and Harvest Park to pray. I miss the Mahoney family I stayed with for almost two years. I miss Monday nights at the Young Life club house. I miss walking thru life with those I learned to love so dearly. 


So this is the underbelly of the whole transition. Little would I know God would pluck me from the situation and lead me to an island. This is only the beginning of the on-going series of posts pertaining to The Blind Journey - my story of God's plan for me reaching His lost sheep. More to come soon. . .

One Month In

Well, believe it or not, my time here on island has gone by rather quickly. It has been quite an adventure thus far. One thing I have promised myself: to take full advantage of the location I find myself in, never forgetting to gaze at God's beauty. When thinking about the past month living on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I decided to take note of some of the gnarly experiences and other events worth mentioning. Here are a few things that have been worth noting in the adventure:


- On Sept. 13 I surrendered my California license and attained a new one - it has a rainbow on it 
- Bought a car, a 1992 Subaru wagon that I named Elanor
- Flew into Honolulu and visited the island of Oahu for four days partaking in Young Life Mission Community Weekend
- Caught a ferry boat and spent two nights on the island of Molokai to train leaders in Young Life
- Moved from Lahaina to the town of Kihei, now living with 3 other Godly guys in a nice bachelor pad
- Have watched nearly every sunset fall to the horizon :)


With many more adventures to come, I couldn't help but look back at the blessings I have already experienced. Yet the biggest portion of my time here so far has been left unspoken, the ministry movement. This is mainly because it is discussed in length in the continued blog post titled: The Blind Journey

Heartbeat of Young Life

I was floating thru the great world of facebook tonight and I stumbled across a very well done video out of Nashville. The clip highlights the heartbeat of the ministry of Young Life. Though many informational type videos have been made about the ministry, I feel this one is very current and applicable to most audiences. So before I go any further, I will let the rest of the story be told by the narrator of the short film. I encourage you to rest for the next 10 minutes and let God move in your heart.

“Dear Lord,

Give us the teenagers that we may lead them to Thee. Our hearts ache for the millions of young people who remain untouched by the Gospel and for the tragically large proportion of those who have dropped by the wayside and find themselves without spiritual guidance. Help us to give them a chance, oh Father, a chance to become aware of thy Son’s beauty and healing power in the might of the Holy Spirit. Oh, Lord Jesus, give us the teenagers, each one at least long enough for a meaningful confrontation with Thee. We are at best unprofitable servants, but thy grace is sufficient. Oh, thou Holy Spirit, give us the teenagers. For we love them and know them to be awfully lonely. Dear Lord, give us the teenagers.” - Jim Rayburn

Learning the Lingo

I'm always tempted to buy Rosetta Stone - but the stupid program is $200 - and some change. Can't afford that. Luckily that route is not even an option with the Hawaiian language. Though learning a new language can be intimidating, native Hawaiian lingo is a fun change of pace. At first, it can be confusing and frustrating (especially getting around with the street names). But once you get used to it, it kinda flows smoothly off the tongue. Just the sounds of the words remind me of trees gently swaying in the breeze and the sound of the crashing waves. I found out that today, Hawaiian is spoken as an every day language only on the privately owned island of Ni'ihau, 17 miles off the coast of Kaua'i (which I have no clue as to where that is). Otherwise, English is mixed into daily conversation with Hawaiian scattered in use. But I have figured out that pronunciation is not as tough as it seems.

When missionaries discovered that the Hawaiians had no written language, they sat down and created an alphabet. This Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters - less than half than English. Five vowels: A, E, I, O and U, as well as seven consonants, H, K, L, M, N, P and W. The consonants are pronounced just as they are in English, with the exception of W. It is often pronounced as a V when in the middle of a word and comes after an E or I. Vowels are pronounced as follows:

A - pronounced as in Ah if stressed, or above if not stressed.

E - pronounced as in say if stressed, or dent if not stressed.

I - pronounced as in bee.

O - pronounced as in no.

U - pronounced as in boo.

Then, I learned something rather different to me. The upside down apostrophe, known as a glottal stop, is meant to provide a hard stop in the pronunciation. It usually falls between a double letter. Just think about it...you and I have probably been pronouncing "Honolulu" wrong all our lives!

Give this one a go... it's the name of the Hawaiian state fish: Humuhumunukunukapua'a. It is often said that the fish's name is longer than the fish. Nonetheless, it sure is a beautiful creature, yeah?