so long, and thanks for all the fish

My friend Trevor has recently taken up spear-fishing...a fairly common pursuit in the islands. Its been an interesting process to watch. From misadventures with unwieldy equipment to increasing knowledge of which fish's brains induce hallucinations if consumed, the spear fishing hobby has kept not only Trevor, but also the rest of us, amused this summer. I came home the other day to find an array of colorful ex-ocean dwellers displayed on the back of Trevor's car in my house's driveway. He and a friend were using the yard to clean their catch. Its not everyone that comes home mid morning to find their driveway full of flippers, spears, lobsters and bright colored fish... so i thought i would grab a few snapshots to share with you another glimpse of what normal life is like around here.

Welcome to Hawaii.

A day to marvel at grace

I imagine Father's day brings different thoughts to everyone's minds. The thought it brings to my mind is grace. When i think of my dad, i just sit back in wonder at what a precious treasure he is in my life... and how i did nothing to deserve him. Absolutely nothing. How could i earn something i was given before i was born?

And those thoughts ring loudly of only one other thing in my experience: grace.

I marvel at the surpassing gift bestowed on me, which i did nothing to earn or deserve. Absolutely nothing. How could I earn something I was given before the foundation of the world?

Father's day makes me deeply thankful for my dad- he's amazing.

But it also makes me marvel at grace...which is more amazing still.

We traveled in Europe together last summer...

...he took me out to dinner on the French Riviera...

... and we ran around Paris and Rome...

...and soaked up Turkey, from Istanbul to the Black Sea beaches.

Thats my kind of man:)

Such a blessing to have my dad in my life- and such a joy to have shared travels together as father and daughter! Memories from these trips we have made together are special to me; memories from the years of life we've shared are precious.

I give thanks to God, my Father in heaven, for showing so much of Himself to me thorough my father on earth. A lifetime with my dad has revealed why God calls Himself a father. It is in the figure of this outstanding man that i have seen models of undeserved love, faithfulness, compassion, sacrifice, patience, gentleness, strength, truth, and LOVE.

Who could deserve this? I am in awe of this overwhelming grace.

from here

I am a big fan of one of the recent installations on the base: a wild signpost marking how far our target outreach locations are from here. It suits us so well to have, smack in the middle of the base, a reminder of why we have come: to go. It keeps us focused on not only knowing God, but making Him known. Its such a privilege to be sent out from home churches all over the States, and then sent out from this base. I love to go myself, and I love to train and release others to go. As my friend Joey says, "We're living the dream." This coming Tuesday night we are commissioning teams to spend several months in China, and Indonesia. Its so great to launch them out from here, and see them carry the gospel to people an ocean away.

The new sign has a place in my heart because it reminds me how far God can reach from here.

And I have to be honest, it reminds me of the 4077 (M*A*S*H).

But thats a happy coincidence.

summer sunsets

There are no filters or affects on these snapshots I took while walking down the road this evening! Its summer and the tropical skies are burning bright before cooling to startlingly clear starry nights...

Entering the Time Machine! Destination: June

So i thought it might be interesting to do an ultra brief flashback through many Junes past and see what i was up to in the last decade or so...

Date: This month, 11 years ago (1999)

Preparing to wash our new students' feet (a demonstration of our commitment to serve the students in humility) at Youth With A Mission in Paia, Maui

Date: This month, eleven years ago (1999)

With a YWAM coworker and fellow amateur photographer at our friends' wedding in Maui

Date: This month, ten years ago (2000)

In the old YWAM office with a handful of other staff for the opening night for a Discipleship Training School we were staffing in Paia, Maui

Date: This month, 6 years ago

With some of my students on a long layover on our way to participate in an Olympic outreach in Athens, Greece

As I looked over this short series of Junes past ( and all the pics I don't have room to post) it turns out that not a lot has changed in all these years. Sure, I have changed a lot, but the basic outline is the same: I am still in Maui doing the things I believed the Lord led me to in my late teens. I didn't know when I began serving at YWAM Maui that my commitment was to exceed a dozen years. But commitment grows. I didn't know that this many Junes later I would still be passionate about spending my years washing students feet (we still carry on that base tradition), taking pictures, facilitating missions/discipleship courses, and leading outreach teams. But passion grows.

I used to look forward at the horizon and wonder what I was meant to be doing with my life- but now I am blessed to find that looking back confirms what I am meant to be doing with my life.

stuck in a moment

Parking at my house is always a bit of a tangle. We kind of have a system of compromise down though, and we typically leave our keys where one another can find them- so no one is ever hopelessly blocked in. The other day, a few of us girls returned to find that our friend Jason (who is a phenomenal driver) had rounded up all our keys and parked our cars in the most impossible arrangement ever. We first despaired slightly, then absolutely cracked up. Jason came out eventually to gloat...and being the kind guy that he is, he offered to undo his masterful pileup. (It may be hard to tell from the picture, but he had the vehicles fitted in there with barely a foot of give or take at the bumpers, with the house to the left and a low brick garden wall to the right!) We definitely had a good laugh.