A lawn party, darling? How charming!

Recent base amusements? This week, Friday night after dinner was proclaimed to be an afternoon lawn party... and one and all gathered in varying degrees of costume & character to participate in lawn bowling, croquet, and rather snobby accents:) It was a fun way to get everyone together for a laugh and some family time. 

ps. i was taking these pictures so i am not in any of them- and its just as well, lest we record for posterity just how badly i did at croquet...

message from inside

A great deal of my waking hours these days are being spent inside the building pictured here. It is our School of Biblical Foundations and Missions lecture room. Our semester is in full swing; I am teaching fifteen hours of lecture this week, prepping research for later lecture sessions, grading assignments and projects, meeting with the students I am mentoring, and planning the summer outreach. That means i am busy- and often busy in this room.

The amount of time spent in this room (and doing the work that issues from herein) is the main reason for my infrequent posting. I'm afraid that for the moment i cannot manage to write a ton more. 

For now the best i can do is send a message from inside this room and explain my lack of posts. Oh, and of course, show you my lecture hall- which is a rather nice place. Because seriously, how many lecture halls have coconuts on the sandal shelf outside? 

dedicated love

My grandmother on my father's side is a model of dedication. My Grandma Bev loves and serves others, listens patiently and sends more cards than anyone i have ever known- day after day. Now the days have piled into years, and the years have heaped up into decades. Persistent dedication to express love to those loved has amounted to a life of dedicated love and humble service.

I received an Easter card from my Grandma Bev this year. I think if i had kept them all over the years, there would probably be 30 cards... one for every year i have been alive! She is a card fiend; I am pretty sure Hallmark would go out of business without this woman. Whether its Easter, Christmas, my birthday... a card arrives from Grandma Bev. She blows my mind with her consistency and dedication simply to making her support and friendship remembered by those in the network of her care. She is a perpetual encouragement and consistent blessing in my life.

I could extol her virtues in many fields (not least her story telling when it comes to European travels long past, a personal favorite of mine:) but we'd be here for hours. Today it must suffice to say that I want to recognize and affirm the life and example of my grandmother- a model of dedicated love in the daily small things...small things that have heaped up into a great monument of love.

Thank you for the card, Grandma. And thank you for reading my blog:) I love you! xx

faith: the good fight

fear is the blackness we see all around;

kicking and screaming we fend it off,

waving Your Name before our souls,

stripping even the grey that seeped onto us-

flinging ourselves against the grain, unafraid.

with my new girls

Wanted to pass on a picture from last night: me and all the girls from our new class of SBFM students:) Aren't they lovely? Having heard their testimonies these last few days, i am all the more excited to have a couple months to invest in these precious young women. God is clearly working in each one of them in unique and powerful ways. Such a privilege to walk with them during this season!

time to share

Last evening was our Opening Night for the Spring semester of our courses here in Maui, and tonight the individual schools met separately to bond and begin to share their lives. For SBFM, we chose to have a cozy little barbeque at a cottage (with a sweeping island view) lent to us by friends. I coordinated/prepped the barbeque and thus largely acted as hostess- which was my pleasure since i love blessing people through hospitality.

My fellow staff, Josh, came alongside as grill assistant- grilling the teriyaki chicken (and pineapple slices!) to perfection- a great blessing. I tend to overcook chicken (salmonella paranoia) so I was happy to have some support!

It was a good night of food and fellowship- we connected a lot as a school during the meal and conversations, and even more so in the testimony time. We sat in the quaint cottage living room after dessert and each shared a little of our life, our story. It was encouraging to hear how God has brought each student here for His purposes- I loved hearing their desire to press into knowing Him. With every testimony tonight, I got more and more excited to invest in the lives of these brothers and sisters. I am seeing a very fresh, honest and lively season ahead. Tonight was a good night to take time to share... and to throw open the doors to that season.

At the cottage- so blessed to have a nice private little place to host this event!

(L-R) Wing from Hong Kong, Aimee from Montana, and Chanmi from South Korea

Josh- the grill master:)

Cozy conversations in the living room- settling in for testimony time!

Brownies and local Roselani brand ice cream for dessert...winning their hearts early ;)

He is sufficient

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

three for three

So for the past month since returning from outreach, my living space has been relatively free of overgrown pests. The maintenance department sprayed the perimeter and set off foggers inside- and it seems to have kept things fairly under control. Granted i have had a couple young two inch centipedes creep out in the bathroom, slow and disoriented, late victims of the perimeter treatment. But they were easily taken care of and proved to be no real bother. Things have been pretty tame. Until tonight's free for all in the bathroom...

I went in to use the toilet, and in the shadows spotted an adult centipede. Happily (?), I now keep a crow bar leaning on the wall next to the toilet. Since instituting the crow bar, i don't think a single centipede has escaped from me, actually. Anyhow, it was slow and poisoned like the smaller ones i have come across recently, so i quickly killed and flushed it. One down.

About an hour later I went in the bathroom again and in my peripheral vision thought i saw something long and dark lying against the baseboard. I did a double take- and sure enough, an intimidating adult centipede was heading into my shower. I snatched up the crowbar and began chasing it around the floor at harrowing speeds- this one wasn't sedated like his contemporaries! The worst is when they panic (which appears to me more like attack mode) and run toward you. Its unnerving. Anyhow, i finally managed to crush speed racer- and he too got flushed. The crowbar defended its "undefeated" title, and tonight looked like two for two.

Well, just to be prudent, I decided to check the bathroom a few minutes later to ensure it wasn't some sort of invasion... so i stuck my head in and did a rapid floor scan. Nothing out of the ordinary. As i turned to go, i just stopped in my tracks: a fat cane spider was impudently sprawled on the counter beside the sink. Seriously? I should solicit a contract with the wildlife channel. I grabbed a book from beside the toilet and gave a stealthy smack- followed by a short chase of my then substantially impaired quarry. I didn't even dignify it with a flush. No need to waste water. I scooped the arachnid remains into the trash can with a used kleenex.

Three for three.

The bathroom is cleared (for now). And now i can go to sleep in peace.

the students are coming! the students are coming!

The last few days have been a blur of pulling logistics together in anticipation of student arrivals- as if a cry has rung out through the base: the students are coming! When all that could be done was done, I was plunged into airport runs, orientations, showing people around, and doing errands and meetings in between. Saturday evening is our Opening Night- the official start of the course. If I was looking forward to it before, I am now fully excited since spending time with my new students the last day or two! I have enjoyed their company so far; I anticipate getting to know them more and seeing how their time in Maui can be a part of cultivating what God is doing in their lives.

Off to the airport- again!

current reading

With all the goings on, how can i find time to read? I didn't read much over the past month while I was getting rested post-outreach... I had the time, but I was too tired. So now, with the school just days away and my schedule packed... I am reading away my nights and spare minutes where they can be found. Thinking of the school content (and of teaching the second week of lectures) i have a profound inclination to study.

I am currently reading several books- I hate it when i end up like this, stretched across several matters at once. However, its unavoidable if i am to have a review of some topics and supplemental research into some others, all in this short span of days before the semester starts.

As far as the Scripture, I am on a one year chronological reading plan- which many of my coworkers and I do every other year. Currently, I am somewhere in Judges. Then there is my unfinished CS Lewis treatise on Miracles. A wonderful read, though i am going remarkably- nay, shockingly- slowly. In addition, i quite accidentally picked up FF Bruce's Defense of the Gospel in the New Testament at a friend's house and couldn't put it down. Thank goodness its rather small. I have also found myself compelled into a survey of sections of Ryrie's Basic Theology, a hardback tome of formidable proportion. In contrast, last week saw me in Luther's Small Catechism, literally a mere pamphlet, though rather encompassing in its address. For a refresher before I teach a week of lectures on Bible Study, I am hitting How to Read the Bible for All its Worth, by Fee & Stuart. I have read it multiple times, and highly recommend it. Finally, I am once more taking up Mounce's Basic Biblical Greek, though only for a cursory review- so I don't lose ground over the coming months during which i have little time for study.

Reading just this overview of titles has likely bored even the most faithful of my readers out of their swivel chairs. But for me, they are like a breath of fresh air. Neither fluffy nor flippant, they are writings of a most genuine nature- trying to discern between truth and error, seeking to equip the saints, contending for the Gospel. Written by scholarly and God-fearing men, they are solid- and worth hearing out. I tire easily of trends, loosely supported opinions, and reactionary enthusiasm- they make me seasick. Books of the type of those named above have the welcome stability of terra firma; with gratitude I have disembarked the tossing fleet to embrace it. Such works are not the Everlasting Constant, but they do their best to reflect diligently upon such. And for that, my current reading, I will gladly give my odd minutes and late nights this week:)