Aloha ohana and friends!
Here I am--at the YWAM base in Kona Hawaii, once again! I stepped off the plane with a sure confidence that I was walking in God's exact plan for me in this season--such a feeling of peace! There are about 12 of us students from the Engage DTS I recently graduated from that came back to staff and as well as a lovely English girl, Kerry from Circuit riders. We are all going through the Leadership Track. As soon as we were re-united it was as if we'd never been separated over the summer!
We started serving the base immediately upon our arrival. The first week we were working hard to prepare the campus for the students arrivals…anything from pulling weeds, making bunk-beds, moving mattresses, watering plants, building repairs, and any other sort of physical labor you can think of. It sounds like a bore-- but when serving the Lord with a bunch of radical joy filled friends-- even scrubbing toilets is a blast!
Last Thursday the new students arrived on campus and I was thrilled to be apart of the welcoming committee by serving them drinks and snacks upon their arrivals. I remember the feeling when I arrived in Kona for the first time last January being jet-lagged in a strange place with overly enthusiastic strangers stuck on a random rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I was terrified! It was exciting to have the honor to welcome the new students and make them feel at home--though worlds apart from their families and familiarities. Seeing their faces as each bus-load was dropped off from the airport made the entire week of hard preparation and work prior to their arrival beyond worth it. Over 600 students arrived not including families. We are a busy, full, and excited campus!
It's a completely different feeling being back here on staff--I'm loving it. We began the Leadership Track on Monday. The Leadership Track is a three month program that our Engage DTS leader has required of us who came back on staff to do for training prior to our new students arriving in January. We were all assigned to work on campus according to our gifts and abilities… Monday-Friday from 8am-noon, Jordan (who went to India with me and is also back on the Engage staff) and I work in the DTS Admin office sorting through applications, emails, and contacting our future students. I love that I am able to talk to the students, answer questions, pray for, and begin discipling before they even arrive! I couldn't be more happy working here--I love office work and I also love making new friends…so this is a perfect job for me! So that's my morning job…and in the afternoons from 1-3pm we are in the prayer room everyday for worship and intercession for topics like politics, specific unreached people groups, media...etc. And in the evenings we have (depending on the day) either small groups, staff meetings, training, socials, or community outreach. For my local community outreach I will be visiting a nursing home once a week and getting to know the elders in the home. We also have what's called "Moravian hours" where we are required 4 hours during the night a week in the prayer room interceding and praying. I have two 3am shifts and two 10pm shifts. The 3am shifts are my favorite…there's something about getting up in the middle of the night to go pray and seek the Lord that just does something. I don't believe it was without purpose that Jesus would get up while it was still dark to go pray. And finally on the weekends we are mostly free (unless scheduled events otherwise) to do homework and relax. Next weekend we have volunteered to work as security for the Iron Man Triathlon World Championship. Those of us who are not quite tough enough to be on security will be helping out with some other jobs…so me basically, haha.
So as you can see--things are super busy and crazy! But I'm loving it and God has done so much in me just in the past two weeks. We've been recently learning about having an "un-offendable heart" and how to walk in it. This has been a tough toe-stomping topic for me. We're currently reading a book called "A Tale of Three Kings" and one specific thing that has stuck in my mind thus far was how King Saul would throw spears at David and how David chose to have an un-offendable heart. He never threw a spear back at King Saul he only dodged the spear. I quote: "David discovered three things that prevented him from ever being hit. One, never learn anything about the fashionable, easily mastered art of spear throwing. Two, stay out of the company of all spear throwers. And three, keep your mouth tightly closed. In this way, spears will never touch you, even when they pierce your heart."
I hope I have caught y'all up to date without any confusion! If you ever have any questions as to what I am doing-- feel free to ask! Love you all and thanks so much for reading. If you ever have prayer requests--I have plenty of time interceding in the prayer room…so let me know if I can agree in prayer with you on anything! Your prayers are appreciated as well… Be blessed.
XOXO, Macy.
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| P R A Y E R R O O M. Photo Credit: Caleb Yates. |
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| Engage Staff Team Photo Credit: Caleb Yates. |
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| Some of us got a little goofy with our ID photos. ;) I actually took this photo. haha.. |
