Worship Louder.

I went and saw Body of Lies last night. It's a really great movie and Leonardo DiCaprio is in it and I think he's great. Just reflect with me for a second on all the amazing movies he has been in: Blood Diamond, The Departed, Catch Me If You Can, Romeo + Juliet! And in my opinion people just need to get past the fact that he was in Titanic. Who cares! He is still a great actor. Anyway, I have already has a few discussions about this. :)

Body of Lies is about a CIA agent (DiCaprio) who teams with an agent in Jordan to find and stop an Islamic terrorist who has been bombing civilians. Basically. It's a pretty intense movie and obviously people died. Throughout the movie I found myself feeling so sad for the people. And I'm not just talking about the innocent civilians, although that was definitely heartbreaking. What really got me was thinking about the millions of Muslims in the world that live their lives with a horribly false hope! I know it's just a movie, but depressingly these things actually happen. You know about it because you saw men kill themselves for the purpose of crashing into the Twin Towers just to kill others. There are people in this world that live just so they can die for the god they call Allah - "jihad" is what we have heard it called. 

Isn't it insane that there are Muslims out there that are so dedicated to their religion and to their god that they are willing to literally blow themselves up for it? They are so completely deceived and it breaks my heart to think about it.

And, yet, we believe in and serve a loving, kind, merciful, and gracious God who gives us salvation as a gift. All we have to do is believe! But so many times we go throughout our day without even acknowledging Him. We live how we want, we do what we want, and then we pray when things are going the way we want. We take Him for granted over and over again. Thank the Lord for grace! 

So all of this made me think... about how lucky I am and about how I am living each day. Am I living in such a way that says I'm thankful for the freedom I have in Christ?

Well, I can't quite seem to be able to piece together in words what I really want to get out, but here are two of my resulting thoughts:

- I feel greatly challenged to be even more dedicated to my God, the one true God, who offers a real hope and a real future (Jer. 29:11) and to do more than just believe for the sake of Christ. He's done do much for me so what can I do in response?

- I am motivated to pray for Muslims. All of them. Even the ones I hate with a passion, because I do. I hate what they do with a passion. Why pray for them? Because I believe there is great power in prayer. And I believe we are called to hope for salvation for all people, because Christ does (1 Tim. 2:3-4). (so don't be a bitter Jonah! If you know what I mean).

One last thing... just a little story. Yes, a story! It's partially being told secondhand and I'm not much of a storyteller, but here goes:

While I was in Israel this Spring (end of April to May) with some of my Kanakuk Institute family, we had the opportunity to spend time in Jerusalem where we roamed through the streets and alleys of what they call the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Armenian Quarters. There are thousands of things to bargain for from the plethora of stores that are jam-packed together. Very touristy! I can't remember where his shop was or what his name was, but there is a guy that we were told we had to go talk to to hear his testimony. When I went he wasn't there, but some of friends were a able to catch him at a later time and got to hear his story firsthand. This guy, we'll call him Zach, is part of an underground church within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). If you know anything about the PLO, then you know they are mostly known as a terrorist group out to destroy Israel. What I never knew was that within the PLO there are "hawks" and there are "doves." In basic terms the hawks are the ones that encourage war as the means of doing things and the doves desire to do things in a more peaceful manner. Zach's story made short is that he was once a Muslim PLO hawk and is now a Christian PLO dove. He is still in the PLO, which sounds crazy, but he has the opportunity of telling others about Christ in a way that none of us would ever have the opportunity to do. He risks his life to run a church within the PLO that if found out could get him killed! As he told my friends about his life he stopped to ask them, "Do you worship in your church?" They replied with the obvious answer, "Well, yeah, we do." His response, "worship louder." Woah. What an impacting statement. He continued to tell them of his church and how they feel so lucky to be able to even go to church, but how they also cannot worship like we can. See, when they go to church their worship is silent. Whatever they do they can never be heard worshipping the Lord. They can only dream of worshipping the way we get to worship. So, worship louder.

"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Galatians 5:13

Fall Musicales

Guess the musical from the lyrics:

A. "Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry, when I take you out in the surrey, when I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!"

B. "You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life..."

C. "Took her bowling in the Arcade, we went strolling drank lemonade, we made out under the dock, we stayed out till ten o'clock"

D. "Take my hand, take a breath, pull me close and take one step, keep your eyes locked on mine, and let the music be your guide."

E. "I could have danced all night! And still have begged for more. I could have spread my wings and done a thousand things I've never done before" 

F. "It's all about popular! It's not about aptitude, it's the way your viewed, so it's very shrewd to be, very very popular, like me!"

G. "It's a privilege to pee!"

*answers at the bottom of post :)

Obviously, I really like musicals! I think if I lived in New York I would have to make sure I wasn't living on the streets from spending all of my rent money on going to see musicals on Broadway! Which are quite amazing in my opinion. 

In the past 27 hours I have been to the mall twice and have watched two very, very different musicals... both which took place in the mall.

Musical #1: High School Musical 3

My thoughts:

-Never heard of it? I would have to question whether or not you are American or maybe even human... it is all the craze of little girls, tween girls, teenage girls, girls (and maybe even a few young boys - in secret of course) everywhere!

-I am not ashamed to admit that I have seen all three and therefore feel like I have the right to compare them. The conclusion of this being that HSM 3 is by far the best one!

 Just a few reasons why I think so: although it's still cheesy it's not as cheesy as 1 & 2, the choreography is a lot more advanced and is actually done really well (a lot more practice and perfection and a lot more money spent, it's obvious), best story line of the three, and I could see this actually being performed on a stage... on Broadway.

-My favorite characters are Ryan Evans and Rocket Man. Not Gabriella or Troy.

-I would definitely watch it again... let me rephrase: I will watch it again!

Musical #2: Urinetown

My thoughts:

-Never heard of it? I'm not surprised in the least. I basically knew nothing about it going in except that it was supposed to be very witty and entertaining.

-It definitely had witty parts and entertaining ones, too, but it was not my favorite musical. I do have to give it quite a bit of credit though for the fact that it was put on by "Maui On Stage" and took place in a tiny theatre in the mall. Considering the circumstances it was done well!

-If you're still wondering, Urinetown is about a time when a drought has caused a huge water shortage and as a result people are no longer allowed to have private restrooms and must pay to pee in public amenities that are controlled by a corporation called Urine Good Company. It's satirical and witty yet different and somewhat strange!

-I wouldn't necessarily tell anyone to see it or to not see it, a lot of it depends on your taste and sense of humor!

All this talk of musicals makes me want to listen to a musical soundtrack. Too bad the only one I actually have is the Rent soundtrack so I guess I'll listen to that one!

Answers to above "Guess the musical from the lyrics" quiz:

A. Oklahoma!

B. Mamma Mia

C. Grease

D. High School Musical 3

E. My Fair Lady

F. Wicked

G. Urinetown

Just for the record: Today is October 26th making this two months that I have been in Maui. Only ten more months here... crazy.

Happy Mauiversary!

Goaltimate?

Last Wednesday I was riding home from the church with Josh and Joshua. I'm pretty sure we might have been going to Taco Bell because we eat there a lot... anyway, as we drove down South Kihei we saw a group playing ultimate frisbee at the park. It was probably the first week we were here when Joshua and I had talked about how we really wanted to play ultimate sometime so he threw out the idea that we should join this group that appears to play every Wednesday. I agreed to go the following week.

Well, tonight was the following week so with some hesitance I changed into my active wear, if you will, and told Joshua I would go with him to check out the ultimate players. Let me explain what we saw when we drove up... a group of very athletic men wearing cleats and looking as intimidating as ever! Okay, there were also two women in the group, but they too looked very athletic. In my head I was just wishing for there to be a reason that we couldn't play, but of course they ended up being really friendly, inviting us to play, and passing us a frisbee to warm up with. Go figure.

And if you want to get technical we didn't actually play ultimate. Tonight was the first time I have ever played or even heard of what they like to call goaltimate. Goaltimate is the half-field version of ultimate frisbee. How this game works: (1) Same rules as ultimate except... (2) There's an arched goal (3) You must make a completed pass through the goal and into what I will call the "designated goal area" to score (4) Once scored the offensive team keeps the frisbee and works it back (without throwing it back through the goal) to get it past the clear line in the back to start over again. It's a bit more challenging than ultimate and definitely makes for a good workout!

So I won't even deny that I planned on sitting out on the game due to my feeling intimidated and not wanting to ruin the game by sucking. BUT with a little bit of coaxing from one of the guys there that I ended up knowing from Hope Chapel (Maui is so small I tell you!) I decided I would give it a try. To my surprise I actually did okay and I even caught two scoring passes and made a pass for a score!! :) Overall, it was really fun, I was very out of breath and red in the face by the end, and we got invited to play again.

See ya at the park!

The first thing I could think to write...

Things I miss:

- If you are reading this and you aren't here... I miss you.

- Fall. Trees changing colors. Leaves all over. Long-sleeved-tee weather. Pumpkins on porches.

- Thunder storms.

- Sonic runs (if you're in Branson). Classic 50s runs (if you're in Norman).

- Getting in my car and driving around. Just to drive around.

- Snow. Or anticipating snow. Snow days. Just the thought that there could be snow.

- Dance parties and walk-offs at the Institute. Apple Bottom jeans and the boots with the fur!

- Spending hours at Panera because of free wireless internet. And good food.

- Chai lattes from Eurotazza.

- College football. Game days in Norman. TCU games and getting in free. Tailgates.

- Kamp. Kitchies. K-Life. Kampers. The Gospel skit. Lionel Merryweather. Half-Pipe Harry. The Bondage Boulder. Friendship everything. Lake Taneycomo. Canoe trips. Ski trips. Just Kamp.

- Two-stepping. Country music. Cute boots.

- Watching Grey's every Thursday with other avid Grey's watchers.

- Hanging out in the 'tute classroom late at night writing last minute papers with other JBUers. Yup, I miss that!

Okay, I will stop there. That's a lot. What can I say... it's a transition and I miss things! But I know that when I leave here in 10 months (can't believe it's already been two!) there will be stuff I miss about here, too. :)

Bittersweetness

My weekend started with a very bitter-sweet Saturday. In case you were wondering, my weekend's always begin on Saturday because I work on Friday nights. Don't let the sound of it fool you... I love Friday nights! This is when I get to hang out with all the tweens that come to TGIF (Tweens Getting Into Fellowship) and we play games, do a skit, have a teaching, and hang out. Anyway, let me get back to my bitter-sweet Saturday. Some of you may have already guessed the bitter part. Well, as a very dedicated Sooner fan I decided to get my behind out of bed at the crack of dawn to watch the OU/TX game, which in central time started at 11am, but in Hawaii time started at 6am (okay, I missed kick-off and the first quarter b/c I didn't get up until 7:15)! So I watched and was sorely disappointed to see the Sooners lose the game AND lose their #1 ranking in the polls. Boo. Well, moving on. When I say there was a sweet part to my Saturday I mean it quite literally. Kim invited me to join her and the high school girls on a trip to the lavender fields in upcountry Maui.  Basically you get there and it immediately smells of lavender (duh) and there are flowers everywhere. It is very girly. And then there's this little store where you can buy all things lavender. They have lavender everything! Fragrance, shampoo, spices, tea, chocolate, lotion... not to mention there are a thousand different kinds of lavender. Who knew. We walked around for a while amongst the flowers and in the field where the tufts of lavender were. Or at least they look like "tufts" to me. I'm not sure I know what that means... but my favorite thing about the whole day was (actually there are two things) that the weather was perfect (cool with a breeze, perfect for jeans or a long-sleeved tee) and that on the way there we saw a pumpkin patch! Apparently, they don't ever really have those here so it was a fun surprise for all of us. It gave me a little taste of Fall, which doesn't happen often here in Hawaii! Going upcountry, which is when you go up on the mountain/crater, it gets much cooler b/c of the higher elevation. Some of my very favorite things in the world are Fall, cool weather, and pumpkins!! And, yes, I definitely plan on going back up to that random little pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin. :)

The rest of the weekend remained on the sweet side. Sunday we had an amazing Prayer and Praise night at the church and Monday was Columbus Day, which meant we didn't have to work. I love holidays!

Random fact of day: In honor of Columbus and the day dedicated to him that got me out of working... did you know that the first recorded Columbus Day celebration took place on October 12, 1792 (300th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World). And the Pledge of Allegiance was recited for the first time publicly at the 400th anniversary Columbus Day in 1892! Cool, huh?

You remind me of the babe. What babe?

So, you know those movies you really liked as a kid and then you go back and watch them again as an adult and realize how awful they are, but you still hold a special place for them in your heart? Well, maybe you do maybe you don't, but for me The Labyrinth is one of those movies. I'm not talking about the more recent subtitled film Pan's Labyrinth. I'm talking 1986, Jim Henson puppets, David Bowie in tight pants... THE Labyrinth! It is one of the strangest yet most hilarious movies I've ever seen. And if you haven't seen it I don't know if I can quite describe it to you. Anyway, we - that being me and the rest of the interns- decided it would be fun to watch The Labyrinth for our weekly Family Night held every Monday. The funny part is that Whitney, Joshua and I talked this movie up like it was something really great and when the rest saw what they were getting into they probably could have classified us as a bit crazy. But they laughed and that's all that matters!

Now that we've all seen this movie we thought it would be a fun idea for all of us to dress up as characters from The Labyrinth for Halloween. So far the two I just can't wait to see are Jerith and Ludo (see pics). Jerith aka the Goblin King is David Bowie's character and Ludo is this big monster that looks like a "wild thing" from Where The Wild Things Are (great book!) and says things like "Ludo hungry!" and "Smelllll..." throughout the movie. He's cute. 

As far as our costumes go... we'll see if we actually follow through with the plan!

POG

This weekend was the Maui County Fair. Here are some of the things that happened:

1. We ate steak and rice. Toni (that's the children's director aka my boss - have I already told you that?) gave Josh and me tickets that she got for steak and rice at the fair. So needless to say it was free and tasted even better because of it. By the way, they eat rice with everything here. You want fish? It comes with rice. You want chicken? It comes with rice. You get the idea.

2. We drank Frosty POG. Let me explain... POG is Passion Orange Guava juice. We drink it a lot here. It's really pretty good! Plus, it is way cheaper than orange juice, which can get up to $10/gal. Crazy, I know. Anyway, Frosty POG is basically POG, sherbet, and ice blended together. Good stuff.

3. There was hypnotism. So, we wandered over toward the stage where there was free entertainment and stood there a while as a hypnotist hypnotized people into thinking they were famous people. At the magic word they would start singing and dancing and thinking they were... Fergie or Justin Timberlake or a whole group of boys thought they were NSync! Man, how embarrassing. Glad it wasn't me, but then again I would never volunteer myself for such a thing. It was probably pretty funny, but we were tip-toeing behind a crowd of people trying to get a look and eventually gave up. I think hypnotism is quite freaky anyhow.

4. We ventured through the "arts and crafts" and "better living" tents. It was pretty much the only other thing that was free. Well, nothing in the tents was actually free. It was more like we were window shopping! I don't know about you, but when I think "arts and crafts" I picture little do-it-yourself crafty projects like scrapbooking or card-making. Nope. Not at the fair. But if you wanted to buy jewelry, sunglasses, and air freshener... then you were in the right spot! One thing that caught our eye in the "better living" section was Shamwow! (as seen on tv). It's a sheet of what to me looks like felt that you use to dry things and wipe up spills. So we stood in front of the booth as the guy continuously spilled water all over the place and dried it all off with his Shamwow and bashed the use of paper towels and sponges. I debated whether or not to get one because my dad saw it on tv once and thought it was really cool, but I decided to save my $20 for something other than a Shamwow. 

5. We ate malasadas. Malasadas are these puffy, fried (kind of doughnut-y) rolls that are covered in lots of sugar. They are about as good as funnel cake, but less greasy and you don't choke on powdered sugar when you try to inhale as you take a bite. I always seem to do that when I eat funnel cake! haha. Anyway, malasadas are delicious.

6. And, sad to say, we did not ride one ride. But I was thinking while I was there that if I had to choose only one ride to go on it would be the Ferris Wheel. I like the Ferris Wheel and it is so classic. You always see it in movies like, Grease, Never Been Kissed, The Notebook... I think I'm seeing a pattern... Well, maybe on my next date we will ride a Ferris Wheel. :)

And that was my experience at the Maui County Fair in a nutshell.

Random fact of the day: Okay, remember pogs? The game that was really popular in the 90's where you stacked discs called pogs and used a "slammer" to hit them and see how many you could flip over... if you're my age I'm sure you remember. Well, the name originated from the juice I told you about: POG. The game actually first started in Hawaii (Maui to be specific!) in the 1920s using POG bottle caps. It just became popular in 90s when a game company decided to commercialize it.

John actually told me about this while we were drinking our Frosty POG... so I Googled it and it's true!

More Cow Bell

There is a new addition to my blog and it's called more cow bell! Well, really, it's just a section of YouTube videos specifically having the keywords "more cow bell" in the title. Kathleen (my beloved sister-in-law, for those of you who don't know) told me my blog needed "more cow bell" so if you like Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrel, Christopher Walken or cow bells I hope you enjoy! And if you've never seen this SNL skit before, it is pretty funny if you ask me.

Anyway... today was a pretty long day. I got to work at 9:30, which isn't bad, but I didn't get home until 10:30 tonight. A long day but a good day... I ended the day at an event we call Big Rise. This is when all the Rise (young adult) small groups all come together once a month in one big group - hence the name BIG Rise. I wasn't expecting to be able to make it, but I was pleasantly surprised that we even got there just in time to hear all of John's talk. A little snippet about his talk: It started with the Great Commission and ended with a challenge to (1) have a right, personal relationship with God and (2) live in the world (not of it), immersing ourselves in the culture in order to reach others and not boxing ourselves up into to little Christian bubbles or what John described to us as the "Christian ghetto." It was a cool analogy... if you want an explanation of the "Christian ghetto" just let me know, but it won't be as good as John told it. Afterwards, while everyone was chatting and mingling, you know the usual, I saw Kim open a door into a room of fun. I was intrigued! So when she came back out I told her I wanted to go in there... by room of fun I mean a closed garage with a ping pong table, mini basketball hoop with a mini basketball to go with it, a unicycle, and some other garagey type things. Yes, a unicycle... who rides those anymore? So I made my way into this room and eventually a game of Around the World got started - you know, where everyone gathers 'round the ping pong table and you run around the table taking turns hitting the ping pong ball back and forth and if you miss it or mess up you're out. And when there's only two people left they have to spin in a circle after every time they hit the ball until someone misses or gets too dizzy to hit straight. I was totally excited to get to this point at least 3 times! People started to get excited whenever I got out. So, I got pretty good at this game... not that it's much to be proud of, but it's something! :) 

Hawaiian word of the day: okole = butt or bumper, if you work at Kamp! *I was told this one while I was learning how to surf/learning how to fall flat when you surf so you don't hit your okole on the reef. Ouch!