Ladies: Jesus is Already Our Hero

I have been sorting through the deeper things with God, and well, lets just get down to it, I'm talking about relationships, dreaming of a husband, and all the nervous-exciting things that lead up to it.

I have had my fair share of crushes and heartbreaks, and done my fair share of crushing hearts. And, there have been enough participants in my trial & errors to see some trends. This reflection has brought some good revelations out of my prayer time.

So girls, time to be honest. After meeting or even just seeing a cute guy do you ever wonder if he'll walk up to you and tell you "_______________"? Do you ever think that after an exchange of words that perhaps the next day at work he will ___________ ? Are you ever thinking--while alone and quiet, doing your daily routine--that he might come over to you and compliment you, take that heavy box up the stairs for you, or, Heaven forbid, he be conveniently around that moment you twist an ankle and he can help you up and care for you?

Now, these are general examples not too far from the actual ones I think...almost all the time. It doesn't take much: great eyes, great smile, great pants, cool glasses, sly smirk...to peak my interest in a guy. I mean, if he's a cutie, my imagination is already busy hoping that it's just the beginning of everything I want in a boyfriend--fiance--husband.

Does this ever happen to you? Does a passing thought ever linger and become an obsession we call a "crush?"

I think these things are totally normal, by the way. Relief. You are not weird.

Life in Kona, Again

Living in Kona, Hawaii is so interesting. Interesting because it isn't just the paradise that you think of if you are a casual vacationer or a daydreamer...it is real life for about 35,000 people. It also some form of real life for me, not filled with scuba-diving and dolphin or whale watching, but filled with the realities of proliferate poverty/homelessness, underpaid jobs and overpriced goods and services, being sensitive to the community and doing my job here on campus. Of course it is beautiful and tropical, and the aura around here is 'aloha' and 'ohana'-a slow paced easy-does-it lifestyle. Of course I am grateful and delight in my surroundings nearly everyday (I do my best to remind myself of how much I have to be thankful on a daily basis, wherever I am). My heart feels estranged in the realistic alternative to paradise, but at the same time, I am so comfortable here I call it my home, feeling like I never left it last September. The friends are different, the schools are different, but as they say 'the more things change the more they stay the same...'

My mommasita visited me last week and it was so great to have her here! (Hi Mom!) It was just as confusing though to hang out with her around dinner time during the work week, like she was visiting me at college or I was back living at home working and we were unwinding from a day of work. Saturday and Sunday we did errands and had Panda Express for lunch--everything but the ocean views and Hawaiian Shirts was completely normal to a weekend in Fresno. But...how cool to have my mom pick me up from a long day of serving God and leading students in helping me with projects in the garden & technologies area? Too cool! Also, the best motivation to put on cute clothes (for going out to dinner), as in not my gardening clothes. I foresee all my shorts to have dirt-stained-butts in the rear future :)

It was quite a bummer that the weather was overcast-y and cool the week my mom was here, not that that wasn't a relief from Central Cali high temps, but because she didn't get to see a delightful Hawaiian sunset...that is, until the last night.

Guava!

The things I do here have added up to being pretty random. I measure the oxygen level in a fish pool amidst the garden, I have harvested guava, moringa and cotton, yes COTTON! all from the same garden. I have seen a fish be gutted and cleaned out and had a coconut harvested and chopped at the end to drink out of.

Dragging away a hefty branch!

A false/decorative Pineapple, & mutated at that!

ATV: Managing the Unlimited Opportunities

My position as Staff in the Science & Technology department in general, and as the manager of sorts of the Appropriate Technology Village (ATV) in specific, is shaping up. And much differently than I imagined. But not in a bad way by any means. 

I have been in Kona for 18 days which seems like forever yet totally reasonable that I am still settling into my role and routine here. As far as my schedule and routine goes, I've got that down. I have Leadership Track students from 9am-12pm M,T&Th and I have discipleship students from 3-5pm everyday, leaving me a nice 1-3pm break every day for research, preparation, bible-time, meetings, etc. 

At first I felt like I was grappling with task-giving. I definitely entered the Village (ATV) with confidence that what I lacked God would provide for. And He did, every time. Some days I had a couple things in mind and then they'd go into hiding as soon as the students arrived. But there has never been a day when there wasn't more weeding to do or when a student didn't suggest something they saw that could be done. At the start of this week it was still a difficult task, a challenge rather, think up the chores, figure out which were going to happen to day based on so many different factors like weather or time, decide who would do them, answer many questions on How? Where? When?....all whilst I was learning how to do what I was having the students do. But, by the end of the week I had accumulated answers to a lot of my questions, and realized that there would be a constant give-and-go of small increments. I also figured out that it was easier to grab the supplies and/or set up a bit the task at hand--more work was able to be done in the limited time periods and I felt more organized and at peace. 

There is more multi-tasking to do that I could ever detail. Twice a day we are measuring the Dissolved Oxygen content in the Ecoponics (growing fish without commercial fish food--in our context and purpose). The tool we have to measure it is picked up in the morning after the Aquaponics (growing food with fish poo and limited water supply) does their morning measurements. We can keep it through the afternoon to use it a second time but it needs to be returned before morning. Watering the plants by one of our several watering options: sprinkler system, drip-irrigation system, or hand-watering with a garden hose...Harvesting Moringa leaves: we want to do about once a week to build a store-house of emergency nutrition. DISCLAIMER: In my update email and first blog post (the realllllly excited one!) I called it molinga...definitely heard that one wrong! 

Just this week I had two very capable young men (fully qualified carpenter and electrician) begin to plan and build a gateway complete with trellace and archway. This meant several days of figuring out that the things we required needed more time to collect. So other chores were done on the fly. I have two lovely young ladies also en route to creating and painting new signs for the ATV area. No one on campus knows that ATV stands for. The select few think of quads. They are working well with the manly-men to add it to the gate and archway. I also have a gentleman who is a very quick-to-do kinda guy and I actually have to ask him to wait and come meet with the group to fellowship for a minute before we start--he walks briskly by on his way to pick up where he left off yesterday. I chuckle in appreciation because I could easily have one or more folks who are difficult and unwilling or incapable and I don't have not one! Praise God. So my eager man built me a desk out of pallets! I'll have to post pics of that after I take some...

There is a lot of errands to do...all the time. I walk up and down the slope of a volcano at least 6 times a day. Praise report: I'm getting in shape! My legs and even feet don't hurt as much or often. I also am picking up a tan, a healthy one too! (As in I use sunscreen...most of the time :) 

The black covering, bottom left, is the underground tank. 

I have a couple big projects that are in some stage of happening. The morning group of advanced students and I will be learning a bit about laying concrete this coming week to be somewhat skilled before we build a bigger version of the bio-gas tank that we have already. The technology here is very handy for any people group that use livestock in a decentralized manner, as in everyone sorta has a couple per household and can do this in an individual way. So here's how it works: you collect the poo from your livestock (we will be using pigs as we already have them on campus) and wash it off into this holding tank--there is a rain-gutter-like trap and pipe that funnels it there. Anaerobic bacteria break the waste down and produce methane, a clean-burning gas. Right now the tank can capture about 8 minutes of cooking time. Our goal is to build a tank that can provide for at least 45 mins of cooking time.

Back side of the pig pen & outhouse with drains to the tank. 

There is A LOT to learn about this system, the many many steps to tearing out the old one, prepping the new one etc. Lucky for me I already know what I need to know about caring for the pigs that will be donating their waste. We are waiting for the King of Samoa to email the plans for this to us--this technology is a Samoan tech and this King also happens to be the YWAM base leader for Samoa. No. Big. Deal. 

Later in the quarter, or whenever it works out, we may also be working on building solar-driers for drying fruit and different foods. We have ideas/plans on how to build a late 1700's version of a cotton gin and work out how to spin the fibers for thread or some sort of text-tile things. I am also focusing my research efforts on understanding something called Microbial Fuel Cells. Think of the general concept of solar panels and how they collect energy into batteries (for storage), well this idea is using the energies given off in organic happenings (reactions) that take place in soil. There are MILLIONS of critters in there. 

That's just a couple things, really. Hah. 

Prayer requests: for time management-only to the degree that allows me to make progress toward a couple things I am focusing on, I don't need too much control over time :) That I would find myself making new friends! Though I know a handful of folks from last year, we're all doing our different things and I don't have 55 like-minded photographers around me all the time. 

Praises: I am just so grateful for being fully funded for a quite a while!! There are so many generous folks helping the Lord's work in my life its a very secure feeling of love and support. I am continuously finding myself able to do the random things this dynamic "job" calls for. Just the other day I used knowledge from teaching a computer lab section for UC Davis to design a simple database to collect the online sources for research that is accessible around the world to all of the YWAM bases/departments that have Sci & Tech like us. Thanks google tools. Also, another staffer was on the National Champion Agriculture Mechanics Team for FFA in the late 80's. This must be destiny. Though I wasn't a National Champ by any means...

Lots of Love!! Please update me on your life as well, I'm quite out of the loop. Blessings!

ATV: A Lesson In Pruning

Well I am still taking for a ride this learning curve. Just this morning I went to fetch a couple guavas for a friend and I to add to our breakfast and as I tugged on a branch to reach a few I snapped a branch of a nearby Moringa tree that was flowering... I now understand how my mom feels when something goes amiss with her gardening habit.

By the looks of the Appropriate Technology Village (the garden & technologies area) I figured we might be pulling weeds for a couple weeks. I have a total of 9 students that help me throughout different times of the day and week for a total of 19 hours...lets just say 'Phase 1: Clean Up' is coming along more swiftly than I imagined!

A learning moment:

As I started some students on pruning after a 2-minute lesson I had received the evening prior. We have a tree very similar to a cottonwood that has been overgrown for I don't know how many seasons...well the chore went from pruning to removing an intertwined branch from an upstairs neighboring tree and destroying half of the cottonwood...We sawed off the branch from above but as it was very tangled and fell from above, deepening the entanglement, and as we tried to pull this large sprawling branch out of the cottonwood we dragged out half of the leaves and of course cotton was all around!

Progress and Adjustments

Well I will be real (when am I not?!) and say that that initial EVERYTHING-IS-FANTASTIC-AND-I-AM-OVERJOYED feeling only last so long. But, thats normal. Initial excitement is just that--initial. So do not get me wrong, call my parents, or be concerned, because I am still super content and joyful. There was a lull in between, you know like crashing after coffee. Anyway, it didn't last long as the Lord is good and has plans for me, plans that require moving on!

I haven't had much to do since arriving outside of taking care of the logistics like making a list of all the things I need at Target that I have forgot to pack and hanging up some pictures (I'd love some of you if you want to print and send them!) I have taken the luxury of sleeping and taking naps, and praying for all that is to come through me and the ATV/my garden.

It has been peaceful and I actually had a day where I did not know what to do with my free time--so I went and sat. Yes, that is all I did. Okay..I took my iPod with me and then I sat. And watched the ocean.

There has been a lot about me that needs to get in shape. Walking! Oh me oh my! My legs are sore, my feet are bothering me again, my calves are tight...I live on the slope of a volcano. My lungs! Talking while walking up and down and up and down said volcano takes a lot more breath than I seem to have pumping. Spiritually: disciplines that get me on God's pace, timeline, agenda, and heartbeat. The greater vision for the farming and gardening things on campus is to eventually feed ourselves, train all the missionaries in appropriate projects for their country locations, and maybe even host scientific conventions...and thats all a big feat. So I want to be sure that everything I pursue is not my own, like chasing the wind, but of the Lord's plans and purposes basked in His favor. Things seem to work better this way, you know, when you've got God's green light.

My biggest curiosity to starting this new gig was how to lead the student helpers while I was at the same time learning everything they will be learning. It's like having a mechanic on his first day of tech school working with you on your car. Okay, so not that dramatic, nor technical. But you know, in YWAM and particularly in the culture of Science & Tech dept, we are a family and not all about prestige or expertise. So, I simply started off by saying,

 "Welp, today is my first day and I will be learning how this all works alongside you. I studied Agriculture development but it was mostly Community Development and now I get to figure out how to do it all...." 

I continued to elaborate on my philosophy on working: see Ecclesiastes. You should read the whole thing, its only about 12 chapters. If we are to labor and have hard work to do, it is best to also enjoy the fruits of this life that bring joy.

The group of students that will be helping me in the mornings are on the Leadership Track. They are advanced students and will have bigger projects and more responsibility. I have three of them with the possibility of having more. They are very ambitious which is a great match for me--they want to help make a big difference in this grand-re-opening of the ATV which is so nice and will be so effective. We are praying about rebuilding the methane catchment tank to run a process of trapping methane from the poo of the pigs. This will be a really big project but they're up for it! They were super thankful and genuine. I like the way this looks already.

I am excited to be able to work and lead from a place of relationship with God and wanting to do His work. Its quite incredible to say things like, "well, lets see what God wants" or like how I mentioned my work philosophy above is the wisdom from an entire book of the Bible. That's cool. #biblenerd #giddygardener ... I realize hashtags don't work on blogs. I still think they're cool.


Let's see what the other work-duty students are like this afternoon and what the work-week holds.


Prayer requests: for the pain in my feet; sun burns and bug bites; hearing from God on what to do and what not do to--not getting spread to thin or trying to do too much, too quickly. Finances for my leadership students, they're praying for income!

Thanks! Love, Bee...bzzz.

YWAM Staff Position: details!

I am OVERFLOWING with joy, the solid hand of God in putting me here, calling me here, creating me just for this opportunity. I might repeat myself and talk in circles but it will all be in attempt at describing everything that is going on in my heart and in my head!

I arrived Tuesday afternoon after a really long day of travel and was met by the lovely Linda who is in my department. She will surely be my motherly figure on base: she brought me a bottle of water and gave me a piece of gum, then took me to grab dinner; SO what my mommy does.

I unpacked and arranged my things, cramming them in between dressers and underneath bunk beds--oooh, yea, here we go dorm life! I fell in love with my roommates already, took about 20 minutes. There are 7 of us in a 10'x20' room. But we have a full size fridge/freezer, hallelujah!! And a kitchenette, kitchen table + chairs, two small closets and a full size bathroom. Praise. The. Lord.

Wednesday I got all set straight with officially being staff! Which means I paid for rent and my ID card. Then, Derek my department lead, and Vernon the department head, started chatting away about God/Jesus-jokes. "It's like joyful repentance, it doesn't make sense, but it sure is good!" Already thoroughly glad to be here!!! There are SEVENTY SEVEN stairs from the bottom of campus to the mid section (we're on quite a hill, the island is a volcano after all) and Vernon bantered on how if you ask for forgiveness on every step you're fully washed clean by the time you've reached the top! (Forgive your neighbor not 7 times but seven times seventy).

Now, for the really good stuff (as if the above summary wasn't good enough!):

I HAVE BEEN GIVEN FULL OVERSIGHT OF WHAT WE CALL THE ATV: APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY VILLAGE. It is a garden-like area that has about 100 plants and trees as well as experimental technologies either working or ready to be fixed (that's my job!).

There are baby pineapples on their way to becoming adult pineapples--there's not much cuter than a baby pineapple, perhaps maybe a baby panda bear?

There are moringa trees which are the world's next superfood!! The leaves are edible right off the branches and have more protein than beef or chicken (~6-8g protein/100g leaves). They taste different depending on how old the leaves are, the younger ones have a herbal spiciness to them--I think that's if you didn't grow up with Mexican food though because it tasted like a great seasoning. They can be dried and then powdered and added to water, pancake mix, smoothies...whatever you'd like! If you were in extreme survival mode, you could live for a while on just these leaves and plenty of water. But let's not try that one out.

There is a plan/idea/dream/vision to plant about 500 citrus trees on campus--free food!

There is a pig pen with a wash-off area to capture pig-poo + miscellaneous waste. Makes sense, we like to keep that around, right? Hah. Actually its because of the anaerobic bacteria that release methane while they digest the poo, and if we can replace the small capture tank with a bigger one, we might be able to eventually fuel the kitchen. Free cooking fuel!!

If I see a plant I don't like, I can get rid of it. If I want to grow something and its not here, I can ask for it. I am not allowed to remove trees without asking. Though I don't know how I'd manage it without asking for help anyway.

We have plans to rearrange the set up of the garden contents so that they are consolidated into groups (by purpose, prettiness, function, something logical...) so that we can easily have self-guided tours. You know those QR codes on things you use a smart phone to scan? We plan on having those code deals on placards that will link to an audio clip that will play as you walk yourself through our oasis of a polynesian paradise.

We want to build archways/terraces to create an entrance to each of the 5-6 walkways that enter this ATV area.

We have a huge tub for aquaculture: growing fish in water. It's not as simple as it sounds. Right now they are in the process of testing to see if the fish can survive on duck weed (a plant) and another one I can't remember the name of without adding fish food you'd find at a pet store. This is a big deal. Because if you can simply send baby fishies and small seedlings of these plants to other nations with our missions teams, we can be fishers of men and feed men fish! Before that though, we've got to figure out how to provide enough oxygen to these lil guys without adding it ourselves (requires electricity and other apparatus.

We have aquaponics in a different area as well. This means growing food in water and we use fish to supply the nutrients otherwise supplied by soil. We have a steady supply of lettuce for the campus right now but the vision is to have this system expanded big time so grow more and more.

So I think there's a lot more going on than what I've mentioned. But I'm tired of typing and you're probably tired of reading these alternative ideas that you don't quite understand. But the basic idea for all that I will be doing, all that the Science & Technology department already does is this: through community-based principles of relationship and love, we aim to develop simple technologies that are useable in the third world. These ideas we are playing with are beneficial to campus (free food, independence from imports that could go awry in weather--disasters like hurricanes, lost cost on the environment--we have very limited resources on an island) but most of all the practicality of these things is exactly what we need. They have to be repeat-able, learn-able, and locally manageable. 

This was my final charge: 

"Don't think small, dream big. And even then, it might not be big enough"

Unbelievable!!

So, I am in Kona, Hawaii. Nah, no I'm not. Wait, am I? Yes. Yes, I am. Palm trees, check. Volcanic
rock, check. Greeted with a delicious lei, check. Convertible cruising along Kuakini Drive and Palani, check. Flags of the Nations, check. Youth With A Mission campus entrance, check.

How does it feel like I never left AND that I'm not actually here?? At the same time!?

I am not sure! BUT nevertheless I am happy. I am happy to be here and have been greeted so greatly by some of the staff in my department (Science & Technology).

I thought I would have a whole lot of things to say...but...I'm really tired. I went to bed 24 hours ago in California, in my giant cozy bed, and then 24 hours later (CA time) I have unpacked, met most of my roommates, made my bed and brushed me teeth. I am ready to sleep!! So far, I have already fallen in love with one of the girls I room with and there is not more than one girl of each ethnicity: Korean, Canadian, African-American, Australian, and Me. YAY!!

Alright, really, I'm off to sleep!!

Goodnight, y'all. I love all of you and can't begin to tell you how blown away I am by the support, encouragement and love y'all sent me off with!! Gahh!!