If I were a better writer maybe I would be able to at least come close to describing what this first day has been like. If you were sitting next to me I would say "close your eyes" as I attempted to tell you every detail of what the beginning of this trip has been like so far. Maybe then you'd have a better chance of really imagining it the way that I am telling it. Maybe the dynamics of my voice would really paint the picture pretty accurately for you. Probably not though. Unfortunately I don't think there's anyway for you to really know how amazing it has been so far. And it definitely doesn't help that you can't hear my voice and you have to keep your eyes open to read my words instead.
The flight: I had just about reached my breaking point on Monday night when I could hardly move because of the pain in my back from working so many hours lately and staying up late to pack for our seven week trip to Hawaii. I got a few hours of sleep and then had the annoying experience of having to re-pack all of our checked luggage at the airport so that we didn't have to pay $90 extra for being 4 lbs over weight. Luckily we found out that we could each check 2 bags for free, so we just turned one overweight bag into two. It would have been nice to know that the night before when I spent hours cutting back on all the stuff we wanted to take just so our 1 bag would be under 50 lbs. But nothing turns a frustrating situation into a relaxing one better then a free beer at 7:30 in the morning (which I didn't finish, by the way, after I realized I only thought I wanted it because it was free). We had free day passes to the "Sky Club" where we got to wait at the airport in a nice room with comfy chairs, tv's and free snacks and drinks. As we came into Los Angelas we experienced such bad turbulence that I almost lost the half of the beer that I drank. I honestly thought that we might not make it (how dramatic). It felt like a sickening roller coaster ride that lasted 30 minutes nonstop. I had my eyes closed and was gripping my chair arms as hope whispered "deep, slow breaths" in my ear and I would carelessly waste my breath to utter "don't they have those puking bags somewhere" every few minutes. We again enjoyed the skyclub in LA after eating some really good pizza from a local place called California Pizza Kitchen :). I decided to take a shower in the skyclub, again not because I actually needed or wanted to but because it was free and I could.
Getting there: We arrived in Lihue Kauai at 6:45 local time after 13 hours of traveling and we had no idea what to expect. We were being picked up by people we never met. We didn't know what type of people we were getting ourselves involved with or what we were going to be doing. It turns out that a couple from the church that met us at the airport is actually from Bagley MN and I graduated from high school the same year as their son and I probably knew him since our schools were so close. We also met pastor Glen and after a quick stop at Safeway for some dinner and a few groceries, we headed to the north shore to meet his wife Mary and see the home that we will be sharing with them for almost 2 months. Glen and Mary are great. They are so much fun and some of the nicest and most hospitable people we have ever met. They were so interested in us and they moved everything around in their home so that we could have their master bedroom. How is it that someone can choose to sacrifice, serve, take-in, welcome and love two people that they hardly know anything about and have never met. It is humbling and inspirational to experience being loved like that. We called them just over two months ago and started to explain why we wanted to take a long break and do something adventurous and meaningful and regardless of whether or not they really understood us or agreed with our reasoning they just said "yes, we would love to have you in our home and to help you experience this time of discovery and rejuvenation". Wow.
The first day: Our hosts said that we would probably wake up really early because of the time change, but after waking up initially at 4am we fell back asleep until about 6:30. I was hoping that the sun would come up around then so I could go for a walk, but it didn't actually seem light enough out until around 7:15. There was a weekly breakfast happening at the church at 7:30 so I took a quick short walk out on the golf course toward the ocean. It rained off and on during the 15 minutes that I was out there and I saw about 15 wild chickens. It is very humid here. Even when the sun is not out, the warm, moist air feels like a soft blanket on your skin. Everyone says that today was really cold and they haven't had rain for over 3 weeks. It rained all day off and on. I walked up and met the others at the church. Apparently Hope rode in a golf cart with Mary. We helped set up tables and met about a dozen people from the church who were there for food and fellowship. Glen read a chapter in I Corinthians that talked about all the different parts of a body being important and making up the whole body, and how that is a metaphor for the body of Christ and all the important gifts, whether popular or hidden, that God has blessed us with and how we are supposed to use those gifts to bless others. He always bring up a topic during Wednesday morning breakfasts to talk about so he can decide what to preach about on Sunday. He seems very laid back and spontaneous. He really emphasized the importance of loving on others and encouraging them to discover and use their gifts. It was cool to hear everyone around the tables talk about examples from their lives of how God has used them or others to do meaningful things when they just choose to serve others with their gifts and trust that God is in control. It felt like a great way to start out our trip. The scripture, prayer and discussion really seemed to hit home with why we are on this exciting adventure. After breakfast we all cleaned up together and I got my guitar and practiced music with "the band": a french horn, harmonica, and piano. It was another humbling and stretching experience for me. It was hard to just go with the flow like I usually do when everyone was reading music and doing these complicated hymns. It was fun though; quite out of the ordinary for what I am used to when playing music. The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent getting ready for the weekly food pantry ministry. We set out dozens of tables and unloaded a huge truck load of food. Fresh papayas and grapefruit, canned fruits and veggies, bread bags of rice, and lots and lots of cookies for some reason. There were about 10 people from the community who came to volunteer with the set up so that they could pick out their food first. Hope and I rode with someone to the town of Hanalei to bring one of the volunteers home. Fortunately we were able to steal a walk down to the beach and kick our feet in the ocean waves a little (in the rain) before we went back to take a nap before the food distribution. We watched our wedding video for the first time (well, part of it) and then fell asleep for about an hour. The food pantry was a great experience. All kinds of people showed up to get some food for the week. Single elderly folks, whole families, young traveling couples, beach bums, local campers. There were people from all kinds of different ethnicity's. Some of them looked healthy and happy and some of them look sad and poor. Everyone was really nice though. We really felt awkward because a silly picture that we took of ourselves and sent to the church when we first asked about coming was printed to an 8x10 or so and pinned up on the bulletin board outside. We were introduced to everyone coming to get food and I felt embarrassed to be pointed out in a way that separated myself from the rest of the crowd. I wanted to feel like I was the same as everyone else there, but for some reason being singled out and then stepping behind a table to to make sure that everyone only took one item from each category of food somehow made me feel unnecessarily above them or something. I know that I really wasn't, but I didn't want them to view me like that and in the end I just realized that I was being silly so I just happily accepted my role and helped people get their food and tried to get to know a few of them. We provided food for about 180 people. After that we cleaned up and headed back to the house to play Monopoly with Glen and Mary's grand kids and we had dinner with them, their kids and their grand kids. There was also Franco, an Italian chef who made us our steak and pasta dinner tonight. He is currently homeless so he sleep in Glen and Mary's living room when he cannot stay in his van some nights. He's a great guy and he's been a lot of fun to talk with too. While we were cleaning up from dinner we got to know our hosts a lot better and now Hope and I are enjoying some quite alone time and rest for almost the first time all day. Wow, what a first day! It was busy. We're told that the other days won't be quite as busy all the time, but there is a lot going on for sure. We were supposed to go pick oranges for the food pantry today, but we're going to do that again later I guess. I am excited to see what tomorrow brings.
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