Listening and Living

I wish I could look each of you in the eyes and tell you what this place is really like. I'm glad that I can write about it and you guys can read this...it's a lot better than nothing. But I would love to hear your responses and watch your faces as I tell you the beauty here and how much these people need to realize that they are in need of a Savior. And even more than telling you about this with my mouth, I would love it if you guys could be here. How much better would it be if you could experience this firsthand with me?! 


As I was having my quiet time this morning I kept thinking about how God must feel that way about us. He has given us His written Word, it tells us of a life we could live. It is full of examples and advice to help us live a life saturated by Him and His Spirit, a life that is truly satisfying. But how much more would He love for us to sit there and listen to Him tell us firsthand? His Word is very important...but what good is the Word if we are not willing to sit down and listen to the very Writer of it?! He longs to whisper in our ears the goodness of the life He offers, and He loves to see how we respond. And not only does He want to tell us about this life Himself, He wants us to step into it and live it out. It's not something unattainable or something we can hope for later on. It's for today, for now. You can experience the life you read about and the life He tells you about! In doing so, you will be able to "take hold of life that is real" (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

I'm not sure if I ever talked about where we're staying. So here's a little info: we're on the island of Maui. We flew into Kahului and we are staying in the town of Paia. We are sleeping in classrooms at the Doris Todd Memorial Christian School and this is where we will be doing projects and youth nights for the next week or so. Yesterday was our free day so we drove to Makena beach, passing lots of resorts and seeing 'typical' Hawaii, as you can see in the picture I took above. It was full of beautiful trees, flowers, and birds! And the beach was amazing! A couple people in our group went snorkeling around those rocks you see in the picture and followed a sea turtle around the reef. We ended the day by doing some shopping and eating dinner at a pizza place.

This morning we're getting ready for church. Then we're having lunch, picking up the last two members of our team at the airport then going to the Needle. We've been canvasing some streets and handing out flyers, preparing for our first youth night on Tuesday. And as much as our team has loved going to the beach and seeing this beautiful island, we are all very ready to start work on Monday!