STARS

Tonight I am afraid that I do not possess a vocabulary worthy of telling you about what I saw today. Words truly cannot express. But I will do my very best to describe to you the beauty I caught a glimpse of tonight. 
It's like if you would go outside and sit Indian style and put your arms out straight, pointing to your right with your right arm and to your left with your left arm, until they're shoulder height. Then imagine a blackish/grayish/midnight blueish sheet of paper laid out perfectly in a half sphere from one of your hands to the other. The distance from you straight up to the edge of the sphere is trillions of miles. Someone on the other side of this sheet of paper has taken a needle and poked holes, some big and some little, but there are millions of these holes. The light on the other side of the paper is so bright that it shines through these holes and sometimes they twinkle! We commonly call these holes 'stars' but tonight they seemed like so much more. No other sky of stars I've ever seen even compares to the night sky I saw tonight. The Big Dipper was shining so bright; it was the first time I had seen it vividly in a real night sky. Then we saw the Milky Way- an entire galaxy of stars! I was so overwhelmed by what I could see. Maui may be known for her beaches and trees and wildlife, but I will always remember and love her for her stars!

where we spent Saturday ^

the biggest banyan tree...

As we rode back from Lahaina  tonight in the back of the truck I couldn't help but be amazed at my God. I literally could not stop looking up at the night sky. Did He have to give us stars? No, but He did. And tonight it was like He was saying, "I love Maui. I want her people to see Me!" I kept thinking about Philippians 2:15 and how Paul says to stand out in your generation and shine like stars in the universe. Do you think that if the body of Christ came together, living as we should, that we could be as awe-inspiring as the stars I saw tonight? I think so. 

Friday (my favorite day here so far), we all finished up our work projects and as the rest of the team went into town for our free night to shop and eat dinner, Maggie, Dayne, Ben, and I went with a teacher here at the school and her husband up to Seabury, a local high school, to scrimmage against some of their basketball players. The teacher and her husband we went with are in their first year of a program called Basketball Maui. They choose players from all over the island and go to the mainland for 10 days to play in tournaments and take part in camps. It is a great opportunity for these high school students to see what basketball is like on the west coast and to get exposure to other competition and opportunities. We had a great time playing with these kids; it was so much fun! After we got back to where we're staying the four of us walked into Paia where we ate dinner and gelato then made our way to the beach. We talked about theology, life, God, the future, college, Calvinism, Sun Stand Still, and lots of other random things that have nothing to do with anything. One of the things Dayne mentioned that has been on my mind is what would happen if a revival broke out on this island. From where we are on the north shore to the south shore is only 50 miles- this is a small island. What if Christians came here with a passion to unleash the Holy Spirit on a place such as this? Can you imagine the impact it would have? We talked about holding a camp where we expected hundreds of kids instead of hoping for 30. We talked about Christians coming here and spreading the Word of God like their lives depended on. Because there are thousands of people on this island whose lives DO depend on it. I went to bed last night praying that Dayne will be a part of this revival and that I will see it in my lifetime. I believe God can do it. I believe that my God is bigger than this island, bigger than our timid hearts, bigger than rules and legalities, and bigger than the limited futures we've created for ourselves. I am confident that if the right group of crazy, Bible-believing, Jesus-imitating people come to this island with His plan in mind, we could shine like the stars.