Saying Goodbye

Wow, things are winding down, and this is going to be one of the last posts here in Kona! I'll see what I can do when I'm in Africa, but I'll try my best to keep in contact with you guys!

Let me tell you about this past week to start things off. Monday morning my Justice class went off on a camping trip together to a place called the light house near Pololu'u Valley on the North side of the island. We got there and set up camp and ate lunch. We then ventured off in our outreach groups with 2 tarps and a few ropes. We had to build our tent or home for the night out of those supplies. What an adventure. I'd have to say that our tent was pretty good looking after it was all done! I'm glad because of our team's skills because that means that we will be well off for outreach as well! Once we got our things settled we went off to do some team building games. I felt like they were the kind of games we played at friendship games in middle school. But they really grew our teams together. They got us frustrated with each other, which was a good thing in this case. We pointed out our strengths and weaknesses and those were good things to find out for when we spend two whole months together as a team! What a long afternoon though after playing those games. I laid down in our home before dinner, but I could not stay there for long. Our leaders were building a fire to have a barbecue! It was probably the best meal yet since I have been here, besides in a restaurant! We grilled steaks, chicken, and huge baked potatoes! It was delicious! After dinner we stayed around the fire and walked around to the water. We ended up seeing whales, at least 7 of them in the ocean playing around! How cool! We continued to converse around the fire. Roasting marshmallows, playing games, staying warm by the fire and more. It was true camping because after the sun went down there was not much to do and everyone got really tired. By 9:30 everyone started heading to bed. That night we fought off bugs, huge centipedes, and a predicted flash flood. It only rained in the morning right before we woke up, but we had a great fortress to protect us! That morning we wrapped things up by eating breakfast, playing a few more games, packing up, and heading out!

This week has been a little different because of camping and that it is our last week before we head out. I have been starting to think about packing again, but this time it is going to be different because I have to pack twice; one bag for outreach, and one bag for storing my stuff here. It is so weird to think that I am leaving this place and might not see some of these people again my entire life! Coming here I really did not think that it would be extremely hard to leave this place. Kona has become my home for the past three months and I've made so many great friendships that leaving here is reminding me of how hard it was to leave three months ago!

Please pray for me that I can prepare for outreach in time. Mentally and physically. Also for all the goodbyes we have to say to each other. It is going to be a crazy next week, but I am very anxious to go to Africa!

Thanks for all your prayers and support for my family and I after hearing the news about my Grandma! You guys are awesome and please continue to pray for healing for her. God is the great healer and I have no doubt that he can heal my Grandma too!

I will try to blog one more time before I head out as well! But for now, God Bless!