Adjusting to life in Honolulu has been proving to be a bit of a process for our family. Now that we’ve been here for a month, we are pretty much settled into a routine, but are still brushing up on some finishing touches here and there.
The kids are doing well in school, which was a challenge at first. They were very intimidated (understandably so) by the new surroundings, students, and culture when we first arrived and enrolled them. There are very few white people in the schools, so they immediately felt like a minority. But, they have not been treated poorly by anyone, and I’m sure those feelings of inferiority will fade as they continue to make new friends.
They missed the entire first quarter of the school year, but their teachers have been very understanding of our situation and have basically excused them for the quarter and will grade their whole first semester based on their performance in this second quarter. So we are blessed to be working with those types of people here.
We still haven’t figured out how we are going to be dealing with meals on a regular basis. Part of our family’s fees for living on base include eating base food, but sometimes the meals contain foods that my kids are allergic to. Thankfully, we have a refrigerator and some cabinet space in our house, so we can make meals at home if need be. The only problem is, if I load up the fridge with food, my children may take too much liberty with rejecting the base meals in favor of something they prefer at home, and then food becomes a huge expense. So, it’s something we have to really be on top of.
Honolulu is a top world travel destination, for obvious reasons. The weather is great, the ocean is warm, and it has developed a reputation as a tropical paradise. This is all true, as long as you stay within the popular, touristy areas. As soon as you go off the beaten path, you are in for a surprise. A whole other world opens up within a couple of blocks of Waikiki. With a population of over a million people, everything in Honolulu is a very tight squeeze. Seriously, its like living in a foreign country, and in many places, a 3rd world country. The vast majority of residents are a combination of native Hawaiians and people from all over Asia. And many of them do not speak English at all. I still haven’t figured out the culture here, but I’m working on it.
We were really shocked at the homeless situation here. Honolulu has the highest number of homeless people in the US. We have been working with a food distribution ministry every week called Feeding the Hungry. 500-700 people show up every Thursday to get free food that comes from a local food bank. After the food has all been unpacked and organized, and we are ready to distribute, my responsibility during the event is to mingle around the people, making friends, praying, sharing the gospel. Most of the people do not speak any english, so I have to do a bit of fishing before I find someone I can talk to. We have a lot of fun serving and giving love to people in need, it’s one of the highlights of my week.
The School of Missions and Evangelism (SOME), of which I am a student until February, has been pleasantly surprising for me. So far, the topics and the speakers that have been brought in have been excellent, and I have been taking good notes on their teaching. We have about two months of the lecture phase left before the team heads off to Indonesia and Papau New Guinea. As a husband and father of 5, I have been given some leniency during the outreach phase of the school. If I go to Indonesia, it will be for the first two weeks of outreach, after which I will return to be with the family and do projects locally. Then in February there are some pretty exciting things being scheduled in some amazing places, which I will reveal later on, providing that it all works out.
For now, Beth and I and the kids have been keeping a positive attitude in this adjustment period to island living, and getting used to the new base. We’ve overcome some challenges, like helping our two youngest boys adjust to public school as they have been very comfortable in the past homeschooling. There are other challenges we are in the middle of working on like encouraging our older children to take new steps of faith to get involved at the local church and join clubs to make new friends. Please pray for the gift of good companions for each of our children. Even one good friend for each would make a world of difference! Beyond that, I’m sure life will throw us some more curve balls that we will have to deal with. Not a problem when you keep a right perspective on things like life and purpose. God has always been faithful to us in the past, and we are confident He will continue to be.
Thank you for your wonderful prayers and support.
Here I will include a few pictures of the food distribution ministry and also one of me and some guys that came to Christ when we went out sharing the gospel in Waikiki. One of the biggest reasons we came here is because of the incredible evangelistic opportunity that Waikiki has to offer, with the diversity of new people who constantly fill the strip and the beaches. Its been fruitful so far, and I’m sure it will continue to be so.
