In case you missed it, I chose to do a discipleship training school with YWAM for six months. My first three months will be spent in Kona, and outreach will be another three months in a location that has yet to be determined. This journey for me started on Wednesday night.
Airplane Mode
It took me approximately 10 minutes to meet the first YWAMer, and I don’t mean ten minutes after landing. I mean ten minutes after getting on the plane! I boarded the connecting flight to San Diego and walked down the narrow isle to seat 29F. I placed my backpack under the seat in front of me, and shortly afterwards a young couple sat next to me. I gave them a few minutes of getting settled before asking if they were visiting San Diego or if they were returning home. They informed me that they were heading home, and when they asked me, I said I was headed to Hawaii for a mission trip. I was immediately interrupted by the girl asking, “With YWAM?” I was caught off guard by the accuracy of the question. “Yes.” I said. “I did YWAM in Perth, Australia.” She replied. “But afterwards visited the base in Kona for a five weeks.”
Are you kidding me? Of all the people who could have sat next to me, it happens to be another YWAMer and one who is familiar with the Kona base!
We spent some time talking about YWAM and missions and church. The two of them live in San Diego, but her Husband, who sat next to her, is from Massachusetts and went to Gordon, a college that I was very familiar with, as it is where my brother and many of my friends went to college.
After the conversation died down I looked out the window at the orange glow of the city lights now miles below us. The same euphoria that I always experience traveling hit me. “You can’t even wait till I land in Kona; how much more must you have waiting for me?” I prayed.
The next 12 hours consisted of Ubering around San Diego to find an authentic Californian Burrito, getting caught in a rainstorm (I didn’t know rain existed in San Diego), then tipping an off-duty airport shuttle bus to bring me to the airport. I ended the night in a moderately comfortable chair, struggling to catch a few REMs. At about 4:30am, when the kiosks opened, I walked over and checked in, getting my boarding pass. I sat back down and, noticing the man who was sitting next to me, asked where he was headed. “Seattle” he said in a thick Indian accent, “I was just at a missions conference here in San Diego.” He went on tell me his story of encountering God and the needs there are in different countries and the importance of missionaries. He soon got up and left to check his bags.
You know that feeling where you know you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be? Yup, that’s how I feel.
New and Familiar
On my flight from San Diego to Kona I sat next to a women and her father, who was a native of Kona. And as Hawaiians do so well, they graciously welcomed me to their home. The plane landed and I walked down the rolling stairs onto the tarmac. Indoors isn’t really a thing in Hawaii. I passed through some open rooms to the baggage claim where I was directed by friendly faces holding signs with what can hardly still be called an acronym: “YWAM”.
It was all so new and yet so familiar. I said hello to some people who I was instantly friends with. We only knew of one thing that we had in common, but that one thing was everything to us: to know God and make Him known.
We took the bus to the campus that I had envisioned hundreds of times before. The brown wooden buildings cover the property, leaving enough room between for concrete and cobble pathways and green areas dappled with palm trees. Birds chirp loudly and a sweet smell floats through the air. Looking down upon the base is a volcanic mountain, whose peak is constantly hidden beneath what I had initially thought to be rain clouds, but is in fact vog, a reaction from the gasses of the still active volcano. Opposite this, just beyond the beach side resorts lies the pacific ocean, who forcefully and consistantly throws itself upon the volcanic rock that covers the shore.
To avoid boring you with details, I’ll just say that the first day consisted of a brief time of checking in and a long time of Hawaiian style welcome. It was a day with a mix of being new and fascinating and yet exactly what I expected. Within hours it felt as if it were a place I had grown up. Like they say “You are Ohana (family) and this is your Hale (home).”
No Place but His Presence
There are various reasons why we travel, but one that I often see is the desire for something new, the desire for something fresh. We long for change, for excitement, for a newness that will not merely be observed, but that will be absorbed. We long for a freshness that will penetrate our perception and influence our hearts. However, as I stood in the presence of utter beauty, bathed in the glow of an immaculate sunset, surrounded by the sound of crashing waves, I found my spirit pushed up against this desire, but not satisfied. I felt not the slightest bit moved. It was as if I had stayed still while the world moved around me. Like an actor who stands on the stage while the props are shuffled around and replaced behind him. The setting may look different, but he knows that he is in the same place. And so I stood, face to face with this desire for newness, yet knowing whether it was Boston or Kona, my surroundings could not move me. Finally I turned around and went back to the base. As I walked through the campus, I saw the prayer room and entered in. Not long afterward a man, whose voice I recognized as belonging to Seth Yates, began to play the piano and sing. As he worshipped, I began to engage my heart with God’s. As simple and profound as it always is, I felt the presence of God and met the freshness I had moments earlier longed so deeply for. I saw not just a beauty that reflects and points towards a greater beauty, I experienced beauty Himself. And in Him I was satisfied.
When the deepest groanings of my heart are brought to the surface, when the heights of what this world offers doesn’t quench the longing within, I’m reminded that as cliché as it sounds, Jesus is the only one who will satisfy. And it didn’t take Him long to remind me that this trip is not about experiencing Kona, it’s about experiencing Him.
Israel Shaw 