Emergency Response Team Training

So two days ago this random man came up to me and my work duty friends and asked if we wanted to be apart of a emergency response team training season. I thought that sounded pretty cool (not to be part of the team, but part of the training thingy) cuz they said we get to be victims in a natural disaster and get makeup on us to look like we're bleeding and such. 2 of the people I were with didn't want to do it cuz it started at 8:30am the next morning, but me and my german friend Janina said we'd do it.

When we got there the next morning, it took the fire department 3 HOURS to get there >.>;; So we were a lil pissed off cuz we're both totally not morning people and were cranky haha. I ended up just helping her with her ESL (english second language) workbook stuff while we waited and I realized...well knew before but realized even more.....I totally suck at english hahaha. I know how to use it, but I totally have no clue how to explain it because I don't know any of the rules x.x; Also my vocab SUCKS haha. I think the ESL Koreans here know more vocab than me haha.

So anyways, the fire department people finally came, set up, and put make up on Janina, the kids that were helping out, and a man from Norway. I was wearing long sleeves and pants stupidly, so it didn't work out, so I just had to act haha. Me and Janina were in an area with a lil kid named Christian and our story was this: Me and Janina were looking over this kid in preschool when an earthquake hit and shook everything. Janina went to turn off the power so the electric lines wouldn't make a fire but when she did, she saw a flash and burned her hand. Christian went to hide under the table, but something hit his head, and I went to get help but pathetically tripped over a board and fractured my leg on the ground haha.

The Emergency response people had to find us and then pretend to give us care and such. They wrapped up my leg with a piece of cardboard and wrapped up the kids' and Janina's burns and cuts. The had to carry the man out cuz he was pretending to have an internal injury from a beam falling on him, but they had some trouble lifting him cuz he was kinda big hahah.

Well here are some pics:


The makeup kit for making us look hurt hehe


A dummy of a dead fireman haha. They put a table over him so it looked like he got trapped.


The kid were with. Doesn't the head injury look so good? haha


Janina's burnt hand haha


My dramatic fall from a wooden plank in the ground x.x;

Song Writing Class

So today I went to a special song writing class they had just for today. I had to ask all my work duty helpers to have the day off, so yesterday I bought them all ice coffees as an apology thing (used the gift card I got from the talent show ^^). But I had people from the International House of Prayer teach us which was really awesome xD.

I wrote down 12 different things, so I'll share them with you all (probably nothing that amazing, but its all good):

1) Have something to say (dont just try to force words when you have nothing to say). If you really have nothing to say, you can pray for something to say if you're desperate haha. But it's best to write something you're passionate about.

2) The prayers we pray in the winter turn into our songs in the Summer. A lot of times our struggles may turn into songs of rejoicing later on in our lives.

3) Humility is the doorway for anything to happen. Be open when you ask people of their opinions on your songs, but remember that all your songs aren't going to be as amazing as you think they are. Listen to people's advice, but remember that you're the song writer, not them, so it's up to you to change or keep certain things in your songs.

4) If you're writing for corporate worship (songs to sing in church) instead of for Jesus (missing the focus), you'll be turning to the Bible just for lyrics instead of life, and it'll lead to a shallow and empty life. Maybe you'll get famous for a few months, but then people will start to realize that there's nothing past the songs, no real passion in your life.

5) Really great melodies have repetition and then variation on that repetition.

6) If you leave your guitar in your case, 90% less chance of writing a song. Buy a guitar stand and put it where you spend most of your time.

7) For half written songs, don't force it (force a completion), but force yourself to keep going back to it. It may take years to finish one song.

8) Find someone better to help you become better. If the only person you see is yourself, you won't get very far or won't be as creative as you could be.

9) The spirit of fear wants to keep songwriters down, the spirit of isolation wants to keep you from expressing your talents/thoughts, and the spirit of comparison wants to keep you from sharing your songs with others.

10) The tip of the spear is YWAM' all here for a reason.

11) The trail winds blow, but it's up to you to catch it. Everyone's sails are different and not everyone will sail in the same way. A new season of creativity is here.

12) This is what the teachers told me when they prayed over me:
-That my words seemed tangled in my heart, and that it's hard for me to express them, but he prayed that God will release that and stir up the words in my heart. Also said that it seems like I'll write songs in a very poetic but different way.
-Another leader said that she felt I won't only write songs in English, but also another language (probably Korean).

Well that's everything I wrote down, so if you're thinking of writing any songs, hope it somehow helps, if not, thanks for reading? haha.

City Outreach

So this happened the day before I got my glasses, so was still blind. We had to go out into the city and tell people about Jesus again and such, so I partnered up with 3 Korean girls and headed out into the city. When we reached there, we prayed and to myself, I asked God to bless this time and to make it into a really good learning experience for us (because I still have no clue about this kinda stuff), then we walked throughout the city.

I was mainly talking to one of the girls about life back at home and such and when we walked for like 30 min, they felt like they really wanted to talk to this guy that was sitting on a bench. I couldn't see this guy until I was like right in front of him and he was a big guy...like fully rounded and had biker gear on with his motorcycle in front of him.

One of the girls in our group started to talk to him, and we all joined in and he told us that his name was Greg and he just got laid off from his job at the rehab center nearby. I told him about how I was majoring in psychology and thought it was cool. After going back and forth for a lil while, one of the girls in our group asked him if he went to church, and he said not at this moment but he used to, but then his mom and a few relatives all died this year and he just stopped going.

I then told him that my grandpa and aunt both died last year and about how, when my aunt was on her death bed, 2 hours before she died, she saw a vision of heaven and started singing at the top of her cancer filled lungs, praises to God. She was so loud that the nurses tried to calm her down, but she wouldn't, and then she went away peacefully. After some more talking we asked if we could pray for him and he said ok, so we all prayed and I ended off praying out loud. Now, I came into Fire and fragrance cuz I heard there would be a lot of praying, and I suck at praying out loud, so I thought they would teach you.......they dont x.x; So in my opinion I totally suck at praying out loud, like Im really good when I pray by myself and have a good connection with God and such, but when it comes to praying out loud, its just blah to me.

Well after praying out loud to him, he thanked us and told us that he really needed that right then. We told him to stop by our university for some of the praise times or to say hi if we see him again and he said ok. He was a really nice man and I really hope the best for him. Today I kept remembering him and praying for him, so I hope he's able to find another job and hopefully come back to church.

It was nice cuz it really raised our spirits and was a really good learning experience for all of us. We learned a lot from it and also remembered some stuff we should of said but didn't, but there's always next time, so it's all good ^^.

We're thinking for next week, that I might bring out a guitar, and everyone might just sing praise songs. If people come up and ask us what we're doing, then we can share the gospel in that way. So a fun filled way to evangelize to people hehe. Fun Fun Times~

The blind can see :O

So I FINALLY got my glasses xD Praise the Lord haha. It's so weird...everything...is so clear o.o;

I got them when we had a break in the service, and when I came back, instead of looking at the speaker, I was just looking around at the trees, the birds, and the sky and was like, "What the...its like that feeling you get...when you see HD for the first time o.o;" But seriously, I was thinking, "I can see all the lil leaves on that tree and that tree is far away!! AMAZING!!" haha. Like a totally new world opened up before my eyes xD. The world is beautiful T.T *tear tear*

Another thing I noticed, right away when I first tried them on and actually made me really surprised, is.....I lost weight o.o; Like my face looks a lot skinnier and smaller @.@;; The food here, even though it's buffet style, kinda...SUX haha. So far the best food we've had was spaghetti haha. All the food here doesn't match with my stomach either, so I find myself sitting on the toilet a lot, which is weird cuz I usually go like once every other day o.o; (probably too much information, but uh...tada xD).

Ya, so even though the food sux, I'm thinking of maybe shoving it down my throat so that I can gain some weight back. I think I've already lost like 2 inches off my waist x.x; But hurray for getting my sight back xD, pretty ecstatic about that ^^ God is good xD.

Shaved Ice

So I went walking around the town with a new girl I met named Eunice. We were going to walk to Starbucks, but ended up stopping halfway at this Shaved Ice place. Now if you dunno what it is, it's like they get a cup, put a bunch of shaved ice in it (ice that's blended) and pour flavored syrup on it to add flavor ^^. You gets up to 3 flavors for a small which is pretty nice (cuz the small is HUGE).

At this particular place, there was a ton of flavors, and I couldn't see, so Eunice was reading them out, then I realized how many there were, so I just told her to stop and I got the same thing she did haha. But my glasses should come in tomorrow, so I'mma be so happy and reading everything I see hahah.

Well here's some pics of the shaved ice:


It's HUGE :O! Just imagine what a medium or large would look like haha.




Check out all those flavors :O Totally looks like a candy store haha.



Sorry for the short entries, but don't have much time to update and such.

Kona United Methodist Church

This is the new church I've been going to lately. It's a really friendly place even though the Bible studies are a lil ADD-ish haha. RIght now I'm joining the Youth group cuz it's all in English, and the youth pastor is white, and the guy who plays guitar and leads the praise is black? not really sure where his heritage is, but lots of racist jokes thrown back and forth hahah.

The service is at 11am, so it's really nice. Most other church's services start at 9am, so while my roommates are getting ready, I get to stay in my lil comfy/not so comfy bed haha. There's a bunch of vans that come and shuttle people to the different churches, so mine comes at about 10:20-10:40am.

Well I haven't uploaded many pictures recently, so I'll upload a bunch right now xD. I took these pictures after the service was over tho, but maybe next week I'll take a picture of what the actual services look like ^^.

Where here's a bunch of random pics ^^:


This is the Youth Group Pastor right now named Henry ^^


This is the 13 yr old girl that taught me how to count in Japanese haha.


2 guys from the youth group that lead praise. The guy on the left is a really good singer and the guy on the right is pretty crazy at guitar.


The entrance of the church~


So cool how there's no walls xD. It's so nice cuz during service you can feel the nice warm breeze flow through the church ^^.


Yunjee, the girl from before, got bored during service and made the strings into hearts haha.


And me playing guitar at the front of the church for fun. For those who've never seen me without my glasses, tada~! Hmm, think I've lost some weight after coming to Hawaii o.o; Well my body, maybe not my face hahah.

My Mailing Address~

For anyone who feels like sending me mail or any other random stuff, I shall post my mailing address ^^. Don't feel like you need to, I'm just posting it for the nicer people haha jk jks. If you send me mail, I'll try my best to write back ^^. Well here it is:

Justin Song
Fire & Fragrance DTS - 1st Qrt 2010
University of the Nations
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy. #429
Kailua Kona, HI 96740-2136 USA

Feel free to spam me slowly with snail mail haha

Basketball & Other Random Talk

So today I found out that my parents shipped my new pair of glasses, but it takes 2 business days to get here. Seeing that it just had to perfectly be Friday, I gotta be patient, bare with the blurry and dizziness, and wait till tuesday/wednesday to get them x.x; I totally have a new found respect for blind people x.x; Well on the bright side, at least I know they're on their way ^^b Now just gotta pray that they'll fit and be the right kind cuz my mom and sis guessed on a bunch of stuff like pupil distance, so hoping it'll still look normal when I wear them o.o;

Well now that I can't play basketball (cuz I'd probably be smashed in the face with the ball) I decided to take some pics of the court we play on and the guys I play against. Here's an action shot here:



One of these guys played basketball in college and he's huge compared to us, so we get our butts kicked by him haha. I haven't played for 3-4 years now, so I'm crazy out of shape and today I just spent a bit of time dribbling the ball, trying to get my groove back. They keep saying that I surprise them every time I play, but I really doubt it haha. I dunno, I'm horrible with compliments, but one of my roommates that I play with said that I move like water hahah.

So besides this, I went to the Banyan Tree Cafe for the Talent show. To my surprise, there was actually a LOT of people performing, and because I didn't have my glasses, I couldn't really make out who was who, so didn't stay too long at the beginning. I did see a youth group guy from the Korean church I now go to and he asked me if I wanted to enter into a raffle. It was $1 for a ticket, so I just gave $5 cuz it's going to Haiti. I got him to write it and all that cuz I couldn't see where to put everything and such and then left.

When I came back after basketball, I saw a 13 year old girl from the youth group of the Korean church, so we hung out and talked, while listening to the performers. It then went to the end of the night and they announced the winner for the raffle......and it was me :O!!! I won two $10 gift cards to the cafe hahah. I just said "Thank you Lord xD" and came back down the stage hehe. If you guys are wondering, I didn't get to perform cuz I came too late and there were a ton of performers, but if it makes you feel any better, I've already showed so many people my song here that I'm wondering if they're sick of hearing it by now hahah.

Well that's all for today, now I gets to wait in anticipation for my glasses to come. Just 4 more days >.<;; It's like waiting for Christmas haha.

Banyan Tree Cafe Talent Show

I went to a Korean church on Sunday and checked out their Youth group. They're pretty small and a lil ADDish, but all pretty cool. They're going to be holding a Talent show at a cafe that's on our campus to help fund raise for the Haiti earthquake that happened very recently.

If you haven't heard, Haiti was hit with a massive earthquake and a LOT of their buildings fell and millions of people died. They said the main palace thing got totally destroyed and the UN building fell and everyone inside died. We actually have a YWAM team from our group going to go to Haiti to help out in April ^^.

Anyways, so they're going to have a Talent show, so I might play rhythm for my roommate's song and might play one of my songs for kicks. Too bad I don't have lyrics, but maybe I'll get someone to improv over my song or something. I'll tell you guys how it goes ^^.

ps: it's at that cafe I took pictures of before xD

Weird Dream (Only for Shin)

So this is mostly a story for Shin cuz no one else will understand it, but ya.

So the only part of the dream I remember is the end part of it, but I was in a huge fancy looking mall with a small food court inside. I was with one of my roommates and was apparently in Japan. I looked across the room and saw Shin, Kage, and a bunch of other people sitting at a round table eating and laughing. I gave my roommate some excuse for him to leave and ditched him to say hi to everyone, but Shin disappeared, so I just said hi to Kage. For some reason I couldn't remember what Shin looked like, so I asked this long haired person their name thinking it might be Shin, but instead they said in a sweet voice "Oh, my name is Miyuki" hahaha. I suddenly got this picture of what Shin looked like and it was this round faced, manly looking guy with dyed light brown hair and a mustache that connected to a goatee which was also dyed light brown hahaha. Then after looking around and not seeing him, I ended up waking up o.O;

That was a weird pointless dream, but thought I would post it anyways for a laugh haha.

Living as a Blind Man

So today I got an email from my sister that it might take a week to get my glasses >.>; She said she realized that the promotion thing she had only said 1 per family, and she ordered my glasses last (she bought 3 herself) >.>;;; I BETTER get a pair of glasses soon or Imma be very pissed off.

Living as a blind guy really sux. I can't do much cuz everything requires my eyesight. I've been lil bit moodier, but I think that might the fact that my cold still won't go away, and is actually getting worse regardless the fact that I'm highly medicating myself in attempts to get rid of my cough. I have one of those forced coughs that are almost impossible to hold back. I've been coughing like crazy and I'm really hoping it's not going to affect my lungs.

So these days, I can't even g on the computer much cuz my back starts to hurt from having to look really close at my computer screen. Also it's a lot harder to enjoy conversations with people as much cuz I can't see their facial expressions and usually when I'm about to say something, I end up having a coughing spasm, so my social skills are failing me. Can't see or talk properly, perfect x.x;

Well everyone, please pray for me cuz I'm in a sucky mood right now. See yas.

Guess where I'm going? >:D

So I found out where my outreach is going to be, it's going to be China/Japan hahaha. They said we'll be in China for the majority, but will be in Japan for a few weeks. I asked where and they said probably Tokyo heheh. It'll probably be in April-June around, so really excited ^^. Everyone please pray for me, that our group will be safe in both countries ^^.

Well Shin, I guess I'll finally get to show you that song I've been trying to send you for so long haha. I dunno how much free time (if any at all) I'll have, but you can always come to where we're going to be doing our outreach hehehe.

They actually called my name last, so I was kinda nervous if I was actually going to get into the group, but it all worked out so yay xD. Praise God ^^

More Roommate Drama

So this happened 2 nights ago, but apparently my roommate that has some anger issues sleep walks as well. I was asleep so I didn't see it, but everyone else in the room saw and told me this and kept asking the guy why he did it, but he couldn't remember. But, this is what they said: They said that my roommate got up and started mumbling to himself while standing and looking at everyone in the room while they were asleep, he then went into the kitchen and just stood there and finally, he then sat down in the chair. One of my roommate's asked him what he was doing and suddenly he dashed out of the room (with no shirt on). My roommate was like "WHAT THE HECK!" and after I while my roommate came back in, then dashed back out. When he came back in the last time, he went back to his bed and passed out. The whole time he was making weird noises or talking to himself they said o.O;;

That other roommate that was supposed to get kicked out said that on saturday he was praying and really felt God and finally kinda understood him, but yesterday, he found out he was going to get kicked out and got pissed off, so went into town and hid from the leaders. I talked to him before he left and he said that some guy snitched him out, tell one of the leaders that he was saying bad things about him, which was the reason he was going to get kicked out (his last strike). Another one of my roommates however told people that the roommate said he was going to go crazy and pull a columbine (school shooting), so he actually told the leaders and 7 cop cars came and some officers came in at night and questioned us. I told them that he wasn't the kinda guy to do that kinda thing, cuz in my opinion, he would never do that. Well he came back on his own today and is going to leave at 6pm, so I'm just hoping he thinks this through and doesn't give up or hate on Christianity because I can see most people doing that in his situation which really saddens me.

Well for some happy news, my sister said she somehow had some coupon to a classes place back at home that covers up to $500 or something, so they bought a new pair of glasses on the internet and are going to ship it once they get it xD So I won't be blind forever, hurrays xD. I had a few people pray for me yesterday, and this totally seems like an answer to my prayers ^^. They were kinda praying that I'd be completely healed of ill eyesight, but I was kinda praying more for something like this hahaha. God works differently in everyone, and to me, this is a big miracle, cuz I was really wondering how the heck I was going to afford new glasses, and that coupon was like a gift from Heaven hehe. Anyways, I usually don't worry too much about these kind of things even though they seem really serious. I may complain a bit, but usually inside I don't really worry cuz I know God is my provider. I've just seen him provide and bless me with too much to worry that much anymore ^^. Yay God haha.

Blind man walking x.x;

So today something terrible happened, I broke my glasses. Now to a lot of people this isn't that bad when this happens, but for me, I'm like -6/-7 prescription which means that I'm pretty useless without them. I heard from someone that -8 is actually considered legally blinf to put it more in perspective.

I'm not really mad as more disappointed. It seems when one bad thing gets resolved, another hindrance enters my life; all of them making it harder to concentrate on why I'm in Hawaii and learning more about God. Some may say it's spiritual warfare, others might say its coincidence, but who knows. Either way I'm hoping I'll get a new pair really soon x.x;

It's not so much the getting around that's the problem, but I feel like a jerk not saying hi to people and walking right past them. I don't actually know it's them that's the thing haha, but only a select few so far know my glasses are broken so they might just think I have contacts on and are ignoring them x.x; Well it'll all get solved eventually, but for now it's a bi annoyance to me.

I sent an email to my parents to but a new pair and send them to me, but dunno how long it'll be until I get a new pair, so I might be blind for a whole week x.x; A guy I know said I could borrow one of his glasses, but I heard if you wear the wrong prescription, it might make your eyes worse, but if Im really desperate, I'll take up his offer.

Well that's all I'll write for now, if some of this doesn't make sense, it's cuz I cant even see the screen while I'm typing and am too lazy to spell check it all (only changing the words that are underlined red). Well pray that I don't end up bumping into random things or getting people pissed off at me hahah. God bless all~

Journal Entry #1

*Don't have to read unless you're my leader, cuz it'll be LONG*

This is the start of a weekly journal we’re told to write, to help us remember and reflect on the things we’ve learned during the lectures/prayers. For this week, we’ve been learning a lot about how much God loves us. Now this is an overused phrase in Christianity, since Sunday school, so most people take it lightly and blow it off. We’ve heard it so much that it’s started to lose its significance, and lose sight of the deeper meaning of this.

Now, as Christians in the church, most of us have built our religion upon the foundation of “How can I be a good Christian?” and have built pillars of “If I read the Bible, go to church, follow the 10 commandments, pray before every meal, etc. then I’ll be a good Christian.” The problem with this mentality, however, is the fact that we are making Christianity into a faith by works religion. It’s like saying, “if I do these things, God will love us even more. He’ll forget about/ forgive us for the sins I have committed in the past.” But in the end, it’ll be a struggle over doing these things to not feel the guilt inside of “I’m not a good Christian because I don’t do this…” Many Christians live like this because they don’t know there’s another way.

How we should live our lives is to create our foundation on the simple truth that “God loves you.” Now the part I love about this is that all the pillars that we build may be the same as before, but is not our attempts to receive redemption, but instead is our response to God’s love. We do this not to gain God’s love or make Him love us more, but we do it because, as Andy puts it, “He loves us, He loves us, He loves us!” It is virtually impossible to expect God to love us even more than he does because even in our lowest point in our lives to the highest point, He loves us the same. His love is never changing.

This kind of shocked me when I just heard it because I find that most churches actually preach a more work-based religion than one of love. It makes me wonder, “How many Christians actually know what it means to be a Christian? How many are living on a cracked foundation instead of the solid rock of God’s love?” Suddenly the simple phrase “God loves you” holds so much more power once we know what it truly means. My whole perspective of reading the Bible seems to have totally changed now. I’ve already read 2 weeks worth of the reading homework because I just feel so hungry for the Word. I just want to learn more and more, or even some of the stuff I knew before and see it in a new light. It’s really amazing how changing the foundation of your faith can alter your whole mindset about Christianity.

I feel like going back home and sharing this with my Bible study students back at home because it seems like I’ve been teaching them all with the wrong mindset. I want to start teaching with God’s love as the main focus of the class, instead of “do this and this and this and you’ll meet God.”

When I went on the community outreach, to be honest, I was really nervous. I’ve never done anything like that with my church before, so I had no clue what to do, and approaching random people and asking them if they knew God seemed kind of…invasive I guess. I just prayed that someone skilled in this would be in my group, and surely enough, I was paired with a guy named Dave who’s been doing evangelism for 5 years. We only talked to one guy the whole time we were out and he took the lead with the whole evangelism thing, while I watched their interaction. It was really neat to see how he went about with the whole thing, and I think I learned a lot from that experience. It kind of was a wake up call that I might know a lot about the Bible, but I’m terrible at applying it in situations such as these. After praying for the guy and him leaving, I was talking with Dave and he gave me an awesome site that teaches some steps on evangelism. This is a totally new experience, but I’m thankful for the opportunity I guess.

This week has been pretty crazy spiritually. Never prayed for like 3 hours a day before, so it’s pretty crazy to think about. Usually when I can’t pray anymore, I just take out my Bible and start reading it while everyone else is praying intensely. I’ve never really been into the whole jumping during praise or dancing thing, I find that I start thinking too much about the action and lose sight of God. Ha ha. I’m more one of those kneeling/sitting while praying intensely in my mind kind of people. Usually when I pray out loud, it’s quieter unlike others who pray at the top of their lungs. A lot of people, I know, aren’t doing it for the attention, but are just so overflowed with the spirit that they can’t help themselves, so I respect that, same with the jumping and dancing stuff.

I’ve always been at a pretty good place with God, even if I don’t show it so much openly. I’m kind of excited to see what’ll happen in this coming up week because even after a few days of classes, we’ve seen people’s lives totally change, people dancing and praising the Lord, people crying in prayer, people doing things they’ve never imagined themselves doing before, etc. and this is only the beginning. I wonder how much more passionate everyone will get. If people will turn to the Lord when troubles come their way, and to remember the things they have learned instead of it all melting away once something horrible happens to them or a loved one. In the words of one of the staff members, “Lord, bring it on.” Ha ha.

Downtown? fun

So I kept hearing about people saying stuff like "Hey, lets go downtown" and such like that, and I kept thinking, "Where the heck is there a downtown around here? o.O" Apparently they were referring to the lil plaza area that is only about like 10 buildings big hahaha. What an awesome downtown haha.

So today I hung out with a bunch of Koreans from a different DTS group (mine's Fire and Fragrance and theirs is Call2All) and now I'm kinda beating myself for not picking Call2All x.x; So far I've met a LOT of people from their group and they're all awesome people x.x; Plus all the Koreans seem to be in that group haha.

Well we just got some ice cream (Kona coffee ice cream & Kona Joy ice cream) and the Joy is sooo yummy >.<; Its like cookies and cream, but has coconut, nuts, and other awesome stuff in it xD. Too bad I got the coffee one tho x.x;

Well here's a pic of most of the people I was hanging out with ^^

Roommate Fun

Man, I love my roommates hahaha. First we had the pot smoker that got kicked out cuz he wanted advice for love and got piss drunk, then the new guy who's a racist against black people, yet tries to act all ghetto, and now we find out that one of the guys that we thought was all nice and such, actually has major anger issues hahaha. I'm lovin' it xD (sorry, I bought McDonald's in town and I'm still feeling it x.x;).

Oks, so we're playing basketball and it's a king of the court kinda thing, so everyone verse everyone. We're not really playing seriously and we're all just having fun and such. One of the guys that we're playing with is a lot smaller (midgit? hmm, not really, but you can tell there's something wrong with him), and he's getting into it, playing pretty hard. Him and my roommate keep playing hard against each other, and my roommate cant get around him. After like 10 min. of playing like this, my roommate just turns to him and the small guy to the ground HARD.

We're all like "WHAT THE HECK o.O!!" and the smaller guy gets up with a REALLY pissed off face and is about to lunge at my roommate, but a different roommate stops him (sorry for the confusion, but I dun like giving out names). My other roommate calms the smaller guy down while the roommate that pushed him down, takes his ball and goes to the other side of the court and keeps throwing his ball against the backboard hard.

Now this guy is really passive, so we're all thinking "What the heck just happened here? o.O" Apparently there was some problems with this in the past with this guy, so he's actually doing DTS (discipleship training school) a second time.

Oh man, I guess the drama has just begun hahaha. Dang, this is way more fun than TV hahaha.

Guam?

So a leader came up to me today during my class break and told me that I should pray about going to Guam for my outreach. It's funny cuz out of all the places I could go, this one didn't stick out to me at all. I think when they talked about it, I just zoned out cuz I didn't have any interest in it haha. Hmm, I dont even know if I remembered to add it to that list of outreach places I posted before haha.

After praying about it, I'm still not totally sure what to do x.x;; There's so many pros and cons for going like, some pros are: the flight will most likely be cheaper, they speak English I heard, I only packed 1 jacket, but this place would be warm anyways, the island is beautiful I heard, etc etc.

For some reason, I have a feeling that if I go to Guam, I won't be in a group with any of the people I know in DTS so far, but then again I prayed that I should trust in God anyways and should go no matter what.

Well right now I just need a lot of prayer, so if you're reading this, please pray for me and if God gives you an answer for me, feel free to share it...or more like, please share it haha.

I have until tomorrow to decide x.x; so everyone, please pray for me ><;

Cockroach Fun

The guy that came into our room ready to catch the roach.


Trying to find the roach. It actually traveled around the room to everyone's beds haha.

Ya, so yesterday when I was uploading pictures, I caught a glimpse of something on my right on the wall, and like 1-2 feet away there's the biggest cockroach I've ever seen!! Now I dunno about you guys, but my house back at home doesn't even have a single cockroach ever (no even my old house), so I was like "Whoa!! what the heck is this?!"

I didn't know they could fly, but this one was flying and crawling everywhere. Gah, why do they have to seem to creepy x.x; So me and my roommates tried to kill it, but it's crazy fast. This one korean guy from another room was like "In the name of Jesus, I command you to die" and we're all laughing and such haha and another roommate's like "I'm pretty sure Jesus loves all his creatures"

To an answer to our prayers, a guy from the next room came in and said that his room before had 6 at once and that they're nothing to him. He was all like crocodile hunter mode and was crawling under and moving stuff to get at it, and in the end caught it in a bag and tied it up. He said that he made some bet with his group before that he was actually going to eat one, so he left and said "Hey guys, thanks for dinner" haha. What a guy xD.

The window screen from my window popped out, so I was guessing that's the most likely way it got in, so I grabbed the screen and my friend's night-book-reading light and went outside and popped it back in, so I'm hoping we won't be having another incident like this for a while @.@:

By the way, if you were guessing how big it was...it was around um...

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

the size of that if not bigger (depends if you count the antennas or not.

I was telling my roommates how I've never had one in my house, and one of them was like "Well it's because your dad's a pastor, it must be blessed" and I was like "Haha, so funny cuz we actually call it the holy house haha"

Heard in the Philippines that there's so many cockroaches that they're everywhere in the houses and the people don't even care. They just live among them x.x; Well possibly after 3 months I'll get used to it and kill/catch them on my own x.x; or just pray for all of them to leave me alone haha.

Random Pics

Awesome Hawaiian sunset xD My current desktop background ^^.


Hanging out on the grass~


There was a lizard above my bed, so took a picture of it. It was so small, so took so long to get a decent picture of it, hands kept shaking x.x;


They put up all the flags that represent all the countries at our YWAM base. So cool meeting people from all over the world xD.


So I put in a request for them to fix our broken sliding door, and so 2 guys came in and took the door out.....and never put it back >.>; Seems totally like taking a step backwards than forwards, pretty sure it was like 80% better the way it was before >.>;

Outreach

So we had to decide where to go on our outreach (mission part of DTS). I was surprised to hear that there were a LOT of different places we could go. They said there'll be around 9-12 people in each group, so just hoping I'll know some people when the groups are decided.

We were told not to talk to others about it, just so we're not going to bias our decision on what other people pick. Well I'll list the places now cuz I bet you're all curious:

1) Afghanistan (2 groups)
2) China/Japan (and going to the North Korean border to pray for their country)
3) Europe (2 groups, around Amsterdam, Prague, and Paris)
4) New Zealand
5) United States of America (East coast tour)
6) Haiti (they just had a massive earthquake, so YWAM is going to help them out)

So 8 different groups in all. I know Shin's thinking "J totally picked China/Japan" but I actually didn't. We had only 24 hours to decide, so after praying about it, I thought "If I do pick some places, I dunno if it'll be from my own wanting/will or if it's God, but maybe I'll put my trust in God and let Him decide for me" So on the paper we handed in I wrote "I will trust in you Lord, not my will but let Yours be done. I will go anywhere for outreach."

I have some feeling that I'll end up going to one of the places I don't want to go like Afghanistan, but I figure, if I put my trust in God, then He'll take care of me. If I ever was at gun point and told to reject my religion, I really do wonder what the outcome would be. In my mind, I always see a video like reel of me accepting death keeping my faith, and thinking "If I don't have Christianity, is my life still worth living anyways?" and always think of what Martin Luther said "Here I am, I know no other!" I don't really know a life without faith, so thinking of living without it just seems worthless to me I guess. Like I always wonder what atheists live for or if they have hope at all (no offense to any atheists). To me Christianity gives me hope.

Oh, I remember a pastor here saying an awesome line. "Being a christian doesn't mean we are perfect and don't fall (mess up), it just means that when we fall, we pick ourselves up and keep on going."

Well I guess I'm totally off topic now and it's getting to a pretty depressing topic, so I'll stop now. I'm still a lil sick, but I got some medication and vitamins from friends here ^^. Also 2 people asked to pray for me, so hoping I'll get better really soon xD. My throat feels a lot better than before, just hope it'll stay that way when I wake up *crosses fingers*.

Oks, well this is getting long, see ya all later ^^.

J is sick x.x;;

Ya, so I'm really sick today x.x; I woke up and my throat was killing me @.@;; Hurts to talk and drink water. I was fasting a bit today (my own will, not forced) so dunno if it hurts to eat yet, but I'm guessing its going to be crazy painful when I eat in 30min.

Luckily, I made a friend with a 33 year old Korean girl (or she doesnt seem that old to me haha) and she gave me 4 cold pills ^^. So hopefully I'll finally get rid of this cold (had it since I left) and get some more energy to be more of myself >.<; Ya, I'm always so low energied when I'm sick haha. I guess I'm one of those guys that, when sick, are like "Ah, I'm so poor and defenseless, pity me :O!!" haha.

Anywhos, pray that I get better ^^ or I guess to those that don't believe in a God.....eh, just pray for me anyways >:D haha suckers jk jks xD. Hey, I'm sick, I'm allowed one of those hahaha.

A Few Random Blessings

Well I just wanted to write about some random blessings that have happened to me here in Hawaii. I see them as blessings, but you guys can see it however you like ^^.

Well the first and most important to me of course, is the fact that I couldn't bring a guitar here to Hawaii. I was thinking back at home "GAH, I'm going to totally suck at guitar when I get back and am going to go through total guitar withdrawal x.x;" I was kinda just praying inside that God would send me a roommate that plays guitar so I could play it every now and then.
On the 2nd day, one of our roommates came in with a guitar and I was thinking "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord" kinda thing hehe. We talked and he's actually a singer/songwriter which was really cool and he's really good at guitar. on the 3rd/4th day, another guy came in and he had a guitar and if that's not good enough, this guy doesn't really play and is ok with me playing it whenever. I was thinking "Ah, God, you're too good to me xD" haha.

Another thing is that Ive met a lot of songwriters/guitarists/and even a producer here :O . I didn't really expect to see so many talented people, so its pretty awesome to me xD. I've jammed with a few guitarists (me playing my stuff while they play overtop of it) and so far everyone's liked my rhythms which kinda surprised me haha. I guess I never think they're good enough or something >.>; Dang my perfectionism with my songs x.x;

Well another thing was that I brought an old Bible here that's the King James version (written in old english) which is hard to understand. I just kinda prayed inside that God would provide me with a Bible here. On the 4th day around, I met a super nice korean guy and we hung out over the weekend a lot. I told him about the Bible I brought and he gave me his extra copy that's all in english, so again I was like "Yay God xD You always provide for me ^^."
So lucky cuz we have intense bible reading stuff here. For the first week, we have to read all of the book of Genesis which is 50 chapters long @.@; but I finished it all after the 2nd/3rd day of classes xD.

Last blessing Imma write about is when we had to do community evangelism. This is when you go out into the community and tell random people about God and such. I was never really a fan of this cuz it just seems so impersonal and I dunno. I was really nervous cuz I've never done anything like this before, so before we went, I prayed that God would lead me into the right group for me with someone in there that knew what he was doing.
After I was done praying, these 2 older white guys came up to me and asked if I had a group, which I said no, so we joined and headed out. I then found out that one of them is really experienced in it and used to do it all the time in Colorado. Of course I was like "Heck ya God xD." We went into town and talked to this Ukulele player guy and the experienced guy did all the talking. It was kinda a wake up call that I might know a bunch about the Bible, but have no idea how to apply it in this kinda setting.
The guy later told me of an awesome website called dare2share.org that has a lot of information about how to share the gospel of Jesus to others. So I guess I gots some reading up to do xD.

Well those were the lil/big blessings I've received so far ^^ Just felt like sharing hehe.

YWAM Night Drama

Ya, so last night was a kinda fun night haha. So we get back from a meeting and we're all thinking "praise God" and stuff like that, and then while we're in our rooms, 3 leaders come in and say that they found 2 of our roommates drinking and smoking weed.

One of those roommates actually just came the day before, so we're thinking "what the heck >.>;" They continue to say that they found one of them passed out on the sidewalk, so they knew they were drinking a LOT. Also, they said they were talking to the older one and then he apparently ran away and couldn't be found haha.

Later on in the night, me and my other roommates started talking to the younger guy (who was the one passed out on the sidewalk) about what happened, and he said that the older guy liked some girl in his YWAM group and wanted pointers about how to ask her out hahahaha. So he bought some alcohol and started getting pointers from the younger one >.>; In the end, they drank from 1pm-6pm and were pissed drunk coming back and ya, you can guess the rest.

The older guy came in with a leader and he actually had to pack up all his stuff and got a plane ticket back to California, USA. I was kinda like o.O; cuz I had no idea how strict this place would be haha. After seeing the guy getting kicked, the younger guy started freaking out and looked like he was about to cry haha which is funny cuz he tries to act ghetto (even tho he's korean) so we stayed up with him and talked to him to try and calm him down.

Ya, so that was my day yesterday. We had some interesting conversations with the new guy cuz he apparently is completely racist it seems and is totally mind washed by the media about what's cool and such. Me and my roommates just kept laughing at his messed up ideas and such, but ya haha.

Well the younger guy ended up not getting kicked out, or at least he's in the room with me while I'm typing this, but he's on his bunk so can't read this haha. So now continues the fun YWAM journey xD.

See yas for now, gots to go eat, haven't eaten yet and it's dinner time :O!! OH! This may shock everyone, but since I've gotten here, I've had like no appetite really at all and the main thing I'm eating these days is.........Salad :O!!!!! I know, like what the heck!! I blame Shin~ hahaha.

Well see yas ^^

Classroom Sessions

Here are just some pictures of my classroom that I get taught in. No desks or anything, more just like a lecture style kinda thing. Not much to say, so here it is:









Sorry for not writing much, but was talking with my roommates about some stuff that happened. I'll write about it later, but one of my roommates got kicked out of YWAM and another is in questioning. Ya, so didn't have time to write before the internet's going to cut out, so ya, I'll write it all later. See ya for now.

New Perspective

In our seminar, the pastor was talking about how we're raised learning about God in the wrong perspective. Most Christians wake up and think (directly or indirectly) "How can I love God today?" This becomes the foundation of our Christianity and we try to do things to please God, such as reading the Bible, praying, fasting, coming to church, etc. because we believe that these things will make God happy. It's always us searching how we can satisfy God, and if we slip up and sin, then we suddenly think we're not good enough or that we're failures as Christians, and it eventually turns into "How can I live my life feeling the least amount of guilt as possible and be able to say I'm a good Christian?" A lot of Christians believe that this will lead to God loving us, but the thing is, we're always going to slip up eventually and always going to fail, so this thinking will always leave us empty and longing for more of a relationship with Him.

We think like this because it's the normal teachings in church without us really knowing it. Most continue to think like this because they don't know that there's another way, but there is.

The foundation we should live our lives is "God loves me." He loves us the same from our highest point to our lowest point. Instead of doing certain things to gain his approval, we should be doing such things as a response to his love, such as service, praying for others, worship, sharing the gospel, etc. In Christianity, you cannot gain salvation through actions, so do not get confused with this, but its more, we do these things because we want to, not because we have to. This in turn will then lead to a greater relationship with God. If you noticed, guilt should not be a factor in this, because he knows we're all sinners but he loves us the same.

I know this might sound a lil confusing, but if you guys have any questions about this, I'll try to explain it more. It's a lot easier to understand with a picture, but I dont have time to draw one right now, so maybe I'll add one later ^^.

Cafe Time

Finally checked out the lil cafe-ish area they have around here. Played cards and that slapping game again for a few hours haha. I brought my roommate's guitar up there (hope he didn't mind >:D) and for some reason everyone said I was so good and I'm like "o.O; well this is new" haha.
Guess I'm to used to crazy good people showing off around me at places like these hehe.

Thing I thought that was cool was that I played that song I made up and everyone's liked it so far ^^; the jazzy/R&Bish one hehe. I'm working on another weird chorded song right now that's a really simple chord progression (E C#m A B) but made with messed up finger stretching chords haha. One of the guys in the pictures Imma show used to be in a band for 5 years, so he can actually tell me what my messed up chords are hehe.

Anywho, here are some pics of the cafe:


Learned a cool setting on my camera from the blonde girl Jackie in the next picture.


Again me failing at taking pictures x.x; but I thought "might as well upload a pic with me in it cuz I haven't yet" hehe. So ya, laugh away.


This is the cafe we were at~

J's Room

Realized that I didn't put up any pictures of my room, so I'll post some random pics now ^^. I have 3 other korean guys and 2 white guys in my room right now, so it gets hot at night, and suddenly at like 2am the temperature suddenly drops like crazy and it gets freezing o.O;;

Just bought a blanket today, so it should be all good now. Still have a cold cuz of the shivering, but hopefully it goes away soon ^^. Anyways, here's the pics:


Our dorm room complete with clothes lying all over the place hehe.


Other side of the same room. My bed is the one on the top right behind the fan ^^.


The kitchen/sink area and the entrance to the tiny dirty washroom xD. I bought a bath rug today tho hehe Couldnt stand the mold on the ground x.x;


Other side of the kitchen/sink area. Just a closet with my towels hanging in them ^^.


The view outside my window xD.

Spiritual Gifts?

So we met up with our 70+ group and introduced ourselves to a lot of different people asking a list of questions and such this guy would shout out. The questions later started to get more personal, like "When was the time you felt God the most" or "What was your biggest obstacle to overcome" and such.

I couldn't find an answer for one of them, but started talking to my partner (one of our leaders from London xD) about how I wanted to know more about the spiritual gifts talked about in the Bible; more info here:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2012:1-11&version=NIV

My church doesn't really emphasis on it like other churches, so I dunno much about it, but always wanted to experience one of the cool ones like prophecies xD.

The leader said that she's had experiences with healings, prophecies and speaking in tongues, and that she actually healed someone last week o.o;. She said she doesn't feel any power or anything from herself, but its more that she's powerless and God just works through her. She also said she could sense my hunger for God (just a christian saying, saying that you desire to know God) and that I may have the gift of speaking in tongues and to pray about it. So I guess I will and I'll see how it goes~

[This stuff will probably sound foreign to a lot of you guys, but it's all good. I'll be writing about my christian experiences so that I don't forget about them, so don't be surprised if this blog isnt only filled with pictures of hawaii haha.]

Beach Time xD

Today me and my roommates went took a trolley and went to the closest beach to us. It was awesome to see and feel the waves while meeting a lot of new people ^^. I ended up hanging out with a few Koreans and some other people from my DTS (Discipleship Training School) group [which consists of 70+ ppl apparently] and unintentionally ditching my roommates haha.

After we were done at the beach, we played this hand slapping kinda game (kinda hard to explain it x.x;) and waited for the next trolley which took 1 and a half hours to arrive. When we got on it though, we realized we were going the opposite way, so in the end, we had a 1 hour trolley ride xD But it was all good cuz the breeze coming through was so perfect and we just talked and got to know each other some more ^^.

Ah, by the way, cuz I don't have much time to upload pictures (and it takes FOREVER) I'll usually just upload around 5 pictures of my day ^^ Hope that's ok with you all xD.


This is inside of the Trolley that we took. The sides were all open, so the breeze coming in was heavenly xD.


This was the beach we were at. Still lots of rocks on the bottom, but the waves and sun were worth it ^^. The water was actually pretty warm which is the complete opposite of the waters in Canada haha (then again we have glacier water hehe).


A cool pond-ish thing I saw xD. Totally looked like a potential desktop background pic, so took a pic of it hehe.


This is actually my new desktop background pic currently ^^. Soooo pretty xD.


These are the guys and gals I was hanging out with ^^. All really cool people~

Hoola Night

So the Hawaiian people here had a huge welcome night complete with fire twirling, lil and older girls doing the hoola kinda dancing, a really cool dance where they have a staff and a stick and dance while playing a beat with the stick on the rod (hard to explain, but was awesome xD), etc.

Also Lauren Cunningham and his wife were there (the people who started YWAM) cuz they were celebrating the base's 50th year there xD. Here's some pictures of the event ^^.