Lay-Days
ROCK (Radical Ohana Camping Kickoff) has been postponed. Due to a storm hitting the Hawaiian islands we will now be leaving on the 8th of February. We are thankful that we don’t have to go camping in a storm and for having leaders that are willing to make last minute changes for the good of our class. We are even more excited than before for ROCK; we still have no idea what to really expect. With our entire schedule changing the day before we were supposed to leave we have learned that flexibility is an important skill to have for working at STN.
During the course of our LTP we have a lot of speakers come in and talk to us. Recently we had Jason Lehfeldt come talk to us about finding freedom. Jason is an inspirational man with a passion for helping people find freedom. His teaching was focused around lies people believe about themselves and other people. Jason showed us how the lies we believe about ourselves inhibit us from reaching our full potential. It was a moving experience as he had us write down lies we believe about ourselves and then share them with our class.
Just in case you didn’t know, I get sick pretty easily. Junia, on the other hand, almost never gets sick. So it was not surprising when I woke up with a fever on Saturday (27th of January) morning, especially because other people in our class were already sick. Saturdays are ‘Department Days’ for our class. We get to spend one day working in each of the departments at STN. It’s a chance for us to see what the different departments do on a day-to-day basis. Junia got to work with the FTH department, where she helped prepare the public bathroom and shower that they are opening for the homeless people of Wahiawa. In the afternoon they went to the park where they had a BBQ with the homeless. She had the opportunity to have a long discussion with a homeless man who was not in a good place and needed some encouragement. Junia also got to be the kitchen head for the Surfers Church meal on that day. This is a weekly meal that is open to the public; it’s held just before Surfers Church and is a cool place to get to know people. I, on the other hand, spent most of the day in bed trying to recover.
On Sunday (28th of January) I was still not feeling too good, so we decided to stay home and work on our blog. We spent the entire day working on it (a blog is hard work) and finally got it ready to publish just after ten in the evening. It was a huge relief for us to have our blog ready to publish. We had been working on it for the last couple of months and we were delighted to finally share it with you. As I programmed the entire blog from the ground up it took somewhat longer than it would take if we were to use a CMS to make it; however, this gives us a lot more precision and flexibility to further develop it. We have a lot of features still planned for the blog and I will be programming and implementing them as the time goes by. Our main focus is producing interesting content for you. We want to share our life with you; keeping you up to date and enabling you to be a part of our journey.
Junia and Isak walking on the beach at Pipeline
On Monday (29th of January) we drove down to Honolulu to go to the Ala Moana Center. Junia and I love shopping together, especially if we have something we need to buy. It was cool to see how enthusiastic and friendly the people working in the mall were. One experience that stood out to us was when we went into Chapel Hats to look for a hat for me (I get sunburnt pretty easily). The lady who worked there was likely the most enthusiastic sales person we had ever come in contact with. She was asking us questions, telling stories and making jokes. When we left, hat in hand, we talked about her enthusiasm and how genuine it was. Leaving the Ala Moana Center, we walked down to the Ala Moana Beach Park and watched the sunset. As the sun sank below the horizon and moon took its place in the sky, we slowly made our way home.
Once a month STN does an all-night prayer where we pray for the community from eight at night to eight the next morning. We are believing for a radical change in Wahiawa and that it will be transformed into one of the safest cities on Oahu. Everyone at STN gets a partner and they get assigned a one hour slot in the night to walk the streets of Wahiawa and pray for our town.
Teaching is a big part of our LTP and we have numerous teachings on a range of subjects related to leadership. We also get to teach our class for both one and two hours on separate occasions. Our leaders assign us a subject that we have to teach from a couple of leadership books. Junia had to do her hour-long teaching on the subject of ‘Big Rocks First’; she spent quite a few evenings preparing and going over her teaching. It was well rewarded with her getting lots of positive feedback from our leaders and class. I had my two-hour teaching spontaneously moved to Saturday (3rd of February) instead of Thursday (8th of February). It had to do with ROCK being moved so I understood the necessity of moving it. It did; however, mean that I had to spend three evenings working until very late to get my teaching prepared. My subject was ‘The Law of Priorities’ from John C. Maxwell's book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Teaching in front of people is not necessarily something I like doing as I tend to wing it and deliver mediocre performances. It was nice to see that I could deliver a high quality teaching; if I spend the time required to prepare.
It’s official, we are throwing a festival! As part of our LTP we are required to organize an event. Our class had the opportunity to choose an event that would connect STN with the community of Wahiawa. We decided on a festival and called it the ‘Wahiawa Community Festival’. It will take place on the 30th and 31st of March. It’s a lot of work to prepare such a large event. Especially because we are away for at least ten days, so that gives us just a bit over a month left to organize it. We are excited to be planning it and looking forward to see our hard work pay off.
Surfer getting shacked at Pipeline
In surfing, lay-days are days when the conditions (waves) are not good enough for a competition to run. They are basically off-days during a competition where the surfers relax and do things they enjoy. Remembering; however, that they need to be ready to surf whenever the conditions are good enough again. I see our weekends as lay-days. We get to hang out, relax and spend time doing the things we love. Sometimes we have our entire weekends for us, other times we only get one day, and yet other times the conditions call for a weekend spent working. This is why we prioritize making the most out of the lay-days that we do get. Being proactive in finding things to do and places to go on the weekends is sometimes hard as our natural tendency is to just chill at home. Having a car helps, as it allows us to fully utilize our lay-days.
This last weekend 4th - 5th of February we went down to the North Shore to watch the final heat of the Volcom Pipe Pro with my mom (Marina) and two of my siblings (Samuel and Samara) that are visiting from Canada. We got down there just in time to see Jamie O'Brien drop a perfect ten point ride and stayed till the finals were over. It was the first time we have been to a surfing competition. We hung out with Marina, Samuel, Jesse and Samara for the rest of the day and finally said goodbye as evening dawned on us. It was nice to have them here on Oahu but I do wish we could have had more time to spend with them.
Josh Moniz after winning the Volcom Pipe Pro
We are now, once again, packed and ready for ROCK. It starts on the 8th of February and we will be back on the 11th. We are looking forward to a time of bonding with our class and will update you on how it went when we get back.
7th of February 2018