So, this morning was men's breakfast at Covenant. I really did not want to go because I've been tired of being gone and was looking forward to working in the yard. Also, I had forgotten about it and wasn't reminded until like 10pm last night. So, last night I was grumpy about it. Before bed, Liz said "maybe you shouldn't set any alarms and just pray that God would wake you up in time if He wants you to go". I thought this a silly idea because certainly I would sleep through and then would be really dangerous as I slept away the whole morning. So, I didn't put much stock in the idea.
But, right before bed, I decided that maybe I should have more faith, so I decided to try it. I set no alarms, not even a backup and I asked the Lord to wake me if He wanted me to go to breakfast. I slept great and was in the middle of a really involved and stressful dream when suddenly I was like wide awake and it was 6:26am. It was the weirdest thing. I went from totally dreaming to "boing!" awake. My head was sort of spinning and I realized this must be God waking me up and getting me to men's breakfast. I had time to shower, make coffee and make it there 5 minutes early and chat with Wayne. It was perfect.
I'm also so glad that He had me to wake up and go. The speaker was an Ethiopian member of our church with an amazing testimony to share. It was really neat and really inspiring and helpful. A great morning!
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
Hawai'i Trip
We just got back from an 11-day trip to Hawaii which was really awesome and totally unexpected. I wanted to thank the Lord for providing this time together- I didn't expect it to happen and then it all pulled together at the last minute.
We were driving down to Gatlinburg on the Wednesday before Independence Day. With around an hour or so to go, my boss called me late in the day and asked if I could go to Pearl Harbor on Monday. I was already scheduled and booked to go to San Diego on Monday, so I was totally caught off-guard. I said sure! Thursday was totally stressful trying to find somebody to fill-in for me in San Diego, plus re-arranging all my travel plans; this with most people gone for the holiday weekend (including me!). But, it all got taken care of and set up.
I was really wanting to do the San Diego trip too because there were some things that the other guy wouldn't know how to do; plus I felt some responsibility for this project since I had been there the other two times dealing with it. So, I wanted to go to San Diego direct from Pearl the week after and finish up. But, my other boss said no and had the other guy go instead of me. I felt a little hurt and sad about this, but then just had to let it go in my mind.
I looked at tickets to bring Liz, but at the last minute they were like $1700, so we decided not to do that. I would just go alone and I added an extra personal day to go see the Pearl Harbor memorials. This remained the plan on Friday and most of the day Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon, Liz was talking to her mom about everything and I overheard her saying something about not going. Something she said made me realize that I hadn't really looked into using frequent flier miles for her. I've looked on past trips and I have never seen super saver tickets available at the last minute. While she was still on the phone, I did a quick search for fun and I couldn't believe it when I saw a whole bunch of remaining options for her to come using FF miles! When I told her this, she was quite surprised at the possibility, but she said she'd really like to come.
Then, we spent Saturday night and most of the drive home Sunday trying to figure out how long to stay. I didn't want to stay too long, but not too short either. In tiredness we just decided to book a ticket to come back the next Thursday/Friday overnight flight and then we would change it the next day if we felt different.
When I refreshed the page to book the ticket, the 8:35pm leaving flight was gone and booked! I was really disappointed, but there was an 8:55pm flight going through a different city, so we could get to Honolulu around the same time on different flights. I went ahead and booked this one for Liz. Then, not long after that I was printing my boarding pass and realized that I was on that same flight and had gotten confused! So, it actually worked out perfect and we got to be on all the same flights together. :-)
The other thing that blew me away when I realized it was my disappointment over the San Diego trip. Had things worked out how I planned and how I had wanted, I wouldn't have been able to have this little vacation with Liz the following week. It was neat how God changed my plans and made them much better and provided a great gift.
A few highlights from the week:
We were driving down to Gatlinburg on the Wednesday before Independence Day. With around an hour or so to go, my boss called me late in the day and asked if I could go to Pearl Harbor on Monday. I was already scheduled and booked to go to San Diego on Monday, so I was totally caught off-guard. I said sure! Thursday was totally stressful trying to find somebody to fill-in for me in San Diego, plus re-arranging all my travel plans; this with most people gone for the holiday weekend (including me!). But, it all got taken care of and set up.
I was really wanting to do the San Diego trip too because there were some things that the other guy wouldn't know how to do; plus I felt some responsibility for this project since I had been there the other two times dealing with it. So, I wanted to go to San Diego direct from Pearl the week after and finish up. But, my other boss said no and had the other guy go instead of me. I felt a little hurt and sad about this, but then just had to let it go in my mind.
I looked at tickets to bring Liz, but at the last minute they were like $1700, so we decided not to do that. I would just go alone and I added an extra personal day to go see the Pearl Harbor memorials. This remained the plan on Friday and most of the day Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon, Liz was talking to her mom about everything and I overheard her saying something about not going. Something she said made me realize that I hadn't really looked into using frequent flier miles for her. I've looked on past trips and I have never seen super saver tickets available at the last minute. While she was still on the phone, I did a quick search for fun and I couldn't believe it when I saw a whole bunch of remaining options for her to come using FF miles! When I told her this, she was quite surprised at the possibility, but she said she'd really like to come.
Then, we spent Saturday night and most of the drive home Sunday trying to figure out how long to stay. I didn't want to stay too long, but not too short either. In tiredness we just decided to book a ticket to come back the next Thursday/Friday overnight flight and then we would change it the next day if we felt different.
When I refreshed the page to book the ticket, the 8:35pm leaving flight was gone and booked! I was really disappointed, but there was an 8:55pm flight going through a different city, so we could get to Honolulu around the same time on different flights. I went ahead and booked this one for Liz. Then, not long after that I was printing my boarding pass and realized that I was on that same flight and had gotten confused! So, it actually worked out perfect and we got to be on all the same flights together. :-)
The other thing that blew me away when I realized it was my disappointment over the San Diego trip. Had things worked out how I planned and how I had wanted, I wouldn't have been able to have this little vacation with Liz the following week. It was neat how God changed my plans and made them much better and provided a great gift.
A few highlights from the week:
- The work week was not nearly as stressful as I had anticipated. It had its moments, but in all, it went really well and we accomplished much.
- We enjoyed a sunset dip at Wakiki Beach almost every night after I got back from work. It was a great way to end each work day.
- Liz got to share the Gospel with a young man with no arms or legs. I got to talk with him some too and we talked with him a few different days. He was open, but not totally. I think he's holding onto a lot of hurts and not willing to let it all go to Christ yet.
- A nice time getting to know John D better
- We saw a ton of incredible rainbows- at least one almost every day and some days 3 or 4!
- The Pearl Harbor memorial and museums were excellent. We really learned a lot.
- Found a hotel room for Saturday night at the last minute for a decent rate. It was stressful, but it worked out just fine.
- The beaches all over the island were incredibly beautiful
- North Beach shrimp truck!
- Snorkeling at Hanuama Bay was amazing- so many beautiful fish; I enjoyed it so much
- A brisk hike through the jungle to Manoa Falls was very unique and the falls a great reward
- Got upgraded from full-size car to SUV for free; this was actually quite helpful for hauling around beach stuff
- Our Wakiki hotel room for work got upgraded from the standard per-diem city-view room to a nice room with an ocean view for free
- Mango otai drinks!
- Coconut water from the coconut
- Kahlua pork
- Getting to see a huge sea turtle swim right up and surface next to us out in the water at Wakiki
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