Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Time for an update from Kailua Kona Hawaii

We are doing well and continue to serve the campus at University of the Nations.  We enjoy waking up to cool breeze up the mountain and seeing the lush foliage all around us and the rooster crowing in the mornings. There are so many sights and sounds that just put a smile on our faces as we drive to campus each morning to be there by 6:30.  The neighbor has recently tied up his two ponies by the road and the white birds love hanging around them.  They also are all around the cows on "cow days".  We are posting some of our recent pics.  Jim is still doing a lot of renovation of dorm rooms, general repairs in current dorms, and overall preventive maintenance all over campus.  (See pic) Unfortunately, his golf cart has not been running and we need real prayer for that issue. If anyone wants to donate money for one let us know.


I am busy in the clinic. We are doing a lot of nurse triage since we are short on volunteer MDs for a couple of months.  I work with a wonderful Filopino nurse, Neneng.  We make such a good team.  (See picture)

We recently sold our PT Cruiser and purchased a used Hyundai Tuscon which is 4 WD that has more room for people, luggage, and tools and seemed to be more practical for our needs living here.  (See pic)

It's great having Alyssa here for her school. She has 5-7 am work duty in the kitchen so Jim sees her M-F.  We get to see her at the Thurs nite service (see pic) and we take her and her friends to Walmart occas.  She is doing well. Very busy with her class and activities.  She is looking forward to her overseas outreach to Asia (not sure we can disclose location but keep her and her team in prayer !!)  We will probably get to spend Thanksgiving together. 

We have had an outbreak of Dengue Fever here on the Big Island and have about 25 cases.  This is spread by mosquitos and not person to person.  The Health Dept is having everyone be aggressive with protection from mosquito bites and dealing with standing water etc.  Be praying for this.

We love being here and meeting so many amazing people. Young people, older people and families with small children that are feeling called to go live in remote places overseas to love and reach people with the good news of Jesus' love for them.  There are so many technological advances that are being developed here for sharing the Bible in so many languages and being able to take the "Jesus" film and show it in villages with a solar backpack.  It is crazy to see all the amazing things God is doing on this campus.  We feel so privileged to be a part of it.

We are planning a trip back to the St. Louis area from 12/9-1/5   We are looking to connect with people and work on raising about $1000/month missionary support.  Life is more expensive here for basic needs and we are finding that our monthly SS does not cover all of it. Join with us in prayer as we seek the Lord for that need. We are now official self employed missionaries with the University and anyone who gives money to us will receive a tax deduction.  

We also are looking forward to seeing our granddaughter, Brittany and her husband Joe, who are going to be home from Japan for Christmas. 

Until next time  Blessings to all of you who care for us and pray for us.  
Jim & Sherry

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Time to catch up About a week and a half ago, we moved off campus to a small one bedroom, one bath duplex up the mountain from the Univ of the Nations campus. We are 6 miles and about 10-15 min away. No one on staff gets paid. Everyone actually pays to serve here except the volunteers who come for a few months at a time. We were praying about moving since more rooms were going to be needed for fall and winter semesters. We became aware of the front half of this duplex coming available and God opened the door for us to be accepted to rent it. Jim and I both work 5 days a week on campus and the rooms are not air conditioned and we were feeling the "heat" more and more. Jim drinks about 4 quarts of gatorade a day. He's so excited to have his new "used" maintenance golf cart and that will help alot. We are grateful for the cooler nites up the mountain for sleeping. It goes down to 63-65 degrees at nite and by the time we reach the campus near the ocean, it's 78 degrees and gets to 86 or 90. We were able to buy some cute used furniture from Habitat for Humanity and a couch from Craigslist. Jim is looking forward to being able to do some gardening in a large area the landlord said was his to do what he wanted. There are about 200 coffee trees on the property along with banana, mango, lemons, and breadfruit. Next door as we drive down the road there are chickens, goats, some ponies, and 3-4 days out of the month, there are about 35 cows that are released to graze on some of the pastureland our road goes through. On those days, we use a code to go through a cow gate so, technically, we say we live in a "gated" community. On campus, Jim continues to repair and remodel dorm rooms and offices. He is helping hang a new sign at the Urgent Care and put up a cell phone signal booster on the roof. I am learning more of the admin side of running the campus clinic and scanning records into the electronic medical record and being nurse on call for triage. We have clinic 3 days a week and myself and another nurse work with doctors who volunteers their time. Jim and I attend Mokuikaua Church in Kona. Sunday nite we start a DVD series for 13 weeks called the "Truth Project" from Focus on the Family. We are helping to lead discussion groups afterwards to challenge all of us to live by a Biblical Worldview. Our down time is spent reading, going to the Kona pool, and having friends over for game nights. We are looking forward to Alyssa coming at the end of September to do a 6 month school here at the Univ. Wow it was so sunny most of today and now it is clouding up and getting ready to rain again. These tropical storms are causing rain almost daily and the campus is doing some sandbagging around some of the bldgs due to the gushing water in the outside drains. We will close this chapter for now, until next time. Keep us in your prayers. Jim & Sherry





Thursday, April 9, 2015

Our kids lives were changed in three short years with YWAM

Andrew got to go to Manila with a group of teens (that's him with no shirt on the right) They built a daycare/classroom behind the team house about 3 blocks from the garbage dump where we were working.
It was so hot in Manila and Randi slept under a mosquito net to keep out all kinds of flying insects.  She and I travelled for 7 weeks together without Jim and the boys.  Lots of good memories.
Andrew won 32 Big Macs one day in a bicycle rodeo in Kailua Kona.  Tony was busy with friends going boogie boarding in the ocean.  
All of the kids were real troopers traveling with the team for long hours and huge lines in the airports with all our supplies.  
Randi enjoyed working in the daycare taking care of babies during the day.  She would work hard getting her school work done ahead of time so she would be ready when the children were brought to our team house for the day.
Tony would take his own money and buy metal cans of water to let the kids take quick sponge baths.