This past week, we've been working really hard to finish all of our promotional materials for "The Project"(that's my excuse for the late post this week!).  The Project is a long term effort in the same area of Asia that I was in over Christmas (hopefully y'all know where I went by now...).  We're planning a pretty large and permanent ministry there that will involve a "social enterprise", which is a revenue generating part of our ministry that will eventually allow us to be financially self sufficient.  Some possibilities for our social enterprise are an English tutoring school, cultural exchange or possibly a coffee shop.  It's an exciting project to be a part of, and I wish I could post some of what I've been working on here, but because of the whole security thing, I can't.  I'll try to send out an e-mail with a few screenshots of some of our promotional materials so y'all can at least see something.

A kukui nut lei.

For a little Hawaiian culture this week, I thought I'd talk about leis.  Despite what most people see at the airport, a lei is not just something your travel agent gives to you for spending your hard earned money with his business.  Leis are given as a sign of welcome, love, honor or congratulations.  They are usually made of flowers (most often plumerias), but can also be made of banana leaf, kukui nuts, shells, bones or a combination flowers, nuts, etc.  The proper way to wear a lei is not like a necklace, but draped over your shoulders with half the lei in front, and the other half on your back.  You should also never take off a lei in front of the person who gave it to you.  It's very disrespectful, and besides, they smell good, so why not keep it on?

Me wearing a plumeria lei

Windmills on the Lahaina (west) side.

Finally, I'm officially one of the "old men" at YWAM Maui.  That's right, last Thursday I turned 26!  That's not old for most people, but around here I'm about 5-6 years older than most people on base.  For my birthday, I went camping with some of my friends (other "old men") at a place called Thousand Peaks on the west side of the island.  It was an interesting trip... Thousand Peaks is notoriously windy, so our tent blew over pretty much all night, and our surfboards that we brought kept blowing away from our campsite.  Also, we didn't realize that the hot dogs we grilled out had been left out all day in the sun, so at about 2 a.m., all of us were about to throw up in our tent that was collapsing while sand was blowing through our rain fly.  Not the ideal birthday camping trip, but it was a memorable one for sure!  

Near Thousand Peaks (notice the windblown trees...)