The student's first week here is full of exciting surprises that are truly packed with significant purpose; not merely for the enjoyable shock value for us as staff to witness! We begin this amazing journey for the students with, well - Opening Night as we call it. This year we set it up a bit differently in an attempt to help the students get better acquainted with how all of our departments are set up and so they can get to know the people in these deparments quicker! :) It had a coffee house theme to it and the students would rotate from table to table and talk for several minutes before moving on to the next. Other events of the evening included the traditional Hawaiian welcome where we presented each student with a lei and our base director and school directors spoke to the students about the program that are entering into. We ended the evening with an amazing time of worship altogether as this new, larger family! Then the students were promptly informed that they will be heading off onto an Exodus of their own early the next morning. They are provided with a very short packing list and were told they were leaving at 6 a.m. - other than that, they are not sure what journey marks their paths ahead.
For those of you who have not heard my own personal stories about Exodus, to sum it up - they spend time away camping in the wilderness of Maui, eating Ramen noodles and Oatmeal, away from shower facilities where they end up getting really smelly and dirty. You may be wondering - What on earth is the purpose behind this? While it may just sound like a terrible form of

So I mentioned the term Love feast above; this is such a fun event! All of the staff spend most of the day prepping for this by decorating, setting up, tearing down and cooking a delicious feast for these students to enjoy after consuming only ramen and oatmeal! How this goes down is the students "stop" at a church en route to their next camping spot to use the restrooms, only to be surprised by all of the staff jumping out and cheering for them, leading them to the amazing set up we had prepared for them! We quickly cut right to the chase and allow them to start digging in to this meal that they cannot wait for! Afterwards, the staff is dismissed and our Base Director shares a short message on foot washing and then we file in, finding the students/new staff/mission builders that we have spent time praying for; getting an encouraging word for. We wash their very dirty feet (as you can see from the picture!) and then we spend time praying over them. It is such a special time and for those who have never experienced this before, they are generally very moved by this act of love and humility.
We had a great time of worship afterwards. I personally was very moved because I realized that it has been over 3 years ago already that I decided to come out here and go through the D-

May this be a year where we all experience more of this personal intimacy with Christ! :)
"If we have been united with him like this in this death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucifed with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." - Romans 6:5-7
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