Kyle in
Thursday, July 19th
At last! More stuff to read!
Sorry it’s been sooooooo very long everyone, like my last update stated,
VBS is a very busy time. It’s hard to
find time to write a blog, as well as make things
sound as interesting as the daily activities in
VBS season kicked off with
our biggest group of kids every. With
nearly 200 kids,
After leaving
After that week, we make our
way back to the Twin Cities for our final week as members of Youth
Encounter. We’re excited, anxious,
nervous, and bummed to have this all end.
It will probably be a little bit like how we feel about
Until next time, whenever it
may be (hopefully this is part of a new routine of being informative).
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, June 27th
Saturday, June 9th
One month later… or more
So maybe I procrastinated a
little bit this time on the blog, but we’re still
alive, and still on the road. We’ve been
busy since leaving
After leaving
While we were making our week-long
daily travel around
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Saturday, May 5th
Happy Cinco
de Mayo!
So yeah, maybe it’s been
awhile since I’ve written a blog, but we’re still
alive and working. No news is good
news. Needless to say, we’ve been very
busy. We’ve found ourselves going many
places and seeing many things, including a luau, snorkeling, and lots of
Lutherans packed into a catholic church in downtown
Since my last post, we’ve had
the opportunity to enjoy seeing a lot of different ministries at work. We visited a retirement community with a
German chaplain who has been to
We had quite a weekend with
The biggest thing New Dawn
has been up to is volunteering at the ELCA Pacifica Synod Assembly which took
place at the Waikiki Marriot. We basically
showed up everyday to help with everything from collating paper to leading
music for devotions. We got to hang out
with a lot of pastors and church workers while enjoying the beachfront views
from the hotel. We didn’t actually stay
in the hotel, but we were there enough that we probably could have. Since we helped out so much, we were also
given tickets to attend the luau they had set up for the assembly. We enjoyed lots of strange food, including
raw fish (not horrible, not good either), and lots of hula, drumming, and
various other Pacifica cultural bits. We
had a great time, and we are glad we got to do to a real luau while we were
here in Hawaii. Today they had the last
few meetings and the closing worship service for the assembly, so our
volunteering is done as far as that is concerned. After the worship service we went to Lanikai beach to relax and swim/snorkel. We got to see some houses where celebrities
stay when they some to Hawaii, including a house where many actors and
actresses from “Lost” stay when they film scenes here. Tonight we had dinner with a pastor who just
was called to Hawaii from the mainland.
He’s an excellent guitarist, so I’ve been having fun jamming with him
(see my videos). We then walked along
the main strip in Waikiki. Most nights
are very interesting in Waikiki. Walking
along the strip you’ll see many different things and hear lots of live
music. Some things are quite strange,
like the human statues where one guy will paint himself silver and just stand as
still as possible all night so people can take pictures with him. One guy sneaks up on you and puts a giant
parrot on your shoulder, snaps a picture and then demands money, and most of
the other “artists” just display they’re craft and a jar for cash. The music is generally good there, but
tonight was cool because, as I said, we saw a girl from the high school we
played at with her friend playing and singing for a few bucks. They were making quite a bit, so maybe if
teaching doesn’t work out for me I’ll move to Waikiki and sing hulas for
tourists…not.
Tomorrow morning’s worship
service at Joy of Christ Lutheran Church marks the end of New Dawn’s ministry
in Hawaii. We have one service and then
it’s over. Monday we have a day off and
I hope to spend at least a little time climbing Diamondhead crater and maybe go
snorkeling. Tuesday is flying day. Everyone but Emily is going to go and see
family for the first time in more than four months. Emily is spending her vacation time is
Hawaii, but none of us are jealous, because we have lots of cool stories we
want to share. And there’s nothing like
your own bed, fridge, and toilet. We’re
all very anxious to be home and have a break.
We haven’t really gone one day without seeing each other, so it will be
interesting to be away for a week.
However, I wish I could just skip all the flights, because I calculated
it the other day and found out that from the time we take off from Honolulu, go
through the different stops and connecting flights and finally land in Detroit,
I will have been in transit for 19 hours.
I’m thinking my bed is going to look fantastic at that point. Never mind the fact that it already does…
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Tuesday, April 24th
Ok, so I’ve been quiet for a
while, but we’re still alive and well…
Let’s see, as of the last
update, we were supposed to go sailing on the 16th, which we did. We were a little bit worried we wouldn’t be
able to go because it was extremely windy when we got up, and there was a small-craft
advisory too, but we went to meat the guy who owns the yacht anyway and he was
more than excited to go out, so we went sailing anyway, despite our best use of
logic. It was really fun, we kinda just sat there and let the guy get us out into open
water, and then we ate lunch and went snorkeling. It was really cool, and got some underwater
pictures. We also saw a couple sea
turtles. One sea turtle saw us and
didn’t look thrilled, it actually looked like it just messed in its shell, and
it was pretty funny.
We also helped with two
confirmation classes again, singing songs and playing games. Everything is really running together for me,
so I don’t remember details and exact dates.
We also helped out at the Angel Network food pantry, and a car wash a
local youth group was doing. They were
raising money to go to a church camp in Wisconsin, so we are pretty excited for
them. We had a free afternoon one day,
so we went to see “Blades of Glory” and it was really funny. Emily and I have wanted to see it for a while,
because we need a new movie to quote from.
We had two services on Sunday that we helped lead, and we hung out with
two kids of a pastor we’re working a lot with while he and his wife went to
some function. We did a whole Saturday
Night worship service at one church and they treated us to dinner afterwards at
a really nice local place. Like a true
Lutheran group they asked us “out for beers” with them, we said ok, as long as
they had food too, because we were starving.
I had some really hot chicken wings, and they were amazing. Josh rented a moped one day, and he has a
funny story from it. I think Josh and I
might go next week and rent some for the day; it’s a great way to see the
coastal areas.
Today we had some free time,
so Emily, Liz, Tara, and I went for a hike up to Makapu
point. It’s supposed to be a great place
to watch whales because you can look out from high above the water level over a
whale sanctuary. We didn’t see any
whales, but we did see a sea turtle and some great views of the Oahu coast, as
well as the Makapu Point Lighthouse. It was really windy too, so that made some of
the walking and leaning-over-the-edges interesting. We took some neat pictures which are now
online; I also included a 3-D satellite image of Makapu
Point from Google Earth, which provides an interesting perspective on where we
were walking.
It was weird to think today
that we have exactly two weeks left in Hawaii.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were in the shivering cold in
Minneapolis, waiting to get on a plane and go someplace with natural heat. Then I look at pictures of our team from that
time, with our pale white skin, excess body fat, and my hairless face. Time has definitely passed, just very
quickly. We have come a long way; we
have been on a long journey. To know
that we only have two weeks left in this portion is rather refreshing. We have been greatly enjoying our time in
Hawaii, but there comes a time when not even the daily presence of an ocean
breeze can make you feel quite as rested and renewed like a bed in your own
home. Until next time…
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, April 15th
Time only seems to go by
faster and faster…
I know it’s been nearly a week
since the last update, but now that we’re back in the United States, sometimes
it seems that there are less things that seem worthy of sharing. Sometimes everything just seems too familiar
to feel the need to go on and on about the stuff we’re doing. Then, I realize, “Ha! We’re in Hawaii and they’re not!” Needless to say, the pace of the ministry is
not quite as full as it was in
This past week has been kind
of a blur so I don’t really remember what days we did what things. I think it may be because coming from
We also went to Calvary by
the Sea Lutheran Church a couple times.
Went once to hang out with a confirmation class and once to help out with
the Angel Network. The confirmation
class at Calvary went much better than it did at Our Savior, but the kids were
pretty distracted and goofy there too.
The pastor at the church was on the Youth Encounter team New Vision in
the 80’s when that team went to
Friday we spent the day at
Pearl Harbor. We didn’t get to see
everything we wanted to, but the things we didn’t see are free, so we’ll go
back again before we leave Hawaii I’m sure.
We got to go on the USS Missouri and tour the cabins and stuff, it was
pretty cool. We also wandered around the
museum a bit. We were going to take the
boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial, but when we arrived at the park, the
aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was docked and was getting ready to
leave. So by the time we were ready to
go out to the Arizona, they had the whole harbor shut down for the massive
carrier, loaded with billions of dollars in fighter jets and helicopters, to
head out to sea. It was kind of a bummer
that we didn’t have time to get out over the Arizona, but seeing the Ronald
Reagan do its thing was pretty neat.
Definitely a great place to learn some U.S. History first hand.
This morning we led the
entire worship service at Prince of Peace.
They had the typical Sunday-after-Easter crowd of 40 people, but where
two or more are gathered, New Dawn will be there and ready for ministry. After the service some ladies wanted to take
us out for lunch and chat about our experiences, so we found a restaurant
inside the hotel and had a nice chat.
The people in the congregation at Prince of Peace are very first class. We don’t think we have ever felt as welcome
as we do there. Everyone wants to take a
little bit of time and talk to all of us, which is great. It just goes to show that hospitality trumps
funding when it comes to ministry. Next
time you complain about your church having no money, think about how the
disciples must have felt when they went out and set up churches
everywhere. Talk about budget cuts!
Tomorrow is a time to relax,
a true day off in Hawaii for New Dawn.
We were going to go snorkeling with the pastor at Calvary by the Sea,
but a member of his church decided he wanted to take us out on his yacht, so
we’re gonna do that instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do go
snorkeling too, we’ll probably just have a private reef to do it on instead (kinda like when we went in Madang). It will be a good chance to get a little more
sun and enjoy the part of Hawaii we tend to think about back on the
mainland. In any event, we’ll try not to
enjoy ourselves too much as to not offend anyone back home still grumbling
about having a white Easter. If you wait
three weeks we’ll be coming home and we can bring some nice weather with us, so
long as you don’t mind a daily rain or two.
Oh well, not everyone is called to be a missionary in Hawaii. Somebody has to go to Alaska too…
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Monday, April 9th
We only get four more weeks
in Hawaii…
This past week has flown by
for us here in Hawaii. Between shopping,
sunning at the beach, eating plenty of long lost American cuisine, and or
course, doing ministry, time definitely flies when you’re having fun. We’ve spent the last week pretty much
recovering from jet lag and a lack of greasy American food. We’ve also been buying new clothes since the
clothes we had with us in
Many of you know from a past blog that I have a deep, basic need for Dr. Pepper (some
people may throw around words like “obsession” or even “addiction” but I just
ignore that kind of talk, which makes people use words like “denial” and
“stubborn”…). Anyway, since I have this
need for Dr. Pepper, I bought a 12-pack the first chance I got. This case of soda-pop only lasted a couple of
days however, but luckily our contact has a membership at Sam’s Club, and we
now have bulk Dr. Pepper, so I’m quite comfortable.
Yesterday (Sunday) our
ministry in Hawaii officially started.
We did a few songs during the service and introduced ourselves and what
we’ve been up to for the past few months.
The church is quite interesting because the services are held on the
second floor of an older hotel in Waikiki.
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (http://www.princeofpeacewaikiki.com/)
is set up to be a church for tourists, and is literally an international
congregation. Next week we’ll do the
entire service for the church, so it will be interesting to see how things turn
out. Everyone at the service was very friendly
however, and we were taken out to lunch by a couple from the church. We’ve been eating out a lot actually, which
is kinda strange, but I guess it beats rice and sweet
potatoes every meal.
We have the next month
reasonably filled with a variety of ministry opportunities at different
places. We also hope to have some time
to see the places that Hawaii is known for, like Pearl Harbor and the beach
(all of them). None of us have any grand
plans for taking up surfing, but we may some back with a few more slang terms
in our vocabulary. Four weeks seems like
a long time, but then again, so did 2 ½ months before we got to
Like is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Tuesday, April 3rd
Aloha!
After four airports, three
plane rides, two layovers, and one heck of a long time without sleep (about 36
hours), we are in Honolulu. We are also
all ready to hit the wall. It seems odd
to think that our time in
After leaving Madang province
on the 24th, we took the long bus ride back to Lae. This time, we didn’t have to trek across a
collapsed bridge, but it wasn’t exactly a joyous ride either. We were really excited to get back to Lae and have mail and showers. Once we got back, we collected our mail, took
showers, and went to the Lae International Hotel
again for more wonderful pizza. We had a
free weekend before taking the boat to Salamaua (on
the southern coast of the province), so rested up, nursed our blisters, did
some laundry, and prepared for the trip.
It would be our last week in
Once back in Lae, we only had one full day to do some last-minute things
before flying to Port Moresby. We went
to the bank, got some last few things at the store, and recorded some songs for
the ELC-
Saturday morning, we boarded
a bus with everything we currently possess, and rode to the Lae
airport, which actually isn’t really in Lae. In the middle of Lae
city, there is an old airstrip that was closed in the early 80’s because of
noise. About 30 minutes out of town, is
the airport for Lae, called Nadzab.
Most people think that Nadzab is just a
Monday morning we got up, ate
breakfast, packed up our stuff, and went out for lunch. We decided to eat our last meal at the place
we ate our first meal at, Big Rooster. For
those who didn’t read about it earlier, Big Rooster is the McDonalds of
Roughly seven hours after
leaving
After our adventure in
Once we got on the ground in
So here we are, back
home. A new journey, filled with
potential of unknown variety. They’ll be
plenty of ministry opportunities here, and plenty of time to enjoy this
beautiful place too. Much like
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Friday, March 23rd
Another phase of our journey
is coming to a close.
We just finished our last
program for Madang province tonight, and it was a memorable, official exit for
us. It was also a great close to another
busy week. After the four programs on
Tuesday, we were ready to crash, but Wednesday rolled around with five more (it
was supposed to be four, but one was thrown in as a surprise). We did programs at a bunch of schools and
with one congregation. Everything seemed
to go really well, and we were again treated to light refreshments (the
equivalent to a Lutheran potluck) everywhere.
Needless to say, by the time we came back to the guest house for the
night, we were dead. However, Thursday
was a beacon of hope for us, because we only had one morning program and one
night program, leaving plenty of time for shopping, internet, and
sightseeing. The morning program was at
a school near Bilbil village, which is apparently
world famous for its pottery. After the
program, we were all presented with at least two little clay pots from the
students each as a memento. Then we
drove to the actual village and were given a quick demonstration of the
pot-making process. It was kinda cool, but we enjoyed hanging out with the kids at the
school more. Since we got to go
shopping, we bought stuff to make our own dinner. We got to have Spaghetti and a bunch of fresh
fruit (given by the students at the school, once again, more than we could hope
to eat). We had all intentions of
inviting some people we knew from HLIS for dinner because they are now in
Madang, but we didn’t have time to go see them to ask, so we ended up having
twice as much food as we would need (as usual).
By the time we went to our night program, we were so stuffed our bellies
were hanging over our knees (Hi Katie!).
And then, not much to our surprise by now, we were given about six bowls
of various foods to eat after the night program. I tried to eat one plate full of whatever it
was they were feeding us, but I must say I was rather unsuccessful. We were ready to burst the whole way back to
the guest house. Oh well, such is the
life in
Today was an equally great
and busy day. We only had two programs
again, morning and night, but we always have things to do. The first program was at a school, on an
island. So we hired (rented) a boat for
the day, because our night program was also on an island. We also wanted to go snorkeling, so since we
had the boat, we got to do that too! The
morning program went well, despite being rained on during for most of the time
we were singing. Once again there was
plenty of food to go around, twice.
After the program, we climbed into our boat, and headed to the snorkel
place. We rented all the equipment and
set off for the closest reef. It was
really cool, we had a whole lagoon to ourselves and most of it was coral reef
underwater. We saw plenty of tropical
fish and every color of coral you could imagine. I may or may not have seen a small shark
too. I didn’t try to get a close enough
look at it to find out, and it was in a deep, dark spot. Anyway, whatever kind of fish I saw had a
shark-like nose and tail, so I just decided to swim away. It was only about 1½ feet long, but that’s
big enough to eat a finger. We all got fairly
sunburned on our backs too, but that’s what happens when you snorkel for three
hours straight. After our little
underwater adventure, we went to the island where our night program would be. Once we got there, we got a rinse from the
sticky saltiness, and were given some native clothing to wear with our western
garb. The girls all got meriblouses (usually a dress-like gown that looks like
maternity-wear) and josh and I got laplaps (basically
a bed sheet to wrap around our waists like a skirt). For the next three hours we felt very
masculine, to say the least. The program
went very well, and we were decked out with gifts, and food. We also had a lot of group pictures taken of
us with random people. We then had a
huge crown of kids walk us to the dock to get on the boat tonight to come back
to the mainland. It’s all just little
hints of what it’s like to be a famous rock star. I don’t think I could handle being famous for
more than a few months at a time.
Tomorrow morning we “kalap long highway bus” (jump on a PMV) and take the long
ride back to Lae.
We’re very excited to go back, and begin a new, but very short, leg of
our tour. We don’t know the details of
it, but within one week, we’ll be back to Lae and
getting ready to go back to the capital city,
This morning for team
devotions lead by
“The Lord is my Gutpela Wasman (“shepherd” in Pidgin, but literally “good
watchman”), I shall not need to know what is going on. He makes me lie down under a mosquito net, He
leads me beside Buterweng (beautiful swimming spot in
Finschhafen).
He restores my sunburned skin. He
guides me on bush-paths of humility for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through
Em tasol, na
God blesim yupela. (That’s all, and God bless you all.)
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, March 21st
Less than two weeks to go!
It’s seems strange to think
that our time in
We’ll be here in Madang until
Saturday morning when we’ll take the PMV back to Lae. We’re hoping to go snorkeling before we leave
here, and we’re also hoping to get some authentic
Once I get a chance to have
decent access time to the internet (and not have to pay for it) I’ll have a
massive amount of pictures to share, as well as some new videos.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Monday, March 19th
Land ho!
We made it.
Walking back to the guest
house after dinner, a van with white people stopped and it turns out the white
people were from the
It’s weird to be back here in
Madang. Even though we slept here one
night before going to
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, March 18th
Our time here on Karkar is winding down, but there is still much to tell, as
usual. We left Keng
village and went to a primary school run by a catholic mission. The campus was right on the beach. In
The next morning we walked
halfway down the hill, and waited for a vehicle to take us the rest of the
way. We were pretty excited, because we
were going to the hospital and sleeping there after a night program in a nearby
village. It would be the first time since we’ve been on Karkar
that we’ve had electricity. However,
once we arrived, we discovered that they were not as ready for us there as we
would have hoped, so we went straight to the village and stayed there instead. We had a very nice program on the beach, and
had some good fellowship with the village, despite our tough luck at the
hospital. However, we seem to be
attracting people who like late-night community devotions. It’s really neat that the whole village will
turn out for a night devo together, but sometimes my
spiritual life seems to need sleep more than it needs an hour of talking in a
foreign language. I fell asleep to some
12-year-old kid who thought I looked like Chuck Norris tell stories to Josh and
I about something, I’m not really sure what he was saying, I was pretty tired.
Sunday morning we awoke to a
breakfast of doughnuts. I’m amazed at
the trends that seem to be universal.
Coffee and doughnuts in
Tomorrow we leave
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Thursday, March 15th
“
Another busy few days have
come and passed here on
On Wednesday we went to
Today we got to take the
entire 2+ hour ride around the entire island.
It was really cool, and we got to see some cool places and beautiful
landscape. It was kind of like a safari,
because we all sat in the back of a pickup as it barreled through the bush
(jungle).
We were told we would have a
program today at one p.m. We had a
feeling we wouldn’t start right at one, but we had no idea that it would really
be more like six p.m. This is part of a
very natural phenomenon called “
Life is good, interesting,
but good. God, never faltering, is
great!
-Kyle
Monday, March 12th
How does a rooster know what
time to start crowing?
On Friday we got up fairly
early to leave Mapor village to catch a ride to a
primary school for an afternoon program.
You may be wondering why we would have to get up early for an afternoon
program, and the reason is that transportation here on
When we finally got a ride,
we went to the school did our program, received a bunch of fruit as gifts, and
answered tons of random questions. Every
program we like to take time afterwards to answer any questions people have
about stuff. Usually we get asked about
how we came together, what we got to school for, and what we think of
Saturday was kind of a day
off. Meaning we didn’t have a program,
just a long walk to talk to some people in another village to say we would see
them for lotu on Sunday (if you haven’t figured out
by now “lotu” means church service or worship in
Pidgin). So we walked a long distance,
sat for a half-hour or so, and walked back.
Then we ate some fruit for lunch, and rested in the shade for a couple
hours. Then, at about three p.m. Moses’
wife started making dinner, and this particular supper would be a good one,
chicken and rice! However, unlike the
majority of homes in the
Sunday we went back to the
village we visited Saturday morning for the worship service there. It was a little strange because the pastor
only gave a sermon for about five minutes (which is extremely uncommon in
This morning was moving
time. We move on to Tugotugo
village, at the bottom of the hill. So
we packed up our stuff and prepared to walk down. Before we went though, Moses wanted us to
plant one coconut palm and a buai palm. In a few years we can come back and see some
nuts growing on our trees. We told him
we were gonna start the “New Dawn Plantation” because
the previous team in 2004 also planted a coconut tree. After our ceremonial planting, we huffed and
puffed our fat, out-of-shape American bodies down to the next place we would be
staying. It turned out to be a very nice
guest house with real beds and a somewhat more modern outhouse (it had
something to sit on, not just a hole in the floor). However, don’t confuse the fact that we had a
nice place to sleep this time with the idea that I’ve been sleeping well, or at
all, at night. That would be false to
assume that. Between the heat, loud
bugs, hard floors, Josh’s snoring nostrils of unmelodious nature, and the
late-night toilet runs because I’m trying to stay hydrated, I figure I’ve slept
about 20 hours total in the week we’ve been here on Karkar. Hopefully my luck will change in that
department soon enough, but probably not.
By the way, the answer to my
question about roosters knowing when to crow, you would think it would be
easy. The logical guess would be that
they know because the sun comes up.
However, assuming anything in
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Thursday, March 8th
Mipela bin go long bikpela wakabaut long
Yesterday morning we awoke to
a small breakfast, sat around in the heat, and then I went back to sleep, or
tried to. It’s hard to sleep when it’s
blazing hot and humid. Just before lunch
we carried our instruments up the hill (small mountain) to a primary school
where we did a short program, answered some questions, and then walked back
down. Then we went to the beach and
swam, and then to the stream to wash. I
have a feeling I’m not gonna be very clean when we
leave this island.
Today we went for another
walk, supposedly ten minutes but more like 30, to a coconut and cocoa
plantation owned by an Australian guy.
He had a large house, with air conditioning, but then we had to walk
back in the heat after our short visit with him. He was really nice, and said we could use his
shower, bathroom, or pool whenever we wanted, however, I get the feeling we
won’t get the opportunity to indulge ourselves while we’re here. It’s good to know we have a place of refuge
if we start to get a little frazzled here on Karkar.
Tonight we did a program for
the entire Mapor village. It was kinda cool,
but very tiring as well, because we started it after dark, so they had one
Kerosene lantern to light the “stage” for us, but nobody could really see
us. Plus, everyone had their little
cooking fires smoldering, so the smoke from those fires were making me even
more sleepy, so I just about fell asleep during the program. After the program we hung out with the kids
for a long time because tomorrow we move on to a new village. Fun times await us I’m sure!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Tuesday, March 6th
This might be the longest,
hottest two weeks of this entire experience.
This morning we got up
slightly early to run to the store and buy some breakfast; giant rolls and
peanut butter, with
My experiences of today,
combined with the knowledge that we would be on this small island for two
weeks, brings me to the conclusion that this could seem like a long time. Praying for patience, health, rest, and somewhat
promising eating arrangements.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Monday, March 5th
Yet again, another new
journey has begun.
After a busy weekend, we
awoke early this morning, ate our breakfast, and hopped a bus to the beautiful
city of
Saturday morning we went to a
small village church in Pottsie, just outside of Lae. We did a
program there, and afterwards, we had the famed “light” refreshment of fruit
and vegetables. They also showered us
with gifts of bilum bags and necklaces. We’ve each got about 10-15 bilums now, and I mailed a handful home already. We’ll be more than overloaded with them by
the time we leave. Should be interesting
what we leave Madang with. When it was
time for us to leave the congregation, they filled each of the bilums we received (about 3 each) with fresh fruit. They also gave us about a dozen sticks of
sugarcane too, so we had our hands more than full on the way out. We try to tell them that we could never begin
to fully consume all the food they give us, but we know that that’s what they
have to give, and so we just make little fruit baskets, or bags, and give them
to people at the ELC-
On Sunday, we went to
So this morning we awoke, ate
a hurried breakfast, and got on the bus.
It was a crowded 25-seater, packed to the max with people and bags. Once we were on the bus, we thought it
wouldn’t be long before we were out on the open road. But here in
Tomorrow morning we make the
3-hour boat ride to
We’re excited for the new
things to see and learn, but we also know that we will be busy, sweaty, stinky,
and very tired as well. However, we also
know that when this part of our trip in
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Friday, March 2nd
I lost something I love
today.
In Melanesian culture, it is
common practice that, if someone openly admires something owned by someone
else, and the item isn’t a necessity of life, or too expensive, that item is
given away. We have mistakenly admired
some things of people we meet a bit too openly and then received them as gifts
a short time later. This morning we did
a program at an English-speaking secondary school here in Lae,
and it seemed to go very well. They
laughed and sang and seemed to have a good time. After our program we usually like to hang
around and visit with people, especially at schools, and they usually ask us
for addresses or email, or to sign their shirts (We’re big in
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, February
28th
We had every intention of
getting up early this morning, saying goodbye, and rushing to the dock to catch
the boat back to Lae.
However, when we called to check on the status of the boat, we found out
that it was broken. Then we prepared
ourselves to stay another day. Then we
found out that the boat was fixed, and would come later, so we arrived back in Lae very late. It’s
good to be back where electricity actually works, where water doesn’t need
filtering, and where food is a little more surprising. Not that I minded having three coconuts, two
pineapples, and fifteen bananas every day, for a snack.
Tuesday was a very busy day
for us. We had three programs, and Josh
finally came with us after a lot of much-needed rest from his malaria, which
seems to be getting much better. We had
to get up early so we could catch our ride from Sattleberg
back to Heldsbach to freshen up and pick up
Josh. The first place we went was Simbang. It is the
site where the first German missionaries came ashore in the late 1800’s. We did a program in the memorial “hall” that
was decked out in names and dates and very colorful paint. After the program, we had a “light” refreshment
(we’re beginning to realize that when they say “light” they mean we each get a
coconut, a pineapple, a bunch of bananas, and usually some rice or sweet
potatoes too). After we stuffed
ourselves, we packed up our gear into some tiny canoes and paddled across the
bay to Butaweng, where
This morning, before we left
for real, we made one last trek down the mountain to a primary school. The students did a little singsing
for us, and then we did a miniature program for them. We sang a few songs, did our skit, and then
shook their hands. After that, we had
another ‘light” refreshment of one whole watermelon, and two coconuts. Then we went back to Heldsbach,
loaded up, and knocked off for Buki, where the boat
was waiting for us. The boat ride was
about three hours long, but it was fun to see the flying fish again, and ride
along the
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Monday, February 26th
Today started a little
earlier than I wanted it to.
For the entire time we’ve
been in Finschhafen, we’ve relied on a local PMV
(taxi-like vehicle) to transport us around to different villages. This particular day, we went to Sattleberg, a village high up into the mountains away from
the places most people generally go on any given day. That means that the PMV driver wants to take
us to our destination early so that he can start his regular service at the
normal time. It’s about an hour-long
drive up to Sattleberg, so that mean the driver wants
to leave two hours before his normal rounds start. Generally he’s been starting around eight,
so, for good measure, he wants to leave with us around 5 a.m. so he can have
enough time to get back. Luckily, we
postponed Sunday night’s program from Tuesday night, otherwise we’d be pretty
tired. Not that we weren’t anyway, but
remember,
Once we arrived, or at least
the truck went as far as it could go, we walk for another mile or so to the
very top of the mountain. We were greeted
by a group of high-school aged girls and their teachers from the secondary
school in Sattleberg.
They did a little singsing-like dance for us
and took us to the guest house where we would all be staying. The guest house had three rooms; a conference/dining
area, a bathroom, and the bedroom. They
put all of us in one huge room with about twenty beds. It was kinda weird,
but what isn’t? Then they gave us a ton
of fresh bananas, pineapple, and cucumber.
They also gave us some coconut, but, as usual, they don’t give us
anything to cut them open with, so it’s kinda
pointless. After a big feast of fresh
fruit (I ate a whole pineapple!), I took a nap.
I was still very tired from the long weekend, as well as the lack of
sleep and long ride. After at least an
hour-long nap, they called us into the chapel to do our program. As usual, our program was more like an
extension of their worship service, which is fine, but it just makes us anxious
sometimes I think. Sattleberg
has an English-speaking education system, so it made parts of our program go
over fairly well I think, but it’s always difficult to tell because Melanesian
culture is so much different in terms of how people respond. For example, avoiding eye contact when
greeting someone is a form of respect, where as in most western cultures like
the
After our program, we played
volleyball with the girls. For some
reason, I always have this strange misconception that I’m good at sports, but I
definitely learned more times than not that I am not a volleyball person. After about three games, I was done, so I
took another nap. I think I’m finally
feeling the effects of being very busy all the time. Today I had no energy at all. So I went to bed and woke up just in time for
dinner, which was rice and some strange mix of veggies for topping, along with
more fresh fruit. Actually, all these
women kept bringing us cucumbers all day and we ended up leaving with five bags
full of fruit and vegetables. After
dinner, a bunch of students brought in their dirty shirts for us to sign, and
then we sat around and sang some songs and learned some songs with the
girls. It was fun. Now, it’s bedtime for us…
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, February 25th
Oh the busyness of
Actually, I find it funny
that in
Friday wasn’t nearly as busy,
but it was just as hot. We went to Logawen Seminary early in the morning. The campus of the seminary is at the top of a
mountain in Finschhafen. We got there in the morning, but we didn’t
have a program until later that night.
So we sat around a little bit in the air conditioning (actually is was
just an oscillating fan, but is felt good), and ate food, as usual. Shortly after lunch, we went swimming in Butaweng, where there is a very cool waterfall and a large
pool at the base of the falls to swim in.
It was very refreshing. After
going back to the seminary and eating dinner, we did our program, which seemed
to go over very well. Then we spent the
night at the seminary in the dorms. That
was interesting, but very neat. In the
morning, they gave us two loaves of bread and peanut butter and strawberry jam
to make PB & J’s. It was great, I
think I ate about four sandwiches!
Shortly after breakfast, we
hopped into a truck and went back down the mountain to
This morning we packed up our
stuff again and rode the PMV into Gagidu, the main
town in Finschhafen.
In Gagidu, we went to church at
After
we finally got back to Heldsbach after being gone for
a few days, I realized that Josh and I locked our keys in the room we’ve been
staying in. So we had to become
We’re
still eating very well, and sleeping somewhat comfortably. The heat can be a bit much sometimes,
especially when you can’t stop sweating for more than a few minutes. Oh well, soon we’ll be back in Lae at the guest house where the electricity actually works
(Heldsbach has the infrastructure, but the power
station is bagarap), and where we can shower and feel
somewhat clean, and then fall asleep under a nice ceiling fan…
Life
is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, February
21st
We finally made it to the
German place late yesterday. After
leaving the harbor in Lae shortly before noon, and
floating around for a little more than three hours, we arrived in Finschhafen (that is spelled wrong). The boat trip was good, but kinda long for only being to sit there and either look out
the window or watch whatever movies were on.
They showed about an hour of three different movies, American movies
like The Lion King and The Shaggy Dog.
It was all very strange to me. It
was neat to look out the window and occasionally see a few flying fish skipping
across the water. They were sometimes so
close you could see their little wings frantically trying to flap so they could
get away from the boat. After we made
land again, we hopped into the back of a truck with all our stuff, and our
guide, and we made a long drive to the village we are currently calling
home. The region we are in is called Finschhafen, and the village is Heldsbach. This area was the first settlement by German
missionaries in 1886 or something like that.
There are many Germans in Lae that we have met
that work or have worked around this area.
There is currently a German couple living here, a Pastor and his wife
and young daughter, that have been a great help to us and have helped set up
our schedule here, which seems to be quite busy. There is also a hospital nearby with a German
doctor, but more on that later.
This morning we woke up to a
breakfast of bananas, pawpaw (papaya) and sweet potato fries. I didn’t particularly enjoy the fries to any
positive extent. We knew we would be
doing some sort of chapel/program today for the community, but we didn’t really
know what that meant. After breakfast we
found out. At nine a.m. (in
So with that, we ask that you
continue to pray for our team, especially physical health, but also mental and
spiritual health.
Laip satp gut, Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle
Monday, February 19th
In
We woke up this morning, ate
breakfast, and started packing. At eight
o’clock our contact, Faen, was coming to pick us up
and take us to the docks to get on the ferry, to take the three-hour long boat
trip to Finschhafen, a coastal region north of Lae. However,
shortly after breakfast, one of the men who helps us get around town and stuff
dropped in to inform us that the boat we are supposed to take went bagarap (literally meaning buggered-up in Pidgin). He said they only would need a day to fix it,
so we would just go tomorrow instead. So
now, we must think of something to do today.
We’ll probably go into town for lunch at some “sight-seeing” and maybe
we’ll find an internet café, who knows…
Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle
Sunday, February 18th
Somehow we manage to be
busier than ever…
A common description of
Tomorrow we take a three-hour
boat trip to a more remote coastal region.
It’s a German settlement, with funny German names for the villages. We’ll spend a week there traveling to different
villages and seeing lots of new people a places. But by the time you read this, it will all be
over. More on that trip when it’s all
said and done.
When we arrived back at the
guest house this afternoon, our main contact, Faen,
asked us if any of us were homesick yet.
Even though there are definitely things that we miss about
Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle
Thursday, February
15th
A new leg of our journey has
begun!
We left HLIS this
morning. The kids at the school gathered
all around to hug, shake hands, and say goodbye. It was definitely hard to leave the school,
but I am very excited to start a new phase of this journey. It seems odd though, because we realized
today that we only have about a month and a half left here in
We left the school and made
the two hour drive to
When we arrived here in Lae, we were taken to the ELC-
Now we go to sleep, because
the fun doesn’t stop for New Dawn, no.
We’re going somewhere tomorrow morning with a pastor Kevin. We don’t know where, we don’t really know for
what, but we’re going! Such is the life
in
Laip stap gutpela,
Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle (or Ciyarl,
long story)
Wednesday, February
14th
Happy Valentines Day, and
Happy Birthday Amber!
Well, today is the last full
day in Enga for New Dawn. It was a really fun day. It started with a chapel service, which was a
lot of fun and ended with a campfire, also fun.
I played some soccer with the guys too, but I only realized how bad I am
at the game. I also realized that it
isn’t easy to run continuously when you’re at about 2500 meters above sea
level. So I was pretty worn out by
dinner. It was really nice though today,
we had hamburgers for lunch. I haven’t
had a hamburger in a while and they were great.
I had three! The food here is
usually quite good, but sometimes the cooks have some odd ideas for food
combinations. The other day we had
donuts and hotdogs for lunch…
On Tuesday we ended up not
going anywhere outside the school. We
stayed and taught our classes (I “subbed” for Emily so she could help with the
home economics class), hung out with the kids, and went to see a mumu after it was done cooking (we heard the pig being
given its final plea when we awoke). The
meat smelled really good, but we were given a cooked banana to try, and it was
dry, bland, and sweet potato-ish. I only could choke down half of it. Hopefully the future doesn’t hold too many
food-moments like that one. I also
received my first piece of “fan” mail from a Papua New Guinean. However, this wasn’t the typical “I like your
music, you play good guitar” type of letter, this one contained elements of
desire and passion. It was really funny
actually. We played near her village,
and I may have said hello to her, but I got a humorous letter and a
picture. Great for a memory book…
Thursday morning we drive
away from this wonderful place, on to other places and experiences. We’ll catch a ride to
Laip stap gutpela,
Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle
Monday, February 12th
So much to do, so much to
tell!
So much has happened it seems
since my last update, where to begin is quite the pickle! So we’ll start with Saturday…
It started very nicely, me
sleeping, then me eating breakfast.
Quite a wonderful time. Then the
girls went into Wabag to hang out and shop, Josh and
I stayed behind and helped the school with some technical issues they were
having. Josh is currently working on
updating the website for the school, and I was working on making a couple of
their computers run better and not be virus-prone. When the girls came back, Liz, Emily and I
went to Mambis to visit the Lutz family one more
time. It was a fun time with them,
because we went on our first bushwalk (hike) through some gardens, through some
deep ditch like pathways, and up and down some really steep, slippery
slopes. It was a fun time. We climbed up to the top of this one
hill/mountain, and there was a radio tower up there, so a few of us climbed up
that too. It was really cold and windy
up there, and Dr. Steve said that they sometimes fly kites from on top of the
tower. I’d think they’d get blown off
the top. The entire walk took a couple
hours I think, and we got to see some cool stuff, Emily got her whole foot
stuck in a mud hole, it was funny. Then
we had dinner with them and came back here to HLIS. You can see the pictures and a quick video
from the walk on the video page.
On Sunday we had a morning
service here at the school. We did all
the music for it and Emily gave a brief message. Then we went to Sirunki,
but we didn’t have a ride back, so we had to do a brief program of only a few
songs and catch a ride back with the guy we came with. But before we left we had to go to another
church in Sirunki, because we were told they had some
gifts for us of veggies. So we went
there, and we found out they wanted us to stay and sing songs, but we didn’t
have time, so we sang one song, and they sang for us. Then they gave us a huge bag of veggies, and
they gave us a nice new bilum (string bag) with the
Today we were going to go to
a couple of schools to do some programs-one at a university and the other at a
seminary-however, we couldn’t arrange a vehicle, and we were rather
unsuccessful in catching a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle), so we were left without
a ride to our destinations. Luckily
things in
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Friday, February 9th
One week of school down!
Yes it’s true, we made
it. New Dawn’s first week as
international teachers is complete. We
managed to not do too much damage to our student’s minds, and we all still
enjoy being “teachers.” My class was
kind of simple for me anyway, since the class met only twice this week, and the
first day was really a bunch of “first-day-nothingness.” It was fun to be a true part of the
educational vision of this school. Not
to mention the other things we’ve been doing around here. Every day from 2-3, we get to hang out with
the elementary school kids. The teachers
just hand them over and we get to sing songs and play games with them for the
remainder of the day. It’s a lot of
fun. We usually do music for about 45
minutes, and then soccer or tag for 15 minutes.
They really like to sing, especially silly songs. They also love to sing songs over and over,
so we don’t have to teach them new songs every day! This is good, because we just about ran out
on the first day.
We only have one more week
left here at the school. Next Thursday
we’ll fly to Lae, a coastal city (2nd
largest in
Many changes and challenges
await us, and I am sorry to say that, unfortunately for all you loyal readers,
internet access probably won’t be a common occurrence after this next week is
up. If we’re lucky we’ll have some sort
of access once every week, but I have doubts on that one. However, it will only be for about 1½ months,
and then we go to
The next few days have some
promises to be quite busy, so there will be at least two more decent blog posts here before we leave for Lae. Enjoy the pictures, the stories, and the
cold! Haha!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, February 4th
Back to School!
This weekend has been a busy
one here at HLIS. Students started
arriving for the new school year, and projects are happening all over
campus. We have been a part of the
business in some ways. We have been
getting the dorms ready for the non-commuting students, and welcoming the
students as they have been bussed in.
Tuesday is the first day of classes, so everyone here is a bit frantic
and nervous and also very excited.
Each of us New Dawners are going to have a small “teaching” job for the
first week of school too. Since the
school doesn’t have an English teacher hired as of yet, we get to be overseers
of the classes for the remainder of the time we’re here. We won’t be doing any real teaching; it will
be more of a sub-like thing, but still very neat. I get to be in charge of the ninth grade
class, which has about 14 students. Now
I’ll be able to say that I’ve had some overseas teaching experience. We’re all pretty excited to play a major role
in the work of HLIS, and no doubt we will never forget our time spent here.
Speaking of unforgettable
experiences, we had one today. This
morning we went to a church about 20 minutes away in Yaramanda.
On Friday, Liz and I went to Wabag, the closest larger town near the school. We went to a market, which is quite an
experience in itself. Picture a
supermarket, without a roof, and every aisle is really just a muddy walkway
past a bunch of tarps covered with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and various
household items. Liz got some oranges
and some various veggies, while I cleaned one lady clear out of hot
peppers. I found the experience much
more entertaining and enjoyable than what we have back home, but maybe because
I’m a guy.
There was kind of a neat
thing yesterday too. The principal of
HLIS, Dr. Brent Kilback, gave a little speech at
lunch about the year ahead of the students.
He said it’s a “new beginning” a time to start fresh and new. Then I thought, “Hey, our team name is New
Dawn, which means a new beginning, a fresh start!” We must be in the right place…
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Thursday, February
1st
Time for an update!
Actually, I realized as I am
starting this that I forgot to include a little story in the last post, since
this particular event happened on Saturday evening. We were invited to spend the evening in Mambis with the Lutz family and Liz, the American
missionary working with HIV awareness.
So we grabbed a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle, the
On another note, we seem to
be getting healthy again. I ate three
full meals today with little trouble, and Josh ate a couple and I don’t think
he has lost any of them yet. It’s just
in time too, because students start arriving at the school this weekend, and
classes start next week. We’re really
excited for the ministry we get to do here, and for the students we get to meet
and hang out with for the next week or so.
This is sure to be a unique experience!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, January 28th
Today has kinda
been a long one.
We got up early this morning
to walk to a nearby village to participate in the church service there. We sang three songs in English at their
request (it was an all-Pidgin service) and then we did about six or seven songs
in Pidgin, and Emily gave a little message while one of the local pastors
translated for her. We were gonna do another program at a different church in the
afternoon, but right as the service was getting underway, Josh, who hasn’t been
feeling 100% the last few days, got up and went outside so he wouldn’t make a
mess on the floor of the church. So he
ended up getting a ride back to the school before the service was
finished. Liz and I have also been a bit
on the sick and weary side, so we decided it was best not to go to the next
place.
We all needed a bit of a rest
day, as the last week has been extremely busy.
I personally just need a day to sleep-in, but “no iken
wari” or “no worries.” It only adds to the experience, and it’s not
like we didn’t expect to get tired, sick, or otherwise. No doubt the stories we’ll have when we come
back will only be enhanced by these moments.
After all, Romans 5 says
“…we
also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
So we’re hoping for good
health, and hoping for restful nights as well.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, January
24th
New Dawn’s music ministry in
Today was our second day of
going out to do a program. Tuesday we
went to a hospital in Mambis, where the famed Dr.
Lutz from the
Today we went into the town
of
Just now, as I am writing
this, a man here at the school gave me a bow and some arrows that he made. “Banara” in Pidgin. “It is a decoration” he told me, “But they do
use them to hunt birds, and sometimes to fight.”
As usual, check out the
pictures, even though they never can capture the whole story. Being here makes me wonder if a picture
really is worth a thousand words. On the
other hand, we usually only use one, “Wow.”
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Saturday, January
20th (Friday the 19th)
Guess what woke me up this
morning?
In Papua New Guinea, it is common
to have huge feasts to celebrate various events. This feast is called a “mumu”
and it consists usually of digging a huge pit, lining it with grasses or
leaves, then putting in a whole pig, and various vegetables and greens before
covering it completely with hot stones.
Then they cover the pit and let everything cook for three hours or
so. Then they dig it all up and
everything is ready to serve and eat.
Now, we have not had a mumu prepared for us
yet, however, the dorm at the HLIS where Josh and I are sleeping is right next
to the fence that lines the edge of the school’s campus. Right directly on the other side of that
fence is a village. That village had a mumu today! Now, in
order for this feast to be done by lunch, they have to start preparing
early. Everything has to be ready to
start cooking at nine, so the stones have to be heated, the vegetables have to
be prepped, and the pit has to be dug and prepped for the food. Oh yeah, and the pig has to be ready
too. That means they have to kill the
pig. It isn’t like you can go into town
to the butcher and buy a pig all ready to toss into a
pit, they have to do with what they have, and what they have is a bunch of pigs
running around. So, if they want to
have a big feast at noon, they have to start trying to catch the pig at about,
oh, six-thirty or seven. I had my alarm
set for seven thirty, which was about thirty minutes after the pig was caught.
This means that at seven, when the pig was being caught, tied, and given
its last plea, I was very much awake. At
about quarter after seven, I was walking out the door of the dorm when they did
the pig in. Up to this point in my life
I never had heard a pig scream. I have
heard pigs grunt, snort, squeal, and make various other noises with the other
end as well, but I had never heard a pig scream. For what seemed like ten minutes, but was
really ten seconds, I heard a pig die. I
knew exactly what was going on, and the concept of the event didn’t bother me
so much as the fact that I had had to change my underwear right as I was
heading out to start my day. Now I
really have to do laundry tomorrow.
I also had some sugar cane
today, the soft kind that you chew on and suck the juice out of. It was delicious.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Friday, January 19th
(Thursday the 18th for ya’ll in America)
We have arrived!
Almost a week ago, but we’re
here nonetheless. On Friday the 12th, we
flew from St. Paul, MN to O’Hare International in Chicago. From there we took a 12+ hour flight (it was
wonderful) to the Tokyo airport in Narita, Japan. We had a four hour layover in Japan before
taking about a seven hour flight to Port Moresby, the capital city of
Today I spent a good four
hours with a local gentleman translating my testimony. Yulex Tanga (see pictures) and I went over my message word for
word, and helped me understand (a little) how Pidgin or Tok Pisin, works. He says he will make me good at Pidgin. Then he asked me, “Do you have Bible in Tok Pisisn? It is the
best book. Namba
wan. Best for learning Pidgin.” Slowly but surely, I can speak better and
better Pidgin. I used Pidgin to buy a
hat the other day (see pictures), and now I can dress a little more like an
authentic New Guinean! On Sunday we are
going to a nearby church with the principal of the school, where we will sing a
few songs in Pidgin for the service, which will be entirely in Pidgin. It is fairly easy to find people who speak
English, especially in bigger villages or younger children. English is the language of education and
economics, so it is common for people to speak two or three languages, maybe
more. The food isn’t difficult either,
yet. We can go to a grocery store and
find just about anything we can get in America.
There is a big Australian influence on things too, hence the presence of
Vegemite, which I avoid. But we can get
Coke and Sprite almost anywhere (although it tastes slightly different) and we
can get peanut butter, honey, and good passion fruit as well. Americans doesn’t know what pineapple or
mango is until we come here, and I don’t even care for pineapple that much,
it’s that good! Chicken and pork is like
nothing else either, might be the lack of McDonalds
influence (which doesn’t exist anywhere in
We are here at the HLIS for
about a month before we go to Lae, the second largest
city in
Many of you may be wondering
what the religious demographic is here in
I thank you all for your
thoughts and prayers, as well as the emails.
Keep the questions, comments, and updates coming (kyle@kylescobie.com). I don’t guarantee an immediate response, but
I will do my best!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, January 7th
Leaving on a jet plane!
We have plane tickets, and
the time is growing near!
This coming Friday, at 10:30
am, central time, New Dawn will be flying from St. Paul, MN to Chicago,
IL. From Chicago, we fly to Tokyo,
Japan, where we’ll hitch a flight on down to Port Moresby, Papua New
Guinea. We’ll be up in the western
highlands for a month, working with a Lutheran School (http://www.hlischool-png.org/). We’ll also be going to the eastern, coastal
areas, working with the ELCA (ELCPNG). Then, in mid-April, we fly to Hawaii, but
before we get there, we have an overnight layover in Singapore!
We really excited to see a
lot of different places in such a short period of time. Details of our tour are still being worked
out, and we won’t know a lot until we actually get to those places, but the
anticipation of such new experiences is always on our minds. It’s hard to think that in one week we’ll be
in Papua New Guinea, but then again it seems like just yesterday I was meeting
my team for the first time in August. I
expect the next four months to fly by just as fast, if not faster. I also expect that the next four months will
teach me more about life and religion than a lifetime of school or church,
which is exciting in itself. I look
forward to the time spent overseas, and I’m excited to share my experiences
when I return!
Time for bed for me now,
can’t afford to not get enough sleep this week.
Next week will be spent recovering from jet-lag and culture-shock, and
an overwhelming amount of sweet potatoes!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, January
3rd
Well, I’m back! My much enjoyed Christmas break ended a few
days ago and I’m currently in Minnesota, getting in some training sessions, and
last-minute work done before our grand departure for Papua New Guinea. Our plane tickets don’t exactly exist yet,
because we’re waiting on some last minute details from our missionary contacts
in Papua New Guinea, but we’re really excited!
We’ve been hanging out here
in St. Paul for since Monday, getting important information about overseas
stuff like finances, mail, and how to get through culture shock. This weekend each of the international teams
head out to our host churches for about a week to do some individual
preparations with the support of the churches housing us.
I’m taking my laptop overseas
with me, but I’m not confident that I’ll have any reliable internet access at
all, so after next week, this page may become rather dormant. We will be mailing journals home, so it might
be worth it to check the journal section of our Youth Encounter website (see
link above). Hopefully that will be kept
fairly up-to-date, but I guarantee nothing.
I’ll try to update this as much as possible over the next week until we
fly out. And once I find out when we’re
flying, where, and how, I’ll get that up here too.
It’s good to be back, and the
next phase excites us all, and makes us all anxious, pray for nothing but
smooth sailing from here on out!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Friday, December 15th
I get to come home tomorrow
for two weeks! I fly home tomorrow
evening, and I’m looking forward to sleeping in every day.
Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle
Thursday, November
23rd
Happy Thanksgiving!
Our team achieved the
Thanksgiving Trifecta today, visiting three locations
along the gulf coast for some turkey and mashed potatoes. Two of them were at work camps, one here and
one in Biloxi, the other one was at the house of a couple who had their house
fixed-up by people from Camp Victor.
Actually, we had turkey dinner yesterday with Liz’s cousins in Gulfport,
and we also had some Thanksgiving Dinner-flavored Jones Soda, which was kinda gross. So in
total, we had five Thanksgivings in 48 hours, it was great!
Tomorrow we go back to work,
sanding and priming the house we’ve been working on. Hopefully by Saturday or Monday we can begin
painting, as long as everything goes well…
I posted new pictures for
every month because I just got some pictures from Emily’s camera. Check them out!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Tuesday, November
22nd
We’ve been here at Camp
Victor, in Ocean Springs, MS for the last couple of days. We didn’t really know what to expect when we
arrived, we knew we’d be doing something related to the Katrina relief effort,
but we didn’t really know what that was.
Sunday night after we arrived they served dinner to us and the other
groups here. Then we met the founder of
the organization, and heard his story of how Camp Victor came about and has
been growing ever since. It was quite an
interesting and powerful insight into the events following the disaster. We also got our job assignments soon after
arriving, but we were still unsure of what to expect. Monday was our first work day, so we thought
we were going to head out the house we were assigned to work at, but while we
were in the warehouse getting supplies, the two of the day’s seven semi trailers
arrived, filled with donated materials.
We offered our services in the unloading process in any way we could
help, and we all ended working in some way or another in the warehouse and
distribution center, doing random things.
I used a pallet jack pretty much all day, making room for the contents
of the seven semi trailers. I also took
a nap on a huge pile of carpet rolls, it was pretty comfortable. It was a good opportunity to see some of the
behind-the-scenes operations that go on at relief centers. There are three Katrina cats that hang around
the Camp as well, and two of them are warehouse dwellers, so I was having them
chase random objects around the warehouse.
Today was our first day at
our assigned site. We were given a house
to work on that had some work done already, but nobody knew where the last crew
had left off, so we kinda went in to it blind. We brought some paint rollers, as well as
some drywall mudding supplies, which was good because we got there and found
the house ready to have a second round of mud put on the drywall. So we slopped some goop on the wall, and then
started putting a base coat of paint on the ceiling. Then we made a trip to Lowes
to get stuff for putting on the primer, which we’ll probably do tomorrow. We also each got to pick a paint color for a
room of our choice, so we all browsed the paint section for our favorite
hue. I chose “Champagne Tickle” which is
a very, very, very light yellowish color.
It was a fun way to feel more part of the project. Our project “leader” is really cool too. He’s fun and easygoing, and we don’t have to
worry about messing up, probably because we’re all older than he is. The lady who owns the house was so nice to us
as well. She almost insisted on us not
working at her house this week because of thanksgiving. “God knows what I need, and I have to be
patient.” We’ll definitely enjoy
chatting with her and getting to know her story.
Our fall tour is wrapping up,
sometimes it seems really fast, sometimes it seems really slow, but we’re all
excited for what’s to come. Each one of
us is looking forward to being home for Christmas, as well as our overseas
tour. We’re getting more excited as we
receive more information about Papua New Guinea, and the increased possibility
of Hawaii! We’re excited about where
we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we’re going. We head north soon, out of the cool gulf
breeze into the frigid air of Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Minnesota, yay for hats and gloves.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Saturday, November
18th
We leave Kurt’s place in
Atlanta, GA today. We’re heading a
little south and a little west to Montgomery, AL. After that we go to Ocean Springs, MS for a
week at Camp Victor. We heard that there
was some flooding down there after the big storms passed through this region. We’re excited to be moving on and see new
places and meet new people. I’m a little
anxious to see the condition of things in the gulf coast, but I’m not thrilled
about the drive north afterwards.
Apparently it gets cold in the Midwest this time of year, but I’ve been
enjoying the 60+ degree weather we’ve had down here. I might be begging for a snowstorm in a
couple of months as I sit in the 100 degree heat with 99% humidity in Papua New
Guinea. I think I may find out the true
meaning of sunburn.
Life is good, God is
great! Go buckeyes!
-Kyle
Wednesday, November
15th
Another town, another church,
another host family, and another bed. It seems like it could all get very
monotonous very quickly, but somehow it never seems to get old or routine. Each
church, town, and host family is unique and amazing in its own way. It becomes
harder and harder to pick my favorite booking as the days go by!
The past couple of days have
been phenomenal. We got to meet some amazing Christians in Weddington,
North Carolina, as well as eat some fantastic Mexican food. Being back on the
road is so great; I look forward to pushing on and going new places. For
instance, we get to go hang out with my brother tomorrow, which I am extremely
excited about. However, I hate to risk getting so excited about the future that
I forget the task at hand, but that excitement helps you get through the
not-so-amazing times. All in all, life’s been busy, and therefore very fast.
It’s hard to believe that in a month we’ll be home for Christmas break! God’s
work isn’t so hard after all!
Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas!
-Kyle Scobie
Wednesday, November
11th
Life on the road has been
interesting, to say the least. Actually,
until yesterday, we hadn’t really been “on the road” for three weeks. Being in pseudo community-based mode in
Virginia and then going back out on the road for the remaining tour makes
things interesting. I forgot how to
sleep in a moving bed, I forgot how to live off of junk-food, and I also forgot
that what it meant to not really have a concrete schedule that extends beyond
the next morning. However, I find myself
to be a fast learner, so I imagine that it should be easy to re-learn some of
those old habits.
I look forward to moving on
though. It was nice to be in one spot
for a week or two-and I look forward to VBS season next year-but it’s also good
to move along and keep moving. When
you’re in one place for a long period of time, it can be easy to settle in, get
comfortable, and relax too much. It can
be all too simple to get a little lazy and lacking in the ministry
department. I have to give huge props to
the community-based Lifeline team, because I have a feeling they have already
found out how much of a different ballgame it is. Not only do they get to plant some pretty
important seeds, they get to be there when God does some gardening! That’s one job that we as Christians can
be thankful that we do not have, gardening.
It can be hard to be just a planter, but it’s a lot easier than pullin’ weeds and pruning vines. Getting dirty,
stained, and pricked by thorns is not a fun job. It reminds me of a
sermon I heard from Vicar Bugg at Gloria Dei in
Hampton. A couple of disciples ask Jesus for the best seats in Heaven,
the seats at His right and left hand. Jesus responds by asking "Can
you drink from the same cup that I drink?" Can we pull weeds,
trim the hedges, and take a few thorns in the fingers, or worse, the
head? Can we drink the Cup? Can we wear the Crown? Only Jesus
could wear the Crown, only Jesus can prune the vineyard. We only have to
scatter the seeds. However, that doesn't mean the fields in which we sow
are pleasantly filled with warm spring air and singing birds, but that's a
different sermon.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle Scobie
Friday, November 3rd
Well, it’s been almost two
weeks, so you’re probably wondering why I’ve been absent from my website. Well, busy doesn’t begin to describe the past
two weeks. Never mind the fact that I
didn’t have internet last week to do anything.
However, I’m back now and I hope that I get back into a consistent mode
of posting journals. I’ve already
updated the pictures and videos (there’s even a video with sound!) so check those
out if you haven’t yet.
We left Gloria Dei in
Hampton, Virginia this past Tuesday afternoon and drove across town (a whole 20
minutes!) to Newport News (more like Newpert Neews if you live here though). We’re working with Reformation Lutheran
Church for the week (which is almost over, weird). It was hard to leave Gloria Dei; we had so
much fun there, but it’s good to move on and see new things. We get to go to Ocean Springs, Mississippi in
a couple weeks to help with relief efforts, and we found out yesterday that we
also get to make a trip to Liz’s church in South Dakota right before our
mid-winter training, which is right before Christmas break. She’s especially excited, and so are we,
because we’ve never done anything in a Southern Baptist church before. I’m not really looking forward to the winter
weather we’re apparently going to be traveling into, but come January we’ll
skip winter altogether when we head out to Papua New Guinea. As we move closer and closer to the time of
departure we’ve been learning more and more about the culture and language and
some of the things we’re going to be experiencing. For instance, we discovered that the word for
helicopter in Pidgin English, the language we have to learn, is mixmasta bilong Jesus
Christ, and the word for quiet is i no gat nois. So we’ve
had some fun with our new language learning.
We learned some other interesting words and cultural tibits,
but I don’t think I should post it up here.
So if you really want to be amused, I’ll e-mail you with some of that.
Here at Reformation Lutheran
we’ve been involved and kept in the mix with the regular activities of the
church fairly well. We had a potluck the
night we got here, and the following evening as well right before our
concert. It was the first concert we’ve
had in six weeks, so we were glad to finally do one, but we were also a bit
nervous about it too. It ended up going
really well. The church also has an
all-day childcare, so we’ve been hanging out with pre-k kids the past few days,
which is exhausting, but extremely fun at the same time (I still want to be a
teacher). We also did a spiel with the
confirmation class last night. Today
we’re going next door to a nursing home to do a little program for the
residents there. We’ll also help with
the services on Sunday, and we’re going bowling with some college students
Monday night (Yay for PEERS!).
Our host homes this week are
really cool. Josh and are have been
staying with this family with two high school boys, but they’re going out of
town for the weekend, so we’ll have our own house for the weekend. Tara is staying with a doctor who has a HUGE
house (multi-million dollar huge) on the James River. He’s got bathrooms everywhere, security
cameras everywhere, and the doorway to his room is a sliding wall with a
keypad. He also has two pop machines in
his house. I’m glad I don’t have to
clean it.
So now you’re all up to speed
on my life. Actually we’ve done a ton
more than that, but I’m no in the mood to write a novel any time soon. As always, feel free to send me an email (kyle@kylescobie.com) at any time to leave
a comment or ask a question. Also, check
out my pictures, October has more than 200 pictures now, and I added some to
September too that my teammates had taken.
Check back soon for November, that’ll start filling up fast I’m
sure. Until my next post;
Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas! (Life is good,
God is great!)
-Kyle
Saturday, October
21st
Still in Hampton! About a week left till we move on to
We’re still having loads of
fun as we continue our tour here in Virginia.
We’ve been here for a week, and we’ve been fairly busy with many different
things at Gloria Dei Lutheran. There are
three pastors and two vicars that serve this church, and the church also has a
day school. We’ve done chapels and a
nursing home, as well as taught a lesson for the first grade students (we’re
hoping to all the grades). There is also
a possibility for us to go onto Langley Air Force Base and do something for the
people there, which would be really unique and cool. We also had a planning session for the VBS
program we’re doing here next summer.
All of this and more keeps us fairly busy, but the church has also been
really great about giving us free time as well.
We went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for their “Howl-o-scream”
event. We got to ride some roller
coasters (and a water ride, bad idea), as well as go through some really cheesy
haunted mazes. We’ve also gone to the
beach at the Chesapeake Bay, where we played some Frisbee, waded in the water,
and buried Josh in the sand (see pictures).
I made a snowman in the sand, and we found a huge dead jellyfish that
looked like a big pile of snot (we had some fun with that concept). We also got to go to a game night that one of
the small bible study groups had, where we played Catchphrase for two hours. That game had some more than interesting
moments to it for sure.
Today the girl scouts held a
bazaar at the church, so we wandered around the booths for a bit before we
rehearsed at the church. One of the host
families for next week bought us all a massage at the bazaar. I felt like jell-o afterwards, and it was
awesome.
My host family this week has
been really great! I don’t get to see
them very much because we’re all very busy, but they have been more than
generous (as most of our host homes have been), and I’ve enjoyed the relaxation
I’ve received at their home. They have
great food, wireless internet, and a big television with all the baseball games
as well, so I’m more than taken care of.
Next week I get to stay with one of the vicars, so I’m pretty excited
about that. He seems like a really cool
guy, and we’ve already planned a euchre party at his apartment next week.
We’ve been blessed once again
to have such a great mission field to work in.
We’re excited for next week here at Gloria Dei, as well as the weeks to
come as we venture into new territory.
We’re still in the dark about where we’re going after Newport News, but
I’m not really worried about it. We
aren’t called to a specific location so much as just called to work.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Tuesday, October 17th
Meet Virginia!
Well, our two-week adventure
in Hampton, VA has begun! We arrived
Saturday evening to an all-you-can-eat fish fry! Then we were introduced to the congregation
on Sunday. On Monday we had a day off,
so Josh and I made a trip to Guitar Center (heaven on earth) in Virginia
Beach. I have one interesting story from
that trip. If you really want to know,
send me an email or something. Then
today we met with the pastor and the two vicars about what they want us to do
for them. Then we did two chapel-like
things with two different pre-k classes.
That was hilarious (most of them are).
I had an odd chat with a little girl afterwards about whether or not the
puppets were real. It’s difficult,
because we aren’t supposed to admit to kids that the puppets aren’t real
creatures, but sometimes the kids were scared, like this girl was. There’s a fine line somewhere, and I danced
all over it.
My host home is really
awesome. I’m by myself, and they’re
really nice, quiet people. They hosted a
small-group bible study tonight, so I got to be a part of that. We had some good discussions about
evangelism, contemporary worship, and cookies (they were really good!) Every night we go upstairs to the “den” and
watch television together, usually sports or game shows. It’s a lot of fun, and relaxation!
Check out the new photos I
put up. We took a very short trip
through Washington D.C. and took some good pictures. I’ll put more up of our time in Hampton as I
take more of them. Also, check out the
videos I’ve taken. I’m hoping get more
of those too. Most of them won’t have
sound, but you can see some of what’s been going on in action! Feel free to look at the New Dawn section on
the Youth Encounter website, I put a link to it here, so you can read the team
journals, as well as see some more pictures.
We’re really looking forward
to working with this church for the next two weeks. There are a lot of great things going on
already, and we can’t wait to jump in and run with them! Check back for updates on what’s going on,
and for pictures and videos of my life on the road!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, October
11th
(This one’s convoluted, so
bear with me!)
We left Michigan testerday, my house to be exact. It kinda made me
sad, but I know that there are other states with good experiences. We’ll be in Virginia for at least three
weeks, so I’d better get used to another state for sure. I’m pretty certain that there are some
wonderful people to be met and share in fellowship, God provides a number of
things, including people. However, I
seriously doubt I’ll meet another host mom that can cook like my own mom, but that doesn’t mean I
shouldn’t sleep. In addition, I probably
won’t have another bed as comfortable as my own
bed, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t sleep.
The remainder of the tour won’t be as easy as living at home. That brings me to a very important point, so
bear with me. My point is this: If you
are forced out of your box, you can’t reserve yourself for only the things with
which you are familiar or else you will you die, both spiritually and
physically. Our Christian walk isn’t
supposed to be easy, and as full-time workers in the mission field, we are
Satan’s number-one target for inflicting pain and discomfort. Just as Jesus says in John 10, “I came that
you may have life, and have it to the full.”
Life to the full, abundant life, crazy life! Jesus promises that in Him, we will be given
a full and abundant life. Full of what? Good
and bad, joy and pain, laughter and tears.
Is there a storm raging in your life?
It will pass. Is life going
awesome, superb, and honeymoon-like? It
will pass! Even though there’s some
moments of uncomfortable nature, Jesus gives us those moments so that we can
have life to the full. Could be worse
however, because we could have a ton of stuff going on, but not have someone to
worry about it for us. God doesn’t call
you to do his work, and then not provide for you. He isn’t a stingy war general, sending troops
into battle without proper supplies. He
gives us food and a place to sleep, every night. Eat and have rest, for tomorrow is a new day,
and maybe a new state, but it’s all the same battle field.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Tuesday, October 10th
We left Michigan today. Slight sadness lurks behind the excitement
for something completely new and different.
We’ve been all over Michigan the past week. We started in the Porkies
with the Tomahawk youth group. Camping
was kinda cold, kinda wet,
but really cool. The U.P. is really
beautiful, especially in the fall, and especially along Lake Superior. From there we went to Ewen,
the small but mighty town of less than 500.
We went bowling on Saturday night, and did two services at two different
churches on Sunday morning. Then we went
to Escanaba, where we just hung out with some kids and adults for a couple
hours, and then we went to our host homes.
Josh and I had to go to the bus station at two a.m. to pick up our staff
person for on-the-road-training. So we
were up late watching movies with our host dad, who was really cool. Us boys and the
girls both had awesome host homes, and we hope to go back to Escanaba next
summer. From Escanaba, we went to
The food’s good, the road’s
good, the people are great!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Monday, October 2nd
Yay for
The road has been good to us
so far. I’m starting to learn how to
delegate certain parts of my Program Coordinator job, like the stress. It’s actually possible to delegate stress,
I’ve discovered how (If you want the secret, send me a letter with a sum of
money or something). As you can imagine,
putting five complete strangers in a van after a month of what would best be
described as mixers and get-to-know-you games can create some interesting side
effects. These effects include, but are
not limited to; unknown, unpleasant, and unclaimed odors; funny, strange, and
awkward inside jokes; and dirty looks from the rear-view mirror. Perhaps the most important thing we have all
learned, or rather, been pleasantly made aware of, is that in relational
ministry, it is not only important to know what you’re doing, it is also
important to be prepared that what we may know about the days activities could
be completely wrong. So, in review, the
two important things about relational ministry are, one, know what’s going on;
two, be ready for when what you know isn’t correct. You may never know because instead of having
a program tomorrow, you may have one within an hour of arriving at the church.
Life is good, God is great!
(And so is
-Kyle Scobie
Monday, September
25th
Yay for days off!
Yup, it’s Monday, the official Sabbath of Youth Encounter. We’re all in one host home in Prairie
We traveled from
Our day off today was nice,
and still is. Our host home has wireless
internet, and enough space to have time to ourselves. The host mom is an excellent cook, so the
food it great. She made homemade hot
fudge; home away from home. There’s also
a local grocery store that sells a really rich caramel dip. I tried some; you can almost taste each
granule of sugar on your tongue!
Wisconsin is pretty nice, except I haven’t had decent cell phone
reception since the day we started. I
suppose it won’t get too much better when we go to the Upper Peninsula, but
I’ll be so excited about being in Michigan, finally a new state, and lingo I
understand!
Tomorrow we drive to
Evansville Wisconsin, which is just south of Madison. We have a program there on Wednesday night
for a confirmation class, and on Thursday we go like six hours north to the
church we get to go camping with in the Porcupine Mountains. We’ve been slowly stocking up on the warm
clothes for that one! After the camping
trip, we’ll officially be touring Michigan, go Buckeyes!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Thursday, September
21st
We traveled from Wisconsin
Rapids to Siren today, about a five hour drive.
In Wisconsin Rapids we did a morning Chapel service at a Lutheran School
for what was supposed to be 45 minutes, but we turned it into an hour, so the
kids were excited to miss class for a bit.
The seemed to really enjoy being absolutely goofy and crazy, which is
great for Youth Encounter teams. Soon
after that we did a fifteen minute thing with the preschool at the hosting
church, we sang the Hippo Song and did a puppet show, which the kids laughed at
the entire time, even though it wasn’t always funny. It was a ton of fun, especially since these
kids all had a five second attention span.
That night we had a worship service where we just led songs and I gave a
little message, I told a story about how I got lost in a cornfield playing
hide-and-seek, and how I relate it to the prodigal son story. Then, after the service, we had a two-hour
hang out/bible study with the youth group, which was fun. I led a game, yay.
My host family was great,
they were all soccer players, and the mom made awesome pancakes for breakfast,
and fresh applesauce, which made me think of home, in a good way, which is
always kinda nice.
We left Wisconsin Rapids this morning, got to Siren, Wisconsin this
afternoon, and had a potluck and program this evening. There were about 30 people there, so it was a
nice, small church. The potluck was
amazing, and the program went really well.
There was a two-year-old girl there that was just running all around us
and dancing during the program. There
were a few times that she would run up to Josh and just want him to hold her
while he sang, so it was like having a
sixth member most of the service. She
was absolutely hilarious. Then, our
contact person gave us gift baskets with soap and deodorant and candy! Despite the small group, and slight
unprepared feeling we always have, it went really well and we got to chat with
a variety of amazing people, young and old.
Friday is our day off. Josh and I are in the same home for the day,
so we’ll be doing laundry and sleeping in; two things that make us all happy
afterwards. This weekend we go to a
prison for a worship service. We’re all
really excited for that. We also get to
go tent camping in the Porcupine Mountains of the Upper Peninsula next weekend
with a youth group. It’ll be fun, but
really cold at night.
The food’s been good, the
hospitality has been first-class, the stress has been worth it, mostly.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Saturday, September
17th (ten
days have past since the last one, I know)
I woke up this morning in the
usual way, rolling over and sighing because I had to get out of bed. Then I realized that I had just been
commissioned the previous night by Doctor, Reverend, President, and Poet Larry
Johnson. That meant that today
(Saturday, September 16th, 2006) was the first day of being in a full-time
ministry position. I also realized that
it was the first official day back in the real world. I guess a lot has happened since we’ve been
gone in northern Minnesota for three weeks and another week at a camp in
Wisconsin. I think last night was the
first time I saw a television on since being at the airport in Detroit a month
ago. It’s weird to turn on the news and
see continuing coverage of something you didn’t know happened. Not knowing about progress of the wars in
various places is interesting, because war is always a fast-paced news story
that you can’t just dive into at random moments and expect to understand
it. Apparently the Pope made some controversial
comments recently (go figure, the Pope, a major leader in the Christian faith,
being controversial in a secular world).
The other huge thing I was surprised by was that the Crocodile Hunter
died. All due respect however, when you
make your living keeping dangerous pets, some things become less
surprising. So begins the year of being
out of the loop, yet still so involved that there’s no time to be tired. Of course, there are so many interesting
people to meet and greet that sleep isn’t a priority.
So we began this morning by
climbing in a huge van with a trailer filled with tons of stuff, pulling out
onto the open road, and driving for three hours to our first destination,
Onalaska, Wisconsin. We just finished
our first “program” which was just a worship service where we led the
music. We also have two church services
to do tomorrow morning at the same church, and then we have a program Sunday
night in a town fifteen minutes away. It
certainly doesn’t feel like we’re going all over the world yet, but with time
I’m sure that we’ll have more than our share of riding in a van.
God is definitely teaching me
many things, mostly about myself, but also how to deal with and relate to all
sorts of people. It’s fun, ambiguous,
and exhausting, but mostly exciting. So begins
the year (which will more than likely turn into a lifetime) of ministry, and,
hopefully, tons of God’s grace. I need
it.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle Scobie
Thursday, September
7th
Today is my birthday! Still the youngest person on my team (I guess
you can’t pass anybody).
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday,
September 6th
So I guess it’s been a week
since I’ve written anything. That either
means life is busy, or that I’m a procrastinator, probably both. In any case, life is still very exciting, and
this could be a long posting. Earlier
this week we had the infamous “Solitude” which is pretty much a 21.75 hour
period of silence with no human interaction, no music, no cell phones (no
reception to begin with), no computers, nothing at all. It started at seven p.m. Sunday night and
went into Monday afternoon. I tried to
sleep out in the woods, but I failed to realize prior to setting up my little
camp that strange noises sound even more strange at night, especially in the
middle of the woods. Not to mention the
fact that a hunting season open recently in Minnesota, and certain gunshot
noises make being in the woods an uneasy experience (it turned out to be
fireworks, which, while pretty, kept me from feeling safe). Needless to say, I packed up my camp and went
back to camp. I still slept outside,
just not in the woods. Another thing
about sleeping outside in northern Minnesota is that, while the day can be very
warm and nice, once the sun goes down, it gets cold. So at five a.m. when I awoke kinda chilly, I wasn’t going back to bed. So I got up, ate breakfast, watched the
sunrise, watched the fog roll over the lake, and went for a two hour kayak ride
on the lake (see pictures, hopefully soon).
I also went for a hike in the woods (yes, the very woods I left the
previous night for reasons relating to the nervous system). Monday afternoon I spent in a canoe. I definitely took a nap in the canoe in the middle
of the lake and got some sun on my face, but it was a good rest. Overall, the solitude time was well worth the
rejuvenation, but it was weird to ignore people all day. Sometimes you don’t realize the personal
importance of things until they’re not there.
You also realize what things you don’t miss when you get them back, like
sessions where people talk for an hour or two about paperwork that needs to be
done while on the road.
Yesterday we voted on and
received our team jobs. Each team has
about twelve positions or so that need to be filled like team leader,
treasurer, ministries liaison, program coordinator, etc. Most of the jobs just mean you are in charge
of seeing things in those areas get completed through delegation of certain
tasks or facilitating discussion about things, which is good because when you
have less people on your team, each person gets more jobs. I have three jobs on team apart from the
ministry aspect of things. Least
stressful would have to be Technology Manager.
Basically with that I am in charge of the team laptop and
projector. That means that I pretty much
have it in my sight at all times or else I die (no stress). Next on the list is Vehicle Manager. I keep track of gas, mileage, maintenance,
and all things van and trailer related.
I have a monthly report I have to fill out, which determines whether I
get my monthly stipend. My biggest job
on team in the Program and Culture Coordinator.
Pretty much whenever you see a program or something, I make sure we have
something to do for it. I facilitate the
discussion on what songs, skits, and puppet shows we do, as well as rehearsal
schedules. On the culture end of things,
I lead the way in preparing our team for overseas travel. I have to make sure we set aside time in the
schedule for learning things about Papua New Guinea, especially language stuff,
but also cultural and religious traditions.
This is probably my most stressful job, so I am looking forward to
delegating some of the tasks and the stress as well.
Today, like ever other day,
we ate a lot (it seems like we’re always eating, which isn’t bad because the
food is almost as good as my mom’s). We
also had a bunch of two-hour sessions about our jobs, where we learned all
about the stress we would learn to deal with as we realized the full description
of each job. Then we shared with our
teammates the amount extra stuff each job implied (who knew sending five or
more twentysomethings out on the road for a year
would have to be so organized). It’s all
good though, we’re all fairly excited about it.
I also meant to officially say that our member, Josh Tomac,
arrived Sunday evening, and we are all glad of his arrival, especially me
because now I have a male teammate! He’s
a Youth Encounter alum, so his experience should better our team greatly.
We’ve been preparing for
Rally Day, where we have our first real booking. This Sunday, the 10th, we’ll do
some special music at a nearby church and a puppet show, we’ll also stay in
host homes the night before, so pray that we’re ready. Stress and excitement sometimes just have to
go hand in hand.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Wednesday, August
30th
I got up at 6:30 this
morning, and it was my day off! Most of
you guys will be surprised by that, but it’s true. I set my alarm for 6:30 so I could be up
before loud people started being loud. I
like it to be fairly quiet in the morning; my ears wake up even slower than I
do. So I got up early, went for a walk,
sat on the dock and read, and then had breakfast with other quiet people. Then I gathered all my dirty laundry for our
day off. Day off means clean laundry,
which means, “Yay for clean clothes!”
So a vanload of people went
to one of the nearby towns called Walker, where we did laundry, and ate
lunch. Dairy Queen not only has amazing
Oreo Blizzards, they have amazing super chili cheese dogs as well, of which I
had two. Camp food is great, but a
little DQ heaven can hit quite a spot.
The rest of the afternoon I spent hanging out and playing games and
music with people and by myself. It’s
nice to not have to play team music every day.
Tonight I helped lead a
worship service in the chapel, which was cool.
Afterwards however, I started to feel kinda
stuffed up and my throat started to hurt, so hopefully I’m not getting sick and
I can just sleep it off (no more 6:30 I guess, oh no). Anyway, tomorrow we get back into the routine
again with sessions and rehearsals, so I’m hoping for good health; otherwise
the day could turn out to be pretty long.
Hoping to get some more
pictures up soon, I tried today, but no luck.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, August 27th
Waking up for the first time
at Luther Dell was quite the experience.
I’m not really a morning person, but that’s usually because I have
nothing that I particularly like getting up for. However, I haven’t felt a desire to sleep-in
since the day before I left. I wanted to
get up a little early this morning especially to go down by the lake and sit in
the peace and quiet. This plan worked
until the minute the minute that I sat down, which is when loud people begin to
exist, making the quiet not so much anymore.
I quickly decided my nice, tranquil morning was not meant to be, so I
just hung out in the noise until morning worship, and after that was breakfast.
We unloaded all the musical
instruments and sound equipment after breakfast, which was exciting because it
meant that we would actually begin playing music soon, which we did; after
lunch we had our first of three sectionals for whatever instrument we were
going to be playing (guitar for me, no kidding). We also had our second sectional today just
before dinner, so now we have a good grasp of the music and what we’re doing
with it.
One of the many benefits of
Luther Dell is the lake and the fact that there are a bunch of canoes to use at
our leisure. One of my teammates, Liz,
and I decided to go for a short ride along the shore to scope things out. It was cool to be out on the lake because
it’s always really calm. It’s a good way
to get to know someone because you’re kinda stuck
there with them (or in cases involving me, stuck there with me). Plenty more canoe trips in the next two weeks
for sure.
I’m also really looking
forward to when our fifth teammate Josh gets here. It seems to be a pretty definite thing now,
and apparently he’s an extrovert, so it will be good for our team because so
far we’re all introverts. It’ll be
interesting to see how he fits in at first because of what’s already been
established with our team, but we’re all ready to welcome him and make him a
part of New Dawn. Overall, we’re excited
to be blessed by his presence.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Saturday, August 26th
Today we endured the long van
ride up to Luther Dell, a camp up in northern Minnesota, outside of a little
town called Remer. The drive was cool,
each team had it’s own van and trailer to haul up to camp for some extra
practice, so it was nice to be able to drive some more. We also got some quality, unstructured team
time to chat and joke about stuff while we were riding. Once we got to camp, we got settled in and
ate the first of many amazing camp meals.
The area around camp is extremely awesome too, because there’s a nice
lake, woods all around, and plenty of activities to do. It feels pretty good to be away from city
lights and sounds, and to be able to look up on a clear night and see more
stars than I’ve ever seen, even in Blissfield.
Luther Dell is very much a unique and special place; perfect for growth,
relaxation, and solitude.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Friday, August 25th
Just got back from our first
team outing! Once a month we get a
specific time set aside for “team bonding” time. It was really cool to just hang out and not
have to be doing specific questions and activities. We pretty much had the evening to do anything
we wanted, so we went out to eat, and then we went to the Minnesota State Fair
that’s going on in town right now. It
was pretty huge, with tons of people everywhere, but we had some good times
(see photos), and good chats. We also
got to drive ourselves on our outings, so it was the first “we’re in a band”
moment, which was kinda cool, briefly. Also, this morning we did some team building
stuff where we had a bag of balloon and as a team we had to build a tower with
the balloons and some tape. Then we were
each given a slip of paper with a way to act when building the tower as a
group. My paper just said “slacker” so I
sat around and played with unused balloons.
It was fun. Then we talked about
different roles we take on in a group, and our attitudes about people with
certain negative traits (like “slacker”, they didn’t like me much for a little
bit). Good times, tons of fun, lot’s to
learn!
The past few days have been kinda interesting because of the uncertainty of the
Crossfire team. Because it is currently
just three girls, they can’t send them out as such a small team without any
guys (you just can’t send three college-age girls to Africa alone). There was a lot of talk about different
solutions like splitting up the girls among the other two acoustic
international teams. There was also talk
about splitting up my team (New Dawn)
and putting some of us (mainly me) on Crossfire so they could send them out
because then they wouldn’t have to cancel as many bookings (Crossfire is booked
solid through December, we’re still finalizing a lot of our tour). I am definitely really uneasy about the
situation, because then I wouldn’t be going to Papua New Guinea, and the
possibility of my very cool team being split up was not exciting at all (did I
mention that my team is really cool and mature, unlike many teams at
first). Now it turns out that there is
a guy named Josh who is still in the running for an international team. He just needs to sign his Letter of
Call! If he accepts, he would join New Dawn,
adding another male to our team (the ongoing joke is that I need another male
to tell my fart jokes to, which is partly true; stereotypes exist for a
reason. We even made up a guy named Brad
to be on our team for the time being, but we don’t get along). There are still a couple more guys in the
application process that hopefully get called and accept so the Crossfire team
can go out, so there’s a lot of hope.
Youth Encounter always needs good, Christian men. If you love God and play guitar or drums,
you’ve got a good road into the ministry.
Tomorrow we make the four
hour drive up to Camp Luther Dell for the remainder of training. That’ll be cool, because then we start to
play our instruments and learn songs and programming and all that good stuff. We’ve started some driver education with the
big vans and trailers, which will also continue at camp. That’s been interesting and kinda fun (the van I have no problem with, the trailer can
be a bit rough at times, so pray for that situation). Overall it’s been going pretty well, despite
the uncertainty of Crossfire and New Dawn.
Hopefully we’ll be settled as a team next week, and hopefully we’ll know
where we’re going (always nice to know, but never really necessary when God’s
in charge). I’m learning a lot,
unlearning a lot, and not sleeping enough.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Monday, August 21st
So I’m spoiling you guys with
another post already; don’t count on this every day, because I won’t have
enough access time to do more than check email after this week. Actually, the only reason I’m updating this
now is because there’s more that I know now about the way life will be for me
for the next few weeks.
Basically, my life for a
while will consist of me getting up early, sitting through many different
sessions covering many topics, eating food, learning about my teammates, and
going to bed late. We’re staying at host
churches now, but on Saturday, we go up to northern Minnesota to Luther Dell, a
church camp where we’ll really dive headfirst into this music ministry stuff.
We also found out today that,
pending some last minute applications from a couple of guys who are considering
being on team this year, I could have another guy on my team, or another guy
and another girl, or a couple of girls, or nobody new at all. We’re hoping for the two guys to both come on
a team, so we’ll wait and see.
There are many more days of
learning and growing ahead of me, and many more days of adjustment. Still sleepy, hungry, and anxious, only more
so.
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle
Sunday, August 20th
I have arrived in
Minneapolis, sleepy, hungry, and anxious.
Still unsure about what’s going on, but I know it will be fun and filled
with opportunities for learning and growth.
Still getting settled in, but I’ve quickly learned the unofficial Youth
Encounter motto is “Hurry up and wait!”
So I don’t expect to have all my questions answered about what I’m
supposed to do.
I have met my teammates that
I’ll be touring with for the year. It
looks like it’s gonna be me and three girls, Emily,
Tara, and Liz, all older than me, so it should be interesting. Yay for more
sisters! Actually they seem really cool
and pumped about team, so I’m not worried about it.
Like I said, it’s a year of
adjustment and learning. I’m ready for
it all!
Life is good, God is great!
-Kyle