Chapter 43 - Crossroads in Kona

Our three-month training with Youth with a Mission is an adventure in adaptation. These twelve weeks in Kona, Hawaii are focused on character building, and will be followed by a two-month field assignment in Asia. Nick and Jared continue their schooling with other kids at the base.

In January of 1986, YWAM is concluding a year of celebration marking its 25th anniversary. Loren and Darlene Cunningham had pioneered the mission in 1961, launching young people into short-and long-term ministries around the world. The base at Kona is set on a hill, with a grand view of the blue ocean below. The old motel framed by palm trees has been renovated, and now new buildings surround it.

Our family registers and settles into an upstairs room with a loft, right next to Peter and Donna Jordan our school leaders. There are 83 adults in our class, ranging in age from early 30’s to mid70’s. Many like us are preparing for mission work, while others want more discipleship. Some pastors come for needed refreshment.

The first day we are welcomed with leis of fragrant flowers, sit in a large circle in our classroom, an open sided pavilion. We slowly get to know one another as tall white haired Peter Jordan questions us:

“Where were you living when you were twelve years old?”

“How was your house heated then?”

“Describe a time in your life when you felt close to God, warmed by his Spirit.”

Each question takes time for people to answer—especially the last one.

We eat our lunch and dinner in the same pavilion and are assigned work duties. Mine is to sweep the classroom area of leaves every afternoon, set plates on the tables for dinner. Larry’s is in maintenance and carpentry.

Each week a seasoned leader teaches us scriptural principles, and we have small groups where we can discuss and pray together. There are books to read…a journal to keep. Often after supper we and the kids jog down the hill to the town of Kailua, sit on a stone wall, and watch the sun sink into the sea. The last beams of sunlight flash a brilliant green—after which we have ice cream, then trudge up the hill for homework and devotions.

I am amazed at Paul Hawkins’ stories of planting a base in Denmark—how he hears the voice of God each day, the Lord provides students for the first school, and each concrete need is met. Derek Price teaches and shares experiences of his life in Israel…Dean Sherman exhorts on spiritual warfare. We are challenged to pray specifically, live holy lives, to bind and resist the enemy in Jesus’ name. Danny Lehmann is teaching on evangelism around the ninth week when I come to the edge, the end of my horizon in vision.

“Larry, let’s pray and ask God what’s next for our family.” We are sitting on our bed in the hotel room. “I’ve been asking and waiting, and now I need to know how to move forward further. Are we supposed to go on outreach with this school to Asia? What does the Lord have next?”

“Sure,” Larry answers. “When we need direction and faith, God will meet us.”

So we pray, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the next step….“And we bind the enemy from speaking,” I add, “and die to what we want individually. We just want to hear from you, Lord.”

After waiting several minutes, I got the word, “evangelism,” and tell Larry.

“Well,” he answers, “I didn’t get anything. But Danny Lehmann is teaching on that subject this week, and he heads up the Honolulu base where they have a School of Evangelism. Let’s talk to him.”

Danny is a blond, muscular guy, a surfer. A former drug addict, he is now a family man who witnesses, preaches, and trains others to do the same. “We’d love to have your family attend our school,” he responds. “It starts in April, and after three months the outreach involves planting a long-term base in Asia.”

“That sounds great,” Larry exclaims.

“I’ll have the school leaders send you applications.”

---

We give warm goodbyes to the staff and students after our graduation love feast. Most are heading to Asia for the two-month outreach. We’ll eventually have our outreach with the School of Evangelism, planting a new base.

Tom Davidson meets us at the Honolulu airport in a van. Dark haired, from Minnesota like us, he is staffing the SOE. “There’s 16 young people in this school—you’re the only family,” he informs us as we drive. “It’s going to be an exciting training!”

The Honolulu base is a former World War II army post set back in Manoah Valley’s verdant hills. It indeed looks like a mission station with a number of Quonset huts and renovated buildings among palms and flowering trees. We are assigned two bedrooms and a bath at one end of a Quonset—there are about ten girls assigned to the other end. Our classroom and dining hall is the Tin Cathedral, a large open-sided building where doves coo among the surrounding trees.

The orientation proves that this is indeed a school for young people. “What is your favorite ice cream?” Dan Eastep the leader queries, as an ice breaker. And later, “What toothpaste do you use?” After much laughter we merge into more substantive discussions.

The teachings are informative, dynamic. A theological basis for missions, some church history, principles of evangelism, church planting, cross-cultural adaptation. And we are able to apply what is taught in evangelism outreach into the community. Three times a week we’re dropped off to share our faith in downtown Honolulu, the university campus, the beaches, and some nights in the red light district. We take Nick and Jared in the evenings, and I am amazed to hear fourteen-year-old Nick witnessing to prostitutes on street corners. Saturdays when we take the bus to the mall Nick shares his faith with whoever sits next to him.

“This school is affecting our whole family,” I comment to Larry. “We’re changing. I’ve never been so bold in sharing the gospel before.”

“It’s true,” Larry answers. “Now we just need to keep praying more finances in. We have the school mostly paid for, but we need money for outreach. And the $750 a month we’ve raised efore leaving may not be enough to live on in Penang, Malaysia, where they’re sending us.”

Every Friday during the school there is an evening meeting at the Tim Cathedral, open to members of the community. We begin to invite classmates and visitors to our room afterwards, and get to know Taylor Perez, captain of a cable ship moored in the harbor. He is vitally interested in missions. After visiting his ship one Saturday we eat out, discussing life and callings.

As the time for outreach comes closer, my stress over finances increases. “How are we going to pay for tickets and live in Malaysia,” I wonder to Larry. “The kids’ tuition alone at Dalat School will be about $500 a month!”

“I don’t know…but we can stay as long as the money lasts. Everyone will have round trip tickets—so we can just fly home if we need to.”

Two things happen in answer to our desperate prayers. Nick comes in with the mail one afternoon, and there is a refund check from the IRS of $2,500. “See, God has a plan.” Larry laughingly tells me. “The tax return came in good time!”

We hug each other in joy and thank God as a family that night. “Thank you, Jesus,” Jared prays, “that you take care of us. We are your children.”

The second answer is even more breathtaking, and it comes through our new friend Taylor. We are sitting in the last service before outreach, when Taylor writes a note and hands it to Larry.

“I read his note and think he is pledging $100 a month to us,” Larry tells me later. “But then I look more closely, and it is for $1,000 a month! When I question him, Taylor is adamant. He says the Lord told him to pledge this amount.”

“Amazing,” I breathe. “Now we’ll have $1,750 a month to live on in Malaysia. That’s about what a family of four would need. But $1,000 is a huge amount monthly for one single guy to give. I’m calling Mom and Dad tonight to tell them this answer to prayer. They’ve been interceding a lot for us…they’ll be so excited!