In 2007, I was on my second journey around the world and we (10 South Africans and 3 Americans) ended up in HAWAII for Christmas and New Years. It was the longest journey of my life, but oh…so worth it.
We started the journey in India on Christmas Eve with an epic dance party. We flew out of freezing New Delhi to Japan. Hello…remote control toilets. You have no idea how exciting that is after using a squatty potty for a few weeks. I ate sushi…of course and took a quick nap. Christmas Eve in Japan wasn’t super exciting. We had hoped to go into the city, but it was so expensive. We switched our flight to fly to Hawaii that day. So, we boarded our next really long flight to Hawaii. We were given a lei upon arrival at the airport and a driver took us to our campground. Believe it or not…it was Christmas Eve in Hawaii. We set up camp, took a nap and then went to a church service that night. Karlien and I went from tent to tent singing Christmas carols to everyone. It was so fun!!
Hawaii…one of the places I longed to go to the most in the world. I was there. I was sitting in a small church on Christmas Eve. The journey there was tiring, but man…I was there!!
We found out pretty quickly that we were there during the rainy season. Shoot…I am from Florida…a little rain isn’t going to ruin my day. A lovely lady named Janine (that we met at church the night before) picked us up and took us to watch the sunrise and we did all the touristy things you can do in O’ahu (in a day), which was great because we soon found out that we were going to be participating in a Luke 10 Journey.
Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.
-Luke 10:4-12
We were divided into teams and not allowed to take any of our belongings. I was glad to leave that heavy bag at the rainy campsite. I had NO CLUE what to expect. We set off walking in the direction of the town…for obvious reasons. On our way, it started raining. A man (Sal) in a big van stopped to see if we needed a ride. Why not? The four of us girls jumped in the van. It was totally safe, mom. Long story short…he took us to his nice house and introduced us to his roommates who we ended up staying with for the next 4 days. They were so kind to us.
We were all back together at our campground for New Year’s Eve. We decided it needed to be epic, so I rented a car and made a few round trips to get everyone to Waikiki Beach. We had no clue where the fireworks would be, so we picked a random spot. BEST SPOT ON THE BEACH. The fireworks were right in front of us!! We had so much fun. I had to do the same round trips to get everyone back to the campground. Driving through Hawaii was definitely not the worst way to start 2008!!