Just things...

1. Praise the Lord! I ordered the right hot dogs! And I gave in and had one while we were at the beach...ah yes, i DO like hot dogs and the fact that they're green before they are died the color they are doesn't really affect me anymore...still delicious with a bit of mustard.

2. When you do a BBQ at the beach, remember to take the buns and dogs out of the ice chest to thaw out before you BBQ...i'm realizing i'm really not good at these BBQ's! How many have i done for a high school event and still forget something or mess it up somehow!?

3. You have to cherish small things...we went to Whole Foods on Saturday- WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN THERE YET?! and they had soy yogurt- of which i bought the biggest tub! I was so excited! Today for lunch i had vanilla yogurt with apples, blueberries and honey- almost like the amazing greek yogurt Brooke and I fell in love with in Santorini. Thank you lORD...i love little moments like that.

4. I love bike rides! I am so thankful for my beach cruiser and that i can cruise Kihei without a car...i've always wanted to live somewhere where i didn't need a car. Now I would just like a cute little basket in the front and some fake pink gerbadaisies.

5. I'm reading "The Air I Breathe" by Louie Giglio and I can't put it down! It's all about worship and how WORTHY our Savior is...i feel like i could read a chapter a day for the rest of my life.

6. On my Fall To Do list: go to the pumpkin patch- check; drink as many pumpkin spice lattes as possible- check; carve pumpkins- check; chili and cornbread- check; make carmel covered granny smith apples with the girls- TBA!

7. I miss my parents and home...fall seems so inticing and how i would love to be cuddled up in a blanket on my couch with my papa watching the UW game and to sit and sip coffee with my mama and have a heart to heart.

8. Green sea turtles can live up to 80-100 yrs. old! They're green because of all the algae they eat; the boys have bigger tails; their shells weigh 1/4 of their weight, of which they can reach up to 500 lbs! I sure wish I could swim with one :)

9. I have been dreaming of going back to Greece and Israel while I've been reading through Acts...perhaps one day....sigh. I would love to go there for awhile and learn as much as possible and write bible studies there- i would love to be in Israel during Passover and do a real Sader.

10. Dreams...it's never too late to dream- nothing is impossible with the Lord!

11. My plane ticket for Christmas is bought! Thanks mama- you're the best!

12. Tears streamed down my cheeks this Sunday as our Men of Integrity led worship- seeing the men raise their hands in worship for our King was so beautiful- and the little old Phillipino man who played clarinet won my heart.

13. Purpose of prayer: intimacy with our Lord & causes us to have a childlike faith- full dependence upon Him.

hot dogs

Today on my "to do" list was to do the Costco Order for our hillbilly hoe down extravaganza! The Costco order is my LEAST favorite thing i do as an intern- it takes forever, i can never find what I need and I always mess up the order somehow! Well i had to order hot dogs today- cuz those are real jank for our hillbilly night ;) (No offense to those who enjoy hot dogs- which i found out the other day are originally GREEN before they die them!) Anyways, I always order the wrong hot dogs, so I finally just called Costco and asked the lady-

me: "Hi, my name is Alyssa and I'm calling from Hope Chapel and placing an order. I need hot dogs but I'm not sure which ones to get. I don't want big ones...and i don't want little wieners"

silence

we both start cracking up!

Costco lady: "Oh man, i don't know! i'm in the same boat as you! Hot dogs...so confusing! Let me send you over to someone who knows"

then proceeded me explaining my predicament all over again.

Oh man, yes this is my job...looking up hot dogs, deciding how much 5lbs. of meat is... i never knew there were so many varieties of hot dogs!

Peculiar Treasures

On Thursday I was in the office around lunch time, and somehow I was the only one there. Three people walked into the office, so i asked if they needed help and they asked for our Pastor. I went back to get him, all the while thinking the woman looked familiar, but I'm sure she's just a lady from our church. Then when we came back out it hit me! It was Robin Jones Gunn! She is my favorite Christian author and wrote the Christy Miller Series, which I read when I was turning 15 yrs. old. The Lord used her books to really draw me close to Himself- it was through those books that i realized that christianity is a relationship with God- I saw what it looked like to live out a life in love with Jesus and how to walk in His ways. I LOVE those books and recommend them to all my high school girls to read.

I could only dream in my wildest dreams of meeting Robin- and sure enough I did! I told her my story and she began to cry. She explained to me how her husband use to be a youth pastor and she was working with the junior high girls. The girls were reading all of these erotic romantic fictions, but she didn't have any books to recommend to them so she began to write the Christy Miller Series. She would wake up at 3am 3 days a week, since there kids were still really young then. And then she would read a chapter a week to her girls and they would tell her what they liked and what needed to change. It took (i forget) 2-4 yrs. to write and 12 publishers until it finally got published. Her verse that she had up in her kitchen window at the time was Psalm 102:18,

"Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD"

Robin: "Alyssa when were you born?"

me: "1987"

Robin: "they were published in 1988!"

Doesn't that just give you goosebumps! The Lord is so faithful to His words- I came to praise the Lord- i was that generation- and tons of other girls my age.

What a blessing it was to meet her! She was so down to earth and sweet. It was almost as if the Lord was telling me, "Alyssa, keep dreaming big. Truly, those who delight in Me, I will fulfill their desires" Anything is possible with the Lord- may your will be done Papa!

Hello Fall!

This past Saturday I worked in the bookstore and then we celebrated fall! (see, here in maui- since we don't really have seasons, you just have to create them :) Just soakn' it up!) Oh my goodness- I LOVE FALL! I think it's my favorite season (well, no, summer is...then fall) Anyways, since my lovely roomates waited for me to get off work, we couldn't make it to the pumpkin patch upcountry, so of course we did the next best thing...walmart! haha ah yes. We drove into town and picked out our beloved pumpkins, as well as apple cider and candy corn. (You HAVE to have candy corn! I love it because it reminds me of my mama- we never had candy growing up, but we always had candy corn during October and jelly beans during Easter)

We had a bunch of people over- two new girls (yay! praise the Lord! I love seeing the Lord bring new people to Maui and being able to welcome them and love on them.) and carved our pumpkins, baked the seeds, ate pumpkin pie, and just hung out. Haha- carving the pumpkins was amazing! Risa did "808" for Maui- the area code. "808 all day" Lisa carved an adorable girl face with eyelashes, and a heart in the back. Jena and Dave carved a funky pumpkin with geometric shapes! I love them! They were just going at it- and Jeff and I carved a sea turtle, or "honu" in hawaiian.

I'm so thankful for my friends here in Maui- i love the emphasis on community and family, or "ohana" here. Man, and i just can't praise the Lord enough for the body of Christ. What a BLESSING to be apart of the body- to grow, learn, encourage, pray for, speak truth and walk life together in Christ. Thank you Jesus. He is so gracious and faithful.




Also, for those on the mainland- please wrap yourself up in a blanket, put on a football game, and eat chili and cornbread for me! (and go for a brisk walk through fall leaves)

does anyone know how to shrink the header photo!? i love this photo- but it's way too big!

I was looking through my photos from my time at Master's trying to find a photo- well, really just my photos from Greece. I miss that time! I love now- and the season God has me in. But I so treasure my time that I had at Master's- the teaching, discipleship- being surrounded by people who genuinely LOVE and cherish our Papa. The Lord blessed friends into my life there that i will have for my lifetime- ones that truly sharpen me. I'm so thankful for that season of my life. It's melancholy to think it's over...oh how fast time goes by.

sigh...

I'm realizing more and more through reading through Luke about prayer- pouring our heart out to Him and giving him my requests and petitions. Ezra 8:22 says,

"The hand of our God is for good on all who seek Him..." God loves for us to seek Him! That amazes me! And over and over in the old testament and new, it talks about how God hears our prayers and answers- I keep thinking about that today- He wants me to run to Him and tell Him my heart and ask Him for what's on my heart- He will answer in HIS perfect way! Sometimes, I'm realizing, I don't want to ask because I'm afraid of what the answer will be! But why? He is good and is good to those who seek Him. And although the answer isn't always what I want, or the easiest, it's always always always BEST and GOOD.

I almost wish I were 90yrs. old- on my front porch, in my rocking chair, crocheting blankies for my grand babies- so I could be that much closer to the Lord- so intimate with Him- and so wise! I wonder what it was like to be Solomon- being the wisest man in the world and through all the ages- I'm thankful though that i can run to the Lord and seek His wisdom. I was reminded today that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge- "just keep seeking His face Alyssa, and He will give you the wisdom you need"

There's a lot I need wisdom for right now- He is faithful to give it. May my heart be open and soft to receive it!

the first weekend in oct.

Lisa and Alex- on our walk to the coffee shop

YAYA!

Sissy and i at the Fair

Gettin' down to oldies music!

Sorry i haven't written in a bit- this past week was CR-A-ZY with the maui county fair! This was the second year our church was able to have a booth at the fair to raise money for tweens and high school winter camp. We sold Baja tacos :) I think we did pretty well as far as raising money goes- there was one guy there who was selling marshmellow guns and he made $18,000!!! That's the ticket- the simplest thing is what does best. haha I was telling my mama this and she said "man, i would buy that!"

I wish I had the right words to describe the maui county fair- it's magical really! Everyone on the island comes out. If you want a real taste of Maui life- just come to the fair :) There are funnel cakes, malasadas (so yummy- fried dough with sugar), poi mochi (fried- tastes like bubble gum!), chow fun (noodles), lau lau (pork wrapped in tea leaves), & frosty pog (pog juice blended with sherbert- so yummy!). The kids LOVE the rides and the petty zoo (5 animals :) All the high schoolers submit their artwork- that's my favorite part! Also, the outhouses are really pretty nice- whoever put the set up together was a genius, separating men and women outhouses! Great idea- must have been a girl in charge of that one;)

Serving in the taco booth was so fun this year! On Sunday Brandon and I were in the kitchen preparing food at 7:30am (and didn't get home til 1:30am- it's a looooonnnnngggg day!) and found out that our chef wasn't coming til later that night! On the way to the fair, I just prayed and asked the Lord to amaze us with workers and help- that He is the mighty God and if Gideon can win the war with only 300 men- God can certainly provide us with the strength and help we need! And HE TOTALLY DID! Two people came to the early shift, not realizing they had signed up for a later shift. And the kids just stayed the whole day, helping out and serving with such servant's hearts. Two of the parents came down to drop some food off, and then ended up cooking the whole day- what blessings! I was amazed at God's work, and at the body of Christ.

Here's some photos of our time- and some of our surf trip to the westside on monday!