Hangin' Loose

Jeff here.

Aloha! I’m posting from the airport in Maui where we are about to take a little (and I mean LITTLE) airplane from Maui to our next destination, the Big Island of Hawaii. This past week started out as a whirlwind, getting back from Southern Africa around 3 on Friday, spending Friday night, Saturday and Sunday unpacking, doing laundry, taking the girls to see friends, buying a suitcase full of sunscreen, and heading back to our summer home (aka the airport) on early Monday morning. It felt good to be home but also a little surreal. On one hand, it felt like we’d been gone for a long time. On the other, it felt like we had never left. We are very thankful for our family and friends who welcomed us home, were excited to hear about our journeys, and even mowed our lawn!

Mostly what it felt like to be home was an inner quiet. Both Kristi and I commented on how weird it would be to come back from a life-changing adventure and be forced to dive back into normal life. I realized that is completely pretentious to say—99% of the time that is how life always works. But both of us remarked at how nice it would be to have some space to process, not just individually but as a family. We were also excited to have some space to rest, because while our travels for the previous month were thrilling, eye-opening, and fun beyond belief, they were also a tad-bit stressful, worrying about people’s health, general safety, driving on the other side of the road (it always seems to come back to that)…Needless to say, we were in need of some serious chill time.

And Maui proved to be the correct prescription. This past week, we’ve been in Kihei staying at the condo of one of the Hoff’s (Kristi’s family) life-long friends, Pam Thorstensen. Only Kristi had been to Maui before (back in college=a LONG time ago) and we were all excited to live the Aloha, try some fun things, get a little tan, and do some processing. Since I am posting this at the end of our time here, I won’t go in to minute by minute detail, but I will hit some of the highlights and big memories…

1)      Eating at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Yep, Jimmy Buffet is alive and well.

2)      Going on a snorkel trip. The second day we signed up for a snorkel trip (subsidized courtesy of Wyndam resorts. Imagine that, you only have to submit to 2 hours of guilt-laden sales tactics to score a great deal. We are still not sure if it was worth it). Violet in particular was not excited about this. She was scared and decided that she would stay on the boat. But never fear!—to prepare we bought a cheap snorkel set at the store and Clara set to train her in the pool at the condo. After a few days, she got really good, and by the time we hit the boat, she was more than ready. When we took to the water, Violet performed like a young Jacques Cousteau, even following the naturalist around on a mini tour, asking questions, pointing out fish, and was the last one of us in the water. This will not be her last snorkel trip, I would guess. On the boat, we also saw another cool sight—a huge pod of spinner dolphins (over 100 estimated) riding the waves, jumping, spinning and putting on quite a show. It was so cool to have a front row seat. It was definitely a highlight.

3)      Riding the Waves. The other excursion we took while on Maui was signing up for surf and paddle board lessons. Kristi has always wanted to paddle board and while I was indifferent at the time, I decided to go with her one morning close to our condo. After getting a three minute lesson (how to stand, how to get up, how to get up again after falling), we hit the ocean and started paddling. Kristi of course was a natural—not falling but once right when we started. I on the other hand was a natural at falling and getting back up again (the chumbawumba song was playing through my head). But it was so much fun! The water was warm, the surroundings were beautiful, and all the while there were a huge pack of sea turtles swimming all around us. One literally came up and swam directly under my board. Besides a walk or two, this was the first thing Kristi and I had done for fun together by ourselves for a long time, and it was so much fun.

 

Afterwards, we went and picked up the girls for a surf lesson. Lucy, Clara and Dayle (Violet stayed on shore and cheered them on) hung ten, or at least eight, and did an incredible job. They really got the hang of it and started surfing that that girl from Soul Surfer (without the shark). It was fun to see them try another something new (another emerging theme from our trip) and have a great time doing it together.

4)The beach. We have loved hanging out on the beach in Kihei. We mastered the art of boogie boarding, making sand castles, reading, and getting slight sunburns. We even watched our fair share of awesome sunsets with our toes in the water. We even watched one with our own Amber Slate, who was here with her small group on a trip before heading off to Princeton Seminary. We will carry a lot of wonderful memories from this beach.

We also will bring with us one sad and scary memory—we saw a man die in the surf. A few hundred yards away was a rock outcropping that many kids and adults were climbing on, fishing on and diving off. Sunday afternoon, we all of the sudden saw a lifeguard running by us on the beach and a wave runner speeding towards the rocks. We looked and saw a man laying on the rocks and someone giving him cpr frantically. It turns out he was an older man who was out there fishing (possibly a little drunk) and apparently collapsed in the water and wasn’t pulled out in time. It was so scary to watch something so out of control—all we could do was pray. It spurned some good conversations though afterwards, not just about water safety but about life and death and God’s presence even in the midst of pain. People even die and suffer in Maui—hard to believe but it is true.

 5)Church. On Sunday I had the chance to go to a little church on the island (the name escapes me). It was started in 1860, and was the cutest little stone church. They had a visiting pastor that day from ironically enough South Africa, who had taken part in the anti-Apartheid movement, was imprisoned and continued to work for justice and peace in his homeland. loved it.

 6)2048. That’s right, last night I mastered the game 2048, finally getting to the 2048 square. I realize that for many, that is chump change, but for me a big accomplishment. J

Today we are heading for the next to our next to last destination in this incredible summer-the Big Island. We are having a great time and loving every minute. Aloha!