All of our students are here! The school has begun! I love it!
-To try and simplify the explanation of "Arrival Day" - "Registration Day" - "Welcome Ceremony" - and much more I am going to post pictures and walk you thru our busy weekend!-
Last Thursday was arrival day, and over 500 students flew onto the Big Island!
We had huge buses picking them up from the airport thru out the entire day!
There are multiple schools going on simultaneously, so they designate one day for everyone to fly in!
Once the students arrived they were escorted to Ohana Court for registration
Basically find your school and fill out paper work while being extremely jet lagged :)
So, Thursday from 8 am til after 10 pm we chilled in Ohana Court and welcomed many, many students. It was so amazing to see all the different cultures and nations flowing in and out all day, so lovely!
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The following morning we met bright and early to begin the Welcome Ceremony!
(This is my friend Stephanie - We did our DTS together last fall and are now staffing YWAM Ships together!)
Students fill in the center of our flag area and are welcomed by native Hawaiian's who say a blessing, blow their conch shell's and we then proceed to follow them around campus to Ohana Court.
YWAM appreciates all nations; to honor them they have a flag constantly flying from any nation representing a student or staff member on base.
It's beautiful when you're down at the beach and can look up and see all of these flags from town.
We currently have 48 flags being flown.
Like I said.. we then proceed to Ohana Court..
Once we were in Ohana Court we were welcomed by our pre-school children of the base!
They were lined across the stage and greeted us with a song :)
During this time each school was called forward to present their Welcome Gift.
All students were asked to bring a gift from their homeland to give to the natives as a thank you for allowing us to be on their land.
After a few speakers, everyone was dismissed into groups of about one-hundred to go to 5 different stations set up to give them an overview of campus and what is to be expected.
The first stop was Banyan Tree Cafe!
This is our cafe located on base - Very legit.
After this we proceeded to the Prayer Room.
Name obviously entails the purpose of this room, it is also a place for worship. (Music)
We then were led to an outside classroom to be debriefed a tad bit more!
Almost done! We then went to the Theater! Yes, there is a small theater located on this base!
Kona is a pioneering base for many, many areas - one specifically being the sphere of entertainment. The theater was built specifically to champion the creative community on the Kona Campus!
Media Advocacy nights are held here to allow students to watch videos on Social Justice and many other issues and allow group discussion afterward!
Also, modern day films are watched with discussion held afterwards to discuss the way mainstream movies are shaping culture, to show Biblical views and ideas! I love it!
Back to Welcoming Ceremony... :)
We then returned to Ohana court for a few more guidelines!
Into the evening we had a Luau (hog roast!), enjoyed conversation and great grub!
After dinner we returned to Ohana Court for one last ceremony!
(Hang with me, I'm almost done!)
This was the most beautiful part of the day.
We got to experience dances from all the different continents of the world! It's so amazing to see how different everyone truly is - I don't feel like you can embrace the differences until they are right in front of your face.
We were opened with beautiful Hawaiian traditions - Music, dance and hula!
These young girls performed a beautiful Hawaiian dance
Native Hula dancers
After the Hawaiian traditions, the next number was from New Zealand; representing the Pacific Islands
Next dance represented the Pacific Islands as well
A touch of South America!
Taste of Asia!
A bit of Africa!
We also had a beautiful Mexican dance.
Somehow I'm missing Europe.. so my regards on that.
North America was represented by.. none other than the popular Christina Aguilera, one of her many songs. I missed that photo op.
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After all these amazing dances, one by one flags were carried in by individuals of each nation currently residing on the Kona campus for this quarter!
We were then led in to corporate worship, which was amazing and beautiful!
What I love about YWAM is seeing how differently everyone worships! American's are so stiff! African's love to move! Islander's are loud and unashamed!
It's such a blessing to be in such diversity daily!
"Thank you Jesus"
"Gracias Jesus"
"All the nations, they will come
Holding broken chains above their heads
Singing 'We have overcome
by the blood of the Lamb' "
Amen.
Our night was then finished up by none other than Mr. Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM)
Hearing the history of YWAM and U of N (University of the Nations) is full of miracles and blessing stories!
I will tell you more about that another day :)
Thank you for taking the time to read all this, truly, that was a lot!
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