Time for another update, one of these days we will be better at doing these more often. Hailee and DiRon just got back from Hilo, checking out the area for our move with Big Island Faith Communities. As an early anniversary present, we stayed one night on the more touristy Kona side of the island. Unfortuantely, Hailee came down with a 24 hour flu bug and spent most of our time in Kona sleeping and recovering. Then on our second day, Stephanie Nobles picked us up and took us along the scenic route to Hilo. It is really amazing how much diversity there is on this one island in the middle of a huge ocean. Kona is dry and littered with huge piles of volcanic rock once you get past the beaches, heading up to the 3 mountains on the island (one even gets snow sometimes, yes, snow in Hawaii). Heading northeast, we climbed up to Waimea, near some of the largest cattle ranches in the United States, home of the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboys). Next, we headed down to the rain forest area and waterfalls Hilo, filled with so much greenery it reminded us of Washington, just 15-20 degrees warmer.
Since we knew God was calling us to Hilo, we wondered if visiting was important; going back and forth on whether or not we should spend the money to visit. Finally arriving in Hilo, we knew that coming was a good idea. Hearing about a place, you often get a mental picture of the place and what things are like. We were way off in our mental picture of the place, wondering if this is really what God had called us to. Hilo is not typical Hawaii; smaller, rocky coastline rather than sandy beaches, beautiful greenery surrounding the buildings pounded with torrential rains that keep the place green. There is also the high cost of island living without the much of the tourism dollars that many places receive. After a couple days of meeting the wonderful people in Hilo our heart for the area grew. God is doing so many wonderful things there and we got to take part in, like Friday prayer and worship at the Nobles, dropping off Gabe and Emma at the Tin Roof Bakery for youth group then Sunday worship at Volcano Assembly of God. We also spent some time scouting the area with Wilson Pla, another Hilo resident with a heart for church planting.
The trip had several fun highlights as well, visiting Volcano National Park, the lava tubes, Richardson Beach, Rainbow Falls, Hilo farmer's market and several other parks. Also amazing was standing on a 30 year old beach, lava flow that took out houses and a famous black sand beach. Now it is filled with jagged piles of lava looking like a moonscape, yet, amazingly, life is springing up all over this rockpile. It is great watching God at work in ways that are hard to believe.
Standing at the edge of a whole lot of water
Hilo beach break
Another pile of lava rock
Another amazing tree
Crater at Volcano National Park
Entering the lava tubes
The new beach
Life springing out of destruction
Hanging out on the 30 year old beach
Rainbow Falls
Typical architecture, off the ground for ventilation, flood and pest control
Downtown Hilo
Hawaiian Flag
Look at the size of that avacado
We want to thanks the Nobles for their great hospitality (especially Emma, for giving up her room), Wilson and Cindy Pla for all their time and help, Rendell Bourg for flying in to meet us and Robert for showing us around National Fire Protection's Hilo office.
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