Auction Season

It has been a busy couple months for us, getting ready for our move to Hawaii and joining Big Island Faith Communities.  Our summer focus has been fundraising, mostly through a dessert auctionin May  and a full auction in June.  God worked in so many amazing ways, not just with fundraising, but through building new relationships, blessing other people and just having a great time.  It was a lot of hard work, but we saw what can happen when we put our trust in Him.

First was the Celebration Center Lunch & Dessert Auction for us and Matt Duffy in May.  After the second service, we had and Hawaiian plate lunch and the dessert auction.  The lunch, was Chicken long rice or Kahlua pork with Macaroni Salad and rice.  The food was great, then the real fun began with the auction.  Thanks to Pastor Chris Hansler and his daughter, Annie. for creating a fun environment and to so many people who created desserts to be auctioned off.  The highlight of the event was Tom and Ramona Phillips bidding against each other for the fruit pie that was going to their home either way.   We owe so much to Lorenzo and Cathy Chavez, Leah Hafterson and Matt & Robin Duffy.  The whole day was great, got us closer to Hawaii and enabled Matt to leave for Hilo just a few weeks later.

 Matt and Robin

 Thanks Leah for all your help

 Tom and Ramona

 Some of the delicious desserts

Next up was our Hope for Hilo Dinner and Dessert Auction in June.  Our Auction committee, including Coral Pentecost, Jessie Chavira, Kari Hornshuh, Mandy Meier and Leah Rohrbaugh, they had a huge vision for this event and God made it happen past our dreams of what could happen.  The best part was watching people, Christian and non-Christian, friends and strangers, work together and give to make the event come to life.  Tim and Jolean Rhodes, friends of friends, whom we had never met graciously offered their beautiful home to us for the evening.  Chris Kovacs, of Aqua Rec, loaned us their giant tent for cover, complete with a couple great guys to set it up and take it down. Puyallup Nazarene church loaned us chairs to go with the tables loaned by Celebration Center Auction items were donated from so many places and Bryan and Dana Melvard, awesome people and cooks, agreed to help Mandy and Kari with the food.  Great things were happening, even just planning the event.  We were given the name of a photographer who might be willing to make a donation, turns out she lived in Hilo for quite come time and had a heart for sharing Christ with the area.  So many other stories came out of putting the event together and the actual day.   The auction was going to be held outisde, but the day was filled with steady rain until 30 minutes before the start, when, not only did the rain stop, but sunshine broke through and warmed up spirits and bodies.  The silent auction gave people a great chance to mingle, dinner was great and gave us a chance to share our calling and vision for moving to Hilo.  Next, we had Polynesian dancers who donated their time and skills for the evening.  Then Ben Pentecost emceed the live acution, where additional items were donated as the auction was happening.  We were blessed that the event went so much further than just raising money, but relationships were developed, people got a chance to serve and God's power was shown through so many different events.

The awesome pineapple palm tree

Papa & Nana are here

Some of our AMAZING servers

Sharing our heart and vision

The dancers...so talented!!

So YUMMY

Thanks Nana...for all the desserts you made!

Thanks Ben

To my girls...THANK YOU!!

Check out this video, keep in mind not all of the footage was actually Hilo, alot of it was the more "touristy" places in Hawaii as a whole!! It was shot about 10 months ago, but the heart behind Big Island Faith Communities is still the same. We are SO excited to go and be on mission with them : )

http://vimeo.com/42753269

Please join us in our prayer for Hilo, Hi!!

Hangin' in Hilo

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.

Meet the Van Wagner’s

We, DiRon and Hailee, have been married for just about 8 years now.  DiRon use to come hang out at the coffee shop Hailee worked at, he came ordering an orange juice and cherry Danish and ended up with a wife! Our sweet Keala came into our world a year and a half later.  And then in another 16 months she became a big sister, to Hilton.  Life with two little ones keeps you on your toes, but there is always a laugh in our house! 

DiRon grew up in the church, but faith was never a priority until the last few years.  God had a plan for him, but he was not always interested in going where that plan led.  Callings don’t always fit into to our comfort zones and, being a natural introvert, following a call into ministry can be a scary thing.  Thankfully we serve an awesome God, who can use our weaknesses to show His strength.

Hailee grew up attending the LDS church with her family.  She has always had a passion for people and a heart after God.  From a young age she wanted to be a missionary.  By her senior year in High School she really started spending time in the Bible, knowing now that it the only true Word, in doing so she met her Savior.  She soon realized there was only one God and He wanted her to choose Him above everything, even if it meant losing her family.  It hasn’t been a cake walk, but God is always with us no matter what!

Together, we have a passion for serving God wherever He sends us.  We are very excited about the heart behind Big Island Faith Communities.  Going to Hawaii doesn’t hurt for the sun and surf loving DiRon and Hailee can’t wait to start throwing parties for God’s sake.  Keala and Hilton are outdoor lovers, so getting from the Washington rain to year round sunshine is also a big draw.  Hawaii sounds great, especially knowing that we are headed there because God has a plan for Hilo and our family.

 Now for a little Q & A:

1.   What are you excited about?

DiRon: warm weather, growing in Christ by taking a step of faith

Hailee: to grow as a family until and closer to God

Keala: to learn how to surf, to swim in water and to build a sand castle, oh and to fly a plane!                                                            

Hilton: excited to speak Hawaiian talk…like gracias!

2.   What makes you nervous?

DiRon: the unknown, leaving everyone we know, spending that much time with the Nobles’ (just joking!)

Hailee: Leaving my family and friends and being an ocean away from them.

3.   What has God told you about our adventure?

DiRon: We have to trust Him; it’s ok to be crazy!

Hailee: He wants me to choose Him first again, like when I first became a believer.  God wants all of me.

Keala: God told me we were supposed to go and teach people about Him.

Hilton: To go and make new friends.         

4.   How can we pray for you?

DiRon: for Gods direction and provision

Hailee: for His wisdom and that God will move our hearts and those in our path

Keala: I’m going to miss my friends, pray that I can make new friends and teach them about Jesus.

                       Hilton: pray that I can tell people about Jesus

time to blog again....

Hello family and friends! It is time to start blogging again....this time we will be better at it!!! Especially since we are getting ready to move (not until the end of summer though). We are in the process of getting ready to help plant a church in Hilo, Hawaii. We will post more on that soon : )

JANUARY- was COLD!! The kids had a blast with the ice storm we had....

FEBRUARY has been a month of celebrating! I turned 30 (yikes!!) and DiRon got another year older too;) he is now 41. Oh and throw Valentines in the mix too....it's been busy.

I finally got my nose pierced!!! Yay, I've been wanting this for a LONG time. Thank you Leah and Kari!! I also had a surprise party at Chevy's thanks to DiRon (with the help of friends and family...who kept the secret!). I was spoiled this year for sure. Not to mention my family went on a birthday trip to Mount Rainier with me, complete with chili, mom's scones, and yogurt parfait for desert....yum!!

Look at all that smoke! DiRon and I went on a double date with my parents for his birthday...our date didn't go exactly as planned but we still had fun. While we were out Kait and the kidos decorated the house and made a birthday cake for DiRon. They did an awesome job!

More to come soon. Love you all!!

Hailee