The Church

I want to tell you a little about our friend Raheim. He is a 25 year old single soilder in the army. At our church there are not many single people and very few families without kids, so with Raheim being closest in age to us we gravetated to each other quickly. Landry and I have always been drawn to his zeal for God. He lives about 45 minutes from the church building and has a demanding job in the military and is taking classes online, but he rarely misses a service. He comes Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday night. Every time we hang out and go for a hike or something we discuss God and His word. You can't talk with Raheim very long and not here him say something about the Lord of his life. He is diligent in reading his Bible daily! He has a plan and he sticks to it. The other passion in his life is family. As we have grown to know him more, he has told us a lot of stories about him and his 2 brothers. He was raised in a single mom home and he always felt like a dad to his 2 younger brothers. He protected them when they were younger and as he has grown spiritually he has tried to guide them in that way as well. Raheim did not grow up going to church regularly, which I believe is where a lot of his enthusiasm for telling others about the good news comes from.
I tell you this small amount of background so you will understand the rest of what I am going to say. Saturday Landry called me from work to tell me Raheim's brother had been shot and killed. A friend of Raheim's from home called Landry to see if he could go check on him. Immediately I felt a strong pain in my heart for Raheim. Then I got an email from Jenni(a faithful prayer warrior who always emails out prayer list to everyone) at church asking for everyone to pray for him. When Landry got off work we met with Raheim to grab a bite to eat and talk. We had to wait a while before he could get free from all the military forms and things he was having to figure out to get a flight home. When he pulled up to the resturaunt we were sitting outside waiting on him. His eyes were bloodshot from tears and his voice shakey when he spoke to us. The first 10 minutes of conversation Landry and I did not know what to say or how to comfort him. Also we did not want him to feel as though he had to retell us all the details and stir up all his emotions again.
Landry asked if he wanted us to have a prayer and he said yes please. As we all three held hands, sitting at a table outside a burger place on a rainy cool night, I felt such a strong bond. As Landry began to speak I noticed his voice was softer than usual I turned to look at him and saw a stream of tears rolling down his cheek. I rarely ever see my husband cry and I new that our bond with Raheim was something special, something different!
Fast forward to the next morning during worship service at church. Raheim came as I knew he would. He always sits at the front by himself so he can hear good and pay attention. Landry went to sit with him and I sat with my family who is in town visiting right now. We were sitting a few rows behind them on the side so I could see them well. Every song that we sang stirred up strong feelings for me. As I sang the words to songs I have sung thousands of times I felt differently about the meanings. I felt Raheim's pain. With every few words I would begin to cry and I felt surprised at the hurt I was feeling. I have had friends and family members in the past go through hard times and I have felt sorry for them, but I don't think I have ever felt pain for them.
1 Corinthians 12:26 reads, "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" For the first time in my life as a Christian I truely understand this verse. We said goodbye to a family at church Sunday that has 4 children in the youth group that we were able to spend some time with. Although we did not get to know them too well, because they were only with us a short time I felt sad to see them go. As I watched our church family go forward to hug them in the closing song, as is our traditon, I thought what a joy it is to be a member of the Lord's church. As I have mentioned before in previous post I really feel like our small church here is unique. I have gone to church my entire life, but never really felt completely at home or like this truely is my family. But being miles and miles away from all the people I know has encouraged me to let go and rely on the people from church as I would my blood family. I think this is the way the church should feel everywhere. All should feel welcome and loved. Everyone should work together as a team for Christ fighting Satan hand and hand. It should feel like home...
This world is not my home, I am just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heavens open door, and I cant feel at home in this world anymore. Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you, if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do. The angels beckon from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
My prayer today is for Raheim and his broken heart. Please join me in praying for him and his family in this hard time.

Wake up Call

Aloha! I am back. I have not written a blog post in more than 3 months due to the fact of how insanely busy our lives have been. I am in the process of making a job change(more to come on this later) and have been feeling like a crazy woman lately. I want to do a post soon and catch up on the last 3 months I have missed. But today I want to talk about how God has been working on me. A couple of weeks ago we went to a marriage seminar weekend at Honolulu Church of Christ. The speakers for the weekend were Glenn and Cindy Colley. We had just went to a marriage retreat with our congregations a few weeks before, but Landry heard who was speaking and said we should go here them.
 Landry's dad and granddad built his childhood home. He has so many found memories growing up there. His family moved when he was a sophomore in college and he has told me several times how he misses it. We live in a small world, because the Colleys actually bought that house. We went to grow in our marriage relationship and to learn about how to raise our future kids in the Lord. But we gained so much more than we expected.
We both took away a lot from the different lessons we heard in the group sessions and the split men and women times as well. Here is a list of some of the things that stuck with me and hopefully will be encouraging to you....
1. Teach your children that the definition of True success is living your life and going to Heaven.
2. Every evening you should have a time of Bible study with your family. Just bringing your kids to church is not enough.
3.T.I.M.E. spells love to your children.
4. Teach your children to obey you now so that later in their life they will be able to obey the Lord.
5. You NEVER get what you need in marriage if you deprive your spouse of what he/she needs. You must change yourself first.
6. The principles that make a person a great Christian also make a great spouse.
7. Decide to find something positive to say about your spouse everyday.
8. Let laughter, fun and sex be main stays in your marriage.
9. Have the attitude that I am going to love you whether or not you are good to me!
10. Speak to and about your husband in respectful words. Compliment your husband, especially around others.
11. Women don't nag, pout,manipulate or lie. Make the home a peaceful, loving sanctuary for your husband.
We both had to work part of the weekend and missed a couple of the lessons, but the ones we heard really made us reevaluate some things. We spent a time of study alone with the Colleys one of the nights they were on the island. Landry and I celebrated our 2 year marriage anniversary last February and the last couple years have been some of the happiest times in my life. Moving away a year ago from all things familiar in Tennessee to a whole new way of life here in Hawaii has been one of the greatest blessings to our marriage. We have completely depended on each other and grown so close as we stepped out together. But one area we have struggled in is studying our Bible and praying together as a couple.
In our time alone with the Colleys they really encouraged us to set aside a time everyday together to have a Bible study and the gave us some tips. They gave us their book "You're Singing My Song" and we have been reading it together at night. They also suggested to change it up. Some nights we read a book, some times we watch an encouraging video, listen to a sermon online or make a prayer list and spend some time in prayer together. We have been consistently having this time for about a month and it has been amazing to see God pulling us close to Him and to each other. You can check out some great resources on the colley's site http://thecolleyhouse.org.
Also for all the ladies out their check out this podcast http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=112808&cmd=tc. Once a month Cindy and some other ladies do a podcast on a different book of the Bible. The theme is Sanctification and this month's book is Daniel.
I am finding there are so many ways to daily draw yourself close to God. It just takes a conscience effort. James 4:7,8 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you,...."
My prayer today is to never stop trying to draw near to God as long as I am on this earth, because I always want to feel Him drawing near to me.

Xterra Trail Run

Yesterday Landry and I ran our first 10k and also our first trail run. I am not a runner. I enjoy exercise and doing pretty much anything active, but running has never been something I like to do. However since living in the beautiful aloha state I have found a true love for hiking. Hiking has been one of the best things for Landry and my relationship. We can walk and talk for hours. We love being outdoors and have found it to be a great activity to do together. Some hikes have beautiful views or waterfalls that make the trek worth it, while others are more about challenging yourself and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Hiking is obviously great for the body, but I have found it also to be great for my soul. I love being surrounded by God's beauty, from the green grass and all the beautiful different trees to the chirping birds.

I say all that to say that while I do not enjoy running on the concrete or tredmill or on a track, I love running through the woods on a trail. One of the first trails Landry and I did when we moved to Hawaii was Manoa waterfall trail. It is a pretty easy beginner hike, but it is on the rainy side of the island and it is usually really muddy. On our way back from the waterfall it began to rain on us and we decided to run and it was so much fun. We felt like kids splashing through the puddles and not caring how muddy we got.

Manoa Trail

Soaking wet from the rain.

 

Trail running is very different from normal runs because you have to constantly think about your next step so you don't trip on a root our a rock. With my mind focusing so much on all the obstacles in my path I forget all about how much I hate running and it becomes more like a game to me.

Landry watched something about the Xterra trail run on the discover channel before we moved to Hawaii and he had his mind set on running in it. Like I have mentioned before I am not a runner and as for Landry he rarely exercises except the occaisonal basketball pick up game and the once a week hiking we do. But Landry signed us up for the 10k instead of our normal 5k. Neigther of us have ever ran more than 4 miles and we did not train for this race because it was a last second decision to do it. I am glad we did it, but I wish I would have trained since this is no walk in the park type of run. There was lots of hills and I thought my legs were going to fall off, but we finished it and felt proud of ourselves. It took us about an hour which is definately not a record setting time, but not shabby for first timers.

Team E.X.T.E.M.E.

Team xtreme is a group of military guys that help wounded soilders. Before the race started they skydived to the starting line. Then they ran the entire 21k half marathon. They took turns caring the soilder with no legs that is on the ground in this picture on their backs for the entire race.

Yes we even stopped to take a picture during the race. Landrys main focus was snapping pictures of the scenery and mine was to make it to the finish line before my legs collapsed.

 

Team xtreme is a group of military guys that help wounded soilders. Before the race started they skydived to the starting line. Then they ran the entire 21k half marathon. They took turns caring the soilder with no legs that is on the ground in this picture on their backs for the entire race.

Sorry for all the pictures of my backside running, but like I said Landry was snapping lots of photos. Since he was behind me thats all the pictures we got.

After the race we headed to the north shore to take a nap on the beach. There have been lots of surf competitions lately and we were hoping to catch one, but the waves were not high enough. So we took a couple pictures of the set up which was pretty cool to us.

 

This is Waimea beach one of our favorites to go catch some good waves. We can body board for hours here and leave with swimsuits full of sand.

 

Psalm 8:3-9

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth!

A spoonful of sugar

Since moving to Oahu we have been trying lots of new sports.. We enjoy living close to the beach and want to take advantage of all the fun activities the ocean offers. When we first arrived on the island we both were excited to try out surfing. We bought a groupon and took a lesson. After our lesson we were feeling a little too confident. We both caught almost every wave and thought we were on our way to surfing the 30 foot waves on the north shore. Yea well, that is until we rented some boards a couple days later and tried it on our own. I have decided the surf lessons are meant for tourist. They don't really teach you any techniques or how to catch waves on your own, they push you into the waves and all you have to do is stand up. This makes you feel like you are a professional and gives them a chance to snap a picture that they will charge an arm and leg for you to purchase. I am not trying to be negative about surf lessons, because they are fun and I suggest all visitors to give them a try. All I am trying to say is they do not really prepare you for getting out there on your own. Like I was saying we rented some giant 11 foot boards(the bigger the board the easier it is to get up and to balance) a few days later. It was pretty much a disaster. We were clueless about pretty much everything. Paddling out we got hit by a lot of waves and knocked off our boards and then when we were a pretty good ways from the beach we started trying to catch some waves. We couldn't figure out the timing very well at first, so Landry decided he would try to push me. This is when it became very comical. As we were turning trying to get ready and wave came in and since Landry was so close to me his giant board hit me in the back of the head....well I did catch the wave but I never stood up because when I opened my eyes I couldn't see anything. I blacked out for a couple of seconds and it really scared me. Needless to say the rest of the time we were out on the water I felt a little shaken up and we never really caught any waves. We were down, but not ready to give up. So we rented boards 4 or 5 more times and still felt discouraged.
Landry works with several guys who enjoy surfing and surf a couple days a week in the mornings before work. They are always trying to get us to go out with them, but I have been avoiding it due to the fact I was afraid it would be extremely embaracing from our previous experiences. Well a couple of weeks ago I was off and Landry did not have to be at work until noon so we decided to go to the beach for a couple of hours. We had just arrived and were lathering up with sunscreen when one of Landry's coworkers pulled up. He was meeting two other guys to surf for a couple of hours. He asked us if we wanted to give it another shot and said the other guys had 2 nine foot boards we could use. So we said why not. We drove to another beach down the street called White Plains beach. It is a family friendly military beach and is supposed to be good for beginner surfers. We have been wanting to surf there for a while, but you can only rent boards if you are military at this beach. They waves were perfect for us that day around 1 to 2 feet. We both had a blast. We were getting the hang of timing and when to paddle into the wave. 2 days later we went again with them, but there was only one other guy with a board so we shared it. Landry swam out with me on a boogie board. I caught around 4 waves and stood up on 2 of them. I asked Landry if I looked like a surfer girl and he said yea until you stand up. I was having so much fun and Landry only got to get on the board a couple times before it was time to leave. We are looking in to buying a used board on craigslist so we can go to this beach and practice whenever we want. Try, try, try again...

A few weeks ago we had a fall festival at our church. As always I was rushing around at the last second figuring out our costumes and getting all the necessary supplies. Thank goodness for pinterest. I began searching for couple's costumes and ran across a really cute picture of Mary Poppins and Bert the chimney sweeper. It looked simple enough to use some clothes we already had and to just buy some accessories.

 There was a costume contest(which I missed because of traffic), trunk or treat for the kids, some finger foods to eat and a lot of games set up in different classrooms. Landry and I played corn hole with some of the teens and adults. It was a very fun and festive night.

The following weekend we ran a 5k race called the color run. I had seen several peoples pictures on facebook, covered in bright colored powder. When I heard it was coming to Honolulu I told Landry we had to sign up. It was a bit pricey, but overall I think it was worth the money for all the fun we had.

There were over 8,000 participants.

We wore our clear, nerdy glasses. We wanted to wear something to protect our eyes from the powder, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see too good in sunglasses. We bought these glasses last year when we lived in Nashville to ride on our scooter. Man do we have some great memories wearing these goofy things.

This was definately not a serious 5k. A lot of people were walking. It is all about just having a good time. And we definately had a good time!

As Free As We'll Ever Be

Lately I have really been enjoying this stage in mine and Landry's life. We asked a lot of people what they thought about us possibly moving to Hawaii before we started applying for jobs. We asked our friends, family and some people we respect that are older and wiser than us. We got the same response from almost everyone across the board...."do it while you can!"(oh yea and of course a lot of ya'll are crazy) That is the main reason we made the move. We wanted to live in a new place and experience all new things together. To use our years before we have kids or a house or lots of responsibility.
Last week we had some friends from Tennessee come visit us. I hope to share more photos later on. Every time we have company I fall in love with the beauty of the Island all over again. Seeing the excitement in their eyes reminds me of how we felt seeing all the sights for the first time. They left on Wednesday night and we had the next day off together.
We decided to wake up early and go to lanakai beach to watch the sunrise. It was still dark when we arrived at the beach and we were the only ones there. It was so peaceful hearing the ocean and seeing the smooth sand free of foot prints before the start of another day. We could not actually see the sun from where we were, but we did see the sky begin to brighten and change colors which was still pretty.

Lanakai beach is one of my favorite beaches on the island. The sand is extremely soft, like powder and you can see three small islands from the shore. We have swam to one and kayaked out to the other two. There is always lots of wind surfers at this beach which is pretty fun to watch







We left the beach and went to a little hole in the wall restaurant, called cinnamon's for breakfast. We got two pancakes each and eggs and sausage. They had tons of pancake choices. Landry got one guava chiffon and one red velvet with white chocolate syrup and I got one banana pancake and one apple cinnamon. They were huge and delicious and we had to bring two boxes home.

After that big breakfast we were in a sugar comma and ready for a big nap! We didn't want to go back to our apartment because it has been extremely hot lately(we have no a/c). So we decided to drive to the north shore and watch some surfers while we nap. The waves have been getting bigger here since it is soon to be winter. Earlier in the week some of the waves on the north shore were over 20 plus feet.

In our normal lives back home we would be beginning to look forward to the holidays. But since it is warm outside year round I feel like I am skipping all the seasons. It is just summer year round. This year instead of getting excited about wearing cute scarves and coats and drinking hot cocoa and looking at Christmas lights we are looking forward to waves, big waves. We are hoping to catch some of the surf competitions even if we have to get sick all of a sudden and miss a day of work.

The waves were only around 10 feet Thursday, but they were bigger than we have ever seen so far. We had fun watching some brave surfers. They had the red flags out and it said no swimming. After a couple hours of napping we headed home to get ready.

Landry got us tickets to see Cirque du Soleil. I have been wanting to go to this for a long time, but the tickets are always so expensive. We found a coupon online and were able to get our tickets for around 45 bucks each which is really cheap for this show.

The show was absolutely amazing.

Life is good for the Allens! It is so easy for me to get caught up in stressing over little unimportant things. I am trying to soak in all the memories Landry and I are making in Hawaii and in our first years of marriage. My prayer today is that I will continue to see how special this time in my life is. I want to fully in joy every stage and season of life that I am in.