2nd week

Hard to believe that I've been in Kaua'i for 2 weeks now. today, in fact. I need to catch y'all up on my experiences. Here's some thoughts from the very first days -- and a perspective into the atmosphere here at the Church of the Pacific (COP).

I was introduced to the island by the beloved group of friends of which I feel I could immediately and can belovedly call family: Caroline and her grandkids Lilly and Rachel. They showed me some of their favorite views and allowed me to take in the hues of the beautiful blue ocean both from afar and into the depths of it -- snorkeling, splashing, and picking up sea cucumbers and swimming amidst schools of fish with Lilly. If only I could describe this awesome, chaotic, tornado-like family with better descriptions...they make me feel at home with their 14 cats, 2 dogs, 1 rabbit, the exercise machine plopped in the middle of the living room, and enjoying ice cream and noodles at 10:30 p.m. Laughter is free and the pains in my belly after I leave their house are due from the amount of chuckling I get to take part in with them.

If i ever write a novel, they'll be in it!

*The first worship service I experienced*

The relaxed and welcoming worship service and style of the COP (church of the Pacific) washed over me like the beach waves had the previous afternoon. The early morning sun beamed from atop the mountains facing me -- the picturesque scene is the reward for all who sit in the seats -- inspiration for an artist to paint a masterpiece, and I didn’t feel guilty for looking out the window like a wayward child – but loved, in receiving a message of the Creator’s love for little ole me.

The Church of the Pacific is unique in the fact that the members and attenders operate somewhat like a revolving door – some stay for 4 months, then stay on the mainland for the remaining 8; some pop back through the doors, magnetically, every year or 2 years, and still others are first-time visitors taking in the tropical paradise and just looking for (and usually, always feeling that they found) a Sunday morning service to substitute for their normal place of worship on the "mainland."

I think that’s part of the mystery and awe, which this small, window-filled church seems to contain. When up in front of church, I catch an equally awesome view looking out the opened, double doors of the church entrance: bursting past the doors, past the grass and fresh flower trees, past the Princeville golf course greens that roll like countless, larger-than-life turtle shells, and beyond the ocean. Whether there’s 20 or 30, or less gathered, there’s a holy sense of wonder that I’ve yet to put my finger on – as Carmen beautifully strums the harp, Glen props up the baritone, and Cathy’s fingers lean deeply into the ivory keys of the black grand piano.

It’s small, to be sure, and the choir is a 12-person crowd at best, even inviting early newcomers to quickly grab a black folder and join the choir practice before church – which takes place every Sunday morning around 8:15, just through the kitchen entrance. Judging from the small number of singers, one may assume that the gurgling pot of coffee (brewed for those who need a jolt before the after-church java juice) would drown out the music – but never fear, for the sopranos and descants are here: belting out their wavering praise -- and their large-print flowered dresses (uniquely fashionable in Hawaii) move in rhythm to their swaying bodies. The leading elderly men bravely bring in the baritone.

The closing of the church service always contains singing a Hawaiian hymn/song, and everyone in church (that day -- for one never knows who will join us the next) is invited to hold hands and encircle the church room.

It’s quaint, but not cliché.

And as I stand in front of the "congregation," which seems too big of a word to call our gathering, I stand at the front podium looking out past the opened doors to the ocean and I feel, that like the waves that follow the paths toward the shore, I too rolled in these doors for a reason, compelled and pulled into this magnetic field of faith.

*******

Having arrived in Kauai, shuffling over to Dick and Cathy’s house for about 2 ½ days and trying to get used to the 5 hour (earlier) Pacific time,I was then whisked off to Maui after the first Sunday service at the Church of the Pacific. Though I was uncertain about what to expect at the Aha Pae’aina youth camp (which, after the camp, I finally learned that the ever-intimidating Hawaiian word merely meant ‘big gathering’, God once again stretched me to make room inside my soul and then fill it with His presence through the lives of amazing people.