The Holidays approaching!

Dec 12th, 2011. Its a rainy day in Haleiwa.

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Whats the best snack?

Grapenuts + Applesauce = amazing. 

Here the rain comes down and its life as usual. Its just part of life, you hardly see an umbrella. In fact only in moments of weakness do I feel tempted to take one with me, but then I think...I'm a MAN...I MUST PRESS ON. Funny when you can turn not taking an umbrella/jacket with you into a manly moment...

Sent out all the Christmas cards I could this month so if you gave me your address you should be getting them or have already received them. I've already had some responses! You guys are awesome! I'll be sending out a thank you letter in January.

Well just a short update:

This last Friday was the Christmas parade in Haleiwa town. It was so much fun hanging out and watching the different businesses/schools/marching bands go by, they seemed to really enjoy themselves. My favorite part was when Santa rode by. The kids around me got very excited. I remember in the past thinking to myself "I'm not going to let my kid(s) believe in Santa.", but now I'm not so sure I feel that way. Afterwards we headed to the Koinonia room, where Tyler Nakamura, one of the worship leaders for North shore Christian fellowship, was showcasing some classic Christmas songs with his band. It reminded me of home, what with the soundcheck and the different musicians involved. I miss my musician friends!

Well this past Sunday I had the privilege of leading worship for BOTH services, traditional and contemporary. It was my first time leading for the 9am traditional service, and I was a bit nervous about it. I sort of had this image in my head of the older people booing me off stage haha! "WHERE'S OUR USUAL GUY!? BOOO THIS GUY!" Obviously...thats not how it went down, haha. It went way better than that. They were great.

Also I've been reading a lot! I just finished Soul Cravings by Erwin Mcmanus. I must tell you it was a fantastic read. If you have friends that are questioning about life and faith, or if YOU yourself have questions its a great book about desires that are within us all. Now i'm moving on to Forgotten God by Francis Chan, which I feel is just perfect for the season I'm in right now.

<--Find it on www.amazon.com for cheap!

Well thats where i'm at for now! I'm excited to be here for the Christmas and New years. I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone! I'll be posting another update before then I hope. If you're praying for me let me know! I'd love to know I have the support of my friends and family back home. Mahalo!

Its been a whole month!

Well folks its been a whole month. I've been having a great time here getting to know the community and just growing relationships. I spent the past couple of days writing out Christmas Cards. I've NEVER sent Christmas cards...I'll be mailing out 30 of them tomorrow, most likely more next week(once I get feeling in my left hand again HAHA...yes I'm left handed.)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day. I sure ate my share and then some. I went to my friend Mark's home in Waialua. The neighborhood he lives in consists mostly of people who have moved here from the mainland or other countries. They get together every Thanksgiving that they are in town and everyone brings food and has a huge community thanksgiving, about 30 friends who have now become family, or Ohana. This cool looking guy is Hannes. Hannes is an Austrian Redbull jet pilot, among other amazing things he does(Skydive, cliff dive, stuntman)

It was my first Thanksgiving holiday away from home and Family but I was very grateful for the opportunity to make friendships with people like me, who aren't in near proximity with their family. 

So as I've mentioned before I've been leading worship here, now for 4 Sundays. Whoa! The spirit of the Lord sure is moving here. Slowly but surely people are getting more in tune with what worship is, and how to do that openly. God has really been moving in our worship times and I'm praying that the church body would continue to seek Him. Pastor Larry and I have been praying together which has been great. We also have a vision for a coffee style music night in which we would open up one of our large rooms here for local artists who want a venue to share music. We'll be painting the room, and getting very creative with vibe. The hard part will be raising funds to do something like this. The church doesn't have a budget for it so it will be coming out of our pockets.

If you feel led to help financially the door is always open for that. Please get in contact with me. Its a ministry opportunity we feel will reach many unchurched people here on our side of the island. It will give us an opportunity to meet and create relationships with people we would not normally meet on our regular days. Well Surf's up! Da REAL surf started a few days ago with 15ft Hawaiians crashing against the sand. BIG BREAKS dats for sure. I'm going to watch a movie now!

Here is a picture of me and the youth! Still need a girl leader! Keep praying PREEZ

He > I

Well its been a few days since my last post. I'm still alive, call off the search people. Let me give you some highlights of the past few days

Mark let me borrow his hollow body guitar, along with an amp and a BOSS ME-70 pedal fx board, which looks like this  Obviously...this looks like a time machine...but its not, and I aim to spend time on this a little everyday getting myself more familiar with it so that eventually I can play lead guitar for worship. I'll be a regular Dave Brunelle!! Haha, yea right, in mine and Chris Saunders' dreams maybe. I have been spending quality time with it though and its getting a little easier every time.

Mark also went out of his way to hang out with me Tuesday and introduce me to some of the local Christian guys in town. Mark btw, is like my uncle out here, and let me tell you, he's a super blessing. I felt like a little kid being introduced to my new friends as we walked into the He is Greater than I store.
He is Greater than I is a Christian clothing store out here in Haleiwa town run by guys who grew up here. 

 I wasn't sure if I should have been hiding behind Mark as he introduced me, while "I wonder if they'll like me"ran through my mind. I took the opportunity to share that joke with them. Upon first glance at them I knew I was going to be able to gel with these guys, but I had to make sure my first impression was a good one, meaning that they knew afterwards that I was funny and confident. Chris knows what I'm talking about. It just so happened that hanging out there was a youth pastor from the church across the street, so not only did I get to meet the store guys, but some of the guys involved in ministry close by. It was really cool to put faces to other people that God has called out here.

Afterwards we checked out the Christian bookstore just across the way. The people there were kind and welcoming. As Mark was chatting it up, he knows everyone, I went and perused my favorite part of bookstores, the USED section. I picked up Erwin Mcanus' Soul Cravings, noticed how cheap it was, and walked it over to the counter. The lady, Jody, looked at me and said "You want that book? You can have it, its mine anyway." Blessings! I've already gotten into the book and its tough to stay out of it. 




Pastor comes home saturday from his mainland trip, so thats going to make this place a little less quiet. Also, a week from today John Mediana is flying in to the Island to do some work! A familiar face YESSSSS! I know Jesus' plan for everyone is just have them move here to see me. John is only the beginning!

Keep praying for me friends! I start giving music lessons on Thursday, so pray those go well! Your financial and spiritual support is always welcome. Thanks for reading!

PS: Here's the link for the online store to www.hegreaterthani.com/  great Christmas ideas!

Worthy is the Lamb!

Howzit my Braddah Braddas!? I hope you all find yourself well! For my Californian friends I know its pretty chilly out there. Stay warm! Stay alive! As for me the weather is pretty consistently Hawaiian hahaha! Lets get down to brass tax (I'm not sure what that means...)

Last night was Friday night and we had youth bible study led by yours truly. I had a total of 5 guys, all boys, so it felt a lot like having my D-group. Usually we chow down on some Impossible pizza but Luis doesn't have the change for that right now haha! So Fried chicken it is! The guys chowed down and consumed it all, even all the drinks I had bought. These dudes can put food and drink away I'll tell you that.  After some hangout time we got to discussion time. Our discussion was on Worship. What worship is, why we worship God etc.

Afterwards we practiced getting a little silly in worship for the Lord. I shared with them about how this place should be a place where they can get really outside of themselves and let go, not having to think about what other people think about them. Kids feel so pressured to look cool and be accepted by their friends that they miss out on so much of the benefits of worshiping God. In the end I think it went really well. Thank you to those who have joined me in prayer for these kids.

I'm going to keep this update short, tomorrow is sunday! I would love you guys to continue praying for me and what God is doing here. While praying and worshiping this afternoon I felt God really calling for a desperation for Him. I began to pray that my own desperation for God would be a blessing and an example to my peers/leaders/friends, believers AND non-believers. What am I saying with my life and the way I live it? I leave you with that, and another hawaiian word: Pau(pronounced pow), meaning I'm done.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

Aloha mah Braddah Braddahs, hope you are finding yourselves awesome! I'm doing my best to stay dry here in this rainy Hawaii weather. Last night we had quite the storm come in! Well here's another update for you!

 Last night I had the chance to head down with the Koffmans, Joe and Sammi(Not Reggie and Juli haha), to a young adult bible study they attend in Waialua, not too far from us. The plan was to go through Psalm 119, but God had other plans that night. I met some great people, and we shared prayer requests right at the beginning which made for an interesting night. One of the guys whose name was Paul is from Fullerton, went to Biola and is now in the Airforce. His family actually lives in Brea! The house owner was Britt, an amazing woman! Another guy is John. Now John is part of something awesome called the Red Light Angels.

What the Red light Angels do is they go down to Waikiki and areas with heavy prostitution to talk to the women out there and offer to serve them, get to know them, and show them some love. John shared asked us to keep one particular family in prayer.
This one family is composed of:

•  the mother, who is a prostitute and has been for many years.
•  4 Kids, 3 boys and 1 girl. The girl has a child, and has another on the way
• The Father is the pimp, but seems to be MIA at the moment.

The Red light angels have recently been given the ability to move her in to an apartment which is a welcome change for the kids, being that they have been living in hotels their whole life. They were so excited to receive a couch and have it be theirs. We are partnering with them to help them get as many household items as we can. I hope to be a part of this with John and the other Red light angels ASAP. John expressed that they could use more guys and I've been waiting for just such an opportunity.

God is doing great things over here. I'm so glad that I get to update you guys. Please pray for me and what God is doing through myself and the others here. If you feel led to support me financially, one time or monthly, refter to the post just before this one to help you out! or Just talk to me! I still have a good amount of free time to my hands, but I can see that changing very soon! Your Hawaiian word of the day is Ohana: Family. Stay connected my Ohana! Love you all

Ps. Here's a picture of the Garden beds I cleaned up 

Finances and how you can help!

At the request and advice of one of my good friends I'm going to get more specific about how you can help me financially. Before I left California I had a chance to sit down with Josh Reeve, the money guy at The Cause, and talk about how much I should be making a month. The number we came up with was $500/month. Doable right? It goes like this.

$200 I get a month are from working here at the church as the facilities worker.
That leaves the rest. $300. The Pastor has offered to pay me $200 out of his own salary, but If it can be helped I'd rather not do that. Also, I am going to begin giving voice lessons to my friend Mark and his daughter very soon. There are other ways I can potentially raise funds (ex. get a job), but I would much rather focus on the ministry. 


So basically if I can find 20 people to give $10 monthly I'd be set! Or 10 people to give $20. I won't do any more math for you anymore. You can figure it out.

 If you go to the Cause you can help me by making checks to The Cause community church and add: LC Hawaii in the memo line, or pay with your debit/visa/credit card and add my name in and hawaii in the "other" line. You can also click on the donate button on the right, but it does charge me a fee. About 0.33 for every $1.


Anyway this morning I removed the weeds out of two raised beds we have here at the church. I'm excited to get some things growing there soon! 

First Sunday.

Aloha everyone. I hope your weekends have been as great as mine. Saturday night after the Katie's first birthday we had a little potluck here on the commune(Thats what we call the property we live on haha) with those of us who live here and a couple friends. It was a great food but one of my favorite items was this dip Nick's wife Kirsten made. It was made with a cream cheese base, top that with pumpkin butter, on top of that sprinkle some chopped walnuts and bits of bacon. I probably could have finished the whole thing. I didn't though, I controlled myself :D


After that we began watching Unknown, which I had never really been interested in watching since it just looked like another Jason Bourne wanna-be, and I love me some Jason Bourne(right?). Part way through the movie I get a text and start skyping with Janna and everyone at the Brinner party, which was so hilarious. I had a lot of fun skyping them, and really felt like I WAS at the party haha. I do miss my friends!


Well Sunday came the next morning and it was time to attend the morning service. The first service, which starts at 9, is a more traditional service. Meaning the worship is all hymns, the service elements are a bit different, and the congregation is mostly the older generation. It was fun and interesting hearing songs I had never heard before. I thought I knew some hymns, but not the ones from the 1950s I guess. One that I can recall is called "Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?". Another thing that is done in that service as that one of the elders takes prayer requests from the congregation. He asks them to raise their hand and share any requests they may have, and then, after all requests are taken, he/we pray for them.


I led worship for the 2nd service and It went much better than I thought. I tend to doubt my guitar playing/leading abilities, but I think that having been able to go to mexico just last weekend and lead so much there really helped prepare me. I would much rather not have to play guitar and just lead vocally but I'm guessing thats not what God has planned. He's trying to grow me, and I will definitely grow if I keep this up. After the service everyone heads to the fellowship hall for some lunch. Fellowshipping over food and coffee is the best! Community is super encouraged and I'm glad for it being that I'm still pretty new. 


I realized that back home I was pretty spoiled with an awesome network of musicians. Now over here I don't know any! I'm going to have to rebuild a network of musicians I can hang with and jam with. Hopefully maybe some of my musician friends will vacation here? Hmmm? sound appealing? haha


Well thanks again to all of those praying and supporting. Specific things I'm praying for are : Financial support for myself, That the youth would learn the heart of worship, and that the congregation would be led to serve the Church. Missing you already! Mahalo

Here's to the weekend :)

Aloha! I Hope you all find yourself well on this saturday morning. Today happens to be Katie's(the Pastor's baby) 1st Birthday! I'm just about ready to get started setting up for her afternoon shindig. You only turn 1 once so its going to be great! "Its all downhill from here kid!" HAHA!


Well, Last night (Friday) we had our regular youth bible study. The few that came were familiar faces and greeted me with "welcome back!" We enjoyed some pool playing and pizza eating (Impossible pizza that is, SOOOO GEEEEWWWD) and then got into a time of worship. I could tell for the kids that worship is still something that they are not quite comfortable doing, or may not understand, which presents a challenge. I know that that is one of the reasons I'm called to be here. To not only LEAD worship, but to TEACH the kids and church what worship is and get them to a place where they can do that openly. I would appreciate your prayers on this matter. Afterwards we discussed the first few verses of Romans ch.1 in great detail. Pastor Larry led the discussion and he proved to be quite the knowledgeable Braddah.


It was a great time and being that there were just a few kids I was able to really spend sometime connecting and learning more about them. Jp is a great soccer player. Caio could use more practice on the pool table. Katie loves Anime! Jack is passionate about skateboarding. Next week I get to hang out with them all on my own since Pastor and his family will be on the Mainland visiting family.


Well folks, time to go help out with the set up. As always you can write me words of encouragement here or my email Marsisnotspectacular@gmail.com. Or text/call 909 236 3729. As usual any financial support you can help me with is always appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! Mahalo!

Touchdown. Eagle has landed.

Aloha! Well as most of you know I departed from LAX this morning at 9am. I touched down to a very warm honolulu airport around 11am Hawaiian time. The difference in temperatures was ridiculous. I had been wearing two jackets, mainly just so I didn't have to pack them and worry about the weight of my check in bag. They quickly came off after de-boarding the plane. Pastor Larry picked me up promptly and we made our way to run various errands. During lunch at "Blazin Steaks" we went over my responsibilities/duties/rules/expectations etc.

On our way home we also got a chance to stop by "Lanikai Juice" where one of Larry's Youth students from before he moved out here works/manages. This place was pretty awesome, and had only opened 3 days ago. She gave us a sample of a couple of her favorite drinks and I must say they were rather delish!

 Afterwards we made our way finally to the church and my room. It looked like it was ready for me to come in take a nap. I got settled in, but I still haven't unpacked...that might happen tomorrow...maybe...after my background check! whoa! Its a good thing i'm not a criminal...

Thanks for your continued prayers/support. If you want you can contact me through my email Marsisnotspectacular@gmail.com, my #9092363729, or just chat with me on Facebook! I'm still accepting financial help from friends and family. You can do so by clicking the donation button underneath my picture, or you can write a check to The Cause community church with my name/initials(LC) in the memo line and Hawaii (ex: memo: LC Hawaii) Any and all support is greatly appreciated and will help me do big things here!

Well thats all for today, I may not update everyday, but trust that updating this blog so that you can know how things are going will be very important to me :) Mahalo!

The beginning.

         This summer I have had the great opportunity to go and serve at Sunset beach christian church on the Island of Oahu. SBCC is not only a church but an elementary school and has been around since the 1950s, impacting the community and winning lives to Christ on the North shore of Oahu. Through mutual friends the current Senior pastor, Larry Garret, and I were connected. Pastor Larry, a missionary himself from California, shared with me his heart for the North Shore and that he had been praying for God to fill some roles in the church that were crucial to the health and future of SBCC. Most importantly the church needed someone to lead Worship and focus on youth.

After receiving some advice from my closest mentors I flew out August 17^th to see if SBCC was where God would have me as a long term missionary. During my 2 week stay I was given the pleasure of leading worship at two sunday morning services, meeting and interacting with the youth , as well as helping out around the two acre lot on which the church and school reside. My heart began to ache with compassion as God used me to serve the church. I am no stranger to mission trips, having been a part of trips to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico; but never have I had the opportunity to serve away from home long term.


I am currently believing and praying that God is going to not only use me, but also challenge and stretch me through this next chapter in my walk with Him. I am excited to return to Oahu very soon and serve for 6 months. During my stay I will be asking my friends and family that are able for financial support in order to be able to feed myself and keep up with a few bills. I understand that what I am asking for is a sacrifice but I believe 100% that sowing into God's kingdom is much more rewarding than any other investment. Your prayers and support make you a teammate and not just a spectator. I have created a button for you to be able to donate directly to my paypal account(located above and to the right, below my picture), or if you are more comfortable you can make a check out to the Cause community church with my name in the memo line(tax deductable).


            I am so excited to keep you updated with how God is using me away from home. Please understand that I don't believe I earned this opportunity, I only made myself available. I hope that encourages you to follow the Lord and walk through the doors he opens.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11