BASIC Action Ohana Group

Cal had me spend some time reflecting on the HIM conference, which is a great way to gather myself after the informational weekend overload. So, in the midst of this process, I decided to post some of those reflections here.

It is a hope and a future that our God gave us, a theme which the conference attempted to explore. For me, the conference was a tiring, exciting, inspirational, frustrating, and convicting time. I felt stirrings of great expectation when I first entered the convention center. I wanted to be wowed and found, instead, hope. I wanted to be excited and was given peace. I love living in God’s story for many reasons, not the very least is its unpredictable unfolding of my expectations. I came to learn, and learn I did. I didn’t gather any new insight nor did I receive any bombastic knowledge. Instead, He gave me a reminder that just overlays what He was teaching me for the past year. I was reminded of the hope that the immediate future held some of my desires; hope that I will be able to see His kingdom here on earth; hope that I will see my Compassion adopted child for two years, Iya, grow up to be like the compassion speaker, confident in who he is now and will be in his future because of our love, Jesus; hope that our season of reaping will be here sooner rather than later; hope that I am honoring Him as I gain patience, love, and understanding during my season of waiting and sowing. So, with this hope, I will push forward with intentionally loving my Ohana, (I can already hear the groans from them), giving more communication time to Iya, and push myself to look at my coworkers through different pairs of eyes.

These were some of my experiences from the conference. Here are some of my sights of the conference.

If you have never been to a conference, I truly encourage you to experience a segment of God’s community. It will be an inspiring weekend. For those that went, what were some of your experiences from the conference?

“Tonight, we bring you something different in this already extraordinary campaign year. We are calling it the Compassion Forum, an evening with the Democratic presidential candidates to focus on the issues of faith and compassion and how a president’s faith can affect us all.”

And thus begins an interesting evening where the democratic presidential candidates talk about faith. What amazes me is just how natural they both are when speaking about their faith, a departure from the last election where the democratic presidential nominee, Kerry, was reluctant to speak about his faith. This interest me since, as an Ohana, we have been trying to find ways that faith plays out in everyday life.

You can read the complete transcript at CNN. Let me know what you think in the comments.

We have begun to meet at the Kahala Starbucks to complete our study of “What’s So Amazing About Grace”. I thought a coffee house would be perfect for an insane 8:30 in the AM, yes that is early morning, meeting. I could just swing by, grab my grande, 2% (because I really cannot handle soy, yet), vanilla latte with 2 shots. Yes, that’s 2 shots, much to the dismay of my fellow Ohana family and those who worship at the 10:30 service.

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I’m not a real Starbucks aficionado as can be witness with my difficulty of choosing the size of my beverage, grande is large right? So it should come as no real shocker that I really don’t know what I should try at Starbucks. Can you give me some suggestions by telling me your favorite Starbuck’s libation of choice?

More photos…