DTS360 kicks off ... meet the staff team

Here we GO ... our new DTS 360 started this weekend. We are super excited about the hand-picked group of men and women that God has brought to Kona to be part of this new DTS. 

The quarter kicked off here in Kona on Thursday with a great arrival day. Friday was welcome and orientation day. We mixed things up from the normal way doing it and instead of all being the Ohana Ct for the morning, after the Hawaiian welcome protocol we broke into groups and rotated around 3 of our campus venues for orientation ... we went to the Mauka Theater - our own campus movie theater to watch some YWAM videos to learn about who YWAM & UofN are, then to the prayer room to invite God to really lead this quarter ... it was great to start off praying for our students and praying over them the word of the Lord for this season, then to the Pavilion for an introduction to community life.

We had a short afternoon with the 360 gang, then into the evening Aloha welcome night ... a message about being a Gideon army, and a great welcoming of and prayer for the nations.

Saturday saw our students head out around Kona on a scavenger hunt and then we all headed to the beach for a beautiful day of sun, sea and sand. We ended off the day making s'mores together.

I'll introduce the students in a later post, but we have 23 in total, 8 women and 15 men, raging in age from 17-32, from USA, Canada, Brazil, France, Sweden and Russia. When you throw in the staff nationalities we represent 10 nations.

But let me introduce the staff ... we have three families and three single ladies.

The Duttons

Andrew & Faith have been in Kona since January 2008. I have worked closely with them since summer 2008, i love this amazing family from Australia. They are full of laughter, wisdom, and noise. They are my extended family here. Andrew & Faith are like my brother & sister and know EVERYTHING about me and are always there to process life with!

The Passehls

Brooke & Cory are new to Kona, but not to YWAM. They have two beautiful twin daughters. I'm looking forward to getting to know them more. They come to us from YWAM Australia, but are originally from the USA.

The Greyvensteins

Erik & Marguerite are from South Africa and have worked with YWAM all over the place. They bring a lot of laughter to the team and have a cute as a button daughter called Kara.

Heidi

... she's the young'un but the one full of crazy energy and enthusiasm. She is fresh from her own DTS, which gives her a unique connection to the students.

Kimberly

... has been working with YWAM in the Ukraine for a few years and more recently has been keeping out staff services office going, which is no small job.

and then there is me! 

Please pray for us as we lead this school and make ourselves channels for God to use to see our students lives changed. We are so full of anticipation for the next 6 months ahead and what may come from them.