WEEK 3: "It's called 'shave ice,' brah"

Brooke Kanna
Jul 10, 2021
3 min read

Hey guys, I hope you've all been doing well lately. I wanted to share with you some of the key moments of my experiences this past week.

I painted most of my mural! Yup, that's right. I am almost finished, and eager to get it done. I posted some photo updates on my @brookes.journal Instagram page. It's been going a lot faster than I thought, which is putting me at ease, since I leave here in about a week.

This week's team was from Illinois, but not Chicago. A small town called Martinsville. They were all adults, except one sixteen-year-old boy. I didn't spend too much time on the job sites with these people, but was still able to get to know some of them. I think this week was full of laughter and good times, which was just what I needed, I think. Laughter makes everything better, so I was grateful for that. My first day with the team on a job site, one of the staff had made a joke about me, and I explained that I was the butt of all his jokes. Then, a team member asked, "Were they all half-jokes, then?" Ha ha ha, here we go again. I actually appreciated that joke, since it was a new one in the box, not recycled. Anyway, that led to easy conversations with this team, and we all seemed to be comfortable cracking jokes and being silly around each other. Every meal shared with these people was enjoyable. We played spoons and scum, and it was so hilarious playing with them, especially since some didn't know how to play initially. I hosted a dinner this week and tried to get everyone's attention by clanging my Hydro Flask, except it didn't execute as well as I thought it would, but it did get everyone laughing, and ultimately, got their attention. By the end of the dinner, one of the team members gave me a gift, and he said to use it the next time I host a dinner. It was "the world's loudest whistle," gently used.

We got to meet several people on our prayer walks, and was able to pray with most of them. I spent lots of time in prayer this week, which was refreshing. Most of it was listening to others pray, but I did have a day off on Friday, yesterday. This was my rest day, where I got to focus on my time with the Lord. I was able to reflect on my life and the previous week that I just had, journaling about where God was present, and what he was revealing to me. I sat in a hammock for a while at a lake front just worshipping and being in awe of God's goodness and faithfulness. I am so grateful for the conversations that I had with others over the week. I learned a lot about the desires that God has placed in me, desires to serve him and serve others. I could go on and on about what I mean by this, but it would be quite long-winded.

We had some free time this week, so I got to cruise with some of the staff and people from the church. They asked if I wanted to get a snow ball, or snow cone, and I genuinely didn't know what that was. I was thinking it was a legit ball of snow. It turns out, we were going to get shave ice. Talk about "culture shock." Kidding...Anyway, they had so many flavors, including "Tutti Frutti" and "Popeye," and who knows what that even means.

I got to hear and share testimonies with people this week, and God was evidently present in all of those conversations and interactions. This week we studied Hosea 8, and one thing that struck me was in verse 4, talking about how we are so quick to make decisions without the consent of the Lord. It's not only the big things that are meant to be brought before God, but everything. God actually wants us to come to him for all things. God is a big God, capable of dealing with bigger things, but if he can handle the big, think of how much more he can handle the small, too.

Highlights from the week: