the dentist office

**the little girl picture is me at 2 years old. My aunt Susan sent it to us and David said he would us it as blackmail. But I figured if I could confidently display this on a public blogging site, it can no longer hold as blackmail.

Well hello there:

I'm here at HMC church writing while David is just right out the door practicing a drama with our teens that they are performing during Easter. I have to admit, these teens are amazing. They have dedicated an entire day (9am-6pm) to practicing for the Easter production, and they are good!

So, I know it's been a little while, but let me catch you up with life. I'm going to start by talking about my Hawaii dental experience. I know you are on the edge of your seats for this story, but patience my friend...

So yesterday I went to the dentist. Let me tell you, Hawaii dentistry is thorough and very painful. But I've never seen a dentist office so efficient with their time and on schedule. They ushered me into the first room, where I had over a billion Xrays taken, ok, not that many but I don't know how many times I heard "Open you mouth just a little bit wider, now it's going to pinch, wait there...hold it" as they run to click the button while you are sitting there with cardboard sticking out of your mouth feeling like you might gag at any moment. Anyone been there with me? Well I then saw the actual dentist, I nice man who explained the procedure of checking my gums as he showed me a needle device about 1 1/2 inches long. I panicked, "That device is going in my gums?" Well not quite but close, that man poked at my gums checking for swelling and bleeding...I thought, well yeah of course they are going to swell and bleed if you are poking me with that...but he proceeded to continue, I guess he knew what he was doing:) Then they ushered me into another room where a jovial lady was waiting to finally clean my teeth. This lady was the sweetest lady until she started cleaning my teeth. Ruthless, that's all I have to say. It took 24 hours for my mouth to finally feel normal again. Well why am I sharing this with you? As I always do, I see Christian parallels from normal life situations. Although the whole dental experience was quite uncomfortable and painful, and I questioned the mental capacity of a man poking me with a needle, my teeth turned our clean and my mouth more healthy. I just wonder if that's what it's like with God when we ask him to clean us out and "purify us". It's uncomfortable and then becomes quite painful, we begin questioning Him looking to other things to relieve the pain, but in the end it is totally worth it. We are pure, we are clean!

So I hope you enjoyed my little story.

We have a very busy week ahead of us. My R.D. from Focus on the Family Institute is coming to visit on Tuesday. I'm really excited to catch up with her.

God has given me a passion and a vision for a college opportunity here on the islands. I'm not sure how it's going to happen, but I've had a few conversations with people and it seems I'm not the only one who shares the passion...we'll see what God has in store.

David is staying busy. He's busy planning a Vday dinner for our youth group Feb 12, he then goes to a week conferene in Oahu and then the following week has a 2 day conference in Kauai...gosh, I wish I had his job:) But I'm blessed because he's letting me go visit Colorado for a few days 15-21, so I'm looking forward to seeing family!

Our biggest youth project is the Colorado Trip for the Desperation Conference, helping the homeless ministry, and some fun!. We are needing to help these students fundraise and we are praying for a great deal on tickets (group rate). If you would like to help sponsor a teen to go to Colorado (they are looking to fundraise 1000/child) please send a check to ($5, 10, 15, 20, 50 would be a tremendous help): If you are from Hawaii and would like to partake in Rent a Teen (hire a teen for teen labor) please call Pastor David.

Hilo Missionary Church

attn: David Poole/Colorado Trip

1044 Komohana Street

Hilo, HI 96720

by the way this is the fish pic, and yes david actually ate it...but he's alive and still breathing, so that's the good news.