The end is near...for me!

Okay, so the title of this post is a little misleading! But, the end of my time at YWAM Maui is drawing near. I came on staff in May 2007, and I can easily say that it was the fastest two years of my life...in a good way. I can barely believe that I am actually headed home in a couple of weeks knowing that I have no plans on coming back. Maui feels like home, it's just too bad my family couldn't live out here too!

I guess I will try to give a little re-cap of the last two and a half years since I first came to maui in September 2006.

2006 :
Did DTS Lecture phase in Maui. God changed me so much during this time and it was such a great time of learning more about God as well as building a better foundation of basic christian beliefs.
In December I went on outreach as part of my DTS to Thailand,Indonesia, and Malaysia. Obviously there are a ton of things to be written about this...but not for now.

2007:
For the first two months of 2007 I was in Indonesia and Malaysia still on outreach
I came back home for two and half months before returning to Maui on staff
Upon coming back on staff I was placed in the maintenance department where I learned the ropes until two months later when I was put in charge
From then until December I was Maintenance head and was in charge of keeping our base up and running a small crew of other young guys.

Leah and I started dating in December.

2008:
I staffed a DTS starting in January, going through the end of June. I returned to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and added a country this time...Brunei.

Went home in July to meet Leah's parents and then she got to meet mine!
We were fortunate to be able to go to a friends wedding in scotland in august that Leah was a bridesmaid in.
The end of August we returned to Maui. I was back in maintenance and after two weeks I was put back in charge of it until December. Leah and I also were both leading weekly prayer times for our base for one hour every thursday morning.

On September 5th, Leah and I got engaged!

2009:
Continued working in maintenance as well as doing outreach preparation for the team going to Borneo as well as continuing to lead prayer times.

In March, Leah left maui and went home to prepare for the wedding as well as work and save some money.

And this brings me here, looking at leaving a place that I really do love and believe in. I know that every time I hear a story from someone on our base that has just returned from outreach that I, and the other staff on this base had a hand in sending them out. And I feel completely blessed to have gotten to see lives changed through our teams that go out from here.
I'm really going to miss this place. God did alot in me and through me while I've been out here, alot more that I would have ever guessed the first time I set foot here in 2006.

I'm leaving Maui on April 30th and going to see Leah for a week in Eureka, California. After that I'm heading home to find a job, car, and an apartment/condo/house. All before getting married on July 25th.