Gospel Community Group

When we started going to our new church (the church plant one) there were two gospel community groups (Bible study/community outreach/etc). As the church began to grow a little, our pastor asked Cliff and Matt to co-lead a group closer to our side of the island (just a little north of the other groups). Our group has become the catch all from all other areas of the island. We have people coming from Kaneohe, Honolulu, and Aiea at this point. 

On our first meeting, everyone in our "region" showed up! It was a huge group. I was a little nervous actually. But it was exciting! Cliff talked a little about some of the options for a Bible study format and left it up for discussion. Some options were: topics, following the pulpit, going verse by verse through a book of the Bible, and the way we learned at our church in Oregon... reading a book 50 times, doing background/author/recipient research, and doing word studies. Most of them thought Cliff was kidding about the 50 times (including our pastor) and they kinda laughed :). But when they realized he was serious, a few really liked the idea. We talked a little more about it and everyone (it seemed) wanted to try it! 

The next couple of weeks we had only a few people... the ones who voiced that they liked the format. But then we had a game night. Everyone came again. :) Then we entered into a phase where everyone had pretty valid reasons not to come: morning sickness, having a baby, deployments, etc. We were starting to see that most of the original group was going to be hard to get on the same page at the same time. 

We tried moving around meeting times, changing days of the week, and a few other things before we just kind of realized that our small core group of 5 was all that would be coming. And even with us, it seemed there were excuses that would pop up. It was happening so often that Cliff said we needed to keep up the Bible study even if it was just the two of us. So for the most part, we did! 

Then we got a few visitors. One stayed, two left, another stayed two more came. And now we find ourselves with a strong core group of people who all love to hang out and eat dinner together before studying God's word. We are learning to be vulnerable together, meet for one another's needs, and really dig in to the Bible. It's fun to see the fruit! 

It is strange, however, that we find ourselves in a completely new situation. We are, by several years, older than anyone else. That's weird. One couple JUST had a baby, there are three singles, and another newlywed couple. For some reason they seem to enjoy being with us! They like our kids. Our kids LOVE them. Cambria has a crush on one of them, Mason throws the football with one of the guys, and Lochlan is engaged in battle scenarios from the moment a few of them walk in the door. 

It's also hilarious that the gals think I am some sort of super woman because I make things (food/cleaning products) from scratch. It is humbling when I make statements like, "When I first got married..." or "When I was your age..." or "I've learned little by little over the years..." It's so strange being so much older! 

One time a guy came in to make some rice before everyone got here. Thankfully I caught him before he started a fire. I had to teach him the difference between a pot for boiling water and a double boiler pan :) It was smoking! He also just moved into his first home on his own and didn't have a mattress. I went to get him an air mattress, pump, and blanket before I asked him if he needed a pillow. One of the other single guys was like, "What is she? Your mom?!" Haha! 

Cliff roped the guys into doing a scouting trip to the Napali coast trail. It was fun for Cliff to try out his antics (22 miles in and out in one day with an airplane waiting...) But they were all up for it and made it! Barely...

I am often finishing up the meal when people are arriving... I almost always put this guy in charge :) He's awesome.

  

 

Speaking of awesome, we have pretty fun meal themes. We've done the usuals (Mexican, Italian, St. Patrick's Day food), and then some fun ones like Central/South American, Jamaican night, and Cereal night. Some of the dishes I've made, I would never have tried unless we had these themes. Some new things for me were Baleadas (Honduras), jicama, salt fish fritters and jerk chicken (Jamaica). 

And we got to try lemoncello all the way from Italy!

 I love that they feel at home here and play nerf wars under my kitchen table.

And I love that we can carry a conversation even though a battle is raging all around us.

We all have fun playing games together and they patiently include our kids :) 

 

And when we have rewards like watching Star Wars for learning the alphabet, they take it to the next level and make a party out of it... with costumes!

 So while we don't have any families with kids our kids' ages, the people we DO have are kind of like big kids... that care about discussing the Bible... so it's cool :)

We are very thankful to be a part of this growing church. We have learned a lot and now it seems our little GCG is on a roll. It's a fun journey!