Sustained

June 27, 2002

Aloha from Molokai-

Last night, as I was sitting at evening program of the Molokai Christian Youth Retreat, we started singing the song “Sustained” by Darin McWatters and Josh Blanken. If you have not heard it before, here are the words-

I’m satisfied by your love so completely; How could I thirst for the praises of man; There’s nothing I need that You haven’t provided. No one can offer me peace like you can. Jesus your love is enough, sufficient for me, All I have needed You’ve given for free. Your love is enough, don’t need men’s applause, I know what I’m worth, I remember the cross (Chorus) I’m sustained, oh Lord, When your light surrounds me the world goes away. I’m sustained oh Lord. My heart knows your love like it flows through my veins. Such peace and contentment I’ve found in Your grace. I can’t think why I’ve ever complained. You love me what more could I want, I’m sustained.

As I heard those words last night and as I wrote them out again this morning I realized how true those words are about my own life and how God has grown me so much this past year. I know I couldn’t have said “I’m sustained” and meant it a year ago but God has shown me through everything I have done and been through this year that He is all I need. I used to do things (and probably sometimes still do) for the praises of man and when I didn’t get those praises I was hurt. God has shown me this year that He has given to each one of us talents that need to be done for His honor and glory- only. This is one of those skills that takes a long time to learn and God is still working on me but I know that His love is unfailing and that is what sustains me.

God has given to me so much, I feel so unworthy. There are times when being so far from family and friends, it gets lonely out here. I have been struggling this week with that. Last night when we were singing this song, I just thought back on my week and realized that in my loneliness God was still there. He provided conversations with far away friends and friends here on island. Only by His grace can this peace that passes all understanding be found. 

I was convicted last night by a verse in Isaiah 7 (verse 9)- “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all”. I want to offer to you this peace and unconditional love that can only be found in Christ Jesus. All you have to do is admit that you are a sinner, ask for forgiveness, believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for the payment of your sins and invite Him into your life. It is a free gift for the taking – no trying to do good works and no begging to get you into heaven- just a wonderful love from a big God. God even gave you the choice to accept Him and spend eternity with Him in Heaven or reject Him and be eternally condemned to Hell. 

I love each of you and want to be able to see you in heaven on that glad reunion day. Please feel free to email me any questions, comments, or prayer requests. Know that you are in my prayers.

Much love and God’s Blessings

Angela Calhoun

Where will you be?

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

 Dearest family and friends,
I know I just sent out a letter a couple of days ago but I felt the Lord leading me to send out another note after all of the things that have happened today (yesterday for you guys on the East coast). I just
got back from a prayer meeting that was held at Calvary Chapel. Several points were brought up that I
feel I need to share with all of you. In the book of Nehemiah in the Bible, Nehemiah says a prayer that I think fits the situation that we, as Americans, are in. Read Nehemiah 1:2-11. In this Nehemiah prays-
"O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel (v 10) They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayers of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."

For my brothers and sisters in Christ, I ask and pray that you will join with me and the other believers of this great nation and pray. Pray diligently!!! Pray hard!!! Pray unceasingly!!! Pray for the survivors,
pray for the rescue workers for strength, pray for the medical workers for kindness and compassion towards the patients, pray for President Bush that he will make the right decisions and that he will lead this country closer to you, pray for the families that are searching for loved ones, pray for the families that have lost loved ones, pray that justice will come to those that did these acts, pray for love toward all people (even our enemies).

For those of you that do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I pray that you will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He is the only way to spend eternity in Heaven. In John
14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

First you must realize that you are a sinner- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"  Romans 3:23.
Second you must believe that Christ came to earth as a man and died for your sins and mine.
Then you must accept the gift of salvation. You must pray and ask forgiveness of your sins and ask him to be Lord of your life. It is more than just having a knowledge that there is a God, it is a personal relationship with him.

Don't put off till tomorrow for we are not guaranteed another breath never the less another day. Please take your eternity seriously. I can guarantee that the people aboard those planes or in the towers didn't know when they woke up this morning that it would be there last day with us. Please don't take that chance.
 A comment was made tonight- "After the tragedy today, heaven and hell were very busy."  Which side will you be on?  Please email me back if you have any questions. I am far from knowing all of the answers but I can pass the questions on to my pastor here and I can pray for you. Prayer works and I want to see you all spend eternity in heaven. You are in my prayers.

 Much love and God's blessings,

 Angela Dawn Calhoun

Life happens

Just thought that I would drop a short (hopefully) note to let you know that I am still alive and kicking. Everything is going very well in my little corner of the world. For the past couple of weeks, life has been a little bit crazy with parent/teacher conferences, baby showers, birthday parties, working on projects, and getting more involved in the life of Molokai.

Parent/teacher conferences went very well. I had a good opportunity to talk with my 5^th grade student's parents (or guardians) and witness to some of them. It is amazing to me what some of these students are dealing with. Please keep these students in your prayers. I am very thankful that the parents were open to the comments that I made and were willing to listen and work with their child more at home.

One of the ladies that I go to church with is expecting a baby in the next month, so we threw a surprise baby shower for her last night. She had no idea that we were doing this, which made it even more fun. We played several “baby shower” games and the ironic part is that Jenn and I won more than half of the games. Most of the other ladies had children, we don't.

This past week, the 5^th grade class at MCA has been studying the pilgrims and Indians in History. I decided to do a project and have each of the students do a different part and then on Monday have a thanksgiving dinner. Little did I know how well it would go over. One of the students, built a tepee in our classroom that is large enough to get in. He and another student decorated it with Native American designs. Another student built a pilgrim house out of press board. The rest of the students worked on papers about the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving. Some made costumes while others made up a bulliten board. The parents of the students are coming to the classroom on Monday for our feast. I praise the Lord that this idea went over so well.

Life on Molokai- The Lord has truly blessed me in helping to fit in on Molokai. I have been invited to sing with the Praise and Worship team at Molokai Baptist Church. I have started volunteering at the local (and the only) Christian bookstore. It is run solely on a volunteer basis. I have also gotten involved in keeping the Nursery and cleaning the church. With things like this it makes Molokai seem more like home.

Everything is going well and I appreciate all of you notes, emails, and prayers. Let me know if I can pray for anything specifically for you. I hope everything is going well for you.

Changes

During the past month, since the summer team has left, life on Molokai has changed for me. I went from being surrounded by people my own age with similar interests to a life where there are very few single females in their twenties. Through all of this God has truly shown his awesome power and bestowed blessing after blessing. Molokai is a place to see God's abundant blessings- from the rainbows to the crystal blue oceans. You can see God's beauty everywhere.

School started here on July 30^th. It came as quite a surprise when I found out that I would be teaching 5^th grader's all day long with one 6^th grade class at the end of the day. Even though it surprised me, God knew about it way before I even took the position. He has given me a peace about this and has blessed me with the knowledge that I have needed to teach these hungry students. It is so awesome that He equips us for tasks that we could never imagine taking on by ourselves.

Learning is completely rely on God in everything that I do is the lesson that I am being taught. It could be unsettling to not know where your next paycheck is coming from but God has proved to me time after time that He will always provide. Life here on Molokai is much more simple than life on the mainland (no clothing stores, no McDonald's, and you have to fly off island to go to Wal-mart- imagine that!!!). In price comparison, things are a bit more pricey- a gallon of gas is $2.24 for regular unleaded and a gallon of milk is $6.50- just to name a couple of items.

My living expenses run about $450/month. If you feel so led to send support on a regular basis, please send the tax deductible donation to me at PO Box 9, Hoolehua, HI 96729 made out to Molokai Christian Academy.

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support. May God bless you in everything that you do.

Car trouble

Just thought I would drop a short note and tell everybody that the Lord does work in awesome ways. Here is what happened today. Today is Admissions day in Hawaii- the day Hawaii sets aside for becoming a state. Anyway we got the day off from school, so Jenn (my roommate) and I set off for the beach. We were driving up to the west end of the island when our car blew a tire and threw pieces of rubber. (I wasn't kidding when I said this car was on its last tire :) !) Thank the Lord that I was able to pull the car off to the side of the road without hitting anything. The truck behind us pulled over to make sure we were okay. The lady offered her cell phone and I called one of the teachers at MCA. His wife said that Tom wasn't home but a guy that they have living in their basement who also teaches at the school was there. I spoke to Dan, told him the situation and where we were. He was on his way. While we were waiting, we had 7 people stop to offer assistance. The people of Molokai are so friendly. Dan got there and as soon as he pulled up, Tom was coming the opposite direction. He also stopped. Anyway to make a long story short, our spare tire would not hold air so we ran to the church to see if we could get a spare out of another car. We found one to put on until we could get it into town. Dan let us use his truck to go to the beach, so the day turned out to have a happy ending.

We have so much to be thankful for. Thank you for all of the prayers that are sent up with my name attached. I really appreciate them!

Week 2 of teaching career finished!

I just finished teaching my second week at Molokai Christian Academy. It has definitely been an adventure. I only have 6 children in my 5^th grade class and 10 in my 6^th grade class. For the most part all of my students are well behaved. Overall school is going very well. The entire teaching staff (all 10 of us) meet together every morning at 7:15 for prayer time. It is a time to pray for our students, their parents, and ourselves as the teachers to follow God's will. The class day then starts at 7:45 with devotion. For the 5^th graders we start out the day with math and science/health, have a 15 minute recess, come in and do spelling and English, have lunch and recess, then have story time, Bible and history. I then leave my 5^th graders to go and teach New World History to the 6^th graders. It is entirely different then what I have been used to but it is a lot of fun. Fifth grade is a great age. They enjoy learning and doing activities but they know most of the basic skills.

Well I have heard from several of you and questions keep popping up... I am going to try to answer the ones that I can remember and if you still would like further information please let me know.

What is the summer team? The summer team is a group from Liberty University in Virginia that comes to Hawaii every summer to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ through Good News Clubs, Sports Activities, and lots of other events. This is how I came to find out about Molokai Christian Academy (MCA).

What church am I apart of? Since I work through MCA and that is a ministry of Molokai Independent Baptist Church, I attend this church. Pastor Manley is the preacher and he does a really good job of teaching the Bible. Right now we are studying about Abraham in the book of Genesis. Last summer when I came on the summer team, we were studying out of Genesis and we still are.

How do you get around? Even though Molokai is a small island it is mostly hill (rather large hills). I have a car (a gold reliant named Goldie) through the school that is on its last leg. The power steering is almost out so you get a good arm work out. I try to car pool as much as possible with gas being $2.26 a gallon for regular unleaded.

What do you do in your spare time? Several evenings a week we normally spend the evening with a family on the island. It is so nice to be invited over for dinner and to visit. There are also several beaches near us so it is nice to go and swim, layout, and sometimes watch the sunset. Life on Molokai is very simple. Not a lot of stuff to go out and do. There is one movie theater on the island.

How can we support you? MCA is supported almost entirely by donations. The teachers get paid by these donations. This basically means that if there are no donations coming in then the teachers do not get paid. If you would like to send support, you can send it to my address. If you need any more information please let me know.

Well that is about all of the things that I can think of at the moment. I enjoy hearing from each of you. I pray for you guys and if you have nay prayer concerns please let me know. I can feel the prayers that are sent up for me. Thanks a bunch.

Life on Molokai

Things have shifted into fourth gear on the island of Moloka'i. School starts here on Monday, July 30^th. I cannot believe how this summer has flown by. This past week has been incredibly busy with a lot of emotions. Starting with last Sunday night, we had Aloha Sunday and Christmas in July for the summer team members and the church members. All of the summer team members were recognized and given plumeria leis and gifts from the church. After that we had our Christmas in July celebration. This included singing (or humming) Christmas songs and playing crazy Santa (sort of like a white elephant party where gifts are exchanged). With 64 people playing it lasted for a while, but it was a lot of fun.

Monday was pack up day where the entire team packed up and mailed out. That evening we went to the Manley's house for dinner and then up to the golf course to watch the sunset. It was so peaceful. We walked back to the Manley's for dessert. When I walked in the team started singing “happy birthday” to me. This totally caught me off guard. They made me feel so special with the cards and gifts. Thank you summer team!!!! By the end of the evening, I had shed quite a few tears and so had a few others. The next morning (July 24^th), we got up about 5:30am to see the team off at the airport. It was very difficult to see the team leave, especially Jared. Lenny, Adele, Chris, Dan, Sarah, Jennifer, and I stood out in an empty field waving our aloha's to the team. As I saw the plane fly off I realized that I was out here by myself and I had to fully rely on God for comfort. It is a very strange feeling watching all of the people you have grown so close to fly away. As the day progressed it turned out to be a better day. God gave me the peace and comfort that I needed and I was able to concentrate on setting up my classroom.

Starting on Monday I will be teaching 5^th grade- all subjects and 6^th grade New World History. As many of you know, I graduated from Elon with a degree in Science education with a math concentration, so it is not exactly what I was trained for but God has given me lots of ideas and projects for this age group. I only have 5 fifth graders and I know 2/5ths of them! It has been so much fun setting up a classroom and getting everything in order for the year. If any of you have any ideas or lesson plans or materials that you would like to send, please feel free to. Anything is appreciated. The school I am teaching at is Molokai Christian Academy and it is funded through support from donations and contributions to the school. Basically it means that if there are no donations coming in the teachers do not get paid. Please keep this matter in your prayers. I know God will provide as He sees fit.

Life here on Molokai is so different than life on the mainland. Here are a few examples-

1. The highest speed limit on the island is 45mph
2. A traffic jam consists of two people in trucks pulled up beside each other talking story
3. A small wedding is 2500 of your closest friends.
4. A blizzard is someone dropping shave ice on the sidewalk
5. A hailstorm is a strong wind blowing through coconut grove

Well that is about all on this side of the US! I would like to say a huge thank you for all of you that sent cards and notes for my birthday. They really brightened my day. Keep in touch and let me know what is going on in your corner of the world.