ITOWN Church

We got here late last night and went straight to bed. This morning we got up early and had a little worship time and a short devotion to get our day started. 

This afternoon we started on the work projects around the church. Howard volunteered to do the power washing. 

This morning we got the opportunity to join West Kauai UMC for their worship service. Pastor Nafe was out this week, but his wife Mele gave us a great word from God today. 

We are sanding everything inside the church to get it ready for painting later in the week. 

After a long day of hard work, we decided to go the Salt Pond beach.  What a great way to end the day!

We started our day today on the beach with worship and a devotion. It's awesome to learn about God surrounded by His beautiful creation. 

Rachel is working on sanding, priming, and painting the cross from the front of the church. 

After prepping for the last 24 hours we have begun to paint. 

Some of our team have been caulking all of the holes in the church so that we can paint later today. 

Getting ready to start our work day with a prep meeting, it's going to be an amazing day!

We have been working on "breaking" down the doors of the church so that we can sand and repaint them. 

Today we were able to place the cross back on the church after we gave it some new love and care. What a beautiful reminder of Jesus' sacrifice for us!

Last night we went to the beach to go snorkeling and got to see so many sea turtles, it was so a cool experience!

Day 4 of work projects and we are still going strong. David is sanding the post that we repaired earlier in the week. 

Some of us got to start painting the trim today.  Doesn't it look so good?!

This morning we went on a hike to Ho'opi'i Waterfall. We loved walking through God's creation and seeing the beauty of Kauai. 

After our morning hike, we returned to the church and are now trying to wrap up the painting projects before we leave tomorrow. We have gotten so much done!

This afternoon, some locals from another church stopped by to pray over us. They heard about what we are doing for West Kauai UMC and wanted to bless us with prayer. We were also able to reciprocate and pray over them. 

Tonight we wanted to say thank you to the community so we cooked them dinner. They wanted to say thank you to us so they also brought food. We have so much food!!!

This morning we went to the beach for our last morning worship and devo. It is a little bittersweet, we are sad to leave, but also excited to share about our amazing week with our loved ones back home. 

Before we leave for the airport we wanted to surround the church with prayer. We prayed over the church, the members, and the community. 

Chelsea is obsessed with ube ice cream and had to have one last scoop before we leave. We all think she will have withdrawals once she gets home. 

We are at the airport and ready to get home. We are sad to leave Hawaii and this awesome community and hope to return again!