This is the view from Ko-Olina which is a resort that I stayed at in 2009 when I vacationed here. We don’t live at a resort. 
I know I said the next post would be about our living situation, I haven’t gotten a chance to write that blog yet, but it’s coming soon I promise…
So that people don’t envision us sipping Mai Tai’s on a beach resort in Waikiki…
It’s monday. We had a good weekend. We spent some time with our friend Joanna and her two kids. We went bowling with them on Saturday which was a lot of fun. Even with the bumpers up though I still didn’t clear 100. I’m really bad. Jess and Joanna both did clear 100 though. We miss Joby (Joanna’s husband who is doing training for the army on the mainland.)
Jess has already made her way to the office. Her office hours are 730am-330pm. Jess is the receptionist for YWAM Honolulu this quarter. Her main responsibilities are answering and directing phone calls, responding to and redirecting e-mails and sorting the regular mail. She’s been actively trying to find out forwarding addresses for a long list of people that still have mail sent here but are no longer here. She’s also continuing to prepare for her 9 hour teaching on Ephesians, which will happen in June.
I’m up and blogging. I’ve responded to a couple of questions people had on the YWAM Honolulu facebook page. Worship and intercession is soon, from 830am-10am. I’m going to take some photos during worship and post them on the facebook page.
Then I need to meet with a guy here on base to plan and then shoot 6 videos for our upcoming “Launch” meeting. I’m in charge of Launch which is a meeting on Thursday nights, which is open to the community, and is aimed at inspiring people to catch God’s vision for the call to international missions. I need to send a few e-mails and get our upcoming YWAM Honolulu newsletter database into mail chimp. And I need to meet with a few other people today too for some various things.
Tonite I’m leading a worship practice which is from 545pm-745pm. I need to select some songs for that and practice them on my own before the practice tonite.
Today is also our day this week to do laundry. It’s usually Wednesdays but I missed it last week and I’m running out of clothes, so we got permission to do it today. I’m thinking we’ll probably do about 4 loads. Towels and sheets. 2 loads of darks and a load of whites.
So that’s what we’re up to. It’s gonna be a good day!
Engage: What are YOU up to today? Let us know in the comments.
Jess cleaning her office
We landed on Thursday in Honolulu and we could not have planned our time better…
Last Thursday and Friday were days off for the base. We didn’t know that, but it was honestly nice to have a few days of down time to get over jet lag and get settled before having to jump right in.
We made quite a few trips to target to try and make our space more ours. And well… it really need some sprucing up. I’ll write a whole other post dedicated to our living space soon.
We hit up all of our favorite local restaurants that’ we’ve been missing. We got some loco moco, and a mix plate, and some thai food.
We also made sure to do that before we left the mainland too. They don’t have chic-fil-a, chipotle, panera or dunkin donuts here in Oahu. So we made sure we ate plenty of that before we left.
Saturday we tried to go for a hike, but we left too late, and when we got there the parking was full, so we didn’t end up hiking. Then on Sunday we tried to go to two different beaches and well… again, we left to late in the day and all of the parking was full, so we didn’t end up going to the beach either.
Monday was our first day of work. Jess got trained in the office. And the rest of the staff all pitched in and did some cleaning before the DTS (discipleship training school) students arrive. I took some photos and put them up on YWAM Honolulu’s facebook page, which I will be managing now as a part of my job. You can see them by clicking here. I spent the rest of Monday morning weed wacking.
We’ve had a couple meetings and will have some more this week. The DTS students arrive Thursday. The CBCC (Chronological Biblical Core Course) students are already here and already busy studying their Bible.
Anyway… the next post will be about our living quarters.
Engage: Do you like these more informative personal posts? How has your week been going so far? Let us know in the comments!
Jess and I with her Mom and Step Dad Greg in Pittsburgh.
We landed on Thursday in Honolulu. Jess’ mom and step dad Greg took us to Pittsburgh Wednesday night before we flew out…
We got dinner at the famous Primanti Brothers. Then we stayed in a motel that had a shuttle to the airport for our 7am flight. Jess got a few hours of sleep in the motel. I stayed up the whole night hoping that would help get me on schedule for beating jet lag, and hoping that I could just take the two long flights asleep. I barely slept on either flight.
Travel Tips
1. Travel with ear plugs if you want to sleep.
2. Buy food at the airport and take it with you on the plane. Make sure that it will travel well and take it on your long flight, it will be cheaper and more filling that what they offer you in flight. Or you could be super prepared and pack something from home.
I snapped this photo with you in mind, this was near the end of our flight.
The second flight I played this annoying game with the guy behind me. Every time I put my head back against my seat I would hit his hand with my head. I would think that after the first time he would have learned… but it continued for the whole 7 hour flight from Phoenix to Honolulu. Jess said he was an elderly man whose back probably hurt and had to lean forward. Having had back problems in the past, I can sympathize, but it was still a shock every time I put my head back and would hit his hand.
We’re off to work in 10 minutes. Jess is going to be trained in the office today, and I’m going to help the other staff with some base clean up before the DTS students arrive later this week!
I’ll post next about our first few days in Hawaii.
Engage: What has been your craziest plane experience? Share with us in the comments.
Aloha! We have arrived! We’re getting settled in, we rented a car… I drove last night to a whole foods in a prius and I feel like my life is complete.
Incase you have no clue what I’m talking about enjoy the video above.
I’ll be updating more next week!
Love you guys! Jim and Jess Baker
Jess saying goodbye to her car. We left it in NY to be sold.
It seems like just a few weeks ago I wrote the post the other way…
I’m sitting in Jess’ mom’s living room in Ohio. We’re about to head to Pittsburgh. We’re going to stay in a hotel so we can catch our early flight tomorrow.
Everything is packed… and sitting at the door. I’d like to figure out a way to travel with a lot less. But it’s hard when we’re gone for such a long time. I’m going to figure out a good system though.
We travelled over 6,000 miles on our road trip. When I mapped it originally it was only suppose to be 3500.
It’s strange the way we adapt… after 3 months, the road feels like the norm. Like we’re just suppose to head somewhere else in our car and go and spend some time with someone else. I’m ready however, for some consistency.
We left our car in NY last week, with a friend that sells used cars. It’s always hard saying goodbye to a car, you spend a lot of time in it, at least we do. Jess got it at about 29k in 2009 before we got married and when we got rid of it it has somewhere around 109k. It treated us really well. We’re really hoping we can buy a car in Hawaii this year so we can have a bit more freedom. Living where you work, is at times difficult, and it would be nice to have an easier way to get away when the need arises.
I feel like a totally different person than I did when we arrived on the mainland 3 months ago. I was exhausted, burnt out, tired, and felt pretty beat up.
My parents even commented on that today when I talked to them on the phone. They said my whole demeanor is different than when I arrived at their home in February. They said they watched some of that transition while I was there. I do feel like that was a real turning point for me. Time to just, truly relax.
It’s good to get away, get perspective, rest, get loved on by family and friends. It’s good to revision. It’s good to share, face to face, with trusted friends and family.
Not a profound post. Just trying to kill some time from some of the anxious waiting that happens before we fly half way around the world.
I’ll write more about the 3 month road trip we took soon, and share some stories. I’ll write about the new happenings too. We get into Hawaii at 230ish Hawaii time tomorrow. We are renting a car for the weekend so we can run the errands we need to and yes you bet we’re going to spend some time on a beach.
Seriously, thank you to everyone who absolutely loved on us on this trip. It was refreshing. We’re blessed. Bless you guys.
Engage: If you’re the praying type, I’d love it if you left a prayer for us, praying for our upcoming year.
Aloha!
So if you missed our announcement we’re moving back to Hawaii on April 4th to continue working with YWAM Honolulu.
I’ve tried to anticipate some questions you might have, so here’s my attempt at that…
What are you going to be doing out there?
Jess will be serving as a receptionist in the office for the first three months and also helping prep for the upcoming School of Biblical Studies (SBS) which will start in July. In her spare time she will be studying and preparing her teaching on Ephesians, which she will teach in June for the Chronological Bible Core Course.
Then from July-December she will be a student for the Old Testament portion of the School of Biblical studies, which she was suppose to do last year but because of a shortage of staff she had to serve as staff, instead of be a student.
Then from January 2014 to March 2014 Jess will be academic staff for the New Testament portion of the SBS. She will be teaching some of the New Testament books and grading students homework.
Jim will be putting his creative talents to work, by helping YWAM Honolulu with their marketing, fundraising, web-presence, social media and public relations.
We will try our best this year to give a better look into our daily lives so you can see more of what we’re doing on a day to day basis.
Oh, Hawaii… what a rough place to serve the Lord…
Was that a question? We do hear this one a lot. We are indeed WORKING in Hawaii, we don’t live at the resorts, we don’t sit on the beach everyday with fruity drinks with umbrellas. We are about 3 miles from Waikiki, but our living conditions are anything but luxurious.
Let me remind you that YWAM is a volunteer organization, that means you’re more than welcome to come and serve alongside us in Hawaii
Why do you do what you do?
A photo of Jesse one of the Fall 2012 DTS students sharing the gospel in Nepal. He is returning to YWAM Honolulu to be a student in the upcoming School of Biblical Studies.
The photo above is why we do what we do.
Jesus’ last words to His disciples are recorded in Matthew 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.R)’> baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,T)’> them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you
Mar
28
2013
Chattanooga Tennessee, Ringling Brothers Circus with Tiffany Henley.
We have returned to Boardman, Ohio after our 3 month, 6000+ mile, mainland road trip…
We had a blast visiting friends, family and supporters.
A HUGE thank you to everyone that took the time to meet with us, who housed us, fed us and blessed us! A big apology if we were unable to meet with you on this trip.
If you didn’t already know on April 4th, Jess and I are RETURNING to Honolulu to continue our work with YWAM for another year!
(that’s our big news… incase you were waiting for some other news, we’ve been travelling staying in other people’s houses for the past 3 months… I’m not quite sure what you were expecting.) 😉
Want to know more details about our upcoming time in Hawaii? We have written a post trying to anticipate some questions you might have.
Click here for more details.
Engage: Do you have some news you’d like to share with us? It can be anything we don’t know. Share it with us in the comments!
Hello everyone!
We’re packing up and about to leave Atlanta, and we’re headed to Chattanooga TN to meet up with our good friend Tiffany Henley. We will be going to the circus to celebrate Jess’ birthday! I’ve never been to a circus. Her birthday was the 10th, if you didn’t wish her a happy birthday and would like to you can do so in the comments!
We had a great time in Atlanta spending time with Jess’ sister, brother in law and niece. On the way to Atlanta we got to connect with a few people on the road too, we had breakfast with Sharon Dixon and lunch with Tyler who is a family friend of Jess’.
Before that we had a great time with Jess’ dad and step mom in Sarasota Florida. And a great time with my grandparents in Lake Worth Florida.
Tonite we’re headed to Clarksville TN to connect with Jimmie Turner and his family, hoping also to see Tony Corbett while I’m in town and then Monday we’re headed to Louisville KY to see our good friends the Krebs.
back to packing! pray for safe travel for us!
the BAKERS
I’ve been blessed by these two things recently. The above worship song, and the quote below. I hope they bless you too!
“If you cry out to God, asking Him to restore the passion that you lost, He will answer — every single time.” – Ps Steven Furtick
Engage: What is God speaking to you through these two things? Let us know in the comments.
The Bible Trailer
Last night we watched the two hour premiere of “The Bible” on the History Channel.
I woke up yesterday and checked facebook and saw that one of my friends who is a missionary in India had asked the question, “Is there any where I can watch The Bible on the history channel here in Dehli?” I didn’t give it much thought. But later in the day I found a link on cnn.com about it. You can read that article here.
I learned that Mark Burnett who has worked on a lot of the popular reality tv shows worked on this 10 hour mini series. Mark’s wife is Roma Downey from touched by an angel. I was intrigued, so we watched the first two hours with my grandparents, here in Florida, last night.
A friend that we met with on this trip had recently visited Italy and was commenting on the stained glass in cathedrals and how it told the story of the bible through pictures, because people were illiterate and didn’t have access to the Bible.
It made me wonder what the equivalent to stained glass bible stories would be today. I think this might be it.
Watching it was interesting. I had to go back and look to see if certain things were actually in the Bible. I didn’t remember the angels in Sodom striking the people outside the door with blindness, it must have been something I skimmed over, probably still in shock from Lot offering his daughters to the crowd! (Which Mark chose to leave out.) I wasn’t sure if the blindness was just artistic interpertation or if it really happened. But it’s there. Gen 19
Last nights episode started out with Noah telling the creation story to his children, then highlighted Abraham’s life and then skipped to Moses freeing the people then ended with Joshua and Jericho.
There were parts that were a bit cheesy to me, like why do I hear Irish sounding accents? (Probably because the producers are from England and Ireland) And I don’t think that they had those types of swords in those days either, hardened steel came much later. I also read a review that quipped about the angels turning into ninja’s. Complain, complain, critique, critique. Nonetheless, I’m eager to tune in again next week, if we can.
I joked with some of my bible school friends asking them if they thought Mark charted (the name for the style of inductive bible study we did in school) before he set out to make this film.
One of the reviews I read said they were not sure who the intended audience was for the film. I wonder what I would think watching this if I had no knowledge of the Bible.
It was nice to watch and hear the bible. Stories of the bible were originally TOLD orally, so there is a listening aspect to it that we miss out on when we just read it. Overall I enjoyed it, it’s fun to SEE and be reminded of the stories of the Bible.
Engage: Did you see The Bible last night on the History Channel? What did you think? Let us know in the comments.
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by Jim Baker
Joanna? I think I know her…
wait?! How in the world do you know her? 😉
Nice day here,too. Spread weed killer this morning while it was still wet, then spent a couple hours + cleaning out the garage. For some reason garages mess themselves up and need help on a regular basis. Now for a little relaxation in the sun room.
sounds like a good day indeed! Will you play settlers tonite?