A little bit more...

Honestly one of these days I'm going to take a video camera around with me and simply video just one day around Surfing The Nations to try and capture what we are all about. Let's see if I can simply let you know what is going on this week. This week is the Freedom Surf Contest. This is the super bowl of Surfing The nations. This is our chance to be in the center of Oahu (Waikiki) and show God's love through the honor of hosting an annual surf contest. This is beyond amazing. It's been honestly so humbling to see all of the workings of how a contest is run - from start to finish. And on top of that how a non-profit runs a contest, from fund-raising to donations it's been a ride. We have a new board for every division (around 11 boards). PTL because no way would we have all of this provided without God's hand in it. I wish you were all here to experience this amazing event and the amazing ways God has blessed us with the responsibility of a contest of this magnitude.

If that's not enough we are hosting two art shows.The first one is the 'Ohai Ho'ike Art Show. This art show is an extension of our Ulu Pono program. Our Ulu Pono program is our after school program we offer twice a week to the local kids. We tutor them as well as teach them art, dance, the Hawaiian culture/language and simply love on them. Some of you guys know the story of Le'i (apart of our ohana now once one of our staff decided to adopt him). It's an amazing story of how God has used such an amazing program to bless out STN ohana and change this little boys life. The Surf Outreach I help lead is also an extension of our Ulu Pono program and our art show is a way to help fund out needs. Three of our kids from our Surf Outreach are competing in our Freedom Surf Contest this weekend. It's as if I am a proud parent preparing to see my kids perform for the first time. I am so stoked!

Colors of Hope is our second art show being hosted by Surfing The Nations to fund-raise for the Bangladesh Surf Club. Bangladesh is one of the handful of countries STN targets and the Surf Club is obviously a large part of our focus. Both of these art shows are put on by the staff of STN and host artists from the community. It's so fun to see the kids artwork along side the art work of big time artists being shown in now the new Yamada building. Once this building was a porn shop but as of last month STN owns not only one but all four Kam Highways buildings. The Bangle boys attempted to get visas early this month to come out for our internship but with two attempted denials they are no longer able to come. It was a big blow to our hearts but we know God can love them way beyond our capacity and we are stoked to see what is in store this next year. Hopefully with the success of this art show -- more than we can fathom.

So there is a small amount of info about just what is going on in the next week or so. If you want to know more let me know and I could talk for hours about what STN is really about. Stoked for this week and months to come. God is faithful.