Aloha!

Aloha friends!

Hope this finds you well.  Now for a long overdue update from across the ocean and a special invitation to my new family near the end!

The Transition. After our wedding on June 11, Jennie and I moved to Hawaii on June 13th.  A week of honeymooning gave way to a few weeks of apartment, car, bike, and job hunting.  A few weeks and several hilarious and awkward situations (thank you, Craigslist) later, and we found a great apartment, a reliable vehicle, and began to get settled here in Kailua, a small-ish beach town 20 minutes outside of Honolulu.  We both find ourselves deeply thankful to God as we have seen him grace us with a wonderful transition into marriage and ministry in Hawaii.  We are especially grateful to my friends and ministry partners Mark and Ari-Anne Fuchtman, who opened up their home and allowed us to use their vehicle for our first month on the Island.   Also to their roommates, Taylor and Eunice Hanson, who welcomed us into their home, accommodated us with incredible hospitality despite being total strangers until the point we moved into the room next to theirs. All of you have been God’s grace to us.  For many more pictures and stories from the adventure here so far, including incredible views and epic hiking adventures,  check out our new blog: http://www.obiwankologes.blogspot.com/

My new job!  I began my work for InterVarsity here on Oahu a few weeks after we moved.  I will be one of five staff working at University of Hawaii in Honolulu this school year.  I couldn’t be happier with this team, who made me feel instantly welcomed and at home with them.  My first experience with them was two-week trip called Ho’olohe Pono, or, “to listen rightly/justly.”  The trip is geared towards listening to and learning from the local Hawaiian community in hopes of reconciliation across the churched and unchurched, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian lines.  I learned a great deal about Hawaiian culture and history.   As I was literally the only white person in a group of 18,  I also learned a lot about being a minority.  It was also a profound experience to be able to use my identity as a White male to try and bring healing in a context where that demographic often represented pain.  A challenge to you is to try focusing on listening well for a week straight, it is very enlightening.

First week on campus.  This week students returned to UH from the summer away.  After a weekend-long retreat with our student leaders, we have been spending our afternoons on campus meeting students and inviting them into our community.  I spoke with a student named Brandon who had many hesitations about Jesus, and took issue with the fact that Jesus “never declared himself as God.”  I invited him to study the word with me, he said yes. We hope to begin our investigations of Jesus next week.

I had several other interesting conversations – my favorite of which resulted from one student asking me if there was going to be beer at our back to school beach BBQ this Saturday, and the other quickly hushing them, telling them not to offend me, because “He’s a Christian!”  They were quite intrigued when I shared the story of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast.  One of them showed interest in finding out more about Jesus.

Another student I met named Brad spent his first week in Hawaii virtually homeless after moving from Washington.  As we talked, I felt like I may have been the first genuine and inviting person he had run into since he moved from home. I’m hoping our encounter will draw him to the BBQ this Saturday.

Tomorrow I will go back to campus to meet more students, and after a pick-up soccer game with some of our students and their friends, we have our first large group of the semester.

Prayer.  You are invited to join me in prayer for the ongoing transition for Jennie and me, as well as for Brandon, Brad, and the students at UH.  Pray especially for a meeting I will soon be having with a leader from another campus ministry that teaches students must be baptized into their church in order to be forgiven by God.

Invitation to partnership.  I want to extend a special invitation to my new in-laws! Here is my vision.  College is an incredibly formative time in which, just like you and I, our sons and daughters will make decisions that, like no other time in life, plot a trajectory.  InterVarsity’s mission is to help students plot a trajectory towards Jesus and therefor towards the life that God intended for them when he created them – a good, purposeful, fulfilled, and ultimately eternal life.  We work to reach unreached students in a loving rather than domineering way.  We work to develop student leaders who reproduce themselves in college and after college.  We value whole-life discipleship, hoping to remove the parenthesis many of us desire to put around our spiritual lives.  Instead we hope our students let their Christian faith shape their relationships, finances, studies, jobs, and goals, so that no part of their life is isolated from the purposes of God.  And we are proud to tell the stories of InterVarsity alumni like Gary Haugen, founder and president of International Justice Mission and Tim Keller, pastor of the world-wide Church planting catalyst Redeemer Church, who credit their college experience in  InterVarsity for much of their spiritual formation.  In fact, Tim Keller was a student much like Brandon – interested in exploring Jesus but ultimately agnostic – until some friends invited him into a scripture study.  His friends had no idea Tim would go on to be one of the most influential pastors in the world who has impacted millions of lives for the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is like a mustard tree….

Funding update.  I was hired part-time in Hawaii but have now also been offered and accepted a position working on behalf of Urbana Missions Conference.  As a result, I will continue fundraising for a full-time role with IV.  Cost of living increase in Hawaii, marriage, and loss of Central-specific support mean I am looking for new partners to propel us forward!  If the above vision compels you and you want to be a part of our efforts, we welcome your partnership in giving or with prayer.  The best way to begin giving is signing up online:

https://donate.intervarsity.org/support/jordan_kologe

God Bless!

Jordan and Jennie