2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I've been trying to put together just the right words to describe our trip to Hawaii. And I've realized, there aren't any.
Friday, January 15th, will be a day forever in our memories. That's the day we heard about a helicopter crash in Hawaii. The same helicopter and the same place that our friend, Shawn Campbell, just happened to be. We quickly learned that in fact, he was one of the missing Marines. We flew Shawn's mom out here the next day so that we could make a flight one day before they were to hold a memorial service for the Marines at the base. This was not the way we had intended our first trip to Hawaii to look.
The sunrise as we flew out of New Bern that morning was absolutely beautiful. Just a small glimpse of what the next week would look like.
We were in complete awe of O'ahu as we flew over the island. The beauty of this place could have been overshadowed by the grief we were feeling, but somehow God only showed us His beauty that much more.
Shawn holding Donovan, their youngest child.
There are few moments when God reveals Himself to you in a new and glorious way. When you can physically feel Him around you. When you feel Him speaking to you. When your heart is so broken, but there is still joy. This was one of them. The testimony of Shawn's life and the legacy that he leaves behind, is another one of God's beautiful stories.
We cannot say enough wonderful things about Shawn or his family. Shawn met Shawn at OCS, back in June 2000. Then in November 2001, they just happened to be in the same fire team at TBS. That is where I met Kelli and our friendship began. From there, we followed them around for awhile and were lucky enough to be stationed close enough to them a couple of different times that we were able to spend time with them again. They were there for us when we had Brady's memorial service. Kelli was there to capture pictures of Caleb just hours after he was born and our kids even played together a few times (even though they were too little to remember it). To say this was an amazing family, would be an understatement. We have loved this family as we would our own, and although Shawn is now gone, we will continue loving the family and will keep his memory alive!
Kelli was sure to tell us that we were more than welcome to stay at her house with her - she wanted us all there - but that we were "in Hawaii! Go and see Hawaii!" So, we were sure to see some of the beautiful sights.
Lanikai was just down the road from them and would be where we spent our last full day in Hawaii with Kelli, her friends and her family.
Lanikai Beach.
The mountain in the background is the base where we stayed.
After the memorial service at their church on Saturday, we drove home by way of the North Shore, where a lot of the surfing competitions you see on tv are held.
The famous Banzai Pipeline. The waves were pretty calm that day.
Our roadside stop before getting on base.
This is the view from the hotel's parking lot (on base).
Sunday morning, we got up before sunset to get out to Makapu'u Lookout. The lighthouse was about a mile up, although they were working on it, so we couldn't get to it. We heard the humpback whales were there at this time of the year and they were right. We were able to see a few whales, fully breaching, out of the water. It was amazing!
The trail as we were heading back down.
On the way up, we saw this big mountain off in the distance. On the way back down, the sun showed us that it was actually a crater. It's called Koko Crater. It's last eruption was 30,000-35,000 years ago.
On our way back down. Our car was out where you can see the water line.
Driving towards Waikiki on the way to our next stop.
You can see the base (hangars) behind the mountain to the left.
On the next to last day, we headed to back to Lanikai Beach. Shawn tried out the stand up paddle board.
I actually tried it too, and stood up, but there are no pictures to show it because I told Shawn not to leave my side.
This was one of the trees on the front lawn of the hotel on base.
On the way off of base, we stopped by the Iwo Jima memorial, where they had placed all of the flowers from the memorial service.
As we headed back to the airport, the clouds were moving in over the mountains, but we wanted to capture the sheer size of them.
The tunnels, to the left, are how you get from one side of the mountains to the other.
There were lots of tears, hugs and sadness in Hawaii. But there was a lot of this. Fellowship. Embracing Kelli, Tristan, Kenna, Kate and Donovan in love. We made so many new friends that we will cherish, because of Shawn, that we will never forget.
The Local - shaved ice store. (Ice cream, topped with shaved ice, then your choice of all natural juices = yum!).
Kelly, Kelli, me and Christy.
Kelli and kids, now have a long tough road ahead of them, with a lot of decisions to make. We will continue to pray for them and, hopefully, come alongside them to carry them through this time.
This picture was taken in 2002 as we nearly froze while walking around Washington D.C.
We love you and we will miss you.
