PERSEVERANCE

God is absolutely amazing. I wish I could claim credit for this day, because it was a day perfectly designed for God to use Tara and me to teach our children about perseverance. It's like I designed this and wrote an excellent book around raising my boys, like the one above: But, no, God gets all the glory for creating the perfect day for a lesson in perseverance.

One of the first main sights greeting us as we neared our destination was this. If you look behind the three large ones up close, you will see that the ones further back have lost some of their arms, are rusty, and, what you cannot see, is that none of them are working. The purpose for which these huge windmills were designed, on one of the windiest places in America, is left unfulfilled because none of the machines are still in working order.

This location is almost to South Point on the Big Island. It is the southernmost tip of the United States. It is REMOTE. We saw few cars, a few fisherman, a few houses with some resident goats (click on the funky tree to see them), and no signs of merchandising or anything open to the public for purchase.

We drove past this eerie sight, eerie because it seemed like a place for a horror flick, a display of death. Whomever was in charge of maintaining this excellent producer of electricity for the Big Island failed to persevere in their task.

We were following a wonderful guidebook to our destination. If you ever make it here to see the active volcanoes or to enjoy a step back to a more laid back America, please purchase or borrow this book. It will take you step by step through everything, especially if you are really good at following directions.

That is where I got off track. :) The book described a parking lot, and, we drove down a one lane bumpy road that used to be two lanes but, again, a lack of perseverance and care has resulted in the road becoming difficult for cars that don't have 4WD. And, we found a parking lot. There were many fisherman and other cars there, so I assumed it was the place where we would have to park and begin hiking. You see, we have a little PT Cruiser to use while we are here. It is not made for 4WD roads. And, past the "parking lot" I thought I was at were roads only for 4WD vehicles. We knew we'd need to hike, and the book told us it was about a 2.25 mile hike.

I loaded Regan, my two-year old into a backpack (she's close to 40 pounds) and then Tara, Tanner (7) and Keaton (5) all had to fend for themselves.

What fun!!! We are off on what will be a lengthy hike for my two boys, but what a great time we will all have as a family! Meanwhile, interestingly enough, the video we watched the night previous on our laptop and then again in the car was a Veggie Tales video about... guess....

Perseverance.

Isn't it amazing how God knows just what to be preparing you for????!!!!

So, off we go. 2.25 miles one way shouldn't be too bad. We'll rest at our destination and then return the 2.25 miles after a refreshing dip in the ocean.

We hiked for 40 minutes along the ocean front on this southernmost tip of the United States. It looked like this.

And we were having a grand time. The noise of huge crashing waves (there are no breakers on this coastline), the clear blue skies, the occasional sea birds crying, and the steadiness of feet padding along. Unfortunately, after 40 minutes of hiking along so happily, as we topped one hill we were greeted with this sight.

If you click on the picture and look between two of the vehicles you will see a gate. Well, the book tells you about this gate as the marker where the 2.25 miles begins. So, we had been hiking along for 40 minutes, over a mile, to be greeted by the fact that we had at least another 2.25 miles to go. We don't want to go back; we can't. You see, we are headed to a beach that is the only one like it in the world. It has GREEN sand, made from the mineral olivine. The sand is a mixture of lava and olivine, so it has green and black sand particles all throughout it. My wife is such a trooper and has so much determination and perseverance. So, we march on. Regan's forty pound pack is heavy, and I've been suffering from a neck/shoulder injury, but I definitely do not want to stop now. And, amazingly, I watch my five-year old suck it up and take off!

Enough of the build... We finished and were greeted by these incredible views. Please enjoy them because we finished strong to obtain these photos and a little bit of the mystical green sand, even a little in Tara's ears, in the girls' bathing suits, on our feet, etc. :)

The below, if you look closely, shows Tara about to be buried under a huge wave.Still smiling, even though we are getting ready to make the extended journey back...
Looking back after we leave...

STILL GOING....
AND GOING.... (click to see them off in distance)
Regan had it pretty good. Dad decided to take a break. We were almost there...

After all of this, which we estimated ended up being about 7 miles of hiking in 3.5 hours (we did stop at the beach for a couple of hours for a total of almost 6 hours), we drove the 60 miles back to Kona, treating ourselves along the way with an excellent find of a restaurant. (Oh, i forgot to mention, we didn't plan ahead well and ended up not having lunch at all...my poor kiddoes). The restaurant is the first Mexican restaurant we've found here that actually tasted Mexican (not that we've tried many, but there aren't many around either). It was Senor Billy's located in Captain Cook, Hawaii. Ha. What a name and a place for good Mexican.

Oh, and, besides the fact that the entire day was filled with lessons on perseverance, including ol' Larry and Bob chortling in our backseat all the way, these are some of the verses that God keeps hitting me over the head with of late:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3.

I suppose I better take note. I know I want to finish strong, just as my family did today.

Buenos noches!