About two years after the start of the pandemic, Hawaii is still dominated by Covid rules, actually establishing more and more of them. Since Nelson and Ann Sophie live in Kona, on the big island of Hawaii, they are subject to all of them.

In Nelson’s way of thinking, after being compliant with a long list of pandemic regulations blanketing the entire ministry and scores of young people needing to be quarantined as they arrived on the island (a logistical nightmare), he seemed to reach his limit. Mandatory weekly Covid tests for the whole gang had become debilitating, with government vans invading the campus, checking on compliancy. To Nelson it seemed like they were in a foreign land, not the United States of America.

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January 31, 2022

“The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” is a book I’m reading that Annso gave me for my birthday. It’s almost prophetic that she gave it to me. She is that for me, in a way, and much more, with a baby on the way.

It’s the last day of January 2022. The date sounds fictional. We are making decisions based on vaccine mandates and dodging this and that new rule.

I got fined $250 for bringing a group up Mauna Loa (Long Mountain volcano) on the wrong date, because I supposedly put everyone’s life in danger having that many people in a cabin who could have been wiped out by the ruthless killer, the Omicron variant of the sinister Corona virus (with a 99.9% survival rate). It’s, “Don’t think. Just obey.”

The book is like medicine to me in a way, giving me an excuse or authorizing a break from the high speed pace of the campus and Kokua Crew. Been working to imagine a 7-3 job training as an electrician. I don’t know where it will end up, and it’s hard to imagine working any job for 3 years—especially for another person.

The book says that slowing down can look a lot like failure. Interesting. There sure is a lot of ego wrapped up in moving fast and doing a lot and letting people see you do a lot.

Lord, thank you for leading us. I pray for the courage to carry it out and the wisdom to avoid costly failures that don’t cost only me, but my family, too. Thank you for the encouragement to overcome at least some of the ego that keeps us running so hard for so long. Thank you for your grace and mercy to see me through, despite myself.

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“It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of toil.“ (Psalm 127:2)