Nein

Skateboarding was a big pastime in those years with plenty of space to ride on the property. There was a nice, smooth former shuffleboard court and there was also a road on a hill down the side of Building Three that ended in a large drainage bowl you could ride into and around. It was a good place for bikes too. The bowl had no outlet, so after a rain, water would sit in there and get very nasty with tadpoles and such. 

In Hawaii, if you got scraped, it was easy to get a staph infection, which could turn into painful sores that could actually be life-threatening. The bowl was not a good place to wipe out and I was always too scared that I was going to, going too fast down the hill. Somebody built a ramp on the side of the bowl and one day, someone told Samuel to slide down it. Unbeknownst to him, there was a nail sticking out and he tore up the back of his leg.

There was a pool on the property. Someone actually found it by falling into it through the overgrowth. There were some fun and lazy days beside that pool. My best friend, Mark lived next door to us in Building One. He was from the state of Washington. They had more money than us so when he got a new bike he gave me his old one. After a while, I proceeded to destroy that bike when I thought jumping it into the pool - full of water - was fun. The bike rusted out.

I broke my arm on the new property. One day we were up the back in a tree. We decided to jump like monkeys from one branch to swing onto the next. I was swinging way too fast and went all the way over, lost my hold and fell to the ground, trying to use my right arm to break the fall. When I stood up and looked at my arm, part of it was bent up. I asked anyone if they knew if this was a broken arm. When I got home, my parents confirmed and we rushed up mauka to the hospital in Kealakakua.

A family from Germany came to join YWAM in Hawaii. They had a young boy and a young girl. The children did not speak English. The word no in German is nein, pronounced “nine”. We tried to talk to the kids but they just smiled and answered nein to everything. So we started asking them math questions like, “What is 2 + 2?”. They just kept answering…nein. We got a kick out of that.

Somehow, the little German girl “fell in love” with me. I was ten and she was about six. Whenever we had some meeting, as we often did (some people call YWAM, Youth With A Meeting), she would come and stand nearby, waiting for me to assent to let her sit on my lap, where she remained ensconced for the rest of the meeting. 

One day I was invited to one of my friend’s birthday parties in Building Two. People were rushing to get in line for the cake and ice cream but I was just going to sit until the line went down. I wish I hadn’t that day. There is a verse in the Bible in Matthew 20:16 that reads, “The last shall be first and first shall be last”. My friend’s parents decided to take that literally and turn the line around. The person who was first in line was now last and the person who was last in line was now first, and I was still sitting on the couch.



Comments

  1. DiwakarAugust 21, 2020 at 1:01 AM

    Hello Bro. Stephen williams. I am a Pastor from Mumbai India. I am glad to stop by your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I am also blessed and feel privileged and honoured to get connected with you as well as know you and about your zeal to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. It was interesting to go through your blog post and read about the background of "Nein" and what that means and the story of a German girl who did not know English who kept responding to every question "Nein" and how you finished your post with the verse from Mathew 20:16 . I enjoyed it. Well I love getting connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 41yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great conrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. Wer reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the brokenhearted. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have young people from your family, friends or church circle to come to Mumbai to work with us during vacation time. As I have noticed your connection with the Youth With A Mission and if you are on the staff of the YWAM then the DTS students can come to Mumbai for their practical work to work with us. In the past we have had many young people from YWAM from Australia and New zealand who came to work with us during their practical training time. I had a privilege to help the early shor term missionaries of YWAM coning from Australia and New Zealand to Mumbai to establish its Base in Mumbai and I had a privilege to help them getting establish in Mumbai and thus my wife became the first DTS Student of their first batch. So I have high regard for YWAM Organization. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. god's richest blessings on you your family and friends also wishing you and your family a blessed and a very Christ centered rest of the year 2020. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede.

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