The Best Paper Airplane Ever

The school had moved yet again. We were now meeting up Hualalai near the farm property. YWAM had their own school bus but there were too many kids to fit on just the bus. In those days, kids were allowed to ride in the back of a pick up truck which is obviously pretty dangerous, and we were packed in there. 

One day, my friend Mark and I were messing around in the back of the truck on the way to school and the driver stopped and told us to knock it off. We didn’t realize that he could see us in his mirror so when we got under way, we started messing around again. Corporal punishment was in full force at this school and when we got there we felt its effects.

Besides that, I have very pleasant memories of that school. There was a huge Banyan tree in the yard and a couple of tetherballs. It was there that I learned how to make the best paper airplane in the world. To this day, I still make them in the three-year-old class I teach at church. On a non-windy day we used to throw them straight up and they would slowly circle down and do amazing loop-de-loops. Good times.

I got to do a little track and field, focusing on the long jump. I ended up getting to go to finals on the other side of the island in the town of Hilo where I won third place. I was also interested in playing the drums. Unfortunately, we could not afford a drum set but I got a snare drum, which I played in the school band.

My sister, Joy went through a bit of rebellion around this time and despite how busy my father was, he showed how committed he was to our family. There is a verse in the Bible in I Timothy 3:5 that reads, “If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?” My father told my sister that if he needed to pack everything up and move back to New Zealand to give us more attention then he would. My sister changed and we stayed.

The family prayer card for supporters

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