King's Kids, Los Angeles Olympics, 1984

The King’s Kids teams all began together in one location at a private Korean school on summer break. That was where we had our orientation and rehearsals. There were several of us from the ship including Teresa and Heidi. 

I slept on the floor of a large room with a bunch of other guys. There were a lot of attractive girls, especially from Kona, including Leilani, whom I had been pining for when we had left Kona. True to my dad’s theory, my passion for her had waned after a few months, although she was still very attractive and attentive. But I was also enjoying being around all the other girls. In fact, I was enjoying it so much that, shamefully, I virtually ignored my friends from the ship. Then, not too long into training, the leaders called a group of us into a big meeting. 

We were told that the leaders had noticed that those of us in the room were not participating in the training with our whole hearts. They saw that various things were distracting us and if things didn’t change, we would be sent home. I was scared. I had used the very little money I had to get here and I did not want it to be wasted. I determined to shape up and focus on what I was really here to do.

Leilani had been in that meeting too and afterwards she asked to talk with me in private. She confessed that I had been the distraction for her and asked me to forgive her. In truth, she didn’t need to confess that to me. She could have just dealt with that in her heart with God and moved on. I suspected that what she was really trying to do with that confession is to let me know that she was interested in me. I didn’t bite. It was flattering but I could see that she was still a flirt and I was determined to stay focused. I just said, 

“Okay” and walked away.

I would call my parents from time to time, which is when my dad started a new joke with me. The ship office had a cordless phone, which was new to my dad and, therefore, a novelty that he wanted to use to its full advantage. Of course there were no cell phones yet. Every time I called and he got the phone, he would say, 

“Hang on a minute. Just a minute.” 

He would then proceed to the bathroom where he would hold the phone up to the toilet and flush. He had to do that first before he would talk to me.

We finished up King’s Kids training and rehearsals and split into our teams. I was on the Pacific and Asia Team where there weren’t any of my friends from the ship. For about half of each performance, we dressed in international costumes. Mine was a preppy English look.

There were many other YWAM and other Christian groups participating in the outreach to the Olympics. Parallel to the Olympic opening ceremonies, we had a big Olympic Outreach opening ceremony at a local college stadium. All of our King’s Kids teams performed on the stage. Then we split up to stay in separate locations across Los Angeles. The outreach lasted for several weeks and we performed in a variety of places, including a couple of times at Disneyland. A nice little perk to that was that we got to go on the rides for free. 

There was a leader on our team who was also a prominent leader in YWAM. His kids were on my team so he decided to help. Let’s just say that leading kids was not his forte. He was having a very difficult time that summer and seemed to be pretty stressed about it.

Every now and then, the teams would join together for a particular outreach. One time we were heading out to a joint performance in our various team buses. Someone was giving us instructions from the front of the bus but a friend was pulling out in a bus next to us. I was waving to her when I suddenly felt a hard blow to my head. It was the stressed-out leader whacking me with his knuckles because I wasn’t paying attention. It hurt pretty bad and made a lump. Although I was in the wrong, it was just a little abusive. But I took one for the cause.

With the trouble I had had being distracted by girls at the beginning of the outreach, I was not looking for any new relationship. Yet somehow, it found me again. There was a girl on the Pacific and Asia team about the same age named Heather and all of a sudden we seemed drawn to each other. She was Dutch Canadian but also lived in Kona. 

When we realized we liked each other, we had THE TALK - the discussion about making sure we just kept this a friendship and to not let it become exclusive. The leaders could see that we liked each other but when we let them know how we were resolved to keep it, they could see it was not going to cause any trouble.

We had a big Olympic Outreach closing gathering at a local park, then everyone went their separate ways. I went to visit my parents for a few days at the Mercy Ships office before I flew back to Honolulu. Heather went back to Kona.

Can you find me?


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