Welcome to Hawai'i! Land of black sand beaches, orchids, waterfalls and volcanoes. Actually the black sand beach is more like crushed rock, certainly nothing to build sand castles with but interesting all the same.

We took a circle tour of the island yesterday and traveled through 11 of the world's 13 temperate zones. We started in semi desert and traveled through tropic, rainforest, savannah, and more. We went from desert to lush in a matter of minutes. We stood by the side of an active volcano...ugh, I was just a tad intimidated. Actually I was a lot intimidated. I stood next to a steam vent and felt the heat of the internal fury just waiting to spew. The barely contained power of creation was fearsome. As I looked over the bareness of past eruptions, with numerous vents steaming away I was deeply greatful that this was as close to hell as I was ever going to be. It made my scripture memory passage for today that much more precious. (My friend Carolyn gave me a great book for Christmas, "Praying God's Word" by Beth Moore and I have been encouraged to put more of God's word in my memory bank. When you see me, ask me what I am memorizing now, it will keep me accountable.) So let me see if I can do this from memory, Isaiah 43: 10-12, "You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen. So you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no god formed nor will there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord and apart from Me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed - not some foreign god among you. You are My witnesses, declared the Lord, that I am GOD!" There was much conversation about Pele' the fire goddess when we stood at the rim of the volcano but all I thought about was God.

Here is a lava tube that we walked through. Four hundred feet of a tunnel created by a liquid lava flow that crusted around the outside while the liquid continued flowing through. When it was all cooled there was a tube remaining. Amazing.


Today we are "resting". We had considered taking a whale watching tour but a fellow traveler told us about a beach not far from here where you can watch them from the beach. We will check it out.