$30,000

A friend and I just walked back from Anthony's coffee shop, one of the many struggling small businesses here - it seems like half of Paia is shutting down! Hawaii is being hit very hard by the economy because tourism is fading off. I've lost track of the number of people I've met who have lost their jobs and are searching for anything. A lot of people at my church have been moving back to the mainland. So in Anthony's this guy came over to talk to us and I thought he would just hit on us and move on, but no. We got into some political chitchat and he kept saying he was leaving but then walking back to tell us something else. When he finally left and we finally stopped laughing my friend was like, "It's times like this I wish I had a blog ..." And I remembered I have this and haven't written in ions ... so here I am.

Updates of the election were on the TV and after he got the lame jokes out of his system he started telling us that he doesn't know which candidate is better, but he was sure that Obama would win. He chuckled as he told us he would lose a lot of money if he didn't, because he'd put $30,000 on a bet. When I think how far $30,000 would go for me, it blows my mind that someone can just toss it out on a bet. What kills me even more is that he just got done telling us how he has been a businessowner for almost 40 years and this is the first time that he's ever felt scared. Everyone's fear is paralyzing them from spending which is screwing the economy over even more. He's been coming to Maui for 32 years and was distraught that most of his favorite waiters have moved off the island in the past few months.

The $30,000 deal made me assume he would vote for Obama, but he leaned in close to tell us that he couldn't vote for Obama for one reason. Abortion. His politically correct manners shined as he told us that he didn't want to take our rights away from us (we assured him we have no desire to exercise that "right"), but it's just wrong. And he can't imagine standing before God in judgment for all the babies he would have a hand in killing if he voted for someone who supported that. Amen! He owns some cemeteries on the side ("You see I did that cause I saw this whole thing comin!") and talked about the babies he's buried and how his daughter can't have children. He knew the stats on how much of our taxes go toward paying for abortion. Absolutely disgusting and heartbreaking.

It was refreshing to talk to him, because I have grown tired of people brushing abortion off as "just one issue of many." Who cares what a person says about anything if they think murder is justifiable? If human life is not at the core of their value system, there will be tragic repercussions to their behavior. Abortion is not just another issue! It is life or death and God calls us to choose LIFE. It's not about being "pro-life" and "pro-choice." The logical opposite of pro-life is pro-death no matter how they try to market it.

Yeah. I could go on but luckily for you there is a huge pile of homework calling my name. :)

But guess what?!
This past weekend our base had Manny's Mustache Marathon, a 7.1 mile run from the base in Haiku to one of the houses in Paia. I've never run more than three miles, so I thought I'd jog as much as I could and walk the rest, but I ran almost the entire thing! It was hot as heck but once I got to the portion along the ocean I was golden. I also felt like throwing up a few times, but then I'd see a guy up ahead and force myself to pass him. Smart comments had been thrown around beforehand, agitating me enough to make it my goal to pass at least two guys. I beat half the guys and was the top finisher for the girls!!! I still can't believe it. We had a BBQ on the beach to celebrate and the guys had a modeling faceoff to be judged for the best mustache. I guess the whole idea came out of a way for the guys to show off their sicknasty mustaches from "Overgrowth October." Oy vey.