Wednesday, July 13, 2011 | Last Updated Tuesday, August 9, 2011 19:41 Pacific/Honolulu

EYE 2011: Come Together

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The following was written by Luke Brown, one of the youth from Good Shepherd on Maui, who particpated in the 2011 EYE event.  Here are his reflections of the trip. 

On June 21, 2011, I left Maui on a trip to Minnesota.  The reason I was going all that way was for EYE or the Episcopal Youth Event.  The plane rides were long and uncomfortable, but after about 14 hours, we finally made it to Bethel University where the event was being held.

As we came off the bus, we were greeted with smiling faces from the Hospitality Team and they took our luggage to the dorms.  On our walk from the parking lot to our home for the next five days, we got to take a look at some of the campus.  We were a group of thirty Hawaiians; 24 youth and 6 adult sponsors, walking though an empty campus, not wondering what the week will bring, but just wanting to lay down and go nigh nigh.

We received some instruction, an itinerary and a water bottle once we got back to the dorms, and then we were free to find our rooms, settle in, and then basically cruise until further notice.  I think it was like 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning when we got there, so we were probably the first to arrive.  We had a lot of time to kill so the boys (all 8 of us) decided to take a stroll through campus.  We were accompanied by Ervin, our sponsor from Oahu, who also is my cousin, so we weren't breaking any rules...yet. 

Now as I try to remember it, those 5 days seem like a blur.  Not because it was so boring that I didn't even care, but because it was such an experience that trying to remember everything as it happened...well, you were just living it... just doing whatever task was presented, just meeting and mingling with people who thought it was so cool that you were from Hawai'i, just laughing and playing and of course worshipping.

One thing I do remember distinctly was the worship services.  We had these twice a day, one in the morning, one in the evening.  There were 1,200 participants, so the auditorium was pretty jam packed.  There were beach balls bouncing on the hands of the crowd and the band was spectacular.  I can't even begin to express how great the band was...I really liked the band.  Everything was high energy in there.  People were singing, people were dancing, people were crowding the stage, people were jamming on the balconies.  It was pretty awesome just to be a part of that mob of holy energy.

The Diocese of Hawai'i was staying at the Edgren Dorms and during down time, that was where we were most of the time.  The dorms had a pool table, a ping pong table and a foosball table, so we were pretty entertained.  We also did our evening prayer there before we went to sleep.  Our meals were held in the Brushaber Commons, where the cafeteria was located.  The meals were good except for the absence of the white rice.  Throughout the whole event, we met a lot of different people and to each of them, we gave a gift from Hawai'i for them to remember us by.  We had shell leis, wood bead necklaces and jewelry which were provided by Aunty Louise Aloy, so we would like to give her a big thank you!

Each day, we had to go to these workshops.  There were a lot of them to choose from, but each workshop taught you how to strengthen your faith and how to be a better Christian. 

Like I said, it's hard for me to remember everything somehow, but on the last day, I do remember the barbeque.  It was Saturday afternoon and we had a big barbeque with everyone sitting in the grass all around this quad area.  After we were finished eating, me and my friend Ty Shiramizu, decided to give the crowd a local experience.  So we stripped down to just our pareos and shell leis and marched around with flowers in our ears.  A lot of people came to take pictures with us a lot, so we had to run inside to escape the crowd...plus it was pretty chilly.

That was good fun and the next day we prepared to leave for our 3 days of mission.  The naps were long but the bus ride was longer, so during the moments I was awake on our 4-hour bus ride to Ely, Minnesota, I had to reminisce on our time at EYE and try to predict how our Mission would go.

We arrived in the very small, very vintage town of Ely, where the houses were doll-like, the signs were neon, and the cars were all American.  Right when we got there, we pulled into the parking lot of a large storage shack with racks of fiberglass and aluminum canoes in the back.  We all walked in, a little less organized than single file, and we each chose a life jacket with a paddle to match.  The plan was to take canoes out on the Boundary Waters the next morning to learn about the environment and wildlife. 

Just around the corner was our lodging for the next couple of nights.  There stood two houses; on the left was a pink house in all of its paint peeling, termite infested glory, and on the right, a nice wood-sided, freshly varnished, forest scented, two-story cabin.  Guess which one the men got?

For dinner, [some of us] walked about a mile to the Mary Brown House [that also serves as St. Mary's Episcopal Church], and met our hosts from the [Environmental Stewardship Commission of Minnesota].  After dinner we had a quick Compline and we went back to the houses to clean and rest for the next morning.  Like I said, we were schedueld for a canoe adventure starting at 7:45 a.m.

We woke up to rain.  Everyone was standing around the bus, ready to go, mosquito repellent in hand and not very optimistic about the weather.  We had a 20 minute ride to a log cabin.  The rain mellowed to a very light mist, but we were informed that a storm was approaching and we had to sit it out until lunchtime.  Needless to say, people were bummed.  But we watched a movie and we ate lunch and it was time to launch our boats.

Paddling was good fun.  It felt great to do some physical activity after being held captive in the cabin all morning.  I was in a canoe with Ervin and JD, and we were out in front.  We had time to just drift along singing classic, yelling at birds, eating Pop chips.  Once everyone caught up, we landed our canoes on the bank and we took a short hike through the forest.  We got a look at some rapids, turned back and we got back in our canoes.  It was a good race back.  Too bad the water was too cold to swim though. 

The next day we went on a nature hike and the next day we got ready to leave and went to a wolf sanctuary.  Then we were on our way back to Bethel for one more night before we went back to the islands.  But before we left, we had to go to the Mall of America.  So on the last night, we went to MOA and we shopped and we rode the rides and we ate and we lost things and it was good.

The next morning, at 4:45 a.m., it was time to go home.  We loaded up the bus, went to the airport and with a 2 hour flight, a 4 hour lay over and another 8 hour flight, we were back in Hawai'i.