Ahhhh…
Let’s give a big warm “A-LO-HA!” to the Boyer ohana (family) from Kapolei, Hawaii! This incredible family comes from our home church (Hope Chapel Kapolei) when we were living in Hawaii. They first came to Thailand several years ago to check out the ZOE ministry and while they were here, they blessed our ZOE kids by putting on a great camp while the kids were out of school. Ever since that time, they knew that God had wanted them to come back for a longer time. We have been patiently awaiting for their arrival and that day finally came about 3 weeks ago! And even though their committment is only for about 1-1.5 years, we know that they will be able to fill the many holes at ZOE. It never ceases to amaze me the high caliber of people that God sends to us – this family’s talents and gifts are impressive!

Funny - this is the ONLY family picture I have of them since arriving...with an extra person too! Starting from left to right: Cissy, Drake (11th grade), Elli (9th grade)...skip the unknown 4th person...and Ron is the last person. I'll post a nicer family picture of them later!
When the Cross family came from Austrialia to be ZOE missionaries, I dedicated a section in my blog to learn some Aussie phrases to help us westerners to learn their way of saying thing (see my older blog entries). So likewise, I will dedicate a section here to write out some Hawaiian “Pigin” words that should be learned in order to avoid miscommunications with our new family from Hawaii:
“Ono” – means delicious
“Pupu” – has several meanings – can be a delicious appetizer or a bowel movement
“Thai” – “Tie” – “Thigh” – all pronounced the same way but all 3 have distinct separate meanings
“Da kine” – means whatchamacallit…when you can’t think of what it’s called.
“Tree” – can mean the number “3″ or the perennial woody plant that has a trunk, branches and leaves
“Brah” – means brothers or pals. BUT not be to confused with the word “bra” because although its pronounced the same way, it is not an insult for one man to call another man this. Can also say “Braddah”
“Fo Real?” – means “Are you serious?”
“Talk stink” – means to talk bad about someone
“Like beef?” – careful how you answer this one – because it can be that they are either asking if you like this certain type of protein meat or they want to know if you would like to fight!
Its funny because one of their main duties will be to teach English to our bible school students! lol. But thankfully, the Boyer’s don’t have much of a pigin accent. But just in case, they always have their “brah”, Les…born and raised in Hawaii…who will be able to translate, should we find ourselves in an awkward moment of not understanding.
Wow…do you know that it’s been short 6 years since our family first moved over here? Time flies when you are having fun. As I reflect, I know that one of the reasons why we experience so much joy on the mission field is because of our wonderful missionaries. They are our 2nd family. Do we get on each other’s nerves? Oh – I’m sure of it. But we overcome our differences by CHOOSING to speak and treat each other with the love, walking in forgiveness and seeing where we can serve each other. And it helps A LOT that everyone has a good sense of humor because we love to laugh and have fun with each other. I can’t think of a better way to serving on the mission field than to have the honor and joy of working side-by-side with with the best bunch of missionaries in the whole wide world…which now includes the Boyer family! Loving it!!!!











Wow! And this team can sing too! So talented!





































