5 Day Club and other God-Sightings on Vacation
5 Day Club and Lessons Learned
5 Day Club on the beach in Hawaii…that was the “brilliant idea” God gave me one day in the shower…not sure why all these “brilliant ideas” come to me FROM GOD in the SHOWER but anyway – as I was praying about a family mission trip one day, the Lord whispered…the poor of Hawaii need to hear about Me. At first I thought we were going to minister to the many homeless families that we have encountered living along the cliffs in the park near the Army base we stay at when we are here in Hawaii. However, when we got to the Army base, we discovered the homeless had been re-located to cliffs about 10 miles away. At first, I thought this was a disaster but our first night there we noticed that there were hundreds of kids on the beach in that park next to us! They were there for rowing practice in these large canoes! Some of the children were younger siblings waiting while their big brother or sister practiced. So we experienced our “first change of plans” and we handed out our invitations for three days prior to the 5 Day Club on the beach. This proved to be a lesson in frustration for us as we broke off into two groups…Abbey, Isaac and Gabe were in one group, Josh and Ben joined Olivia and me to make up the second group. It wasn’t that we were frustrated because no one would take the invitations…they did take them. It was frustrating because despite handing out 60 or so fliers before the first club…we only had 5 kids the first day.
We were determined to go forth with the plan and we fumbled our way through a very hard craft…a cross shaped bracelet out of beads is probably not the best FIRST DAY PROJECT. At that point in the 5 Day Club I was GLAD God had only given us 5 kids!! When I led them through the sinner’s prayer, three little hands went up when I asked if anyone had just prayed to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins! This was utterly amazing to us as these children (I know this is quite unbelievable because Hawaii IS in the United States)…but these children had NEVER HEARD of Jesus! Early in the lesson I figured this out when I said, “And who is Jesus?” I expected their little hands to shoot up and for an answer like, “God” to pop out of their mouths…instead I had worried and blank stares. So I had backed up a bit and explained the story of Jesus coming to die on the cross for our sins…but I had to preface that with the fact that He is the perfect, sinless, SON OF GOD. Initially I was a bit skeptical as to whether the children understood my “Did anyone just pray to receive Jesus” question but later, as I prayed through that, the Lord pointed out that these were true confessions of faith because I could have had all 5 hands go up – because they all wanted to please me…or I could have had NO hands go up because they didn’t understand what I had asked. So I am praising the Lord for these three little family members!
Our second day of the club was pretty discouraging in some ways but there is a bright spot to that day. It was discouraging because on Tuesday we only had ONE little girl RETURN. The encouraging thing was that she brought a friend and although she did not know her verse, she had brought the paper back with her! That was amazing! She was one of my three new family members from the day before! Her friend slipped away to the beach before we were even finished with 5 Day Club so we ended up doing a “One-man-show” for just her! We gave her a Bible that day too. Her eyes lit up when little old Gabe had the brilliant idea to show her WHERE the verse she had learned from yesterday was found in her new Bible! Then he showed her where the new verse she was to learn for tomorrow could be found! That thrilled me as I know Gabe was listening to the Holy Spirit when He gave him such a great idea.
That night in our “Post-Club-Feinn-Family-Pow-Wow” Gabe came up with another brilliant idea. He said, “Why don’t we do the balloon animals for the kids tomorrow?” I had forgotten that Abbey had brought her balloon animal supplies so we were all READY to go back the next day. Unbeknownst to me at that VERY MOMENT two of my precious “GAP sisters” were in the parking lot of our church PRAYING for 5 Day Club – even though that was midnight in Louisville! So another of my great “take-aways” from the whole God-project is that, PRAYER REALLY HELPS THE WORK OF GOD!
Wednesday we had ELEVEN KIDS!!! The balloon animals were such a hit! Literally! The balloon sword was the most popular request! We also gave out freezer pops and those went over really well too. Our one little return visitor was with us and a family group of really little kids (which made the club quite hectic). But I presented the gospel using the “Flipper Flapper” which is a wordless-book-type-flat-Rubik’s-cube”. We prayed the sinners prayer but it was so hectic I didn’t get to ask whether anyone else had accepted the Lord. It sure was fun having 11 kids though!
Thursday was pretty discouraging…we handed out balloon animals and Heaven How To Get There tracts but our one little girl from the past three days was missing and we didn’t get ANY kids. We decided to go meet the family of little kids that had come the day before. As Ben was talking to the grandmother and the dad of the four little siblings that had come to club the day before, he learned that the dad had no job and that he had 14 children. Our hearts went out to this family! We made “World-less bracelets” which tell the story of Jesus using the colors on the bracelets to stand for heaven, sin, Jesus shed blood to forgive our sin, clean hearts when we accept His free gift of salvation and growing in faith. We sent the children home with little tracts that told these facts relating to their bracelets. That evening we decided that we would bring the little family one of Patty’s wonderful Bibles when we went to the beach the next day.
Friday we went to the beach and the little family wasn’t there. So we took their Bible back home. We again made balloon animals and handed out the Heaven How To Get There tracts. I was feeling pretty discouraged. As we walked back home I prayed that the Lord would bless the tracts. The other really sad thing for us was that our one little girl was on the beach, but wasn’t allowed to come join us for 5 Day Club. I now pray for her daily that the Lord will KEEP her little heart tuned toward HIM. I am SO GLAD we gave her the Bible on Tuesday instead of waiting until the end of the week!
Several take-aways blossomed in my mind from this discouraging day. First of all, I had been thinking that it would be so much easier if we were Hawaiian. We didn’t LOOK Hawaiian and we didn’t SOUND Hawaiian…so I asked the Lord, “Shouldn’t you be sending someone who is from Hawaii to reach these people?” The Lord replied, “Vicki, should I send a Hawaiian to YOUR neighborhood? Why aren’t you doing this in your own neighborhood where you look like your neighbors and you sound like your neighbors? Who should I send to tell YOUR neighbors?” OUCH! I said, “OK, Lord…send ME!” After all, I have like 43 of each craft ready to go since they are left over from our Hawaiian preparations!
The second take away was that the Lord is the one who gives “results” and all He expected of us was faithfulness to His plan. Since this whole thing was His brilliant idea…who was I to ask Him if He should have picked a Hawaiian person instead of a family group to do the work?
The third thing that happened after praying was that Abbey and I met a lifeguard named “Simon”…(not his real name). He came up to us as we were preparing to walk over to the Internet cafe. He said, “Hey aren’t you the family that was giving out Bibles on the beach? I’ve been watching you all week and I just want you to know it is a good thing that you were doing. I am a believer too.” As we chatted a bit more, he just started to confess that he had fallen away from the Lord, he has a 5 year old son and his “Baby Momma” as he called her, would not even speak to him. I encouraged him to really go before the Lord with his “little pile of ashes” and ask the Lord to help him make things right . Abbey and I both encouraged him to return to the Lord and to also try to “win the heart” of the “Baby Momma”. He told us he was glad he had met us and he was going to think about that.
So my next take-away was – YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IS WATCHING. As I prayed through THAT, the Lord again said, “Vicki, your only job was to be faithful to what I asked you to do. You were to plant seeds. MY responsibility is to bring about the harvest.” THAT was a RELIEF! I am looking forward to the “Behind the Scenes Video” in heaven when I will get to see what happened next to the seeds we planted!
Other great stuff that had a God-Twist…First of all, on the Monday before we left Hawaii, Gabe and I took a Bible to “Simon” (the lifeguard). Patty had given us a couple of “New Living Translation” Bibles and we decided to go look for him. He was NOWHERE to be found. This was strange as we had seen him frequently on the beach. I emailed my faithful “GAP” sisters and asked them to pray we would find him before we left for home. The next day, Gabe and I again went in search of him…he was in the lifeguard shack. When we gave him the Bible he had tears in his eyes and he kept saying, “Thank You.” He told me he had decided to get back into church and that he was really going to try to be the “Man of God” he was meant to be.
Also on Tuesday, we went to the beach to find the “little family” because we wanted to give them our leftover food from our refrigerator. Every time we go to Hawaii, we buy our food for the week and then whatever is left – our half a jar of ketchup, our half a gallon of milk, the cereal, etc…we go find someone to give it to. Since the homeless had been moved, we decided to offer it to the little family. They were not there on the beach but their son was at rowing practice. He pointed out his grandmother who was waiting for him and we asked her if she thought they would like our food. SHE WAS SO HAPPY!! She gave us her address since she lives with her daughter and the 5 children. We cleaned out our cupboards and brought about 5 bags of stuff to their house and ONE OF PATTY’S BIBLES! When we got there I was so sad to see that when she opened the refrigerator to put the food into it there was only a gallon of milk in it! WOW! The little kids were precious as they put the food away. We showed them the Bible and we encouraged them to go to the little Baptist Church we had found. It has a free breakfast on Wednesdays and a great kid-program on Wednesday afternoons…this church is on the next street over from them! Then Ben prayed for them. We all held hands as he prayed. Seeds…More seeds were planted. I know that I’ll see them on the video in heaven! I know that some of these things seem so random but I know that they were not…they were GOD appointments!
The next thing that seemed random but I KNEW we had to accomplish before leaving was that we had met a man our first morning in Hawaii at MacDonald’s. He goes by the name of “Pops”. He came up to us as we were eating breakfast and just started talking to our family. He told us his wife had died about three weeks ago and that he really missed her. As soon as we were in the car after meeting him, I KNEW we were supposed to give him the Large Print Bible that Patty had sent with us. All week this nagged at me but we just didn’t get back to MacDonald’s because he is only there at 7:00 in the morning. On our day of leaving for home, I told Ben that we HAD to go give “Pops” the Bible. So we got up early and went to find him. He was there and when we put the Bible on the table he said, “Oh, are we going to do a Bible Study?” I said, “No, Pops…the day we met you, I knew we were supposed to give you this Bible we brought with us.” He started crying! He patted the outside and told us how he used to have one just like it that his wife had given him. That one had his name engraved on the outside. It was destroyed in a fire. I told him that God had wanted him to have this so badly that He had sent random strangers from Kentucky to meet him JUST so he could have it! We prayed with him…during the prayer he was squeezing my had so hard I thought it would fall off and he was crying through the whole prayer. When we were done praying with him he told us he had started going to a non-Bible-believing church (I won’t name the name of it) because his neighbor was willing to take him. He said, “My wife is looking down and she isn’t happy about that. Her church believed the Bible. I think she wants me to go to a church where they preach the Bible.” We suggested he go to the sweet, little Baptist church that just happens to be directly behind the same MacDonald’s we met him at! He said he “might try it”. Seeds…can’t wait to see the behind-the-scenes-video!
My take-away from this experience was that God really does go to great lengths to reach us, doesn’t He? I mean, really…a random family waking up early in Hawaii, meets a perfect stranger who comes up to talk to them, who NEEDS a replacement Bible…sent all the way from Kentucky…THAT is far-reaching-grace right there. It is so humbling to think that we got to see God DO THAT! God is the God of the one little girl who came to hear about Him three days in a row. He is the God of the one lifeguard who needed some encouragement. He is the God of the one, lonely widowed man…He is the God of the one family that set out on vacation. He is THE ONE as well as the God OF one…and that He loves me…and lets me have a taste of heaven as He shows me that Grace…Oh, now that was ONE precious vacation!
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Vicki Feinn was raised in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as her savior at the age of five. At the age of eleven she gave herself to the Lord to be used in any way He wanted to use her. 
