what we will be hosting this weekend!

Freedom Surf Contest 2010 from Surfing The Nations on Vimeo.

Here is a clip of the annual Freedom Surf Contest we are having this weekend in Waikiki! We have been hard at work getting ready for this event so please pray for us!! Its a great ministry outreach and we have some amazing sponsors and prizes!!!

our new building!!

thought i would share more about the new building we just got. what was formerly the porn shop is now surfing the nations headquarters. it is right next door and we are so excited about the new space we have....it has been quite the extra work but we are cleaning it out and were able to move our offices over and we now have a pantry in there for us, and extra storage for our Feeding the Hungry program. hopefully, now we will have less cockroaches in our apartments now! and now we have more room for staff housing and we will be opening up the building next weekend for the big art show next week for our ulupono program with the kid's artwork! so everyone has been working extra hours but the lack of sleep has been worth it! i cant tell you how much of a blessing/miracle this new building has been and we are praying for wisdom for the best ways we can use this building and give back to our community! here are some pictures of the work so far that is going on, a big chalkboard was donated to us for potential use for a coffee shop we may open someday!! i will post more pictures this week of the work they are doing, and of the upcoming art shows:)

aloha!

thought i would introduce some of my roomies and our kitchen! we are missing two drawers and luckily, i am far enough away that you cant see the ants and cockroaches:)

we had a graduation for a couple of our interns last thursday night so i will be posting pictures and telling stories more about that later this week. the top picture is from the graduation outside our bar with good ol' fuzz.

and the bottom picture is a familiar sight, who doesn't get tired of a double rainbow?!! and i love that its right over our new building that we are currently fixing up.....im hoping tomorrow to get pictures up of the inside of it:) also i will be adding things to pray for!

its one of our busiest weeks, and we are working the big surf contest all weekend so i am going to get stuff up on here this week since i will be insanely busy this weekend.

welcome to wahiawa:)

just finished my first week in sls! it was quite the week of busyness and i still am processing all the information that is given to me...and im exhausted!! so this is what a full-time job feels like! we worked on saturday for the food bank, we stood on street corners with orange vests, some people were dressed like spam or dinosaurs and held out nets for cars in order to raise money for the food bank. it was a long weekend, but well worth having monday off and enjoying a wonderful hike with the girls...i will have to post some pictures from that adventure later this week after i have introduced to you my new home!!

so this is wahaiwa...we live on ohai street in that beautiful picture of the apartment complex with the rainbow next to it. all the photos were taken by the talented mike slagter. i live in the room on the top floor on the far right overlooking the great view of a parking lot and shoes hanging from a power line ha!! the bottom picture is the front of our Surfing the Nations headquarters at night. we are the lime green building on the left and we live in the apartment complex right behind it. we use the main room with the windows (it used to be a bar) as our meeting room, we do worship, after school tutoring and programs, surfer's church, and big events in that building! and as of a few weeks ago, that beautiful yellow building in the middle is now ours too!! it used to be a big porn shop, and now it will be used as storage for our feeding the hungry, a pantry for us, offices, and possibly a coffee shop ministry, and meeting rooms! i will write more about that and post pictures of it as we do construction, it has been such a blessing!!

this week i will be posting more pictures of our property so you can see where i live, and i can post pictures of all the programs we are doing so you can get a sense of what we do here and my supporters and prayer partners can see what i do here!! and if you havent gotten a chance check out the video below:) we have another art show coming up for the kids in two weeks!!!!:)

Wahiawa Is Awesome! from Surfing The Nations on Vimeo.

just wanted to share a video of what God has been doing in wahiawa. i arrived on monday with surfing the nations and my adventure has begun. i have a lot on my plate but im excited to see the growth here.

A NEW CHAPTER.......

some BIG news: i'm moving to hawaii to work with surfing the nations in a little over a week. so this blog will be used for more updates and hopefully i can keep up with some of my creations on the side.

starting april 14th, i will be joining sls (surfer's leadership school) and committing a year to join staff with stn. after spending the last three months in their internship, i felt God tugging my heart to this next big chapter.

what exactly will i be doing the next three months?

"Surfer’s Leadership School (SLS) is a 3-month program designed to better equip our new staff members as they enter into their commitment to serve with Surfing The Nations. Each student will discover their unique strengths of leadership, team building, and how they can impact their community most effectively. The program involves class discussions, guest speakers, teamwork activities, event planning, and an apprenticeship within STN."

what is surfing the nations?

"Surfing The Nations impacts local and international communities through the sport of surfing and selfless service by meeting needs and changing lives. We live by our motto of “surfers giving back,” and our desire is to see lives changed, of those who we serve, as well as of the individuals within our organization serving. Our hope is that as they learn to love and serve others, they will grow into positions of leadership and maturity themselves.

Locally, we have one of the largest food distribution sites on the island of O’ahu. Feeding The Hungry caters to Hawaii´s needy, disabled, homeless, and working poor populations. We also reach out to at-risk youth in our high school and college outreach programs, and make annual trips to the neighbor islands of Hawai’i, Lana’i, Kaua’i, Maui and Molokai. Internationally, Surfing the Nations makes annual trips to Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Israel and Egypt and bring clothing, toys, supplies and the serving surf culture."

i am really excited about this next year, the only thing that has freaked me out about this decision is the fact that now i am a full-time volunteer...which means, i get to raise support. so please be praying for me, and for creative ideas on how to fundraise. my goal is to raise $900 a month. if you would like to support me you can go here and put in the note column that is support for venessa rude. all donations are tax deductible on the website. or you can send checks to the address below. also your prayers would be very much appreciated!!! pray that i surrender my ALL to the lord and to trust his plans for my life. pray for comfort for the times i may get lonely and miss what once was my home. and if you want to write me letters (this would make me so happy!!!), send them also to the adress below:

Venessa Rude
c/o Surfing the Nations
P.O. Box 860366
Wahiawa, HI.96786

top picture: my baptism at pipeline on the north shore. i couldn't have asked for better people to baptize me.

bottom picture: our annual freedom skate contest in moloka'i.