Mission Adventures Highllight

Thankful

Over the past few months we've been traveling, in our move to Orlando, and I've been realizing how thankful I am to be apart of the ministry we work with. Every spring and summer break, and throughout the year, I get to watch youth encounter God and change the world. Below is a favorite memory of mine from last summer:

It’s Monday morning, 11:30 AM, and I’ve settled myself on the floor with a few students.  It’s their first day of MA and I’m the anxious one; What if I don’t know what to say? What if they don’t like me? Hoping I’ve not let on how nervous I am I blurt out the first question.  “So, what are you hoping to accomplish on this mission trip?”  The three students sit there in silence, glancing sideways at the ground for a second before the guy in the group speaks up. “I want this trip to launch my relationship with God…I want it to be a stepping stone that sets the pace for the rest of my life.” I had to remind myself to breathe; his words so poignantly express my hope for every student that comes through MA-that this encounter with God would lead to a life dedicated to serving God’s people and sharing God’s story. 
Thank you, God, for allowing me to be a small part of your kingdom work! 

God is Moving

Recently we've been traveling a LOT. And all for a great reason, one I am thrilled about: We are moving from Salem, OR to Orlando, FL.
While I am excited about this move for a lot of reasons, the weather, friends, culture, the reason that truly makes this great is the fact that we will be re-starting the Mission Adventures program at the YWAM Orlando base.
In Salem we only had room for 60 students a week, but in Orlando our limit will be 5 times that! That's 300 students a week being equipped to share the gospel and released into the world.

We decided to make a road trip out of the move. Not only did we need to drive cross country, a couple months to develop our partnership team, the result is below: A four months road trip across 20 states! (forgot to put our trip to Pennsylvania on the map)

Those 20 states are: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, DC, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

We have one more state (Florida) to go! On the first day of the near year we head down and start a new season of life.

The Little Things

Of all the things I've learned while working with youth I want to highlight the importance of the little things. Maybe this isn't even from working with youth but rather observing my life and the people who have been in it.

The simplicity of little things, caring enough to know such things, or going through the trouble for something so small can speak a huge amount. These are usually the things that make up memories, or at least they do for me. For example, every time I paint I think of Chrissy. A couple years ago she gave me some paint as a gift, but it wasn't really the paint that meant a lot to me, though it was super nice of her, but rather the fact that she had taken the time to look up the meaning of each color, print it off and tape it to each bottle. It is because she took the time for something little that made the gift special. And now every time I see those bottles of paint I can't help but think of her.

With this in mind I strive for excellence even in the small details, hoping not only to glorify my Father but to speak love to someone.
I recently made 'mugs' for about 30 people and was tempted to just skim by on the details. As i started the project though, I remembered everything I've just written here, and knew without a doubt that all the little things would be worth the effort on my part. I hope those who received them agree.

WAVES

Worship - Application - Vision - Equipping - Sending

I came to realize I needed to blog about this when I went to write our monthly newsletter (which is more like monthly-ish) and I just couldn't seem to fit everything into a paragraph.

The gathering was awesome. It's not often we are able to take a look at MA outside of our own location, but that's exactly what WAVES does for people; it helps us see that there are others who are passionate about empowering youth to take the gospel to around the world. It is a time of fellowship that many of us cherish and look forward to throughout the year.
During this years gathering we discussed the reason behind the name WAVES, just like everything else in YWAM WAVES is an acronym for Worship, Application, Vision, Equipping, and Sending.
Everything we do at one of our gatherings fits into one of these categories though not necessary in that order. After they said that, it got me thinking, everything really does fit into a category, even within our summer program. We spend time in worship because God deserves it. We cast vision for the future, for sharing the gospel with others, for spending the rest of our lives following Christ. We teach students valuable skills on how to share their story, Gods story, approach people on the street and then we apply it on outreach. Even all the fun games and silly skits have a purpose, to teach teamwork and wiliness to step outside their comfort zone. And then we send the students out into their hometowns, high schools, colleges, and overseas to share Christ with others.
It's nice to know that when I'm up in front of all those students making a fool of myself that it is towards the purpose of showing them that I am willing to step outside my comfort zone, not only to get them to have fun, but to share Christ even in the most awkward and gutsy situations.
I like working with Mission Adventures.

--- Below are a few photos from the week ---

Review A Year

Mike and I just hit one year of marriage!

In this past year I feel like we have done soooo much. In order to show you I created a collage of just a few photos from the past year highlighting major events, from our wedding, Mission Adventures summer groups, WAVES gatherings, Mobilization trips and everything else in-between.

Enjoy!

Lesson Learned

When we saw the money appear in our account we knew exactly what it was for. We praised God for it, but did not pray about its use. Of course we knew what it was for; it was the perfect amount to pay off our debt and we had been praying for it to come in for months. So when we realized we were wrong about the purpose of the money we were shocked .... but yet humbled in realizing how great God is.

We were driving up I-5, headed home after several months of being in Southern California, when our car started to shudder and backfire constantly. It felt as if a huge bag of popcorn was popping underneath us it was so bad. And then it got loud, really loud. A quick stop at a gas station and a look under the car and we realized that the backfiring had caused a hole to open in the muffler. After two more hours of suffering through it and then starting to lose power ever so slightly we finally made it to the Bay area where an old friend of Mikes had found a host home for us.

We spent 8 days there. Mike and his car savvy friend spent countless hours under the hood to no avail. Finally we caved and took it to a mechanic. It took them 3 days to figure it out, but thankfully it was a cheap fix and we were able to get back on the road to Salem. At least thats what we thought until we were less than thirty minutes out and the shuddering started up again. This time the backfiring was worse and we only made it another few miles before we stopped to think. Both our nerves were on edge and the prospect of having to endure it for another 9 hours was horrendous. Our only option was to turn back. It took us 2 hours to traverse backward what should have been 1 hour. Obviously, the car was NOT fixed.

Thankfully our host took us back in and recommended a different mechanic. The only problem, they said he had a tendency to get pricey real fast. 

We were broken. How could we pay for the car? All the money we had was set aside for something else, which God had provided it for. But had He really? 

We sent the car to the new mechanic and prayed. We asked God to keep the price low or to show us a different way to get back home, but He didn’t. Instead the estimate came back at $800! We didn’t have that money! .... but wait ... actually we did. Maybe, just maybe, the money was for our car .... maybe God had known we would need it to get back home. 

We thought about selling the car and taking a train home, but we always ended up with the same problem: we need a car. The car had been given to us at near nothing, it was in great condition, and hardly had any miles on it especially for its age. Even if we could sell it for a thousand, after paying to get us back to Oregon, there was no way we could find a car that good for that cheap. We had to fix it.

It took us realizing that we hadn’t asked God in the first place to be open to the idea of spending the money to fix the car. And when we did, we felt humbled and blessed. Yes, we needed the money for something else, but this was our need right now and God had provided ahead of time. He had promised to provide for us and He did. 

Once we calculated the exact cost, including all the work Mike had done plus the mechanics plus all the extra gas, we realized He had provided our need down to the very cents. Wow! Our God really does provide. 

After 11 days in the Bay area we made our second attempt home and succeeded this time with ease. 

We are humbled to learn this lesson, yet again. Hopefully in the future we will remember what God has provided and promised and trust in Him more.