Well Overdue, Sorry...

It has been a while folks, sorry. Since we last talked, I have had surgery on my tooth that had been giving me problems (it was infected), and now I have a nice little hole where it used to be.

Today I went in again to get it checked out, and as far as the oral surgen is concerned, I do not have any more infections.

In other news, I am participating in no shave November, and now resemble one of those pitchers that played for the Giants in the last World Series.

I am also returning home in about three weeks, and am prayerfully considering returning back to Haiti. Working with the YWAM base or the orphanage where I lived for two months are definitely viable options, but I would much rather work alongside Jared and Jaylene in the offer is available. Right now, I am thinking that I will probably end up partnering with the YWAM base in Port-au-Prince.

While I'm Waiting

In the current season that God has me in, this season of rest and realignment, I seem to be doing a lot of waiting. And today, I came across the anthem of this season of my life. A song by John Waller, titled "While I'm Waiting". I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.


I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Takeing every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

The Take Aways

I have been doing a lot of processing over the past week or so. I attempted to do it all in Haiti, but there just seemed to be something preventing me from accomplishing this. Surprisingly though, I was able to do quite a bit of processing during my travels on Tuesday.

I have been processing a lot of different things, everything from 'how my trip went', to 'what comes next', to 'what my long term vision is', and even though I have not found all the answers that I would like to have found, I did find some.

My trip, for me, on all accounts was a success. My time in St. Marc was good, but I really felt that as soon as I moved to Port-au-Prince and started my work there, my heart for the Haitian people was finally ignited. Largely impart because I was finally able to spend the majority of my time with them. (Especially by living there at the New Life orphage.) But in addition to that, the ministry that I specifically came to Haiti to be apart of finally got started, and as much as I enjoy Haiti, my heart and passion lie with in discipleship.

Missions Adventures or MA for short, was a huge success for me. As far as my personal goals to see growth in the students and commitments to love and serve God both in personal relationship with him and in missions. I was amazed once again by the amazing work that God did in and through the lives of our teenage students. One of the more interesting surprises was the commitment of our oldest MAer to do a DTS. All in all though, I think that about three-quarters of our MAers committed to doing missions work, which is huge!, and all of them grew in leaps and bounds. Go God!

As far as long-term, I do feel called long-term to missions, but not just specifically to one nation (like Haiti), but to something called discipleship. Throughout my trips to Haiti and elsewhere, is the discipleship that I get to be apart of, that speaks to mt heart the most. Whether in the lives of my students or in the lives of the people whom we are ministering to. I think that is why I so love ministering in Haiti, because everywhere you go (especially now in the tent cities) the hearts of the Haitians are so open to God. The spirit in the majority of the tent cities that I have been to can at times be similar to that of a DTS classroom. Their hearts are so open to what God has to offer them.

So now that I know what my long-term vision is, which in one word is discipleship, but as for what comes next, I am still a little uncertain. There are a few certainties though, I will be flying out to Denver to visit my brother, and then I will return to Salem, Oregon directly after that. As far as after Christmas though, when I return home to visit my family for the holidays, I do not know for sure. At the moment I am praying about extending my commitment to the campus in Salem, Oregon, and also returning to Haiti for as long as a month to serve the base there. But we shall see, I will definitely update this as soon as possible with what I am getting in prayer.

-Kyle

Processing this Summer

Wow....I do not know where even to begin. This summer has been amazing!
These past couple of weeks though since my last update has just been the icing on the cake. In the days winding down, I had to fight just giving up, not because I do not love what I was doing (because I absolutely do), but simply because my body was screaming for some rest! In my persistence though, I was greatly rewarded.

The fruit this summer was so apparent. From the masses of people crying out for salvation, healing, deliverance, and blessings simply because of the faithfulness that our staff and students were able to show right before the very eyes of the Haitians. God is still big, powerful, and on the move here in Haiti! (And in the rest of the world. Haha) It is amazing what God can do in and through you, when you are simply willing to step out in obedience to what God is asking of you.

Of all the fruit that I saw this summer, none quite touched like each and every time that we debriefed a team about their outreach. Each time there was a calling of missions was branded on the hearts of the students.

The final team we debriefed just reminded me why I do what I do. This team was at a disadvantage from the start. They were a group formed from four different churches. But they stuck their heals in, and by the end were one of our most unified groups of the summer. But it was the callings to missions that God placed on their lives. The whole group was called up out of normality and propelled to change their town, their church, their families, and their schools/jobs. It was especially interesting for me to see one of the chaperone's one the trip commit the rest of their life to preaching the gospel message on the missions field. She was about the same age as my grandmother! Wow, "Go God"!

Before I go though, I want to leave you with some photos of our last day of ministry....a soccer tournament!


This apparently is a local premier team.


Action shot (Oh, in this game the orphanage team upset the premier team, coming from a goal down, tying it up and then wining it in overtime. The premier team was not happy.)


The orphanage kids beat us too...pretty bad as you can probably imagine. Four to Zero. We looked silly! Haha.

Yesterday the next to last team of Missions Adventures students arrived. This team is a group from Washington. I have really liked getting to know this team in the short time that I have spent with them, and cannot wait to see God move in and through them on this trip. All summer I have been able to see the lives of Haitians, students, and staff alike touched by the hand of God.
We also have a group here right now from YWAM Orlando, a group of 11 future staff/ leaders in the mission. This past Friday they asked to go out on a prayer walk in the area surrounding the palace. This area used to be a nice park with about five statues/monuments. Today these monuments still stand, but you can hardly see them amongst all makeshift tents surrounding them.
We had an awesome time visiting and praying with many Haitian families. Time after time, people would see us praying and ask us to come over and pray for their family.
One group went behind the treasury building and found another tent city. Upon reaching this one they simply decided to just spend time talking to the English speakers and playing with the children. God used this to break through the walls on their hearts. The group literally had people running up to them asking to be saved, saying that they have never had white people come just to spend time with them.
God is so on the move here! If you have ever thought about coming to Haiti, come now, because God is here, God is BIG, and the hearts of the Haitians are open. Literally I have met many missionaries, including one who has been here ministering for 35 years, and he specifically told me, "I have seen more salvations in Haiti in the past seven months (the time since the earthquake) than in all his years of ministry combined."!

Sorry guys, a lot has happened between now and my last update, most noticeably is that my laptop was stolen (along with my roommates ipod). This is the main reason that now that I have internet that I have been slow to update you (and why I have no photos). Sorry guys.

Good news is that the teams arrived today for the second leg of Mission Adventures, which I am very excited for, and the staff team and I feel well rested, and ready to grab the bull by the horns so to speak. In these M.A. groups, we typically do VBS's three times a week (at least) in one tent community. Followed by some practical work projects, prayer tours, visiting with the orphanage kids, feeding hospital patients, etc.... My favorite however is worship in the tent cities each Tuesday and Thursday night. It is so amazing! We come, make friends, hang out a bit while everything is being set up, and then worship starts, and everyone forgets about what is going on around them. Focuses in on God, and then just like he promises, He comes in power! It is amazing!

I also got the chance to visit with the team from my home church yesterday, at Jared's house, and at the orphanage.

The Hospital

Hi everyone, I just wanted to give you a brief update on what we are doing here as Mission Adventures. At the moment we are taking the students into the tent communities to preform VBS's for the children there. The adults seem to love it just as much though, and are totally stoked that we would come just to teach their children biblical truths and play games with them.
Today, our agenda looks like this....
Devotional time until nine thirty or so, then we are going to make lunches for the patients at the hospital, because we noticed in our prayer times there, that they do not get fed. So we are preparing mangoes and pb&j's to hand out. We are so excited. This is the third time that we will have gone there to pray. Yesterday we went there also, and I noticed a young lady whom I had the chance to pray with a week or so ago, and I noticed this time that she was in the TB ward, but she looked much better and full of strength! Praise the Lord! God's love is just so powerful! I cannot wait to go back again today and physically bless the long-term patients there. Many of which are suffering from TB and other life-threatening illnesses.
When we finnish there, we will be going to do a VBS in another tent community. Follow our exciting day, I will try to post all the pictures that I have taken. I hope that they bless you.
-Kyle

MA

Here is the skinny....as you probably have seen I have not been able to update my blog at all since Mission Adventures has officially kicked off. We have been so busy! So I am going to post two separate links below to one of my co-staff's websites. The first is a blog and the second is a online file of the photos that she has taken. She has some of me too:), and she is a great photographer. Her name is Lindsay Spang.

Here are the links:

www.thespangs.com


www.flickr.com/photos/lspang/


Recently, through all the business, I would say that God has really used that Haitian lives to speak to me. I mean their stories, their testimonies, and their love. The greatest thing is, it is not just the Haitian's that effect me in this way, but foreigners too. Especially our students. It has been a blessing to see God rock their lives and to hear their testimonies. And this is my challenge to you. Take the time to hear someones story this week and even share yours.

-Kyle

Here are a few photos of the church where we will be setting up Mission Adventures this summer.

When we first walked in, we noticed a lot of standing water, and when we tried to unclog it we noticed that it was full of clay like mud and garbage!


And that is not the only place where they liked to store their garbage. Try here in the bathroom.


The upstairs is classroom after classroom covered in layers upon layers of dust. One of the chalkboards still had written on it George Bush, US President, and the year was 2004!


This past week I learned how to do some basic plumbing and electrical work. Here I am uncovering a leaky pipe in the guys bathroom.


Overall this last week left me very much with a great sense of accomplishment. At the beginning of the week we were able to some closure to our basic schedule for the weeks that we are hosting teams here, but it is still not finished by any means. There is one update that I have though. Me and the other YWAM Salem staff will be running Mission Adventures here in Haiti, which means that we will be overseeing all the teams not just our own. This means that my only time without a team will be the 17th-23rd of July, as well as the 14th-24th of August. Our first teams come here on June 28th, one from Orlando and one from San Diego. Here is our basic list of teams and dates.

MA San Diego (Mon. June 28th- Fri. July 9th)
MA Orlando (Mon. June 28th- Wed. July 7th)
MA Salem (Sat. July 3rd- Fri. July 9th)
MA San Diego (Mon. July 5th- Wed. July 14th)
MA Salem (Sat. July 10th- Fri. July 16th)
YWAM Orlando Staff (Sat. July 17th- Wed. Aug. 11th)
MA Salem (Sat. July 24th- Fri. July 30th)
MA San Diego (Mon. Aug. 2nd- Fri. Aug. 13th)
MA Salem (Sat. Aug. 7th- Wed. Aug. 11th)
*Aug. 24th I fly back to Ohio.

Staying here in Port-au-Prince has been quite a bit more pleasant than when I was staying in St. Marc. I am still surrounded by great people, but the food is much better (because they have a larger selection here, and less people to cook for). By far though, my favorite part of living here at the P-au-P base is being able to hang out and interact with the orphanage kids here. (The base is being run from an orphanage with 113 or so orphans. They really encourage me a lot in my Creole learning. They are so adorable. Here is a photo of them crowded around my laptop.

-Kyle

What is next...?

Let’s start this blog with the exciting update of what I have been up to this past week....
Last weekend we prepared the campus to receive the US Air Force Medical clinic, and we constructed six metal homes to provide a little privacy for the doctors and patients. Then on Monday I had the wonderful privilege of helping the military at the clinic keeping people in order, and telling the patients where to go. It was amazing! By far the most organized I have ever seen anything in Haiti. Tuesday I made my final airport run, and it was supposed to be my final night in St. Marc, but I ended up returning the following night. Mike and the rest of us YWAM Salem(ites) went up to St. Marc to visit the staff there. It was such a blessed time of fellowship with all the dear friends that I have made over the past month and a half while ministering here in Haiti. Thursday we officially moved here to the Port-au-Prince base, and have spent the last three days discovering the vision of both YWAM P-au-P and Mission Adventures. It has been much needed meeting after meeting. Some of the more exciting things that we did were; visit the church where M.A. will be held this summer, and we also visited downtown and the palace! It was fantastic!

This week I have also been doing quite the thinking about my future. Still am far from making a final decision, but some of the things that I am praying about are; returning to Salem (and extending my commitment another two years to staff more DTS’s), returning back to Haiti, or finding a job at home, plugging into a ministry and continuing to pray for the next step of my ministry. Bottom line is that I feel a life long calling to seeing the next generation discipled and raised up, prepared to enter the battle and fight for the side of Christ. The love of Christ which compels me, and the direction that he has given me (this calling) is what keeps me doing what I am doing, being a missionary. So, if you read this, and you hear the Lord telling you something, comment on this page, shoot me and email, or facebook me. I would love to hear what He is saying through you, and I will keep you up to date on where God is leading me next. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. This is not possible without all of that. Thanks.

PS, I promise to get you more pictures soon!

US Air Force!?!

This week was yet another busy week, and with no large teams coming in, I worked on maintenance all week. We did everything from digging a trench for a new internet cable to building a Home of Hope. I especially liked working with Homes of Hope, because I not only got to witness a fairly good sized Haitian home go up in under a week, but I got to experience the culture, enjoy the people, and have a blast working with concrete! Okay, hanging out with the locals was my favorite. Even though I was constantly being asked if I had a wife, why not, and do you love her (by someone pointing to some unsuspecting girl sitting next to me!)?! It was good to practice the language, and to carry on a halfway decent conversation. It felt good.
Well, that is all the real news that I have to report this week, other than that, I am going to Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. Oh, and the US Air Force is here on base. YWAM St. Marc is hosting their medical clinic, that is reaching out to all Haitians, not just the earthquake victims! It is a bit strange to see US Military walking all around campus, but it is also really cool.
On the spiritual side this week, God has really been asking me to draw away with Him.... even more so, and to really take a deep look into my heart and life and see if I am really trusting God with everything. Or are there some hidden idols, something that I withhold from God, etc.... It is a time of drawing away and drawing near, and I am excited to see what God is going to do in this season of my life.
I ask now that you not only continue to pray for me, but ask that you take up this challenge too. Is God really in charge?, or are there still things that we withhold from Him, and place literally above God's sovereignty....our comfort? our hopes? our dreams (no matter how good, or godly, is this God's timing)?
Just something to think about. I know that I am guilty of trying to live comfortably and can even put my desire of financial security over my trust and knowledge of God's provision from time to time. Lord please forgive me for my lack of trust in you. I truly do want to trust you with everything. EVERYTHING. I want to live my life a human sacrifice. God help me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
-Kyle
(Sorry for the lack of pictures this week.)

Spoiled.

This past week was another busy week, and a very good one, because I got to work alongside Rodney all week. Monday we went out to Paris (one of our tent communities) and helped construct a concrete slab for the two 600 gallon water tanks to sit on. We also connected the two tanks with 1 inch pbc pipe with a T in the middle, connecting a nozzle, so that the locals can get fresh, clean water from them. On Tuesday, Haitian flag day, Ethan and I made concrete pads to put underneath the trailers so that when the rains come, they do not sink or worse, fall over. Then on Wednesday, we went back out to Paris, fixed a water leak, and connected an old fire hose from the pump, into the tops of the tanks. I also got to minister to the children there, and apparently they all remembered me from the last time, because I could wiggle my ears and lift my eye brows. The whole community chuckled at this sight. On Thursday I met Jared and Rich, and went with them to the port here in St. Marc, and helped them load the two 20 ft trailers into a bigger 40 ft one. It took us nearly 5 hours, with about 12 Haitians to load it. I got fried, but had quite the time fellowshiping with them. They blessed me with lunch after, really blessing me. In the evening I went out with Ben to pick up some teams from Paris and Timonet (tent communities). The children in Paris still remembered me, but man did they remember the team from Canada, who we dropped off when we picked up the Finland team. They broke out in joyous song, dance, and shouting. It was amazing! On our way back from Timonet, it started to rain, which felt good. The team that we picked up from Kona, HI shared that this Wednesday, during our 24/7 prayer day here in St. Marc, they did their own in Timonet, and they felt that the Lord asked them to go to a village nearby and preach the gospel. This area is typically known for practicing voodoo, but they reported to us that half the village had given their life to Christ when they obey God and spoke His message. AMEN!
Yesterday I went to Port-au-Prince, with the specific intent to visit the Coblentz's and the team with them. I made it to them around nine or so, and helped them unload the trailer that I helped them load only the day before. Fellowship and lunch with them was fantastic. By one though, I had to cut my visit short to get a ride back to St. Marc, where dinner and a birthday bash was awaiting us. We had some delicious fried chicken, cake, popcorn, live entertainment, and the movie Avatar. It was so much fun. I guess you could say that I was spoiled this week!
Thank you everyone!

Airport Pick-ups

Here everybody are a few visual aids of my main task here at the St. Marc base of picking up teams from the airport, and talking to them about Haiti.

This is the nicely paved Haitian highway that leads all the way from St. Marc to Port-au-Prince. (And it will soon continue up the coast to Gonaives...with pavement.)


The normal hectic streets in Port.


A large tent community next to the US Military base and Port-au-Prince airport.


My competition....these men are all too eager to help, for a small fee of course (20 USD). My job is to keep them away from our poor unsuspecting arrivals. This is usually much easier sounding than it is to carry out. They can be mighty persistent.

My new job...

The time here is just seeming to fly by. It feels like I have been here for three weeks, but I have just been here a little longer than two. Great progress, my beard is now about half an inch long! Hahaha...
Okay, now back to more important things.
I have been working steadily between the maintenance department here on the base and my new job (greeting the new comers and briefing them on the history of Haiti). Many of these things have given me insight into how I can pray for Haiti. Did you know that Haiti was the first place to receive the gospel of Christ in the Western Hemisphere? It was. Columbus landed here on December 6th of 1492 looking for riches to bring his Spanish queen. The Spaniards nearly annihilated all of the natives of the island within 25 years of establishing their presence on the island. In the early 1600's the French established a presence on the island and were ceded the western third (which became Haiti). They started to pour in the slave labor and soon the number of slaves outnumbered the French. The slaves were mistreated and this lead to their rebellion, which proved successful after a prolonged struggle. The leaders of the rebellion declared that the nation would be dedicated to Satan for 200 years if they gained their independence, and in 1804 they finally got that. Haiti became the first black republic to gain independence. Today, the nation has been stripped of its former glory "the Ruby of the Caribbean". It is largely deforested which has lead to nearly all of its 26 feet of top soil to wash away in the many tropical storms, and poor farming habits over the years. Since its conception Haiti has been known as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere as well as a nation plagued with violence. The French also forced their slaves to practice Catholicism, as they "Christianized" the nation. Today, nearly 80 percent of the nation considers itself Roman Catholic, and nearly 19 percent Protestant Christian. However, as in the days of the past, many still hold onto their traditional African beliefs and practice voodoo on the side. They estimate that nearly half practice voodoo. Many Haitians view God as distant. This lines right up with the voodoo beliefs. Voodoo belief says that Creator God is distant and unreachable. They also believe that he distributes his power to Loa (lesser gods [demons]) which have dominion over things like trees, rocks, mountains, and water.
The spiritual climate of Haiti is different, it is in your face. People here see the spiritual realm daily, and it is usually the sorcerers of voodoo showing it, not the prophets of God. Maybe this is why so many follow the practices of voodoo. Even the Christians seem to have a "healthy fear" of the voodoo god, but the Fear of the Lord is often lacking. As YWAM Haiti, we long to see this changed. Please join me in prayer.
-Love, Kyle.

Let Us Unify As One!

This was one exciting week in Haiti, and man did it seem to just fly by! On Monday I worked with the maintenance crew building a porch on one of the YWAM apartments here. It is going to cut down on their cooling bills so much and offer shade and a place to take off their muddy shoes during the rainy season. Which is due to start in a couple of weeks.
Tuesday I went to Paris with Matt. (Paris, Timonet, and the Clinic are the three tent communities that YWAM St. Marc is working with.) Matt put on a seminar and photographed it and helped him where needed. I must say he did a great job. It was also really cool to see the way that God had mended a conflict there between the pastor and YWAM. The community was pressuring the pastor for free water, but Haitians charge Haitians about 50 cents for a bucket of water. So Matt explained that if we do not charge a fee for the water then we will not have money to repair the pump when it breaks. He also explained that while we charge the outer community, the victims of the earthquake should not be charged (for a length of time I cannot remember). He used this illustration, that the victims are like people with a broken leg whom we must help across the water, but once they are healed, it is not our job to carry them anymore, they must do it, and if we continue to help them, we will make them beggars for life. This is a growing concern of the long-termers here in Haiti, and YWAM in general. A lot of the west thinks that you can solve the problem by just throwing some money at it, but I have noticed that all this does is creates dependancy on man and not on God, and we wonder why Haiti is returning back to their former lifestyle! Our strategy must change if we are to reach the people of Haiti! Okay, so I will stop preaching now, but feel free to leave comments, email me, skype me, whatever if you want more information.
On Wednesday I worked with YWAM’s Homes of Hope ministry. We set the posts to a small duplex for the poor in a community here is St. Marc that YWAM has been investing in for some time now.
On Thursday, me and Matt went out to Timonet, another one of YWAM’s tent communities, and we started the construction of a squatty potty of the children, since the latrines were not working out for them. They were just too tall and the wholes proved too intimidating as the children thought that they might fall into the whole. The latrines though in general are a brilliant concept promoting sanitation, and conserving precious water at the same time.
Yesterday and today I started a new phase of my ministry here in St. Marc. I am now on the “Welcoming Committee”. Which means that I go to the airport with our driver (whoever that turns out to be) and I pick up the teams, keep the Haitians off of their luggage, and brief them a little bit on Haiti, and what YWAM is doing here. Tomorrow I will try to update this again with some of that information.
Please keep praying for us, if there is one thing that I learning it is that prayer in unity rends the heavens and allows God to minister among us. So, the base is doing back to back 24/7 prayer days to see the power of God break loose in the our tent communities. The first session will be at the clinic and the second here at the base. Please be praying for us. Thank you!

Flexibility

Since landing the plans have been changed on me yet again. I will not be in Port-au-Prince like I had been told just prior to coming. The plans were for me to be there to discuss our plans of action for Missions Adventure this summer, but somewhere between the four days or so that it took me to get here, that changed. As things often do here in Haiti. So now I am at the St. Marc base, catching up on the progress in the tent communities. From what I understand is that we are now in the process of transitioning from the temporary stage of tent housing, and researching the possibilities of more permanent living conditions. Matt from the EARS school this summer has been doing a great job of training people in water and sanitation. There is so much progress being made.
One thing that I have noticed, which is not really positive at all is that the Haitians are beginning to harden their hearts again to God...again. But in my quiet time this morning,
“‘Do not be afraid,’Samuel replied. ‘You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all of your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own.’” (1 Samuel 12: 20-22).
This weekend is also St. Marc’s birthday, which also means that it is also the day that voodoo practicers commonly rededicate their lives to satan. Please pray that the people of Haiti would repent and turn from their wicked ways, and use this time to (re)dedicate their life to the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.

Haiti

Hi everyone, I am writing to let you know that I have arrived here in Haiti safely. I have been flooded with many happy memories from my previous trip here, and surprisingly the language is coming back quickly too.
In these first few days I have also been able to meet and connect with many of my friends from YWAM Tyler (Amalia, Jaclyn, Rodney, Rhodes and Tammy), and also my buddy Mike from my Salem base.
So far I have been following Mike around a lot and seeing the work first hand that the ministries here are doing in the tent communities. I also got to do some physical labor with Rodney just yesterday, and it was such a treat to be able to work with him and catch up on what has been going on in one another’s lives. God is so good.
Thank you all for all of your prayers, please pray for an increase in unity for all of the workers here, and also for an even greater revelation of the love of God, so that ministry is the result of the overflow of what God is already giving us, and that it is not draining the workers here like it can be at times. Pray that we would lean on God so hard that if he moved we would fall! Pray that we would be fully dependent on God in everything. Thank you.

While I have been home, I have had to make sharing my faith something that I go out of my way to do. One way that I enjoy doing this, is through art. I has always been something I enjoy, and it is something that God has gifted me in.

Usually what I do, I pray for the Lord to point someone out to me. Then I pray for them, and I pray that the Lord would give me a picture for them.

Then when I finish the picture I pray again that the Lord would give me a word for that person, and I write it on the back.This time it happened to be a picture of the Beatles. The waitress was really touched by it.
What gift has the Lord given you that you can use to bless him and others with?

Prayer Requests

I cannot think of anything to write, so here are some prayer requests....

Please pray for my friend Zak as his uncle is the only believer on that side of the family, and his life is coming to an end. Pray for wisdom for Zak to know what to do.

Pray for my students as they begin their next step.

Please pray for me, that I can be intentional about my time here at home, and that I would really be able to encourage those around me. Also pray that I would be able to accomplish all that I need to accomplish before leaving for Haiti.

Pray for wisdom for me.

The Summary...

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that this last outreach to Russia was a huge success! God really showed up! It was such a privilege to be there and to take part in it all. Even though we did not see many salvation's, we did see lots of seeds being planted and hearts being drawn closer to the Creator of All.
For me personally the most astonishing testimony of this outreach was the growth and maturity that I saw each of my students grasp hold of. Seeing each of the students grow and learn during lecture phase was one thing, but then seeing them actually live out and apply what they learned was another. And then seeing them igniting the hearts and souls of the youth around them to dig deeper in their personal relationship with God, to pursue intimacy, and then to see them turn and effect the community in which they live was just outstanding!
God has also been teaching me a lot on what it means to have an intimate relationship with Him, and man is it an adventure!, far better than anything that this world may offer me. You want to know what he taught me? He taught me that the more I walk in obedience with Him, then the more He is able to work in and through me. This is something that really became real to me, as I even walked out in faith and obedience on the "little things". Let me tell you, the little things make all the difference.

So, what comes next?
Right now the YWAM base that I am working at in Salem, OR is looking to partner with churches and missions groups from around the world in adopting a tent community in Haiti and seeing that it is maintained and discipled until the rebuilding process is finished. So, I will be traveling down to Haiti to network and establish relations between our church, the local church, YWAM and other ministries, in hopes to rebuild Haiti. I will stay in Haiti all summer, and return to Salem this Fall. That is all I know for the moment. Please keep me in your prayers.