SBF Teaching.

Just a quick little blog-note asking for prayer for my hubby! He is teaching in the School of Biblical Foundations (here at YWAM Denver) tomorrow. He will be teaching on the non-pauline Epistles, and on the history, authors, and more. 

He is super excited! I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard him speak, but He is very gifted in this area! Please pray for him tomorrow when you think of this!

(Thursday August 28 -5:30 pm edit: HE DID GREAT!! He says "It went smoothly, and was very chill.")

A Brutal Tuesday Morning.

This morning I awoke rather chipper and ready to go!
As Ted and I headed off to work, I looked up at the mountains in front me and gasped at what I read.

In huge bold, white letters I read: Destroy Unborn Children
My stomach dropped, it literally made me feel sick.

I'm still unsure why this was written, maybe as a joke (one which I find not at all funnny), or maybe it was written because this week is the Democratic Convention. I don't know.

I just want to off of the beautiful mountain.
I realize again with a great sadness, this is the fallen world in which we live.

(It's interesting...the desk I'm at has a beautiful photo of Tiffany Johnson, and it hit me that right now, instead of being all angry at the world, she would be praying for the people who did this....and that is what I need to do. That is what stops these types of things from going down.)

The Perfect Day.

Today was our first day alone in almost 3 months.

We ate icecream & talked about our future life together.

Golly what a p e r f e c t day!

Culture.

 Day Market. Dried fish & humidity equals beautiful smells. 
            Thai tea. (love!)
   Red Light District.
             Intricate temples.

            Tuk Tuk from here to there.

Never say "maybe later" because they come back later.

         Finding joy in simple things.
                 Delicious "mystery meats"
                                            Babies who do not wear diapers.
                                                   A monk drinking pepsi.

His Love Compels.

My time alone with Him was beyond anything my simple words could muster up. Seriously amazing. I mean I have my bouts of sadness (missing Ted and the team), but for the most part I cried only a little. (I am a crier...just in case you didn't already know).

Funny thing is, God has really been speaking to me a lot about emotions. I tend to base a lot of how I am feeling in the moment. Which means I'm the conditional type of lover, fighter, crier, motivator... if this makes sense. 

He has been teaching me what it means to be faithful unconditionally. What it means to worship unconditionally. And most importantly, and by far the most complicated of the three: what it means to love unconditionally.  And Whoa. I stink at them all.

One of the biggest eye opening things for me this past outreach to Thailand, was my love (or lack thereof) for God, my husband, my team, and the people around me. Talk about conditional. 

I looked back and read my journal entries from day one of outreach all the way down to the final week .( i finished a whole journal, which now i need to put everything learnt to practice and to heart) I immediately recognized a prayer I had written, asking my dear Heavenly Father for a heart like his, one which loves everyone. I wanted to love as Christ.

Sure enough, He heard me and probably very gladly began to walk me through this love of His. His real, unconditional, compassionate, empathetic love. 

The word that comes to mind now: DESPITE. Why? Because the love of Christ loves despite how he feels. Despite how much you would rather let someone have it. Despite how unfair it may seem. Despite how the person loves you back. D E S P I T E. 

I learned the hard way. A few hard blows. A few bruised knees. 

I slowly began to learn how to love despite how I feel.

It was an incredible (is an incredible) lesson to learn. 

I'm still learning. To love as Christ. To see people as He sees them.

It's an eye opening thing indeed.

love has a new depth. a new meaning.

 Jami Joann

note: i actually didn't spend the entire time alone. some of it was with friends and some with family. the week was peaceful and just what i needed.

Alone Time.

Well, it's my first official day off. 

Ted and his buddies woke me around 5 am, as they rounded their camping gear up and flew out the door with excitement. Their about to reach the ultimate camping experience...

A week long survival camp. I didn't go because it's a guy trip...well and I'll admit right now to me, it sounds insane. It's raining (i love the rain, just not sleeping wet) and we just got back from outreach. 

Pray for him! I'm thinking with my wifey-thoughts and worry here and there. Pray for safety.

Well, me... I'm sitting home alone on our orange pokadot couch, eating spiral mac & cheese.

If you know me, you know I love me alone time. I love peace and quiet. I refuel alone. 

This time is been hard! I miss the Ted chilling on the couch next to me as I read or write. And I miss our 11 team members. We've been with them 24/7 the past few months, so this time alone time is sad. 

At first when I found out Ted would be gone for our week of vacation, and the team obviously gone, and then my two friends away, one in the mountains and one in Jordan. I was so extremely sad. Not to mention a broke down car and an expired drivers license. (Pray the rain stops here and their so I can walk and bike places!)

I like finding a reason and purpose for the way things work out, and I realized this week if 

p e r f e c t for me. I mean it's sad right now, in this moment...but I really feel like this week will be a great time for me and my first love.

GOD! I'm actually very excited!! I plan on spending a lot of this week with Him!!

I figure I can either pout and be pitiful all week, or make the most of this time.

Please pray I choose making the most of it!

Love you!

Jami Joann

A Glimpse.

An End with a Beginning.

Oh golly, where to begin?

Well, to start, we are back in Denver. We arrived here on Friday around 2:30 am. Exhausted and dreaming of a bed!

I would have to say our last week of outreach, in Vegas, proved to be the longest and hardest stretch. After experiencing a culture with the limited "comforts" that we normally have, and arriving in a city where there is everything imaginable. 12, 000 kinds of candy, clothing, shoes, ice cream flavors, etc... it was a slight temptation for most of the team. A temptation to check out and head right back into the comforts and not into the flow of what God wanted to do in Vegas. 

Our week began with many a jet lag-ged folk, getting only a few hours of sleep each evening, and finding ourselves completely exhausted by the afternoon, ready for bed. We worked hard to get everyone up and ready to work at the Pier, cleaning and moving things in.

It took a lot longer on each project than anticipated. But the end result was good! The base really felt blessed by the team, and they blessed us in return with their encouragement and prayers for us.

Our team had a huge struggle in unity in Vegas. There were two visions that were given to our team, visions of destruction and disunity. They were actually really frightening to Ted and I, making us wonder what is going on? What, if anything, would happen? It was a tiny bit upsetting.

Ted and I prayed and felt with the first vision we need to trust God and put it on the back burner. So then when the second vision came, this one specifically about all of the girls of the team, Ted and I knew there was something God wanted to do. Something that God wanted teach us as a team.

Within a day of the 2nd vision Ted and I saw exactly what God was trying to show us all along. Little ways which the team, mostly the girls had compromised while on outreach. In their talking, in their relationships, and in their times with God. Not that there is condemnation, not at all!

He was just trying to show them areas in which they needed to grow. And as a whole, areas in which the team needs to grow and be humble in. We had 2 days of complete disunity. Ted and I felt terrible, like nothing would be resolved among the team. We felt weary and afraid. 

God really spoke to us about speaking with the team and about loving each other. Don't get me wrong, our team unity for most of the outreach was really amazing but God saw deeper and wanted to deal with the few things.

One night Ted just poured his heart to the team, speaking of what God had shared with us about the team. A challenge to love as Christ in EVERY circumstance, not just in the moments when we feel like doing so. It is a struggle to do so, but you can!

The next day we decided to get the team together for a time of talking, apologizing (if needed), being humble, tears maybe, and ultimately  restoration. Ted and I felt like we should lead however God wants to lead, whatever God wanted to do, He would do it. 

And He did. 

He brought complete restoration and encouragement to the hearts of the team. I call this blog An End with a Beginning because I really felt like our last week was just that for the students and for Ted and I!

Thank You for your prayers while we were gone. Honestly we could really feel them and we knew that people were standing behind us, lifting us up each day!

THANK YOU!

we love you

Jami Joann

Another Delayed Update!

I'm sorry that we did not update for our week 5 of outreach!

We spent our last week in Thailand in Bangkok, and two days on an island called Kho Samet. Here we spent our debriefing and relaxing after 4 weeks of outreach. It was relaxing, but the morning saying goodbye to Thailand was a sad one for most.

We did arrive back in the states on July 31st. It was a relief to land in LA after 18 hours of flying! Many of the team spent our time traveling with upset stomachs, not to mention a baby who cried for most of the flight, and a man who snored so loud his seat shook each time! Needless to say, we were thrilled to finally land!

We then drove to the LA base, grabbed our van and took off for Vegas. Ted begged the team not to sleep during the drive so we would be able to sleep the night through and fight off our jet lag. Within the first 20 minutes Ted looked back to find all but one student sleeping (including me!) His attempt to wake us all up failed and most only woke for bathroom stops along the way...and surprisingly we are still fighting Jet lag :)

Saturday we began a day of work with YWAM Las Vegas at their newest location called The Pier. The base here has a heart and vision to reach out to the people in need in Vegas, so with God's help they were able to purchase a massive old drug rehabilitation building located in West Las Vegas (aka the Ghetto). The building had been vacant for 2 years before they purchased it about 9 months ago, and during the vacancy many homeless used the facility as their home: sleeping, eating, stealing copper pipes, and all of the outdoor air conditioners. It has been a struggle for the base since purchasing it, to keep everything safe and hidden!

The guys are actually sleeping in that location. So please pray for their safety. A few weeks before someone has broken into the pier and stolen all of the staff members clothing, wallet, and guitar all while he was sleeping in the room. Another staff member decided to tell me all of the statistics of what goes on there, and I walked away ecstatic about where we decided to house our guys...and my husband! (note: sarcasm) 

During our days here, we will be working at the Pier. Our team began a deep clean yesterday and it should take another 3 or 4 days to completely finish cleaning, and moving everything in. Our evenings will be downtown Vegas doing street evangelism and prayer on "the strip". Please pray for energy and passion for the team! Everyone wants to finish this outreach strong, but the jet lag is really kicking us hard right now.

We do have one very serious prayer request about a student. While we were on the island swimming, most of the students were fine with the amount of sun we got, but one student (Garrett) got a very bad burn. In face we took him to the emergency room yesterday because we have never seen anything like this before. Even the pre-med student (Josiah) on our team, said you only see "that sort of thing" in a medical book. The doctor says he has a second degree burn, an infection in the burn, and sun poisoning! Today we are taking him to a burn clinic to get it taken care of. He is in a lot of pain, but his attitude is still bright. Please pray for healing!

Other than the burn and our jet lag our team is doing great!

We leave for Denver August 7th!

Love you!

Sisaket (a very delayed blog)

Hello!

We are currently in the village of Sisaket working with 'We love Isaan'. Each weekday morning we spend teaching english and playing games at the village school. Our afternoons are spent working on what is called a reading room which will be used as a means of teaching english to the children in the village. We've already begun work on games on extending the buidling here and renovating the current one to fit their future needs. 

We've spent this week mixing concrete and laying cement for a kitchen, bathrooms, and sidewalk, a lot of painting indoors and out, building a roof, walls, deoing all of the plumbing, tiling, etc...and al thai style which takes a BIT longer than we do in the USA.

The team is pretty exhausted from the work, but mostly from the spiritual atmosphere here. As a whole, we've been struggling with sleep, with our times with God, and in relationship with the people we are staying with. We spent this morning (monday) reflecting on the past week and our team could really use your prayers. In selaphum, we were able to building relationship easily with the people around us despite the language, and here it has been a lot harder. 

Casey (the man with the vision of We Love Isaan) and his family are the only christians in this village of 100 families. And you can feel the spiritual oppression surrounding this village. One ray of light in this village is the children, wide eyed and ready to learn about Christ. The children flock to their home each day with a longing to play with the fah- rangs (foriegners) and the impact that Casey's family has had here is definetly evident among the children's lives. Please pray that this continues and that the children will come to Christ and affect their families with His love in a deep, life changing way!

We leave this saturday, so until then we will finish working on the projects we started last week! 

Prayer requests: 

"Choosing it" daily

Against fear

Walking in victory in Christ

GOOD SLEEPS

Love you guys!

Jami