A Wonderful, Shocking Surprise.

We are leading a Thailand outreach in June off of this Spring school!! Can you believe it? I feel as though we just returned from the beautiful country (well, i guess we did). It is unreal to us, and we were not at all expecting this! What a blessing!! 

This team is completely opposite of our last experience. What do I mean by this? Well, for one, the budget it $1,000 less per student, which for the students is amazing, and as a team...a very tight budget. Secondly, we will be traveling shorter distances, due to the financial side of things, and we will actually be staying in more rural villages rather than in the big cities. Which honestly, Ted and I are thrilled for this. I believe the students will really enjoy this as well. 

We do not have anything set in stone, and even if we did I probably at this point wouldn't write to share because things can change so quickly and easily. For example, as of right now we are okay to lead the team to Thailand, though the budget is very tight. We will need to be completely frugal in our spending on housing, food, transportation and such. IF for some reason YWAM does not think Thailand will work with this budget, then we will most likely be asked to lead somewhere in South America. 

Ted and I are willing to lead anywhere, but our heart and our goal is to head back to Thailand. Now that we have already experienced the culture once, we feel ready to lead this team to the same country, yet with a entirely different experience.

Prayer Requests: 

•  We will begin to call travel agencies to find the cheapest tickets possible tomorrow. Please pray for favor!
• Guidance in where to take the team, and what ministries to work with while we are in Thailand. 
• Guidance in how to be frugal as we began to budget everything in. 
• Our students coming in on Monday. Please pray for immediate team unity! (We had such an amazing team unity last time and would love to see that once again)
• We have 11 students who are international students. Incredible yes, but it does make it a bit hard for us as we begin to get Visas for each.  (by the way it is very rare to have over half the students be international, we love it!)
• Peace for Ted and I. 
• Balance with our daily jobs, as leaders outreach and small group, as a couple, and with the Lord first and foremost!

 We love you! Thank you for standing with us through prayer and/or your financial support! \

Love, Jami Joann

We Plan, He Directs.

Have you ever planned for something, thought it to be set in stone, and have it totally change right before your eyes?

Well the last blog that was written, is basically completely changed in almost every way. So scratch it. 

Ted and I are now on the Discipleship Training School staff as small group leaders, once again. My first thought when I heard this news was, "Yes!!" and then my second thought..."Wait, God what about our season?" and I was quickly reminded of how God is working in us to be more relational with his children, why not lead a small group and learn to love, lead, and really relate with people as Christ would. 

As for Ted and I...we are almost coming up on our 1st year anniversary. About three months now, crazy huh? We have walked through so much this year in learning what it means to love. Love is unbelievable when you love as Christ loves. When you are selfish,well it's undesirable, you know?

We both have really grown a lot, even in the past 2 weeks, in our love relationship. Seeing each other in who they are in Christ, encouraging each other in our strengths and challenging each other in weaknesses. We do have our down times as well, we have by no means perfected this! (Many of you married folks are probably laughing right now). If you have any advice for us, please, please let us know!

Another prayer request: 

We are also leading a youth retreat the weekend of the first school. Totally unrelated to YWAM. A couple here, asked Ted and I to pray about leading this at their church. Right now the church does not have a youth ministry running, and their are about a dozen teens needing leadership.

 Ted and I do not feel led t lead the youth group, we do not feel like this is for us. Yet, we are leading the youth retreat. We are leaving on Friday evening and coming back on Sunday afternoon. Ted and I will be leading them in bonding activities, as well as many "sessions" that we will teach on relationship with God, peer pressure, purity, and their dreams and goals. 

Please pray for us, as we still have to put together the weekend! Please pray for us as we meet the students, and also begin working in our new departments. 

Once I know what Ted is doing officially, aside from leading a small group and outreach, I will let you know. We are curious too!!

Love you, thanks for reading our blog!

Jami

A New Season

We begin again! Another season of changes, challenges, and growth headed our way.

Beginning on March 31st, four new schools roll in; A Phase 2 leadership program, a School of Worship, a regular DTS and an around the World DTS.

Ted and I are still awaiting the moment where we get called into the personnel office and told if we will or will not be working with a school this spring. We are pretty sure that they are not putting us on a school staff. The reason why: we are traveling to Alaska!

The most opportune time to travel to Alaska, for Ted's family and his friends, would be the beginning of April. So for the first two weeks of April we will be in the beautiful state of AK! The downside of that would be the fact that since we will be gone for the first two weeks of the schools, we cannot work directly with the schools as small group leaders.

We've talked about this, and both agree that it is for the best. We feel like this is a new season we are entering, one of a lot more growth, a lot more challenge and change. So we are okay with the thought of taking a break for three months from deeply discipling students. God has really stirred in our hearts for us to work on our relationships with our friends and staff, we look forward to this!

This is a small season for Ted and I to grow deeper in our relationship with God, which will ultimately lead us into a deeper relationship with each other.

Also, Ted has not been home for two and a half years now, and he misses it greatly! He is very excited to show off his home, the places he grew up, and the beautiful land.

A few things we do now for sure... I (Jami) will be working, once again, in the kitchen office as the assistant. I worked there about a year ago this spring, so I have an idea of what the job entails. I will mostly be working on the menu, and meal instructions. Planning the menu, but mostly working on putting the meal recipes together for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day.

I remember last year I was planning our wedding while doing this very job, so when we do have down time, it is pretty awesome. I remember this job is very up and down, meaning when we are busy we are really busy, and when we aren't there is nothing to do.

So, what will I be doing to make the most of my time, since I am not planning a wedding, you may ask? Well, I hope to be planning an outreach to Thailand.

Many of you know, for those of you who do not...Ted and I loved Thailand and want to return this summer with more students. As of right now we are working on what is called an outreach proposal. We just put together the dates, the times, the cost, the budget, the housing, food, ministry and let them know our heart, and they pray about it and talk amongst the elders and decide.

This is a h u g e prayer request! Please pray that we will be able to lead this outreach, and hopefully this summer!

Another prayer request, on the smaller side of things...Ted and I recently invested in a YMCA membership. We were given a huge deal since we are YWAMers, so that is a blessing. The prayer request is: discipline! Many of you may have noticed the weight we both have gained since being together. We both really feel led to be healthy again. So please pray for us, as this is a huge transition from eating whatever we want, whenever we want to being aware of our health.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rambles!

Love, Jami Joann

Beautiful Peace.

Ted and I are now back to work at the Arvada base. It has been an interesting time transitioning.

 Transitions with many colours of emotion, time, and energy. The good, the Best, and the Ugly:

• being newlyweds and immediately working on school staff.
• living up at Eagle rock since September until december.
• each having a small group.
•  losing dear friends and immediately leaving for outreach.
• experiencing the beautiful culture and people of Thailand.
• eating, sleeping, and traveling with 27 people.
• traveling back to the states.
• moving back into our lovely, quiet apartment.
• saying goodbye to our small group students.
• taking a tiny vacation mostly consisting of sleeping, cafes, friends, and family.
• coming back to work at the base.

*Note: most of the transitions above have honestly been challenging but very growing for us. God always works things out for good, it is true! 

Ted and I had a little date at lunch time, and it has been amazing to see how God is continually working in each of us. It has been challenging, in fact, the past four months have been some of the most character challenging months for us both. 

One very difficult thing, which we came back to in Denver, was feeling like it was "odd" in Denver. The first week we arrived at YWAM we were surprised to find people at the base really living life like the shooting never happened. We honestly made some assumptions, wondering why it seemed like everyone was "hush" about even taking of how they were doing. 

After talking to an elder, realized that many of the staff have already went through the grieving and have really moved on,  and others have been struggling and are being counseled.

For Ted and I, it is still fresh to us. On outreach, we really just moved into our outreach mode as leaders. I'm not sure if that was a good or a bad thing, I kind of feel like it was a mixture of both at times. Now that we are back, the first two weeks were a bit rough around the edges. We were on what seemed like a roller coaster with our emotions. 

I can gladly say that now, Ted and I are doing well. We are still working through a lot in our hearts and minds right now, dealing with the shooting and the reality that Phil and Tiff are no longer with us. The reality has really hit us hard, being back at the base for good now. 

We are determined to talk when things in our minds and hearts and emotions come up. To cry and to laugh when we need to. We are determined to really seek after what God calls us to, in loving everyone and not judging their hearts. We are determined to really move forward in our callings, and in our dream of heading overseas. 

We both really feel the peace of Christ and how faithful God is in loving us, even when we are unfaithful. Isn't God amazing in His pursuit and continuous love for us? Oh golly.

I guess, since you have read this, then you probably know how to pray for us. If you would like to pray for us, and for everything we are working through, and if you get a word for us, please let us know!

Thank You so much for welcoming Ted and I back, and being so loving and faithful in your encouragement to us both! It honestly means a lot to us both, and we can feel your prayers.

We love you!

Jami Joann

I Adore These Moments.

Sisterhood. I can't even describe through my simple words how much I love these two; my beautiful sisters. This weekend Ted and I had the chance to travel to Cheyenne to visit our family! We had a wonderful time with my family! Tomorrow we head back down to Denver, and on Monday we head back into working full time at YWAM Denver. I'll update with what we will be doing as soon as I know! Love. Jami.

Abie and her contagious smile.

Chelsea, with her many talents.

A Time to Rest.

Here we sit, enjoying hot tea and chai, inside this toasty warm little coffee shop called Billy D's. Ted and I have spent many hours here this week, reading, talking about future plans, surfing the web, occasionally we've run into YWAMers (everywhere we go, we usually do!). It has been a relaxing week, totally opposite of the past week! We've finally caught up on our sleep which is a blessing.

We've had our ups and downs this week, adjusting back into our normal living here in Denver. It has been difficult at times.

Here are a few of our fun little adjustments: 

• Snow, slick roads, winter coats, mittens.
• Our messy apartment. (Two pack rats + Marriage = a lot of piles.) :)
  
• Greasy food. Getting sick after eating the greasy food...
• People. Lets just say in Thailand, you were always, always, greeted with a smile.
• Coughs, sniffles, tons of tissues.
• Toilet paper in every bathroom here!
• Starbucks everywhere you drive. (You know those old cartoons with a little angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, well I'm certain starbucks is the little red guy on my shoulder.) Though you'd be proud to know...Ted and I have both dropped soda and coffee since before outreach!
• No translators. 
• Just being the two of us, not the 27. We miss our team so much though!
• Not having rice at every meal. Believe it or not, we miss Thai food so much, in fact we are going out for Thai today!
• Driving not walking, stop lights, speed limits that are followed.
• From flip flops to winter boots.
• Noise.

One very difficult thing that Ted and I have both already struggled with is the temptation of comfort. Moments when we are completely lazy and possibly creating a pattern, which we do not want!

Every moment that our minds are tempted to stray away from the calling and desire that God has in our life, He always gently, sweetly, and sometimes with a touch of humor, reminds us of the very thing Ted and I long for the most; to be overseas sharing the love of Christ through building deep relationships with the people of each culture which He sends us. 

Ted and I have been to Barnes and Noble twice this weeks, researching and re-igniting our passions. We've gone up and down the travel section, searching through country after country. It's been really fun, and it's helped us to talk a lot more about our passions. We've shared the photos and our desires to travel, and we both stated many times..."Let's go here someday!". We pretty much want to travel the world, there is so much out there, so many people to meet and build relationship with, and so much to raise awareness for!

There is one thing that I have wanted to get into for a while now, and with much encouragement of my sweet husband I will finally share this. I think I have held back for so long now, due to fear of man honestly. Mostly because I know close to nothing about this very thing...photography. I really long to understand more about photography. As we were in Thailand I really explored raising awareness of what is going on in Thailand, the religion, the people, the culture. 

Anyhow, Ted and I decided to pursue his desire to video and my desire to photograph, each of these desires to be used to raise awareness about cultures and what is being hidden within each culture. Right now we have a cheap digital camera and a fairly nice video camera that for now, can be our tools. But we've decided to raise support for a really nice camera, so when we travel in 2009, we can begin raising awareness. It's amazing how the photos turn out with a really nice camera! A person who knows nothing about photography, can pick up a nice camera and shoot a beautiful photo. 

Anyways, we are still praying about sending me to night classes at the community college for photography, but then again there are also a lot of opportunities among our community at YWAM, of people who have had professional experience with photography and want to talk to me. The same for Ted and his desire to video. Please pray for guidance in this area!

Also, please pray for our future plans. We have a lot of heart, passion and desire, but we need to begin to put our feet to action! We will let you all know our plans, once we know for sure! One thing I do know...they ARE overseas, and they are exciting!

Thanks for reading this long, exhausting blog! :)

Love, Jami

Jami's Sweet Small Group.

Our bittersweet week of goodbyes. Ted and I had to say goodbye to our beloved smallgroups,which was hard. My first small group, and i LOVE these two so very much! So our last small group time we decided to head to a coffee shop, and do a small group photo shoot. We had such a blast, and I thought i would share this with you.

We brought out the best of each other this day.

Veronica.

Corrie.

Sawadii-kaw, traditional thai greeting.

In the past 5 months, it was a privelage to watch them grow in their identity and love.

Even in the moments of your greatest weakness, He is strong and uses you still. What a gracious, loving God we serve. I learned a lot in my time as a small group leader. A lot about what to do in the future, how to listen to God for guidance and how to really trust Him in using you, and showing you were to grow in small group leading. It was a humbling experience and I will never forget these two wonderful women of God. It was so difficult here and there, but i know I can now say...I can't wait to have another small group!