9/22/13

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you are all doing well.  It has been a while since our last update so please accept our sincere apologies.  As your lives back home are probably at full-throttle (i.e., work, home, church, children, commitments and etc....), our lives here at YWAM Kona have become the same.  We miss you all SO much, words cannot truly express how we really miss your friendship and fellowship, our families, our home and our church.  We are so encouraged to hear all the exciting and hopeful news through your honoring, obedience and perseverance with the resignation of our senior Pastor.  You are all in our prayers!

Alex:

We believe this is the season God is teaching us to wholly trust in Him, to look to Him and not men, to persevere through challenges and trials as James 1:2-4(NIV) states:  [2] Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, [3] because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. [4] Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything".   As we stated in our last update, Alex was waiting on funds to come through for Campus development, where he was going to "serve".  In the meantime, he did not want to sit idle, so he decided to assist/help with the renovations of dormitories with the Campus operations/maintenance team.  It has been a grueling two months of physical labor that he has not done in over 10 years, while overseeing and training some young men in mission builders.  During this time of "serving", Alex has had the privilege of becoming an "older brother/mentor" to several young men from Germany, other European nations, South Korea, the mainland, and to some Korean-Americans.  Many of these young men have become friends and like a "younger brother" to Alex, especially the young German (special connections w/Alex and Germans?) and as they feel comfortable with him, they have asked for rides and favors on the weekends and he has "served" them on several occasions.  As we are praying, we get the sense that God wants to direct Alex to work more closely with the mission builders as they come through every three months.  Although at first we thought he would work in Campus Development, but since our move here, changes have been made and although that has lead to some confusion, disappointments and discouragements, we sense that God has other plans for Alex right now.  If he stays in the operations/maintenance, he would have the opportunity to work alongside many of the mission builders all of the time.  As some of these young men are from broken homes, they are finding their faith while serving for three months at YWAM and having some vacation time.  As most, if not all of you heard Alex's testimony, who better than to witness to these young men than Alex?  We get the sense God may want to use Alex in this area, as it was also prophesied over him on several occasions.  We just had a blessed time last week hosting dinner to a summer surge (another short term ministry) newlywed couple who Alex worked with for one month and I met them for the first time.  Holy Spirit prompted us to share our testimony, especially about our marriage, which ended up moving the wife so much b/c they have already experienced some trials.  We were able to pray over them, bless them in their future as they obey God to go to Taiwan.  They in turn prayed over us and the wife saw a picture over us and gave us some prophetic words about how we would be a blessing to many younger people/couples coming through here.  

As some of you already know, Alex is scheduled to leave for Korea this coming Wednesday, September 25th-Oct 8th, for the IT Tour with Loren Cunningham and some of the CROWN team, including Chongho.  This would be a time for Alex to assist the CROWN team however they need help as well as an opportunity to spend time on tour listening to Loren Cunningham and a vision trip for our family.  

Pam:

I have started serving at The Learning Center (school our children attend) in the middle of August with staff training and preparing for the new school year.  It has been exciting yet daunting all at the same time.  I am not a teacher or very computer savvy (as you can tell), yet now I serve full time, mainly as staff support in the office, as well as an auxiliary teacher to the 1st and 2nd graders during their Centers everyday.  Due to the school's new block scheduling and the craziness of the new school year, and "working" full-time, the first two weeks have been a blur.  There have been times when I would get home and make dinner, eat and just fall asleep before 8pm and our kids are putting themselves to bed.  I will admit, I was a little nervous on my first day of staff training b/c I have been a full-time/stay-at-home mom for so long and as I shared this with Makayla, with her gift of encouragement and a matter of fact voice just said, "then what better way to start by serving God"?  Kids just know how to put things into perspective, thank you Jesus!!

Nicholas & Makayla:

We celebrated Nicholas turning 12 in August!  He is not just growing older, but growing up physically, emotionally and spiritually.  He helps me the most at home with my love language (acts of service) by taking out the trash and taking turns w/Alex doing dishes every other night, helping me with laundry, and occasionally steaming the floors, what a treasure he is!  Makayla helps by taking out the recycling, clearing or preparing the dining table and occasionally doing the vacuuming, but her gifting is in intercessory prayer.  She really loves it when our family worships and prays together for our family and friends.  She is the one who reminds us to get together so we can pray as a family and she starts seeing pictures and shares what she got out of it.  So share your prayer requests with us, she will pray!!  This has been so encouraging to us!  They are Back in school!!!!!  Praise God!!  They have had to work all summer long getting caught up in math, reading and writing because of missing school for the past year.  We have (happily) finished homeschooling Nicholas and Makayla and they have both started at their new school, The Learning Center.  They are starting to thrive here:  making new friends (but their old friends could never be replaced), loving their new teachers and enjoying some of their new classes:  Bible class, Korean, and weekly Intercession.  We thank God everyday for Nicholas & Makayla's understanding of our calling and their adaptability to their new surroundings.  In all honesty, they have been a lot better at it than us.  They have lot's of homework each day (from each classes) and have already had two projects on the weekends, a big change from our previous school.  They are surrounded by many different cultures and other missionary's children.  Several of the classes at The Learning Center will be moving into trailers in the very near future (including our school office and Makayla's class and couple others).  This is happening because YWAM is running out of spaces to house their DTS students during Sept and January quarters, where we see huge amount of students coming from all over the world and it's our busiest quarters.  So please pray for smooth transition and for children's safety.

Prayer Requests:

-For us to persevere and trust that God is in control and will guide our steps

-Alex just pulled his left lower back muscle and has been in bed most of this weekend, would you please lift him up for full and quick recovery

-Alex's upcoming trip to Korea:  for travel mercies (praying he will be able to go w/his back pain), for Him to encounter God through the crazy schedule and obey God's prompting and be a blessing to all those he meets

-Our home can be a place of hospitality and a blessing to others

-As for me (Pam), to serve with a joyful and a peaceful heart even when doubts and fear settle in

-Smooth and safe transition of our students and The Learning Center into the trailers in the next month or two

-Nicholas & Makayla to quickly settle into their routines, to not stress about all of their homework, and to make some good friends

Thank you all so much for all of your love, prayers, encouragements and financial support.  Thank you for believing in us and partnering with us in our ministry.  We love and appreciate you so much!  Please let us know how we can pray for you as well?

With love and prayers and blessings,

Im family