Celebration Excitement

Dear Friends,

I thank God for all of His faithfulness in my life, and I am grateful for all of you, my wonderful supporters. I pray that God blesses you abundantly in everything you do and that He protects you everyday of your life.

As you know, I am a staff member at the Youth with a Mission, Perth, Australia base. Recently, our YWAM family celebrated the 50th anniversary of YWAM International along with our own base’s 25-year Anniversary. In honor of these events, this past month, our base has focused on giving God praise and thanksgiving for the YWAM ministry both globally and regionally, and on a personal level. We were blessed to have Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, visit our base during the anniversary celebrations and speak to us about the journey of this organization. Loren’s message really encouraged me about God’s faithfulness along with our responsibility to persevere toward our Callings (especially in hard times). A few other speakers also came for the celebrations, and I learned a lot from them. Another message that really stood out to me was that we need to always be on-guard and sensitive to the Holy Spirit and obey everything He says.

Everyone in the city was invited to the anniversary celebration. It was so encouraging to see people in our community join with us as we thanked our Mighty God for His goodness! At the celebration, about 700 people (YWAM-ers and other Christians not directly involved in YWAM) made a covenant (called the “Jubilee covenant”) which stated that we will remain committed to follow and serve Jesus Christ for the next 50 years. It was encouraging to see fellow believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ, signing a covenant of commitment together.

My Island Breeze ministry got to perform during the celebration as an act of worship and thanksgiving to our Faithful God; it was cool to be a part of this incredibly joyous time. Currently, my ministry team and I are in the midst of preparing things for our upcoming outreach. I have been teaching the dances to our new dancer and am learning new moves myself. Although I am busy, God reminds me daily to rely on His strength.

During my personal devotions, God has been challenging me to stay in His presence always, just as He says in Psalm 27:4--"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”

I am still trusting that God will provide the funds I need to go on outreach again with my team to South Africa, South Korea, and possibly other countries (still to be determined). These trips will cost $5,400(US) and the payment is due to March 12th. I am also still trusting God for more monthly supporters to contribute to my monthly expenses ($355US).

It is with great humility that I ask you, dear friends, to pray for me and pray about helping my financially. I really appreciate your support and your partnership in my calling.

Thank you for taking your time to read this update. God bless you!

With love,

Jon

The New Year and all that Awaits!

Happy New Year to you all! I pray that in 2010 God will pour out His blessing more abundantly upon your lives. I also pray that God will overflow you with his JOY and blessing in your businesses, jobs, and/or studies, and all other spheres of your lives!

It has been about six weeks since I returned from outreach and it is good to be back on the base in Perth and to be part of the base activities again. The first two weeks following my return, I took holiday (or, vacation). On my holiday, I stayed in Perth and was able to really relax and enjoy God—seeking Him and meditating on His words. It was so wonderful to just spend time with Him and in His presence.

After my two weeks off, I got back to work immediately. I became very busy teaching our Island Breeze dances to our new team members and preparing for more performances. My team and I performed twice on Carol by candle light (Australian Christmas Celebration) in 2 different places. We did a couple more dances on our base property during a base fundraising night. In addition to performing, I was also involved in helping to prepare things for our YWAM family Christmas celebration.

One of the base ministries (in addition to the numerous world-outreach programs that the base hosts) includes evangelizing weekly in the city of Perth. So, each Thursday night, all members of the base (staff and students from every ministry) are assigned to one of many different locations within and around the city of Perth. In each location, we form a large group and worship together (usually led by someone playing an acoustic guitar) and then pray before we begin evangelizing. When we evangelize, we either break into smaller groups to disperse throughout the area and meet people individually and/or our group remains in one area and we take turns publically proclaiming the Lord’s Truths to the crowd in love. In addition to the Thursday night base evangelism, my Island Breeze ministry regularly does this evangelism activity in the city on Tuesday afternoons as well.

Through this weekly evangelism ministry we have seen God move in incredible ways in the city of Perth. My Thursday night Evangelism team alone has had the privilege of leading about 4 people to the Lord recently. And, combined reports from all base groups show that last month at least 10 people in/around this city accepted Jesus! This is extra encouraging because we have experienced Perth to be a closed city (“closed” meaning unwilling to hear the Gospel) for many years, and this is evidence of the Lord answering our prayers and spiritually breaking through!

Right now, my Island Breeze ministry team and I are preparing for our next outreach which we expect will be from April through August. We hope to travel to South Africa, South Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines. Considering our far outreach destinations, our team leader has informed us that our outreach fees are going to be at least $5,400 (US). Meanwhile, I need about $360 (US) per month to continue as a YWAM staff member to cover my living expenses (e.g. housing, food, and basic needs). Please pray with me as I trust God for this money.

I currently need one-time support for my upcoming outreach as well as monthly support for my ongoing staff fees. I humbly ask that you pray for me and pray about supporting me financially. I can't do this by myself; the reason that I am able to reach out to the nations for His Kingdom is because you have sent me to go. Please send me to Go again, I am willing and eager.

Thank you for your time, thank you for praying for me, and thank you for your generosity. May God bless you so much more from what you have invested to His Kingdom. God bless you.