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