Faith Journeys!

Merry Christmas season! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day and spent some time really thinking about what you are thankful for. I think it's appropriate that Christmas follows Thanksgiving, because Jesus really is what I'm most thankful for...and following behind Him: family, friends, chocolate chip cookies, boots, scarves, spending time in NYC for the break with my friend, Kim, and my brother, and decorating the tree while playing Christmas music! It's been a lovely, busy, but restful break for me!

These last few weeks have flown by (which keeps happening the older I get) and God has been teaching me so much. Two weeks ago Tom Osterhus, from the YWAM Maui base, came to teach our class on worldview. It was so impactful and I realized a lot of my thinking has turned to a more humanistic view rather than having a Biblical worldview (scary!!). Last week Doug Tunny (YWAM Boston) came to speak on evangelism. One of the best teachings I've had on practical evangelism. We went into the streets of Harrisburg and saw 31 salvations and 12 re-dedications in 2 days!!! Praise the Lord! I learned that people really aren't that scary and I need to just open my mouth! Doug said, "The best way to do evangelism is to just do evangelism." So simple, but so true. It's just starting a conversation and then sharing about Jesus. He brought up the idea that if we had the cure to cancer and we didn't tell anyone, wouldn't that be cruel. So how much more cruel is it to keep to ourselves the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ?? Everyone was pretty nice, even if they didn't want to accept Jesus they still appreciated someone talking to them and encouraging them.

Doug's week on evangelism was a perfect way to lead into our Faith Journeys. It was a 3 day trip where they divided us up into groups of 4 or 5. We were dropped off in different cities with 3 envelopes, a backpack/sleeping bag per person, 1 phone, and a contact number if we needed one. We could only open the envelopes on the day it said to and inside we would find tasks to complete for the day with some money (we never knew how much money would be in there, if any)...oh, and we were responsible for finding our ride back to Harrisburg! My team (Shannon, Matt, Chris, and myself) was taken to Lebanon, PA (about 45 minutes from Harrisburg) and dropped off. We were given $50 for the day and some of the tasks were to 'buy lunch for a homeless person and eat with them', 'pray for someone for healing', 'all team members buy someone a coffee and share Jesus with them', and 'at some point during the week get on the radio or news'. We wanted to go to a coffee shop to strategize and figure out what to do and where to go. Across the street from where we had been let out we noticed Legend's Cafe and decided that's where we would begin. This ended up being the most Divine drop off I could ever have imagined!

When we walked in we found out it was a part of a church, Calvary Chapel! They were about to close the cafe, but we got to meet the pastor's wife, Sue, who gave us some free soup for lunch. There she connected us with Marcio who worked with the local YWAM base and a contact for a radio station!! Already God was providing and in more ways than we even knew at that point. We then met Ebeneezer who came to the church every week to pick up food and distribute it. So we helped him load his car and then piled in for the mystery drop off. We ended up at the first service of the new Nigerian church in Lebanon and the food was to be given to the congregation at the end of the service. It was so much fun and I kept looking at my team asking how it was that we got there again. We met Nigerian pastors from all over PA and got connected with a missions organization in Africa. They even recognized the 4 of us as representatives of YWAM. We also met Kristin and her fiance, Ken, who offered to be our ride home on Tuesday! Remember....we had no contacts upon arrival and within 3 hours were in a Nigerian church service being recognized and thanked! Ha ... God really does have a sense of humor and if we just let Him, He really is faithful to guide us!! The service and all of the people there were so sweet and even had us be in the picture with all of the Nigerian pastors to commemorate their first service! We decided that with how the Lord was providing we would give all of our $50 to the church and would trust the Lord to provide whatever we needed. What a great start to the next few days!

After, we were dropped off by the Legends Cafe/Calvary Chapel and decided to go talk to people on the streets for the next hour or 2 before a Bible study at Calvary. We met a few people, prayed for them, shared the gospel, and even invited a girl we met to hang out with us the next day. We walked back to the church and joined in on the last of The Passion of the Christ and the Bible study, along with some snacks (dinner!). We met the pastor, Thom, and a few of the members of the congregation and felt so blessed at how the Lord was guiding us already. On top of that Thom and Sue offered to let us stay at the church for the next few days!

The next morning Marcio picked us up and took us to the YWAM Lebanon base. When we got there we opened our Day 2 envelope and found out one of our tasks was to serve at a local YWAM base or a church...perfect! So we offered our time to do whatever the base needed done and ended up raking leaves for a a few hours. The directors of the base, David and Miriam, made lunch for us and sent us off with about 3 boxes of food! We were dropped off again at the church and decided we needed to give all of the food to a family in need. We ended up knocking on the door of Robin and Gloria. They were homeless the month before and would have stayed homeless if they couldn't find an apartment that would allow their 3 dogs to move in with them! The apartment was pretty run down and smelled like cigarette smoke. They told us they just got a refrigerator and had been eating soup for the last month, so the food we brought them was much needed. They talked a while about their dogs and then we somehow switched the conversation to talking about Jesus. Robin said he didn't think hell could be any worse than the life we were living now and how he knew about Jesus but nothing more than the stories told in his past. We talked to them for about 30 minutes going through the Gospel, telling of the hope with Jesus, and the gift of eternal life in heaven where their would be no tears, pain, or hunger anymore. I asked them if they wanted to accept Jesus and they said YES!!!! Hallelujah. 2 new family members into the Kingdom. And since they lived down the street we were able to get them connected with Calvary Chapel. I truly look forward to seeing those 2 again because they are riots!

Those are probably my favorite stories of the 3 days. The rest of the time we talked to/prayed with more people on the street, joined the church one evening to help with their prayer station and hand out hot dogs to the homeless and anyone who came around, did some worship on the streets and read Bible verses aloud so that the name of Jesus would be enthroned over Lebanon, and prayer walked around town. We also were interviewed on the local radio station (93.1 The Truth) and became the Thanksgiving spotlight for the next couple of days!!! I learned so much during this Faith Journey. My team was incredible and God wow-ed us all with His provision. He provided things for us before we needed we knew them, every single meal was provided to us free of charge, we had a place to stay, the name of Jesus was proclaimed, and Robin & Gloria made Him Lord of their lives! Thank you, Jesus! Those 3 short days will leave a lasting impact on me and we now have friends in Lebanon that I look forward to connecting with in the future.

Below is a video of some of the other teams favorite God stories from the week!


Thank you again! Everyone who reads this and prays and supports financially and offers encouraging words, you have no idea how much you mean to me. I just can't tell you enough how appreciative I am and how I would not be here without you. Enjoy this Christmas season and remember that Jesus is the reason we celebrate.

I love you all,

J

P.S. You can download the podcasts of the speakers we've had for class by searching for "Fire and Frangrance" on iTunes. It will be the speakers for Harrisburg: Andy Byrd, Sean Feucht, Ivan Roman, Tod McDowell, John Leach, Corey Martin, Tom Osterhus, and Doug Tunny...and more to come! I highly encourage you listen to some of these...they've all had a hand in the change going on in my life!