Love has great power

We are in our week of debrief at YWAM in Colorado Springs after 2 months of outreach in Thailand, and it is great to play back all of the great things that happened during that time.  Tomorrow we graduate and will all head out to what we have planned next.  So I was thinking about the things that I learned through this time and wanted to share.


When we look at the ministry that we did in Thailand, and the most significant moments of the outreach, they all surrounded one main point, loving people the way that Jesus teaches us to love.  No special formula or great amount of resources needed, just authentic love.  This love that we gave was enough to bring 2 ladies out of a bar to meet with the people who are there to help them find a lifestyle other than prostitution to support them, and most amazing was that one of them was the owner of the bar.

 We also were able to put smiles on the faces of many people in a slum neighborhood simply by showing up to talk to them and throwing 2 small carnivals in their neighborhood to play with their kids.

The same love gave the opportunity talk about the love of Christ to a Buddhist college professor on the campus of the college in Chiang Rai that we were reaching out to, and have the professor, in response, offer to help with the coffee shop that the ministry is running. These are just a few of the examples of how simply showing love provided for change in huge ways.

Time and time again we were amazed at the opportunities for ministry that were created just by showing love to the people around us.  It was great to see how simple it is to make a change in someones life just by caring for them and showing interest.  The great thing about loving is it cost us very little to do, more time than anything, but the results on the faces of those that we were reaching out to was more reward than any of the cost of giving it.

We really loved this time in our lives during our discipleship training and outreach.  We will me sharing many stories as we settle back into Cincinnati.  Thank you to all who have been praying for us and supporting us.  Keep praying that our next steps will be clear and we can use what we have learned to continue to pour out this love on all of those around us.
--Troy  

Halfway there!?!?

Seems like time has flown by since we left for Thailand. We have already spent a few days in Bangkok and then 3 weeks in Chiang Mai! There are so many stories to tell about our time. For now I will just update about how we are as a family, stories for the trip will follow when we can.

First thing that has been really amazing about this trip is how we have been able to adjust. The girls hit the ground running in Bangkok. No jet lag at all! Both girls slept for a long time on our overnight, 12 hour flight, and were ready to go the day after we arrived. They have also loved all of the Thai food that has been available. The picture here is of us on a cultural tour 2 days after arriving. Thanks for all of the prayers in this

area, they have worked!

The Thai culture has been great, but we have been really busy since we arrived, so not much of a warm climate experience (for those not familiar, warm climate cultures are more laid back than cold climate). With really hot and humid days it just seems to take it all out of you by the end of the day. Aria had stopped napping before we left the US, but has taken a nap almost every day since we arrived. So we spend most of our break times just trying to rest a little before heading out again.

Here is a

picture of one definite difference in Thia culture, that truck is a Songthaew. It is the primary public transportation for us and for most folks outside of Bangkok.

This is the view from inside of a canal boat, one of the ways we traveled on our cultural tour. Seems like we traveled by all means of non-live vehicle available that day.

We have had many opportunities to make friends around Thailand and interact with the people. There have been great ministry opportunities and opportunities to just talk to people and share life. We even took some time to celebrate Anya's 7th birthday with a trip to the park. Thanks to everyone that sent cards and birthday wishes, Anya was overwhelmed when she received all of the cards and gifts that morning.

So I will wrap up for now. We hope to post more often as we go, but thanks for all of the prayers and support that everyone has given. We are loving Thailand but definitely need all of the prayers and support during all of the changes and reaching out.

Wrapping up

Just a couple of days until we leave Colorado Springs and begin 2 months of outreach in Thailand. What an awesome time it has been here at the YWAM base. Out teachers have been great, outreach in the local area has been great, and we have grown in so many ways as a class. We have learned so many things during these weeks, here are a few:

The father heart of God

Leadership

Personality and cultural differences

Hearing the voice of God

How to deal with conviction and condemnation, and th

at we may all be convicted over different things but that we are responsible for not causing others to fall

Being flexible!!!!!

And many of the potential pitfalls that we will face on outreach

And that is just a short list, but to sum up the teaching, and our goal on outreach is to simply "love God and love others". Such a simple statement, but not the easiest to walk out. So we are praying as we move forward that we are able to walk our our days in a way that we do not have to preach to anyone, but that we will be such a light that others will ask us what is different about us, and since we already have loved on them, we can simply tell us how much we love to love God, that is why we are this way.

Thanks for all of the prayer and support!

Pondering the question of calling

This past week has brought to the surface a question that I have wrestled with for a long time, the question of calling on a persons life. About a week ago we had a guest speaker at church who spoke about missions. Shortly after church we went on an outreach to a local park where I had a second conversation about Christianity and reaching out to help others. Then, with this being the last week in the classroom before outreach, the topic was Missions and Mobilization. So I wanted to share a few things that I saw this week as I ponder my own calling and how to help others reach theirs.

The speaker at church was interesting. A long time missionary and representative for an international missions agency. He spoke very strongly about the calling that he believes every Christian has to do some international missions work during their life. He made a great case for the need for people in the field and how the whole world would benefit. His message was a compelling argument for everyone's involvement, but also seemed to highlight what a great sacrifice it would be to do missions, which I could not relate too since I have felt very excited and greatly inspired to do what we feel that we are "called" to do at this time. He really wanted to inspire people to do missions, and did a great job at inspiring those who may feel called. I loved his heart for serving, but have to admit that messages like the one we heard would have caused me to pull back out of guilt before I had an appreciation for international missions.

Shortly after hearing the speaker talk at church, we headed to the park with another family in our school, to let the kids play, and spend some time talking to people, reaching out however we saw a need. I met a lady named Sarah who was there with her grandson. Sarah made it a point to tell me during our conversation that she never tells anyone her age because they often judge her for not being retired and assume she should be somewhere resting. Presently, Sarah has several ministries going on, one that she works for full time, and others that she does in her spare time. Sarah was passionate about helping others, and loves her faith. But when I shared why we were in Colorado, and about going to Thailand, she immediately began talking about the guilt she felt for not doing international missions, since she felt more comfortable working around Colorado. Something tells me she heard a few one sided talks about international missions. I encouraged her in what she does and tried my best to assure her that she is doing great things, no matter where she works. This left me really thinking about how we work to get others involved in their calling, not make them feel guilty.

That is where our class came in. We have had many talks about the reasons for international missions, since that is what we are here for, but we were also able to talk about callings and the need for people working everywhere. Each church, and its people are called to help out in their own neighborhood, as well as across the world. We talked about the need for people at home to support all international missionaries, people to pray, and people to lead and disciple people at home and across the world. And the most important thing that I took away from this week was the realization that we do not need people going out and doing a task with a bad attitude because they were made to feel guilty and just went out because they had to. My friend Sarah from the park was definitely called to do her work that she was doing, and is making a difference each day. I also know many people who are called to reach all of the world by going to unreached nations. They both seem to be equally important to me.

Bottom line is that we are all called to do something to reach out to others, whether at home or across the world. I have seen so much joy out of seeking out my calling and following after God's plan for my life that I want to see everyone take the same opportunity. I have seen that joy both in local outreach and international missions, each in their right time. A few years ago I felt no calling at all to do anything like I am doing now, but through the years and experiences this came about at the exact time that was right. I am not sure where we will be called to next, but we will be heading out Wednesday and to everything we can in Thailand to love on others, and are praying that God makes our next calling really clear, because I do not want to miss any opportunity to enjoy life this much going forward. I want that for everyone I know.

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Philippians 2: 1-8

Love you all!

Seeing the power of God work

The past week has been great. Lots of fun and many experiences where we felt the power of God.

Granny Ann AKA Dancin' Deb came to visit last weekend. So we packed it full. Saturday was a trip to Garden of the Gods to start the morning and then we went on another treasure hunt (I described what this is a couple of weeks ago).

We set out with lots on clues, but a few of the ones the counted at the end were a lady with kids, a man on a bike, someone needing help, a man with tattoos and piercings, blue pants. I will also throw in that you should never underestimate the power of God speaking to a child, since 4yo Joshua was drawing a gun when we were all praying and listening for clues...and the first person we saw at our location we went to was a man in blue jeans with a gun on his hip. We had walked about 1.5 miles on a bike path to that location, and though we saw some people who fit our description, we spent the whole time just talking to people, no real prayer requests or people needing help. So we started back to the cars, and then, just short of the end of our walk a guy on a bike, with his wife and 2 kids, passes me and his chain falls off. I ended up helping him fix the chain, and after we talked to them a while, sharing what we are doing, they asked for us to pray for their kids to know Jesus.

So on that note, we ended that outreach and grabbed lunch. From there Charli and I joined another team to do an outreach to the homeless at a local park. We had a great time of talking with people, praying with them and offering any help we could for what they were struggling with. Lots of opportunity to get people hooked up with needed services. But the most amazing part came when we were about to leave and Charli spotted a guy on a bike, with tattoos and piercings...

I went to talk to the guy, and he was really nice, his name is Trever. He said he really did not need anything but thought how we found him was really cool. While I talked to Trever, the guy next to him, Daron, scooted over, and asked if he could join. Daron proceeded to tell Trever, Charli, Dusty (another YWAM'r with us) and myself how he had been struggling with alcoholism for some time and needed help engaging in the 12 steps and finding a higher power 9one of the steps...gotta love how God brought things together. So we got Daron set up with a local contact, and spent a while encouraging him and praying for him. Even better was that Trever was familiar with the 12 steps and joined in the conversation to help Daron get set up. How awesome that we found our guy in an entirely different circumstance than we imagined.

The rest of the weekend was relaxed, and we said goodbye to Granny on Monday. But the week was just beginning. With teaching from Dan Baumann, a great guy with many awesome stories about the his walk with God. We also saw our teacher in our class who has struggled with back problems get prayed for and the issues diminish significantly. Charli and I also saw many symptoms that Charli has been struggling with lately go away after she prayed with another one of the Ywam leaders. Then there was the worship session on Wednesday that became more like a dance party as the spirit on the campus was really lifted and everyone just had a good time while we worshiped.

What an awesome week! The week before was also great with Dean Sherman speaking. There has been so much that I have wanted to put fill everyone in on, but the problem with great weeks is they are also busy and tiring! So good night to all! We love you and thanks for reading....

Great things from Anya

Our trip to YWAM has brought many great adventures and opportunities to explore. When I was looking at pictures and thinking about a few of the highlights, one had to be seeing Anya grow in so many ways. She has made friends and learned a lot about working together with others. She has also had many opportunities to reach out to others and help people. Here are a few examples of what she has done, one big event even caught on camera:

Partnering with the older kids in her Foundation school to do outreach, picking up trash around the area, visiting nursing homes and praying for people.

Reaching out to other kids while at the park and on outreach with us to build relationships and just brighten peoples days.

Taking care of the younger kids during special events and just during everyday activities to give the parents a break!

And taking on some adventures like the one pictured below. When Anya saw a group rock climbing at Garden of the Gods one day, she said she wanted to learn to climb. So we went to Palmer Park, and found a rock with a few levels to climb, but not too high that I could not catch her if she fell, and she climbed, and climbed, and climbed....I had to keep stopping her from getting too high.

The rock we chose about 100-150 feel from ground to the top of what you see in the picture.

Taking a rest between climbing, and clearly having a great time.

Showing her skills...

Second time up, happy to show mom that she made it again!

It has not all been easy for her to adjust to, but there is so much growth that it could not come without some struggle. We are really proud of what our girls have been able to do while they are here and can't wait to see what they do in Thailand! We leave a week from tomorrow. Thanks for all the support and prayers, keep them coming.

Personality....

We were looking at our pictures this month and laughing at the many interesting personality traits that Aria is showing lately....

Smiles

Funny faces

Posing

Skipping town without us

Driving like a maniac

Dressing to impress

and crashing hard at the end of the day...her preferred way to fall asleep lately....

Wonder where she gets it...

Catching up

A few quick clips about what has been happening, since I have not posted anything in so long...

Two weeks ago we spent most of the week working on personality types, trying to get to know each other, and how we interact together so that we are able to function well on outreach.

Last week we did what was called Plumb Line Week. That is where we look at how we interact based on past experiences. The end result was to pray against all of the experiences and thoughts that we have that keep us from performing in the way that God designed us. We ended the week by putting our shortcomings out in the open so that we could all pray about them.

This week is all about the principles of outreach. So we are trying to bring together ideas and habits that will make outreach the most successful.

This is our week just past the halfway point here in Colorado Springs. With all of the issues of being sick that we had at the beginning we are just having the chance to really get out. This weekend we get to head to the Zoo and Helen Hunt Falls as a group. We also plan as a family to visit a park that we found last weekend and do some climbing. Anya came up with the idea after seeing some climbers in Garden of the Gods last weekend.

Each week is also bringing more information about our trip to Thailand, and we are growing in excitement for heading out in late June. There is so much to learn, most importantly being able to trust God and pray as we go that we will have the greatest impact possible as we head out.

Please keep praying for us to be directed by God in our steps and to not be held back by any doubt or concern that we have. Things have gone so great so far, we are really anxious to see what else is to come!

Forgiveness~ by Charli

It's been more than thirty years since I've seen him. The last time I shared space with him, my mother had arranged for us to meet at Washington Park, in Over the Rhine. Go OTR!!! Perhaps my mother knew this would be the last time we would see each other before my brother and I were put into foster care. I certainly didn't, but two things I did know for sure at the age of six: I did not like my father and he was a bad man. He tried offering me candy at the park, but I wanted nothing he had to give. I don't think I even looked him in the eyes because I have no memory or picture of his face. I just know he was there.

I have to tell you that God truly protected my little heart from becoming angry or bitter towards this man. But when I came to an age of accountability, I had a choice to make, a seed to sow. And I chose to forgive Micheal for being a perpetrator instead of a loving father.

Now, it's been years since I made that choice and I've often wondered, "Have I really forgiven him?" I made the choice to forgive yes, but the benefits were for me. I refused to carry around hurt and bitterness and I refused to still give him power in my life. But had I truly forgiven Micheal? Something was missing and I couldn't figure out why my forgiveness was not complete...until last week. . Wanna know what God said to me? God said to pray for his deepest needs. Wow! I never thought of that. His deepest needs uh?...not God bless Micheal, please keep him safe, and give him a cookie. Amen. But his deepest needs.

Was I willing to love Micheal as I did myself? Could I extend forgiveness not for my sake, but for my brother's sake, that he might receive the same liberty and freedom that Jesus has so lovingly given to me. Only by the grace that God gave me, could I do so.

Can I tell you my friend just a few of the feelings I experienced after this time of prayer? I felt forgiving, loving, gentle, compassionate, warm-hearted, peaceful, and joyful. Praying on behalf of Micheal, literally set me free from years of bondage!!! And God used this prayer as a healing balm to say to me, it is finished.

I'm learning that forgiveness is treating the other person as though they have never done anything wrong. I am learning that I have no "rights" to self preserve, love conditionally, or judge others. As a side note, the school we are in is called a DTS, which stands for Discipleship Training School. Around here we laugh (to keep from crying) and say our school is DTS...Death to Self. Hooray...more of You Lord and none of me.

Maybe like me, you wonder if you have truly and wholly forgiven someone who has wronged you, a family member, someone at church, a spouse or friend. If you could give me a few more minutes, I'd like to share with you some thoughts from a book called, The Bait of Satan by John Bevere. I found these words helpful in my forgiving process in terms of dying to myself and giving up my "rights" to be and stay offended, which by the way is a HUGE trap that Satan uses to keep us divided...especially as the body.

And Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay his life down for a friend." (John 15:13) We can not lay our lives down for someone we do not trust. We can not lay down our lives for God unless we know and trust Him. We must know and trust the nature and character of God. We must have the assurance that He would never do anything to harm us...

God is love; there is no selfishness or evil in Him...

When you know that God would never do anything to harm or destroy you, and whatever He does or does not do in your life is in your best interest, then you will freely give yourself to Him. You will gladly lay down your life for the Master. If you have given yourself totally to Jesus and are committed to His care, you cannot be offended because you are not your own. Those who are hurt and disappointed are those who have come to Jesus for what He can do for them, not because of who He is."

Ouch...Ouch...Ouch...Did you feel that too? If you did, pray it out to the Lord.

"Christians are living stones whose houses are on the rock of Jesus Christ. When storms come, they do not run, take offense, or blame others. Rather in the storms of life, they stand firm...This does not come by strong will or personality (thank you Lord). It is a gift of grace to all who place their confidence in God, throwing away the confidence of self. But to give yourself in total abandonment you must know the One who holds your life."

You've heard, "love covers a multitude of sin", well I am learning that trust in the character of God covers a multitude of offenses! I hope that God has stirred your heart as He is doing mine.

And I pray that you would know to the fullest the One who holds your life, and know to the fullest the price Jesus paid (for you and those who have offended you) to live in freedom. Offenders and offendee's, we are all at the mercy of the cross.

Thank God that mercy triumphs over judgement! (James 2:13)

Treasure hunt

We went on a treasure hunt today! For those who are not familiar with a treasure hunt, you simply pray for God to reveal things about a person that he wants you to pray for, and they become your treasure to seek out using what was revealed during prayer. So our class split into four groups and prayed, then went out in search of treasure.

Our group came up with many clues: red t-shirt, red hat, black shoes, named Jim, a picture of a particular park, a picture of a military tank, a back problem, a beard, Starbucks, and the feeling that someone would approach us. So we set out for the park that we saw a vision of. At the park we saw few people but felt we should pray for the park and the daycare next to the park. Seeing noone by the description at the park, we felt we should walk up the street. As we walked, one of our group members saw a man leaving the library who was an exact match to all of the physical characteristics that we felt. Three of the guys in the group stopped and talked to him, and found out his name was Jim!!! He had a back injury and other injuries from a military accident, and his family is homeless. Since he was in a hurry, we took the name of his family members and agreed to pray for him. I can only believe Jim was as much in awe as us when we knew his name before he said it, as well as about his injury to his back.

That was followed up by the ladies in the group walking down another street and finding a Starbucks, where they first prayed for a man that they met. After that, as the were leaving, they were approached by 2 young ladies who were doing a survey for a Philosophy class, on what people thought was "the meaning of life". They all got into a conversation and prayed for the girls who were doing the survey, as well as sharing what we felt the meaning of life was.

How awesome to have such strong confirmation that God hears your voice and also speaks to us when we approach him with a pure heart just wanting to do his work.

Thinking differently

Preparing for the outreach at the end of DTS will definitely require a change to how we think, but that is the goal of a YWAM DTS right? Our speaker this week is filled with 39 years of stories about how he has lived his life listening for God's voice and following it, not concerning himself with how illogical it sometimes sounds; just doing what he hears, with great success and a lifetime of stories to increase a persons faith. As he puts it, our only vocation in life is to learn to hear from God, so that we can find God's will for our lives. If we figure that out everything else will fall in line. That is what he is teaching us to do now.

So as I think back about our last minute meeting to choose the location of our outreach, 20 minutes to pray and decide where we are going once we knew the choices, and little information that we have about next steps, leadership is not concerned about this and neither should we be. The leadership at YWAM makes no move unless they feel that they hear God, and when they are listening hear, everything works out as it is intended. So our job is to stop thinking and start listening...just like the goal we had set a couple off weeks ago (seems to me that God gave us a couple of weeks practice).

Time for us to wrap up our night; to stop fretting, thinking, planning, processing....and start listening. Keep praying for us, this gets more interesting by the day!

Exciting start to the week, we are going to Thailand!

We started this week with the announcement of where we will be going for outreach this summer. The group will be split four ways, and we are on the team heading to Thailand. For now that is all that we know, and we are excited that we will most likely have a part in deciding where we go and what we do when we get there. It is exciting for us to get Thailand since we have had so many times in the past that Thailand has had an influence on our decision to come here and do this DTS. So more will come on that but it is well so far.

A dilemma of conscience is also on our mind. On Thursday evening Charli and I had talked about an accident she was in before we left Cincinnati, and felt compelled to just tell the person who hit her that we would not ask them to repair the car. The damage was mostly paint chipped on the bumper, I fixed the only broken parts for $5 and about an hour of my time. So we decided to pray about it and call the person this past weekend. Then on the way home from Church Sunday, I was driving alone (since Charli and the girls stayed behind with Anya feeling a little sick), and was rear ended. So it is pretty clear the first guy is off the hook because the second guy did more damage to the bumper that exceeds the first damage, but again the bumper is not too bad, just cosmetic. The dilemma comes in that the second guy decided to just leave the scene without any exchange of information, and only because I got his license plate is he now found. So, do I offer the same grace to the second guy as the first? Bumper is still just chipped of paint, but the fact that he left the scene makes me want him to pay for the repair. Anyway, guess it is more to pray on...

Anya started a dance class today, and is doing great making friends. Aria is getting adjusted too, so not so much of a fuss on her long days in her class. Charli and I had a really tough time just after the outreach locations were picked, but whatever was causing that seems ot have lifted...so keep praying for us folks!

Quick fact from last weeks speaker Peter Warren: The word Judge in the bible is used as a translation from 4 different Greek words, that have a variety of meanings, So next time you are reading the bible, think about looking at the Greek version also to make sure you are really understanding what is being said in the translation. Good thing we have Google translator and bible applications.

Finally, our speaker of the week is Paul Hawkins. Here is something he taught today in Learning to Recognize God's Voice:

"Do not make a decision by your own understanding and then pray that God will bless your decision. Start by praying to God with a willing heart and see what he says to you."

Love you all!

Divine intervention in $50's...WOW!

As we started our time here at YWAM, we knew that we would have most meals provided, but were also realistic and we would have some times we wanted to eat other things or would be hungry when there were no meals. Since we felt a certain amount of responsibility to at least try to just make due with what was provided, we thought it would be a good idea, in YWAM fashion, to have myself, Anya and Charli all pray for a number, and that would be our budget for the week for food. We all felt like we heard $50, so that is what we decided (it is so cool that we all heard the same number, without knowing the other persons number first, this prayer thing works).

I was surprised the first week, after buying what seemed like just the basics, we were left with $6. Set on being obedient to what we heard, we had to regretfully turn down offers to go out to eat on the weekend, and fight off all of the urge to make all kinds of exceptions and just go. SO that evening, I decided to turn this over to God also, praying simply "God, we will be obedient to your words, so if you want us to go out to eat, you will have to give us the money".

About 12 hours later, we are sitting in New Life Church on Easter morning. A single lady kindly asks if she can sit next to us and I struck up a conversation with her about her Bible cover that talked about the bible being illegal in many countries. She asked about us and I told her about being at YWAM. She filled me in that she was retired Military and was here to become a minister to the elderly in her retirement. At the end of the service, I gave her a hug and commented that I believe that she will be blessed greatly by her choice of how to spend her retirement. I really thought God may have put her there for me to encourage. Then, as she said goodbye, she grabbed my hand, and said, "God told me to give this to you". She walked off, and left me with a hand full of money totaling $50. I guess we are supposed to go out to eat a couple of times. Go God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few good answers

So now that we are feeling better as a family, and I have caught up on all that I needed to do in the first few weeks, I thought I would pass on answers to a few questions that were asked of me before I had the answers. The classes this first couple of weeks have been amazing, even in the midst of illness, and although our end purpose is not clear yet, what we are learning is very clear, and making a huge difference in our lives and the way that we think. But back to the questions...

Why are we going to somewhere in Asia for outreach when there are so many places that we could go locally?

Because one light in a dark place makes much more of a difference than one more light in a place already flooded with lights. Or in plain English, there are many missionaries and churches in the US, but there are few people reaching out to the areas in the 10/40 window. That is an opportunity to make a huge difference among people who have have not been touched.

How can people make a difference if they are not able to spend time in the mission field?

We learned today that for every missionary in the field there needs to be several people supporting them. Without sufficient support they are most likely going to fail. The missionaries need prayer support, monetary support, and also people who are simply giving them information about the areas that they are reaching out to. YWAM has over 100 staff members here that are responsible for training and supporting the full time missionaries in the field. There is also a great need for people who are willing to run businesses in a Christian way, work in media, promote the arts. All of these areas are available to spread the message that the missionaries are spreading overseas, and support those missionaries by getting out the word of what they are able to do with the right support.

What are you going to do after classes and where will you go?

This one has become very interesting for us. We came here with sort of an agenda in both my and Charli's mind. But as we have begun, we have seen the circumstances the God has put us in resetting all of our ideas, and taking on a new goal. "Stop dreaming, and start praying and listening for an answer, then wait!" What we have learned just about ourselves and our approach to decisions regarding our life has been amazing. We have not changed anything about our plans for after our outreach, and will not make any changes without confirmation that clearly directs us to make huge changes. We could easily mis what we are called to do if we let out own goals get in the way.

Finally, I want to share a huge revelation that I had this week from our speaker. It concerns worship, and the motivation to do so:

"We worship what we like. We can worship anything. But when we take the time to study God, interact with God through our actions, and witness the power that God has in our lives, we will begin to see the greatness of God and all that is provided to us. Once we witness the greatness of God, the natural result of that will be worship! But we have to be willing to take the first step and try it out, because God will not force us to."

Our path to this time on our lives has been so amazing, but we have often let the things around us distract us from seeing how great things have been. Serving others in some way is regularly what provides the greatest joy in our week. As I realized that, I am anxious for any opportunity that I can find to reach someone with the love that Jesus showed, and can imagine nothing but wanting to worship the God that made such joy so available to us at any time of any day.

So give it a try, and see how it feels!!!!

First full week

So I'll just say it...TOUGH WEEK! Last time I wrote, Aria was sick, and had spent most of the day in my arms. Though I would not trade comforting her for the world, I would definitely have traded what I was given in return. By 3am Monday I was sick, and could not stop purging until about 9am. Then late that afternoon Charli and Anya both became sick also. Fortunately I was far enough along that I was able to take care of them. They were not so fortunate in timing, it took them days to get going again. So Charli and I missed the first two days of class, Anya her first three, and we are still trying to get the girls accustomed to going to their classes each day while we attend ours. So things have not been easy. But just because they were not easy does not mean we have not had some awesome things going on at the same time!!!

When we did make it to class, we were able to hear a great speaker, Egbert de Zwaan, the YWAM Central Asia Regional Leader. Edbert talked to us about the character of God, and even better, he got us talking about and seeing what we already know about the character of God. Biggest thing that I brought out of it is that we need to recognize all of the great things that God has done for us, and once we recognize that we will have a great appreciation for God. If we have a great appreciation for God, and enjoy our walk with Him, then worship becomes natural, since we worship what we like! He made it sound do easy!!!!

Other things that have been going through our heads in this first week, where will this lead us. I have heard a lot of people with a lot of great ideas and dreams for what they would like to do after we finish this training. But all that I have felt so far is that our family is not supposed to be trying to figure this out on our own. Instead, Charli and I are supposed to be praying and listening. We have been brought here my so many awesome things, it would not be the time now to try to take control back and dream of what is next. So we will be doing that.

Finally, we had our first opportunity for outreach today. We joined up with a few churches and went to a local park where homeless gather. It was awesome just to take some time to talk to and pray with a group of people who are having a tough time. But is was also great to have the opportunity to encourage a couple who was there with a baby and had fallen on hard times so came by for the food and support. We also gave the kids an opportunity to run and play in the park on a sunny morning .

So we are all getting a little more adjusted. Planning on this week being our first full one in class. Anya has made some good friends and is getting more comfortable. Aria has also found herself a few favorites. We expect great things as we move forward, keep praying for us!!!!!!!!!

So much to say...

Where to begin...I can't even figure it out. I had a great plan to write today, but was distracted when Aria came down with a stomach virus, and I was the lap of choice. Sorry to say no one else ranked above her smiling every time I was with her, particularly when she cried whenever I left. It was a great friend that recently said that if there is no structural resistance to your plan, you are probably not on the right path. SO we must be heading down the right path. Charli and I could not be more sure that we are in the right place.

Our trip out was a great time for us. We spent 14 hours in and out of the car to get to Kansas City the first day. Not bad since we stopped at the Arch for 2 hours and only had two meltdowns by the kids.

That left two easy last days and a lot of fun at rest areas and great times together in the evening.

We arrived in Colorado Springs really early on Thursday and decided to head to the mountains before we checked in at YWAM, since we were not expected until the afternoon. The ride into the city was absolutely breathtaking. The highway in was a rural 2 lane road, so we saw lots of wildlife and slowly saw the mountains appear in the distance as the clouds were lifting for the day. When we finally did arrive in the city we drove past YWAM and discovered that we were only a couple of miles from Garden of the Gods. That is where we spent the remainder of the morning.

Once we finally arrived at YWAM, we met some great people. There is nothing like traveling for 3 days to go to a place that seems foreign, and having 2 very excited people yelling across a parking lot "are you the Rennekamps?" before we spoke a word. Turns out is was another young girl excited to meet Anya, and her mom, who is on staff. As we started to talk, we discovered that the same place in Honduras that inspired me to take this trip, also was a place that their family felt that same call, with Cindy and Henry Lowman encouraging them. Just one more in a long line of connections that we have seen in our story of coming here.

Since then we have had a day of orientation Friday, followed by a picnic that evening. Then Saturday we spent the morning together followed by a few of us taking off to a place called "the incline". We made it half way to the top and decided to come back to conquer on another day...but it was amazing to look down on some mountains, and up to others...praying over the city as we went.

Tomorrow starts the first day of real class, after a morning of worship.

I'm having trouble getting pictures to show up on here this evening, and have other things to do instead of fighting it, so here is the link to my photo album...there are some great ones in it!

https://picasaweb.google.com/twr111/YWAM2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJPDovb387rPtwE#

Love you all!

Storing time! (by Troy)

I keep saying we are moving today, but in reality we are just storing. We have been living out of bags now for a week, and today we officially take everything out of our apartment where we have been for the past 9 months. I know we will miss the place, Charli and Anya have both said so a few times. The place is so special since it seems to represent our move to the life that we have been looking for, where I am less busy with all of the things that I used to have to do with our house and apartment building, and have had more time to spend with my family. We have been continuously focused on getting down to just what we need, and focusing our energy on enjoying the time, which has been great.

So, as we began to pack, we have been shocked to realize how much "stuff" we still had, and how long it took us to get it all organized and packed. We really under estimated the amount of time and energy this would take, and have not felt much of the peace that we felt during the past year as we work on this. It has been a great reminder of how much the stuff in our lives can take away from us. It takes me back again to one of my favorite quotes where Jesus tells a rich young man to give up everything that he has to follow Jesus.

While I have never felt compelled to take that literally, I have had felt an overwhelming feeling as I read that, telling me to get rid of all that gets between me and the life the God intended for me. The rich young man was so focused on his money, and his stuff, that he was not enjoying the things that God intended for him to enjoy. Charli and I have spent the last year concentrating on getting rid of the things that get between us spending time together, serving, laughing, resting, and praying. This time of packing has not been a good example of our efforts. But it is what motivates us to keep going.

So as we transition to a life living out of bags for the next six months, it will be good to see what we really need, and how much more of this "stuff" we can leave behind when we move again.

For now, I guess I should start stretching. I am getting to old to carry all of this stuff around.

The excuses that were...

So as I said, I had a lot of reasons to not take this trip. All of these excuses I saw as legitimate, and to tell you the truth, I still see them as good reasons to not go, except that I am running out of excuses that have not gone away. The downfall of my "out" started years ago, but I have just started seeing things happen right before my eyes in the past two years.
At that time, we had our house, an apartment building that was a challenge to run to say the least, my job, and two daughters, one just born. In the middle of this, I was given the opportunity to join a group of guys going to Honduras on a mission trip. I had, until this trip, had little interest in traveling abroad. I was excited to go, primarily because I had heard the stories of the previous trips, and it sounded like a great challenge and a lot of fun. So Charli and I agreed that I would go on the trip. I still had my doubts, with little time and no extra money laying around to do this. But all of that came together. I had few issues with the apartment building while preparing, and all of the funds needed to accomplish this came through. On top of that, the trip was an entire week spent on a high like I have rarely felt, seeing all of my fears surrounding the trip fade away as I walked it out. I was beginning to see what was possible when I committed myself to God. Little did I know that this trip was the beginning of the end of my excuses about taking a larger trip as a family.
I still had my reasons to not take a bigger trip. But in the fall of that year I received a call from a real estate agent concerning our apartment building. He had a buyer looking for property in the area. Funny thing is, I did not even have the building on the market. Even better, when the property went into contract, I realized that the buyer was a couple of guys who had backed out of buying the same building a couple of years earlier, and we went into contract for the exact same price as the earlier contract (the prior time was before the fall of the real estate market in 2008). One down...
Without the apartment building we saw the ability to look into selling our house, we had wanted to downsize our house, and move to another part of town. Charli mentioned again that she wanted to do the mission trip as a family. We decided to put the house on the market in a rush since the home buyer stimulus was going away soon and we had little hope of selling without that to bring out buyers. But the end of the stimulus came and went, without a buyer for our house. We were disappointed, but decided to just stop trying so hard to keep the house in perfect shape, and leave it on the market. Charli had also heard about Crossroads DTS, a mission training for families, and wanted me to look at it with her. I still had several good reasons not to go yet but agreed to take a look. I really liked what I saw and was getting excited, and decided to be so bold as to tell Charli that I was interested, and made a promise to her and to God that if I could unload a couple of responsibilities I was willing to go. The next day we received a contract to buy our house.
With the house out of the way we were almost there. We found homes for our cats and dog, my job provided just enough time when combining vacation and leave, and my dad worked out a deal for us to have an apartment to stay in until we leave, rent free. Needless to say I had run out of tangible reasons to not go, and was getting more excited that the opportunity was there. For a long time, I had wanted to make this happen, but as I often see, God provided in a way that I could not have ever imagined.

Getting started...

So we have decided to take a step, a huge step in our walk of faith. To take a trip that, not so long ago, I would have considered to be crazy, even irresponsible. My place at that time seemed to be as a worker, a person who goes out and does my job to support my family. A trip like this would be a risk to our stability, our safety, our ability to make ends meet. I had a lot of pride about always being able to take care of things, not count on anyone else, I was going to make it on my own. Needless to say, my feelings about this have changed, but not because I decided to make the change, I have seen event after event happen in my life that have given me reason to trust that as long as my plans are focused on seeking God with all of my heart, we will be taken care of.
The thought of this trip was not my own, Charli has has this on her heart as long as I have known her. She has been persistent in holding on to her dream. I have had many reasons to believe that this was not the path that we should be taking. There were the couple peices of real estate that I was not able to just leave behind, my job that I needed to be at, and my fear of risking the life that we had built, even worse, risking anything when it came to my kids. All of those excuses have slowly began to disappear starting a couple of years ago. I will get into the details of our story in future posts, but for now all that needs to be said is that the excuses have been removed from our lives.
So we will be leaving for Colorado in April. And when I start to have doubts about what we are doing, all I have to do is look back to see how crazy I might be to not take this trip. I hope that you follow along with us to hear about all of the great things that brought this together, and hear what happens in the future. I have heard it several times from several people, "wait until you see what God has planned next".
As I go along, I am adding stories as they happened in the past, just to tell the story of how we got here, so the dates on the posts are not when they happened at this point.