I wrote a few weeks ago about our next steps and Seasons of Change, but wanted to get a bit more into it here. As you may or man not know, we are moving to Kona to work at the University of the Nations location of YWAM. This is a big deal for us as it wasn’t even on our radar 2 months ago, in fact I remember saying to some of Amy and my good friends, “there is no way we would move to Kona, I just don’t want to and don’t feel called to.” Famous last words I guess.
So the where is Kona. The who is us and YWAM Ships. We have been working with the people who started YWAM Ships for 3 years now and have grown very close to them as friends and also co-workers. They know our strengths, our weaknesses, our faults and successes and still want to work with us anyway ;). We see it as a marriage, we don’t want each other to change, we just see realize that we are better off with each other than alone at this time. We are not sure how long we will be working along side YWAM Ships, but we do know that it is for this coming school year and that it is going to make us a better, stronger, more mature ministry with forward vision and goals and plans to walk them out.
What will we be doing? Well we will be working with the Discipleship Training School (DTS) and incorporating aspects of Steps of Justice into it. We will have justice focussed day’s that we will head up and facilitate for the school. Currently we have 18 students from around the world on this school. We will also be meeting and collaborating with other justice focussed ministries and movements on the University Campus. We are starting to put together next spring and summer Cambodia trips and also will be hosting a gathering in Philadelphia along side of the Justice Conference in February. It will be a busy season of growth and planning for us as a ministry. We want to mature and get some legs under us and also build our fan base, strengthen our board of directors and create long terms goals that only can be met with the help of Jesus.
We are leaving on Monday, Sept. 3. That is the when piece. Holy, that is soon. Yep, the school year for the girls starts next week and we will be participating in staff training with the rest of the gang there next week. It also gives us time to settle in to our place, studio apartment with loft, and get our lives a bit sorted.
Here is my favorite, the why answer. In all honestly, because God spoke. on July 3 I was standing on the beach in New Jersey and received a phone call from Brett Curtis, director of YWAM Ships. Brett asked me to come and join them and for the first time in a year I clearly heard God speak new direction, He said go. I stood there on the beach knowing that it was time. We didn’t ask why, we didn’t ask how, we just threw out our needs and check list to God and started walking in the direction that we believe we heard God speak. This was a huge act of faith for us, specifically me.
I didn’t want to tell people that I was going to Kona. I was embarrassed, I was afraid of what people would say or think, I thought of many way’s to hide it even. When it came down to it though we had to go with obedience over pride and fear of man. God speaks and we obey, that is the end. It is hard to do sometimes, but we have seen miracle after miracle, followed by challenge after challenge happen as a result.
If you feel God speaking then obey. If you need to chat about it or want some prayer please connect with me, I would love to pray with you or just tell you more of our story as an encouragement and inspiration.
Peace.
