It’s Saturday morning, January 10, 2010, and we’re packing up to leave the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base in Crystal Springs, Matamata. We are getting ready to head out with our teams to do different missions :-). There are people going on treks to minister to passerby’s, some are ministering near beaches, others are helping out at YMCA with the youth… etc. We, however, are going to help out with two different (worldwide) conferences: JUBILEE, and CALL2ALL. Three other World Race teams will be joining us. We are so thrilled! It will be hard to part ways with the other teams though, since we’ve gotten so used to seeing each other all the time. We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner as one big family every day; not to mention we all hang out together (by choice) the rest of the time. Ahhh, but we shall meet again.
During this “launch” period, we’ve been learning a lot about God’s heart for us and for His people. We’ve been processing a ton of information regarding spiritual gifts, living in community, attitudes, expectations, and… ourselves. Man, it’s draining at times. But it’s good; so good. Speaking of expectations, we found out that we are no longer going to Malaysia… we’ll be going to the Philippines instead. I guess our contacts fell through and we had to change plans so… yeah. We’re just excited to be along for the ride that God intends us to be on, whatever that looks like. So if you know people that are from the Philippines that would want to get involved with our ministry by donating, feel free to drop them a hint :o). I find that a lot of people feel more inclined to give to causes that hit close to home, so there’s that.
As we head out to do our mission work, we’d like to ask you to pray for us. Not just “Scott and Denise,” but our team as a whole. We are going to be facing some rough times. We’ll be living in close quarters, living on a budget, dealing with chores/duties, dealing with moods and expectations… etc. So as you can see, we’ll need prayer to stay safe and focused as a team, to be loving and caring towards one another, to be respectful and mindful at all times, to have the strength and boldness to be honest about our feelings and needs… because without unity and LOVE, we cannot be God’s hands and feet to the nations. So… thank you for joining us in prayer, for supporting us every step of the way, for helping guide us with advice and words of encouragement. Really… thank you. Here we go!
