October Update

The plan on returning home was to make monthly updates to keep everyone in the loop of what's going on with us, what our Ukraine plans are and all of that. I've failed at monthly updates but things to update are coming at a slower rate these days so once every few months will be the new plan.

Steve is enjoying his role at Youth for Christ. He has been working mostly afternoons right now recruiting kids to play in the Samsons ball hockey league (of which he is the director). The league should be up and running at the beginning of November and will run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday evenings until May. He had a guy volunteer to referee two of those nights so he won't be obligated to work every evening, which I enjoy. Steve's ankle is much better - he's back to playing basketball and ball hockey but wears a brace on both ankles while just to keep possible injuries at a minimum.

I am still doing hair from home and am able to be with Dezmond all day. Business has been good - I wouldn't mind being slightly busier but October is already looking like a busier month than September so I'm glad for that.

Our plan is still to head to Ukraine by the end of summer 2012. I know that will be here in a flash and there will be lots of time to panic later but we know that Ukraine is where God is leading us and we're ready to follow, no matter how scary (exciting, nauseating, overwhelming...)it may seems at times.

It still amazes me every day how God has been providing for us and showing how much He loves us. I want to say thank-you to all of you who are praying for us and to those of you who are supporting us financially. I'm honoured that God has given us the call and the opportunity to serve others and it's only with people like you that we are able to do the things we do.

Thanks for checking out what's up with us, hope you're all doing well!!

Reminder that God is Good

In the month and a half that we have been home, God has been constantly reminding us that when we trust in Him, He will take care of us.

Steve is now working at Youth for Christ as their Ball Hockey League Coordinator and I have gone back to doing hair at home. With Steve's job being a fully supported position and my salon just starting to get off the ground (again) we have to remind ourselves that we have a rich Dad who will give us what we need. He, in turn, reminded us in several ways just this week of how well he looks after us - from a bag of groceries from a friend and a gift in the mail to help us celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary (coming up this Sunday!!) He is looking after us and saying over and over "rely on me because I am Good."

I just wanted this to be a reminder to everyone who needs one, that no matter what your situation, no matter how good or bad things may seem, God wants to overwhelmingly show you just how much you mean to Him and just how much He loves you.

Graduation

G42 Graduation was yesterday! 

It was a great wind up to the past six months. It was for graduating interns only - the newer interns were in charge of baby-sitting services for the night! 

First we went to Andrew and Mo's to hang out on their terrace and take pictures. 

 It was SO hot that Steve and I decided to use Andrew and Mo's grandchildren's pool. No one else joined us....not sure why....

 Us with the leadership - from left to right - David Fredrikz, Andrew Shearman, Steve, me, Bec and Dave Hearn.

 Us and our friend Maryanne Yeary.

 Dinner was at Restaurante Tamisa at 8 p.m.

 After dinner our certificates were handed out and there were some games and a few speeches.

We left there at midnight and there was an after party at the staff girl's house up on their terrace overlooking the Mediterranean. It was an amazing night and it was so sad to be saying good-bye to so many people who have become family in the last six months. A bunch of people left today and most others will leave on Monday. We are back in Canada on the 28th and until then will be doing a bit of local travelling.

G42

Before we left a lot of people asked us what G42 really was and we really didn't have a very good answer. We have one and a half weeks left here and I now feel like we could give you a better sense of what G42 is all about!

G42 is community and network:

We live very closely with a group of people who see the good, the bad and the ugly every day. Steve and I have tried very hard to be close with people even though we're not living directly with them and it's been hard and amazing all at the same time. It's a safe community where we can be honest, transparent and grow together with the common denominator of loving Jesus. The networking comes into play after we graduate. G42 keeps tabs on everyone so that when we're done here and out there somewhere serving God, if anyone has the same dream or the same calling, we can be connected to work together.

G42 is radical God-people:
A phrase we've heard a few times here is "love God and do what you want". Now you might be thinking that that is ridiculous and un-Biblical BUT hear me out - if you really really love God and have a relationship with Him, you don't want to do anything other than what He wants you to do! "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature rather serve one another in LOVE." Galatians 5:13. That is freedom in Christ! It isn't about rules or religion, it's about grace, love, and Jesus kicking the crap out of Satan.

G42 is Christ-likeness:
We're told to be like Christ because he lives IN us!! It is Christ living in us that will change the world: Christ-like love that transforms hearts, cultures and nations. Not thinking that we ARE Christ, but that He is alive and well and lives within us and it is Him who gives us the power to do God's will.

G42 is getting over yourself:
Yes, we all have a past. Yes, we all have had fear, worry or regret. But Jesus got rid of all that when he died on the cross. We should no longer be living like sinners saved by grace - we should be living like saints who sin sometimes. If we dwell on the past we can never move forward into the person God created us to be. We can't get His job done if we have an inward focus. Life is not about me!

G42 is covenant people:
God made covenants with His people (Adam, Moses, Abraham, etc). He never breaks His promises and he wants us to live the same way - letting our yes be yes, and our no be no. Being people of excellence, not being wishy washy and having integrity.

G42 is NOT fluffy:
The goal is to stop being a NICE Christian who doesn't want to ruffle any feathers. Being a Christian is not "nice" - it is an ADVENTURE, it is warfare and it is a battle against powers and principalities. But the good news that we have to share is not just that we have a ticket to heaven, it is that CHRIST WON THIS THING! When Jesus died on the cross he took the keys of sin and death and TOTALLY disarmed Satan! The only weapon Satan has against us is words in the form of lies and deception. So stand up and shake the gates of hell - let Satan know we're not listening to his lies and we're not passively sitting here waiting for Jesus to come. Jesus isn't coming back for a trapped church, He's coming back for a victorious one that is filling the whole earth with His glory!!  (Matt 24:14) Our name should be known in heaven AND in hell - because Christ IS IN US and has given us ALL authority to trample the enemy (Luke 10:19). The only reason we do what we do, is because Christ is in us. We can live boldly in that and know that we are dangerous - not to people (we love them!), but to hell and the status quo of a normal "safe" life. 

G42 has a goal:
People need the Lord. GO share Him with them through any dream, vision or calling you may have. God gave YOU gifts and talents. God made YOU the way you are and LOVES it when you are joyful in what you do. So what makes YOU come alive? And how can you use THAT to further His kingdom?? People need the Lord and that's what YOU are here for!!

I've been throwing around post ideas lately and I decided to just bite the bullet and actually POST one! It's been far too long since we've updated and I always feel bad, however it's kind of just feels like the same old, same old out here! Other than beautiful 30 degree weather....

Last weekend we went to Barcelona. You can practically fly for FREE on this side of the world if you find a seat sale (the flight/service/everything sucks but it gets you from one place to another). It seems a shame to be all the way over on this side of the world and not be able to see some of it however anything outside of Spain itself costs too much to get to. Spain itself is beautiful, diverse and you can do it very cheaply so we're not complaining about not getting to go anywhere else "fancy"! Barcelona itself is very much worth seeing if you ever have the opportunity - beautiful buildings, lots of great food (who am I kidding - we ate at McDonalds! It just looked good from a distance!), and so many historical places to see. It's ridiculously priced to get into anything to see but the outsides are free and just as nice!! The metro system gets you anywhere and it's a very tourist-friendly place to be.

Back to reality - we have 2 more weeks of classes. It's incredible how quickly it flew by! Classes have been amazing - learning from people who have many years of relationship with God, know His heart and have amazing gifts that they're willing to share with us. The personalities of all the teachers are all so different but their hearts are all the same - they L.O.V.E. God and want us to grasp how amazing He is and how much He has in store for us. I feel like we've both grown by leaps and bounds in our relationships with God, knowing who we are in Him and knowing the authority He has given us.

I probably don't say it often enough but I think it all the time - thanks so much to everyone who has supported us (encouragement, prayer, financially etc) while we've been here. It's hasn't just been a fun, sunny, six months of being in Spain - it's been building us up, stretching and growing our faith and sometimes those things hurt and don't come easily! But know that you have invested in us and in our future ministry and we are getting ready to step forward into whatever God has planned for us next!

Love you all!

Demand Change

27 million people are in modern-day slavery around the world.


80 % of these are women and girls used in the sex industry.


12-14 is the average age of girls who are forced into this lifestyle.


161 countries around the world have been affected by human trafficking.


This weekend G42 is partnering with MATTOO (Men Against the Trafficking of Others) to host an event called Demand Change - a rally to raise awareness of the epidemic of human trafficking. This event is taking place here as well as in the states, where MATTOO was founded. 

MATTOO is an organization dedicated to stopping prostitution and human trafficking by getting MEN involved, the first organization of it's kind to do so. They want to provide education as well as partner with businessmen who are willing to hire former prostitutes after they have been rehabilitated. They also want to encourage men to take a stand against trafficking by signing a banner that states they will never be involved in the injustice of modern-day slavery. 

Steph Fisk - on staff here at G42, is the Spanish director of MATTOO and really has a heart for women who are caught in the sex industry. Prostitution is legal in Spain and it is a hot spot for importing and exporting women, mostly Romanian and Nigerian. Every week Steph takes a few G42 girls and goes down to an area called Guadalahorce - which is known in Spain as the scum of the earth prostitution area. Most of these women are either being forced to do what they do or they have no way out. Steph's goal is to eventually be able to take these women out of this and place them in restoration homes across Spain. Unfortunately there are very few of these homes in operation right now.

How does it end?
With MEN, standing up and vowing that they will not be involved. You can go to the MATTOO website and click on global banners to put your money where your mouth is. For $25, you can sign a banner that states that you will stand up against this injustice. 

http://www.mattoo.org/GlobalBanner.html  (to sign the global banner) 
http://www.razoo.com/story/Mattoo-Men-Against-The-Trafficking-Of-Others  (general donations)


We also have to remember that when Jesus died on the cross He gained the victory over death and sin, therefore, this battle is already won! Jesus is Lord over modern-day slavery so we have to stand up and fight it! So many times we sit and think that our actions aren't good enough and worry that the devil might get us. That we might not actually be worthy enough for heaven. Well the truth is this: as long as you've accepted Christ, your ticket for heaven has been bought for you. No action or deed can upgrade or downgrade that. In the same way, we live and fight for Christ knowing that the battle has been won and we will be outstandingly victorious! This makes us so happy to know that there's nothing that we can do to make God love us any more or any less. And so we will choose to stand against injustice wherever God calls us for the rest of our days.

Some of us here at G42 were involved in making this promo video for MATTOO to be shown at the Demand Change rally so take a look if you want!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5zQrOl1eRA

Men against the trafficking of others who attended the rally today:

 Rally walk around Mijas (the men walked and the women followed and then went to cheer on the men at the finish):

 Men signing the MATTOO banner:

We were talking about potential and purpose in class recently and this quote came up:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were  born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  -Marianne Williamson

With great purpose comes great responsibility. 

I don't really feel like we have a whole lot to update recently but I do feel I should share just to keep everyone in the loop.

We have been back in class for four weeks and it's been great. We're hearing a lot more on practical things like communication, finding our purpose, living life to our full potential and learning to deal with failure as a lesson to be learned rather than being scared to take risks in case we fail. This next week we start having some guest speakers come in again so we're looking forward to all they have to share. It's unbelievable that we have one and a half months left of classes and then we're on our way home!

The weather has been generally warm and sunny. This area is getting way more populated with tourists and will only get worse as May and June hit. Steve and I have each gone down to Fuengirola (the city right on the sea) to help out at a soup kitchen that happens every Tuesday. We've each only been once so far - we take turns so one of us stays at home with Dezmond but we're hopefully going to get a baby-sitter this next time so that we can go together. We've met some interesting people and have had some "fun" experiences there but it's cool to chat with people who just need someone to talk to.

That's it for now!

The Vision and the Poeple

O.K, so we have made reference to the fact that God has been calling us to Ukraine and plan on going there to serve by possibly starting a youth drop-in type facility. In class we were asked to do a write up on who are ministry would impact and how. This is what I (Steve) came up with:

Sasha is 15 years old and is in the tenth form. He has one more year of classes until he graduates and most likely goes on to university. Sasha lives with his mom and grandmother. His father left them when he was only one year old. He attends school and gets average grades and once attending university would most likely fail or drop out.
As far as knowledge of Jesus, Sasha has been told that Jesus died on a cross and was the son of God. But he doesn’t give it a second thought. If he was to really think about it he probably doesn’t believe it. He heard this bit of Gospel from his Grandma who is a Ukrainian Orthodox believer. She attends church every once and a while to confess or light candles for lost family members and friends. Sasha would come along to the church at Easter and Christmas when he was young but doesn’t bother anymore.

Sasha enjoys hanging with friends which of course has led to the beginning of a life of drinking, smoking and drug use. This is the unfortunate way that most of the young men his age start into a life of alcoholism, unemployment, and hopelessness that all too often leads to early death possibly even suicide.

Sasha would first meet me or someone like me working with our youth drop-in centre. He may find us teaching English at his school or a friend’s school, he may hear from a friend of a fun place to relax and hang out or play games, or he may just notice the building or sign outside the centre.

On encountering us Sasha would be invited to the drop-in, or just come in upon noticing the place. He would of course meet one of us youth workers, where he would ask what the place was about and why we were there. This would be the first opportunity for him to get a chance to hear our real story, and if open right away he would hear at least a taste of the Gospel message. He would then be invited to play some games or have a cup of tea. Sasha would also see that other youth were there and enjoying themselves in a fun and safe environment. He would probably be back with his friends to chill, and play games like table tennis, foosball, or video games.

The centre would have other programs ran in the building. There would be different events and classes to attend and Sasha would have other chances to see Christian people in a real life way. A meaningful relationship would be sought with Sasha and he would have a chance to be mentored in many ways. One of these would be tutoring him for school to help succeed and have a better chance in the future for university, and work.

Sasha would eventually become involved in helping with other youth and programs ran from the centre. He would be mentored in practical ways and discipled in Christ. Sasha now will finish university and work hard to support him self and possible family.

Sasha would see the love and life in living to serve Christ because God loves him, and he would be passionate about wanting to help other youth see this and bring them to the centre for the same mentorship and discipling he has had.

Sasha is a typical case in Ukraine and there would be many other opportunities of course. This would be the way we would love to serve and share the Gospel and bring light to the darkness. "Sasha" is a fictional person, but a very real and common example in Zap. There are many like him, and the opportunities are seemingly endless there. We are still getting ideas of how this may all be accomplished and in what time. Right now we are learning so much  of what God has for our lives and making plans to put into action. We will still be home on June 28th and we hope to have a solid plan then.

Thanks so much for everyone who is reading this and keeping up with our escapades. We ask you to continue to pray for us and the work that God is doing in us. We also ask that you pray for our friend and her family in Winnipeg, who just lost a their sister/daughter in a tragic accident this past week. She was only 20 years old and will be greatly missed. But we thank God so much for his love and grace, and are filled with joy at the fact that she is with him in perfect eternity.

Zaporozhye Ukraine, March 17-30

March 17, Thursday: Left on our first flight at 6:30 a.m and Dez slept through the whole 3 hour flight! We had a 5 hour layover in Memmingen, Germany so we took a bus into the town and wandered for a little while. The town itself was very beautiful and we ate real schnitzel and bratwurst to complete our German experience. Another 3 hour flight to Kiev (that Dez slept through) where we were met by our friend Marina (Z - there are 2 Marinas). We arrived at 6:30 and took an 11:30 overnight train to Dnepipetrovsk. It was a really nice and comfortable train. A nice surprise!

March 18, Friday: Wake-up call at 6 a.m. Arrived at 7 and took a marshutka (kind of a bus, kind of a van) to Zaporozhye where we were picked up at the bus station by Yura, a friend of our friends Marina (B) and Bogdan. He took us to our apartment where we would stay for the week.
Front entrance:

The apartment was typically Ukrainian - wild wallpaper, hot water heater that needs to be lit every time you want hot water, everything just a little on the scary side. But for 12 days it worked just fine. The last time we were in Ukraine Evelyn had a saying about the second apartment our team was renting: "It's a little bit like camping", and this felt the same way.

Kitchen:

We went grocery shopping and ran into John Wiens who invited Steve to go to Nicolaipolia to play soccer with the new Trek team guys so Steve jumped at the chance to go to that village again. Unfortunately out of the many guys who played there was only one that Steve recognized from our time there however after two years it's expected that the guys in the village would grow up and move away to find jobs. The unemployment rate in villages is 70% and this usually leads to alcoholism so we were glad to see that many of those guys had hopefully moved to somewhere where they could have jobs.
March 19, Saturday: Steve went to a youth conference with our friend Bogdan and went to meet a man named Sasha who we were told was in charge of all the youth in Zaporozhye. Well, we had hoped that this would be some amazing opportunity and would be the perfect guy to talk to about our vision but nothing really came of it. I spent the day with my two Marinas and Esther - Marina and Bogdan's three month old daughter. We all had supper together after the guys came home from the conference and had a short time of singing together.
March 20, Sunday: At 6 p.m we went to New Hope Center - the church John and Ev started December 2009. We had invited all of our friends to come and visit with us as a way to see all of them. About 10 people showed up and it was awesome to see them again.
March 21, Monday: Went to John and Ev's for supper and on the way there walked past "Disneyland" - the playground we worked on two years ago. Other than being faded and the sign being worn away by weather, it still looked fairly decent.

March 22, Tuesday: Dezmond was sick so he stayed home all day. In the morning I went shopping with Marina (B) - I thought we were just shopping-shopping but apparently we were fabric shopping with her seamstress friend - even better! In the afternoon I stayed home with Dez and Steve went out with two friends for coffee to catch up. In the evening we had another friend over to our apartment so that we could all hang out and not have to take Dez out anywhere in the cold.
March 23, Wednesday: Headed to Molochansk (a village) to stay with Olga (who we stayed with for a week two years ago). We found a guy to drive us through Bogdan and Marina - I think a guy that goes to their church. Marina had told us that there were lots of business men in their church with "big, fancy cars" so we were excited to potentially have a comfortable ride there. We had found a carseat for Dez (it was my one stipulation that we were not driving that far without one because carseats are somewhat rare for babies as a lot of people don't have cars). We had been driven a few places within a short distance during the week and I could handle holding him for those (my prayer all week was "Jesus be our seatbelt") but I was SO glad we got a carseat for this ride to Molochansk! The "big, fancy car" was a Mitsubishi Lancer and seriously, this guy drove it to its full potential! The average speed this guy drove was 150 km/hour - and that's on Ukrainian roads with Ukrainian rules! Plus he had a GPS that lead us WAY off down some dirt roads into the middle of nowhere. It was quite the ride. There were times along the way that I was holding Dezmond's head to keep it from flying around as he slept. Once in Molochansk we went to Olga's where she had a ton of food waiting - borsche, bread, mashed potatoes, salad, pickles and tomatoes SOOO good! And then we met Andre - the youth pastor from the church in Ketusivka and he drove us to the church for a youth night! A lot of the same youth were there that we met last time - mostly the younger ones but in the past two years a lot of them have been learning English so we could speak with them easily. It was a great evening - (another) meal, talent show and homemade fireworks rounded out the night!

March 24, Thursday: Visited with Olga all morning and had another amazing meal - vereneky, potatoes, compote (fruit juice) bread and jam etc. 

We were supposed to catch the only bus to Tokmak at 1:20 but we forgot our iPod at Olga's so we just got a cab to take us back there and then all the way to Tokmak to catch the marshutka to Zaporozhye. This is a marshutka - kind of bus, kind of van:

Olga wouldn't let us go home without a large amount of canned goods. We told her that there was no way we could carry all of these jars home with us with all our luggage, stroller, carseat and everything else and there wasn't enough days to eat everything before we left to go back to Spain. But....she wouldn't take no for an answer so we came home with black cherry jam, some other berry jam, apricot jam, apricots, juice, pickles and tomatoes. Oh AND some dried pears.

March 25, Friday: Went bowling in the afternoon, Steve went to Nicolaipolia again with the boys from the Trek team to play soccer.
March 26, Saturday: Met two friends for coffee in the afternoon and then went to New Hope Center's church service at 6 p.m. There are upwards of 60 people who have been coming to services so the place was packed! It was so awesome to see! John had Steve and I come and say what we were doing and then they prayed for us. Afterwards we visited - a lot more of our friends were there so we stayed until 9 p.m chatting with everyone. We also talked to the new Trek team a lot about how they're feeling about Ukraine and what they're doing. Met a different John from California and Steve was telling him about our vision and he instantly called a guy named Kyle and set up a meeting for the next day to talk more about it.
March 27, Sunday: Steve went at 11 a.m and met Kyle - a 21-year old from Virginia who is living in Zaporozhye and has the same vision as us - to open a youth drop in center. They talked for about three hours all about their visions. And just as we had been praying for a team to hook up with, Kyle had been praying for people like us too. At 5 p.m we went to the youth church service at Bogdan and Marina's church where a guy from Canada was speaking so it was great to be able to hear his message in English first and foremost! Afterwards we went to Kyle's apartment and met some of his friends who are also working in Zaporozhye right now. One of them was Jessica - a girl we met the last time we were in Zap when she had just arrived here to teach English at an orpanage and she is still here two and a half years later.
March 28, Monday: Went with Kyle and Jessica to orphanage number 3 to sit in on their English class. We had tea and cookies (special because we were there) and they asked us questions in English. The class we were in was kids 11-14 years old and they were the sweetest kids. It was sad to think about their circumstances but there are groups in Zaporozhye that are working to give these kids a chance. To work with our early morning flight we had to leave Zaporozhye at 7:30 on the night train to Kiev. It was not a "fancy" train this time - only the Dnepipetrovsk trains are the nice ones apparently so it was a restless night. Our friend Marina (Z) escorted us back to Kiev and it was very much appreciated.
March 29, Tuesday:  Train arrived in Kiev at 6 a.m. After a McDonalds breakfast we took a taxi to Marina's friends' place where we had a morning nap before finding a hotel to spend the next night, mainly due to the aggressive nature of their cat (it bit Steve really badly and we didn't want it to bite Dez). The hotel we found looked very nice from the pictures and was inexpensive so we called a cab and headed over to it. We were both looking for your typical hotel-looking building and the cab driver ended up driving us down the driveway between these old, box-style, USSR apartment buildings. We stopped in front of the right one and discovered that the hotel we would be staying at was actually in an apartment building and was in fact, one apartment converted into six hotel rooms. It was still actually quite nice, just not what we expected and again Ev's words of wisdom rang through my head: "this is NOT North America". Check. We settled our things and then took the metro to the city center to take a look around before making it an early night back at the hotel.
March 30, Wednesday: Woke up at 3:15 a.m and were picked up by a taxi at 3:45. We were flying out of a different airport other than Borispol - the main airport in Kiev and we had no idea where it was. Apparently our cab driver didn't either because he was zig-zagging back and forth across what felt like the whole city - through residential areas, down multiple freeways, under some freaky bridge - it was crazy. Steve and I were praying the whole time that we wouldn't still be driving around at 6:10 when our flight was supposed to be leaving! But we did make it there in plenty of time! Said good-bye to Marina and boarded our flight. Dez slept the whole way again and we spent 12 hours in Norway before boarding our final flight to Malaga. It was so good to be back to warm, sunny weather!
All in all an amazing, tough, challenging, eye-opening trip!

Packed and Ready to Go!

We are off to Ukraine in the wee hours of the morning so pray for us!

And enjoy this picture of Dezmond packed in our bag and ready to go!

It's been a rainy couple of weeks here in Spain and it was a surprise and thrill on Saturday when it was a beautifully sunny day! Here we are with Matt and Kristen walking through Fuengirola.

 

 Latest family pic!

Just an update as we reach the last few days of term one!

March 4th our vision projects were due. These projects were a magazine-style article on what God has put on our hearts to do after we leave G42. Our vision is to go back to Ukraine and serve youth there in the future. Along with our project we all had to do a presentation to the class on our vision so we started with those presentations today. The variety among everyone is amazing - from medical teams in Burma, coffee shops with a purpose, outdoor adventure discipleship programs to high-fashion stiletto shoe lines that would help stop human trafficking. The dreams out there are endless! The project for the next term will be a business plan to put our vision into action but we'll discuss that once we get there!

Thursday is graduation for the three students who are done. We unfortunately are missing grad because the only flights we could get in our time frame to Ukraine leave Thursday morning. That being said, we leave Thursday at 6:30 a.m and will be gone until March 30th.

Please Pray For:

• Safe and easy travel (Dez isn't really into the whole flying thing)
• Discernment and clarity to hear God's voice and the guts to follow
• Direction and clear opportunities where we can serve our Ukrainian friends
• That we meet the right people and find out the right information in our research

Thank-you for your continued prayer and support!

Numbers 33

Two weeks ago as a homework assignment we were given Numbers 33 to study the journey that the Israelites made through the desert. We were supposed to come up with what each station they stopped at meant to them and what it means to us now. For the past two days in class we've been going through it together and gaining some new insight that I'd like to share.

Basically, the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert and at each place they camped, they gave it a name based on their circumstance. For example, their fifth stop on the journey was the place called Marah which means bitter because the only water there was bitter. We talked about how we can have bitterness in our lives that can kill our spirit just like bitter water kills your body. Being bitter in life is not a good place to stay, especially in a life dedicated to following Christ. Bitterness can eat away at us and cause much pain to ourselves as well as other people around us.

What it came down to was that the Israelites named places after their circumstances when we're told in the Bible to rejoice ALWAYS. We shouldn't let our attitude be shaped by the things that happen to us - that we have no control over. We should be self-sufficient in Christ and not let our unfulfilled needs or bad circumstances determine our moods or actions. In the end, it took forty years for them to get the courage to walk through the Jordan river and step into the inheritance that God had for them when if they would've just been bold in the first place, they could've been spared lots of pain and suffering. Yes there were giants in the land, yes they had huge fortified cities but the Israelites had the ULTIMATE Giant on their side! Guarding them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night! HIS presence with them as the ark of the covenant EVERYWHERE they went!! What did they have to fear except fear itself?

We don't want to be like the Israelites. We don't want to hem and haw and waste time avoiding the call that the Lord has for us. Whether it be bitterness, fear or any other attitude that we've dwelled on in life, we want to step beyond that and boldly step into the Jordan river, going forward into the inheritance that He has for us and not waste any more time on attitudes that bring death to our spirits! In the end - Christ has already beaten death! We have victory in Christ to overcome the things that weigh us down and to not only dodge the arrows of satan but to send our own volley of flaming arrows right back at him!

Update

Last week classes were a little less intense than usual due to sickness (stomach flu this time). Thursday and Friday we had a guest speaker, Steven Holmes, who is a social entrepreneur. He starts businesses with a purpose all over the world and also has a school that teaches business and entrepreneur stuff.

One of the main parts of our classes with him was a project where he "gave" us a piece of land with some money and in teams we had to come up with a business, a ministry or both to use the land for. It was really good to be forced to start with something, brainstorm ideas of what it could be, pick a simple idea and take it through all the necessary steps to make it a viable business. In the end we had to present our idea to a panel of judges (fake mayor, fake grants officer, fake loans officer etc) and the best idea won a prize (which Steven forgot about in the end so no one got it!). I (Jo) have always thought of myself as more of a visionary who could come up with great ideas and not know how to take them forward into a business but when it came down to it in our groups my business side really came out.

This weekend started out wonderfully - I went with another mom to the flea market in Fuengirola, Steve played basketball and soccer, we went to the beach on Sunday...and on the way to the beach, sickness struck. We thought the flu bug had passed us by but unfortunately, it had not. Dez got taken down first but still seemed relatively happy. After he went to bed Sunday night was when it hit Steve and I. We spent all day Monday in bed and after waking up this morning spent the rest of our time before afternoon class scrubbing and cleaning our apartment.

This week our speaker is George Ridley from Lightforce International. We missed 3 classes with him but look forward to the rest of the week with him.

Fun at the beach on Sunday:

 Enjoying the cold Mediterranean

Two more weeks of classes for this term and then we have a two week break. We booked flights to Ukraine from the 17th to the 30th to visit with friends and to pray about what God might want us to do there in the future.

Five Minute Story

As promised, here is the five minute story I wrote for Herman Haan's classes this past week. I hope you enjoy!

Three Spiritual Lessons I Learned While Expecting Dezmond

Pregnancy is a tough thing to go through and for me it brought me closer to God. It was hard mentally, physically and spiritually and I had to rely wholy on God to get me through. In everything I journeyed through there were three main lessons that I learned.

Number 1: Total Surrender to God

Around the time that I was due, I had heard of a lot of babies that had died either during delivery, after they were born or they were stillborn. It made me realize that this baby wasn't my own, it was a gift for as long as God desired. You can do all the testing in the world (of which we chose to do none) but ultimately, this baby is God's creation and His child. Also, I did nothing. I ate, I drank, I exercised. I was completely surrendered to the process of growing a human being inside my body.

Number 2: My Body is Not My Own

I made a choice during pregnancy to give up certain things that I ate or did for the health and safety of our baby. I did all these things with JOY because I knew that it was the right thing to do and I knew that the end results were worth it. I made this correlation: Why would anyone go and live in a mud hut in Africa or move to India for the sake of Christ? Because we make a choice. A choice to give up comforts, electricity and safety among other things for the benefit of Christ and it is a JOY to do these things because of the hope we have in Christ. We know the blessings that doing these things will bring to our lives - giving up my body for the sake of my child, or giving up our bodies for the sake of Christ.

Number 3: Christ on the Cross

God gave up his ONE and ONLY son. I have only one son and the ferocity with which I would protect him is frightening. Being a parent lets you see deep into the Father-heart of God, to imagine His pain as he gave up His son BUT He did so, so that many more of His children could have life and freedom in Him.  

From this I take with me every day these three lessons. I remain surrendered to God - whether it's for one minute, nine months or 89 years, the safest place to be is in the middle of God's will. I am still learning that my body is not my own by every day choosing to say yes to God and choosing to give up things that entangle and ensnare me. Looking at Dezmond every day reminds me that Christ not only died for me but for him as well, and that he has a brilliantly bright future relationship with his Father just waiting for him!

We have to apologize for the lack of consistent blogging. It's something we're working on and will hopefully correct soon!

This week our speaker is Herman Haan. The topic is homiletics and media...whatever that means. No seriously though, homiletics is the study of the composition and delivery of a sermon or other religious discourse. And as boring as that sounds, this week has been our personal favourite week up until now. And I'm pretty sure he didn't teach us anything about homiletics!

Herman has an amazing story. He is from the Netherlands and was a hippy and a junky back in the day, living on the streets and searching for God until one day, he heard a group singing and playing music. He wandered up and asked what they were all about and a woman lead him to Christ. Six months later they were married! He has since been a pastor, started a Bible school and now he works at a Dutch Christian television station, producing shows, starring in shows and going around the world to make award-winning Christian documentaries. He is also in a band that has several award-winning albums out (in the Netherlands).

What Herman has been teaching this week is on how to bring out our creativity in whatever form that comes out. He had us write five minute short stories (mine I'll share in a post very shortly) with a frame (intro, what, why, how and conclusion) and he had us write creative life stories (which I think we might share also in another post) which we will be reading in class tomorrow.

Every afternoon Herman showed us one of his documentaries. Now, these are extremely crazy, hard-edged documentaries but they were amazing! The first one was titled "Playmate Becomes Mother Theresa" - which was about a playboy playmate who turned her life to Christ and has since been working in Haiti opening orphanages, schools and health facilities for children who are abandoned by their parents. The love she showed these abandoned, sometimes handi-capped, left-to-die children was incredible. The second documentary was titled "The Pimp and the Prostitute" - about a pimp and a prostitute who fell in love, came to Christ and then were married and are now reaching out to other pimps and prostitutes. One line the former prostitute says is that she is so grateful to God for putting her through that so that she can now go and help others who were like her. She said it was the best job ever to help those who are caught in that life. Amazing!! The documentary we watched today was "Murdered on their Wedding Night" about a man and woman who were married for ten hours before robbers broke into their honeymoon suite and murdered him! The documentary was filmed only three months after this happened and already the widow and her husband's family were full of forgiveness. The man's father stated that he would never let a tragic situation like this ruin his relationship with his heavenly Father and that God is good. The widow also spoke only of forgiveness for the men who did that to her husband. INCREDIBLE!! These rough, tough, UGLY stories of faith were so inspiring and gut-wrenching but so full of God's love and so full of God's grace.

Only one more day with Herman and I'm sad this week is done! I feel so impacted by what he's taught us and he didn't even really "teach" - he was so relaxed and so open during classes - playing us songs that he's written, having fun fake interviews to teach us interviewing skills, sharing our stories. This is the reason we're here - to be impacted, to provoke change in our lives, to learn that it's good to be us the way God made us, and to rejoice in our good, good God.

Prayer/Praise

Praise:
*We have another person living in our house!!!! Thanks to Steve's sister who got a friend to come live with her! This takes some of the worry of her being there alone as well as a little more of the financial side of things off of us for the coming months!
*Steve had a stomach flu this past week and neither Dez or I got it! He is feeling much better and only missed one day of classes ( the stomach flu wasn't the praise, me and Dez avoiding it was!!).
*Classes have been going well for me (Jo) whether I'm listening in on the baby monitor or actually able to sit in class. I'm excited to be learning and participating even though there are still tough spots along the way.

Prayer:
*Never-ending sickness. I am suffering from my third cold since arriving (in one month) and Dez is coughing more again as well. Steve has also had his third sickness already and isn't ready to fight a fourth. It's getting very frustrating to be sick over and over again so pray for healing for GOOD and ridiculously built-up immune systems!

Thanks to everyone who reads our blog and prays for us continually!

Ten days have passed since we updated and it really really feels like it's been only three days! This update is coming from the comfort of our own home as the internet/phone was installed today during lunch!

Since last updating we had a four day weekend which included my birthday last Friday. Steve and I left Dezmond with our friends Matt and Christina for a few hours and took the bus and then train to Plaza Mayor which is a shopping area between here and Malaga. We mainly went for the McDonalds but did a tiny bit of shopping as well at the outlet mall there. That evening was tapas (which I took pictures of to show what it is but they're on the built-in memory of our camera and we have no camera cord to get them onto our computer so they'll come at a later date!) and after tapas a bunch of people came to our apartment and surprised me with a party! It was so much fun and I always have this thought that my birthdays away from home are going to be a little sad because no one really knows about it or knows me that well yet but I was surprised and blessed by everyone!

This week has been rainy and chilly with small spurts of brilliant sunlight. Our classes have been with Andrew Shearman who is the founder of G42. He had a lot to share about being equipped to be a leader, and what organizations/ministries/businesses that we start should look like among many, many other things. Lots of amazing stories of things he's experienced in his lifetime as well as a passion and energy to see us start things for God's glory and to train others in the things we're learning.

We had classes today which we usually don't on Fridays so our schedule is a little out of whack. We have tapas tonight (I haven't made anything yet but had a wonderful time searching for recipes from HOME!!) and have no plans for the rest of the weekend! The forecast says sun but we don't believe it - it changes hourly, so it's a little hard to believe!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have wonderful weekends filled with joy wherever you are!

(Sorry that this is a boring, pictureless post!)

We're really sorry that we still don't have internet in our apartment so we always have to go to either the student housing or the Epicentro to get online so therefore blog posts are less than frequent. Internet is on the way - we had to get a bank account here in Mijas and once we called for them to connect us it can take up to two months for them to actually come to hook us up.

But anyways... Ba da dum dum dum! Drumroll please! The moment you've all been waiting for - sorry - way too much build up for such a topic! Now that we've been here for a few weeks we can finally give you a better explanation as to what G42 is all about!

G42 is definitely the stepping stone to the next mission experience in our lives. Whether you are a Christian or not I think you will all agree that helping others and serving their needs is important and needs to be done. The Bible in James 1:27 says: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We are here at G42 to become strong leaders and to build our vision as to where and how we will serve God and his people. G42 is about becoming strong leaders of character and excellence in Christ and making our God-given dreams into plans of action for ministry.

School: Classes take place at la Epicentro (the Epicenter) which is literally a 30 second walk from our apartment. This is our third week in classes and the first week that has been working well for me (Jo) to be "in" classes. We tried using skype for the first week and a bit and it was not the greatest. We're now using baby monitors - the main one in the classroom and me listening in the front lobby of the Epicentro while Dez plays. The goal for this week is to change his napping schedule so that he'll nap through the afternoon session so that I will listen to the first session and be IN the second session. It worked yesterday and Dez is dying for a nap right now so hopefully it'll work this afternoon as well!

Life: We are enjoying our tiny apartment! We spend some evenings at the interns' houses using the internet or hanging out. Steve has made friends with some locals who he watches futball with. Other evenings we stay home and play games (Scrabble and Cribbage). Monday nights alternate girls' nights and guys' nights which are different activities every week. Tuesday and Thursday evenings are Spanish classes from 8:30-9:30. Every other Wednesday night is the scheduled family grocery run into Fuengirola which is the larger village/city?? at the bottom of the mountain. Friday nights are tapas nights - potluck finger foods - where we all make something and get together just to hang out. The doors are always open for locals although none have come as of yet. Friday through Sunday are days off although some weekends there are classes depending on when speakers are available to come. There are also some ministry opportunities on the weekends and Sundays we've been having church services as a group as well.
We went to an outdoor flea market in Fuengirola on Saturday. It was incredible! Literally everything including the kitchen sink! I saw a few!! We bought Dez a stroller because the super glue holding the wheel on his let go so we really needed one! It was so cheap to buy things there, it was slightly ridiculous!

 An amazing tree in Fuengirola...so cool that it needed to be climbed.

Hopefully that gives you all a better idea of what we're doing out here.

Three Kings Day

Today was Three Kings Day which is essentially Spanish Christmas. The whole premise behind it is that the three kings bring children presents instead of Santa. In honour of the day there was a parade yesterday evening that we watched out of our living room window. It was interesting to see the Rugrats and Winnie the Pooh characters in the parade - what they have to do with the three kings, we'll never know.

It's interesting seeing the culture and how the Spanish celebrate their holidays.

Today was our first day of classes which were more information on what G42 is all about, what the schedule looks like and how the living/eating situation works. We're still trying to figure out exactly how I'll go to classes - as it turns out I'm the only mom wanting to be in classes this term so we'll hopefully be able to use skype or a baby monitor for me to hear the speakers.

BEST PART OF THE DAY: WE GOT OUR LUGGAGE!!!

What an amazing answer to prayer! Now I don't have to worry about Dez being messy and getting dirty!

These are a few more pictures of Mijas: we borrowed this baby backpack from friends here and it's been extremely useful compared to a stroller because of all the stairs (also our stroller laid an egg right exactly when we got to the very end of our journey here although we'd still like another one to use while we're here).

 The view from our living room window:

 These horses run by every 15 minutes or so all day long filled with tourists seeing the village. The streets are really narrow and there's usually a traffic jam waiting behind each horse that goes by.

Hola from Mijas, Spain

It was a very long trip here! Our flight from Chicago to Munich was delayed so we missed our connecting flight to Madrid and didn't make it there until 6 in the evening. At 9:30 we got on a train to Malaga and were picked up there by Dave Hearn who is one of the leaders at G42. We arrived in Mijas around 1 a.m on Friday the 31st and stayed in the empty student housing for night. The travelling was a very trying experience, one we don't want to repeat any time soon but by God's grace we're here and focusing on the positive! Friday morning we got into our apartment which is very tiny and cute and we've spent the rest of the past 2 days exploring.

Yesterday it poured all day and I thought I was going to be swept down towards the sea with all the running water in the streets! Today there was sun and cloud but no rain so that was really nice to be able to see the village.
Prayer requests:
                          ~that the rest of our luggage makes it here very soon - we only have 1 of our 3 pieces and unfortunately it's my suitcase and not Dezmond's and we all know he's the messiest out of all of us and needs his stuff!
                          ~that we figure out how it's going to work for me to go to school as well - we came up with a possible plan this evening so we'll have to run it by the leaders and see what they think

Thanks for everything, your financial support and continued prayer!