We're finally back on American soil! After a 4 hour mechanical delay at London Heathrow airport, we arrived in Chicago on Sunday morning around 1:30 am. We made it back to Kalamazoo around 4:00 am, and caught a few hours of sleep before a day of catching up with family. Today, we got a start on our 15 loads of laundry and rode bikes to Barne's and Noble. It's felt so different to hear everyone speaking English. Not British English, not English with an Irish accent, but actually MIDWEST English!

For the next couple weeks, our home is Lauren's old bedroom at her parents house. Soon, we'll be moving back into our old condo in Portage. Lauren looks likely to return to work at Water Street Coffee, and is on track to finish up her degree by this April. Jake is enjoying unemployment and looking for work with a church or some other faith-based organization.

We're just beginning to process all of the amazing experiences that we've had over the past six months. Since January, we've been to Switzerland, China, Philippines, Holland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, England, and Ireland! We've been stretched in what we believe about God, what it means to live life as a Christian, who we are and what our place is in this world, and so much more. It seems the past months have brought more questions than answers, but we're looking forward to finding those answers in the next stage of our journey.

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for us, gave financially, offered advice, or kept up with our blog and e-mails! We really mean it when we say that we couldn't have done this without you. We're hoping to get in touch with each of you individually over the following weeks or months. We wouldn't want to invite ourselves over for dinner, but if you're going to have extra food and you'd like to hear some stories and see some of our pictures, we're not going to refuse! (We have over 1,500 of them!) Feel free to call or shoot us an e-mail. Until then, here are just a few pictures from our travels:


In Zermatt in front of the Matterhorn


The Guiness factory in Dublin


Eiffel tower in Paris


Near Jake's Grandpa Mulder's childhood home in Holland

Today is our final day here at YWAM Lausanne! Tomorrow morning we fly to Amsterdam, where we'll meet up with Jake's mom and dad. We'll have a chance to explore the homeland, where Jake's Grandpa Mulder grew up. After 10 days with Jake's parents, we'll meet up with Lauren's parents to explore some more of Europe.

Please keep us in our your prayers as we travel. Some specific requests would be:
- Praise God for everything he has done in our lives and used us to do in other's lives over these past months!
- That the lessons God taught us during our missions experience would sink in to our hearts and minds as we travel and relax.
- Wisdom as we make decisions about jobs, school, and what we do when we head home.
- The ability to relax and recharge after all the new experiences and pain we've seen.
- Our parents as this is their first time in Europe!

Our plan is to head home at the end of June, and we'd love to catch up and show our pictures to each of you! Until then, here are a few more pictures from our outreach....



We were a long way from home!




This was home for part of our group in the Philippines


Swiss Alps on the way home!


Lauren at the airport

This just in: Jake and I have arrived safely in Lausanne.
We want to thank you so much for your prayers.
Our travel went amazingly smooth and breathing in the Swiss air after our adventures in China has never seemed sweeter.
We hope to post a few more pictures this week of our outreach... especially now that we have our laptop back:)
God bless all of you and thanks again!

Hey everyone,

We're down to our last week of ministry on Boracay Island and outreach! The work on the island has been well organized, and about what we expected. A few days each week are spent on construction for their school/church. Most days from 4:00 - 5:30 pm we feed and play games with hundreds of children on the island. Almost every evening we also teach for some sort of Bible study or mid-week service, and a few of us have spoken at their Sunday service.

Personally, both us are holding up well. We're enjoying our final days here, but are very ready to head back to Europe and eventually the U.S! We probably won't update the blog again until we're back in Switzerland in 10 days or so. We look forward to seeing all of you and sharing our stories next month!

Our group at dinner with the Pastor and Pastora

Lauren, Jake, and Julia at a house church Bible study

A sunset from the beach

Us at dinner

Lauren teaching some of the children at a feeding site

A view of the beach

Our group in Chongqing, China

Lauren at the Great Wall

Lauren and Jake at Tiananmen square

Some of the kids at a church service in Boracay Island, Philippines.

Hello everyone!

We are having an awesome, although stretching time on our YWAM outreach!

As we mentioned in our last e-mail, we finally have unfiltered internet access in the Philippines, after a few weeks of blocked access in China. We began our trip nearly four weeks ago in Beijing, China. Our time there was recovering from jet-lag, meeting with a local missionary, getting oriented to Chinese culture, and exploring. We saw a lot of sites and prayed over the city.

From there, it was a 36-hour train ride to Chongqing, China. In Chongqing we partnered with a group of missionaries who live there year round. Much of our time was spent sharing about Christianity at "English Corners." An English Corner is a spot where Chinese people gather to practice their English. When a group 0f 8 Americans/Candians walked in, we were mobbed immediately! We were able to share our faith with hundreds of people and had many conversations about faith. We were shocked to realize how misinformed we were about the Chinese people and their culture. Aside from this, we spent a lot of time praying in different parts of the city and encouraging the missionaries there.

After three weeks in Chongqing, we took a flight Hong Kong for a mid-way debrief. We spent time as a group talking about how to be more effective as a team.

From there, we took a plane to Manila, Philippines, a plane to the city of Kalibo, a boat to Boracay Island, and a motorbike to our apartment on the island. We've been here for nearly 5 days and think Boracay is an amazing place! The climate is much like the Aruba, although there is much more poverty here. We're partnering with a local church to teach in services and Bible studies. Most of our mornings are spent building a four story concrete building that will hold their church services, house a free school for local children, and host a variety of sports and medical ministries. Every day around 4:00 pm we go throughout the villages on the island to feed and play games with hundreds of children who are living in poverty.

This seems like quite a summary, and we'd love to go into more detail, but we'll have to save it for another time! We'll try to update the blog again soon, but we can't wait to share all of our stories with you in person!

We've been able to tell many of you have kept us in your prayers. Please keep praying for us as we finish out these next 3 weeks!

- Lauren and Jake

Hey Everyone,

It's Sunday, around 4:00 pm. Twenty four hours from now we'll be on a plane bound for Beijing. We likely won't be able to update the blog again until early April, so check back then.

Please keep us in your prayers, and thanks for all the love, support, and encouragement you've shown us these past three months!

- Jake and Lauren

Here's a video!