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!

Hello everyone!

We depart for China and the Philippines in nine days, and we wanted to give you an idea of team we'll be traveling with.  Starting with the picture on the top is Jon in the foreground (Canada), myself, Laura in the middle (from Mexico), Yohan on the right (Los Angeles), Julia on the left (Canada), Lauren, Jon in the middle (Seattle), and our leader Eric (Fort Collins, Colorado).  Overall, we have a great group and we're excited to work with kids, people on the street, teach English, participate in construction projects, and much more that we'll find out when we arrive!

As we stated in our last e-mail, we cannot provide much information on where we're going beforehand, and will not be able to update the blog for the month April, when we'll be in China.  We will send out an e-mail when we update the blog in the beginning of May.  We'll try to do one final entry before we leave on March 30.

Aside from all of that, we've been learning a lot about God, ourselves, and how we want to make a difference in the world.  Having 73 days (and counting) to spend together has brought a bond our relationship deeper than we have ever experienced.  And in the midst of all of it, a desire is growing in our hearts to return and see all of you!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we make our final preparations over the next 9 days.  For those of you who have been supporting us financially, we did receive the rest of the money we needed for outreach!

- Lauren and Jake

Spring is here in Switzerland!

It is hard to say for sure, but I think that the sun and warmer weather is just as beautiful here as the snow and frigid temperatures were!  After living my entire life in Michigan, I have faith that we may have blizzard here tomorrow so I am loving this air while I have the chance.

Since Jake's past two additions to our blog our anticipation for outreach has been growing.  We complete our lecture phase and leave for China two weeks from today!  During our 24/7 prayer week, the previous DTS students returned from outreach and the living situation at the base became quite cramped. We heard many stories as they had ministered to Uganda, Cambodia, and Egypt.  We spoke mostly with the Cambodia team and it sounds like we should anticipate falling in love with the Asian culture.  At the moment, I do not have much new information as to what we will be "doing" in our outreach locations.  I am personally excited for the opportunity I have been given to be a supportive leader for this team.  Two of the aspects I look forward to most is being able to grow in my menu planning/cooking skills and leading "one-on-one"s with the two girls on my team!  You won't be surprised that Jake has been appointed as our team's "finance man". 

Markus Steffan, Lausanne's base leader, spoke to us last week.  He challenged us with new ways to see our purposes and callings.  The major point that stuck with me is how the majority of the world's population does not have the opportunity to even decide what to do with their lives. This confirmed in me that my vocation is important, but not God's primary concern in regards to me; my first calling is to be in relationship with Him.  

Please be encouraged that your prayers and support are truly making a difference in our hearts!  Because of the love you have generously given us, Jake and I have had the almost unheard of chance to literally spend every single day together for the past 2 1/2 months... with 3 1/2 more to go.  God has been faithful... He has a way for us... and we are committed to continue in our search for how we can co-create with Him to bring as much heaven to earth as possible! 

Be blessed this week!

Lauren and Jake

I don't have too much to report so far, but Lauren should be planning to write an update in the next day or two.  I did want to give everyone an update that of the final $1,000 we need to raise for outreach, we have had about $500 come in.  We have about two weeks to come up with the final amount.  Thanks for those of you who have given or prayed!

Also, we found this at the grocery store a couple weeks ago:

For all of you Reformed church goers, this is a case of John Calvin Swiss Beer!

We're entering week nine of our training here at YWAM Switzerland! We spent the majority of our day at the local Starbucks. I'm not sure if it's comforting or frightening to know that no matter where in the world you go, you can always count on finding a Starbucks to feel at home!

This past week and the coming week, our speaker has been an Australian named John Faull. His topic is prayer, and we're going to be having prayer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We'll accomplish this by dividing the shifts between the 25 students in our class, and it sounds like we'll each be praying anywhere from 4-6 hours per day. John has led these "prayer weeks" in many locations throughout the world, and has seen God do amazing things each time. We're excited for what the week may bring!

Our details are coming together for outreach in China and the Philippines. We are putting the finishing touches on a newsletter update, which you should receive via e-mail. Basically, we're in need of a LOT of prayer, and a little money. Give it a read when you have a chance. The most pressing issue is that our visas are currently being processed by the Chinese embassy, and we'd really like it if they went through!

Last of all for today, a book that has been having a huge impact on both of us is "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. After a middle-class Christian upbringing, Shane went to study at Eastern College near Philadelphia. Within a few years, he got involved with the homeless in Philadelphia, worked with Mother Theresa in Calcutta, interned at Willow Creek Church, and went to Seminary. Out of all those experiences, he founded a community called "The Simple Way," an alternative to the American dream. The Simple Way is marked by living in community, living and working with the homeless, and trying to live according to the Gospel of Christ. I wouldn't describe it as a hippie community...but along a similar vein. If you're in the mood for something that challenges the way you live and walk in your faith, it's worth a read.

Until next week,

Lauren and Jake

"What you are is God's gift to you.  What you do with yourself is your gift to God."

-Danish Proverb

The above quote really makes sense out of all my recent thoughts and what God has been teaching me.  What does this mean that who I am is God's gift to me? There have been times throughout my life that I have almost suffocated my deep desires and likes/dislikes in order to do what I thought God was asking of me. I believed lies that convinced me that in order to fully follow the way of Jesus Christ I would need to lay down my passions and dreams for the future. Praise God that this is not the case!

How could this be true... I have had revelation more than ever that God as my Creator gave me my desires and likes; He was the one who chose these things for me. As I have spent time in reflection with the Lord I see that He wants to affirm these giftings in me and then He wants to empower me to use them. What will my gift to God be? I cannot say at the moment that there is something specific or concrete... I can say however that God has given me confidence and excitement for strengthening these passions and giftings in order to bear good fruit.

Jake and I have had another great week of seeking God and realizing that this daily time spent together is nothing other than an answer to prayer and we're soaking up every moment.  We enjoyed a school trip to the town of Luzern on Saturday.  (b & w photo above) Also, skiing on Monday was like walking through clouds because of the dense fog! We are continuing to make arrangements for outreach, we'll leave in about five weeks! 

First of all, we wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who have supported us in so many different ways!  We’ve reflected often on how blessed we are to be here and have each of you behind us.  The training and experiences have been challenging and have helped us grow closer to God, closer to each other, and develop more of a heart to change the world!

The other day we were talking about how this is the 4^th “home” we have had in the past 3 years.  The transient lifestyle has been perfect for us up till now, but we are beginning to desire a season of life with some consistency.

This past week was our favorite so far.  Our speaker was Dan Sneed, who is a pastor/speaker in the Los Angeles area.  His topic was “Identity.”  The main focus of his teaching was how God defines our identity, but that often differs from our self-image, which is defined by us.  God defined our identity and plan for our lives when He created us, we rejected God’s plan (causing identity issues), and now God desires to restore his plan and our identity through Jesus Christ.  There was a lot of psychology, mixed with Biblical truth (much like John Eldredge’s “Wild at Heart” book).  It gave both of us a lot to reflect on and work through.

Finally, I (Jake), had an experience I have never had before.  (This is by no means a full account, so feel free to e-mail or talk to us if you would like to know more).  Dan is known to have the gift of prophecy; something that I have always been skeptical about.  Anyway, we were in class and I was writing to myself that “God has things He wants to speak to me, but I am not open to it.”  In the middle of writing that sentence, Dan stopped teaching and told me God had just put on his heart that he should pray for me.  Typically I would have been skeptical, but this did not seem to be a random coincidence, and Dan had proven himself to be a very calm, well-spoken, intelligent person (not someone who seemed “off” or overly into the spiritual and occult).

Very calmly, he prayed for me and shared some very specific words God had given him for me.  Until this point, he did not know anything about me and we had exchanged possibly 10 words.  A couple things he shared were that God desires for me to shepherd and minister to people, but Dan did not know if that meant in a church or as a banker.  (My background before this is a Finance degree and as a youth pastor).  He said God is trying to speak clearly to me, but there is a skepticism in me that blocks Him.  He also had a strong sense that God desires to use my mouth to communicate powerful things to others.  (He does not know my background or strong desire to be a speaker).  When he finished, I had a clear sense and peace that his words were not his own, but truly from God.  Dan prayed for a few other people during the week, and his words for them were completely different but always hit home for that person.

This past weekend was our first weekend completely free from school activities.  We spent the weekend relaxing and laying low at Starbuck's in Lausanne.  Here are a few interesting facts you may not know about Lausanne. (Obviously this is Jake's idea....)

(click the map for a larger view)

• Lausanne is located in the southwest corner of Switzerland
  
• The global headquarters of the International Olympic Committee are in Lausanne
• Ecole Hoteliere, known as one of the top hotel training schools in the world, is located in Lausanne...across the street from our chalet.
• Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, lives in Lausanne

As we mentioned below, our outreach will be in China and the Philippines.  Our original desire was to travel to Tanzania and Burundi, as Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world.  As we discussed this with the leaders, they asked us if we would consider China and the Philippines.  Since Lauren has already completed a YWAM DTS, they wanted her to serve as an "unofficial leader" for the China trip  (and since I was her husband, they'd like me to come along too!).  All of the other locations had 2-3 staff members leading the trip, while there was only one leader headed to China.

This was a change of our plans, but we agreed to think and pray about it.  After some time, there were many compelling reasons for us to head to China and Philippines now.  Some examples are....We are filling a leadership need, and improving the experience of other students who will be traveling.  China is a rising global super-power, and will play an increasingly important role in the world.  We've never realized that neither of us has ever had much of a heart for Asia, but God desires that we care for all "tribes, tongues, and nations."  Finally, we figured it would give us a good excuse to plan a trip to build wells or work with AIDS orphans in Africa sometime in the next couple years!  Let us know if you'd like to be a part of that trip!

Outreach update!

Jake and I will be on the China/Philippines team for outreach.

We will share more details as soon as we have them...

Thanks for all the continued prayer support!

Here are few updated pictures!

Jake at Verbier

Me chopping chocolate for our cookies we handed out at the slopes

Me, Sarah, and Chels out for the pizza that a fellow classmate's parents blessed us with!

It's Monday afternoon and we're settling in to our fourth week of training.  Our teacher this week is from Germany, and she is teaching on the life of Jesus.  Today we focused on the fact that Jesus came to save and restore.  Lauren and I have spent a lot of time lately discussing how Christianity has achieved a reputation of anger and judgement, not restoration.  Every day we're here, we hope to become more and more agents of restoration in the world.  This includes restoration of individuals to God (aka salvation), as well as restoration of real needs here and now (broken relationships, health, war, starvation, etc...).  

On another note, our current financial situation has been one of the most growing and freeing experiences of my life.  For the past 4-5 years I have been relatively financially independent, working to earn my own money to pay for the expenses I incurred.  Preparing for YWAM was a huge mindset shift for me.  Part of a Biblical view of finances is that those who go to do the "work of The Gospel" as missionaries should raise support from their Christian family, friends, and church.  This conflicted with my mindset; to work hard and pay for the trip between Lauren and I.  Eventually I worked through my pride and independence, trusting the fact that God had spoken clearly to Lauren and I that we were to do this school in January.

Between our savings and the support you have provided us, we have been able to pay for the flights and school expenses, and will be close to covering our outreach costs (we will know the exact amount in a couple weeks).  Four weeks ago, we stored all of our possessions and packed our clothes for 6 months into three suitcases.  Here at our YWAM training base, our small bedroom is our only private space, and we share a community bathroom.  We have no cars, no cell phones, and no Water Street Coffee Joint.  This is the least amount of extra money or possessions either of us has had in at least 5 years...but the interesting thing is that we don't feel poor and we're not complaining.  As I mentioned above, this is about as free as I have felt in my life.  Often times possessions are a blessing, but the lack of "things" here has freed up so much time and energy to read, study, think, pray, and be a positive influence in the lives of others.  This truly is one of the great mysteries of a life following Jesus Christ - that deeper joy does not come when we store up treasures on earth, but in Heaven.

Outreach!
Well, Jake and I write as we are very excited because we just were informed of our four outreach location options!
We are to pray over the weekend and seek where God is leading us...Please pray as we consider these following locations and let us know if you have any thoughts for us! Thank you so much.
Uganda and Sudan
Costa Rica
China and Phillipines
Tanzania and Burundi

 

Korean New Year! Morning exercises.  Best view of Swiss Alps yet!

A typical day for us...

I am making an entry in the blog! I believe that Jake will be more excited about this than anyone else:) I thought I'd share a bit about what our normal schedule looks like.

Weekdays...  6:30 am breakfast prep (for me anyways...)

                      7:45 am breakfast has been eaten and cleaned up

                    7:30-8:30 am is set aside for alone/quiet time with God

                    8:30 am either worship/intercession/bible study

                    9:45 am lecture with dts speaker of the week

                   12:30 pm lunch

                  1:30-3:30 pm work duties... aka "life skills" jake spends this 

time working on the maintenance team

                   4:00-6:00 pm considered free time unless other mtgs are 

planned

                   6:00 pm supper

                    7:30-9ish pm either free time/community mtg/outreach prep

Weekends...  Saturday: Ski/ministry on the slopes day (unless weather changes our plans)

                     Sunday: Day off (unless skiing instead of on Saturday) 

On a deeper note, God has revealed to me recently His desire for me to use this season at YWAM Lausanne to grow in intimacy with Him... to become confident ONLY because of His love for me and mine for Him.  Psalm 145:14-19 is a passage of scripture that has been given to me.  I believe these words could be an encouragement to all of you as well! My most recent lesson in faith is leaning/depending on God to be my healer... to know that He created my body and therefore cares when I have issues with digestion! He's also showing me how when no one else does, He understands the depth of JOY I experience when dinner at the base includes broccoli! 

We've had an amazing week here at YWAM Lausanne.

Maureen Menard was our teacher for the week, and she taught on the Holy Spirit.  We spent most of the time studying scripture in the Old and New Testament, as well as hearing stories about what God has done in her life.  While she does believe and taught about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, she thinks that most people forget about the main role of the HS, which is to work inside of us and draw us closer to God the Father on a day to day basis.  All of the information is too much to write in a blog, but we'd be happy share more via e-mail or in person when we return!

Below is a picture of our base, and the hotel we are living in.  We may or may not have mentioned that there are about 30 people in our DTS.  (You can view their pictures by clicking HERE)  There are three other schools happening.  "Introduction to Biblical Counseling," "Introduction to Communication and Design," and "Sprungbrecht."  All together, there are about 150 people living at our base.  The Sprungbrecht school, which is high-school age students doing a mini-version of our DTS, left on Thursday for 5 weeks of outreach in Cairo, Egypt.

On Saturday, we explored the city of Lausanne.  As we were running to catch the metro in to town, I (Jake) got on the train with Lauren close behind.  The doors began to close, and I tried (to no avail) to keep them from closing with my leg.  A few second later, the train was speeding away with Lauren stuck at the station.  All of this after Lauren had warned me three times not to get on the metro without her.  Back home this wouldn't have been a big deal, but things are entirely different with no cell phones!  Luckily, we were able to find each other at the next stop.

Lauren is planning to write more mid-week, so check back!

It's about 1:00 pm here in Switzerland, meaning that it is 7:00 am for most of you in the States. It's still so weird for me (Jake) to get used to this!  

Overall, we're having an amazing time.  The weather has been beautiful, and it has been a great chance for us to focus on growing individually and in our relationship.  Here are some of the highlights from our first "real" week of DTS...

Swiss Night - Early in the week we got to experience a bit of Swiss culture at the base.  This included a presentation on the culture, as well as bread, cheese, fondue, and many kinds of chocolate!

Loren Cunningham - The founder of YWAM spoke to us via webcam from the YWAM Base in Hawaii.  The base we are staying at (Lausanne) was the first base Loren founded in the 1970s.  He shared about how YWAM grew from a few people in our hotel to training nearly 30,000 missionaries annually.  For me, one of the biggest lessons was that when God calls you to do something, he often does not show you every step from beginning to end.  Typically, you must be content with only knowing the NEXT step.

Sickness - A flu/fever has been making its way around our base the past week, and I had it pretty bad from Wednesday to Saturday.  Lauren has stayed completely healthy throughout the week, which she attributes to her healthy diet!

Villars 24 Hour Race - One of the practical ways that we show God's love is volunteering in community events.  Villars (a local ski resort) hosted a 24 Hour Race from Saturday afternoon 

to Sunday afternoon.  Teams of racers had people pledge a certain dollar amount for each kilometer they complete.  Over 200,000 francs were collected to teach disabled people to discover the joy of skiing!

Our part in this was to maintain the race course and assist if there were any crashes.  Lauren's shift was from 5:00 am - 8:30 am, while mine was from 7:00 am  - 1:00 pm.  We didn't get a ton of sleep, but we did experience an amazing sunset/sunrise.  This picture is of us in front of a chalet (that we would like to have someday) in the mountains.

Class Time - Our teacher for the week was Mike Oman, who spoke on the "Father Heart of God."  We went through the book of Exodus, looking at how God led the Israelites out of Egypt, and revealed His nature to them.  It was very encouraging and reinforced many things we've learned in the past, but nothing too ground breaking.

Personally - On my end, I've been learning a lot about myself.  Most important is that I tend to keep myself WAY TOO BUSY, and busyness kills both joy and spiritual growth.  YWAM has been a lesson for me in slowing down.  I've also been re-reading "Mere Christianity," by C.S. Lewis.  One of the primary issues he covers is that of pride.  He claims that "It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began."  This past week I've been discovering the tip of the iceberg of how pride affects my life and actions.

We love it here in Switzerland. Yesterday we experienced skiing in the Swiss Alps for the first time! The air was crisp and the sky blue and sunny. Since arriving on Wednesday afternoon, we have met people more than 10 countries and had some time to explore the nearby small town of Epalinges. YWAM Lausanne's housing is an old hotel and we have a small room on the second floor. Tomorrow our daily classes and work duties will begin. Both Jake and I are anticipating a great speaker and much time for reflection!  

Feel free to check back to our blog, as we plan to update it most weekends.

Welcome to our blog!  We're planning to keep this fairly up to date with pictures, videos, and thoughts from our YWAM DTS in Lausanne, Switzerland.

This is where we're headed