"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.