June was an amazing adventure for our family as we hosted 7 amazing students and 3 courageous leaders from a youth group in Minnesota. They lived with us, worked on the building project, adventured to beaches, jumped off cliffs and shared many sunsets together not to mentioned grew closer to the Lord in amazing worship, prayer and teaching times! We look forward to more opportunities to host as a family from teaching and praying to working and playing by doing this we are opening up opportunities for youth in America to see what a family in missions looks like!

July started with our family having the honor of working with a school here called Circuit Riders, the entire time was life changing for all involved. Students, staff and the local community saw many salvations and healing in local outreach before many boarded planes to Orange County, Washington D.C., Alaska, Ireland, and into their universities, jobs, schools and communities to see them radically changed by Jesus as they walk in boldness sharing their faith, being filled with the spirit and praying for people. Peyton adventured on her first solo outreach to Orange County, California and saw God save, heal and revive so many!!! She is now highly motivated to finish school as her heart filled with such a hope for the lost and broken in America! We are making this location one of our prayer focuses as God has planted many of our friends longer term in this location! It was the greatest joy to be a part of this season and is a passion for our family to be with so many bold, passionate and hard working young evanglists. To spend time in prayer, worship and teaching! Our family is continuing to do a weekly local outreach with the Marshallese community here in Kona.

July also provided another opportunity teach in a Korean marriage conference and pray for many Korean pastors and of course working with Moses and Young Eun Kim (and their family) is always a delight! As all of these things were happening, Mike has been overseeing the building project on campus and it has been a full time commitment beyond all the amazing opportunities to disciple and train many youth including our own incredible children, building, painting, praying and preaching.

As August went so did another move for our family, this time we will be in the same place until the beginning of December and we are so grateful! Mike had the opportunity to preach at a local church in Kona with the Circuit Rider students also sharing testimonies and short sermons! With the end of Circuit Riders school, the builing project and another Korean Conference August quickly ended! It was a joy to share all of these adventures with some old friends (from Switzerland and Washington) and blessed by some new ones too! We are looking forward to more friends being here in October from Africa and Japan!

September is going so quickly and its hard to believe a year ago we were just finishing our outreach in the midwest and heading to California! We will be teaching at a church in Seoul Korea for 2 weeks in October, November we return to teach in a Korean school here in Kona and more building projects! Both Peyton and Elijah are officially in school now (Elijah is in 2nd and Peyton should be a senior by November with only 2.5 credits left to finish High School!!!).

We have been so encouraged, learned more about grace, challenged in faith and strength since Japan in May. Our hearts are so passionate to listen and follow God’s plan and we are still here in Kona as a home base to come and go from. Mid October brings a 16 day trip to Korea for staff training for a church and a seminar in Seoul, hosted by the same church. Please agree in prayer: for safety in this trip, for the teaching times in Korea, care for our family while we are traveling, and physical healings. Longer term prayer: for opportunities to travel to Japan and raise up revivalists, worshippers from America to “go” with us! The campus development aspect of missions Mike has been involved in, is teaching so many practicals that will go hand in hand with the salvation of souls!

We continue to believe for provision as the full-time campus development position Mike has is volunteer (this has been a huge testimony in the local builiding community as he supervises this grand project for “free” many local sub contractors and employees of Home Depot and Lowes are in shock and asking questions!) We are continually astoundand how God leads others to pray for our family and give financially or with airline miles! Please check out our support page if you’d like to join with us in any of these ways, or as always call or email us…we love hearing from you!

Overflowing with Hope,

Mike, Jackie, Peyton and Elijah

While staying in a city called Ishinomaki, we were also able to pray for two Japanese college students that were spending a week there to help clean up and get vision for future planning. As a team, God began to show us how he is stirring the hearts of Japanese youth for their nation, and they are responding! We believe that when outreach teams go into these devastated areas, there is a great possiblity we will be taking Japanese students and youth with us! Every person we met in the costal cities of Ishinomaki and Kamaishi had a story of loss and survival, it was unreal and to see and hear the details of what they experienced on March 11th.

In the midst of great loss, there was a joy from the people and our help was not only welcomed but we were treated like family with open hearts, sharing their homes to host our team of 10! We were humbled by the kindness of the people and how they wanted to feed us, work side by side with us, and share their stories with us. The team was Pieter Heres from Kona, ourselves, and YWAM, Tokyo leaders, staff and 3 young, passionate Japanese friends…our team of 10 was such a unique and perfectly planned team! When we met up with 2 other Kona friends Jason and Jack it was amazing to see how God had used them to build relationships the weeks prior to our arrival full of joy although they had already served tirelessly. We are excited to assist in preparing teams connected to YWAM Kona or Tokyo to serve in the devasted areas and in the city to evangelize and take part in exisiting ministries. We also had the privilage of debriefing and vision/planning for future outreach teams with David McDaniel- Director of YWAM Tokyo, and John Summer-Harris: a relational blessing of YWAM in Japan over 25 years!

Our hearts were stirred to be in Japan once again and seeing not only the city but traveling 8 hours north and seeing great openess to hear about Jesus. We were blessed to meet up with our dear friend Pete and his bride, Hege. We laughed, prayed, shared meals, walked and got stirred up with God’s heart for Japan! This was a long awaited divine meeting and look forward to bringing teams back to work with them in Tokyo and beyond.

We have only a few days in Kona then fly to Seattle, New York and back to Seattle/Tacoma area for 10 days . We will be teaching in a business DTS, and speaking in a 2 day seminar in New Jersey and celebrating our 20th anniversary in New York. Upon returning to Seattle, we will be meeting with supporters, pastors and youth sharing on mission opportunities in Japan and the United States. We will also have an opportunitiy to spend time with family and friends in the Northwest, we are so grateful for your continued prayer, support and love. Many have taken part in this mission to Japan through giving and prayer and we are honored and excited to be a part of how God uses many to reach the nations, with his love and truth! Thank you, thank you!

Overflowing with Hope,

Mike and Jackie

2011 is in full sprint and we are excited to share with you… its official…we accepted a position on staff at YWAM, University of the Nations, Kona! This year began with such excitement and much awaited geographical commitment for our family! Mike accepted a position with Campus Development for oversite of all new construction on the missions base, working in conjunction with the President’s office. We believe the vision the Lord gave Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) over 50 years ago… A of the wave of youth coming into missions and our family is coming alongside that vision to see this campus be prepared physically and spiritually.

What does it look like physically? Building of dorms, staff housing, a 40,000 sq. ft. cafeteria and media center and projected professional sports complex, and that’s just to start! What does that look like in the spiritually?The second part of what we believe God is asking us is, to prepare is the students so are both of us are discipling and teaching (on campus and occassionally on other bases and churches). Equipping young men and women to walk out their faith, share the gospel and disciple the nations! Mike has also taken on a group of young men and begun to teach them basics in construction. He has the opportunity to work with gifted builders from around the US and encouraged many of these gifted young men to sit in on a classroom session or two… some of them even want to return to take DTS (discipleship training) themselves! Beyond that, we always count it a privliage to pray for those traveling to Kona to visit the campus from around the world, especially in times of transition. If your travels bring you to Hawaii, we would love to do the same and give you a tour of the campus as well! It is a great joy for our family to have such a rich environment to serve and worship God.

Highlights for our children are: Deep, encouraging friendships, a fun place to learn, a place that prepares them spiritually, physically (we are outside a lot…running, swimming, bike riding and just starting tennis and walking) and last but not least…an exciting place to prepare for them to own their faith to seek and know God and how he wants them to use their gifts to serve him! Elijah is 7(and a half) is in 1st grade. Learning to read, surf and spends countless hours in adventure with his friends or daddy! Peyton is 17, has an amazing group of friends and young adults she spends time with. Currently she is studying with an online acedemy, hoping to gradute early so she can join the Community Transformations DTS April of 2012, and Still praying about college… We are grateful right now to be in a little one bedroom -OHANA (family)- as our time together is so precious!

Burdens on our heart that you can pray for:
1. JAPAN: as many of you know, this is already part of our heart and call to see an awakening of Christ in Japan, for the people to know the love of Jesus and serve him. That being said, due to the recent earthquake and Tsunami, there is real practical and physical needs for food, safety, housing and resourses…we are praying for ways we can support our friends at YWAM, TOKYO both in prayer and in the practical, if possible.
2. LOCALLY: please pray as we spend time with a Japanese american couple who run a resturant in Kona, we want them to know Jesus! Jackie has been going there weekly for the past 6 weeks learning about their lives, past, meeting their friends and sharing about her walk with Jesus and in the process they are teaching her and whoever comes with her (family or friends) new Japanese words!
3. YWAM -University of the Nations KONA: pray for donors who will financially and prayerfully support the vision of students, professional volunteer mission builders and staff working together to train, build and prepare this campus for the great numbers of missionaries to be sent out from this base!

An added blessing for our family: A two week visit from Papa and Grammy! Not only did Papa come to help with King’s Mansion, YWAM’s first property here in Kona, now a meeting place for global leaders in missions but also a few days of pure vacation in beautiful Hawaii. Grammy had the hardest job…finding enough books to read while staring at the view from her deck! It was also an opportunity for them to see first hand how we live day to day as missionaries. Meals in community (outside of course!), working side by side and training young people to love others, build, pray, teach and serve as a family in missions! Of course we were so grateful to have family here from the Northwest, pretty much cures home sickness, not to mention, the rare treat of going out to dinner and frozen yogurt! We had many great adventures and even more laughs…thank you God for blessing us so abundantly through our family!

A huge THANK YOU to all who have walked with us over the past year. During the many transitions, moves, travels and walking in faith with us as we trusted God would show us how to live to serve him and not ourselves (this is still a daily walking out for each of us as our tendancy is always to look out for ourselves as people, rather than to serve others. God has shown us much grace!) we have never felt we were without prayer and friendship, we feel completly honored and loved! What a gift it has been to have so many of you walk through joy, trials and times of simply trusting God’s timining, waiting. Thank you to those who have visited us while in their travels and shared your lives with us, seen glimpses of our life in missions, and let us share our heart for youth.

Like all positions at YWAM, we raise 100% of our monthly support. Those who share our vision for training youth in missions, both practically and spiritually through teaching, prayer, worship and building as well as community aspects like serving schools and the local community, showing the Love of Jesus to others in practical ways, then join with us!
Go to the top of this page:
How to prayerfully support in this mission? Click on: “Contact Us”
How to financially support our family in missions? Click on: “Support”

Abundant joy,

Mike, Jackie, Peyton and Elijah

In the weeks to follow, God began to open doors in which we have been so humbled to experience.  We have been given great privilage to pray with leaders on the base and invited to pray for all the Junior High and High school children with the International Christian School here at YWAM. Giving an overview of God creating each child with a specific purpose and championing them to be rooted in the word of God and to seek these purposes beginning with their relationship, and being fully surrendered to him.  Opportunities to lead devotional times in some schools and a fun surprise…we began meeting with a couple for pre-marriage counseling and hanging out with as many young people as time allows, by spending time with our family, life on life discipleship!

We had been trying to hear from God on the best fit for school with Peyton and the Lord provided a way, a generous gift, for her to attend a great online academ!. As we waited for over 2 weeks for the schooling to go through we were praying that she was not falling farther behind. In the midst of waiting and trusting God (not always easy, we can tend to listen to worldly opinons on what is best for our children, when God really knows!) we received the news that she only has 6.5 credits to graduate, possibly early! Besides the blessing of the school, again trusting God’s timing, Peyton joined Mike and I as we taught in another DTS here at University of the Nations, Kona with over 60 students by assisting prayer times, ministering to these young missionaries in training!  She was involved in a womens time on rejection and body image, very powerful time. We began to recognize God’s perfect timing and his care for each of us as we step out in faith and the gift of doing missions as a family!

Next is an amazing update…Elijah is enrolled in a school here on base that is in the pioneering stages and wonderful 1st grade year so far. Less than 2 weeks ago, we were taking him to a routine eye exam when we found out he could not see out of his left eye, its not just hard to see but he could not even guess a letter correctly! We were shocked and a bit fearful to be honest. The form of treatment was more than glasses could reverse but also continual eye therapy and patching.  If you are a parent you can imagine the shock!  That day we began to pray and fast as a family for God to heal him.  We were informed there are no specialists on the island so it would mean pulling him out of school, and leaving before God told us to and this didn’t seem like God’s plan for our family. With this heavy on our hearts we began teaching the week in Community Transformations DTS and were so challenged in our faith! These students were so hungry to serve God and to live lives set apart in holiness and passion for Jesus in their generation!  So, teaching and proclaiming we walk by faith and now it is time to truly walk it out by contending for Elijah to be healed. 

 At the end of the week, we asked the students to pray for Elijah, and it was 20 minutes of pure presence of the Lord!  These young adults began hearing God’s heart for Elijah, breaking off lies, speaking scripture and having Elijah proclaim and thank God for healing him! After the time was over, Peyton and I (Jackie) took Elijah in the back room and covered Elijah’s left eye and asked him to read letters about 15 feet away…HE COULD READ THEM!!! God was healing Elijah!  He cannot make out small letters but his eye is able to see larger print, we are continuing to pray for FULL healing but are thanking God for his healing Elijah and the continual work he is doing in and through his eyes and his heart to believe God’s power, love and faithfulness at such a young age!  It brought our family to a deeper level of faith for physical healing and to trust in God’s word.  During this season of trusting the Lord in greater measure, we are believing for our hearts and minds need an increased revelation of God’s character by being rooted in the scripture, truth.  Another key element that is imparative: radically remove all doubt, unbelief, not always easy but continually submitting our thoughts and ideas to God, not forgetting to be thankful that His ways are higher than ours!  This week had added blessings working alongside Pete Mahoney (Teaching in Call to All DTS)  Jess Ord, Shea Connell and two other families, its amazing what grace was on the week as we came together teaching and praying to see God transform these amazing young missionaries!

We will continue to be in Kona until sometime in January and then on to Norway. Mike has the honor to be apart of the wedding of dear friends Pete and Hege in February.  Will you agree with us for support to come in for the remainder of the time in Kona $2500. (for 2 months).  We also are praying for teaching opportunities in Norway, possibly Sweden, to cover costs for our entire family to attend the wedding in Norway! God is so faithful to us as we step out and trust him we have experienced such joy and gratitude for even the little things! (like a someone giving Elijah a boogie board and someone giving us a bag 100% Kona coffee the day we ran out!)  We are grateful for your prayers and support. Please prayerfully consider supporting our family monthly in missions (click “support” at the top of the page)  We look forward to 2011 with great anticipation of championing the youth of America into missions nationwide and around the world and prepare leaders that will change their generation by passionately following Jesus!

Current faith walk and prayer request: We are looking for housing here in Kona November 27th-Dec.11th as the place we are living is not open but we can return on the 12th. This is the week of the YWAM 50th anniversary and the Global Leadership meeting so most every room, hotel room and guest house is booked. Will you agree for housing for our family would be provided asap, Mike is leaving town for part of  this time so camping is pretty much out of the question…hahaha!

Overflowing with Hope,

Mike, Jackie, Peyton and Elijah

Our family has experienced the faithfulness of God in plenty and in want!  We are grateful for the obedience to God’s voice and grace given to our family through the generosity of many friends ~old and new~ in Kansas City.  We have grown so close to each other and not just because we all lived in the same room for many months!!!  Our faith, trust and love with the Lord and one another grew through victories and trials. Times of struggle always seemed to bring greater understanding, forgiveness and greater vision for God’s plan, not our own!

Unplanned events can always add a little fun to your already unorthidox outreach!  We drove to Colorado for a long weekend to help with a Southwest leadership retreat for YWAM at the Colorado Springs base. It was such an honor and joy for Mike and I to meet and pray for so many incredible, devoted leaders with great hearts and God’s vision for the youth in missions in the United States!  We believe God is opening many new places for us to run alongside great leaders and see thousands of youth saved and sent into the mission field! 

 A new adventure was about to unfold as we drove that ‘99 Honda back toward California on Route 66, road trips are always so much fun but can be a little more challenges when you are fasting…no burgers, fries and shakes on this trip…what!?  Mike, Peyton and I had new strength, endurance, a grace and health as we began the long (treat-less) drive westward…not always easy for Elijah either as he was consuming much less sugar than a rode trip ususally allowed!  This brought much humor into our trip…not to mention a little crying  

With all that being said…we had a mission in mind: Going to California to meet Mike’s brother, David! Without all the details… last January, Mike found out he had a half brother living in Oceanside, California. We had been praying about making the trip to meet him and his wife, Robin, their daughter, Taylor, two step-daughters, Vanessa (her husband Matt, daughter Meadow) Victoria (and her friend, Taz).  We had an amazing week getting to know our new found family and it was like the two brothers had known each other their entire lives!  We shared stories over meals, beach time, football games, and shopping.  One afternoon we had the opportunity to meet several of David’s amazing co-workers and learn about the great company that he works for, many of these friends had follow David’s search for his family and even our missionary journey the past 6 months…as a matter of fact, this update was prompted by our new found friend, Bonnie!

In all the excitement of meeting our new family, it further prompted us to look at some YWAM bases in California and even Mexico while we were in the San Diego area.  We believe this won’t be the last trip to California for missions!  We had an opportunity to see God’s hand in giving homes to the homeless in TJ, Mexico through YWAM and Homes of Hope.  Wow… so incredible God started us in Kona, sent us to Asia, then Kansas City to finish our outreach  and yet the week after outreach, we were touring Mexico! 

But wait that’s not all…we had extra surprises during this post-outreach trip…we met up with a good friend of ours for lunch and her and her family blessed us with 4 Disneyland Park-Hopper tickets for my Birthday!!! Elijah had been praying about this for weeks because we told him to pray that if we were supposed to go, God would provide a way, and we would have to trust Him for the tickets!  Sometimes blessings are so much more treasured when we wait for them…

Our hearts are so full of expectancy over the next season…it has been such a faith journey and now we are spending a week enjoying  time in Tacoma with family and friends which was kicked off by the beautiful Roley wedding.  We arrived to a great family celebration and generous friends to host us and provide transportion during our visit, an added blessing to be in the Northwest while its still sunny!  Next week we fly to Kona to teach in a Korean DTS and spend a few weeks transitioning the kids into school and praying about where God wants us to plant our feet.  We take in each moment as we await our next assignment with great anticipation and trust in God’s faithfulness for direction, provision, and joy!  Thank you for coming with us on this journey, please continue to check our website and see where we are landing next! 

We Overflow with Hope…

Mike, Jackie, Peyton and Elijah

Over the the past few weeks we have spent much time in prayer, a few meetings, praying for individuals as well as, for the youth of the city,  going to the International House of Prayer for times of worship and prayer.  Peyton and Elijah have been able to participate in all aspects of the time here in KC.  The great part has been beginning to meet and help train volunteers for alter work and how to disciple a new believer.  We have had the privilage of using amazing new teaching materials:  ”Salvation Encounter”.  This book walks a young person through salvation, walking out of their old life into a new life and freedom in Christ. Keep posted on our website as we add links to get this material into your hands, it would be an invaluable tool for youth groups, schools and disciplers to have for raising up this next generation! 

Mike has also done a couple of construction type of jobs aka: work duty/support raising!  We look forward to next week as we are teaching at the local YWAM base.  We have been blessed to be hosted by a wonderful family here and look forward to the next week as all of the evangelistic events begin!

Thank you all for your faithful prayers, giving and encouragement!!!  We are being stretched in countless ways but God has been so gracious to us as we are learning to trust him more all the time! 

Our next update will be highlighting many outreaches, AND….what is going to happen to our family after outreach?!  We are beginning to hear the first steps and it is so exciting to begin praying and waiting for each piece to come together! Please join us in praying for many who will partner with us monthly to see this next generation of missionaries raised up!  Our family will be devoted to giving our full time in teaching and training the next generation in the United States and Asia to go into the nations and preach the Gospel, bring restoration in all spheres of society: business, education, ministry, arts/media, family and health-care. Please give our website to anyone you believe would pray and partner with us…thanks!

We are so excited to share this vision and plan with you…We fly back to the United States (yes, it’s true, we are here now!) go to Kanas City and join Impact World Tours  (check blog roll on our website for Impact World Tours) to complete our outreach. Beginning August 30th, until the last week in September, we engage in a month long evangelistic campaign.  This month we will engage over a dozen local schools, communities, and over 10 churches that are partnering together to see the greater Grandview (Kanas City) area share the gospel and establish neighborhood centers that remain after our outreach!  During the month of August we will be training all of the volunteers for the numerous outreaches.

We want to give you more vision for China in the next update, today was simply share how quickly God can move you into the place he wants you!  Message, email or call us as our phones are on again, we would love to share with you. Along with God’s plans for our family, your continual prayer and support have brought us through this adventure with such joy, peace and great anticipation for revival in America and Asia! We boldly ask for your continued prayer and encouragement. Our family is excited to steward our money to honor God by coming back to finish our outreach here we have a very small portion left to raise that covered our remaining airfare so thank you for generosity!

We wanted to let everyone know we had a meeting with the school leader and since we still have $9,000. owing on our outreach, we need to pay by the 31st of July or we may have to return from the outreach early. Will you please pray for us to meet these fees! We want God’s plan for our family so if it is to go back and do outreach in Hawaii or the mainland be praying the plan would be very clear to us and the leadership here. Thank you for continual support and encouragment!!! What an adventure this is of faith and vision over this amazing country!!!