An update from us is long overdue! It's been a roller coaster type of semester for us. Let's start with one of the highlights of our year first:
February – Thailand youth conference
For two years in a row now, we have been
invited (as Team Triple J!) to lead the youth part of a M conference in
Thailand. It always happens around the Chinese New Year time and we jump up and
down for this opportunity with open arms – anything
to escape the bitter, long winter here! This year’s destination was Chiang Mai
– what a tough life for us!
These annual Thailand conferences are always
special because it’s the one time in the year that many of these M kids get to
come together for a steroid boost of spiritual nourishment and community
connection. Our fellowship is so supportive that they allowed us to take time
off our regular schedule to do this. Many of these kids live in remoter places
in Asia (i.e. Mongolia, NK0rea, Midwest/Western Chna, Japan, etc) where thriving
youth groups are not readily available. These teenagers’ parents have committed
their lives and families to kingdom work overseas, so many of these kids have
lived in several places and seen quite a bit for their ages. Though young, they
are very precious. We head out with an expectation to minister to them, but we
are encouraged in return. Plus we get to do crazy stuff we can’t do around here
like morning sermons in the pool, cannon ball contests, and late night monopoly
deal matches.
March – Joyce’s birthday, Cissy visited
I turned older and wiser again this March.
Felt really special and loved by friends and family around the world. PLUS, my
little sister visited us for a week! We had way too many good meals to
celebrate the occasion.
April – Emerge Pure Youth Campference
We blogged about the Emerge Camference last
year, and we did it again this year! The theme this time was on Purity in every
aspect of our lives. It was a tough subject to teach on, but that’s exactly why
it was so necessary – we rarely tackle the difficult subjects at chu/ch! This
year, 6 powerful speakers dug deep and challenged the kids to join us on a
journey of purity, to live in such a way that G can readily shine himself
through us whenever he wants to. We want to be pure not only in our actions,
but even more importantly, in our thought lives. There’s never a better time to
start than when we were young, and we were so encouraged to see how the HS
transformed many lives that weekend.
May – Joe’s birthday, new gig, and end of school year:
For Joe’s birthday, his best bud for many
years was in town and we had an unforgettable get together. Old friends are
like old wines – we relish every sip we get!
In our community, there are more than 5,000 school aged kids and most of them are unreached - as busy as we are, our youth group only has about 150 kids. So for the longest time we have been pr/ying about an "in" to schools around our community so that we can have a better platform to reach kids at school. G answered our pr/yer this year in a miraculous way: Joe is now hired as a part time strength/conditioning trainer at Chna's largest international school! The school is about 5 mins drive away from our home, and we get to spend 2 hours at the school every day! Sometimes I tag along as well to make the weight room less intimidating for girls. It's only been 2 months, but this is a great complimentary add-on to our ministry. As another bonus, Joe gets to start and coach what's most likely Chna's first cheer team here at the school! Here's a video of the middle school cheer team's first performance this Spring (Joe is hiding behind the girls on center stage):
June is the end of the work year for us and we always find it a bittersweet month. While vacation is on the horizon, we have to bid many of our dear (but crazy) kids goodbye. Many of them are on their way out to college, and another bunch of them are moving away. Our community is just that kind of community where the whole congregation changes out completely every three years. There are many tears of sadness as we bid them farewell, but we thoroughly rejoice to see how G has transformed their lives. The best part is that we get to witness some of it!
2 Years already!
On May 15th, we celebrated our 2nd
anniversary. Words cannot express our gratitude and joy to our Father for such
an amazing (read: wild) journey.
