Hey Friends and Family,
It feels like this school has flown by, we are leaving for outreach phase on Sunday already! It has been a roller coaster ride this school, but it is so cool because we can see an evident transformation in each one of the students already after this lecture phase. Thank you for your prayers! We can feel them and see their effect.
Personally, we’ve loved the added body part of this soul and spirit DTS experience, because the three go perfectly together. We have made some great relationships at the Crossfit box. We’ve got to share with everyone there what we’ve been doing, we’ve had some good conversations, and have gotten to spend time with some people outside of the box. It has been cool because one of our Christian friends that goes there said that she feels the atmosphere changes when we are there. She said it feels a lot lighter and has a more encouraging atmosphere. It was really cool to hear that, since we didn’t know the difference from when we were not there. We are just praying that God continues to grow the seeds of love and encouragement that we have planted. It is up to Him now to make those seeds grow.
It feels like this school has flown by, we are leaving for outreach phase on Sunday already! It has been a roller coaster ride this school, but it is so cool because we can see an evident transformation in each one of the students already after this lecture phase. Thank you for your prayers! We can feel them and see their effect.
Personally, we’ve loved the added body part of this soul and spirit DTS experience, because the three go perfectly together. We have made some great relationships at the Crossfit box. We’ve got to share with everyone there what we’ve been doing, we’ve had some good conversations, and have gotten to spend time with some people outside of the box. It has been cool because one of our Christian friends that goes there said that she feels the atmosphere changes when we are there. She said it feels a lot lighter and has a more encouraging atmosphere. It was really cool to hear that, since we didn’t know the difference from when we were not there. We are just praying that God continues to grow the seeds of love and encouragement that we have planted. It is up to Him now to make those seeds grow.
Outside of the box and class time, we’ve had other cool God-appointed opportunities to share the love and healing power of Christ. Just a wanted to share a little story about God showing up and healing a cat lady's shoulder! We were in the park the other day having our staff meeting, when this lady walks up. Mind you, she walked up with a cat tied onto a leash IN a basket so she got our attention from the get-go. She walked right up to us and sat down and started talking to us. She basically just started opening up to us and she said, "I can tell you guys are very spiritual" when we didn't even start talking about God. It was cool that she said that without even knowing us.
I don't think we always realize the power of God living inside of us. She started telling us about how she was abused and how she was hurt a lot in her life. Then someone got a word of knowledge about her hurt shoulder. We asked her and she asked," How did you know that?!" Only Jesus. She said there was pain and we prayed twice. The first time it went 75% away, the second time it was completely gone!!! Praise God. Then she had us go and pray for her "partner" because you could tell she had been touched by God. She had us pray for him and for healing for his physical and spiritual eyes to be opened (someone got a word about his eyes and we found out he had cataracts) It's crazy how God chose to work that day. Sometimes we may overlook people that really need a touch from Jesus. We could've told her "hey lady, we are right in the middle of a meeting." But instead, God chose to use a group of us to love on this lady that obviously was hungry for God and she even let us play with her cat!
We are super pumped for the outreach phase. We leave with our team for Chile on Sunday! We will be in Pichilemu, Chile for five weeks and then in Rio, Brazil for the remaining two and a half weeks. In Chile, we are planning on doing some varied ministry working with schools, a fitness center, churches, evangelism in villages, special needs kids, and some mercy ministry.
We are super pumped for the outreach phase. We leave with our team for Chile on Sunday! We will be in Pichilemu, Chile for five weeks and then in Rio, Brazil for the remaining two and a half weeks. In Chile, we are planning on doing some varied ministry working with schools, a fitness center, churches, evangelism in villages, special needs kids, and some mercy ministry.
In Brazil, our main focus will be on evangelism since the Olympics will be going on and there will be many nations in the city. We are hoping to pair up with other YWAM teams to flood the city with prayer and love. We are praying we get to pray over someone from every nation there and over Olympians that will compete. We just want to make Jesus famous among the nations. We are hoping to touch as many people as we can while we are there. Follow our outreach team at https://ywamrxdts.wordpress.com for more updates .
We get back August 20 from Brazil. We then have debrief week, the students leave, and then we start staffing the September school that following Sunday. We are moving everything out of our place before we leave because YWAM is getting rid of the house we have been living in. They have bought a backpackers to house all the students for the September school so it’s exciting for the base that they don’t have to rent out as many houses, but also a challenge for us, since we may be homeless for a bit. We will probably be able to stay at the staff house when we get back, but we will need to find a house. Please pray that we can find a place to live right when we get back that is in our budget. We are just trusting God to provide. He has been faithful so far and we know He will continue to be faithful.
We get back August 20 from Brazil. We then have debrief week, the students leave, and then we start staffing the September school that following Sunday. We are moving everything out of our place before we leave because YWAM is getting rid of the house we have been living in. They have bought a backpackers to house all the students for the September school so it’s exciting for the base that they don’t have to rent out as many houses, but also a challenge for us, since we may be homeless for a bit. We will probably be able to stay at the staff house when we get back, but we will need to find a house. Please pray that we can find a place to live right when we get back that is in our budget. We are just trusting God to provide. He has been faithful so far and we know He will continue to be faithful.
Long update, I know, but exciting things to share! We got the approval to lead a school next April 2017!! This is an exciting opportunity for us to grow in leadership. We are pioneering a new school at YWAM Sunny Coast. It will be a Surf. Skate. Snow. DTS. We are passionate about using surf, skate, and snowboarding for ministry and also using it as a way to draw students in from this kind of sub-culture. We would appreciate your prayers as we plan and pray into what God has for this school. Here is the link on the website for our upcoming school next year: http://www.ywamsunshinecoast.com/surfskatesnow-dts/
Prayer points:
Thank you everyone for all your prayers and support. We can see the effect of your prayers, so don't ever minimize the power of prayer. If you would like to partner with us financially you can click on "SUPPORT" above to see the giving options. We can't do this without your prayer and support. If you would like to be a part of our "inner prayer team" for more specific prayer updates and details, just give us a holler by email at [email protected] or by facebook message and we will add you.
We are hoping to come home around Christmas, but we will let you know if we are able to make the trip or not. We love and miss you guys ! Blessings!
<3 Josh & Amanda
- Health and safety on outreach
- Unity amongst our team
- Open hearts and divine appointments in Chile and Brazil
- Pray that we can find a place to live when we get back that is in our budget
- Pray Josh’s arm heals quickly (He fractured his arm skateboarding a few weeks ago :( )
Thank you everyone for all your prayers and support. We can see the effect of your prayers, so don't ever minimize the power of prayer. If you would like to partner with us financially you can click on "SUPPORT" above to see the giving options. We can't do this without your prayer and support. If you would like to be a part of our "inner prayer team" for more specific prayer updates and details, just give us a holler by email at [email protected] or by facebook message and we will add you.
We are hoping to come home around Christmas, but we will let you know if we are able to make the trip or not. We love and miss you guys ! Blessings!
<3 Josh & Amanda
Crossfit Update 2 from Josh Hall on Vimeo.