Tsunami Day

This is what we sent in an email so sorry if you get this in your email, I guess just delete it or stop reading this! But thanks to all those who sent us texts, emails and called us to make sure we were ok!! We were woken up around 5am by some texts coming in on our Canadian phone. We didn’t even bother checking them and just rolled over back to bed. Then the tsunami alarm went off, and being incoherent, I thought it was weird that they were doing a drill at such a random time of day. That didn’t hinder my sleep though! It wasn’t until it kept going off that we decided to wake up and find out what was going on. That’s when we checked our phone and found out a tsunami was headed our way in just a few hours!

Commotion picked up outside as everyone came out to find out what happened. We were shocked to find out that another earthquake had hit another small country and that it was even more powerful than the one that hit Haiti. But before we could process that, we had to grab breakfast and head to the Ohana Court where everyone on the base met for instructions. Thankfully the base is just above the evacuation area and the dorms are even higher than that, so we were pretty safe (and you’ll see in our photos the long, steep set of stairs we have to walk up to get to the main area of the base). Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM and who also lives on the island, took the mic and shared some encouraging stories of how God had protected other missionaries from impending natural disasters through dreams and stuff. He also told us to not get prideful and do anything crazy! Haha and some boys actually tried to head into town…and were stopped by security.


We were told to stay within a certain area of the base to be safe, so everyone camped at the top to watch and wait for the tsunami. A lot of us were praying though and felt at peace, that nothing was gonna happen. And as we waited for the tsunami that never came, we watched a news report that showed how the tsunami was heading in our direction but then all of a sudden split and went in different directions. We’re so thankful God spared Hawaii from the impending wave…even though the kid in me wanted the once-in-a lifetime opportunity of seeing a tsunami…we’re really grateful for Him intervening.


So a few hours later, the Kona county lifted the ban and everyone was free to hit the beaches again. But by this time, people were either napping from the exhaustion of it all, families were playing or people were just hanging out. And turns out I had the longest nap of my life, guess I was more exhausted than I knew! We were all joking that it turned into a holiday, Tsunami Day, where we could do nothing but enjoy the company of each other so it was beautiful. Point is, God is mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17) and is always wanting to take us into a deeper place of trusting Him. Faith, Hope, Love…

tami

GIVING TO HAITI OUTREACH

Mahalo (thank you) for your desires to give towards our outreach to Haiti - which is coming very soon!  People from our base are constantly going back and forth so meetings are underway about what we're heading into and there's lots of expectation for what God wants to do through our team.  Your gift will help us get there, get around to places, and do the things we want to do like bulid houses, possibly run daycamps for kids, offer support in the refugee camps and be of help to the YWAM bases in Haiti. We receive miraculous stories of how God is saving people, one story was about a man who was pulled out of the rubble after 4 weeks and when the news asked him about how he survived, he said, "a man in a white coat kept bringing me water." Of course the news would never attribute this miracle to God, but for this story, see: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/08/haiti.rescue/index.html  God hasn't given up on Haiti and we're going to let them know that! So whether through prayer or finances or both, thank you for partnering with us in this...we'll have pictures of our team up shortly. We miss you and value your friendship so much!

- WAYS TO GIVE -

ONLINE

Go to http://www.canadahelps.org/, type "YWAM BC" in the 'I want to give' box. It should say Youth With A Mission BC Society, click this option. Hit "Donate Now" and fill out the rest. For the Fund/Designation, your giving to the 'General Funds to Individual - Missionary Ministry' which should already be the option. In the box below this, the message/instruction box, write that the donation is for Jonathan Masson (MJ22). It is important to give them this instruction so that the donation actually goes to us!

SEND A CHEQUE

You can write cheques to YWAM and put 'Jonathan Masson' somewhere on it (in note area). Send the cheque to:

YWAM Project Funding

Box 57100

2480 E. Hastings

Vancouver, BC

V5K 5G6

Love Covers It All

Thanks again for caring about us all the way over there! What with the Olympics and all! So we've been here about a month and a half and have been so blessed by everyday of it. Last week a guy came and talked to us about inner healing, the healing of our souls from such things as control, fear, passivity, addictions and much more. Jon and I really saw the difference it made not only in our lives individually, but our marriage!! Someone asked a great question, "what's the difference between this and a self help book!?!" The teacher emphasized that we're relying on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to heal us whereas a self-help book is based on you fixing yourself. Also, this type of ministry not only relies on God, but the community of believers for accountability and wise advice. Whereas with a self-help book, there's no real accountability and quite often, no real lasting results.  

Our school leader always mentions how our DTS (discipleship training school) is like a detox where a lot of people, who come from various backgrounds and maybe struggling with various things, get drastically transformed - healed up, restored and brought into more of who they're created to be.  And something that really touched us is the story of one of the younger guys in our class (18 years old).  He'd been involved in the gang life back home and by the grace of God, his dad found out about our school and sent him here. It was a drastic change for him and without getting into the details of his story (to protect him), he fell into some trouble that is usually grounds for dismissal from the school. After the incidence and guidance from leaders, this young man had the courage to stand before our class and in such humility, confessed his wrongs and asked for our forgiveness!!  We didn't know this, but the leaders had already prayed about it and felt like God wanted him to stay. So he stood in front of us like the prodigal son whose guilt and shame was washed away as people stood up to declare their love for him and who he really is...that our sins don't dictate who we are!!  "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8   

Maybe it's cause we know young guys like him, who have amazing potential and if they could just get out of their negative environment and get into one like this, they could freely go after all God has for them. So we're just really encouraged to see love in action like this, where people are standing alongside him, fighting for him, keeping him accountable in grace and truth...this is true community.  Since then, which was just a few weeks ago, he's gained more freedom and healing while being under strict supervision and accountability. He's using his gift of rapping to journal what's happening here and he's hoping to stay for a while to fully get grounded. 

It's just nice to know that when we make mistakes, God is never disappointed or angry with us but wants to help us not make the same mistakes. As I've understood God's love for me more, it's opened my eyes to the truth of how He looks at us and has brought me a lot of relief...and joy! And has made reading the Old Testament a lot more enjoyable! So that's a snapshot of life here and now we're getting ready for community outreach tonight, so love ya and hope to hear from ya!

- tami

Honour to the Holy Spirit

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Apostle Paul’s prayer for us from 2 Corinthians 13:14

I just gotta give a shout out to my buddy the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity. I’ll tell you what the trinity is to me: God the Father is the father I’ve always wanted and always needed but never always had. Jesus is beyond my healer and redeemer, but my lover, husband and friend. And Holy Spirit…He’s the one that makes my relationship with the trinity possible, my peace in a stressful moment, my joy in a broken moment, my friend who walks with me even when I’m not even paying attention to Him.  If God had a bumper sticker on his car, it’d have to say this: to be fearfully followed and yet so sweetly enjoyed.

What we don’t realize sometimes is how the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to follow God! He empowers us, through grace and faith, to get over the potholes of sin and go after and receive the fullness of all God created us to be.  We can even look at the life of Jesus and see how much He needed the Holy Spirit before He could do the amazing things He did, being baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14) and then reaching the lost. Just before Jesus left this earth, He told His disciples - who He’d walked with and done life with for 3 years - that it was better for them that He left (John 16:6-7)!! Jesus Himself preferred us to have the Holy Spirit be with us here on earth instead of Him!! John 14-16 explains the role of the Holy Spirit and our need for Him beautifully.

So when a prayer is answered, He’s the one that brought it from Heaven to earth. When I pray for someone and they're healed, He gets the glory! When we’re asking God where we left our keys, it’s the Holy Spirit that whispers “under there!” When we need wisdom to know how to get through a situation, hello Holy Spirit! When we inhale, it’s His breath that gives us life. He’s that important. (song: “this is the air I breath…your Holy presence…living in me….)

I’m filled with a loving hunger for people to let Him in just a little more and see how much their lives would change! I want to provoke us, even myself, to ask the hard questions. Why is the Holy Spirit so often neglected? Is it because we never know what will happen when He shows up in a crazy worship set? Is it even necessary to understand the Holy Spirit in our walk with God? A book called Forgotten God by Francis Chan (author of Crazy Love) answers these questions. So do the gospels and the whole New Testament. A Christian lyricist, Shai Linne, gives “much respect” to the Holy Spirit in one of his songs, Triune Praise

So, help us Holy Spirit, help us to know how much we need you. Help us to know the incredible force you are in our lives so we can be an incredible force in the lives of others, being filled with more of you – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. Thanks for being you and not who people want you to be.

- tami