Thursday, January 27, 2011

I Will Waste My Life

I love how certain songs really move us in certain times of our lives...like "This I Promise You" by N'Sync when I was a teeny bopper...haha, thankfully the times and songs have changed. So the theme song for my life recently has been, "I Will Waste My Life" by Misty Edwards, it's on her album Relentless.  I can't recommend this album more.

The lyrics to the song go a little something like this:

"I say goodbye to my father, my mother,
I turn my back on every other lover, and I
Press on, yes I press on ...

For I am in love with you,
And there is no cost.
I am in love with you,
And there is no loss..."

The song ends with "I wanna cling to you." This song "struck a chord" in me cause I realize that's been our journey since we've been with YWAM. Jon and I have left everyone and everything we love behind (including the comforts of free healthcare!!) to pursue God's calling on our lives here in the middle of nowhere.  

I'm discipling a young woman right now who recently left the army (National Guard) to pursue God in a deeper way and she said missions work is exactly like the army.  The world's army is similar to God's in that as soon as you give your life to Him, you're automatically enrolled in His army, you give up all your rights (your wants, your finances, etc.) to fight not only for your freedom in Him, but for the freedom of others.  In the world's army, you get your "orders" and get deployed...right now, Jon and I are waiting for our "orders." There's a few differences though, like in the world's army, most are fighting for their own glory, but in God's army, we're fighting for His glory.  

And funny enough, Loren Cunningham has been speaking this week about what it means to really follow God; what it means to lay down our lives for our King, to live a life of devotion and daily obedience. You can find similar teachings of Loren's on the free podcast, "Fire and Fragrance..."

The other night, coming home late and exhausted from a long day, I went to bed knowing it was worth it all.  I had spent the evening at a women's shelter, talking with women who had escaped abusive situations - while giving massages to them (working in a spa taught me a few tricks). A few women on the base get together once a month to put on a spa night for women who've experienced domestic violence, and I got to join them...and will hopefully get to continue to, it's great to get more into the community. To be able to speak hope into one mother's situation and for her to hear testimonies of how God's redeemed my life, by the end of it, I could tell seeds of hope and life were planted in her heart.  

There are just so many other stories of seeing God break into people's lives with healing and restoration that I walk away knowing why I've left everything and everyone behind.  For others to know the Jesus who has loved them before the beginning of time and who will always radically love them.  I don't care what it costs us, wherever God takes us in the future, I want to be so in awe of God, so thankful for Him and in love with Him that I won't care what it costs me.  

Cause at the end of it all, all I can do is cling to the One I love, the One I've chosen to trust, the One who's proven Himself faithful and good over and over.  And with this, I press on.  Sometimes painfully press on.

Hopefully this song, or our stories, are of some encouragement to you wherever you're at in life.  I don't wanna assume I have it all together, cause I certainly don't...I'm still learning how to give up certain areas of life (like Jon) for Him.  But I know Jesus is so worthy of not just my life, but my love and deepest affections.  And every person in this world and in my life, no matter what they've done, are worthy of my love because He's found me worthy of His.  

So I joyfully waste my life on learning how to live for God with selfless love.  I've always loved this quote, "It's better to live for something than to die for nothing." 

For His glory, let's live for Him together,

- tami









Saturday, January 22, 2011

Ways to Give ~ Mahalo! Danke! Merci! Gracias!

ONLINE - QUICK & PAINLESS (one-time or monthly)
- Type "YWAM BC" in the 'I want to give' box. It should say Youth With A Mission BC Society, click this option. 
- Click the pink button, "Donate Now" OR "Donate Monthly"
- Follow the instructions
- In 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 & Tami Masson (MJ22). It is important to give them this instruction so that the donation actually goes to us!
- Almost done! Complete the necessary steps after this and you're done!! Thank you so much for investing into our lives, may you see and know the fruit of your blessings!

MAILING A CHEQUE
- Make cheque/check (depending on where you're from, haha) payable to "YWAM" and write Jon and Tami in the note area of chq.
- Send to:
YWAM Project Funding
Box 57100
Vancouver, BC
V5K 1Z0

ACCOUNT PRE-AUTHORIZED DONATIONS
Due to recent changes to the way their bank receives donations, please contact the YWAM BC Society's office directly as to how to go about setting up pre-authorized donations. Sorry for this inconvenience, but this is the best way until they figure out a new system...they've been great at handling our donations and are really kind! So email: donorservices@shaw.ca

QUESTIONS? NEED ANY INFO? HAVING ANY PROBLEMS?
Email us with any questions: jonandtami@gmail.com
                                  OR
Contact our friendly helpers at the YWAM BC Society: donorservices@shaw.ca



Seeds, Watering and Increase

It is kind of weird to think, but Tami and I have now been missionaries for the last six years.  Though I have learned much through mistakes and victories, there is so much we still need to learn.  And we thank all of you from a very deep place in our hearts for all of your support whether through prayer, encouraging us in our calling to financially sowing into God's vision over our lives.  We truly appreciate it all.  

I wanted to share something God taught me this past Tuesday night during our community outreach - every week we go out as a Discipleship Training School into the community of Kona and share the love of Jesus with people through prayer or whatever the Lord leads us to do.  So this past Tuesday, my friend Jasen and I were walking in one of the darkest places in town when we walked by some other people from our school.  They were worshipping the Lord and we stood there and watched as this young man walked over, attracted by the worship, and sat down on the ocean wall.  Jasen and I walked over and began to talk with him.  We had small talk for a few minutes and then Jasen explained that we are Christians, love Jesus and asked if we could pray for him.  He was like, "Sure, I can sense you guys have a great energy!" So we knew he was into weird spiritual stuff.  Jason began to pray and the Lord revealed to him stuff about this young man's life and, surprised, he confirmed it was all true.  Right then, my head started to hurt, almost like my brain was being squished and I knew God was showing me something about the young man. I asked him if he ever experiences stuff like that and he said, "Actually, I am right now."  So with his permission, I prayed for him and he instantly felt better.  Thank you Jesus!! Jasen began to share the gospel with him and for a split second, we could sense that his heart was receiving it.  Then all of a sudden, he closed up and said he didn't know if he was ready because he believes everyone and everything is God (his mind and logical reasoning began to override his heart).  I could have walked away disappointed, but the Lord taught and encouraged me with this:

"After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.  It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow." 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 NLT


God gave us the incredible opportunity in that moment in time to talk with that young man, to plant seeds into his heart because I believe that deep inside of him, he is searching for the real truth. And I totally believe that within the next few months, he will meet people who will water those seeds! I may never know what happens to that young man, but I'm believing and praying we'll meet up with him in Heaven with the others who poured into his life to hear about the rest of his journey to Jesus...and the adventures he had after that!

Peace,
  Jon

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Pregnant...and Learning How to Trust God

So since finding out we're pregnant, it's been an exciting journey of learning how to trust God in a new and deeper way. I can go into great detail of what it's been like, but wanted to give just one example of what we've learned in fighting to trust God and ultimately being able to remain in His peace.

Shortly before leaving for training in hawaii, we got an ultrasound done and was told by our doctor that they weren't able to call it a pregnancy yet because there was only an embryo sac with nothing in there. He suggested that we didn't go to hawaii just in case we had a miscarriage, the bad news went on and on. Now our doctor is actually really amazingly compassionate, is a follwer of Christ and most of his patients are missionaries and he's usually really positive so it was really unusual to hear such negativity coming from him but as a doctor, he's got an obligation to give us the worst possible scenario.

We were floored with discouragement thinking that we weren't actually pregnant, we were just thrown into confusion. With our emotions all over the place, we quickly went to prayer and sought God for the truth in the midst of this craziness. How God came through was astounding. On my way home from the doctor's, I was praying and asking God to give us something, just say something!! And as I stopped at a stoplight, the car in front of me had a license plate that read, "GR8KIDS" .... how amazing is that!?!

Jon and I quickly called some of our friends to pray and seek God as to what's going on and we ourselves took a drive to process it all and pray. Thankfully, over and over, God comforted us and encouraged us to be at rest, that our child is ok, is growing normally and not to worry. Ultimately, not to accept what the doctor said as truth. We needed to allow Truth Himself to lead us into the truth, and it really did set us free!! John 8:31-32. At that point, we chose to allow God to have the final say in our lives and not the doctor - whom we have so much respect for!!

So our child was ok, but our next obstacle was do we go to training or not? Do we follow the doctor's orders or seek God for what He thought? I wanted to stay back and wanted Jon to go to training cause I was scared about this miscarriage stuff that the doctor was talking about!! The day before we were scheduled to leave, my mom called and had such a deep conviction that we both needed to go...and for my mom to say this, and to call so dang early in the morning to tell me, I had a feeling it was God. I got off the phone and asked God if He was somehow speaking through her and if it was true. So I decided to go and I was instantly filled with incredible peace that I can't even put words to. But it's like the cloud of confusion lifted and I could see clearly. That's when I knew it was God, the presence of His peace was so strong. I realized how much I had allowed fear to dictate what I should do.

While we were at training, throughout the week, we kept seeing how we were right where we were supposed to be. We kept thanking Him over and over for His serious faithfulness to us, for standing by us.  This was just one scenario of what it's been like to trust God on a deeper level than we've known. Certainly, we're not bashing doctors or their wisdom and skill, but it's clear that we can't lean on everything they say. We need to truly lean on God, discern truth and not lean on our own understanding of what we think is right (Proverbs 3:5-6). He knows the way that'll lead us to true life, so why have it any other way!?!?

We still face many unanswered questions as to what our near future looks like, but we're looking forward to trusting on God more than ever before... there's such a peace that comes from truly surrendering everything and leaning on Him. So a child-like heart and wisdom from God is what I'm praying for through all of this...dig into James 3:13-18, it's an amazing explanation of the difference between earthly wisdom vs. wisdom from God.

And this is just the beginning of our crazy journey into parenthood!! Come join us for the ride!! Now we're learning what it means to be missionaries with a bigger family than just us two! And thank God for amazing families around us who are modelling what it's like to be young missionaries with kids!! Thank you God for amazingly faithful family and friends around the world, especially in the TDot!!

Love you all and appreciate you so much, more than you'll ever know...

 
- tami