NEW YEAR UPDATE & PRAISE REPORT
God has been moving in so many amazing ways since this new year began! We wanted to give you an update/praise report to share how we’ve seen Him moving in us personally, in our ministry, our school, and our YWAM community as a whole. You can also stay tuned to our social media pages where we hope to post a video update soon giving a tour of our new apartment and describing a day in the life here at YWAM Kona and what our jobs as staff entail! We are so undone at all the ways that we, our school/students and our YWAM community are experiencing the goodness of God.
Personally:
For us, 2020 has been a season of great growth and stretching as we head deeper into this time of training and equipping (stay tuned for a video). In the midst of it, God has been doing incredible things in our personal lives. I (Jaco) am currently in the process of applying for my green card and have heard horror stories of people waiting for up to 3 years for their interview. But on January 6th, I got a notice to say that on February 11th Ashley and I need to be in Honolulu for our green card interview! This is a massive blessing and sign of God’s absolute favor and provision.
We have already had 4 (almost 5) incredible months of marriage! We couldn’t feel more blessed in this process of sweet beginnings. We are so blessed to be surrounded by an amazing community who are for us and with us (both here in Kona and all around the world). We have certainly enjoyed and had a blast in the beginning of our marriage and look forward to every adventure that lies ahead.
As well as this, we have been feeling God call us to create a community here on campus especially for the first-year students (DTS students) by creating a home/living room atmosphere for them to come into a family and find community. To do this we really felt from the Lord that we should be building managers (basically look after the welfare of the building as well as the 200 students/staff in our building). This has been a blast and we have had the opportunity to host both the rooms’ staff members and the winners of the monthly cleaning inspections in our home for love feasts. One of our favorite things to do together is to pour into others the same way that so many others have poured into us. Ashley has been instrumental in creating a beautiful home for us in this tiny but epic apartment (because we all know I lack the keen eye needed for decorating).
Lastly, on a personal note as of right now we are almost fully-funded for this next year of what we feel God is calling us into! We have been blessed beyond belief by our amazing and generous support team and we are utterly grateful for every prayer, every encouraging message and every dollar that God has provided through a wonderful team.
(Here are some pictures of our adorable home and from our love feasts!)
Our School- Revival & Reformation:
Within the school we are currently staffing (Revival & Reformation or Rev/Ref as we call it), we have seen God turn up in so many powerful ways. Firstly, every single one of our students for this quarter has been fully funded through the provision of God through his people.
Secondly, every student has encountered God in discipleship moments either in small group settings, one on ones, or class discussions. We are each leading a small group and having weekly one on one discipleship moments with our students and have stood in awe as God has been growing us and inviting us to play a part in some of the wildest discipleship moments and breakthroughs as He has been pursuing and encountering their hearts more and more through this course. God is on the move breaking our boxes and teaching us his design for the world around us and how we can enter into the world bringing his redemptive power into every area of society.
In the midst of this, numerous students and family members (of our students) back home, have received physical healing as well as spiritual and emotional breakthroughs.
In this quarter so far we have faced a lot of spiritual warfare surrounding our speakers, curriculum, and schedule. Yet, God has come through every time and we have seen him break-in in powerful ways throughout the last month. Please continue to pray with us that the students would fall more in love with Jesus and more in love with his word and his world as we enter into the second half of this quarter.
(Below are some pictures of our school and our tent/classroom! )
Our YWAM community:
As a community, there is a lot going on around the world and it would be impossible to write about all that God is doing. However, here is a sneak peek of what is He is doing just with a few of the initiatives that our campus is involved with.
Myanmar
In January around 300 missionaries from YWAM joined local workers in Myanmar (formerly Burma) to see Jesus’ name made famous across 5 different cities. Over the course of 3 weeks and 5 evangelistic campaigns they saw the following:
39,000 people heard the Gospel face-to-face
4,400 people left Buddhism/atheism behind to follow Christ
+- 830 confirmed physical healings
1,000 church leaders/pastors were trained & equipped
100,000 audio bibles will be distributed in the coming months.
Each of these numbers tells the story of Jesus breaking through in the lives of individuals and the power of the cross transforming lives and impacting a nation.
If you would like to hear some specific stories then please send us a message, we would love to share them with you.
The Send
The Send is a stadium movement that seeks to spark a new missions movement and launch thousands into the nations and into every part of society with the Gospel. This “war on inaction” as they are calling it, seeks to end passivity amongst believers and was started last February in Orlando, Florida. The fruit from that event has been incredible and God has caused an avalanche of momentum within the worlds of adoption/foster care and mobilizing missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. So much momentum was gained from the 60,000 people in Orlando that this year there will be 3 Send events:
- February 8th - The Send Brazil
Over 140,000 people came together to gather around the Great Commission and be sent both into the nations and into every sphere of society to spread the Gospel of Jesus.
3 stadiums across Brazil were simultaneously filled with the sound of a generation's yes to Jesus. The testimonies are already rolling in of how God moved across the nation of Brazil. We tuned in to the live stream of the event and were undone at how vastly God is moving! Lord, let this be the beginning of a new Jesus & Missions Movement like the world has never seen before!
For more information please click here
- April 25th - The Send Argentina
Over 40,000 people expected to gather in this nation to be sent into the local and global harvest as well.
To know more click here
- Oct 2020 - The Send Kansas City (USA)
Arrowhead stadium
Over 75,000 people expected with so much prophetic history and expectation, we are so excited about this monumental gathering.
To know more click here
Prayer points:
Personal:
- We have felt God say it is time to start gathering people around the dream of taking our training school to South Africa and would love prayer for wisdom and discernment in how to do that and who to invite into that. We are dreaming about launching out in the next few years.
-Lastly, God has been so good to us provision wise and we are almost fully funded for this next year. We would appreciate any prayers for God's continued provision.
For Revival and Reformation
- That our students would continue to discover God's heart for the world around us. And that he would take them deeper into their callings and equipping them for what he has for them.
- For our small groups and discipleship one-on-ones that we lead. That Holy Spirit would lead us as we lead the students into greater breakthrough and victory.
- We have faced a lot of spiritual warfare surrounding our guest speakers and so prayer for God's protection and provision over that specifically would be incredible.
Thank you all, please feel free to get in touch with us with any questions/comments or feedback.
Blessings and Love,
Jaco & Ashley
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