West’s International Headquarters Update

It is amazing to report, but we have almost finished the framing of our house!

We began mid March and things are really moving forward quickly. It is a surreal feeling witnessing our home come to reality. Our contractor has been fantastic; a real answer to prayer. God has been involved in many elements of the project. Here are some of our God-stories so far:

• Many people have donated materials and time to us. Windows, doors, stone, financial gifts and more.
• Our excavation cost an extra $2000 due to the discovery of blue-rock.   But then the following blessing happened to pay for it…
• We received a call that someone was donating all of our roof shingles. That is worth around $2500!
• Then, two days later a friend from church told us he would install all of the roofing for free!
• Another friend from church is stone mason. He offered to provide the stone for our fireplace for free, as well as all of the labor to lay the stone!
• We were going with Formica counter-tops… Then our contractor found a friend of his who is entering the granite counter business and convinced him to use our project as a way to move into the market, model his work, and advertise. We are getting granite for the cost of Formica!
• We decided to make a change to the roof-trusses above the garage and make a bonus room (it will be unfinished initially). It was estimated that the cost of different trusses would only be around $1300 (very cheap for a huge room addition!). But, according to our (honest!) contractor they have only cost us an extra $650.

At every turn we are being blessed. Even though we are under contract with our builder, he is so happy to accommodate these donations and gifts, even though each one removes some of his profit margin.

Our next big miracle area will be appliances. We will soon need to select appliances to be installed. We are screening the clearance and returned sales at Lowes and Home Depot waiting for the right bargains to appear!

Here are some photos from start to present.  Thank you for celebrating this miracle with us.

March 12 – Footings in

Framing – this happened remarkably quickly

Trusses in

Last week – Roof going on

Notice all the sunny days?  That is another God story!

We love being part of sending out teams and hearing the good reports!  Be encouraged today!

Thailand Update from one of the team leaders:

“We’ve just come out of the jungle where we’ve been for the last few weeks, and I actually have internet access at the moment, so I’ll write you a brief update…

For those who haven’t heard yet, our time at Ging Gaan was AMAZING!! We we’re able to speak to 2000 people in just one week, and we saw so many fruitful relationships, prayers of salvation, and lots of progress for our friends at Ging Gaan.

We just finished working at a children’s home near Chiang Rai, Thailand. We were teaching English and doing construction projects for the home…our team re-roofed a hut, painted a mural, and laid a huge piece of driveway. So much concrete…and all of it was stirred and poured by hand! So proud of our team!

Yesterday, we traveled to Mae Sai on the Burmese border, and Cortnie and I sat in a little canteen right on the river between the two countries, and it was amazing being able to stare across at Myanmar…hopefully, one day, we can go there with another team! (And to all our friends in Myanmar, we’re thinking of you…)

Tonight, we get on a bus and travel down to Phuket, where we’ll be working with an organization that helps women caught in the prostitution industry as well as teaching English and job skills to immigrant workers and their families. Pray that our time there is as fruitful as what we’ve seen here up north.

As many of you know, there have been protests in Bangkok since before we arrived in Thailand, and it has started to escalate with an explosion and at least one death. As a result of the escalation, we’re bypassing our stop in Bangkok that was planned, and we’re traveling straight to Phuket instead. Please pray for the eight or so million people in Bangkok that the protests stay peaceful, that no one else gets harmed, and that there’s a quick solution found for the Thai government and its people.

We have amazing, intelligent, and very helpful contacts here in Thailand that are making sure we all stay safe. Internet access will continue to be spotty for our remaining two and a half weeks, but we will send another update as soon as we’re able.”

Taiwan Update from one of the team leaders:

“We’ve been having a busy last month here in Taiwan. We traveled to the Southern part of the island to help with a new church in the area. We led Bible Study, preached, led worship and got to do some open airs in the community. It was an awesome 10 days of building relationships with people and encouraging the church there. We saw several new people come into the church during our stay and ask you to keep praying for the people of Kaohsiung and that their influence in the community would keep growing!

We then taught at an English camp for 4 days that had about 100 High-school students attend. We got to talk to a lot of students about the Bible and they had many questions about How to Hear God speak! The way our team loved kids and served with joy had a huge effect on the teachers we were working alongside during those 4 days.

We have now returned to the base in Danshui for our final two weeks of ministry and are getting to work with The Rock coffee bar which many of you know of. It’s Chinese New Year so things are bustling in the area and there’s SO MANY opportunities to talk to people about Jesus. We are praying to see more salvations as fruit of the many relationships we’ve built here! Keep praying with us in these last two weeks!!”

Mexico Update from one of the team leaders:

“We have had a great couple of weeks of ministry which was highlighted by building a Home of Hope. We built a 16’x20′ house for a family of 15. With the house we also were able to give them a table and chairs, a nice bunk bed and most of all a nice small range that they can cook on. When we arrived for our first day of the build there was a small fire going outside with a pot on it, so giving them this range will bless them immensely.

In addition to the house, we were able to bless the small community with some blankets and bags of food. Last night we went to the church there and all the community showed up which is a lot more than the normal 12 people. We were supposed to preach but the Pastor was caught up in the moment of having his church filled, so he went for it and preached the gospel. We snuck in a drama and I was able to give my testimony. God is doing some good things in that community.”

We also have teams currently in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Russia, and Ukraine.. but this update is already long enough =)

Jeremy leaves today for Amsterdam where he will be in International meetings for a week.  The 50 or so leaders gathering together are coming from around the globe, reporting on what God is doing in their regions and planning for the next seasons of training. Good stuff.

It’s a privilege to serve.  Thanks for being on our team!

What a privilege and a joy to be able to share with you tonight

that we currently have a team in Nepal that is sharing the love of Jesus

to Nepali people who have never heard the gospel before!

This discipleship training team of 15 from Lakeside, Montana (8 of whom

are internationals) are hiking through different mountain ranges of Nepal, sharing with

trekkers and Nepalis alike that their lives have been turned upside-down by Jesus and

inviting new friends into the journey with them.  Jesus said “Go into all the world

and make disciples”; please pray for this team and the people they are meeting and ministering to!

Hi all.

Molly bringing the heat

Just an FYI, at our YWAM training location here in Montana we run an online Hangout discussion forum.  Today, Molly was part of a 4-person panel discussing publicly “What does the Bible say about MISSION?”

It has been pasted onto Youtube.  Check it out at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LIGf5Aju8U

JW

FYI, Part 2 of the blog I wrote for Blog.Olivetree.com was released today.

Ok, that’s the last announcement about this from me. There will be more there form me later on, but you can find those yourself if you’re interested.  🙂

JW

Yep.  I’m in cyber-print.

A great website and downloadable Bible software is available through Olivetree.com.  An old friend of mine works for them now and has recruited me to contribute blog-entries from time to time. If you’re interested in checking them out, go to…

http://blog.olivetree.com/

Mine for today is entitled, “The Burning Bush part 1: Who am I, and Why am I here?”

Shyly yours…

JW