jillian esther

2012 - so far, SO good!

2012-01-18T20:49:00.000-08:00

My neighbors and roommates in Kona welcomed be back with a delicious BBQ!
... And Lucas and Isaac made signs. Melts my heart!

Aloha from my lanai in beautiful Kailua-Kona!

I’ve been back for about 10 days now and I’m starting to resettle into life here. Most of you know I will be staffing the “Hawaiian Islands” School of Biblical Studies (SBS) this year, starting in April. The school will study the New Testament in Honolulu for 4 months and then relocate to Kona for 5 months studying the Old Testament. This means I’m not fully settling in here in Kona because in about 6 weeks I will fly over to Honolulu for staff training at the YWAM Honolulu base in Manoa before the school begins on April 2^nd.

The leader of this SBS, Plamena, has already relocated to Honolulu with her husband Eric, which means I am the Kona representative for the school before it starts. I was able to meet with Plamena and Eric before they left and they were able to delegate some responsibilities to me and we were also able to share and hear one another’s hearts for the upcoming school. I am excited to be responding to emails from prospective students and also talking to a few locals who’ve shown interest. One student I’m particularly excited about is Kesia, the daughter of my former leaders and good friends, Ben and Ali!

As staff, we’ve already chosen books to teach for the New Testament and I am excited to teach two books back to back: Ephesians and Colossians. I’ve already started studying Ephesians! It’s a powerful book about identity, the grace of God, and living as believers. Colossians is also a powerful book - if Ephesians is about the identity of believers, Colossians is all about the identity of Christ! Since the historical background of these two letters is similar, I’ve been asked to teach them in two consecutive days. Pretty awesome!

I’ve also been wrapping up details from the outreach I led to Fiji and Samoa in 2011. I’ve debriefed with both SBS leaders and Pacific leaders. This has been very helpful and encouraging personally, but it also is helpful to all of us who have a heart to see Pacific Islanders equipped and released into world missions. The more we talk, process, and pray, the more strategies seem to appear.

In my free time I am volunteering with Deep & Beyond, a ministry my friend, Annamari pioneered that reaches out to people in the community through various outdoor adventures. One example is this Friday I will be in the water assisting “Snorkel Day” participants! I’m really excited to be able to help out with this ministry part-time as I see it bless the community of Kona, especially (but not limited to) those with disabilities.

Mom & Dad got me a waterproof camera for Christmas! I will definitely use it to get some good photos of snorkel day!

Oh, and I saw Darlene Cunningham at church on Sunday and after exchanging comments about my new hairstyle, she asked if I had any time this quarter to help with hospitality. I jumped at the opportunity and said I’m pretty available this quarter, let me know how I can help! So, I’m looking forward to being able to serve with Darlene as she serves and opens her home to people from all walks of life. For those of you who don’t know Darlene, she is the co-founder (with her husband Loren) of Youth With A Mission, the family/movement/organization that I have worked/served/lived with since 2003.

So... besides lounging on the beach, I have found quite a few things to fill my days. ;) I suppose that’s all for now, but please do keep in touch and pray for the upcoming SBS in April! Also, please let me know if there’s anything you need prayer for. I’m always available to pray!

Bridget, me, and Stephanie - roommate beach day!

Akua ho’omaika’i oe! (God bless you!)

Jillian

2011 Recap

2011-12-31T14:51:00.000-08:00

2011 was a year of natural disasters, political uprisings, revolutions, and more headlines from around the world. Because of my line of work, many of these events occurring on distant shores hit close to home for me... Flooding and Cyclones in Queensland, Earthquakes in Christchurch, Political Revolution in the streets of Cairo & Alexandria, a Tsunami in Sendai Japan which also affected Kona... I have friends in all of these affected places. It was a year to really thank God for life and ask him to help us make the most the lives he's given each of us. In 2011, I took every opportunity to teach the Bible so I could grow in this area more. I also had many people from Washington come to visit. It was a year of challenges but a year of blessings. But, I'll be honest: I'm looking forward to 2012!!!

Here's a [brief] recap of my 2011 in Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, and finishing the year here in Washington.

January

- Staffing 2nd quarter of Chronological School of Biblical Studies (2nd half of Old Testament)

- Angela & Ryan visit

February

- Taught Zephaniah in SBS

March

- Tsunami in Japan (Damages to property in Kona but no loss of life)

- Taught Esther

April

- Staffing 3rd quarter of Chronological SBS (New Testament)

- Started teaching Inductive Bible Study in the Asia Pacific Discipleship Training School (DTS)

- Started leading Bible Study for friends with Island Breeze

- Chans visit

- Loehrs visit

- Taught 1 & 2 Thessalonians

May

- Taught Colossians & Philemon

June

- Whites visit

- Chronological SBS Graduation

- Left for Outreach

July

- Led SBS Outreach Team to Fiji (Other 2 teams went to Brazil & China)

- Team taught the Bible in Churches, YWAM Base, Bible Study Groups, & Methodist Deaconess Training Centre

August

- Outreach Team in Samoa

- Team taught Inductive Bible Study Seminars in various churches and the Samoan Prison

September

- Stayed in Samoa after team left

- Taught for a week on Inductive Bible Study for the Samoa DTS

- Got Samoan Drivers License and Drove for YWAM Base

- Helped lead Worship & Intercession for YWAM Samoa

- Rugby World Cup began

October

- Drove for YWAM Samoa, visited families in Aleipata (where the 2009 Tsunami hit)

- Rugby World Cup finished - New Zealand All Blacks are the Champions!

- Taught Bible Study using Stories

- White Sunday (Children's Sunday - a national Holiday in Samoa)

November

- Visited YWAM Los Angeles & Tijuana (en route from Samoa to Washington)

- Came to Washington

- Friend, Jerry Tamanisau passed away

- Shared at Hockinson Community Church about ministry in the Islands

December

- Cousin, Gayle visited - she and I chopped our hair and donated it to Children with Hairloss

- Friend, Patrick McCleery passed away

- Dad went back to work after being laid off for 5 months

- Lots of quality time with friends and family

- Sat down to write a blog update for the end of the year...

Home Sweet Washington

2011-11-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I realized I haven't written for a while. But, I'm going to keep this short. I'm back in Washington, where I will be until January 8th when I head back to Hawaii.

My 3 months in Samoa were definitely a learning experience and though it was challenging at times, I do miss my friends I made there and I do hope to return someday.

For now, I'm enjoying some time with family and also catching up with friends here and there. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you.

My next step will be back in Hawaii. In April I will be staffing another School of Biblical Studies. However, this one will not be Chronological, but will start with the New Testament and then move to the Old. Something different about this particular SBS is that four months will be spent in Honolulu studying the New Testament and then five months will be spent in Kona studying the Old Testament.

And since this week is Thanksgiving, might I add that I am so thankful to God for the life I have. For my family and friends, both on earth and in heaven; for the opportunities he's given me to live life all over the world; and for his amazing provision which never fails... but most of all I'm thankful for life and hope in Jesus. Kind of trumps the rest.

What are you thankful for this year?

Life in Samoa

2011-09-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

I taught in the Discipleship Training School (DTS) on the topic of Inductive Bible Study last week. It was a fun and busy week. We went through an overview of the Bible, did some skits and activities, and then we went through the book of Titus, using Inductive Bible Study (IBS.)At the end of the week we prayed for the students and staff as this was their last week of lectures and now they are preparing to do the outreach portion of their course. I was again reminded of the value of IBS and why it is so needed in the Pacific. Young people in the Pacific are not taught to think for themselves. They are not taught to ask questions. Quite the opposite, really. If they question their pastors, teachers or parents, they are seen as rebellious.So, as you can imagine, trying to teach these young people to ask questions was quite the challenge. But, as we practiced asking questions in class together and practiced using context and historical background to answer the questions… something clicked in them. I gave them homework, unlike other speakers. Not the best move if you’re going for popularity points. But, surprisingly, they loved it! They felt challenged to study God’s Word for themselves, but they also felt encouraged that they could, in fact, do it.

I realize some of my readers may have no idea what I’m talking about… this whole Inductive Bible Study thing. I’ll give you a VERY basic outline of the IBS steps. You can use these steps to study any book of the Bible. If you want to know more, send me an email… I’d love to help you in your study of the Bible however I can.

INDUCTIVE BIBLE STUDY

Pray! We need the Holy Spirit!
Read the book aloud in one sitting. (Titus has 3 chapters and only takes about 10 minutes to read… Genesis on the other hand, takes about 4 hours. It’s doable.)
Consider the type of literature. There are four main types in the Bible: Historical Narrative, Prophetic/Apocalyptic, Wisdom, and Epistle (Letter.)
Research the Historical Context. For this step, look first in the book itself for clues.You can also look in other books of the Bible. After looking in the Bible, you can look at reliable “external sources” like Bible Dictionaries. Try to avoid Study Bibles and Commentaries. Here’s some questions to ask about context.

Who is writing? Who is the story about? Who are the original readers?
Where is the story taking place? Where is the author? The readers?
When was the book written? What is going on in history at that time?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the original readers?

Observation. Look at the facts. What does the text say? Use color-coding to look closer.Look for commands, contrasts, figures of speech, repeated words or ideas, progression of thoughts or author’s logic, etc.
Interpretation. This step is not about us… its about the people to whom the book was written. Turn your observations into why questions. Why did the author use this command? Why was this contrast significant to the original reader? Etc. Then answer the questions using the historical context you compiled.
Application. The most important step of Inductive Bible Study. We should be doers of the Word and not only hearers! (Thanks, James.) Look at your interpretations and ask, “Is there anything I can pull out from this that is true for all people, places, and times?”This nugget of truth is called a Timeless Truth. Once you have a Timeless Truth, now you can ask, “How can I apply this to my life?” And answer this question prayerfully.

So… that was last week, and that’s the Inductive Bible Study Method!

This week…

I have been leading worship and intercessory prayer for YWAM Samoa. I’ve had fun introducing a few new songs and learning some Samoan songs as well. My favorite is a song called “E Lelei Ieova.” My roommate, Lina helped me write out the words for the Samoan slides.

I’ve also been fighting some sort of a cold or flu since last weekend. I’ve had various symptoms from runny nose and sore throat to fever, dizziness, and nausea. Not all at one time, and none of them super severe. I thought I was getting better yesterday, but I woke up today with my throat sore again. And I’ve just been tired… fatigued. So… I think I’ll visit the doctor tomorrow to make sure its nothing serious. Please pray for me to get my energy back and to get over this silly sickness once and for all! And yes, Mom, I’ve been taking my Emergen-C and a clove of garlic a day. And I’ve been drinking hot water with lemon, honey, and ginger… you should be so proud of me! J

Oh, and one more exciting piece of news: The Efakasa Church in Moata’a was a church (I mentioned in previous updates) where we taught an IBS seminar. The Pastor has since spoken with Fono and Sose, the leaders of YWAM Samoa and shared how valuable this teaching was for his church. He said this is just the sort of training he wants to have for the teachers who are teaching Religious Education (RE) classes in the schools. Since Samoa is a Christian nation, they study RE in public schools. He said so many of the RE teachers come in with their opinions and theologies instead of letting the Bible speak for itself. They teach their Pentecostal doctrines or their Catholic doctrines, or even their Mormon doctrines… And so each class looks very different. He said he wishes they all taught the Bible because then students can make up their own minds about it. Now comes the cool part: this Pastor is the guy who oversees all of the RE teachers for Samoa! He has the ability to make things happen, and he saw the value of IBS. So… I’d say God is up to something here! Pray with me that God will continue to open doors in Samoa for people to know His Word and know Him more because of it!

And now, for your viewing pleasure… here are some photos of life in Samoa.

RUGBY WORLD CUP FEVER

Dressed up in Blue for the Manu Samoa Game against Namibia... GO MANU!!!

The DTS at YWAM Samoa - made up of 2 Fijians, 2 American Samoans, and 6 Samoans (from Western Samoa) and me... the palagi (pronounced paw-long-y) in the middle!

Fatty Patty's is CLOSED???

2011-09-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

When did THAT happen??? Maybe this is old news, but I just found out. News doesn’t travel so quickly in Samoa… well, not unless it is related to the Rugby World Cup, anyway. Go Manu Samoa!

Anyhow, I know some people don’t think as highly of my favorite Battle Ground establishment as I do. They claim that it’s too greasy, that there are too many health code violations, and that the décor is too tacky.

But… I will miss Fatty Patty’s. I will miss their infamous “Slop” with dippy (over easy) eggs on the side. I will miss going there with friends. Mainly I will miss the memories the place held for me. Jeff and his chicken fried steak smothered in country gravy and pools of Tabasco, me and my Slop… all the problems of the world eclipsed by the fusion of hash browns, grilled ham, green peppers, onions, cheddar cheese, sausage gravy, dippy eggs, and green Tabasco.

To you, Fatty Patty’s may be a thing of the past.

An eyesore.

A heart attack waiting to happen.

No big loss.

But to me, it was special.

And the Slop wasn’t what made Fatty Patty’s special, though it will be missed.

It was special because it was our spot.

My brother’s and mine.

So, thank you Fatty Patty’s for all of the memories and tasty food.

I will never forget you.

week one of staffing - earthquake!!!

2011-09-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I can see the sun shining through my window. I can also hear the percussion of rain on my corrugated tin roof. Ah, Samoa. I took a shower to cool off, since the wind must be on holiday today, an unfortunate side effect of the rain and sun combo. But, now that I’ve put some coconut oil in my hair and sat down with my laptop and instant coffee, I suppose it’s time for an update!

It’s been just over a week since the team left. My understanding of Samoan culture is still… growing. I seem to learn new things every day through observations I make, or mistakes that are corrected. My role on the YWAM Base is not fully defined yet. I am what they call “Base staff” which basically means I am not staff for a particular school. But what I do varies from day to day. A few things I have done…

I have been asked to help offer tips for hospitality, so I’ve created a cleaning checklist for the Guest Fale (house) then cleaned and prepared alongside the hospitality staff, Mariana.
I’ve been asked to help with organization in the kitchen and purchasing of food, so I’ve sat down and planned a week’s menu with Apelle, the kitchen manager, and we’ve gone to Apia for grocery shopping.
I’ve been asked to just help out wherever I see a need, so I’ve weeded in the taro patch with Lina, another base staff. I might mention that weeding here involves machetes, a lot of elbow grease, singing, and frequent “breaks” for papaya and coconut. It’s glorious.
I’ve also cooked breakfast and helped cook a few dinners.
I’ve joined in with worship, playing guitar mostly as I am not quite confident in leading the Samoan songs yet. Perhaps next week.
Since I will be teaching in the DTS next week, I have been also preparing for my teaching, which will be 3 hours a day, from Monday to Friday.

Despite this list, I must say I’ve still had a lot of free time. Free isn’t quite the right word, because I’m not quite free to do whatever I want. Down time… that’s a better phrase. Fono and Sose, the base directors, have said they will sit down with me this week to give me some more responsibilities, which is very exciting. But in the meantime I will just continue doing the little tasks asked of me and helping out however I can, and trying to learn the Samoan art of putting the relationships before the tasks.

Speaking of the relational culture here, I have a new friend, which is wonderful! The School of Missions (SOM) from YWAM Samoa was on outreach in Fiji and Vanuatu, but they just returned on Tuesday and graduated on Friday. One of the graduates is a girl named Emily from Missouri. She will also be base staff now that she has finished her course. I think I have been cautious to not be exclusive or only hang out with the other American and I have been very intentional in building relationships with all of the girls on the base. But… it is so nice to have someone who is from the same culture and speaks English well. Plus, she’s been in Samoa for over a year now, so she’s been great at brushing me up on some of the language and cultural subtleties.

I do have a few prayer requests mostly from what I’ve mentioned above:

Please pray for my teaching next week in the DTS and for my preparation time this week… I really want these students to grasp the value of Bible study and a passion to know God’s Word for themselves. In a church culture where self-study by lay-people is discouraged, this is a huge prayer point.
Pray for my role for the next 7 weeks with YWAM Samoa and for clear communication and relationship between Fono and Sose (the Base Directors) and myself. I want to be a blessing to this place and these people!
Pray for Samoans to respond to God’s call on their lives. I was so touched when Fono shared about the School of Mission’s time in Vanuatu. In 1841 Samoan missionaries went to Vanuatu and were martyred. They were cooked alive and eaten by the locals. Believers in the island where this atrocity had happened so many years ago welcomed the SOM team as the first Samoan missionaries since those martyrs. They had a powerful time of reconciliation and the Samoan students were particularly challenged as they thought of their own forefathers’ sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel and the fruit that came because of their sacrifice. Not white missionaries. Samoans just like them. Pray that many more Samoans would count the cost and take the Gospel to the nations!

Well, the rain has stopped and sun is setting, so I suppose it’s time for me to wrap this up. I wish I would capture the night sky on camera to share with you… dusk in Samoa is simply stunning. As the moon rises above the coconut tree silhouettes and the stars appear… the Southern Cross, the cloudy stretch of the Milky Way… I can’t help but be amazed at our great God who created it all. And for some reason, a song from “An American Tale” comes into my head every time I see the moon and think of my family who sees the same moon from where they are. Just at a slightly different time of the night.

* Side note… I wrote this yesterday before there was an earthquake! It happened about 11:50 pm and the first one felt like someone was moving furniture in the room next to mine… then the second one started shaking everything, complete with the things on top of my bed moving quite close to the edge and a long enough time for me to consider moving out from under the bunk, then deciding against it because the frame is metal and my roof isn’t exactly going to crush me if it falls on me. Haha… it wasn’t that big of an earthquake, just lasted a long time. When it eventually stopped, I opened my door and called out to the boys in the fale next door (I don’t have a roommate yet.) “Did anyone else feel that???” One of the DTS boys, Mark, said, “Yeah, but you don’t need to be scare, its only a little!” ...“Okay, I’m glad it was a small one, I’m going to sleep!” And that’s my Samoan Earthquake experience from last night. :)

Transitions

2011-08-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

We left for the airport at two this morning. The staff and students from YWAM Samoa piled into the back of the base truck along with our team of five and our luggage… well… luggage for the other four. After an hour drive with the wind blowing, stars shining, and music blaring, we arrived at Faleolo International Airport. It was a new experience for me, to farewell the team and stay behind. But we said our goodbyes to Rachel, Catherine, Mike, and Simon and after a lap around the airport to shout and honk and say goodbye one last time, we finally made our trek back to Falelauniu around four am. I was the lone palagi in the back of the truck with the islanders. And it was glorious. I had transitioned from being an outreach team leader to YWAM Samoa base staff with those goodbyes.

I must admit I will miss the team. Rachel is an amazing co-leader with a heart of gold and a kindred spirit to my own. I can’t say we knew each other well before outreach, but I can definitely say we parted as dear friends that will keep in touch in years to come. Catherine is always quick to mix in with the locals and build bridges between our diverse cultures. Mike is always on the go, and his drive and initiative really kept us going in a culture where it’s easy to give into laziness and lethargy. Simon is a generous and cheerful giver who is always looking out for others and doing whatever he can to help. Together our team was given the opportunity to share in a variety of churches, schools, bible study groups, and prison in Fiji and Samoa over the past two months. And while we had our ups and downs like all teams do, I truly believe we had an impact in these nations and that our outreach was used by God to teach and encourage people to study the Bible for themselves.

My personal highlight was after three weeks of being with Sunday School Teachers in Moataa Efakasa Church hearing the speech from one of these teachers. She shared that in the first two weeks she had thought to herself, “What could these young people possibly teach me, a seasoned teacher?” But as we taught she was humbled and touched by our message… she said we taught her and the others so much more than just a method to study God’s Word, which would have been enough. She said we taught them that God can use anyone and that they ought never judge a book by its cover. Wow! We were presented with gifts for our team, and Rachel and I were presented with a to’o to’o, fui and taanoa… symbols of authority in the Samoan culture. (I’m sure I’ve misspelled these and will be corrected by one of my Samoan friends.)

So anyway, here I am in Falelauniu… still. It’s Saturday, so I won’t have official responsibilities until Monday. I still don’t entirely know what my role will be here, though I know I will be teaching next week in the DTS (Discipleship Training School) and I will be helping with communications to some extent. Beyond that, I have basically made myself available to help however I can, both on the YWAM base and in local churches. I will be here for two more months.

I know my last blog was written when I was feeling low and discouraged, but I can honestly say God changed my heart and helped me to really enjoy the remainder of the outreach. I read of another friend in India where she’s lucky to take a bucket shower every other day and I thought… cold showers are not such a bad thing! I also feel like I can do these two months and that they will be a joy to me more than a challenge or burden. Surely that is because of God’s grace and prayers from all of you! A few weeks ago I was wishing I could just quit and go home to Washington and take a hot shower and eat my momma’s home cooking. My heart and attitude is entirely changed. And while I’m sure it won’t always be easy, I know these two months will go by all too fast and I will be in Washington in no time, missing cold showers and meals with friends here in Samoa. Funny how that works.

They say the grass is always greener on the other side. However, my Pastor Mike says, “Wherever your feet are is your mission field.” So, I think I must conclude that the grass ought to be the greenest under my own feet. For these next two months, that’s here in Samoa. Lord, help me to be here in Samoa. May I not miss out because I was too homesick to see what you had for me here and now!

And dear friends, may the grass be the greenest under your own feet, wherever you are.

Love,

Jillian

SAMOA...

2011-08-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

Samoa... the Pearl of the Pacific... Four years ago I was in this beautiful country and making plans and promises to return. But as you all know, my life changed. When my brother, Jeff, died my life was turned upside down. I couldn’t imagine going back to life the way it was. Just getting right back into overseas missions. It wouldn’t have been right either. The time at home was necessary both for myself and for my family. Yet over the last four years my love for the Pacific didn’t recede. I even went to visit other parts of the world... I wasn’t ready to return yet, I suppose. But as I was in the Middle East, instead of feeling called to that region of the world, I instead felt my call was to raise up Pacific Islanders for world missions, to be a bridge so that others might go. I went on to study the Bible in Los Angeles at the School of Biblical Studies and later staffed the same school in Kona... but still my love for the Pacific seemed to be part of the driving force of all I did in missions... I thought, “If only I could be a part of equipping missionaries from the Pacific with a foundation in the Word of God.”

And now, here I am in Samoa. And while I’d like to say it’s all been wonderful and that I wish I could live here forever, I must be honest. We’ve been here a week as a team and its been a challenge. I’ve grown accustomed to the comforts of western living, and I’ve grown older... I miss my parents more than ever. I miss my bed with its comfy mattress. I miss the freedom of eating what I want, when I want. I miss washers and dryers. I miss English being the predominant language. I miss unlimited and reliable internet. I miss having my own transportation. I miss clean and organized hospital facilities. I miss being there for friends who are having babies and being able to watch their babies grow up.

To amplify the situation, our team has had a LOT of free time. It seems like too much free time breeds homesickness. In Fiji we were pretty busy with ministry and it seemed like a really nice balance there, but here in Samoa we have had multiple teaching opportunities cancelled, due to unforeseen circumstances. With all of this free time, our students are getting antsy. And while we are seeking to make the most of our time by investing in the staff and students on the YWAM base here, we have all had to come to grips with the fact that our ministry here is not going to look at all like we expected. The students also had some intense culture clashes upon arrival at the YWAM base, which made the first few days very difficult as we waited for the Lord to soften hearts and help our students adjust to a culture extremely different than their own.

But... I am reminded that my being here in Samoa is an answer to prayers, both my own and others. I am reminded that God has called me to this place for this time, and even though I feel overwhelmed with the challenges here, I know his grace is more than sufficient for me. And I am reminded of others who have faced challenges far greater than these for the sake of the call God put on their lives. So, when I really stop to think about it... I thank God that I am in Samoa and that I get to stay here for three months. I thank God for bringing me back after these four years away. I thank God for the people of Samoa who have touched my life in the past and I thank God that I get to play some small part in seeing Samoans who feel called to world missions equipped with tools to study the Bible for themselves, which in turn equips them to be more effective missionaries. I even thank God for the unmet expectations and the free time he has given our team... I trust he knows how to best use us and knows when we need time to spend alone with him and when he wants us to minister to groups or to individuals.

I really value your prayers and emails or facebook messages of encouragement... even as a more “seasoned” missionary, I obviously still need them... and probably always will. Here are a few things you could pray for in our team:

My co-leader, Rachel has been fighting an infection since our last few days in Fiji and it’s really taken a toll on her health, energy, and emotions. She’s such a trooper and has maintained probably the best attitude out of our entire team, though she has been in pain and discomfort for our entire time here in Samoa. Please pray that she heals fast and that this infection doesn’t return or produce any long term effects.
Our Fijian student, Catherine has seen God provide her finances in so many ways, from people buying her plane tickets to others feeling led to give her money even though they were also tight on money. Catherine feels called long-term to the Muslim world, and specifically Turkey, but she still needs $185 USD to finish outreach in Samoa and return to Fiji. Please pray that God would provide this small remainder of fees and continue to lead and teach Catherine through the area of finances.
Our two American students, Mike and Simon, had to make some big sacrifices to be able to minister here in Samoa, and they did. Pray that God uses them because of their willingness to give up their rights, and continues to teach them and grow them in this area.
Teaching opportunities! Our main goal as a team is to teach the Bible! Please pray that God opens doors where others have been closed and gives us wisdom to make the most of our time here. We have upcoming scheduled times teaching in the Nazarene, Catholic, Pentecostal, and Mainline (London Missionary Society) Efokasi Churches as well as the Prison.... please pray that God would use us to teach His Word here in Samoa!
And for myself that I wouldn’t let little issues get me down, but that I’d continue to “be here” in my heart and mind as long as my feet are here! I would hate to miss out on what God wanted to do in me or through me because I was wishing I were somewhere else.

Fa’afetai tele lava... thank you so much!

Love,

Jill

Suva side!

2011-07-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

The ladies at Vatuwaqa Squatter Settlement

Our team at YWAM Vunayasi

Our Farewell Dinner with the YWAM Vunayasi Staff

Samabula, Suva, Fiji...

So many memories from the Island Hopping DTS I led here back in 2005! Yet so much has changed in Fiji since I was last here. Suva now has two shopping malls with escalators and Gloria Jeans Coffee. :) But, there has also been a Coup, which affects the economy here. Things are more expensive, but wages have not increased, so poverty seems to be more prevalent. A good example of this is in the Squatter Settlement we visited last week in Vatuwaqa, Suva. These people have no land of their own, could be moved at any time, and have to pay extra to syphon electricity from other places (and usually can only afford to use the electricity for a few hours in the evening.) Their homes are made out of scraps of wood, corrugated tin, tires, and other materials and are built up on Mangrove Swamps, so they have to be home before high tide, or else they will get stranded.

We spent the day visiting homes and getting to know the people in the settlement, listening to their stories and praying for them. Though often communication was difficult (majority of them are Hindi-speaking Indians), they welcomed us into their homes and served us cold drinks. The Methodist Church we are working with has a church among these people and the members of the church (who also live in the settlement) made us lunch and dinner... truly a feast by any standard! We heard of how one person pitched in to buy cooking oil, another pitched in with chicken, another with flour... and we were humbled that these people who have so little sacrificed so much for a group of foreigners they had never met. I think the whole thing of hospitality that the Bible talks about is truly lived out here in the islands. One of our SBS students, Simon, taught the book of Jonah in the church service, and our whole team joined in with Bajan, worshiping Jesus in Hindi with instruments and rhythms many of us had never before heard. The whole day was beautiful. The food, the worship, the sweet juice at every house we visited, and most of all, the people and their hearts... absolutely beautiful.

In other news, Catherine, our Indo-Fijian student was blessed with tickets to and from Samoa and enough donations to cover all of her ground fees, so she will now be able to complete the entire outreach! Since, we’re leaving on Friday, this has been weighing heavily on Catherine and all of the team, so we are so excited that she will be coming with us and there is no more stress about whether the money will come in or not! The Methodist church we are working with in Suva is her home church, and she has been so blessed in our time with them, as have all of us. We have been teaching in Bible Studies, Youth Group, Inductive Bible Study (IBS) Seminars, and in Church Services, and for the next two days we will be teaching in the Intermediate and High School’s RE classes (Religious Education) as well as doing one more final IBS Seminar on the Book of Titus.

Please continue to pray for our team - we have been going for three weeks now, and still have four weeks to go in Samoa! We are so blessed that there are so many opportunities to teach, which is what we have been praying for, but please pray that God continues to give us grace and strength for the remainder of the outreach and for all the teaching we will be doing these last few days in Fiji and for the month in Samoa! And pray that our teaching is effective in giving our audiences a desire to go deeper in the Word of God for themselves... we might only be here for a short time, but our prayer is that we are leaving something with them - tools to study the Bible on their own!

Vinaka vaka levu (Thank you very much) for your prayers and support and for taking the time to read this update! We are seeing the Word of God transform lives in Fiji, not because of us, but because God has chosen to use us all to play a part... so please don’t think of this as “Jill’s update” or the “outreach team’s update”... if you are praying for this outreach, if you have given towards this outreach, or if you have even just sent an encouraging email to me or my team... you are part of this outreach with us! So thank you for playing your part so well. I’m humbled to get to do my part and serve alongside people like you.

Much love,

Jillian

Jisu Lomani Iko...

2011-07-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

Bula Vinaka my friends,

Fiji is wonderful, a mix of many emotions, but wonderful! My last time here was in 2005 when I had some challenges within the outreach team I was leading, and I also contracted a bad case of Cika - the Fijian word for Conjunctivitis. Since then the Lord has indeed healed my eyes, my heart and given me a love for the Fijian people and this land. The photos I put up (because I don't have any others uploaded yet) are from one of our first days where we played volleyball with the staff in a completely underwater court, thanks to the rains that came and went before our team did. It was the most fun I've ever had playing volleyball for SURE.

Our team is staying at YWAM Vunayasi - the first YWAM property in Fiji which is about 15 minutes drive from Nadi town in the middle of some Sugar Cane fields... the staff here have such big hearts and have been such a blessing to get to know. The boys in the team are staying in a dorm room with the staff boys and there has been a real bonding among them... going fishing together, planting cassava together, walking to town, playing cards together... and that is just in the free time! The girls in the team are also connecting in with the girls on staff, though they are a bit more shy at first. This morning our team woke up at 4:30 to cook breakfast for the base (over a fire outside, I might add) and I think this really blessed the girls who wake up early every day to bake buns over the fire. My friend, Tiki, showed up one day on the base - a complete surprise to me as she has been serving in Guinea Bassau for the past year... we were able to walk to town for a coffee and it was such a sweet surprise to see her and catch up with her!

Its been a while since I've been in the South Pacific and I am reminded of my love for this relational culture. Our lives have truly been enriched here in Vunayasi. In addition to this mutual ministry here on the YWAM base, we have been given opportunities to teach in Bible Studies, teach Bible Overview for a Women's group at a nearby church, lead worship for the base, and serve with the Kid's Club here on the base every Thursday - where kids from the surrounding homes, both Fijian and Indian, come to hear Bible stories and play games.

On Tuesday we head to Suva to teach in Catherine's church (she's one of our students on the team, an Indian Fijian.) We are excited to serve and bless her church, and also for them to be able to see what she has been learning in SBS. I am also excited to head to Suva because I have friends from my past years in YWAM around Australia and the Pacific that I will be seeing there!

Hope this is an okay update for now... I will try to think more before writing next time... internet time is short! :)

Much loloma from Fiji,

Jillian

29 is going to be the best year EVER!

2011-06-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are a great time to reflect and to look forward. Here's a few photos from birthdays past!

28th Birthday - Celebrated with CSBS Los Angeles friends

27th Birthday - Superhero Extravaganza @ the Wellman's Secret Hideout

26th Birthday - In Kona, my friend Emily dressed up as Jesus for my birthday dinner

25th Birthday - Pirate Parrrty @ the Wellman's Cove, complete with Pirate Ship

In case you didn't guess... Birthdays are kind of a big deal to me! I love having parties... especially costume parties! 28 has been awesome, but I've decided that 29 years old is a great age to be, so I'm going to make this the best year I've ever had (so far)! My party this year is going to be a ROCK BASH in Hawaii... we're going to play Wii Rock Band and dress up like rock stars. EPIC!

So, why is 29 going to be so great?

WELL... here are some fun things that are happening in my 29th year:

June 28 // I turn 29 and get a free drink from Starbucks :)
June 30 - 3 // Honolulu - Teaching preparation & Transition Time for SBS students
July 4 - 28 // Fiji - Teaching Christians how to study their Bibles in Nadi & Suva
July 28 - August 28 // Samoa - Teaching Bible in Churches, Prisons, Schools & YWAM
August 28 - October 28 // Samoa - [SBS Team leaves] I stay 2 months to serve YWAM
October 28 - November 5 // Los Angeles - Friends in SoCal & Mexico
November - December // Washington - Thanksgiving & Christmas with Family
January - March // Kailua Kona - Teaching Bible with SBS MobileWord Ministry
April - December // Hawaii - Staffing SBS & gearing up to head back to South Pacific!

Of course, these are tentative plans & goals... after all, Proverbs 16:1 says,

The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

Furthermore, in addition to what God is allowing me to do for this year of my life, there are some neat things that I already have [besides Jesus, of course]:

A new "nephew" named Roy, born to my dear friends Ryan & Angela
Skype! My parents & I can now keep in touch affordably, even when I'm in Fiji & Samoa
A home & car in Hawaii! I won't have to wonder where I will live when I return in January
Some of the best friends & family a girl could ask for, not only where I'm from, but all over the world
An awesome job! I get to teach people how to study God's Word, which transforms lives!

So instead of thinking about what I don't have or [might not] be doing at the age of 29,

I've decided to enjoy and look forward to what I do have and what I will be doing!

What about you? What are you looking forward to this year?

Love you all...

Jillian

The race marked out for us

2011-06-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

TEAM PACIFICA: (From Left to Right) Mike, Catherine, Simon, Jillian, & Rachel

Teams are leaving for outreach in 2 weeks to teach the Bible in [East Asia], Brazil, and Fiji & Samoa!

And while we are so excited for what is to come, we are exhausted. The CSBS students are tired. Their staff are tired. We have been studying the Bible for nearly nine months now and the finish line is finally in sight! But what is interesting is that the New Testament books we are studying (in Chronological order of course) are increasingly emphasizing the need to persevere, to endure, to not give up. Since the beginning, our students have been relating to the original audiences of these books... and it seems God knows the messages we need to hear and the times when we need to hear them. Though heavy homework loads cannot compare to the persecution of the early church, we still face the temptation to give up. And the message of encouragement and challenge is the same: Endure. You can do it.

As we near outreach, our Pacific team would appreciate prayer for a few specific things:

Finances - As a team we are still short about $1500 USD. We are trusting God to provide as He always has and always does, we have done a team fundraiser as well which brought in $125, but... I'm a firm believer that prayer is powerful and effective, so we ask for prayer that as we do the possible, God does the "impossible."
Visas - The four of us who are non-Fijians need permits to "work" in Fiji. Though we are volunteers, this is still considered work by the government. We applied over 2 weeks ago and are still waiting...
Teaching Preparation - Our students are still busy doing homework, but in addition to their homework, they are preparing to teach Bible Overview (the story of God's Redemptive Plan from Genesis to Revelation), Inductive Bible Study Seminars, Bible Storying (Teaching the Bible for oral cultures), and 2 books of the Bible per student. Pray that God gives them grace and wisdom as they try to fit more into their already packed schedules.
Outreach Contacts - Pray that we will have clear communication with our contacts in Fiji and Samoa before and during our outreach, so we may serve their needs well, and at the same time meet the goals and objectives of an SBS outreach.
Our Audiences - Pray that God would be preparing the hearts of those in Fiji and Samoa whom we will meet and teach, that they would be receptive and impacted by the Bible and God's power to transform lives through His Word!

Thank you! Love you!

Kona Families

2011-05-17T23:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, my friend Crystal and I were eating at Hayashis and overheard a conversation at the table next to us. Since there are only five outdoor tables at Hayashis and they are in a tight little spot, you tend to hear everything. It basically went a little something like this:

Guy with kid in his arms: Hey! Haven't seen you since high school! You still around here?

Girl with kids at table with her: Yeah been here ever since.

Guy: I moved to mainland, but I sure miss it here... just visiting family.

Girl: Is that your kid?

Guy: Yep, my girlfriend and I have been together for a year now. These your kids? Same dad?

Girl: Yeah, same guy - got married just after school and we've been together ever since.

Guy: Wow, congratulations!

Girl: I guess it's not the norm, huh?

It isn't the norm. Crystal and I looked at each other and later as we were driving discussed how broken families are here in Kona. That the guy would ASK if the girl's two kids were both from the same father... And be shocked to hear that they were.

We just realized the need to pray for families here in Kona all the more.

Teen pregnancies and single parents are the norm.

Kealakehe High School has a daycare for students who are also mothers.

All the boys that hang out and smoke pot at the church where I help with youth group...

they all come from broken families.

I love that the Apostle Paul used the imagery of God's reconciling work through Jesus being a repair in a broken family unit. We, as humans, have this broken family relationship between us and the Father (God) and it can only be and has only been repaired through the redemptive work of Jesus on the Cross.

So... if you think about it, pray for the families of Kona... well in Hawaii in general. God wants to repair families, but I think it has to start with a repair in the relationship with him first.

P.S. I'm teaching Colossians and Philemon next Wednesday and could also use some prayer, as I'm battling a cold and just general fatigue... really need some energy to push through in my teaching preparations. So, if you're the praying type, I'd soooo appreciate it!!!

Mahaloz!!!

Oh brother...

2011-05-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Just want to share a memory of my brother, Jeffery Wellman. (Click on his name to listen to some of his tunes on Myspace or download them.)

My brother loved adventure. His road trip around America in 2001-2002 is probably the best example of this. He was meant to drive from Washington to Colorado for a job, but decided it was too cold in Colorado and just kept driving.

At this time, I was living in Florida. This was before cell phones were as common as they are now, so when my parents got a phone call from Colorado asking why my brother didn't show up for work, they got a little worried. They called me, and then I got a little worried. We didn't hear from my brother for 2 weeks (when he had left Washington) and everyone was kind of freaking out.

One day, I get a call from the security gate at my apartment complex in Orlando - "We've got a visitor here for Jillian Wellman - he says he's her brother." I replied, "Let him in!" While thinking in my head, "I'm gonna KILL HIM!!!" After a quick reunion, I called my parents to let them know he was safe and sound. I was so happy to know he was okay... but so IRRITATED at him for not calling anyone! But I couldn't stay mad long, and if you knew Jeff, you know exactly what I mean. It was hard to stay mad at him. :)

During that same road trip with his buddy, Josh, my brother visited his friend April (Apes) in Vegas, stayed in Florida for a couple months (and ate my food), visited another friend, Michael, in North Carolina, then went on to work in Boston for a while. Eventually, the next year, Josh and Jeff made their way back to the Pacific Northwest... but had plenty of adventures along the way.

So, the memory that I want to honor and remember of my brother today is that of an adventurer. A bit of a turkey that stressed his mother out, sure, but an adventurous one!

Here's to you, Jeffery.

I love you,

I miss you,

And I can't wait to see you again...

In the greatest adventure of all!!!

Fiji & Samoa - A Request

2011-05-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

I will be leading a team to Fiji & Samoa, and this outreach is only 2 months away! I've been so busy teaching and grading that it has really snuck up on me... Really? Only 2 months?! I just taught on Friday on the books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and actually, Jeff and Carol Loehr from Hockinson were visiting and were able to sit in on my lectures. I love my home church!!! Anyway, here are some photos:

Our Fiji/Samoa outreach team is meeting weekly in addition to our lectures and homework. We are providing extra training for the students going on outreach so they can learn how to teach what they are learning in the Bible more effectively. Some of the topics we will cover in the next two months during our outreach training times are:

Using Biblical Storying to teach the Bible among illiterate groups of people.
How to prepare and preach sermons.
Teaching the Inductive Bible Study Method.
How to give a Bible Overview.
How to teach a book of the Bible in context among non-Bible-students

I am still teaching in the Asia Pacific DTS and in a weekly Bible study as well as grading homework and preparing teaching for Colossians and Philemon in the SBS, and connecting with our contacts in Fiji & Samoa and our travel agent.

So... I've been busy to say the least... but God is doing awesome things! But, with most of my time being taken up with teaching responsibilities, I have little to no time to work to raise money for outreach.

So this brings me to my request: I am in need of finances for outreach. Almost all of my monthly support goes to monthly expenses, therefore I need an additional one-time amount of about $2000 for my airfares. My students are also needing to see funds come in for this amount. We have a deadline to purchase our tickets by next Friday, May 13th.

Would you pray about giving towards this amount? If you are interested, there are two ways to give and both are tax-deductible:

The first is through Hockinson Community Church in Washington. If you attend there, you can drop a check in the offering this Sunday with a note that it's for Jillian Wellman.
The second is online through the University of the Nations Kona. Simply click on the link below and it will take you to my staff support webpage.

Thanks so much for your aloha and kokua (support) - it means so much to me.

Love you all,

Jillian

Teaching, teaching, teaching!!!

2011-04-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Flying home to Kona from Oahu - Mauna Kea peeking through the Clouds

When I decided to staff the Chronological School of Biblical Studies, I seriously never thought I would be teaching in front of groups of people. I thought maybe my teaching role would be more casual, one-on-one discussion style teaching... that my role in staffing would be grading and serving in the background... mainly because teaching in front of people still gets the butterflies fluttering in my tummy. Not to mention, I've learned under so many amazing teachers that I kind of struggle with insecurity at times. Okay, a lot of the time. ;)

I guess God had another plan. And while I'm still such a beginner, I'm growing to actually love teaching in all settings, not only informal. Ron Smith, the founder of the SBS, said this: If you want to be a teacher, be willing to take ANY teaching opportunities you are given. Teach children, teach adults. Teach one person, teach groups. If you want to develop your gift of teaching, you have to PRACTICE. When I heard this, I prayed and told God that I was open to him using me more in the area of teaching the Bible. I also asked him to give me opportunities to teach the Bible to Pacific Islanders.

I think he heard my prayer.

So this quarter I am teaching in several classroom settings that I didn't ask to teach in, but was invited by others to teach in their groups. Here's some of it:

Leading a weekly Bible Study on the book of Titus with some YWAM staff who work with a ministry called Island Breeze. Through the study I am also teaching them the Inductive Bible study method.
Teaching weekly in the Asia Pacific DTS on how to study the Bible inductively and why it is valuable to study it!
Leading worship at the Youth Group of Central Kona Union Church, which includes sharing on the Bible with local South Kona teens and the aunties and uncles who faithfully serve food and pray for the youth each week.
Teaching 1 & 2 Thessalonians on April 29th in the C-SBS.
Teaching Colossians and Philemon on May 25th in the C-SBS.

So... I guess my word of advice and encouragement to you is this:

Don't limit God by insecurity or fear! Whatever God is leading you to do... maybe it's a good idea to just DO IT. Even if it's uncomfortable... God wants to use YOU! He can use anyone, but he wants to use you for something unique to who you are. So... LET HIM. Don't limit God!!!

While I am so excited to go on outreach to Fiji and Samoa in July-August, I am excited that God has me doing ministry here in Kona, Hawaii now... after all, this is where my feet are, so this is my mission field. (Thanks, Pastor Mike for that quote that always reminds me of this truth!)

Until next post... Aloha!

Jillian

New Quarter, New Testament, New COVENANT!

2011-04-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

We have started the last quarter of the CSBS - the New Testament!!! Its exciting to see our students learning and growing in their love for Jesus as they dive into His Word.

I will be teaching 1 & 2 Thessalonians in 2 weeks and I am so excited about these books! So many times people just see the stuff about End Times and want to pull apart the passages that discuss these. But rather than focusing on the details of Jesus' return, Paul focuses on the right attitude and response that believers should have towards the reality that Jesus will come again. I will write more on 1 & 2 Thessalonians after I teach, but here's a photo of Thessaloniki with Mount Olympus in the background... this is the Port city where Paul preached for 3 Sabbaths in the Synagogue and many Greeks and women became believers (see Acts 17:1-9). This same church of new believers is to whom Paul writes his two letters.

Outside of the CSBS, I am also going to be leading a Bible Study this quarter for a group of Island Breeze Dancers. Island Breeze is a ministry of Youth With A Mission, and I had the privilege of working with them in Australia for two years, though I didn't dance!!! Island Breeze exists to know God and make God known through His inherent gifts and expressions within the Nations. I will be starting with Titus and teaching the Inductive Bible Study Method and then possibly doing one or two other books... Super excited for this opportunity to teach Pacific Islanders, and super humbled that I was asked by a friend to teach him and his teammates!

I've been continuing to work with the Youth Group at Central Kona Union Church, which is going well. We are seeing many young skaters coming for our Friday Night meal, though we have yet to see them stay around for the "youth service"... we believe God is using our times of just feeding them and hanging out with them to open the door to future ministry with them. Please pray that their hearts would be open to the message of the Gospel and that we, as the youth leaders, would be sensitive to how God wants to reach these broken kids. Every single skater kid that I've met so far is from a broken home, and several are high school dropouts.

Outreach preparations are coming along, and it is exciting to see God opening doors for us in Fiji and Samoa, as well as for the other teams working in China and Brasil!

And I just have to share some amazing blessings I've received in the past few weeks:

I felt God wanted me to give $100 away to a friend going to Kiev, Ukraine to teach. I mailed a check off then checked my mailbox, and a friend had written me a note with a check for $100 inside!
I was feeling a little lonely and forgotten, and I received a super encouraging and thoughtful card from a friend who is part of the missions council at my home church, HCC... also finding out that they had a little surplus that they wanted to give to me to bless me... I was SO encouraged!
My dear friends, Zada and Diana, are treating me to a weekend in Oahu with them: a much needed vacation, but also a time with family friends that have been a big part of most of my life! Again, this couldn't have come at a better time...

God just seems to know what we need, when we need it. Must be that Sovereignty thing. ;)

More to come, but Aloha for now!

Jillian

South Pacific

2011-03-31T00:13:00.000-07:00

And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’

Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:19-20

I'm excited to share that I am returning to Fiji for my fourth time and Samoa for my third time! I will be co-leading a School of Biblical Studies Teaching Outreach Team from the 30th of June to the 28th of August. We have three students:

Catherine - an Indian Fijian from Suva
Michael - a Messianic Jew from New York City
and Simon - a Korean American from Seattle

And there is Rachel, our beautiful and talented co-leader, who is from Manitoba, and myself, Jillian, from SW Washington.

I put the photo of the fish up because this seems to be the theme in preparing for outreach.

There is an old saying,

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."

We have been thinking about what our goals as an SBS outreach should be... and the biggest goal is not preaching and teaching the Bible in the traditional sense. The biggest goal is teaching people HOW to study the Bible for themselves. That is what we can leave with the people. Rachel and I, as the leaders, will therefore facilitate and organize as many opportunities for our three students to teach as possible... but our goals in teaching are not simply experience for our students nor entertainment for our audience. Our goals are that the people we teach are left with a desire to study God's Word for themselves and to apply it, and that there would be changed lives in Fiji and Samoa!

On a personal level, I haven't returned to Samoa in over 4 years. When I left in early 2007, I had plans to return for the South Pacific Games in August that same year. My brother's death on Mother's Day 2007 drastically changed my life, and I was not ready to return to the islands that summer. I needed to stay home with family a bit longer. Now, 4 years down the road, I am fulfilling a promise I made to friends in Samoa, and I am coming back! My friend, Kika, a pregnant 17 year old single girl, decided to name her daughter after me. When I return, Kiki will be 21 and there will be a 4 year old little girl named Jillian running around Savai'i. Oh boy. I feel God has been so faithful to bring me back to this place I love.

I believe I've mentioned this before, but I will be staying behind for 2 extra months in Samoa after the outreach is over. The students will head home August 28th, but I will be staying to serve YWAM Samoa in teaching, cooking, and helping however I can. This was something I felt the Lord put on my heart, and it seems the Samoan Base Directors are as excited about it as I am! This extended outreach is approved by my leadership in Kona, as they feel it is a way SBS Kona can be a blessing to Samoa and it is also an opportunity to seek potential contacts for a future SBS located IN the South Pacific! The Base Directors have already invited me to speak for a week in their Discipleship Training School on the topic of Inductive Bible Study. I'm excited to see what God does in that time!

So please pray for our team. We are starting into the New Testament this quarter, and we will also be doing outreach preparation throughout the quarter... pray our students' lives are transformed through the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and that they would be able to pass it on not only during their "outreach" but in every day of their lives!

Pray for our finances, too. Simon and Mike and Rachel have their fees - praise God! It is only Catherine (from Fiji) and I who need to see money come in to purchase flights. But we know God is faithful and we have seen him provide so many times before!

My Itinerary will look like this:

Kona - Honolulu - Fiji - Samoa - Portland (via Los Angeles)

It will cost me approximately $2000 for all of these flights - the same cost as if I were returning to Kona. So basically, I am getting a flight home for the holidays thrown into the deal. I will head straight home to Washington from Samoa for November and December then will return to Kona at the beginning of January 2012. Most of my monthly support I receive, okay, all of it, is enough to pay my monthly expenses. Unfortunately, I do not have an outreach savings hiding away somewhere, so I need pretty much $2000 to be able to go on outreach. The ground fees are no worries because my monthly support will take care of these. But the flights are an additional cost. Please pray about giving towards this amount.

Catherine needs her entire 3rd Quarter tuition before she can pay anything towards outreach, so she needs a bit more money! Coming from Fiji, though she was an accountant in Suva, her money just does not go as far as American dollars. Pray that finances don't hinder what God is calling Catherine to do.

Please pray for unity and clear communication within our team and with our hosts in Fiji and Samoa, that God would be glorified through our ministry, not us!

Akua ho'omaika'i oe!!!

Jillian

Long over-due update

2011-03-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

Aloha!

It's been a while since I have written, so a lengthy update is due. Sit down with a cuppa and enjoy! This past quarter has been a busy one, to say the least.

I taught two books:

Zephaniah - a Prophet that warns Judah as they are spiraling downward towards exile to repent so they might be hidden on the day of the Lord.

and

Esther - The story of God's providence and sovereignty in a Jewish Queen of Persia who saved the Jews from annihilation. The story also tells of the origins of the Jewish Holiday "Purim."

Here's a photo of my neighbors, Isaac and Lucas who came to visit as I was preparing my teaching for Esther. They came dressed up as action heros... so I decided to put my Queen Esther costume on and play for a while. I of course was shot repeatedly by imaginary pistols.

Not quite the Purim story... But nonetheless, we had fun.

Speaking of Isaac & Lucas, here's a photo of Isaac holding an Anole Lizard.

These boys live in the downstairs home and their parents are also YWAMers and very involved in their church, Living Stones. Their mom, Jane, is Danish and bakes AMAZING treats for my roommates and I all the time... she's really too good to us. And their father, Andrew, is always giving us meat as he hunts wild pigs and sheep around the island. You may have seen him on "Hogs Gone Wild" on the Discovery Channel. He's the Australian bloke leading the Kona, Hawaii team. If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and show your kokua (support)!!! Andrew and Jane and their boys have been a great family to me and I feel really blessed to know them. I've babysat a few times, and I seriously tell them I can't wait to babysit more. Being around the boys brings such joy and adventure (and mischief) to my life!

Another major event this quarter was the devastating Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We did have a warning system here in Hawaii that sounded soon after reading the news of Japan, and indeed, we had tsunami surges and risings up to 11 feet higher than what is normal, causing millions of dollars worth of damage to hotels, small businesses, homes, and property. But, thanks to the advanced Tsunami Warning Sirens and Evacuation plans, we had no loss of life in Hawaii, and for that we are very grateful. This is a photo I took of the asphalt by King Kamehameha Hotel and the Kona Pier after the Tsunami.

Lastly, now that I've shared where I've been, let me share where I'm going.

Our students finished their last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, on Saturday and are now studying Matthew. To see their faces light up as they talk about how much Jesus makes sense in light of the Old Testament brings so much joy to my heart. It reminds me of when I first "got it."

We will have a Spring Break for 7 days starting next Thursday, in which I will be preparing some teaching and also taking some time to hopefully do some scuba diving and hiking and other outdoor things... I feel I've been under the fluorescent lights of this office & our classroom far too long... you would never know by my skin tone that I live in HAWAII!!! ;)

I will be teaching 4 books for the New Testament: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Philemon. Small letters, but oh-so-powerful!!!

And I am gearing up to co-lead an SBS outreach team to Fiji & Samoa from June 30-August 28, so that's another thing on the horizon that I will tell you more about later.

That's the latest from Jillian - always a little late, but always with lots of love and aloha!!!

Breaching Whales and Jesus

2011-02-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

I'm still in awe.

I just witnessed the most magnificent breaching of a humpback whale from my lanai as I was leisurely enjoying my breakfast. I've seen whales quite frequently this season, even saw some yesterday by the pier with one of my students as we were sitting on the sea wall talking. But this one topped it all. And I was the only person to see it from this view.

Afterwards, I ran to get my camera because I thought it would be awesome to catch a whale breaching on camera to brag about how great I have it here in Hawaii. But the whale was finished with the show and did not resurface for an encore. And as I was still waiting with my camera in position, I felt the Lord gently rebuke me. "That was something special between you and me, Jillian," he said. "Why would you want to ruin the moment by running off to get your camera, only so you might boast of your situation?" He was right. The joy and sheer pleasure of witnessing such a beautiful show in God's Creation was cut short the moment I ran for my camera. It became a task rather than a moment to relish the relationship I have with the Creator of both the whale and me! He's been teaching me a lot lately about the preciousness of personal relationship with him. While my heart's desire is to share him with the world, there are times we need just between him and I, just like any human relationship... Simple stuff perhaps, but I guess I needed the reminder today.

So... no photos of the whale, but that's okay because I know you can have your own special moment between you and Jesus, and it will be much more special than seeing a second-hand one from a proud and boastful Jillian who is still learning the art of humility and simple enjoyment of moments such as these (and isn't a gifted photographer, anyway!)

My prayer is that we would all be able to recognize those special moments with our Creator for what they are - moments to be in awe of who he is and to receive the love he has for us. May we never cheapen them to anything less.

Jillian

PROPHETS

2011-01-20T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick update!

The C-SBS is going great in their 2nd quarter. They are studying the Prophetic Books this Quarter and learning all about how to correctly interpret these books based on the historical context and what we know of history since the books were written. Awesome stuff.

I'll be teaching ZEPHANIAH on February 7th, so please keep me in your prayers as I prepare for this 2.5 hour lecture time.

I'll also be teaching ESTHER later this quarter (during the "Exile") so stay tuned. This quarter is going to be a challenging and fulfilling time.

Lastly, preparations are underway for OUTREACH at the end of June to August. I am co-leading a team to SAMOA and perhaps FIJI as well. Our team is just excited to teach the WORD OF GOD and I'm excited to see how God uses us to serve and bless these South Pacific Islands.

Okay, that's all for now!

Akua ho'omaika'i oe!

Jillian

Mele Kalikimaka

2010-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we received a wonderful gift from the Lord in Hawaii: SNOWWW!!!! The summit of Mauna Kea is 4,205 m (13,796 ft) above sea level. However, when measured from the base of the dormant volcano, it is over 10,000 m (33,000 ft) tall. (Significantly taller than Mount Everest, I might point out.) From Mauna Kea you can clearly see the rest of the Big Island, neighboring Maui, and at night you can see stars and planets more clearly than anywhere else in the world. (Which is why there's all those funky telescope things at the summit.) Anyway, when it snows on Mauna Kea, Hawaiians go a bit crazy! Everyone who has a 4x4 is heading to the mountain to play in the snow, borrowing jackets, beanies, gloves, shoes... and everyone who doesn't have a 4x4 is asking around if they can get a ride!

My roommate Bridget is an awesome photographer (all photos by Bridget Kaleki Butler, gotta give credit where its due!) and being from Moku Nui (the Big Island), she wanted to capture the uniqueness of her island home by bringing snow from Mauna Kea to Sea Level where the temperature is an average of 82 Fahrenheit. So we loaded up 5 coolers into her parents' Ford Explorer and headed out at about 4am so we could pick up her friend Kelsi from Waimea at the base of Saddle Road and get up to the Summit before sunrise. We made it! With a bit of headaches from the rapid change of altitude, but we made it! We packed the coolers full of snow and headed down to Hapuna Beach State Park by 9am as the tourists and locals were slowly trickling in.

We found a spot that wasn't too crowded and began building. Then we realized we needed to build faster! We ended up with Aunty Frostina and attracted numerous tourists asking where we got the snow, could they take pictures with it for their christmas cards, etc... It was so much fun, but by the end of the project we were pretty exhausted and the sun was hot... so we jumped in the water to cool off (so crazy!!!) Then we said goodbye to Frostina and went home and promptly took long naps!

So, with all these pictures, I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas from Hawaii! I'll be in Washington in a few days where the snow doesn't exactly go hand in hand with swimming in the ocean, but these photos I hope give you a sense of joy and wonder which are emotions I think Christmas naturally evokes...

Thanks to all of my family, friends, and supporters for all of your love and support throughout this year and I pray that you would be so blessed during this Christmastime and in the New Year to come.

Mele Kalikimaka & Akua Ho'omaika'i oe!!! Merry Christmas and God bless you,

Love,

Jillian

Ink Drop

2010-11-30T01:37:00.001-08:00

Today we began a week long celebration here in Kona - YWAM turned 50... We had flags to represent the 209 nations from which we have come, and a time to pray for the nations not yet represented... It was touching to see closed nations represented... from the Middle East, Central Asia, all over, really! But my heart really came alive when the brought it home to the last group - Oceania! We were encouraged to cheer for the nations for which we have a passion, or we are from... and I feel such a LOVE for my Pacific Island family... I was jumping up and cheehoo-ing for Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Tahiti, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, because I have been to these nations... but then I was jumping up and cheehoo-ing for the other nations I have not yet visited, because I still have been praying for them!

Then, as we turned to a time of worship and prayer, I felt like God gave me a picture of the Word going from the Pacific to other nations... It was like those cool pictures of Ink drops in water with backlighting... You know the ones... But it was this drop into the ocean surrounding the Islands, and it wasn't long before the color had been mixed in throughout the entire world, but it was still most concentrated in the Pacific, and from there it was coloring the rest of the waters - all the way around the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean... every body of water was stained from this one little ink drop in the Pacific. I know it sounds a little airy-fairy and crazy, but I really feel this picture is from God! I really believe that if Pacific Islanders catch a fresh passion for the Truth of God's Word, it will spread to the rest of the world! Lord, let it be.

And speaking of God's Word... Our books we will be teaching next quarter are out, and I am pleased to share that I will be teaching Zephaniah in February and Esther in March!

Looking forward to being home for Christmas holidays, but I'm also really grateful for the family I have that is called YWAM... Youth With A MISSION!

My love affair with food

2010-11-22T21:22:00.001-08:00

I have to confess something...

I have a crush on food. Good food, that is.

I seriously love food so much, you might call it infatuation, but it is L-O-V-E love.

However, living as a missionary, I don't always get to spend quality time with the object of my affection... I eat cafeteria food most days that reminds me of Adam Sandler's SNL song, "Lunch Lady Land." But, since I moved out of dorm living and into a house with a wonderfully large kitchen, I've been indulging a bit! I still try to eat most meals on campus to save money, but my stomach was begging me to make something fresh and semi-healthy at home.

Tonight on campus was leftovers and crap (oops, I mean crab) salad. I don't mean to sound ungrateful... for the amount of people the campus feeds, its amazing the food turns out as good as it does. But, the crab salad is just not one of their specialties... So, I skipped everything from the dinner line except a plateful of lettuce, picked up some chicken breast and a jalapeno from Sack n Save, and home I went.

I had leftovers in the fridge of different things, so I added it all together and came up with these amazing tacos that made my heart skip a beat they were so beautiful. I was so giddy as I browned the chicken meat in glorious butter and chopped leftover tomato and onion up for the pico de gallo...

I have my roommate Bridget to thank for having us over to her parents' coffee farm yesterday where we were loaded up with lemons, oranges, lilikoi, and fresh herbs. I used some lemon and cilantro from the farm in my tasty pico de gallo.

Okay, you might be thinking... "Jill, these are just tacos!" It's true.

They are just plain old chicken tacos that anyone could make.

But, to me,

they are a slice of heaven.

Want the recipe?

Judges

2010-11-18T12:49:00.001-08:00

I taught in the Chronological School of Biblical Studies this week on Judges 4-5! I was super nervous, but I think it went well... I guess you'd have to ask the students. Next quarter I will be teaching one or two books, but we haven't divided them up yet. Anyway, here's some photos from my teaching time.

this post is dedicated to my awesome parents!

2010-11-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Stan and Iris Wellman married 32 years ago... love you two!

***

my new kitchen!

our FREE table & chairs (not bad, eh?)

Our FREE lanai (deck) furniture and living room furniture

Sunset from our lanai

I have a new place I'm renting in the community with two other girls. It's awesome. Every day God brings more things to fill up this home... today I found a perfect trash can at the "boutique." The boutique is a place on our campus where everyone gives away all their old stuff they don't want anymore and then other people can come and take whatever they like for free. Its always stocked with so many people coming and going. But in the middle of the quarter, it is usually hard to find good stuff, so a perfectly good flip-top trash can for my shared bathroom was a pleasant surprise and will replace my plastic grocery bag hanging from the door handle quite nicely.

I also was given $70 yesterday from another SBS staff, along with a note that she was glad I was staffing with her... the money meets a very real need, but the encouragement was much more valuable to me. I've been feeling kind of like an outsider because everyone in our staff team have been in school together for 9 months already, they have inside jokes and funny stories from last year's school... and I just was kind of feeling sorry for myself, to be honest. So... the note and the money was a real encouragement that I am not on the outside, and a kick in the pants to stop the pity party!

SO, ANYWAY...

to the point of the post:

Honestly, I say it is only God who provided my new place to live, which is true! However, there are many people who have been God's hands in meeting my needs for years as a missionary. And I would not have been able to pay the first months rent and deposit if my parents had not helped me out. They are seriously such an encouragement and reflection of God's heart to me, and they constantly bless many others also, for that matter. They love the Lord, they love each other, and they love ME! They recently celebrated 32 years of marriage and I am so blessed to be their daughter.

Mom and Dad, I love you SO much!!!

God answers prayer!

2010-11-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Just need to share about God's faithfulness displayed in my life recently!

Prayed for transportation - God blessed me with a car!

Prayed for a home in the community - Just moved in to a house last night!

Prayed for more opportunities to share God's love in the community - this will take bit longer, but he is answering this one in MANY ways!

One opportunity was yesterday when I went to open an account at Central Pacific Bank (we don't have banks from the mainland in Hawaii.) After sorting out the account stuff, I asked the lady who dealt with new accounts where she was from. She shared she was from Thailand, and I said, "I was just in Chiang Rai a few months ago!" Then she said, "I used to live in Chiang Rai!!!" Her name is Pulichan and she has been in Hawaii for many years, got married and raised her children here. She said she loved what the University of the Nations students do around the world, and also here in Hawaii, and asked what I do at the University. I said, "I am a staff teacher in the School of Biblical Studies," and she shared that her brother in law had mailed her and her husband a big New King James Version Bible, but it was hard for her to understand. We then talked about why the UofN students and staff help people around the world.... she said her big concern was young girls in Northern Thailand being trafficked into prostitution, and then also how there are kids going hungry here in Kona. I said, "the Bible has a lot to say about loving God and loving people, so we (in YWAM/UofN) do what we do because God loved us and so we respond in love to him and other people. There's plenty of opportunities to get involved in giving back to the community if you want to know more. I think we would have kept talking for an hour, but there was another new account customer waiting to meet with her, so I said, "Sawadeekah," and bowed to her (wai) and she said, "Its so nice to talk with you, please do come back so we can talk more." I could tell she wanted to talk longer because her face was so lit up and full of excitement, but she changed her expression, shook my hand and said, "If you have any questions about your account, give me a call!"

How's THAT for God answering prayer?! Who would have thought I would have a chance to share God's love during a "tedious" bank session? Pray for Pulichan and her family! I don't know what sort of relationship (if any) they have with God, but it seems God is really reaching out to her.

Also, I asked for prayer for our CSBS students to get a heart for the community in Kona, and this morning we had a time of prayer and intercession for the Hawaiian Islands, and many students felt God wanted them to give out as they receive so much from the Word. So cool!

Conclusion: God answers prayer. I know there might be some "buts" running through your mind and you are right.. sometimes the answer we receive is not what we expect or want... but nonetheless, God is faithful. He hears and answers our prayers.

The Community

2010-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

God has been putting it on my heart to get involved in the greater Kona community while I am living here. Not just by attending church, although that is part of it, but I really want to be able to be a light and encouragement to locals.

Last weekend, I had a rather traumatic experience watching a 16 year old boy fall onto lava rocks while jumping off cliffs at a place here we call "The end of the world." But our group got him out of the water, carried him to the road, called an ambulance, and prayed for him. (I posted the full story on Facebook Notes if you want to read more.) Then, the next day, a few of the people in our group went to visit the kid at the hospital and he was doing much better, bones we were certain had been broken were not, and he was so grateful we were there. He shared that he didn't ever believe in God until that day.

Then this week I finally was able to arrange my schedule to help at the "Meet & Eat" program at Kealakehe Intermediate School. I am hoping to make this a weekly commitment - every Wednesday. The program serves meals to homeless and/or low income families and individuals... The majority of these people are children. I was talking with one kid after we had cleaned up about trick-or-treating. I asked him if he was bringing a pillow case to stuff full of candy. He laughed and said, "Not even! I did that once but then had all this sticky melted candy in my pillow and ants on my face! Now I use a trash bag!" I suppose trick-or-treating in Hawaii is a bit different from in Washington where its FREEZING usually... not to mention, I just assumed the kid would have more than one pillow case, you know?

So, anyway, even though for this season, I am called to minister to the students in the CSBS, I know that I am also called to be a light to the community around me... and I pray that more and more from YWAM in Kona will have that same heart calling and we will see more and more locals come to know God and make God known.

Here are some things I am praying for that would help me to be in the community more--please join me in prayer for God's provision!

A place to live off-campus and the right roommates
A new Buoyancy Compensator (BC or BCD) and weights for scuba diving
For the CSBS students to feel God's heart for the lost and hurting here in Kona
For more opportunities like the "End of the World" incident to share God's love with locals whether at Walmart, the beach, or just walking down the road.

Mahalos for the prayers!

Jillian

You shall love the alien as yourself...

2010-10-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

***

For you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:34

Yes, friends, the students are studying Leviticus in the CSBS this week!

The teacher this week, Jo Faringer, has been going through the Canaanite pagan mindsets that surrounded the Israelites in the wilderness... it puts this book into such a different perspective. For example... all the stuff about babies and women who are on their period not being welcomed into the assembly for a time, or men with "discharges" not welcome in the tabernacle... these laws were there because the Canaanite worship practices included using sexual relations (and fluids) as a way to somehow bribe or manipulate their "gods" to give them rain for crops, fertility, or whatever else they wanted. Blood and Semen were sacred spiritual tools for worship in the Pagan system. God wasn't saying menstrual cycles were sinful or babies were evil, or that a husband and wife having sex was wrong... he was saying that the Israelites were not to use their sexuality to manipulate him! They weren't to worship him like the Canaanites worshiped their idols.

The biggest difference was the heart motivation.

Worship for Canaanites was for bribery, appeasement, and manipulation.

--But--

Worship for Israelites was to be for remembrance, repentance, and celebration.

I encourage you to not shy away from books like Leviticus... its part of the Word of God. There's a reason this book of the Law is in there. We can learn truths for today out of what God was teaching the Israelites back in their day... the festivals, the regulations, the laws, the offerings... God was teaching the Israelites that he wanted relationship with them, he wanted to bless them so they might be a blessing to the nations around them. He wanted all nations to know that he was the Lord!

Remember to read the book in CONTEXT! It makes such a difference!

And now, I leave you with some photos of the Tabernacle Model Project made by CSBS Students based on Exodus 36-40 for your viewing enjoyment.

***

Aloha ho'omaika'i oe!*

*God bless you!

Genesis - The book of beginnings

2010-10-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

* A L O H A *

Our students in the Chronological School of Biblical Studies (CSBS) here in Kailua-Kona have been studying Genesis since last week, and it has been a fitting book for not only the students, but the staff as well. We are all starting out in a new journey. This is the first CSBS for Kona, this is my first time staffing an SBS, and also it seems God is doing new things all around the YWAM Campus.

For me, I am settling in and starting to feel at home once again in Kailua town. Here are some new things God is doing in my life.

I am blessed to now have a car - a 1993 Camry I bought for $900 from my friends who have moved to the mainland. Now I can get around town, take students out for coffee, etc.
I am working full-time in my volunteer staff role in the CSBS which includes grading, leading a small group, having one-on-one mentoring time with three students, coordinating Worship times, running the sound board during class, some teaching (Judges will be my first official teaching time) and other responsibilities.

I'm excited how God is already working in the lives of these 24 students from 10 different nations and 24 different family backgrounds! They have such an eagerness and determination in their studies already, and it has only been one week! From Barbro, the widowed mother of three from Norway to Catherine, the Indo-Fijian girl with a long-term call to Turkey; these students are amazing and I'm so blessed to be a part of their lives for the next 9 months.

Now, with this new season of new beginnings, I do have new expenses. As you know, I am a full-time volunteer missionary... This means I, like other YWAM Missionaries, rely solely on the financial support of others to be able to continue serving in missions.

As you also probably know, Hawaii is not a cheap place to live. (Slight understatement!) Yet, I am here because this is currently the ONLY place where the Chronological School of Biblical Studies is offered in the Pacific, and I want to be a part of taking this school TO Pacific Islanders. So I am committed here for two years and need monthly financial support to be able to staff this important school.

How much does it cost for me to live and serve in Hawaii? I'm glad you asked!

Here is my proposed budget for the next 2 years - from October 2010 to September 2012.

I currently have about $450 committed in monthly support, and need an additional $400 per month to be able to have these needs met. I don't normally talk about money or ask for funds, but I feel that I need to be honest with where I am at because this is what God has called me to and I should not feel ashamed about that calling.

I have online giving now available to people interested in supporting my ministry with the School of Biblical Studies. You can even set up automatic monthly payments if you want. I also still receive donations through Hockinson Community Church in Washington and both methods of giving are completely tax-deductible.

Please prayerfully consider supporting me financially and being a part of teaching the Word of God to the nations! If you have ANY questions about giving, the CSBS, or University of the Nations and YWAM, please feel free to email me anytime: jillwellman@hotmail.com

Love you all and mahalo for taking the time to read this!

Staff Training

2010-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

View of the campus from the SBS Building at the bottom of the hill.

Ocean View from outside the SBS Offices and Classrooms

Being back in Kona has been amazing, despite some cold and allergy symptoms I've been fighting. I've been able to see many of my friends who were here when I was in 2008-2009 and also other friends from different parts of the world that have happened to come here to Kona at the same time as myself! And then there is the new group of friends I am starting to become acquainted with: the C-SBS staff. We have had staff training this week every morning, and I have also been a part of a work crew painting new bunk beds in the wood shop on campus. This quarter will bring in more students and staff than the campus has ever held, so it's "all hands on deck" to make enough beds and get enough rooms available to house everyone who is coming in two weeks time. Its an exciting time to be in Kona as this year is the 50th anniversary of YWAM, the missions organization of which I am privileged to be a small part. There's an atmosphere of celebration as people look back and remember everything that God has done over their years in YWAM, honor those who have gone before them, and look to the future of the mission. I could write more about this, but for now, I need to get ready for staff training meetings this morning.

This weekend I am going around the island with some of the women I will be staffing with. I think this will be an awesome time of getting to know one another as we enjoy God's beautiful Creation together. I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them!

Aloha for now!

Jill

Home again, Home again...

2010-08-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

Where is home again? They say it is where the heart is... so I suppose that means my home is not one place, because my heart is so many places!

But, my family lives here in Washington and this is where I spent my entire life up until I was that grown up 18 year old girl moving out into the great wide world with wanderlust in her eyes. So for the sake of clarity, I will call Washington my "home."

I've enjoyed being home... its been relaxing and refreshing. I have done a bit here and there, but really, I've done a LOT of resting and spending time with my wonderful parents. I guess I didn't realize how exhausted I was after doing the SBS.

Anyway, I have 12 more sleeps before heading to Kona, Hawaii, where I will be for 2 years... so I suppose that means it would be my "home" for that time. =)

Take care all and until next time!

Thailand Recap in Photos...

2010-08-03T01:00:00.001-07:00

So.... Not much to say right now... just a bit jet lagged and still awake at 1:30 am... so... here's some photos from Thailand and a great big thank you to all who took the time to read my updates, pray for me, or even just look at the pictures. For more photos, check out facebook... I'll be adding more soon!

Cheers!

Jillian

Playing Ukulele at the Akha Village... Amazing place, amazing people... and they liked my teaching on Colossians!

Lon qam (or however you spell it) and dragonfruit - yummy!

Emily, our youngest team member, also participated in outreach

Yes, I got to ride an elephant!

One of the little girls from church... she loves to dance and sing... and have her picture taken!

Lighting paper lanterns to fly off into the sky

Myself, Ajan ("teacher") Suwat, and Ajan Bobby

Teaching at English Camp - this is at my teaching station, where the students learned about daily routines and verb tenses!

Akha Village

2010-07-23T03:55:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is an update!

As with most of the outreaches I've been a part of, our hosts really started to see our hearts toward the end and now they want to utilize us as much as they can before we leave. So... we've had the opportunity to teach several seminars to church staff and pastors, and we just went for 3 days in the Akha Hill Tribes.

We stayed in a village that was breathtaking and beautiful (caves, streams, houses like Samoan Fales), but the landscape was not nearly as beautiful as the people. I know that sounds cliche, but God just connected our hearts with theirs. I had the opportunity to teach Colossians finally, and though we had double translation (from English to Thai to Akha, and the reverse for response) I think it went well.

Something that was really neat and I think is why I connected so much to the family there was some not so neat things we hold in common. Our Akha translator and host, Dao, lost her brother 3 years ago, just like me. His family's house burnt down and he didn't make it out. She shared that she still couldn't believe that he really died, and I could definitely relate. I was able to pray for her and the rest of her family (most of the church is all part of the same extended family) and I was also just encouraged to see how real they were. They didn't pretend like it didn't still hurt them with the pat "God is good," but at the same time, the way they lived, served, and smiled, it was easy to see that they still believed this to be true. In Thai culture there is this thing of "saving face" which is very important, so I have not seen much real emotion here - anger, rediculous joy, sadness, etc. So being among the Akha was a blessing because they were very genuine and not held back by the culture of saving face.

Now, we are back in Chiang Rai and this weekend we will be teaching the staff of the Dormitory where we are staying (about 30 staff who are in their late teens or early 20s.) We are doing a theme of Identity, so first Emily is sharing an overview of the entire Bible, then Jeremy and Ange are teaching Genesis and Exodus - the birth of a nation and it's identity as God's people (Israel) and the next day Mike and I will be sharing Ephesians - the identity of individual believers in Christ. Our host, Pastor Suphot, has seen what we've been teaching and wants more of it! He says his people know the basic concepts of the New Testament, the Gospel and Salvation... but they don't know the Old Testament and how it all fits into this ONE STORY. Soooo... its pretty cool that we get to teach this weekend!

And after that, its DEBRIEF for 3 days and back to the US of A!!!

Love to all,

Jillian

a non-update-ish post

2010-07-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

So... I've been a bit melancholy lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving Thailand and definitely believe God is using our team to bring His Word here.

But I've had some mixed emotions lately. I got online a few nights ago at Wawee Coffee (our internet connection of choice) and my friend, Vikki, had posted photos of their family vacations this summer - just the four of them... Their son Luke is with Jesus and being so far removed from the situation, I almost forget that he's not with us anymore - in the literal sense of the phrase. So I was reminded with these photos and it just made me cry and cry, even though I know its so good God is giving them special times with their other kids, Tori and Jake. It just was a dose of reality.

Then, add a layer of missing my brother too. He would have LOVED Thailand. I've been thinking a lot about him lately, so I decided to watch a movie we both enjoyed and could quote most of... Monty Python's "And now for something completely different." I laughed and could imagine my brother quoting the same lines of the "How NOT to be seen" sketch or the "How to defend yourself against a man armed with a piece of fresh fruit" sketch. We had it on VHS when we were in middle/high school and would fast forward to and replay all our favorite sketches!!! But... I couldn't quite hear his laugh, anymore. And, my teammates who were so kind to watch the movie with me didn't laugh at most of it... Monty Python takes a rather twisted and odd sense of humor I suppose.

I miss my brother. And though the following stuff is just that: stuff... I feel like I'm losing him more and more. I lost my phone, and my parents were planning on canceling their family plan anyway. My mom tells me that AT&T said I might not be able to have my old phone number, which was actually my brother's old phone number. Its just a phone number, why is it such a big deal, right? Then my friend in Hawaii emails me telling me she's received all my scuba stuff (also formerly my brother's) but that the BCD is bust. She took it into the shop and the guy said it was getting old, so the inside bladder had burst and it was not worth repairing. So I have to get a new BCD... and while it is just stuff.... I kind of liked that my gear was too big on me and it still had a hint of stale salt water and cigarette smoke... it reminded me of him... more specifically, it reminded me of him enjoying life doing something he loved.

One of the questions for the English Camp students to practice was "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" And sometimes they would ask me the question back. With their limited English I didn't know how much to say. Sometimes I just said, "Yes, I have one brother." Sometimes I ventured to say "I had a brother but he passed away." But euphemisms we find so comforting in English don't do well with Thai students struggling to learn English... I would have to repeat, "He died" or "He's dead." As their sweet little Thai faces would finally express their understanding, it was all I could do to keep my smile and move to the next question.

Yesterday, one of my teammates, Mike, gave a message on Jeremiah 29:11 and the context of it... that though it is one of the most quoted verses, it is often taken out of context, and most people don't realize that these were God's words to his people in EXILE. Mike gave a brief overview of the Old Testament, and basically tied it into this: Even in exile, even in hard times, God has good plans for his people... he did for Judah, and he does for us.

While I feel I should somehow be "over" missing my brother by now - its been over 3 years... I know I will never "get over it." But I do know that God has good plans and I do know that I can and must trust him in hard times.

So... Anyway... I do realize this was a very ME-centered update... but I thought I should share a bit more about how I'm really doing than just give a play-by-play of the ministry we have been involved in here. If you would rather the non-personal play-by-play updates... Facebook is good for that! (But seriously, sometimes you just don't have time to read a novel!!!)

Love to all, and I will be sure to post one of those play-by-play updates soon. We leave on Wednesday for an Akha Hill Tribe, so I will be out of touch for at least 3 days, but don't fear, I shall return to civilization and the wonders of the internet!

short post - English Camp Update

2010-07-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

We've been involved with teaching English to 19-21 year old students from Chiang Rai Vocational College for the past week. During the day, it is non-stop English teaching, and I am learning lots of... um... patience. Yeah. I think all the non-English countries I've been in in the past have still had plenty of young people who spoke English. Here, though they've been studying it for a few years (these are in their 5th year of vocational college) and still they have very little understanding. I mean, we are asking questions like, "What time do you eat dinner?" and getting responses like, "Yes." Or... "Vegetable." But, nonetheless, after they participate in the 2-day camp, they usually have a much greater understanding and ability to communicate in English.

Okay, so the nights have been an opportunity for us to share about what we believe as Christians, so we have shared stories from the Bible that have been real big hits with them (for learning English, learning stories that are acted out seems to be a good tool.) And we have also shared testimonies, stories from our own lives of how God has changed us.

We are more of a seed-planting team, if you like. If kids want to know more about what we believe, or if they want to believe in Jesus and accept him, or if they just have questions about life, they give the local guys here their contact info so that there is follow up (watering in the analogy!) We aren't forcing anything on them, just sharing the joy we have found in knowing Jesus and offering the same to them, if they are dissatisfied with their lives, their religion, etc. What is awesome is that we've already seen one girl VERY interested and asking all sorts of questions... "Can I believe in Jesus if I am Buddhist? Do I have to give up Buddhism to follow Jesus?" Tough questions from a genuine seeker. Pray for this girl and many others who may not be bold enough to ask the questions yet. Many young people in Thailand are questioning religion and are coming to faith in Jesus, and in doing so, they are influencing their entire families.

Okay... I've got to run, we're leaving the internet connection spot!!!

Thanks for your prayers and support, photos to come soon!

Love,

Jillian

2010-07-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

A side street in Bangkok... its about 100 degrees here and Rains Daily. NICE.

Thanks everyone for praying for Ange, she is feeling much better! Unfortunately, myself and another guy, Mike, on the team are having some cold or possibly allergy symptoms, so please keep us in prayer... we need our health so we can keep doing what we're doing!!!

Our team is settling in great, and everyone LOVES baby Emily. She's like a piece of food thrown into a fish pond... the Thai people swarm around her!!! The Thai girls are also very fond of Jeremy, our Korean heartthrob... hehe... so are the ladyboys. (If you don't know what a ladyboy is... well... google it. It's a sad, but true reality here steeped in the striving for merit found in

Buddhism.)

The Reclining Buddha

We are staying in boarding houses that probably host 100 children from ages 5-18ish... These kids are from the Hill Tribes mostly, though some are Thai. Very few speak any English, but they are a lot of fun and once we get past the shyness, they are very friendly and outgoing! They live here at the dorms during the school year so they can attend school in Chiang Rai, as their villages don't have schools.

Our team has a translator named Mon, she is staying in our girls' room and is like one of the team. She did her DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Montana and has been translating for YWAM teams for a few years now (she does this through YWAM Bangkok, which is where we met her and picked her up.) Our outreach coordinator is Bobby Bo, an guy from Chicago who came to Thailand on his DTS outreach 3 years ago and loved it so much he moved here. He's a great go-between for us with our host, Pastor Suphot, and you can tell he really loves the people and cares for them... Thai is a hard language and he's got it pretty much down, so I've gotta give him props!

Emily, Mon, & I in Bangkok

This week we are teaching English at Chiang Rai Vocational College (yes, we're using the Bible as our lesson material!) And in the evenings we are having chapel-type services for the children in the dorms. Our host, Pastor Suphot has asked us to focus on a theme of "Obedience."

Next week we will be hosting an English Camp for students from the college (Three 2-day camps in a row).

Our third week, we will be teaching pastors in the Akha Tribe in Northern Thailand on the Burmese border. We will also be teaching the staff of the Dorms where we are staying.

Then we have 3 Days in Chiang Mai before heading back to Bangkok to fly to LA. So... its going to go fast, I have a feeling!

Before, I had mentioned we would be going to Mae Sot, but I guess that didn't work out logistically, so we're going to spend the whole outreach here, focusing on teaching here in Chiang Rai. I'm okay with that. We traveled 17 hours on planes to get to Bangkok and another 12 hours overnight on the bus up to Chiang Rai. I'm okay with staying here for a while!!!

Well... that's all for now... I have to get cracking on some prep work for my lesson plans!

Sawadee Kha from Bangkok!

2010-06-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hi friends... our team of 5 students, 2 staff, and a baby arrived early this morning in Bangkok. We are staying at YWAM Bangkok tonight and tomorrow evening we will take an 11-hour bus ride to Chiang Rai, northern Thailand.

We just finished eating lunch, and can I just say... Thai food is the BEST! I loved it all. It was ARROY! (Delicious!)

Nothing much to report yet, except one of my teammates, Ange, is sick - possibly with strep that was going around when we were in Los Angeles... so please keep her in prayer!

And please pray that we adjust fast to the time change, the climate, and culture!

Much love from the land of Smiles,

Jillian

GRADUATION & THAILAND

2010-06-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

We've graduated finally (last Saturday) and my team will leave on our teaching outreach to Thailand on Tuesday!

Thank you, everyone for your support and love... and PATIENCE these past nine months of me studying my brains out and not being the best communicator. I hope to improve now that I am somewhat less busy!

We are preparing teaching for pastors (each of us is choosing a book and teaching it), bible stories for children, and seminars on how to study the bible inductively for different churches in Chiang Rai and Mae Sot, using the books of Philemon and Titus. I'm very much excited!!!

Love you all and please keep in touch! I'm not sure I will have internet access everywhere in Thailand, but I'll do my best to update weekly with photos and news! For now, here are some photos from our last few weeks in the C-SBS!

Jillian

David from Germany, Priscille from Switzerland, and myself... We laughed that this photo captured our nationalities so well. (This is at my birthday dinner)

Myself, Synnove from Norway, and Emily from Indiana singing for a benefit concert

Emily (my roommate), Cliff (our school leader), and myself at Graduation

Cliff gave us all awards... mine was "Best Hollywood Scuba Dive"... yes, I dressed up in my scuba gear (fins and all) for Halloween and hit Hollywood... it was awesome!

Myself, Lez from Nashville, and JK from Los Angeles (Bonfire @ Huntington Beach)

Myself, Jeff, Dan, and JK in Hollywood

Martin from Nigeria and myself... Graduation Night Worship

2 Peter Application Essay - The Prosperity Gospel

2010-06-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

I must first preface this essay with saying I wrote this very quickly... I only have a week left, and I'm getting tired!!! There is much more to be said on the subject but I hope this is a sufficient "taste" for now.

2 Peter Application Essay

False teachings are rampant throughout the world today, just as they were at the time of Peter writing this letter. However, what is even worse is that these false teachings creep into the church and masquerade as being Christian doctrines from the Bible. The false teaching that I am going to focus on in this essay is most commonly known as “the prosperity gospel.” Though those who preach it or adhere to it do not label it, one can see the influence of such teaching throughout many church denominations, but especially Pentecostal or Charismatic churches. As a part of YWAM, an interdenominational and international Christian missions organization, I have had the honor, privilege, and challenge of working with people who have different views than me on many areas of Christianity, yet all share common beliefs in the foundational truths of the Gospel. And with traveling to many different countries with equally varying cultures and working with various denominations in those countries, I have seen the influence of this teaching at times. My heart’s intention in addressing this false teaching is not to call out or label any particular person, denomination, or ministry, but rather expose the wrong thinking of this teaching itself as I compare it to what I view as the standard for truth, the Bible in context.

So what is the prosperity gospel? It is also known as Prosperity Theology, the Word of Faith, Wealth and Health, or Name it and Claim it, and by my own summary definition, it is any teaching that says if believers have “enough” faith, they will have physical safety and health and material or financial success. Though as we see Prosperity Theology today is a fairly recent teaching of American Protestant Origin, ideas that we can somehow manipulate God to give us what we want (namely, material wealth and physical health) have been around since the fall of man and were present in pagan worship mindsets since the ancient world until today. I have seen the prosperity gospel preached on a certain American TV station that is broadcast in the Pacific, teaching Fijians surrounding a TV in the sugar town of Lautoka that if they just “sow a seed” and have faith, God will release their healing, God will bless them financially, and they will have happiness. Likewise, I have heard an islander pastor in a particular village preach this same concept to his congregation, with the testimony of how he received a brand new truck from his church denomination’s leaders in the USA because he had faith, while the church members listening to his sermon walked to church that morning, as the buses don’t run on Sundays. Perhaps they just don’t have enough faith, for if they did, by their pastor’s logic, they would also have cars.

This teaching that God will bless us physically or materially if we have enough faith is not only contradictory to the teaching of Scripture, but the danger is it appears to be Biblical, because it stems from the truth that God is the God of Life and Jesus did come to give us abundant life. But did he have BMWs and perfect physical health in mind when speaking of that abundant life? I don’t think so… he wouldn’t have promised suffering if he did. God doesn’t promise material wealth or physical health 100% of the time. If you read the whole Bible, you will see stories where God healed (Naaman the Syrian in the Old Testament, Blind, Lepers, and a Hemorrhaging woman in the New Testament) and stories where his people suffered and even died (Job, John the Baptist, the Apostles throughout Acts.) You will see stories where God provided finances miraculously (oil and flour that didn’t run out until a famine was over, a coin in a fish’s mouth), and times where Jesus honored those who gave everything with no promise of recompense (the woman with the alabaster box of perfume, the woman who gave two small coins which were all she had.) …So what are people to do when they pray with all the faith they have, they fast, they tithe, they give out of their need, just as those who teach the prosperity gospel told them, and then God doesn’t give them what they were seeking him for? If they believe that it was based on their faith, they will walk in self-condemnation and guilt for not having enough faith. Or worse, they will turn away from God because everything they knew about him turned out to be false. I spoke with a friend last year that used to consider himself a Christian but would rather call himself Agnostic now. He had been very involved in a church that preached that if you have enough faith, God will heal you physically, or those for whom you pray. He prayed for his mother who was fighting cancer and was very sick. He fasted, he tithed, he anointed her with oil and had the elders of his church lay hands on her and pray for her. But she still died. Because of this false teaching of the prosperity gospel, he completely missed God’s heart and is still in a lot of pain from a church that didn’t know how to associate with him, a failed believer in their eyes. On the other hand, much more recently I have watched my cousin and her husband go through the death of their nine-year-old son to Leukemia. Still heartbroken and grieving, their faith is as strong as ever (even if they don’t feel like it right now.) What is the difference? This family knew from the start that God’s promises for life were eternal promises, not just for the here and now. They held on to those promises even for the last three years of battling this horrid cancer and watching their beloved son die. Is God still the life-giver? Yes! Is he still the source of hope? Yes!

I wish I had more time and more pages to use to write of all the stories from the Old Testament where people tried to manipulate God with their worship, but he said he didn’t want their worship if it was empty… many of the prophets spoke against this mindset that God existed for the sake of people’s comfort and happiness. And I wish I could tell you everywhere in the New Testament where Jesus and his Apostles did not promise an easy life, but promised that God would be with them in whatever they went through. I think I would end up using the entire Bible, because it ALL speaks against the prosperity gospel, if you read it in context of course. But that is the problem of the prosperity doctrine… it doesn’t take into consideration the context of these scriptures, but uses them to fit into it’s teaching.

At the end of the matter, I just want to say, I don’t believe people who teach prosperity theology are all intentionally false teachers, and I don’t lump them all together. There are those who promise financial success if you will just give to their ministry which obviously raise red flags of heresy, but then there are those who just want people to live their lives fully for God, and they truly believe that means being healthy and wealthy. My stomach churns as I listen to those of the first group, but my heart hurts for those of the second… both are missing out on God himself, and the fact that the greatest wealth we could possibly have is having a relationship with God. If they could only see this, they would see that true prosperity already belongs to those who simply love Jesus and believe in him, no matter their income or health, no matter if they drive a Benz or walk several kilometers for water each day, no matter if they never face losing loved ones or have lost their entire family.

Oh God, please help us to grow in our knowledge of Your truth and communicate that truth alone. Help us to examine our lives and our motives in seeking you. Thank you for the abundant life we have simply because we know you and are known by you.

Team Thailand

2010-06-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here we are! Photo taken today at YWAM LA by Jennifer Kwan.

Guys from Left to Right: Jeremy Park, Dave Skinner, & Michael Ausherman

Girls from Lef to Right: Emily Skinner, Bridgette Skinner, Ange Miracle, Emily Yoder, & Me!

The COUNTDOWN has begun!

24 sleeps until my birthday!

25 sleeps until we leave for THAILAND!!!

Thailand!!!

2010-06-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for Thailand on June 29th!!!

I'll be there for one month with a team of 5 students and 2 staff teaching the Bible in Chiang Rai and Mae Sot!

Here is a link for some current news regarding the protests in Bangkok.

I wanted to add some photos of the areas where I will be, but to avoid copyright issues, I have included the links to their owners' flickr pages. This is the bummer of never having been there yet!!!

Here is Chiang Rai and here is Mae Sot.

We will be staying in Bangkok 2 days for cultural orientation, then we will head to Chiang Rai for the majority of our trip, and also will spend several days in Mae Sot.

In Chiang Rai we will be staying at a boarding school, where we will be serving, teaching, and learning I am sure! We will also be traveling to various hill tribes in the north.

In Mae Sot we will be working with Burmese and Karen Refugees near the border of Thailand and Myanmar.

Until then, I've got less than 3 weeks left of School, then I will have studied all 66 books of the Bible!!! We graduate June 19th, then have some prep time to get our teaching stuff together, then we're off to Thailand 10 days later!

Bless you all, thanks for your prayers and please keep in touch!

La la la la life goes on...

2010-05-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Not to say I have forgotten the events of the past few weeks, or that I am not thinking constantly of the Jensens, or my mom and dad... but it's true: life does go on... and whether I want to keep going with it or not is of no importance. Life goes on just the same. And for that, I am grateful. I have life today and I have people to love today, and I have things God put me here on earth to do... today.

SO... What's today hold? Well this week we've been studying Ephesians. I'm quite happy to say I actually completed the homework for this book (the last few weeks I didn't come close to finishing... couldn't focus, I guess.) And, while I did learn a lot about the historical background of Ephesus during the AD 60s and why this letter was so significant to the people then, the thing that I want to write about is this: it reminded me of when I was a sweet and [not-so-] innocent 19-year-old living in Orange County, CA. I realize not everyone knows this story, so I'll share a bit.

I had just moved back from Orlando, Florida where I had worked for Disney World (no comments, please!) and had started attending a church college group in Irvine as an attempt to reach out to God... I knew he had been reaching out to me, but I had put him on the proverbial shelf for a while. I still believed in God, but couldn't understand why he had let some things in my life happen, if he was all-powerful AND all-loving as I had been told. So I did things "my way" for a while. Anyway... the party life of the disney college program didn't seem to offer any lasting happiness, and actually, all I left with was remnants of a bad case of mono and cynicism.

So here I was in 2002, at a bible study group in Newport Beach with all these girls my age and older who seemed to be genuinely secure in who they were... and they were normal girls... we surfed together before work, we all had "normal" jobs... nobody was a crazy fanatic as I judged most Christians to be. (Like I said, I was cynical!) We studied a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus... Its one of the books in the New Testament, Ephesians... the book we studied this week in class. The letter laid out the identity of God's children and I realized I didn't have security in who I was like the other girls in my group. I wasn't a size zero like my roommate, I drove a 92 two-tone blazer that parked next to her latest BMW 5 series... and I lived in the land of constant comparison - the OC. I even compared myself to these girls who cared for me and loved me through my cynicism and self-loathing. And I still had issues with God... didn't really know if he was good, if I could trust him...

I'd like to say things changed overnight, in one instance. But... it was the constant love and genuine care from those girls and also many other people in my life who had prayed for me for years... I began to see God's goodness in the different events of my life that had shaped my childhood and teen years - even the ones that had hurt me so deeply. I began to see that I really COULD trust God, and that he really loved me. REALLY.

As I began to understand God and his heart, I began to see myself as God saw me... not as the world did, not even as I formerly saw myself. I saw that in Jesus, I was CHOSEN... I was ACCEPTED... I was MADE NEW... I was LOVED... I had PURPOSE... and I was more MYSELF if that makes any sense.

That's the message of Ephesians to me.

You'd all know I was a liar if I said life was easy from that point on. The last few entries are evidence enough of the pain I've still experienced as a believer and follower of Jesus. But, I'm so grateful that God reached out to me, that he loved me through my crap, and that he gave me friends to help me see him more clearly. I'm grateful that he has given me comfort and hope in a way no one else could, through things I never imagined I would experience, but know I would not have survived had it not been for his presence in my life.

Has God used a particular message from the Bible to reach out to you? Has he used people to draw you to him? I would love to hear your stories...

Love you all,

Jillian

Loss...

2010-05-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

What a week...

The three year anniversary of my brother's death...

Flying home for less than 24 hours to attend Luke's memorial...

And more death and more cancer in the families of my friends...

It's been a tough week for a lot of us.

This is going to sound ridiculous: I feel torn between who to feature in my profile picture on Facebook... Lukey or my brother. So I've been sort of switching them out. Stupid, really... Facebook... But I just want to somehow honor them both, and, well, Facebook is the best I can do right now, I guess. Luke's face is still fresh in my memory. My brother's is starting to blur a bit, so I have been looking at photos a lot lately... I never thought it would happen. I was trying to think of how he looked the last time I saw him alive and I can't remember. It's driving me insane. I remember he had stopped by for a sandwich and cup of coffee on his way to work, and I was heading to Hawaii that weekend and wasn't going to see him for a few weeks... I remember standing in our driveway talking while he was sitting in his car... but I can't remember what we talked about, can't picture his face or what he was wearing... maybe its not important.

I was talking with one of my roommates the other day about loss... the pros and cons of knowing one might die vs. sudden death. I can't say I like either. And I can't really compare.

I hated watching Luke suffer, and I wasn't even there for the half of it. But, I loved that his cancer made him want to make the most of his life, and made others want to as well. I loved when he gave me hugs, knowing how precious a commodity they were, and I told him I loved him every time I saw him, even that last time back in March... in a weird and horrid way, it was actually a blessing to know he might die.

With Jeff, I have to be honest, I took those things for granted. I thought he'd be around forever. He had had several car accidents where he totaled the car, yet walked away... I'd come to think he was untouchable. I think he thought he was, too. I don't know if I said "I love you" the last time I saw him. I think I did, but I can't remember. I know he knew I did, but still... I don't know. Its not that I have regrets... well, maybe I do, but I regret having them. Schmeh.

A friend of mine commented as he drove me to the airport (to fly home for Luke's service) that he hadn't lost any close family members or friends. I think he said this to say, "I'm sorry I can't comprehend what you are going through, so I'm not going to lie and say I can." I appreciate honesty, and I seriously dislike when people try to say they do know what I am going through, or they try to give me some sort of spiritual pat-answer.

But as this friend pointed out his lack of comprehension of grief, I realized... we are a different breed. Those of us who have had close loved ones die. Its like a club nobody wants to be a member of, but the members are grateful there are other members in the club. I know when I became a member, I was glad there were already others in the club who I could talk to and process my crazy emotions and thoughts with.

However, ultimately, even those in the club can't relate to everything... each loved one is different, each relationship was different. I've spoken to friends who lost brothers much longer ago than I, and one who lost two brothers more recently... but it's different. Their relationships were different. My brother and I had our unique parents, and we ourselves are unique... Nobody can quite understand the loss I feel. And as much as I hate the cliche-ness of the following statement when used by someone with no understanding of its truth, I've come to realize that it is, in fact, truth, and I've come to experience the comfort of it: Only Jesus knows exactly what I am going through. He knows. He is my source of comfort, my source of hope. He knows.

I guess this was a lot of rambling... but I just felt like expressing some of the thoughts running through my brain that are keeping me from doing anything productive in my homework.

I posted some photos of my brother and I and also Luke and I.

That way, I don't have to feel bad which one I choose for Facebook.

We love you Luke!

2010-05-07T13:01:00.001-07:00

Lukey stepped in to heaven yesterday morning.

I wish I had some profound words to say to his momma, my dear friend Vikki, or to Jake and Tori, his brother and sister who now share something in common with me - the loss of a brother... but I know words don't take the pain away.

Selfishly, I wish I could play Jenga with all of them one more time, or nerf wars, or go swimming with them and the cousins again.

And while I know God is good and Luke is with him in heaven, without pain and completely cancer-free, and while I know God will eventually bring the Jensens and their extended family through the time of grief... for now... its just heartbreaking.

I feel detached from it all, living down in LA... but I'm so glad I spent some quality time with them all back in March... I don't really know what to say to my friends here. Luke became quite famous, and friends of mine from around the world have been praying for him and his family. I know they will continue to pray for the family, but I just wish I could say something.

So, no news about my school this week... just a tribute to my buddy, Luke. He will be missed by so many, myself included. I will even miss how he'd call my bum jiggly... Well, sort of. Mostly I'll miss his sweet smile and amazing attitude through stuff most adults would balk at.

Maybe he'll pick on my brother in heaven for me until I get there. I imagine they'd get along. Both are a little stubborn and ornery... both have amazing senses of humor... both loved Legos here on this earth... yeah... I don't know what heaven is like, but if it is anything like I imagine, I think they'd be friends.

Vikki, Steve, Jake, Tori... I'm praying for you all and crying with you over the hole in our lives where Luke used to be. I pray that God comforts you in a way only he can in this time, where human words and actions fail, I pray he would know just the right touch, words, and even memories to bring to your mind. I think he can do that... He's God, after all.

Love you guys sooooo much.

Jillian

1 Corinthians

2010-04-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

Last week we studied Galatians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians... it was also a very busy week with a test and other things going on which just added some stress. So... no updates from last week... sorry!

This week however, we are studying 1 Corinthians, and its all about the love.

The more I read about the background of the people living in Corinth, the more I understand this book. I really haven't gotten far into it since it is the beginning of the week, but its awesome so far! The more I've studied the more I've been excited for what is coming up in a few months.... OUTREACH!

I am having fun fundraising for outreach. I think I've mentioned before, I'm going to Chiang Rai, Thailand to teach the bible and how to study the bible inductively to pastors and churches in this region. Thailand is mainly Buddhist, with also some Hindu and Muslim communities. We will be working in a predominantly Buddhist area that is in desperate need of discipleship through the Word. Anyway, I was praying about what to do about my finances, since I don't need to raise a LOT, but I will need to see more come in than my regular support, as my outreach fees are about $2800 and right now I have about 1/3 of that amount. Since my school requires almost all of my free time for homework, I can't exactly go out and work an evening job either. So, I got the idea to make smoothies. I know... brilliant, right? Well, I can't take credit for it - my friend Priscille suggested it. I wanted to do something with my hands and be faithful with what God has given me - a bit of time here and there, and creativity! So, after a trip to Costco, I was armed with bags of frozen blueberries and strawberries, bananas, yoghurt, apple juice, and determination to give it my best. I'm going to be selling smoothies after our Base Meetings on Mondays and Thursdays (our times for worship and prayer as a whole community). I've only been doing the sale for a week, so I haven't seen a huge income, but... its fun and I feel I am being obedient to God, and I trust he will bless that. As we do the possible he does the impossible, right?

In other news, I had the opportunity to see some good friends in Costa Mesa on Sunday night, whom I had not seen for over 2 years. One, Sara, lives in New Zealand but was in town for a wedding. It was so great to catch up with these girls who invested in my life when I lived in Orange County back in 2001-2002. We laughed, we cried, we shared stories, we prayed... I'm so grateful for Sara, Jamie, Cyndi, and Heather - women who were used by God in my life to bring me closer to him!

And as I'm sure you all know already, my dear friend, Vikki, (technically she's like a 2nd cousin or something) and her family need your prayer. Their son Luke has Leukemia for the 3rd time and it breaks my heart to know he is going through this. I wish I could do something, but then I realize, I CAN. I can pray. Even though I live hundreds of miles away, God is still God here in Los Angeles and he hears me here, too! I know there are people all over that are praying for Luke and his family. If you want to read about him, check out his website, and then PRAY for him, his mom and dad (Vikki & Steve), his older brother Jake, and his younger sister Tori too. God really does hear our prayers.

I think that is it for now. Oh, the photos are from Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles in Hollywood (we went for my classmate Jeff's birthday), and from a Base Cleaning Day where I was on the van-washing crew. Love you all and thanks for reading!

1 Corinthians 16:14 "Let all that you do be done in love."

He is Risen Indeed...

2010-04-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a great weekend hanging out with my friend Tracy and her mom Jan down in OC. For Easter, we went to the OC Fairgrounds where my old church from when I used to live down here, Rock Harbor, was holding its services for Easter this year. Since I've been studying the bible, it was so neat to understand what our pastor was speaking about in a new way... last week we studied Matthew, and this week Luke and Acts, so I've been seeing the difference in these two accounts that were written for different audiences (Jewish and Greek/Gentile.) The thing for it all that is so awesome is this: God wanted his message of hope to be available for all peoples. He hadn't given up on his people, the Jews... and he had never limited this message to be available only for the Jews (from the start of their nation - Abraham - they were meant to be blessed so that through them all nations would be blessed!) Anyway, I had such an awesome time singing songs and worshiping God on this day where people all around the world celebrate the hope we have because of his death and resurrection.

I am always hearing people say stuff about how Easter isn't about Jesus anymore, or that it was originally a pagan holiday that Christians tried to turn into one about Jesus, and I hear similar arguments about Christmas as well. What I would like to point out is this: The same God who created the heavens, the earth, the sun and moon and the seasons... I think he's big enough to be worshiped on every day of the year (which he created, by the way.) And if there are one or two days out of the year where people who don't normally worship Jesus or hear about him decide to put on pretty clothes and rock up to a church service even though the rest of their lives don't yet look very "Christian"... I don't see anything wrong about this... I actually think its pretty AWESOME! Yes, like many who heard the message back when Jesus was walking the earth and they still missed it, there will be those who still hear and miss it today. But there's the chance that others will hear, believe, and their lives will be forever changed. And if you have read the teachings of Jesus in the gospels, you'll see he was all about calling sinners to repentance on the individual scale.

Just think...

A shepherd leaving his flock of ninety-nine to go after one sheep that was lost?

New Testament!

2010-03-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

We finally completed all of the Old Testament before Spring Break and now, here we are diving into Matthew. I LOVE JESUS!!! I love that Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any other New Testament book, and that it just makes sense the Jesus is the Messiah and the King of the Jews. Still, its so sad that most of his own didn't recognize him. Yet, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed... tiny seed, giant tree. Yep. Too much to write about on Matthew. So I'm just going to say... READ IT YOURSELF! Remember, it was written to a predominantly Jewish audience, which explains why there's so much quoting of the law and prophets (and psalms!) But, still, us Gentiles can know Jesus more through this book, and God's heart for Israel which was still the same as it was when they were just a fledgling nation coming out of slavery in Egypt. Wow, was that really only 6 months ago I was reading about the Exodus? God is faithful! That's all I can say.

Change of Plans...

2010-03-08T18:45:00.001-08:00

I'm flying home on Thursday for spring break. I was thinking I needed to save money and stay in So Cal, but I feel the need to be in Washington right now. I don't know if people need me to be there, but I need to be there, if that makes any sense. My friends the Loghrys and the Jensens are facing some hard stuff... And like I said in the last post just this morning, its not about what I can say or do... its just being there. After I bought my tickets this afternoon, I felt a deep sense of peace that this is what I need to do right now, no matter if I feel like I can help or not.

Check out www.caringbridge.org/visit/lukejensen if you want to read about what's going on with the Jensens.

And if I don't see you while I'm in Washington and Oregon, please don't be offended. My main priority is two families that are very dear to me that are hurting right now. I hope you can understand.

Please pray for these families and pray that God will use me to offer comfort and hope somehow in these difficult times.

Post-Exile...

2010-03-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

Angela told me today that I need to update, and since I know she's going through some tough stuff that I can't even begin to comprehend, I decided to indulge her request. If you are not Angela and you are reading this, well... lucky you!

If there's one thing I learned through the last few years after losing my brother, Jeff, its that humor and laughter is good medicine. I don't think I completely understand this, but it is. Granted, the timing for this sort of humor is crucial... a punch line at the wrong time could get a punch in the face. There's a time to bring a smile, and time to just join in the tears. I wish I had this nailed down to an art, but sometimes I get it. Sometimes I don't. I remember a few months after Jeff died, there was an incident involving pigeons and my mom possibly wetting herself that had us laughing for hours. I apparently was able to offer some comic relief to Angela on the phone yesterday, which was not intended, but I guess it helped... and sorry, the rest of you don't get to know what was so funny - that's a secret best left between friends. I don't know the point of this post except to say... God knows when we need to have a good laugh, and when we need to have a good cry. Or both.

So how do we live after feeling we're dying inside? I think this is something I'm reflecting a lot on as I read through these post-Exilic books of the bible. Judah had been carried away into exile under Babylon and then were still in captivity under Persia and now, 70 years later, God was giving them favor to return and to rebuild the temple and the wall of Jerusalem. They should be overjoyed right? Then why were some of them weeping at the laying of the foundation? Why were they still mourning the fall? There was an underlying realization of... things will never be the same again. The sad thing is, it wasn't meant to be the same. Judah had become so corrupt leading up to the fall in 586 BC that there was no other remedy. The interesting thing about these books is that despite this grief the people were feeling, God was encouraging his people to look forward with hope and joy for the future.

It will be 3 years since Jeff's accident on May 13th this year. I still don't feel like I have anything to offer to others who have lost loved ones or are going through hard situations. I still don't know what to say, but wish I could say something. Sometimes I do, then wish I wouldn't have. A roommate I had in Australia back in '03 lost her brother last year and got in contact with me on Facebook and asked for advice. I think she was asking the same thing I was asking others who were years further in the grieving process than myself: When does life go back to normal? When will I want to get out of bed again? When will this whole in my heart be mended? I didn't get the answers I wanted. I don't think I could offer them either. Loss hurts. And yet, God is present with us to give laughter when we need it, to comfort us when we need to cry... Perhaps there's wisdom in just not saying anything. Nothing people said, even when I was asking for them to say something, helped. It was just their presence. Knowing I wasn't alone even though I felt it very much so.

Well, I need to finish my homework for Nehemiah and Malachi. THESE ARE THE LAST BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!!! (In our Chronological order, anyway!)

That means next week is spring break, and then after that... we get to meet JESUS!!! =)

Team Thailand & Hip Hop for Jesus...

2010-02-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

From Left to Right: Emily, Ange, me, Ryan, Jeremy, Michael, and Bridgette & David with baby Emily!

We're currently studying Daniel this week, and also fundraising as a team for our outreach funds. This Friday we need to turn in a $350 deposit so we can start booking tickets, and about half of my teammates still need finances for outreach and to finish the lecture phase of school. Please keep us in your prayers!

No more new news, except that I attended a hip hop dance class tonight!!! It was led by a dance instructor/choreographer/dancer that has worked with all sorts of different performing artists (Natasha Bedingfield, Britney Spears, Kirk Franklin, and a bunch of others I can't remember)... and while I felt like a dork, it was a LOT of fun and it was neat to hear the teacher's heart to use hip-hop and other dance expressions to reach people with the Gospel who might not hear it otherwise. A group of students from the DTS here takes weekly classes so they will have professionally choreographed dances put together to take with them on outreach overseas. AWESOME!

I love how God gives us all different gifts to reach people of all walks of life. I might not have the dance skills for hip hop, but God has given me other gifts to reach people and I'm thankful for the gifts God has given me, and the ones he's given to others!!! Its why we have this thing called the church, the body of Christ.... we all have something different to offer each other and the world around us, and we all need one another! LOVE IT!

OUTREACH!!! (and Nahum, Habs, Zephy, Jerry, & Eazy E)

2010-02-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Last few weeks since writing we have studied the books of Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and this week Ezekiel. Its been good. And so much that I can't think of what to write about, so I'm going to talk about OUTREACH!

Our school finishes in June and then there is an option to go on outreach for 6 weeks. Its a bit different than a DTS outreach, the focus is doing a lot more preaching and teaching. We are sending teams to Dalian, China and Chiang Rai, Thailand. And after praying about it, I feel I am supposed to go on outreach to be better equipped in teaching the word, and so I am going to...

CHIANG RAI, THAILAND! Whee! The teams are still being finalized, but from the sounds of it, our Thailand team will be much smaller, and I'm excited about it. The leaders are Dave and Bridgette, an awesome married couple with a baby girl named Emily. From what Dave and Bri have said, we already have a large number of pastors in the area we will be visiting that are eager to learn how to study the word and teach it to their congregations. (Wow... such a reminder of how RICH we are in this nation... we have God's Word so accessible!)

Praise God he has been providing for my needs for the School of Biblical Studies, and through the generosity of others, I have over half of the amount needed for the outreach (which is from late June-August.) The total is approximately $2000 including airfare, ground costs and travel insurance. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me in the next few months as I finish this course and head out on outreach!!!

Please keep me in your prayers. I don't know if you guessed by my last entry, but this course is NOT easy. It is amazing and God is using it mightily in my life, but it is a challenge. Some days I am tempted to give up and just turn in half-hearted attempts at my homework, but I know God has me here for more than that and I don't want to miss out on what HE wants to teach me through his Word. And please, if you have any need for prayer, don't hesitate to let me know. I may be busy, but not THAT busy! Its super important, you know!

Since I've been back...

2010-01-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

...We've studied Hosea and Isaiah, two prophets of the Old Testament. Pretty awesome stuff.

Last week, Hosea showed us all about the steadfast love of God towards his people despite their continual unfaithfulness.

Isaiah showed us so much, but my favorite part of the homework was looking for the word servant throughout chapters 40-66 and deciding who the "servant" was based on the context and the research we did about the author, dating, and original hearers. There was so much about JESUS (in my opinion based on my research, so you are allowed to disagree with me) that was undisputedly talking about him. And there is archaeological evidence that Isaiah was written at least a couple hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and based on the fact that in the dead sea scrolls, the book of Isaiah is on one scroll, front and back, without a separation between chapters 39 and 40, suggesting it is all one work by one author, as opposed to some scholars view that it is impossible that Isaiah could have written both sections because of the specifics of his prophecies... such scholars don't believe that God could have divinely inspired Isaiah with the name of Cyrus, a Persian ruler who would free his people from exile in Babylon (which was not a world power at the time of Isaiah...) But if Isaiah did not write the entire book of Isaiah, or at least prophesy all of the prophesies written in the book, then every writer in the New Testament was either misled or deceptive, as the numerous quotations of his prophesies are said to be found "in the book of Isaiah." So... I think the evidence makes it clear... God did speak to this guy, Isaiah, son of Amoz, and he prophesied coming judgment and restoration, and salvation. ANYWAY... I don't know if any of you are as excited about the evidence as I am.

Now I have to admit something. Since I've been back from Christmas break, I've been having a hard time getting into the homework and was feeling rather frustrated with myself. Just not feeling motivated, I guess. I was emotionally drained and had multiple things that reminded me of my brother and how he's not here anymore. Then I was just frustrated that I'm still having those days where I miss him. Its been nearly 3 years!!! Anyway, I didn't finish my homework for Isaiah, I didn't hardly do any, actually. I was super discouraged about it, but I felt encouraged and reminded that I didn't come here for grades, I came here because I wanted to know God and his word better so I can better share him with others. So, even if I didn't get an "A" on my homework this week (or a B, or C...) I know he is working in my life and bringing the emotions and attitudes of my heart to the surface because his word is not just about changing my thinking, its also about changing my heart, correcting wrong ideas I have of God, healing hurts I have, and the lot. And I know I have the tools to study his word for myself now, so when the school finishes I can go back and dig deeper into Isaiah where I missed stuff. And God loves me just the same as if I would have worked my butt off to get all the homework done.

So that's what I've ALSO been learning this week. That God doesn't expect perfection and see me as a failure when I don't meet the mark. He isn't this harsh father yelling at me for not being good enough... And for me, that was something I really needed to learn. That God is more like a Dad who when his kid is learning to walk is going "YEAH! You can do it!" and when his kid falls, he's not saying, "You STUPID kid! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING EVEN TRYING THAT???" He's saying, "YEAH!!! That's my girl! She walked! Did you see that???" Even if all his kid walked was 1 step.

So... thanks, God, for that reminder of your love for me, and your love for everyone. Help me to really grasp this concept of your love that does not demand perfection, but delights in me just because I'm your child.

Christmastime in Bible School

2009-12-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

O come, O come Emmanuel

and ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appears

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee

O Israel

Studying the books of the bible in chronological order, we have read all about Israel's beginning as a nation, their struggles and successes, and in studying inductively, we really have tried to put ourselves in the shoes of the people of Israel. When the kingdom split a few weeks ago, into the 10 tribes, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the tribe of Judah... we, as 21st century bible students, felt the pain of separation.

We've also seen how faithful God has been to remind his people over and over and over (you get the idea) to return to him, and their continual disobedience through the books of 1 and 2 Kings, which finally leads to their exiles, the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC by the Assyrians (never to return) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC by Babylon. We see that Judah returns, but Israel's Northern Kingdom never does. Why? All throughout the time of Judah's existence as a nation, he kept alive the line of King David, because he had made a covenant with David, that he would have an everlasting house..... And here are poor Israel (well, Judah, anyway) in exile... mourning, feeling sorry for themselves and wondering why they are there... but God shows them through the law and the prophets that they are there because they deserved exile.

I have to admit, when Judah went into exile, I shed a few tears. I knew it was coming, but it was so sad that they could have seen it coming but they still didn't change... and yet God still preserved them while in captivity, so that JESUS could come through the line of David. Puts a lot more meaning to the old Christmas hymns.

This week we are studying Amos, a prophet from Judah to Israel (enemies at this point) who came from a working-man background - he was just a shepherd... but God called him to be a prophet to Israel. The key verse for this book is 5:15 - "Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." If you read the book (please do, its only 9 chapters!) you will see a theme of God's view of social injustice... he hates injustice... and this is why he warns through Amos that he is going to send Israel into Exile, because they were living luxurious lives in the "golden age" of Jeroboam II, but their luxury and wealth was built on the oppression of the poor and needy, and God was not okay with this injustice.... taxing people to buy wine, worshiping multiple images they made (some Babylonian gods), and still pretending to worship the Lord, but not with any actual change in their behavior. The positive ending of this book in chapter 9 is the "Salvation Oracle" which speaks of a time that would come when God would raise up the booth of David that was fallen. This prophesy is quoted by James in Acts 15:16-17.... in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by His name, when the early church was trying to sort out their thoughts on new believers who were not jews, and if they should follow jewish traditions... It shows that Jesus was for all nations, any who would believe in him - not just the jews, not just the non-jews... everyone! He promises to restore the fortunes of his people... so awesome... Anyway, read it yourself. Its an awesome book.

So.... this is long enough and I have loads of homework to complete, so I'll end here. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, but hope this one makes up for it! May you also look to Jesus in this time of Advent, with expectancy of the one who was the ransom for us all!!!

Merry Christmas (A few weeks early,)

Jillian

HOMEWORK!!!

2009-11-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

Here's some of my homework for this week, I am Charting Psalm 103 right now and was so excited about the meaning of this that I thought I would share! (It might be redundant to you, but to me it was so neat to see how just observing the verb tense of these verses could bring about a new revelation of who God is!)

Please note, this is only one part of the homework that I do... first I had to color-code all the different observations I made, do background research on the writer, when he wrote it, who he wrote it to, and THEN I can do the following process. Per chart (doing 5 charts this week on 5 Psalms) I might make 20 observations, but I choose 4 of them that "trigger" a question about the author's intentions, the significance for the original readers, etc, then I go from there.

OBSERVATION: v.3-5 VERB TENSE: Present Progressive: Who Forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies

INTERP Q: Why are the verbs in this passage present progressive tense?

A: David is emphasizing that God did not do it once, nor is he going to do it someday… he’s saying God has been forgiving, is still forgiving and is going to continue forgiving all his iniquity. This is the same for “…heals all diseases, redeems from the pit, crowns with steadfast love & mercy, satisfies with good as long as you live…” He has done it, is doing it, and will continue to do it. And the best thing is David is saying this to himself, reminding himself to not forget all the Lord’s benefits that are present progressive. Why did he need to remind himself to not forget? Because he had experienced the immense benefits of forgiveness and redemption after the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the sin of ordering the murder of her husband Uriah. He realized he did not deserve these benefits at all, but that the Lord was going to give them all the same, and continue to do so, so he praised God even though perhaps he did not see the results immediately of his forgiveness and redemption, he was hanging onto the truth of who God is (was and will be too.)

TIMELESS TRUTH: The benefits of the Lord are not limited time offers. They are constant, continual and limitless to those who believe.

APPLICATION: Do I believe this? Sure its easy to believe when life is going well, but what about in crappy times? I'll leave my personal application out... why don't you ask the Lord how he wants you to apply this truth... =) And read the whole Psalm... I pray it encourages you as it has encouraged me!!

Love,

Jillian

psalms here I come

2009-10-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

Okay... 1 and 2 Samuel are done and done... and I have a whole weekend off (Saturday AND Sunday!) Psalms is next week, and from what I hear, the assignment is a lot more creative and a lot less work academically - no essays or charting!!! I love the essays and charting, actually, but this will be a nice break from the side of my brain I don't use quite as naturally.

The weather is changing, and I am (hopefully) getting over a cold, which I've had for a week or so... and I'm helping to put together a "Come as you are not" party tomorrow night for our class. I love parties, and we even get a bit of a budget this time to go shopping for decorations, so you never know what will happen!!!

Missing home a bit, as the leaves are not changing colors here. But... I'm loving the cold fall breezes here... and experiencing dry cold. Very different from Washington or the Tropics for that matter! I got a package from my church and have thoroughly enjoyed the snacks and goodies they sent me!

I would update about everything I learned in Samuel, but my brain is a little dead, so perhaps another time. I might start posting notes on Facebook that are some of my book essays or applications that I don't mind sharing... we'll see!

Love to all from Sunny but Chilly Southern California,

Jillian

Joshua Judges Ruth

2009-10-27T23:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm not the best at updating. What can I say? On my one day of rest, its not the priority on my list usually. But I've got a few minutes before I go to sleep, so I thought I'd give an update to let you all know I'm alive and kicking. Even if I'm not kicking as much as normal!

A few highlights... lets just say reading the bible in the order it was written in makes such a difference. I am realizing more and more of God's goodness in the Old Testament with each book, even Judges! We've studied Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus & Numbers (After which, we went camping in the Wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park and reenacted the stories of the Exodus and hopefully the video will be available soon... its hilarious!), Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. This week we are also doing 1 and 2 Samuel.

But I'll just share on what's freshest in my mind.

Before, I think I read a few stories in Judges, or read the whole book and thought, "What in the world??? Did that really get written???" Because the Israelites kept turning away and turning away. But the Lord really changed my view of this book by one verse that stood out to me... Now the reference eludes me, but the text says, "And the Lord could no longer bear to see them suffer..." It was in reference to the 5th major cycle of the judges, where the Israelites sinned, were oppressed by another nation, then cried out to God, and he delivered them... I understood that it was no longer a book about a bunch of idiots that couldn't figure it out and just follow God... it is a book about a God who hears His children when they cry out to Him and delivers them from their suffering. And if the Israelites were a bunch of idiots, anyway... than what does that make me?

Ruth was great, a bit of a positive story to bring some light to the depressing mood of the Judges time period. It also was amazing to see the story's original purpose was so much more than just a story of a girl getting some threshing-floor lovin'. God's heart was for Israel to be a blessing to the nations, but in the time of the Judges, they weren't exactly being that... so Ruth (like her 2nd husband's mother, Rahab - yeah, Rahab the prostitute from Jericho!) was a Moabite woman (which, do you know how Moab became a people? Its a pretty gnarly story.) And, leaving all behind - her gods, her family, her homeland, she follows her mother-in-law to a land that was rather hostile to foreigners, declaring faith in the God of her mother-in-law, the God of Israel. So, do you see it? Ruth (the nations) is a blessing to Israel because from her obedience and loyalty to her mother-in-law, King David ends up coming from her family line. Bet it made the people in Bethlehem of Judah feel pretty humbled that this foreign woman understood and obeyed their law better than they did! Ruth was amazing. But Naomi, the bitter mother-in-law, wasn't so bad herself. I could understand Naomi so much better in the light of grief and pain. She had lost her husband and both of her sons... but she acknowledged God throughout the story. She may have been bitter, but the Lord restored joy to her life and she recognized it!!!

I could go on forever about any number of these stories, but alas, I must be up early for breakfast prep and its already nearing midnight. Blessings to you all, and enjoy a few photos of me and my classmates at a birthday party I hosted for Eyd (pronounced like the letter A) from the Faroe Islands, and also from the Wilderness Adventure (the scene is the parting of the red sea, and I am playing the Angel of the Lord.)

Numbers and My Classmates

2009-10-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

Well, Numbers... I could write a book about this book. Lamentations was awesome, too, by the way. However, I'm going to sum up both of these books with verses I thought were key. However, I'd like to preface this that, these verses DO NOT MAKE SENSE if you don't read the whole book, and if you haven't read the books previous (Genesis and Exodus.) You might THINK they make sense, but we must remember not to miss what God was teaching the Israelites in the Wilderness with these books, before we skip to how it applies to us today... this will make our application much more accurate, AND much more specific. Not to mention, when we understand even a glimpse of what the Israelites had to do to atone for sin, it makes what Jesus did for us just that much more AMAZING!!! Okay, so key verses, here you go:

Lamentations 11:44-45: "For I am the LORD your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves..... For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy."

For Numbers, its hard to sum up, because there is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF... but I'll pick this verse, from Joshua and Caleb, Numbers 14:9"Only, do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

I encourage you to read these books.... God is teaching me so much through the book of the Law!!!

Okay.... so classmates....

There are 25 students and 6 staff from 11 countries and ranging in age from 19 - 40-something!
Of course, being in the USA, we have a variety of Americans with a variety of accents (Ange from Kentucky has my favorite, with AnnMarie from the Bronx, NY in a close second!) Then we also have Korean, Korean-American, Chinese-American, African-American, Nigerian, South African, Norwegian, Swedish, British, Faroese, Canadian, French-Swiss, and German. QUITE THE MIX. Here's a photo of our crew from the first week.

Anyway, I better get back to my homework.... I pray you are inspired to dive into God's Word, because it is SO AMAZING!!! Thanks for everyone's prayers, too! It means a lot to me!

p.s. Before I forget, my friends in YWAM Australia have created a website to help with Samoa's rebuilding ahead of them. Its through a branch of YWAM called ARMS (Australian Relief and Mercy Services.) If you want to see how you could be involved in the long-term redevelopment of an entire nation, check out this website: www.samoaroadtorecovery.org

What am I doing?

2009-10-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, Just in case you're wondering what's keeping me so busy that I haven't been faithfully updating, I thought I would explain what my weeks entail, and a bit of the inductive study method.

Yesterday was my "Sabbath" day of rest which typically includes church (haven't picked a home one yet, but most of my fellow students enjoy Ecclesia in Hollywood and so at least I can get a ride to that one.) And then something else restful, whether a nap or painting my toenails!

Sunday night, I start my first reading - this means I read through the entire book in one sitting, yesterday was Leviticus, and this week we're doing two books, so Numbers will be on Wednesday.
THEN, I go back through the book and create titles for each paragraph, made up of 4 words from the text of that paragraph in order. Leviticus has 27 chapters (less than Genesis and Exodus, thank you, Jesus!) So that's only a few hundred I think.
Monday Morning, I head up the Breakfast Prep and Cleanup Crew. We get to the Kitchen at 6am, serve at 7am, then are done with cleanup by 8am. I also do this on Wednesday and Friday Mornings... Our Breakfast Crew also is America's next Dance Crew... Or at least we'd like to think we are. Then we rush to the main hall for Worship and Prayer. Monday mornings are nice because we have free time after worship until Lunch, and then class starts at 1:30, at which point, I usually need a big cup of coffee.
This week we have Ron Youngblood, the Editor of the Nelson Bible Dictionary, speaking on the books of Leviticus and Numbers... I'm excited to hear more about WHY the Israelites had so many different sacrifices and sin offerings for things like giving birth or periods... Its kind of funny reading in mixed groups about various... discharges... I love the Bible! Hahaha... No, really, I do!

Okay, so Monday-Saturday Night at 7pm we are busy with homework outside of our lectures.

First, its creating a BRI - Basic Required Information for the book. This is information we research from internal and external evidence about the Original Reader, the Author, the Historical and Cultural Background, etc....We put this into a paper we turn in on Saturday with our Charts.

Then, its Charting the book - this is a process of color coding observations we make in our bible (28 different types of obs from conditional statements to lists, repeated themes to figures of speech...), then we create 2-4 paragraph points for each paragraph (in addition to the titles) that use only words from the text to sum up the paragraph and also, we color code our observations in these points, and write out a description for the observation to the left of our chart. Then, when an Observation triggers a question, we ask an Interpretive Question, such as, "Why is this event/law/whatever it is significant to the Original Reader? Then we answer the question based on what we assume about the Original Reader from our earlier research for the BRI. That process is called Interpretation and has nothing to do with me or us. From our Interpretation, we pull out a Timeless Truth - something that is true for all believers for all times, still not about me. From our Timeless Truth, THEN WE GET TO ME!!! This is the Application where I write about how this timeless truth can be applied in my life today, or in the life of my church, my society, etc. This is the Charting Process, which takes up the majority of our time.

In addition to Charting, we have other assignments. Last week, as we studied Exodus, we wrote a paper on 3 of the laws outside of the Ten Commandments and their significance (from Chapters 21-23.) We also painted something that symbolized the chapters on the construction and laws regarding the Tabernacle.

Oh man, its lunch time, I better get going... but hopefully this gives you all an idea of why I haven't been the best at calling home to chat!!!

I'll write more later about my roommates and classmates and staff, they are LEGENDS!

Blessings!

In the Beginning...

2009-09-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

Wow.... I never thought I could love Genesis so much. Okay, so I am sick and doing homework at the moment isn't my favorite thing, BUT... God's Word is alive and I am learning so much. Most people (myself included) usually have some misconceptions about the Old Testament... they see God as unfair or unjust, or just plain MEAN. But as I read the WHOLE book in one sitting, not just parts, I saw for the first time a theme of God's tenderness and love throughout the stories. Towards ALL people, not just His chosen people.

*Disclaimer, This is just what God has been revealing to me personally, which we call APPLICATION... I haven't mentioned in this blog INTERPRETATION, what these stories would mean to the Original Audience who had been slaves in Egypt and needed an entire reshaping of their worldview. I haven't gone into the background information or anything else I've been doing in my homework... this is just application stuff that I think is cool that I thought you might think is cool too.

Some examples of God's tenderness are:

When Adam and Eve disobey in the garden, even though they chose something else over him (a lie) and He sent them from the garden so they wouldn't live forever IN SIN, he still clothed them....

Or how about Hagar and Ishmael? (Yes, the ones through which the Arab nations came to be.) They were sent away into the wilderness... but GOD saw them and cared for them and promised that Ishmael would have numerous descendants (hmmm... sounds like another son of Abraham...)

And then there was Leah.... She was the unwanted, unloved wife of Jacob who had worked 7 years to marry her sister Rachel, but got "stuck" with her instead and had to work another 7 for Rachel. But God saw she was unloved and her womb was opened. God loved Leah!!!

And there's many more... I've heard someone say the bible was written by the heroes, therefore its a biased recollection, and yet in Genesis alone I see that God (through the inspired author) felt it was necessary to write to the original readers that He created ALL humankind in His image, and that He cares for all, whether they are the main characters or not.

So..... Pretty cool, huh?

Old friends, new friends

2009-09-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Here's me in my new room (its a work in progress...)
Photo taken by Emily with my laptop's built in camera

This morning Angela, Ryan, and I packed up and said our goodbyes to Ang's Uncle Joe and Aunty Doreen, then headed up the 210 freeway about 7 miles to YWAM Los Angeles. Then, I said goodbye to the dynamic duo and they headed north. I just got a call from Angela from the Olive Pit, Corning, CA... They are making GOOD time and plan to be home for dinner at church tomorrow night.

I am now settling into my home here... I am staying in a mobile home that has about 5 rooms with 2 girls in each room, and my roommate is my friend Emily from Indiana! She and I were roommates in Hawaii and got on very well together, so its truly an answered prayer to have her as a roomie. AND an extra added blessing is this: we have a kitchen shared between the girls in this house, and I will be able to make coffee and food for people (and myself of course!) I met many of the girls from the school, and one girl, Gracie, also plays the ukulele!!! How fun!!!

Tonight we have registration, then the school stuff starts tomorrow. I'm so excited to grow closer to Jesus and get to know His Word more through the next 9 months. I can't believe I'm finally here! All of you at home, I miss you already! I can't wait to get started!!!

Love you all,

Jillian

I'm in California!

2009-09-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, northern California, anyhow. My friends, Angela and Ryan are driving with me down to Los Angeles, and at Grants Pass we headed to the Coast to drive through the Redwoods... We're staying the night in Arcata and tomorrow we head south on the 101 to San Francisco, where we will then veer back to the 5 for the remainder of our journey. We rented a mid-size car (not quite large enough for everything, but we made it work!!) played 20 questions, drove through a tree, played ukulele to Steve Miller Band songs, and ate lots of beef jerky. Good times!!!

Some cool stuff... over the past few days I received several donations and now have enough money to pay for the 9 months of the School of Biblical Studies!!! This means that any additional amount of support I receive (monthly or one time) can go towards other living expenses, saving for the outreach portion of the school from June-August, and also so I can have some form of health insurance! Seriously, this is such an answer to prayer!!!

Anyhow, I don't have my card reader readily accessible, so I'll post photos when we get down to Los Angeles and I can find it in my suitcase!!!

Followers

2009-08-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know how people can become a follower. I don't know if they need to have a gmail account or a blogger account or what. Its kind of a silly thing to have followers anyway, but some people have asked me how to receive updates when I have updated the blog. Perhaps I will just have to email them and tell them I have updated the blog. HMMMM. Do you know how? Then please become a follower and comment!

Here's some news highlights:

I am leaving for California in 10 days for the Chronological School of Biblical Studies at YWAM Los Angeles.

I had a yard sale this weekend and made $300!

The girls from the Hockinson Youth Group had a "Spa Night" and we did each other's nails at one of the girls' house. I love these young women and their passion for God and living life to the fullest. I also love the beach scenes on my fingernails - AMAZING!

I worked at Waldorf Kennels this weekend and scooped poop. Okay, that's not a highlight, but it goes to show I am kind of willing to do any work to do my part in raising funds for the C-SBS. Even crappy jobs. Hehehe...Get it?

Here's a few photos from my Dad's birthday weekend (two weekends ago.) I love driving the jeep off-road. We went up to the Gorge the LONG way!!!

Jilliver's travels 2009

2009-08-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

This year, I have had the immense privilege of doing some more traveling than normal.

I started out in Yap, Micronesia over the new year. I was leading a team of Discipleship Training School (DTS) students on a field assignment also known as an outreach. Had a great Christmas and New Years in this little island in the Western Pacific, and though we faced some challenges, as a team we saw a new level of unity among the churches of Yap and a new dedication to purity among the young people of the islands. Very cool.

After the DTS finished, I wrapped things up in Hawaii and moved my stuff back to Yacolt, Washington... yup... to Mum and Dad's. Its great, being 27 and living at home. Okay, actually, it really is. I mean, sure I still get treated like a teenager with curfews and chores, but I have a place to stay (for free!) and a car to drive... not to mention, I get to hang with my parents who are extremely cool for recently joining the ranks of 50-somethings. And... since I don't exactly have a place to call my own these days, being in good with the parents is a bonus, as I have a whole room in which I can store anything over my luggage limits! I also was in a friends' wedding and my dad happened to be a groomsmen... so guess who walked me down the aisle. NICE.

In May, I took a month-long trip to England, Greece, Kuwait, Egypt, France, and Switzerland. Random, I know... but it was a dream come true for me, and I actually was blessed with cheap airfares and people to stay with most of the time. It was not with YWAM, but I did visit some friends and locations over there. Its a long story, but here's some photos... I know I'll be back to that side of the world someday, and for a lot longer than a month, thank you! Ask me about the trip, if you want to know more!

Hazel and I at the London Tower Bridge in London, England

Diana (top), Shinae (bottom) and I in a phone booth in London

Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece

Some new friends at the Women's College in Kuwait

Fatema and her father, and I sharing dinner at a marketplace in Kuwait

Amira and I at the Citadel in Alexandria, Egypt

Riding a camel at the Giza Pyramids, Egypt

Cynthia and I on Lake Geneva in Nyon, Switzerland

I visited my friends Noel and Guislaine and their two boys in France.

Here's a photo from Annecy, France

Rode cable cars to the top of Aguille du Midi... Mont Blanc, France

France/Switzerland was my last stop and after that it was "back to life, back to reality..." whatever that means. I worked with my church, Hockinson Community Church, in Washington, and also went to my family reunion and a wedding up in Canada. The roadtrip through Jasper National Park on the way up and Banff on the way down was breathtaking.

Stephanie and I at our friend Stephen's Wedding. Steph and her husband, Christian, had me stay at their place in Kelowna... such a blessing! It was a great wedding, and it was great catching up with friends from when we all lived in Townsville, Australia.

A week after returning from Canada, I helped lead the Mexico Missions Team from my church to build a house for a needy family in Vicente Guerrero, Mexico.

Now I'm home until next month... and I've just explained about what I'll be doing come September 16th in the "Coming Soon...C-SBS" Post. So.... That hopefully explains a BIT of what I've been up to in 2009. Hope you enjoyed the compilation of photos!

Scuba diving

2009-08-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

I love sharks. Here's one of the ones I saw in Yap (Micronesia.)

What you can't tell here is that I was hanging on for dear life...
the current was FREAKING strong in Yap.

I wish you could see the sharks in the background...
but remembering how to smile underwater is nice, too.

Its been about 6 months since I went diving. These photos are old. But... well, I'm missing the ocean, and thought I'd post some fun photos in memory of my scuba diving brother, Jeff!

I bet there's some great diving in heaven! Maybe you don't even need a reg!

Coming soon... C-SBS

2009-08-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

C-SBS = Chronological School of Biblical Studies. Yes, I'm going back to school. I have been serving in Christian Missions for over 6 years now, and the C-SBS is what I feel God has challenged me to do next. I believe this is so I might know Him better, understand His Word more fully, and be able to teach others to study the Bible for themselves.

I'm starting the school in about a month in Los Angeles. There are Schools of Biblical Studies at many Youth With A Mission locations around the world, but I was drawn to the school in Los Angeles because of the Chronilogical order and because its close enough to Washington so I can visit family at Christmastime. This is something that is important to me since I was overseas last Christmas.

The course begins on September 16th and until then I am in Washington State working a few odd jobs and saving for my course costs. And, of course, I'm hanging out with friends and family whenever I can!

Here's some information about the C-SBS from the YWAM LA website http://www.ywamla.org/ if you are interested in what exactly I'm going to be doing for 9 whole months.

Foundations for Life and Ministry
The Chronological School of Biblical Studies (C-SBS) is a nine-month course in which students study all 66 book of the Bible in chronological order, in effect reading the Bible through 5 times. This school takes an inductive approach, encouraging its students to observe what the text says, and allowing God's Word to shape their beliefs. C-SBS allows the Gospel story to unfold step-by-step, life-by life, as God revealed it to His people.

1st Quarter - September to December 2009:
Part 1: The beginning of Creation; the Fall of Humanity; the Call, Redemption, and Salvation of His people; the Birth of an earthly Kingdom. (Genesis - Samuel)
Part 2: The Heart of the King's Wisdom. (Job, Psalms...)

2nd Quarter - January to March 2010:
Part 1: Merciful Warnings of Judgment to a Stubborn Regime, Promises of Salvation to a Repentant Remnant, and the Downfall of a Kingdom. (Joel - Jeremiah)
Part 2: Rebirth of an International People, awaiting Messiah. (Ezekiel, Daniel... - Malachi)

3rd Quarter - April - June 2010
Part 1: Messiah arrives and defeats death; fills His special people with His Spirit to redeem all peoples into His Kingdom. (Matthew, Luke/Acts, James, Galatians... - 2 Corinthians)
Part 2: Messiah's people worldwide endure suffering as His Kingdom of Grace spreads to all nations. (Mark, Prison Epistles... - John's books)

Outreach: June - August 2010
The final phase of C-SBS offers the students an opportunity to pass on Bible Study tools to others. A three to eight week outreach follows one to two weeks of training after the lecture phase. C-SBS students will have their own collection of Bible stories collected and practiced throughout the 9-months to use in evangelism and teaching.

That's all for now. I'm still figuring out how to add things to this bloggy blog blog, I might even add a video here and there! How very schnazzy.

I am that cool.

2009-08-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

I now have a blog. I've officially decided I am that cool.... that people want to read about me and possibly comment on how cool I am... well, I suppose I already knew I was that cool, but now I've said it. Its out there. Comment away.

Actually, I will try and keep this page updated and will use it mainly to share about what I am doing in missions with YWAM (Youth With A Mission.) I do have facebook and myspace, but this will be a bit easier to read, have less advertisements, and will be accessible for anyone.

And... it looks oh-so-grown-up, don't you think?

I'll write more soon, this is just an introduction. Hello. I'm Jillian Esther Wellman. I'm a lover, follower, missionary, and friend of Jesus Christ. And I have a blog.