I love working in ministry. Even more specifically, I love working in the area of discipleship.
I love being a part of someone's journey to gain intimacy with God and out of that intimacy, to watch them change the world around them. God has put an even deeper love for discipleship into both of our hearts over this past year in Kona. We knew that we loved the Discipleship Training School model and what it does to radically change peoples lives. But in the last year we began to feel specifically that discipleship was a long term call on our lives. We have had the wonderful opportunity to staff both a Compassion focused DTS last fall and a Performing Arts DTS this past Spring.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, Johnny has taken more of a front seat in regards to daily ministry with the students, while we, along with our leaders, felt that I was to take on a smaller ministry role so that Ezra, and also Baby K on the way, could be my main focus. And over the past season, for both of us, God has confirmed to us in so many ways that our calling as a couple is to disciple young people and help equip and prepare them for ministry. Whether it be in a traditional mission field overseas, or in the high schools of America, or helping our own children grow up with a heart and passion for the Lord and a desire to serve Him. We feel that one of the main purposes of our time so far in Kona was to recognize this passion for discipleship and to allow God to unfold how this was going to play out into our long term ministry. We have, of course, staffed and lead DTSes for many years, but it wasn't until recently that we realized that this is something we are certain we want to invest in long term. There are many opportunities within YWAM outside of DTS, so we have always been open to any direction in which God would move us, but he has made it clear that until further notice, DTS will be our focus.
We also had the wonderful opportunity to return to the world of discipling performing artists this past spring. Our PADTS team is currently on outreach in South Korea. We again did not get to go on this outreach because of my pregnancy, but we are itching to get back on outreaches as soon as possible! A growing family makes going on outreaches more challenging but we LOVE the opportunity and we love that our kids will grow up with these experiences! We are realizing more and more how special the hearts of performing artists are and how unique they are. Also, how powerful they are in this world where the arts play such a huge role. We have found ourselves missing being in the middle schools and high schools with our team of artists and with our message of putting and end to school violence and bullying but also the message of worth and value that so many kids around the world need to hear. We feel God leading us back to PADTS leadership sometime soon, although the details of how that will happen are not clear yet, but we are waiting and listening and trying to take advantage of the incredible leaders and staff and students that we have worked with and will work with through the end of this year.
So what does that mean for the upcoming seasons in our lives? thanks for asking!
We are committed to staffing the Compassion DTS again this fall. Well, let me clarify, Johnny will be staffing the school and I will be having a baby and focusing mainly on that for the fall quarter. We absolutely love and respect the leaders of the Compassion DTS in Kona, it is an honor to work from them and learn from them and we are beyond excited to be involved in the school again this fall!
After the New Year, when the teams from Compassion leave for outreach, we will once again not be traveling with them because we will have a newborn. Our hope is that this is the last time we will have to watch a school leave for outreach and not be going with them! But we take very seriously the role that we play in their discipleship and growth and preparation for outreach during lecture phase and we are so thankful to be a part of that season with them!
This fall we will be making some decisions regarding the exact next steps we will be taking, and we ask for you to join with us in prayer! As I mentioned, we know that God is moving us towards working long term with Performing Arts Discipleship Training Schools again. We feel that it is time for us to start leading schools together as a couple, something we have never had the opportunity to do before! There are a few different ways that we can move forward in regards to PADTSes, however we do not know for sure yet how God is leading us. We have some time to decide how and when this will happen, but we figure it is never too early to ask for prayer! So we ask for you to pray with us for clarity and understanding about this next step in our life. We are open and willing to take any path the Lord asks us to, we just want to hear him clearly!
It's an exciting and sometimes scary journey, doing life as a missionary family. We have days when we are not sure where our finances are going to come from, or days where being so far away from our friends and family is almost too much to handle. But more often we are overwhelmed by the richness of our lives, by the way that God has provided for us time and time again, and by the blessing that our friends and family have been to us. We could not continue on in our ministry without your faithful prayers, and encouraging words and your financial support. Please know that we are eternally grateful and consider each of you to be an integral part of our ministry!
We are currently in Canada visiting family and attending Johnny's oldest brother's wedding reception. He recently married his fiancee, she is Japanese and they were married in Tokyo but we are here to celebrate with Canadian friends and family. And then we will head back to Kona at the end of August to prepare for Compassion DTS and Baby K #2! Please pray for safe travels and that we would find a good apartment to rent. We need to find one BEFORE we return, so it could be tricky! I will keep our blog updated as we move into Compassion DTS and also as we make decisions about our future! Thank you for loving our family and for taking an interest in our lives! We love you!
All our love,
Johnny, Kelsey, Ezra and Baby K #2
