A Year in Review and a Look Forward

2016…wow, it is amazing how each year seems to come so quickly after the next and yet looking back 2015 was truly a great year. As a family God allowed us to experience so much of His faithfulness when we stepped out in faith and trusting him.  We went to Burkina Faso, USA, Australia (Joseph also visited South Africa and Ivory Coast as well) and made many visits to different locations in most of those as well as Togo too! Many of these trips were huge leaps of faith, often only departing with a small amount of money or none at all! Yet, every trip was completely covered by God and there was wonderful experiences to trust God as a family and see God do great works while we were there.

For ministry Joseph has had many opportunities to expand his influence with his teachings at new locations as well as now being apart of the board of regents for the University of the Nations, (the training branch of YWAM). On our campus we have seen great breakthrough with new schools beginning on the campus and have new nationalities join our campus either as students or staff. This year we have hosted 6 different outreach teams some YWAM, some church groups, there have been testimonies of miraculous healings, deliverance, salvations, and transformations. There have been many challenges, but each one God gave wisdom and showed himself to be teaching us new things and giving us authority to walk out freedom in our lives and for this campus and nation. We are grateful for each challenge that has taught us these things and we are so looking forward to new things. One of the most exciting things that has happened this year is the fulfillment of part of this campus’ original design. God spoke about how this campus would be a sending location into the Muslim nations of North Africa and then into Europe. This word was spoken in the 1990’s and as of December 26, 2015 that dream became a reality for the first time. One of our DTS outreach teams travelled to a North African nation to share the good news in a time when there is not much good news in that region of the world. As campus leadership, we have had this nation on our heart right from the being in 2011 but was waiting for the right timing, and this year when the DTS leader approached us and asked what we thought about them sending a team to this very location we gave an enthusiastic yes. There were some challenges to see this happen but God paved the way and we cannot wait for them to return to share the testimonies of what God did.

2016 looks to be a truly great year, even more so than 2015. September marks our 5^th year living here in Togo as well as the fifth year of the campus running once again. We are expected to start two new schools this year along with continuing the ones that started last year. We are looking at hosting many outreach groups and have many visitors as well. Most excitedly we are hosting a leadership training seminar on our campus in October called the DNA seminar. It is an event where the speakers are none other the very founders of the mission and those who are leading it with them. Loren and Darlene Cunningham will be here for two weeks teaching young leaders from all over the region of West Africa about the heartbeat of YWAM. We are so honored and excited to be hosting this event as they only do a few each year (this year only 4) and we have been asked to host one this year. Needless to say, we are expected a lot of fellow YWAMers to join us for this time and so we are going to be full! Actually we are looking at needing to do a lot of remodeling on the campus and hopefully building as well in order to host this event properly! We are not in a place where staying at a hotel or guest house is an option so our campus will be the one and only location for accommodations. So you will be hearing lots from us this year in this area as we have much to do and are looking forward to all the ways God provides and supports us in this preparation.

If you want to check out more about what's happening on the campus click here.

God's Goodness

I am so blessed today, Mission Builders is such a rewarding ministry! Some might wonder why I would call a volunteer program a ministry, well let me tell you why. We have hundreds of people coming to serve the University by volunteering their time to cover our basic needs area like the kitchen or construction and maintenance, all of which bless us as a campus greatly. But the true joy for me is seeing these people come and be transformed for God. Let me give you an example. Tuesday we had our weekly goodbyes where those returning home, give a little testimony of their time here with us. One young man shared that he was returning home to go back to university and then he adds to pray for him because God has called him to start a House of Prayer in his city! Isn't that amazing? Never have I heard a young college age guy say that he needs pray because he is going home to start a house of prayer in his city. God is so good!

Another one that shared tonight told how much her life had changed and how when she came she was under all sorts of lies of Satan, but now she knew the truth and she wasn't going to believe them anymore. She has decided that she is going to take the next year off of school to study the Bible because she doesn't know it well and knows that its important. She is only 18! It truly is amazing to watch these young (and older) people come to this program, serve 8 hour days, five days a week and leave sharing the testimonies of all that God is doing in their lives. It is a privilege to be a part of this change and to see the work of God in the lives of those who serve us so faithfully. We are truly blessed to be able to lead and direct this program. 

I just wanted to do a little update on our fun times so far this year! So here are some pictures from Ezekiel's 2nd Birthday party and just some fun around campus. I hope you enjoy!

                                The Mission Builder Dodgeball team!

Ezekiel enjoying a day at the Beach

This is all of the staff here in Kona Hawaii. Good luck finding us in the mass but I am wearing a black shirt in the picture :)Our little Ezekiel isn't so small anymore and he loves the beach!

Andrea & Steph enjoying Ice Cream after a hard day of cleaning around Hale Ola where we live.

All of our Mission Builders crew during our BBQ after a hard day of cleaning.

It is almost the holidays and it’s been a great year. We are now working with the Mission Builders program on campus and it has been an amazing reward. Mission Builders are all such amazing people who desire to come and serve with no expectation for personal gain but simply to be blessing. We have been amazed to work with all of these wonderful men and women and of course our staff too! We have three ladies who are on staff with us and they are great, without them we could never lead this ministry. They cover all the bases from pastoral care to caring for our facilities and prayer and worship. It’s been a learning experience in leadership and in what we need to be doing to be good leaders. It has also been a learning process to make sure that we are also doing what we need to be doing in order to be good parents too! God has been so faithful to us through and we are completely astonished by God in this season.


Recently we had a wonderful woman of God come to our base and spoke for three days to us. Her name is Landa Cope; you may have heard her before but if you haven’t you should. Her teaching style could be described as being in your face in order to make you think, or as she herself put it, “hurt you in order that you may be healed.” One thing that she talked on was unconscious incompetence. Basically if I could put it in just a few words, it was that we are all incompetent in our knowledge of God and righteousness. We really don’t understand how much of God we don’t understand and that we often make the most mistakes because we think that we understand Him when we really do not. Surprising as it is to write, upon hearing that word, I realized that God was already working that same idea in my own head. Often times, I think that I understand who God is and I think that I am starting to “get it” but then just like that, I realize that I don’t truly “get it” I am totally and completely off the mark. This has been even more so since beginning our journey in Mission Builders. I realize that although we are doing well and things are all being taken care of, I am still not “there” yet. However, the best thing now, is that I know I am not there yet, and I can just move towards God the best I know how, and be confident that He will continue to show me how I am progressing and where I need to do it more. It sure is good to work with God.

Our time here...

It is already midterm here in Kona for this last quarter of the year. Time has flown by very quickly and we are amazed as we look on the calender as Thanksgiving is only three weeks away. Ezekiel has flourished here in this tropical weather, growing an inch each month and putting on the pounds even faster. We have seen God do some great and mighty things among us here on campus. Week after week, we have seen God challenge us as a campus as well as the entire body of believers, to live a life of purity and righteousness before him. We are so excited about being apart of this base, just this last week, there has been great things happening. To mention a few, there was a team who went out into the community to prayer for some locals and one of them ended up requesting to come back here to our coffee shop on campus with a friend of his to learn more about God, and that night they both gave the hearts to God. Its awesome to see that we aren't just sending people out to other places to do this work but we are being apart of reaching out to this community here in Kona. Another amazing testimony is that Monday morning during a prayer time for one of the classes, they were praying for an older gentleman who was so hard of hearing he had to wear hearing aids, and during that prayer time, God completely restored his hearing after 18 years of being hard of hearing! We do serve a God that heals us!!! So these are just some of the stories we are apart of by serving and working here and you are apart of them too as our friends and supports. So thank you and rejoice in the work of the Lord.

Confessions of the Soul

Recently, I read in a book that there is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction. This statement hit my heart with a sledgehammer, see I have always prided myself in the idea that I am not an addictive person. Yes, I have my habits but I do not become addicted. But when I read this statement, God convicted me so strong, it became tangible. I felt it surround my heart and mind, suddenly realizing that I am an addict; I am addicted to myself. Philippians 2:3,4 has become my prayer, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." I have found the grace of God and have been encouraged to change. Daily I work to lose a part of this selfish addiction. I lay down my rights to myself, and everytime I want to complain or have a selfish thought, I stop and thank God for something I have. I have found that cultivating a heart of gratefulness in all that I have, looses the grip of selfishness in my heart. Everyday, I let go of spending time the way I want to spend it and instead let God chose the best use of my time. Here is another thing God has told me, in order to truly love others, you have to be willing to sacrifce your time. In America, we have a saying that time is money, which is true, it is the strongest currency we have, so my challenge to myself is where have I have been spending that currency. For Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." Time is a treasure so where am I spending that treasure, on things that matter, which for me I have come to know that all that matters are people. This is my confession and I hope that it challenges and encourages you today.