Building more homes in Mexico

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve we went with friends and family to build homes for the poor in Mexico.

Our family was excited to share our seventh home build experience with Jessica's parents and brothers and sisters, many of our DTS classmates, as well as a number of defender business partners. We had over 115 people there it was awesome.

We had two families come and bring their children all the way from Japan. These were people we had met on our mission outreach. We also had a number of classmates that came all the way from Korea. Only in YWAM can we find Korean and Japanese and Canadians and Hawaiians and Minnesotans and Californians and a bunch of other states all together building a home for a poor Mexican family!!!

We built a total of four homes but as is always the case... we got more than we gave.

The trip was organized and funded by a new nonprofit that our family has started called Companies With A Mission (CWAM).

below are some pictures of David and I working the table saw and Maggie making a cross. She wrote a Bible verse on the back of it and we nailed it to the home.

What a blast!

More catching up... George W. Bush

The first week after our Japan outreach, we had the chance to visit
with one of our heroes, President George W. Bush. It was an amazing
blessing for when we originally signed up for our DTS Mission trip it
looked like we would get home two weeks later and miss this special
opportunity. But for some reason we just knew that God was going to
work this out and teach us a lesson in the process. Well He did!
Miraculously (at least to us) our outreach was cut short two weeks and
we were able to fly home on just the right day to meet President
Bush!!! During the process we learned that GWB was not our god :) but
Jesus is!

Highlights of the meeting included sharing our mission experience with
him and talking about similarities between the Korean War of the 1950s
and the modern day war in Iraq. God had given us a vision and words to
share with President Bush. The most special moment was at the end of
our meeting when just the three of us (Jess, GWB and me) prayed
together in a private library. We prayed out loud over each other and
each prayer was met by a faithful hand squeeze by the President. It
was just two days before the tenth anniversary of 9-11 so it was an
emotional time for all.

As u can imagine... It was quite a culture shock to go from the
cramped, meager conditions of mission in Japan to being with past
leader of the free world. GWB was a terrific man of Jesus.

Catching up

We have been busy adjusting/reconnecting to life at home. Honestly, the transition home has been smoother than we expected. We are still figuring out what missions look like in the next phase of our life. But here are some of our highlights...

We have been able to stay in touch with many close ywam friends! Classmate Ruth visited us at our home and in Mexico from her home in Hawaii.

Our very close Japanese friends Satomi and her sister Tamoko came all the way from Japan to join us for a homes of hope trip in Mexico!

Tina a classmate from California came out and nannied for our children for a long weekend.

Also our class leaders Ben and Ali Nonoa and their children spent a week at our home and also traveled to Mexico to build a home for the poor!

Plus we caught up with one of our leaders while in Japan and met DY & Tina in California.

And more to come...

The Mission Continues...

We're baaaaaaaaaackk! Yes, it has been 4 months since our last post. But after reconnecting with family and friends and starting new routines, we've had a number of you ask us to keep the updates coming. So after much prayer, we've felt led to continue our blog.

The main reason we will continue this blog is because we plan to continue the mission :) Since returning (and even during our final days in Japan) our entire family has clearly heard from God that he wants us to "keep our mission eyes" and to continue to look for missional opportunities. They are all around us!!

So we are approaching life as full time missionaries. At this time we feel called to base in Indianapolis, but we continue to listen for God's voice and His plan for our life.

If you want to continue to follow us please check the site or sign up to get email updates each time we post. If you are tired of us, we understand :)

You can unsubscribe from the email updates at any time.

More updates to follow. Peace.