April is on its way out, May is on its way in, and the question many are asking us is, "What have you guys been doing since you got back from Chile?! " Well dear friends, I finally have some answers for you! Thanks for your patience with us as we have taken a while to update you on the happenings of our last month.
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| Back in LA, landscaping before graduation.. glorious Team Chile. |
We arrived back from outreach both sad to leave Chile, and excited for what's coming next. We absolutely adored our outreach team... Actually even that feels like an understatement... We were (& are still) crazy about them. So it was heartbreaking to say goodbye. But one week after returning to LA we watched our team of students graduate the Discipleship Training School & return home to go change the world.
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| Our best friend Beka's last morning in LA |
Weeks 1 & 2 of being home were busy, sad, and yet still somehow full of celebration because of all that God had done. One of our best friends, Beka Brigleb, came to visit too... She has led YWAM outreaches before so she was super helpful in our time of transitioning back home.
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| Easter morning with the family. |
Week 3 was restful. We had the week off... We cleaned the house, slept in, Shaun started another quarter at The King's University, and we spent quality time just being together. The last 2 and a half months we had been living with the other 11 people on our team, so it was nice to be just the 2 of us. During that week we stayed with our family in Huntington Beach, it was an incredible gift to reconnect with them. Their house is one of our favorite places on the planet.
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| Craziness with the Gleason's! (Our Huntington Beach family) |
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| Adventures with the Gleason boys-- riding a motor scooter through goodwill; backyard lounging in a laundry basket, covered with a memory foam mattress pad... note my sister Meredith in the bottom photo :) We love family time! |
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The
fourth week home we were back to work again on the YWAM LA campus. I (Jess) was given the task of organizing for 24 of us from the YWAM base to go down to San Diego for a week to work with a company called "Event Force". Through event force we would be on staff at the San Diego Convention Center, working for Cisco- the tech company- at their annual Partner Summit. To break this down... We would be working 4-16 hour shifts helping to run a convention for business executives in San Diego for a week. The awesome benefit is that it would be a fundraiser for YWAM LA & a portion of what we earned would pay off a month of our "staff fees" at YWAM LA. So, I worked like crazy, with thee help of a couple great friends, and we made it happen.
Last week we were in SD working the convention & we had an amazing time. We met wonderful people and had many opportunities to serve them with the love of Christ. The hours were long and our feet ached but by the end of the week I heard several stories of executives seeing God in us and being deeply impacted by our presence there... That made it all worth it.
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| View from the Petco Skybox Lounge- Jess worked an evening event for Cisco Partners here! |
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| San Diego Convention Center |
The final piece of this update is really the biggest thing that we have been doing, but I won't say too much about it now. I will have Shaun tell you about it himself because he will do a better job. But basically we are working diligently to start a new Discipleship Training School for skateboarders called, "Calling All Skaters" which is aiming to launch this upcoming September. The vision is that it would be more of a "discipleship house" style... Living off of the YWAM LA campus, together in a house (or church.. Or wherever God provides) pursuing Christ together. This is still a YWAM LA ministry, following all of the standards of a University of the Nations, Discipleship Training School. But it is the first one our base has ever done off of the campus. Shaun is almost finished with the website so I will pass that along here soon, but please pray for us. This is a HUGE undertaking and we are still needing God to provide a lot of different pieces in order for this all to come together.
Please pray for me too, because I am trying to understand my role in all of this and what God's vision is for my ministry.
This weekend we are in Huntington Beach with Meredith watching our 3 "little brothers" while thir parents (our adopted parents here) are out of town. It has been a weekend full of fun!
Thank you once again for your amazing support! We love you & pray you are blessed this week!
Love, Jess & Shaun
PS. Have you met our God daughter, Lily?
