Thursday, May 22, 2008

Our city is on fire but we are still having a good time...



My friends say I need to keep writing provocative newsletter headings to coerce people into reading them. Apparently the “Sleeping with Warriors” title on my last newsletter attracted a lot of attention. No, Daddy, I have not fallen into sin =) I just wanted to see if people actually read these letters each month!
Truthfully, I am in Argentina this week and our city is on fire. Someone said I should title this newsletter “Smoking pot in Argentina” because this city is a smoking pot. Hehe. In spite of the smoke we are carrying on with our mission conference Communications Research Information and Technology (CRIT). Thanks to my amazing boss Bryan, who sponsored my trip here. I was invited to represent the Pacific Islands and meet 30 other worldwide YWAM Communications staff. Did you know YWAM is the largest mission organization in the world? I had no idea it was growing this rapidly worldwide….possibly because I am floating in the Pacific like a coconut on the sea =)
I am thrilled that the waves brought me here briefly, to share about God’s work in the Pacific region.I taught a small workshop on writing for YWAM which was fun. Then I met with a few YWAM Editors to give them some stories and photos from the Pacific. Praise God, various magazines want to publish these stories I have been gathering the past couple of months in the islands. So you didn’t send my communications team out in vain! God is doing miraculous and mighty things in New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, the Cooks and the Solomon Islands…..and I am so thrilled to send these stories worldwide!
At the conference I also learned how to use multimedia computer programs such as Photoshop, so that I can make myself look beautiful. If I look suspiciously gorgeous…..well, don’t look too close. The islands have been good to me =)
Jen’s April 2008 Newsletter!I was blessed to be involved in a weeklong project of organizing a team of missionaries from Central and South America into the official “LatinComm. Team”. I am secretly jealous there are 6 of them to serve their region, and only 1 of me for my region. But I am still praying. Please pray with me that God will send a couple more people to join me in a permanent PacificComm. Team. It was wonderful traveling with Tim and Anna the last 2 months, but they had to return home for work and school….so please pray that God will send more people to help me. See, I have so many dreams for developing communications in the Pacific but I only have 24 hours a day to write the stories, take pictures, shoot video, build websites for the ministries, and maintain them, raise support for all this and….it is fun but please pray for more skilled people to help.
Hey! I love getting your e-mails – please feel free to write anytime!
“Dios con bendiga!” (God bless you)
♥ Jen
p.s. The new addiction?? Matte. mmmmmMatte the marvelous Argentinean green tea pounded into the wooden cup in my hand. The locals share a communal cup of it all day long. Matte is about relationships, caffeine and antioxidants so I happily embraced this tradition. They sent me home with 6 kilos of the stuff and a cold. Yay for communal sharing!