Prophecy

I am leaving Singapore and flying to Bangkok, Thailand in 6 hours.
This has been an amazing month. I am so grateful for all the wonderful friends God led acrossed my path this month, and all the ways I saw His glory through the ministry here.
The first week I came here I visited a church acrossed town.
No one knew me, who I was or why I was there, except for the friend who invited me. But after the service a man approached me saying that God gave him a prophetic word for me:
God had told him "I am a writer/journalist and God was going to use my writing to reach the nations and influence people for God's glory.
God wants me to know that He gave me a very creative heart which is very close to His heart, as The Creator. He told me not to despise my youth because I will always be working with people who are older and wiser than me, but God uses the small child-like things to reveal Himself and display His glory...."
He said some other things too, things that only God and I would know. All I could do was cry, I couldn't respond. I was so amazed and broken and humbled and truly believe God sent that man, like an angel, to encourage and confirm what God has been speaking to me.

God is indeed doing a mighty work in Asia. Ezekial 43 says that in the end times the East will be radiant with God's glory. I want the world to see that, and I feel so priveleged to write about it.
So thank you my dear friends for your faithful prayers from home, they are not without effect. I love you and pray that God will reveal His plans and purposes for your life as well, and that your life will be radiant with His glory.

Holy Ground

"Earth's crammed with Heaven, and every common bush afire with God;
but only those who see take off their shoes."
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Let's go barefoot today and look for God everywhere k?

Sharon - I love you!

I've finally found another missionary as quirky and spastic as me! yeah God!
My roomate Sharon and I get along splendidly (even though I secretly hate durian fruit but lie to her about it because I don't want to hurt her feelings).
j.k. of course missionary's can't lie =)
I love you Sharon!

Ode to the Samoans

I have been able to spend alot of time this month with a YWAM missions team from Samoa. They are the happiest people on earth, and I am so thankful they let me hang out with them, learning Samoan dances, cooking, and exuberant joy for God.
Talofah Lava - Fasoifua!
I will miss you all!
love, your little palangi Jen.

The past 3 weeks in Singapore (for lack of a better title)

The past 3 weeks in Singapore have been lovely - interviewing Missionary's and writing story's by day and exploring the city with friends by night.
(This is actually a picture of us at the YWAM Singapore staff retreat in Indonesia. They asked me to come along and report on the weekend, and help write a story and video for their base. This weekend's theme is YWAM Singapore's past, present, and future. I am awe-inspired listening to the original base leaders' story's about God's faithfulness when they were pioneering this mission, years ago.
Most of the people said they had no idea what they were doing. They just really loved God, and stepped out in faith and obedience everyday - now, many years later, the fruit of their faith has been incredible .
That is encouraging, because many times in this new mission of mine, I have no idea what I'm doing (what country am I in again? =) or why in the world God would choose little ol' me for such a huge job, but we walk by faith not by sight.
Soooo I'll just keep walking =) doing my best, and enjoying the ride.
I pray that you are feeling the same way with whatever God has called you to do right now friend.

Perfect Timing

Singapore is so-so. The people are great, but the YWAM base where I am living is in the red light district, so it's very shady and dirty, nothing like the beautiful antiseptic city that most people associate with Singapore. 
It's the perfect place for a missions base.
In addition to this - I have realized the past 2 weeks that God has destined me to be here at exactly this time. 
When I met with the YWAM Singapore director, Joseph Chean, he explained this is an epic moment in YWAM Singapore's history; it is perfect that God sent me to witness and document the great miracles happening here. 
See, YWAM Singapore just launched Go Fest Asia, a conference involving YWAM missionary's from all over the world. They were trained in Asian missions, prayer mapped outreaches, then went out for 2-4 week missions trips to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Myanmar, or 20 other Asian nations.
The conference was a huge success, and all those missionary's are just now returning to Singapore.  Guess who's going to be here to track them down and share their story's with the world??

You geography buffs probably know that Singapore is the gateway to Asia, all merchants and travellers from around the world have always stopped in Singapore before travelling to China, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Indonesia ect. People stop here first to rest, refresh, resupply, then go out.
God is using Singapore for that same purpose spiritually to be a gateway to the East.  Singapore is experiencing revival along with all of Asia, and the YWAM base is preparing to be a platform to train, equip, and send the whole world into Asian missions.  
sooooo the Director said he needs me to be the voice of  Singapore, and the voice of Asia to the rest of the YWAM world.  He gave me the verse Ezekial 43:1-2
and commissioned me with a new name/title/theme for this month "Till Asia is filled with Gods glory, promote the love of God for Asia."
So I am quite nervous and shaking with this holy fear and responsibility.  God has a very definite purpose for having me here this month, with the Go Fest Asia happening, and the rebirth of YWAM Singapore....I am so humbled by this task and will be writing every word from my knees.
Please pray that I will be a faithful scribe for the story's God wants told - pray that I will walk very closely to Him during this journey.
Thank you! Praise Him!

Fragrance of Christ

Here's a picture of my students and I at the Chang Zhi school.
It is traditional for foreign teachers to give their Chinese students English names. So I named all of my students the first day of class. Strong, attractive names like Brunhilda, Boris, and Gertrude. j.k.
I did entertain the idea of naming them Biblical names but most of those are multi-syllable and difficult to pronounce. I thought it would be funny to imitate some large home-school family's I know and give all 25 students names that started with "J" or "L". Ah, but roll call is not a good time for tongue twisters.
Lucy! Linda! Leanoard!
So in the end I just named them after all of you, my family and friends. =)
It's shocking how they have taken on your personality traits in my mind. (power of suggestion?) Some of them wanted to change their names - much to my chagrin - to Rain or White Lilly. I told them they could call me "Mother Moon Child" and we could all wear tye dye and celebrate woodstock. But they didn't get it.

They did give me a lovely Chinese name though, which I am very thankful for. It is Xiao Fong, which means sweet lovely small fragrant flower. I like it.
I pray God will help me live up to it and be a sweet fragrance to the people here. It reminds me of the verse 2 Corinthians 2:14 "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him." That is my challenge for all of us today: friends, let us be the fragrance of Christ to everyone we encounter.

Charades

I have become very good at pantomime since moving to this country.
The language barrier isn't so much a problem as it is an opportunity to practice exuberant gestures and facial expressions!
I had one such opportunity this week when a mouse jumped out of my bag and ran acrossed the floor. I screamed, like the little girl I am, and then also ran acrossed the floor to get help from the Chinese hall moniter.
The woman in uniform could not speak a word of English so I began frantically showing her "BIG TEETH!" "WHISKERS!" "TAIL!" and did my best scurrying mouse impression.
I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but she just laughed and laughed.
"BIG TEETH?!" I tried again sticking out my teeth.
"Whiskers?!" No good.
"LONG TAIL?!" She laughed even harder.
"SCURRY??!"
I'm pretty sure the only thing she heard from that conversation was "crazy American" =)
Oh well. It was a good reminder to me that actions speak louder than words. This is obviously applicable to our witness - people want us to show them Christ, show them the love, the peace, the security, and purpose we have as Christians. Without that we're just a clanging Gong or crashing cymbal or meaningless talker.
As a completely unrelated aside - here is Confucious and I