Hide it Under a Bushel? No!

It's Wednesday night and the sky is darkening as I squeeze into a small Ram Tekdi slum house with countless other children. They have come for the weekly Bible Club led by Missionaries from the YWAM Pune base. There are thousands of slums just like this in India, filled with thousands of slum children eager to hear Bible stories.

After some rowdy fun worship songs the leaders settle the kids down to learn a new Bible verse: Mathew 5: 14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

”What a perfect lesson for them to learn!” I was thinking as the leaders explained what Jesus meant in this parable.
You see, during my time in Pune I have interviewed several Missionaries and pastors who talk about the “secret Christians”. Many people know God and believe in Jesus, but they are not willing to confess Him to their family or community.

Understandably it would be difficult to proclaim Christ in a Hindu/Muslim country. Many Indian States have anti-conversion laws, and Christian missionaries and pastors undergo tremendous persecution, even death every day.
But if the Christians do not stand up for Christ, how will they be a light to their community? How will they be a city on a hill that points to the Truth?

I pray that this generation of children sitting around me, listening to the Bible story, will be bold and stand up for Jesus. Perhaps when they bring their coloring papers home with the Matthew 5:14-16 verse written on it their parents will be convicted to stand up for Jesus too.

Isaiah 49:15

Do you ever have days where there is so much to do, but everything simple becomes more complicated?
Today was one of those patience testers for me =)
I kept saying "God, I could use a little help here. Where are you? Have you forgotten that I'm doing Your work down here?"

and this is what He told me
"See! I will not forget you....I have you carved on the palm of my hand."
peace
Friend if you want to know perfect peace, His hands are very big.
There is room for your name too.

Beautiful Children of the Slums

Today I helped teach a nutrition class to mothers in a slum area.
I can't believe how little they know about basic health and nutrition. They learned for the first time today why it is important to wash their hands after going to the bathroom and then hand feeding their babies.
And that their babies are probably sick because they crawl all over the slum "streets" which are narrow squeeze spaces between each shanty. Throughout the streets children wander along with AIDS infected animals and raw sewage from thousands of people.....it is so heartbreaking.
There are amazing tender-hearted missionaries here who have started a free medical clinic and health classes...but they feel overwhelmed with the surplus of needs.
The other side of the world is so different from home.
We are so blessed.
I know the Missionaries are going to need continued help and supplies. So today I am writing/designing a brochure for their ministry so we can send it out and raise awareness of what they are doing and how people can help...
If you are interested in learning more please e-mail me and I will gladly send you a brochure and information.
For now will you at least please pray for these beautiful children? That as the Missionaries reach out to their physical needs, they will be allowed to feed their spiritual needs as well?

Namaste!

Namaste! Greetings from India!
I apologize for taking over a week to write. I have been so busy here in Mumbai and Goa setting up interviews with Missionaries, writing stories, taking pictures, helping with the street kids ministry, slums, prostitutes, Bible clubs, hospital visits, orphan homes.....there is always some way to share the wonderful love of Jesus here. Last night I finally went to bed after 40 hours straight of ministry without sleep.
It's been fun though. God is good and is teaching me the mighty greatness of His grace, strength, and joy in my weakness =)
Praise Him!
India is a very sad place. Every city I have seen is dirty, diseased, hot, crowded, and crumbling. I was shocked when told that 40% of Indian people living in cities, stay in slums.
It is heartbreaking. There is such division between the people in castes. Such division between the few very rich, and everyone else who is poor.

Many people have no concept of how miserable their conditions are.
I freaked out yesterday at breakfast when a mouse ran over my feet. But then I went to the market and saw a huge fat rat ambling along in the middle of a restaurant and people noticed but ignored it!
So it’s a little different from Stanwood, but God is doing great things through His people here. He is bringing hope and healing. Everyday when I see people with Siva's ashes rubbed on their foreheads it reminds me of my Father's longing to bring beauty from the ashes of this country.
Thank you for praying for the missionaries here and the people of India.
In this picture some of the local missionaries are teaching me how to eat with my hands - the true Indian way. Then there is another picture of me, Sony, Divya, and Lydia in an auto-rickshaw going to church.

Bring it!

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved!
Hebrews 10:39

Shameless Little Advertisement

Hear ye! Hear ye! Anyone interested in serving in missions I have good tidings of great joy!
With a multiplicity of YWAM ministry locations the world over, there is surely a perfect place for you!
Right here in this photo I am joined by Ellen from Australia who came with a team from her church to do outreach in Chang Mai. Look at how happy she is serving the Lord while painting the kitchen walls of the Home of Joy!
You too can experience such joy serving anywhere the Lord calls you to – it could be in your own city, or it could be on the other side of the world. Pray about it today and ask God how you can use your special talents or learn new ones, to refresh others!
YWAM needs you!
p.s. I get lonely sometimes moving around every week - little vagabond that I am. Soooo if anyone is interested in photo journalism I would love a partner!
(Said partner must be willing to love everyone; move every week; travel daily on dangerous forms of transportation when you usually do not speak the language or know exactly where you are going; sleep anywhere; eat anything; cannot be afraid of cockroaches the size of hotdogs, spiders that will bite you in your sleep, rats that will scurry accrossed your floor, or rabid looking animals in the street. You can take showers sometimes, which are guaranteed to be cold, but that is o.k. because you are guaranteed to be hot and dirty all the time anyways so it's actually a benefit =)
Other benefits include: living by faith everyday, watching God do miracles, meeting amazing people in amazing cultures, and having alot of fun =)

Birthday Elephants and Humility

I had a fabulous 22nd birthday! I signed up for an all-day Elephant ride through the jungle with a tour group of 8 other people.
One couple was from Canada, another was from Malaysia, 3 were from Spain, 1 from Japan, and myself. We all got on splendidly learning about each other’s countries and swapping travel stories. I quickly became known as the “extremely religious bubbly birthday girl Jen from America!” haha. We had fun.
I’m not sure how I feel about the “extremely religious label”. That conjures up pictures of Pharisees – I sure hope I wasn’t giving them the impression that I was more pious just 'cause I’m a missionary working at an orphan home.
I am reminded everyday that the fact God is using little ‘ol me for anything is a testimony to His grace, sense of humor, and that He likes to use small unimportant things and people to shame the “wise” and shine His glory! Yeah God!
Sometimes I set up interviews with people over the phone, and when I meet them in person they’re shocked saying (either verbally or non-verbally) “What?! I thought I was meeting with a highly experienced reporter!
How old are you? Do you know the hierarchy of YWAM leadership and the 7 steps to our visionary strategy with the 4k network….?” and I say sheepishly “Er…well no. But God’s funny with who He calls for His work isn’t He? I mean he used David to slay Goliath, and a teenager to birth the son of God, so surely He can use anyone, right?” =)
Soooo I hope I am quick to give Him every bit of glory if do anything well.
But back to the elephants =)
We sat 2 people in a saddle while a Thai professional elephant rider man led us over a mammoth mountain, through banana trees and dense jungle foliage.
Since it was my birthday and all, the elephant driver let me out of the saddle to ride the elephant’s shoulder!!
He jumped off to smoke cigarettes and beat the elephants butt with a bamboo stick. I do not believe animal cruelty is edifying for anyone so I petted my elephant, rubbed his ears, and told him nice things. I think he responded much better to the positive encouragement, than the stick.
See how happy he looks in the picture?
We ambled down into a valley which was so green and lush, and spent the day there. It was paradise!
But it wasn't over yet....that night at the Home of Joy the children and staff surprised me with a sweet celebration. Here is a picture of some of them looking all cute and covered in cake.
Thankyou!!!!

Bed Bugs and Birthdays

Two very exciting things have happened to me recently!
Last night I learned how to kill bedbugs – Baby powder!
It’s incredible! I have been dousing the kids with it every night when they jump out of the bath, and last night the Thai staff were singing the benefit’s of the stuff – they say it keeps the baby’s dry, wards off malarial mosquitoes, and also kills bed bugs!
So I also powdered myself liberally, plus the mattress, sheets, clothes, headboard (just in case) and awoke bright and cheery this morning bed-bug free!
Ah, it’s the little blessings in life, you know?
The second wonderful thing is that tomorrow is my Birthday, and I am going to ride an Elephant into the Jungle! Ahhh! It will cut into my budget a bit, but I just won’t eat for 2 days or something, and it’ll be worth it.
I’m so excited!
Thank you so much friends for your love and prayers from home!
The Thai military is still staging the coup throughout the country. We see armed soldiers everywhere, but life seems to be peaceful nevertheless, Praise God.
I miss you all, and hope you are well!
Please let me know how I can pray for you - I feel your prayers everyday.
love and later!
-Jen

Home of Joy!

Living in the Home of Joy (YWAM's home for orphans in Chiang Mai)has been such a...well a joy!
The children are precious, and the workers inspire me by their dedication and love.
I am so thankful my missions role is not limited to merely writing about ministry. I can actually participate! They let me help feed and clean and read and play with the children from 5:45 in the morning when they all wake up - until...oh around 11p.m. when the adults go to sleep. And sometimes through the night.
It's not always easy, they seem to be louder, wilder, and needier than most children I know. Group mayhem is often the rule of the day, when one toddler starts screaming they all do. Nevertheless, we all get through it, and enjoy several bright spots throughout the day as well!
Here are some pic's of these darlings.

Nakhon Sawan, the Coup, and Chiang Mai

So yesterday in Nakhon Sawan, I met my Compassion Sponsor Child, Keng and his family! It was glorious! Oh he is so darling! His family is huge and extremely poor, but hard working, and love the Lord, and generally happy and healthy. Praise God for them. We all loved on eachother so much, it was great to meet eachother after writing for 3 years.

I left them last night and took the "sleeper" bus to Chiang Mai, and was wondering why we kept getting stopped by soldiers along the way (sometimes it is tough not to know what anyone is saying or what is going on =).
I arrived at the bus station at 3a.m. in the morning, and waited there until 10a.m. when my sweet YWAM Missionary friend, Kathleen (who is head of the orphanage here) came for me.
She said that the Thai military just took over the country last night, threw out the Prime minister, and the constitution, and.....some other stuff.
Thailand is such a peaceful country, and has not had disruption like this in hundreds of years. The news says the invasion and everything was peaceful, but we don't really know what is going to happen.
Soooooo I spent the day getting to know all the orphan children I will be living with for the next 8 days. The coup is happening all over the country, so we are just as safe here as we would be in Bangkok. Maybe safer.
So we'll trust God and watch the news and see what happens. It will be great living here with the kids. We will probably be spending alot of time playing and reading, and feeding and changing and cleaning.....and hopefully I'll get some writing done too =)
then I leave on Sept. 30th to India, Lord willing.
So, busy busy, but "God is in His high heaven and all is right in the world" as they say.
Thankyou so much for praying peace over this country, and safety for us here.

Joshua 1:9

God has been encouraging me with this verse lately. I hope it encourages you as well.
He says "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9

Adventuring

For our day off Stuart, Larissa, some local friends, and I hopped on their motorcycles and for an adventure in the back-country of Cambodia!
This is the most georgeous country!
We visited some ancient temples, and joined 100 local children climbing the crumbling ruins.
Then we visited some of the horrible killing feilds where Pol Pot murdered 4 million people during the Kmer Rouge regime of the 1970's.
When a warm cambodian downpour started we sought shelter under a hut with some monks and local people.
After the rain stopped we headed home, after buying coconut rice grilled in a Bamboo stalk. It's a local favorite, and here is a picture of us enjoying it together.

My Little Princess

It is amazing how God knows the things our heart is missing, without us saying it.
God has been ministering to my heart this week through children. I could give several examples - but today in Cambodia (oh yes, I am in Cambodia now by the way =) I was invited to cross the border and stay with YWAMérs in Battambang for a week, to write a story about the sweet new things God is doing here).
Today they let me go to the orphanage nearby to play with the children! Our first stop was in the baby room, where I held the most beautiful baby girl. The house mother doesn't know her name or how old she is, and says she doesn't like her because she won't stay quiet in her crib.
She didn't cry though when I held her close to me and started talking to her. She reached up to touch my eyes and nose and cheeks - then she held me face in her sticky little hands and searched my eyes with her bewhildered little brown ones. I wanted to keep her so much.
I told her softly "Don't worry Princess. Jesus has a name for you. He knows how old you are. He knows everything about you, and He loves you so much."
I feel like God has been telling me that same thing about my identity. "Don't worry princess, I know you're a stranger in a foreign land where no one really knows you. But I know you. everything about you. and I love you so much.
I asked the house Mother's permission to carry the baby with me for the rest of the day as we visited other children.
She held my fingers and my heart so tight.
They wouldn't let me take her home, but I can visit again tommorow.
Praise God for that precious little one. =) Please pray that she will grow up knowing how much she is loved.
Here is a picture of her and a few other sweet kids we were playing with

Visiting the Monks

My friend Stuart visits the Buddhist monks in different pagoda's every morning. The monks are mostly young men in their 20's who are very friendly and eager to practice their English. Stuart has been making friends with them, and they always talk about the differences between Buddhism and Christianity. We are hoping and praying that they will start to "be enlightened" to the One True God.
Stuart let me tag along today and we all had wonderful conversations!

Day 3 in Cambodia

Yesterday I went with Katie (one of the girls on staff) to visit the sick at a local military hospital where many sick soldiers live and die.
Katie is praying for opportunities to organize more Christian volunteers to visit the hospital. The patients desperately need friends to love them, share the gospel with them, and serve them.
The hospital is filthy. Most of the patients have AIDS and lie on their deathbeds but have no one to help them with their most basic needs. There are no nurses to help them go to the bathroom or walk the half-mile away to the cafeteria, so many of the patients die of starvation. Sometimes people are lucky enough to have their family live with them, to help them, but many do not. Many are at the mercy of any tenderhearted person who will care.
Here are some pictures of the patients, and children who live there.

Please Pray

I have been in Bangkok for 10 days now. It is nothing like I expected.
God has been faithful to keep me busy gathering several good story's/testimony's from the YWAM missionary's here....but I really really need advice and prayer right now.
These past 2 weeks in Bangkok have been the valley of the shadow of death it is so spiritually oppressive here.
When I lived in the ghetto for a year in Chester they taught us spiritual warfare, so I have been putting on my armor and doing battle all day, but I still feel like all the life is getting sucked out of me - or I am swimming in a rip tide. I don't know what's happening. Normally I'm a really upbeat person with tons of energy and humor, but I am so weak and irritated here, I hate it.
I don't think it's just because it's a bug-infested, dusty, sweltering city; and hardly anyone speaks English; and I have no one to hug...I think its spiritual.
So please pray for me friends!
Thankyou,
love, Jen

The Muffin Man

Oh! One more thing about Singapore - I need to tell you a story =)
I go running in the mornings here about 5 days a week - which is wonderful because my YWAM office doesn't open until 10a.m. leaving me plenty of early morning time alone with God.
I like to run along the river and watch the senior citizens doing Tai Chi aerobics...they usually smile and wave at me even though it messes up their zen state. They are so cute.
Every time I leave in the morning or return at night to the YWAM house I say "hello" to a sweet elderly chinese man who sells orange chinese muffins and durian fruit outside our door.
Well, he is so sweet, I sometimes buy a muffin from him in the morning. But then I found out the muffins are for idol sacrifices to the hungry/angry ghost the Chinese are celebrating this month. So I have been debating whether I should act like Paul in 1 Cor. 8:4-9 where he says food offered to idols is still just food to Christians, there's nothing defiled about it. I debated this for a few days...Until one day I caught the sweet Chinese man clipping his toenails before serving the next customer! And I figuired, "well God, I think this is a sign. If idols don't defile the muffin toe jam certainly could."
So from now on I think I'll just smile and wave.

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!