We bought plane tickets!!!

It's official: Lord willing we will be on a plane to Orlando on January 13th for two weeks of training, then leaving straight from there on January 28th to the DR.

ps. That's not a squirrel hanging from Jake's chin. He's just working on a massive gotee.

Thanksgiving with everyone!

Both of our entire immediate families converged on Jake's parents' house for an awesome time of fellowship, food and football watching.

Kyla's nephew Ezekiel

The sisters, Eryn and Eliza

The youngest, Ezra

Cross Cultural Orientation in Colorado

Jake and I went to our first Young Life International training November 6-11 in Colorado Springs. It was such a great time to come together with twenty other individuals who are serving all over the world with Young Life. The staff who shared with us were amazing and so encouraging as we learned about topics such as: Conflict Resolution, Language Acquisition, Cultural transitions, Donor Care, etc. We spent most of the day in a classroom-like setting learning from these staff members, and then at night we would relax and have fun together. Some of my highlights from this training were talking to other young couples like us and encouraging each other, praying together and laughing at some of the experiences we have been through so far. All in all, we were so thankful to have been a part of this training and to meet so many great people.

P.S. Jake made this video and it is awesome, you should watch it!

Family and Friends in Portland

Sharing our vision with family in Portland

This was just after we had some great Louisiana cooking and fellowship with the Chevealliers and some awesome friends from Wolf Mountain.

Thanks Grandma for the great lunch at Beaches!

Fun times in Ashland

Jake and I stayed in Ashland for almost a week with a wonderful family who let us live with them.

We had an awesome small group presentation sharing our vision for the Dominican Republic and also visited many other people in Ashland who Jake had known while growing up.

Some memories that I will enjoy: watching many episodes of The Office with the Stranbergs, getting to meet lots of amazing and encouraging people, and walking in Lithia Park with the beautiful fall trees all around us.

Thanks to everyone who supported us on this trip and opened up their homes for us to stay or share a meal with you!

Love,
Jake and Kyla

What a game!

Jake and I got to visit our friends last weekend in Boise, Idaho. We had so much fun and we even got to go to a Boise State football game. Little did we know that it would even go into four overtimes! Now, I don't know a lot about football, but that was crazy, and lots of fun.

We had a great trip and were able to relax, have fun with friends, and we even stayed in Ontario on the way home.

Thanks to everyone for letting us stay with you!

Our new home away from home...

Well, we've done it, we've moved in with my parents. This is that time in life when you look back on all of the independence that you have gained and wonder where it has gone... Actually, this has been a huge blessing. Both of our parents helped us move out of our apartment in Eugene to Central Oregon, where we will be continuing our fundraising while preparing to leave for the Dominican Republic in January. We will be visiting friends and family all over Oregon as well as attending a Cross Cultural Orientation training in Colorado and three weeks of training/conferences in Florida. Lord willing, we will fly from Florida to the DR at the end of January. In the mean time, we will be raising the rest of our funds and believing for many more miracles. Thank you for all of you who are praying for us now. We really appreciate your encouragement and support in this time. This is the point of no return and really a time of dependence on the Lord. Although we are being stretched, we are thankful for what God is doing in our lives.

May God richly bless you as you seek HIM!

Kyla

Spreading the word

We had dotted all our "i"s, crossed all our "t"s, practiced our message, when all of a sudden it hit us: we had no idea what we were going to say the next day in front of Lifegate Christian School for their first chapel of the year.

The things we had prepared were nice, but not really the taste we wanted to leave in the students' mouths for the rest of the year. We wanted them to dream big, and to catch a vision for missions, and it was only by the Lord's hand that we were able to accomplish just that the next morning. He gave us the words to say, and by the end of chapel, kids were coming up to us asking more about our plans and telling stories of their own adventures in other countries.

This was a great chance to share with kids what we will be up to, because most of our meetings have been with aduts. We're more accustomed to working with youth anyway as evidenced by this picture of Lifegate students over at our house for a pizza/game night, with Jake in the middle, stuffing his face full of chocolate while wearing ski mittens in a frantic game called Menonite Madness.



Our meetings with adults have been going very well also. Last week we presented our vision in front of about 25 Lifegate parents, and the Lord brought in over $3000 in that one night alone. As of this morning, we have raised $20,015 toward our goal of $68,000. Thank you Lord!

We've reached $10,000!

Just a quick update on fundraising: the Lord has brought in over $10,000 in monthly pledges and one-time gifts. Thank you so much to all of you who have given-we appreciate you. We still need to raise $58,000 for this first year, and we're confident that God has got a plan for that too. Here's a pic of us taking a break on Moday, kayaking the McKenzie with our friend Christian.

Putting the fun in fundraising!

"So my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is useless." (I Corinthians 15:58)

Here's what fundraising ought to look like:

Here's what fundraising actually looks like

But seriously, folks. Despite all the hairpulling and bashing our heads against uncooperative technology, we are having a lot of fun with all this. It's been awesome to see the Lord at work through the whole process. Thank you to all who have supported us so far in any way. We love you!

Check out our Facebook profiles!

We just set up Facebook profiles and look forward to staying in touch with you internet savvy people that way after we deploy to the DR, Lord Willing, in January.

Last week we toured around Northern California visiting friends from camp. It was an awesome time of catching up, rock climbing, playing Guitar Hero, etc. We were planning on camping at Castle Crags state park (in the picture), but when we encountered sweltering heat and realized that at 2:00pm we still had another 8 hours of sweating before bedtime, we decided to just swim a little in the Sacramento River and push on to Eugene.

Thank you to everyone who welcomed us on our journey!

J&K

We're hired!!

Jake and I have been hired by Young Life International to be Work Team Coordinators in the Dominican Republic. We will be working at Pico Escondido, or hidden peak, a Young Life camp where work teams from the states come. The camp is awesome and we are very excited about this opportunity. It was great to be a part of a work team during Spring Break so that we have the perspective of a participant. Our time in the DR was also very valuable for helping us evaluate whether we were a good fit for the position and the camp as well as whether the DR was a good fit for us. We know that there will be many challenges that will come with this new move, but we are excited to see the Lord work through us. I also wanted to share something that I have been reminded of and comforted by...

"The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere." Oswald Chambers

Oswald goes on to say that "We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God." I clung to this promise during this process as we waited to hear from Young Life and here if we were chosen for this position. I had to be reminded in my uncertainty that I serve a God who is certain and I need only to trust in Him. Now that we know where we are going, I still have to keep trusting Him! There is a lot to think about now; fundraising, moving, plane tickets, traveling to visit family and friends, etc. In all of this I know that as I "leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come." OC

Kyla

Dominican Republic Pics

Kyla and I spent Spring Break near the town of Jarabacoa in the Dominican Republic at Pico Escondido, a nearly completed camp owned by YoungLife. If you're not sure who YoungLife is, check out www.younglife.org. We joined a work team from Georgia, so our job was to do construction projects as the camp is still far from complete. Here we all are.


In addition to working, we were also there to look into the Work Team Coordinator postion that will soon be open. YoungLife is looking for someone to manage the logistics for work teams coming down from the states, helping construct what remains to be done at the camp. There is already awesome ministry going on at camp; however it has potential for much, much more. Here is the view from the main lodge at camp.


There are some incredible people down there already, working with the Dominicans and the North American teams that come down. Here are a few of them.


This picture was taken at Doulos Discovery School, one of the many amazing ministries in Jarabacoa.
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs94w6IfDuVtDvKlTcsx9um88LjB6GjoZFo5RulHLI7Wk5PZSAoAuS7ihfx7HYVb5RX5zGEEu-DReaD7LaSvVG59tHqe0WGAcsCqUe1eydkdt4TZGVSjHVyzNC_vo9XHNqAobtS-wqXMc/s1600-h/march2007pico+095.jpg">

It's just stuff

On Monday morning I received a call that there was a fire in my classroom and that everything in it was beyond repair.

Including my drumset.


And decorations on the wall.


At times I get frustrated, but the Lord has been reminding me that it's just stuff that was lost. No one was hurt. Now Kyla and I just have less stuff to sell when we go overseas.

He is risen indeed!

The tree in front of our apartment started blooming just in time to match our easter outfits.

Dominican Republic Video

How we got there

The Lord orchestrated our trip to the DR from the very beginning. He got us to the information weekend in Colorado where we found up about the trip, and He got us down to the Carribean island just last week.

In early October of this year, Kyla and I wanted to go to Colorado to explore the possibilities of working with Young Life overseas, but we didn't have the extra $800 it would take to get there. We talked about prayed about it a lot. At one point, we knelt down by our living room couch and asked God simply, "Would you provide the money by the end of this week?"(the registration deadline) We needed a miracle, and we weren't afraid to ask for one of our loving, all-powerful God. We committed to going to Colorado and filling out the registration even though we didn't know where we were going to get the money. In the middle of the week, the miracle came in the form of a late paycheck from summer work I had done. It was amazing: we asked, believed and God provided.

In Colorado we met some amazing people, one of whom was Hunter Lambeth. When we told him about our passions-the outdoors, Latin America, kids, mission trips-he convinced us that we had to go on a short term trip to the DR to check out a position that would soon be open, coordinating short term teams to work at Young Life's camp in that country called Pico Escondido (you can check it out at www.picoescondido.com). We knew that God got us to Colorado, so we were listening for His voice everywhere, and this seemed to be it. God hooked us up with Hunter and He also provided for us to get to the DR.

We sent out support letters at Christmas time and got a few responses back, but with a month left until our trip, we were still $2000 short. We were counseled to send out another round of letters (which seemed silly at the time because we had already asked the same people for support), but the Lord humbled us as we watched the funds flow into our mailbox daily-until, that is-we were fully funded. At that point, the funds virtually stopped comming. We were receiving at least one letter a day with a sizable check included for several weeks. And after we were fully funded, we recieved only two. What an awesome God we serve.

Once in the Dominican we saw the Lord prove faithful once again. We were asking Him to show us if this was where we were to spend the next chapter of our life, however long that may be (the minimum committment is three years). After the first few days, I wasn't so sure. I didn't hear any voice break throught the clouds and say, "Jake, pack up your family and move here!" But as the week progressed and I got the chance to have great conversations with the staff and other people there, I found myself thinking, "I could live here." It's not my dream destination. In fact, there are several things that I think would be tough about living in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic (that's the closest town to the camp)- noise, crazy drivers, missing my friends and family. But I could see myself living there.

It is in the Lord's hands, as it has always been. We haven't been offered the position, so God could have something entirely different up His sleeve. I'm confident that He knows what He's doing. Throughout this adventure so far, I've realized that God will speak to us if we ask Him. His voice might come from other people, it might come from our full, then empty mailbox, and it might come from the silence in our situations. He knows what He's doing.

-Jake