Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Last Saturday, we threw a little party for Jonathan's 29th birthday. My parents rented out the pool area at their condo/complex so we could have some fun and food. And we did indeed.

Yes, that's Jo-nathan. Thank you strawberry for saving the day.

Just a portion of some of the awesome people we've been getting to know.  :)

I love each one of these people SOOO MUCH! Ahh!

So I admit our short-comings with group photos now...lol

Us, on His actually birth-day ;)

It's crazy how life changes. What's so amazing is how the more we fall in love with Jesus, the more we fall in love with each other. I am so in awe of the man Jonathan is becoming because of the love of Jesus becoming more and more obvious in His life. I have been so astounded by the confidence and boldness He has instilled in Jonathan just since we've started school. I am SO PROUD to be his wife. My prayer is that everyday, Jesus will help me become better and better at being his help-mate, and be his biggest encourager and cheerleader. Here's to the next 70 years of life together ;)

Face-melting, mind-blowing goodness

Amy Sollers teaching on the Holy Spirit.

Kevin Norris teaching on Praise and Worship

The amazingly anointed Jonathan David Helser Band
Check out their website and music: http://jonathanhelser.com/jonathanhelser/Home.html

 Is it alright if I am super real and transparent with you all today? I really appreciate openness, so I’m just going to dive right in J

Worship. I’ve NEVER appreciated worship until I arrived on this campus. Maybe it’s because no one explained it to me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t care. Maybe it’s because I didn’t know how much I needed to give it to God. But Whoa! Worship has changed my life FOREVER. Worship is an intimate experience with the Holy Spirit when I appropriately display my love and adoration to Him (and here’s the key part) REGARDLESS of what emotions I’m carrying into the time set apart for worship. I didn’t realize that God cared about what I was feeling when I walked into a session of singing and praise. I’ve learned this week this amazing fact. God WANTS me to tell Him how I feel, BUT THEN give Him glory for how He is bigger than my world and problems. Go to the Psalms. You will see David do this OVER AND OVER again. In Psalm 28, David is telling God about the men that were chasing after Him, pouring out the concerns of His heart, and ends with this:

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

 my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.

My heart leaps for joy,

and with my song I praise him.

I have found this week that when I come to God honestly, confessing my troubles and worries, that I can better identify how God can help me OVERCOME those issues.

 AND THIS WHOLE TIME I THOUGHT I WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO FEEL BETTER BECAUSE OF THE STUFF THE WORSHIP LEADER(S) WAS SAYING AND SINGING. SO FALSE!!

My worship experiences now have become a time when the Joy of the Lord LITERALLY becomes my strength. He fills me all the way up to overflowing…even on days when I’m so frustrated with the strenuous schedule of running up and down the hill trying to be on time only to find out the schedule has changed (again). WHOA! He gives me real joy that I can share with others!

 It seems every time I call my girlfriends back in Florida, I’m super pumped up and excited about what God is doing in my life, but I have to confess that sometimes I wonder why I’m here away from all my friends. Starting a new life somewhere strange is definitely a draining process. BUT. Jesus didn’t tell Jonathan and me to come here just to leave us here alone. He has been teaching us to call on HIM for HELP and the STRENGTH we need to continue on. He has been teaching us to live a life of FAITH. God is SO GOOD!!! The more we deliberately put ourselves in a position of utmost reliance on God’s provision and care the more we see Him do the miraculous.

My life will never be the same.

"Live-Lines"

We are now hitting some financial "live-lines" (better known as deadlines), so I want to give you all updates on where we are sitting financially.

In early August, Jonathan and I sent out 150 support letters to every friend we could think of with a stamped envelope included. I'm happy to say that we did receive about 20 of them back, resulting in just under $5,000. Praise God!! and THANK YOU for being faithful with what God has given you! We are in a very good place for this first $5,000 ($2500 x 2) deadline this Thursday.

Next month, the last $5,000 will be due. I encourage you to seek what the Holy Spirit is asking you to give. Even though I don't know how it's all going to come in, God has given me a peace that passes understanding. He brought us to this place, so He is going to bring us through it!

If you want to help us get past our last $5,000 goal please go to PayPal and use the email address datacatch@gmail.com , OR directly deposit money to University of the Nations. You just need to type in this information:

Name: Jennifer Freeman
DOB: Jan 3,1989
School: DTS- Community Transformations
Start Date: Sept. 2012
Under "Student" Select the Outreach Bubble and put in the amount you desire.


Words cannot express our thanks for your contributions!

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Luke 6:38

The Nitty Gritty

This past week has been very challenging. It's kinda where the rubber meets the road so to speak. This coming Thursday is our first big financial due date. All lecture fees are to be paid and each person is to have $2500 down for outreach fees.

Thursday, in class we discussed finances, and how to "do" them as a missionary. These are some very hard walls to break down in the mind of the average American Christian. I believe in hard work and earning my keep, but I'm also learning to take up my "cross" and follow Jesus. I've been tackling some pretty big giants recently. One giant I'm encountering is Worry. In Matthew 6:25-31 Jesus tells His followers to not worry about what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear. Instead He says in verses 32-34 "For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

How much faith do I really have? Do I really believe that God will provide this for me?  I then ask myself this, "Am I here trying to understand and see His kingdom?" YES! Next, "Am I pursuing His righteousness?" YES! So of course He will take care of my basic needs.

It gets better...
Jesus says in Mark 10:29 that if we leave family, possessions, or positions for the sake of Christ and the Gospel that "he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life."

Whoa, that's a promise. So here we are, at a school training how to be missionary for life, learning how to hear the voice of GOD, learning how to bring righteousness into our world by ending world hunger, stopping human trafficking, and bringing equality to the workplace, and learning how to be more like Jesus. What an amazing promise! God is going to bless each one of you that is striving towards His Kingdom and Righteous

This financial stiff has a tendency to really stress me out. I LOVE to have everything figured out and know how things are going to work, but that is not the life that the Holy Spirit has asked us to live. Instead, 

He asks us to obey Him and then watch as He gives us EXACTLY what we need for the step we have just taken.

Walking by faith requires us to act first and then see how God gives us the means to see the next part out. I am literally watching as God is giving me life "worksheets" with some seriously challenging problems on them for me to practice on until I get better at releasing my life into HIS hands. So far...it's been...challenging. Ha. BUT HE HAS BEEN SO FAITHFUL!!!

Keep praying for us! We feel each one of your prayers and we would also love to pray for you, so feel free to email me at jfreeman711@gmail.com.

Much love and Aloha!
~Jennifer

The Ironman World Championship

The Ironman World Championship. The Big Island's biggest event of the year happened on Saturday, October 13, 2012. We both got a chance to volunteer and help with security and crowd control. 

pure chaos

In volunteering, I really had no idea what I was signing up for. My shift began at 4am, where we met at the pier downtown to get our job assignments. My first post was at a security checkpoint where the athletes would enter to prep their bicycles, and then assemble to dive into the ocean to swim their 2.4 miles. My job was to check to make sure everyone entering had the correct wristband on to permit entry, so I stood with my hands on my hips looking tough to anyone who might try to sneak by without the right credentials. Fortunately, I avoided any would-be smack downs with media and ornery family members. My second post took me to the road where the bicyclists were careening around blind corners headed up the hill. My job was to make sure the bystanders did not enter the street or cross the road except at a certain location. This was a bigger challenge than I anticipated. Spectators were literally putting their lives in jeopardy thinking it was ok to dart in front of the oncoming bicyclists going the speed of cars to cross to the other side. At one point a huge group of people suddenly started to cross, despite our cries to cross at certain points only. One last lady jumped out into the street to join the group, but didn't see a bicyclist coming. All I remember was hearing an incredibly loud BANG of metal on pavement and everyone screaming. Chaos ensued as people ran into the street towards the incident, but at the same time 8 more bicyclists were headed right towards them. It literally is a miracle nothing else happened here. Ten feet in front of me the lady lie motionless on the street, the bicyclist was bleeding on his knees, and his bike was a wreck.This was scary. This was a huge problem. Not just for the lady that couldn't move, but mostly for this athlete that had put everything in his life into this race that was now suddenly on hold because a spectator wanted a better view. Needless to say, he was furious. He pulled off to the side to take apart and reassemble his broken bike, and, fortunately for him, within 20 minutes got back on the race course. I can only hope that his body had not sustained any injuries that kept him from finishing. By this point I was ready to go home. This was waaay more than I imagined. When the medics finally brought a stretcher down to take to the lady to the hospital, there was a puddle of blood in the road from the accident. I was shaking. You would think that people would have seen the lady surrounded by medics and decided to be wise about crossing the street, but for the next hour no amount of shouting or waving could not stop the spectators from crossing the busy street.

I definitely felt as if I had experienced the Iron-man that day, and I wasn't even running.

Let me quote some stats to help you get the picture. 

There were:

2,000 tri-athaletes in the race

5,000 volunteers

roughly 10,000 spectators

that poured into our city, population size of usually 4,000 including all staff and students on the UofN campus.

This race is the mother of all triathlons. The athletes' goals on this day were to swim 2.4 miles, hop on a bike to cycle 112 miles, to jump off and run a full marathon of 26.2 miles. 

INSANITY, but for many of these people this was the pinnacle of their competitive careers as athletes. The prize for both male and female 1st placers was $120,000. The prize for both male and female 2nd placers was $60,000. This was no joke. 

NBC will be airing a special on this event on the 27th. Something worth checking out.

The main streets in the town were shut down as the island cheered the  athletes on

Lots of fun encouragements written for the racers along the way

Such a glorious and brutal thing to witness. The finish line. The racers were greeted with an orchid lei, hugs and towels then immediately escorted the the triage tent to treat their overexerted bodies.

The unity in this event was such an amazing thing to see.

 We witnessed RAW PERSEVERANCE. We've never seen anything like it.

Until next week, 

I love you all and Aloha! 

Pigs, Prayers, and Visas

Now that school is in full swing, we have been constantly in motion. We have been

• praising Jesus
• singing
• walking up and down the volcano our campus is built on
• praying
• literally hearing the voice of God 
• *I'm just gonna let you know at this point that my life is being radically changed 
• eating
• sleeping
• talking
• dreaming crazy amazing dreams
• meeting new people
• making new friends
• interceding for loved ones and for missionaries around the world
• watching God answer my heart's desires
• sweating
• taking notes
• learning how to live
• getting seriously excited for the next thing God is going to do

Usually not all at the same time, but occasionally many at once :) You definitely don't want to hear how hoarse my voice is at the moment. I actually took the day off to stay away from large groups of people to let my sad little vocal chords rest for a wee bit. 

The guys honor Jeff and his love of triathlons and spandex by shaving their legs and wearing spandex.
Truly, this is honoring your brother. *smh*

Jeff Reid spoke on the theme of "Walking with Jesus" this week. He is a missionary with his wife and two boys in Cape Town, South Africa and is a man marked by the zeal of his Heavenly Father. I was definitely challenged and encouraged from his messages. Jeff really focused on getting us out of our comfort zones to exhort one another, in the process giving each one of us a renewed sense of security and confidence of who we are in Christ because of His unfathomable love for each one of us. To summarize a few points I learned this week (without the help of my notes tonight):

• Worshiping God has nothing to do with what I'm feeling. I worship my heavenly Father simply because He is deserving of my praise.
• The Trinity. This one is really deep, so prepare yourself:
•  God sent Jesus to the world so Jesus could prepare the way for the Holy Spirit. When we seek guidance from the Holy Spirit, He teaches us to be like Jesus who did everything His Father told Him to. They always act in accordance with the Word of God.
• Our job as Christians is to read the word, and respond with immediate obedience (ie: praise and thanksgiving.)
• Lastly, pray OUT LOUD. Every prayer recorded in the Bible was prayed aloud. There is power in the very name of Jesus.

Learning about something called IMOs

Wednesday we have "electoral" class time. Jonathan will be doing an intense study of the Bible, and I chose to go the farming route a) because I know NOTHING about farming and b) so what if I might wanna grow something in my yard one day? I'll learn how! The campus has a brilliant farm set up  that is on the cutting edge of farming technology. The ideas that are forming here are bringing our world closer to ending world hunger. They have come up with a technique to turn even a desert into a blooming crop field. The farm is complete with chickens, sheep, goats, fish (that help fertilize the farm) and pigs (that eat the scraps from our meals and save the school $30k a year on waste removal)It's nuts, and I'm psyched to learn all I can.

The pigs, in all their glory

 Something that we will be doing weekly, is going into the town to meet people, build relationships, and share the love of Jesus. This is something that comes difficult to most American Christians. Telling strangers about the gospel. But when Jonathan and I met a (homeless) man enslaved in alcoholism wanting so badly to be free, it seemed like the most logical thing in the world to share how he could be free. The Holy Spirit gave me such a passion for this man to earnestly show him mercy and love and show him the way to Jesus. When we parted ways, he thanked us genuinely for our encouragement and walked away in tears saying he would think about it.

Wednesday night, Kona Outreach recap time

Thursday in class, Jeff had our DTS (CommTrans) visit another class (Compassion) to pray blessings over them. There is nothing like being in a small space with 200 young people praying their hearts out to ask God for blessing over their brothers and sisters. So beautiful.

We have officially begun the process of traveling to India by.... applying for our visas! Yay! It takes months for them to process, so we needed to start on this as early as possible.

This panorama is extra funky because when people move  it distorts the image. But nevertheless... here we are :)

 This was certainly a challenging week for Jonathan and I as we both have been battling head and chest colds. Please pray for our healing. We know that the enemy is not happy about us being here, so we weren't surprised when most of our class has come down with the same thing. But, our God is greater and truly a joy to serve. We are looking forward to a new week of classes and a new speaker for "corporate week" when all schools will meet together for the messages throughout the week.

Thank you for your love and prayers! Upwards and onwards!

So, we're moving to a different country

This goes way back to 8th grade for me...

My parents supported a ministry in India called Gospel for Asia. .
One day, a representative came to our house to tell us about what they had been doing and share testimonies from various pastors and new converts. While watching a powerpoint he was showing, I specifically heard God tell me that one day I would go there. That was all. That night, we went to church, and I went to the alter to pray about what I had heard, and God gave me simple faith to believe that this was a calling that I would one day fulfill.

Fast forward to college. Jonathan and I were just beginning our friendship. We were in the drive through at Wendy's and something lead Jonathan to tell me that he had a desire to do ministry in India someday. I hadn't really talked about my calling to anyone, my parents knew, but that was pretty much it. Every time the local church had their summer missions groups (http://touchinglivesforchrist.com/) I kept hoping that they would go to India, but they never did. In fact, in 2010, Jonathan signed up with TLC to go to India, but the plans and team fell apart. It wasn't time for either of us to go to India. Regardless, the flicker of hope and desire to go where God had called me never died.

Jonathan--Not in India..haha, it turned into a trip to Spain.

When we signed up for YWAM, we picked a DTS that specifically said India was a possible outreach location. When we finally heard back from them, they told us that they felt we were better suited for Comm Trans. Comm Trans only stated that New York, Cambodia, and South Africa were their possible outreach locations, so in our minds that kinda threw India out...again. Nonetheless, we were excited to see what God had in store. So we pressed on.

This week, everyone was kept in the dark as to where all the outreach locations were. All I knew was that there were 14 different teams. Finally, Wednesday afternoon, we all gathered together to pray about our outreach locations. So they finally released the list of countries by scrolling through pictures one by one in a powerpoint. Suddenly India flashed up on the screen.

It was like electricity shot through my body. My heart started to race, and my hands started to sweat (ew?), and I had this bolt of energy hit me. I was so excited. But I wanted to make sure this was what God wanted. Jonathan and I were able to go off together and pray about it. Neither of us said a word to each other, but we were both thinking the same thing. After praying that God would show us clearly what we needed to do, we both experienced the same amazing peace about our unanimous choice. We opened our eyes and shared what we had just heard, and following the staff's instructions, wrote our names on a piece of paper with the word "India" scrawled in blue ink at the bottom, and dropped it in the bowl on the podium. But it wasn't over yet. We still had to wait until Friday night to find out if that was the final decision from the staff. We weren't allowed to tell anyone what we had written.

waiting...

Friday night,We all gathered in the Pavilion with nervous anticipation. The energy in the room was tangible. 103 young people were awaiting the news of where God wants them to be for 3 months (or maybe even longer)!

Our staff had a plan though...haha. We were going on a scavenger hunt to find out who our team was, and where we were going. After going to a tree to find my name on a piece of paper, and then running to the mailroom the 6 of us in our group (not including our leader's family) opened envelope #2 to see the words "Greetings! Team Russia!" WHATTTT???? We all looked at each other like, "did you choose Russia?" Suddenly another group showed up and asked if we had found an envelope... Then we started to laugh. We forgot to go to the next location. Haha. So then we ran to the Banyan Tree Cafe, where the six of us discovered the CORRECT #2 envelope that said "Greetings! Team India!" Ahhh!!! There were many a "hoot'n holler" right there and then. I've never seen a bigger grin on Jonathan's face. :)

What a great night. :) So now we have 3 months (approximately 70 days) to bond as a team, and learn some good missionary skills as we prepare to go the great land that is India.

deep apologies for the blurriness...we were a bit excited :)

Moral of the story: never underestimate what God tells you when you are young. Great things can come of it! :)

Week 1 of Community Transformation's DTS

Life. Has. Been. A. Blur. WOW.

But it's been one seriously amazing blur. Let me do my best to bring you on the journey of this past week.

Thurs. Sept. 27
Registration Day! We got our room and met our house-mates. We share a little duplex/dorm with Tommy and Grace. We each get our own room, and share a bathroom, dining area and kitchenette with them. They are seriously an answer to prayer as they are so sweet and EASY to live with (I hope they can say the same thing about us! :). They have such a beautiful story of surrender to Jesus in how they became a couple, got married, and found themselves headed to a DTS with YWAM here at U of N (University of Nations). Love them! We are so blessed!

The Ohana (means family) Court on crazy Registration Day

Our awesome Housemates :)
They even let me borrow laundry soap AND quarters :)

Our living quarters. Quite comfortable, I might add. 

Plans for the week

Fri. Sept. 28

Orientation Day! We finally got to be together as a whole group with our Community Transformations Class (you'll see me refer to this as Comm Trans). There are a whopping 138 of us, and already God has begun to knit us into one big family! We marched around campus checking out the Mauka Theater, Prayer Room, Ohana Court, and Banyan Tree Cafe. While we were in the prayer room, Johnny (our fearless leader) had us jump right into a worship and prayer time. So special!! And the Holy Spirit met us right there in our spontaneous worship. He is AWESOME!

Following the procession

Sat. Sept. 29
We took a couple of girls we met to go snorkeling with us at a place called Turtle Beach. So many gorgeous fish to see! One of the girls is a sister to 3 girls I went to school with at HSBC. Wow, what a little world we live in! After that, we went to End of the World to let Jonathan jump off again and let the girls see some more Hawaii goodness. We met about 20 of our Comm Trans classmates there who were cliffdiving. This awesome day went on to include a pit stop at the Bleu Cupcakery, a dance party in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and shopping for dorm essentials.

New Friends, Christy and Caryn! Because what's school without friends!?

End of the World

Cliff Diving!

Sun. Sept. 30
We now call the Mokuaikaua Church our home church, so we attended here in the morning and brought our friend Caryn with us. We met several CommTrans-ers there as well. With a group of 138, you're bound to see us everywhere! Later, we skyped with Jonathan's sister and brother-in-law and got to say hi to the nephews. What a treat! :) Then we got to rest a bit for the rest of that day.

Mon. Sept. 31
Every week starts with a worship service at 8:00am to do nothing but praise the name of Jesus and tell him how wonderful He is. Lots of excellent worship leaders rotate each week, so it is NEVER boring. More on how my view of worship is changing later...Our leaders started the first official day of school with a trip to the beach :) It was a perfect day, and glorious to enjoy the Hawaiian sun while getting to know many more Comm Trans friends.

Tuesday --Friday
REAL class starts! An incredibly anointed man named Ben Nonoa spoke on this week's theme "The Father Heart of God." God used this man in such a beautiful way in both of our lives as he brought the truth of God's never ending love and adoration for little "us."

Our "classroom" in the Ohana Court

Some of our staff teaching on intercession. Such a beautiful thing!

This week the main thing I learned was how repentance is a JOY filled activity NOT something full of shame and agony. All my life I thought of repentance as a horrible thing because the enemy lied to me and I believed that if I fessed up to an issue in my life I would be branded with that horrible thing in front of the world forever. The REALITY is that God wants to set me free from it instead and when I confess with my tongue I take the power from the enemy over that area of my life and give it to God so He can turn my life into the beautiful thing He wants instead! SUCH A GLORIOUS THING!
I have completely rediscoved the love of our Father in Heaven. He has nothing but good in store for me!

Game night with Marie and Marian from Switzerland. They gave us some humorous  French "lessons."

Breakfast with a new friend from Mozambique, Leo!

Stay tuned for the next blog post! I'll be releasing our outreach location. We are SOOO excited about this :)
Much love to you all!