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Hawaiian dancing at the welcome ceremony

  Jet-lag has me up early enough to enjoy the Hawaiian sunrise, but most of the days are filled with meetings - in groups and with individuals to collect the most amazing stories of God’s work among YWAM international.  Find out more about what we’re doing here at ywam.org - there are daily reports and even a you-tube video.

After an 18-hour journey, I made it to Hawaii! Our meetings don’t start until tonight so a few of us from “Team Harpenden” took advantage of the time to catch some sun and sand…after all, it would be a shame to come all this way and not see the beach! 

Hawaii is something else.  It’s a little disconcerting to realise you are perched precariously on a tiny rock in the middle of this enormous ocean.  But it is beautiful, and the YWAM centre here is pretty impressive, too.  Kona is our largest training centre, and the old hotel we purchased here has many different DTS and training programs going on at any one time, with hundreds of students.  I’m having fun catching up with all the old friends Jeff usually gets to see when he travels and trying to focus around the jet-lag on the task ahead - summarising what God does at this event where YWAM leaders are seeking His direction and strategising on how to implement His word.

Jeff is also having a productive time in Washington with the team working on global trends in their focused evangelistic efforts.  It also sounds like the kids are doing well and having fun hosting parties at the flat in our absence!  I’m not sure how much time I’ll have in the next week to blog, but I thank you for your prayers - the flight was smooth and peaceful.  Let’s see what happens next!

Today we launched the International YWAMer e-zine - YWAM’s global news and views publication, recently reformed as an electronic magazine.  I took over as editor a few months ago and with a team based in Colorado and Harpenden, we have created an exciting new publication which will reflect something of who YWAM is and what we are doing all over the world, for the encouragement and inspiration of any friend of YWAM.  You are welcome to subscribe (for free!), or to preview the e-zine (which will come out every other month) at : www.internationalywamer.org 

Here’s a photo of the launch - we celebrated the completion of the first issue in our Chairman’s Team meeting this morning… I’m about to hit “send” to launch the first issue of the International YWAMer! 

A few weeks ago, my boss, who happens to be the International Chairman for YWAM, asked us to consider sending me (Tamara - you didn’t think Jeff wrote these blogs, did you?) to our mission’s annual leadership meetings which happen to be at one of our global headquarters in Kona, Hawaii this year. Sounds like a dream assignment, eh? - a trip to Hawaii. However, there is no money in the budget so the expense would be ours and further complicated by the fact that Jeff already had a trip booked to Washington that same week. OK, so it’s still Hawaii - but consider that it takes about 2 days and three airports to get there from here!

It seemed important to have someone from our team there for the purpose of communicating the outcomes of the event to the thousands of YWAMers who won’t be there. It is expected to be a significant meeting, focusing on the evaluation of prophetic words the Lord has given us as a mission in recent years and determining if we have been faithful to obey the directions He has given us.  YWAM was birthed out of a vision God gave our founder, and as we have grown we have always held the strong value that we listen to the voice of the Lord and follow it. Our recent monthly days of prayer (produced by the Chairman’s Team) have been focusing on some of these words, and everyone is considering how to respond personally and corporately to what the Lord is saying to us.

So we prayed about it and it seemed that it was right to say yes - in theory.  In theory because we didn’t have any extra funds to pay for the trip which was going to cost about $2000 (I know - can you believe it!  How do airlines keep going bankrupt when they are charging so much money?).  I confess that I was not exactly high in faith that the money would come in, either!  So when an unexpected gift for $500 came in, from some friends who did not know about the trip,  I wrote back to our generous supporters saying that we would put the money towards this need, or towards other needs such as petrol if I didn’t go!  Our friends wrote back saying that they would cover the rest of the need, and then some, to pay for any other expenses.  This is the kind of miraculous provision we have heard much of, but not encountered personally for some time!  I started to think that maybe God really did want me to go to this meeting.

The next concern was childcare, as I mentioned, Jeff was already booked to be in Washington with partnership meetings. (Jeff’s term as chairman comes to an end this month.  It’s been a huge privilege, but we are happy to have his travel schedule reduced!) This was, of course, a major concern because it’s the last week of school vacation and we wanted the kids to be with someone they felt comfortable with and who would enjoy them.  Well, within a day, we had our solution - a lovely lady on base whom the kids are excited to stay with.  Now I was really starting to think that God definitely wanted to make this happen!

So, I’m off at the end of the month for about a week.  Jeff and I will both be away for about 5 days.  Thankfully he gets back just in time for the start of school.  We do feel that there could be a purpose to this trip for me, even beyond what I know to be the reason, so do pray for us.

Do pray with us for : safe and smooth travel for Jeff and I, for grace and protection on the kids, for good health all around, for a minimum of jet-lag, and for God’s purposes in all our lives and journeys to be fulfilled. 

Don’t forget to write us at : tneely@oval.com