Outreach is over. God is awesome!

So outreach is officially over. Wow! I didn't even see it coming. I feel like we were just getting into Cambodia, and today we had to say our goodbyes and have our last prayer times with the Cambodians. Well I guess time just flies when you're following Jesus!

We have seen so much happen in every area possible its hard to know what to write, but here's a summary of what we've seen God do:

• 70 people accepted Jesus
• 6 Cambodian students got baptized
• 50 students learned about God & English at the youth center
• 120 student learned about God & English in the local village
• We saw an extreme makeover in local Cafe that will be used as a ministry to the community

We also had 10 team members leave, so over the course of the whole outreach, we saw our team go from 16. We started out with a family of 4, a family of 5, and 7 singles. Then, as people got commissioned to start school and battle sickness, we were left with 1 leader and 5 singles. Pretty unique!

So there has been lots happening here that I probably forgot to write on this blog, so I hope you keep checking it to hear fresh stories that are finally getting written down!

Also because words on a page really don't do it justice, here's a video taken by our DTS school leader Johnny Gillespie which describes the work God was doing through me. By the way, you can check out his blog as well by visiting this sweet website: Johnny & Jenni's Blog

Enjoy the video!

Updated photos on Facebook!

Hey this is just an alert letting everyone know that I have recently been posting many pictures on my Facebook account for everyone to see. They are pictures of the whole outreach, from Bangkok to Battambang and a special album of our trip to Angkor Wat. It's such a blessing to have amazing technology, and I hope you are all blessed with seeing the glorious sights that I've seen!

A quick link to the photo page of my Facebook is:

Photos by Nate Uttley

Enjoy and God bless!

The many emotions of following God

I love it when people ask me how I am doing. One reason is because it shows me their love and genuine concern for my well-being. Another reason is so that I can actually think about how I am doing, which is becoming increasingly exciting every day!

I'm come to realize more and more over the last few months that one word will NOT give that question the answer it deserves. To really answer that question, in all of the depth that it allows for, I could spend all day. And then the next day hearing how you're doing, and then another day just relating to all the same emotions that we have. I hope someone is laughing about this, because I sure am!

But the truth is, sharing in that depth is so good for us! Because honesty just leads us closer to the heart of God. And when I think of all the emotions that God has for us and about us, its no wonder that our hearts are the same.

God grieves over us. God is excited about us. God has dreams for us. God rejoices over us. God gets angry about our sin. God is passionate about us. God is jealous for us. God is lovesick for us. And all at the same time! No wonder we often say we're doing "good" or "okay", to really go into detail would overwhelm ourselves and the other person asking us! But at the same time the overwhelming feeling of life just brings us closer to the man who is overwhelmed by us.

So how am I? Well, in a typical day while following Jesus, at multiple points throughout the day, many that are overlapping, I feel these emotions:

1. love for people
2. irritation at people
3. grief over the depravity of my flesh
4. joy over what God has done
5. feeling like curling up in a ball and crying
6. so much passion and energy that I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs
7. hatred towards the enemy
8. excitement about the future
9. lovesick for God
10. stressed about money
11. wondering if I'm crazy for believing in God
12. ready to tell everyone how much Jesus loves them
13. full of faith to see everyone healed, saved and delivered
14. discouragement because God is really just teaching me to be patient!
15. very ready for Jesus to come back!

So that's just a typical day in my life of following God. I've never felt more joy, more ecstasy or passion, and at the same time I've never felt more pain, anguish and grief. Is it worth it? Sometimes the enemy tries to tell me no, but then the voice of truth always rings louder, and I feel God speak to my heart:

Its worth it! Keep going! Just think of judgment day when you will see me face to face, and you will hear me say: WELL DONE! MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!
And then I'll probably have even more emotions than I have ever experienced. Bring it on!

Baptized into new life!

This past Sunday we saw 6 students from the youth center baptized! It was amazing day, full of worship, laughter and lots of water! It was such an amazing honor to be in the water alongside my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as they commit to follow the King of Kings forever! And that just makes me remember the second time I got baptized and really encountered God! You can watch both of those videos right here! Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=64121415883

Burning for Jesus!

Together we had the CHOP meeting at the YWAM Battambang base! It was great to burn before the Lord! We had 6 Khmer students there, learning to live in a culture of worship & prayer, in an intimate relationship with the Lord. It is super cool to have the Khmer jumping in the prayer movement that is sweeping the globe and will continue to do so until Jesus comes back!

Salvations :) and Sera leaving :(

Raising their hands to choose Jesus!

So after the amazing healings that the Lord of the universe brought on Sunday in the local village we've been going to, He did another amazing work in people's hearts. He performed the biggest miracle ever of grabbing people hearts. So everyone get in a safe position, because on Friday August 13th, 2010, we saw 37 people make decisions to follow Jesus!

It was an incredible day, everyone on our team was just so blown away! So I just want to say thank you so much for faithfully interceding for our team here! I just know that everyone back home and all of my supporters had such a big part to play in this miraculous event!

In Jesus' name amen!

I hope I can put into words what this means to our team... so basically there are 37 people that are going to have radically transformed lives, not only in this age but for all of eternity! That means that we get to hang out with 37 more people in heaven! PARTY!!!!

With that eternal hope in mind, I'm super excited that everyone who accepts Jesus gets to spend eternity together with the living God! Because these are the last days that we get to spend with our great friend, loyal companion and amazing woman of God: Serapina Dayoon Kim, or just Sera.

She has grown so much during the lecture phase, trusting God for a miraculous entry into America, then her parents approval, then quite a bit of money! Then after getting here to Asia she has battled against sickness constantly, and has been able to teach her second language English to other people as their second language! We will surely miss every single part of Sera.

I'm starting to realize how many goodbyes we have to say in YWAM, but the hope of eternity makes it all better.

So looking forward to the future, we are very excited for Sera's new year of school studying Architecture at Virginia Tech. And we're super pumped to see the discipleship of an entire farming village.

So please agree with God's plans and heart for the following areas:
1. Excitement about salvation, that everyone would have a supernatural interest in following Jesus
2. Battling against false religion in the spiritual realm, and really contending for whole-hearted love towards Jesus and Jesus alone
3. For an increase in quality of education, both English and Bible
4. For wisdom in finances
5. For good attitudes during sickness, and miraculous healing!

He heals!

This past Sunday our team was able to go to the village and share the story of salvation and all parts of it: salvation, deliverance and healing. It was incredible! With the translator preaching a fiery message to the Cambodians, and the Holy Spirit healing 6 people, it was a great day! We saw God heal stomach pain, headaches and even the pain from a broken leg! We also were praying for a girl who had trouble studying, and during the prayer the girl's head was on fire, so much that the one praying had to take her hand off!
So it was just such an encouragement when we're stepping out and risking looking crazy or having the disappointment of nothing happening. It truly is amazing when God just takes over and does what He wants to do!

But as cool as God healing someone is, we're not stopping there! We're going for the full discipleship of the entire world, so we're very excited to continue teaching the bible, even equipping the locals with the bible and teaching them what it means to really follow Jesus!

So we're really preparing these people to make a genuine decision to follow Jesus, and hope to see many salvations in the coming days!

So just an encouragement to everyone who believes in the God of the bible, Jesus healed people, the Holy Spirit healed people in the book of Acts, and you can pray to God to heal people too! And of course the whole point of healing is to get them saved and actually following Jesus and going for the discipleship of the world, but what a radical piece of evidence right?

So with God healing so many other people out there, we are also trusting God to heal our teammate, Min. We are believing God for a miracle, and in the mean time she is staying at a local clinic to get better. So please agree with God for her healing!

In addition, please pray:
1. For the village ministry to enter into self-sufficiency
2. For the health of the entire team
3. For continued vision and passion for the remainder of our time here
4. For joy overflowing regardless of circumstance
5. For the heart of prayer to be released even more!
6. That we would have continued understanding of God's amazing love