Spread the word.

For those of you who are new friends, new readers, old friends and readers, or just stumbled on this post randomly... I would like to summarize YWAM, our next adventure with DTS, and how you can be a part of it all.

Brandon and I have been with YWAM for many years.  Brandon has served for 6 years, while I have been a part of YWAM for almost 4.  YWAM, or Youth With A Mission for those of you who do not know about our acronym, is a worldwide missions organization.  Over 50 years ago, God guided one man to begin a movement, and that movement has now multiplied into over 1,000 operation locations in more than 180 countries with over 18,000 people working under the YWAM name.

YWAM values...

 knowing God

making Him known

hearing God's voice

worship & intercession

being visionary

championing youth

being broad-structure and decentralized

being international and interdenominational

having a biblical worldview

teamwork

servant leadership

doing first then teaching

relationships

the individual

families in missions

depending on God for finances

hospitality

communicating with integrity.

As a missions movement, we focus on evangelism, training, and mercy ministries.

Without going into too much detail, that can summarize the general DNA of YWAM.  There are many other incredible ministries around the world, many other amazing missional organizations, and we feel so blessed to be a part of this one.

Brandon and I have a HUGE heart for the training side of YWAM.  We have put this into action by leading and working with DTS, Discipleship Training Schools.

Currently our base has a DTS running right now.  How exciting it is to see students come from all over the world hungry to be discipled.

We will be leading the next DTS, which begins in September.  The school will have 6 focuses:  photography, visual arts, performing arts, music, surfing, and skateboarding.  We are stepping out in faith and expecting that God will send us 25-30 students (that is over twice the amount of most of our past DTSes).  We are also embarking on a new venture for our base... for the first time ever YWAM Pismo Beach will be running a secondary training school:  Basic Leadership School (aka, BLS).  Brandon and I are VERY excited to see this vision come into fruition.  Our DTS will run alongside the BLS, and we are thrilled to see how the BLS will impact the DTS.

How can you get involved?  There are many, so many ways that you can get involved.  Praying for us is first and foremost.  Some of our readers support, or have supported us financially, in which we are so humbly grateful for your generosity!  But I am urging you specifically to get involved in spreading the word about YWAM, about YWAM Pismo Beach, about our DTS... about the BLS.

If you know someone who is seeking discipleship...

...someone who is passionate about photography

...visual arts

...performing arts

...music

...surfing

...skateboarding

...someone who has completed a DTS and would like further training (the BLS is for them)

...someone who has completed a DTS and feels called to full-time missions.

Tell them about the DTS.
Tell them about the BLS.
Tell them about joining staff with us.

This is how you can help be a part of YWAM.... spread the opportunity... please.  I heard of YWAM because someone shared it with me.  Brandon heard about YWAM because someone shared it with him.  Please keep us on your mind, and don't hesitate to share with someone who you think can benefit from what YWAM can offer.

Direct them to our website.
Have them call us, 805-773-YWAM.

If you have made it to this sentence, thank you for reading through details and information that might not be the most exciting thing to read.  :)  But I hope it has given you a snippet about YWAM, and about our upcoming adventures with DTS.  It is exciting to us, and we are thankful for what God has in store!

Serious.

People talk casually about death and heaven, as in when someone dies, that is where they go.
Jesus tells us that His kingdom is in heaven, and He is the King.
And Jesus conquered death.
Neither of which are casual things.
They are serious things.
We can only conquer death with the conquer Himself.
And we can only live in the Kingdom if we are under the King's lordship.
What Jesus did was in no way casual.
It was intentional.
It was powerful.
It was sacrificial.
I do not want to take anything about that casually.
I want to be intentional about my relationship with Jesus.
I want to acknowledge his power.
I want to feel the grace and mercy of His sacrifice.
Then I may know with a serious certainty what will happen when I die.
The hope we have is not a casual hope.
Hope is strong.
It is a gift.
And it was bought with a cost.
It is serious.

I always humbly hope that when someone dies, they knew of this, and understood the seriousness.
And the seriousness of it is the very reason why people need to hear.
They need to hear about death.
About the conquerer.
About the King.
About hope.

Locked.

Yesterday Shiloh locked herself in her room.

I freaked out.  She woke up from her nap, and tried to open the door all by herself.  But instead she locked it, FROM THE INSIDE.

I was right there, but was 2 seconds too late.  Locked out.

I panicked.  Brandon came within 10 minutes, and climbed through the window.  (***sigh***, our hero)

We've taken the door knob off, and will be replacing it with one that does not lock.

But it got me thinking about how we do this all the time with God.  We lock Him out.  Not even in a consciously prideful way, but sometimes we merely think we can open the door all by ourselves, and instead we are locking Him out from coming to get us/help us/guide us/love us.

I wonder if the way I felt as I sat on the outside of Shiloh's door...

unable to get to her

trying my best to keep her calm and happy

asking her to open the door

....is how God feel about us.  

Does He sit outside our locked doors worried for us, asking us to open them up?  As a Father, is His heart burdened when He can't reach us?  And how many locked doors do I have?

"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him."  ~ Luke 12:35-36

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest and repent.  Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. ~Revelation 3:19-20

10 years.

10 years ago today was one of the most difficult days of my life.

I am so thankful for the 17 years that I spent with my father.  He was a great man, and of course, I dearly miss him.

But God is so incredible through the hard times.  His ability to heal us through pains, grief, sorrow, and loss is immeasurable.  I am thankful for the grace that has been poured out on me in these 10 years.

Our shoe.

Welcome to our shoe.  Shoe.  Shoebox.  Home.  I love it.  Our apartment is under 300 square feet.  Its teeny tiny.  Yes, thats the ONE bedroom.  Yes, Shiloh sleeps in our room... no, we do not co-sleep.  She has her own 'nook' in our closet.  Yes.  You read that right.

It was the place God blessed us with 2 1/2 years ago.  We love it.  It represents more than just an apartment, its our first everything.

But we are ready to move into a bigger shoe.  We've been ready for a few months.  But that doesn't mean it will be easy leaving our first little shoe.  We rent from good people, we love our neighbors, the neighborhood is safe and wonderful.  Shell Beach is great for surfing.  It will be hard to leave.

But...  after months we found a new place.

It meets most of our the features we were looking for...

• 2 bedrooms
• big open living space
• quiet & safe area
• garage
• access to washer & dryer

Its in Pismo Beach, so we'll be situated in the 'heart' of where our YWAM base is called to.  Its actually just a couple blocks from our base's office.  And it gives us the room we are looking for, its over 3 times the size of our tiny shoe.  Yes, you heard right.  Shiloh can have her own bedroom!  We can have more space for friends, staff, and family to come over!  More space to grow...  We are REALLY excited to have more space :)

Pismo Beach is not too far from our beloved Shell Beach.  Brandon can walk to the pier each morning to check the waves.  We can walk to our YWAM office (awesomeness for us!).  Its sad to leave our first home, but we are ready to make this new apartment into a new home.  :)

2011 Superlatives

Sometimes the best way to ring in a new year is to reflect on the past.  Our 2011 was incredible.  We have grown so much, as parents, as a married couple, as disciples, and well, we couldn't help but look back over our blog post for the year.  YWAM has brought us many adventures, and life in general has also.  Remember your high school yearbook... superlatives.  Well, here are ours for 2011.

Best Attempt at A Smile:   From Shiloh's Cheerio Fun, here.

Most Changed:  Shiloh turning 1 year!  Here.

Most Honest:  The Not-So Sane Moments of Traveling, here.

Favorite Nicaragua Moment:  Re-visiting Priscilla and her family, here

Most Worthy of Remembrance:  Veteran's Day, here.

Most Difficult:  Shiloh getting croup, here.

Favorite Face:  Shiloh's famous O-face, here.

Most Difficult Goodbye:  Our friend, Tyler, here.

Advent {Days 21-25}

{Day 21}  Buy and donate a new toy to a child in need.

Shiloh got to pick out a toy.

She chose the fairy doll, Tinkerbell.

I was worried that when it came time to drop the toy in the box, she'd freak out.

Not so.

She actually was really excited to toss it in.  :)

Thank you Jesus for that!

Tantrums in public are the worst.

There was only 1 other toy in the box.

I hope they just emptied it out, and more toys have been donated than just ours and that one.

Christmas can be a hard time of year for many people.

We know what it is like to struggle to buy gifts.

Its not much, but at least one little girl will enjoy having a new Tinkerbell fairy to play with.

{Day 22}  Neighbors gift exchange.

We went next door.

To have dinner and a gift exchange with the Dejongs.

They own the dairy.

Shiloh played the piano for us, & made a new best friend.

We ate soup and yummies and had coffee.

The gift exchange was fun, everything is fun when we get together with the Dejongs.

{Day 23}  Visit Great Grandma & Grandpa.

Brandon's grandparents live nearby.

We took Shiloh over to see her Great Grandparents, & so we could visit with them.

Shiloh cleaned.

Of course, right? 

It was so good to see them. 

Grandparents are amazing.

{Day 24} Gingerbread train & cookies for Santa.

The Gingerbread Train was a hit.

Shiloh put more candy inside the train than on it.

Baking cookies for Santa was also fun.

We used neon food coloring, so I think they look very 80's-esque.

Some angels were decapitated in the making of Santa's cookies.

It was a Merry Christmas Eve.

{Day 25}  Merry Christmas!!!

Matthew 1:23

Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son,

and they shall call His name Emmanuel--

which when translated, means,

God with us.

Merry Christmas from Brandon, Kirsten, & Shiloh!

Advent {Days 14-20}

First I want to reveal our Advent calendar:

Its made from matchstick boxes.  It might be one of my favorite new things.  We just slide out a box for each day, and inside is the activity.

Then second, we got super busy this past week, and some of our activities did not end up working out as planned, so we improvised.

Day 14 {Wednesday} Set up the nativity.

We did not have time between our work and Shiloh's nap schedule to go see Santa.

Instead we let Shiloh set up her little nativity set.

I figure, Christmas is all about Jesus anyways, not Santa. 

She seems to love the donkeys.

And she sometimes points out baby Jesus.

Sometimes she points to the sheep.

Kinda ironic.

Day 15 {Thursday} Read the Christmas story.

Brandon read us the story of Jesus out of Luke.

Its amazing how humble God is.

Day 16 {Friday}  Make our Christmas cookies in a jar.

We were tight on time.

And trying to pinch our pennies some, so we opted out of the delicious peppermint hot cocoa.

Instead we finished making our mason jar cookies.  

Yum.

This is such a fun and easy gift to make.

And the cookies are some kind of serious deliciousness.
You have to really pack down each layer otherwise they won't all fit.
Brandon found his knack in packing flower.
And eating m&m's.
Shiloh found her knack in stacking the completed jars.
I personally enjoyed how pretty they looked.

Day 17 {Saturday}  Visit Grammy Roo & Gpa.

9+ hours in the car.

We left at 5:45am.

It made the trip feel shorter.

We do road trips well.  

Shiloh does too... only the last hour of the trip was rough.

We ate a lot of goldfish.

And took naps.  :)

Day 18 {Sunday}  Attend Christmas play & make sugar cookies.

Brandon's brother was starring in the Scrooge musical.
We especially loved the scenes he was a part of.
"God bless us, every one." Is my favorite line.
We didn't have all the gingerbread house ingredients, so we only made sugar cookies.

We always eat too much dough.

The stars were our favorite to make.

Cookies are just so Christmas-y

Day 19 {Monday}  Deliver gifts to family and friends.

We took some of our cookies in a jar to people in town.

Shiloh got to enjoy the fun chair at our cousins work.

Then the fun snow mobile at our uncle and aunts business.

Day 20 {Tuesday}  Go on a walk as a family.

God didn't deliver the usual Christmas snow yet.

No snow means no snowman or snow angel.

We took a walk instead.

Up the hill behind Brandon's parents house.

To the tree with a swing under it.