Greetings from the Middle East!

Our plane has landed and we have made it through the first leg of our long travel journey back to the US. Our team came together, fought the good fight, and finished the last part of our South Asian adventure well.

Sunday evening was a night to remember. Our friends Abbas and Ahmed graciously offered to prepare a buffet dinner for the team at no charge to us simply because they wanted to. We had the chance to sample grilled fish, roshi, fried rice, chicken, chips, slaw, fish curry, and many other tasty (and spicy) treats. At the end of the meal, our friend Zahir came and brought in an incredible birthday cake made by a local friend to help us celebrate Nick’s birthday. Happy Birthday Nick!

After spreading the cake around to all, an impromptu dance party with some local friends and us broke out and was truly a time of joy and fellowship. We recognized anew that the favor we were shown in that evening was only an act of our friend drawing the nationals to the light overflowing from our lives.

Monday morning was another time of blessing. We arrived at the school early in the morning to assist in the classes one last time and were honored to be pulled into the teachers’ lounge and find that the staff had prepared the local breakfast of mashuni and roshi for the entire team! We enjoyed our meal, finished our classes, and said our difficult goodbyes to those with whom our hearts had quickly melded.

As we were saying goodbye to the principal of the school, he reiterated again his gratitude in the opportunity to partner with our group and declared, as the educational supervisor for several of the southern atolls in the country, his desire to assist us in getting any future groups that come into any school he supervises. Incredible!

We flew back to the capital island in the afternoon, spent some time doing affirmations as a team, and came together in the evening for one final meal with our two host families.

Yesterday (technically still “today” your time) the team spent the morning affirming one another in the unique attributes of dad we each individually display. Afterwards, we left our hotel and spent the remaining portion of our day hanging out with our contacts, shopping for souvenirs, and focus walking the capital island asking for this nation one last time while present within its borders.

The team is truly so grateful for your love, asks, and thoughts of us as we’ve walked this journey these past several weeks. As has been stated before and will be reiterated when we see you face to face. . . you have been a vital part of every success we’ve experienced this summer. Thank you for partnering with us to see dad’s name glorified in this land. Please continue to ask for these people. Follow dad’s focus model and beg first for his name to be glorified in this land and secondly, for his kingdom to come. We long for the day that their beautiful voices and unique expressions are given to our king as acts of praise. Until that day, we recognize that this trip is not over but truly. . . it is just beginning.

We love you all. See you soon!

With love,

Jim & Katie
Country Coordinators

Sorry for our extensive delay in contact.  The internet on this island is…well…isn’t. 

Thursday the team spent some time fellowshipping in the morning, walked to a nearby village and focus walked it in the afternoon (got to experience a little of monsoon season with the rain we encountered haha), and assisted in the evening classes at the school that night.  It was a day when we were reminded of the simple power of our presence here to reflect love and hope.

Friday morning, the team woke very early to get to the field at 6 AM for round # two of the Americans vs teachers soccer tournament.  Unfortunately, either because we weren’t too keen on being awake that early, we were still tired from the two hour game two days before, or we were just flat out bested by their skills, we lost 5 to 3.  It was a lot of fun and a ton of camaraderie and relationships were forged.  In fact, afterwards the entire group went to a local café where we all enjoyed a super spicy breakfast together and had great conversations.

The rest of Friday was spent as a free day.  Many worked on their journals, studied the book, and rested.  The teachers saw the group out and about later that evening and took them into their homes, introduced them to their daily lives, took them to dinner, and ended the evening searching the village for ice cream with them.  So cool!

Saturday, yesterday, we spent the day at picnic with 31 teachers from the school here.  They picked us up early in the morning and took us to a shaded palm grove near a beautiful white sand beach where we spent the day playing in the ocean, playing volleyball, playing soccer, playing “steal the bacon” (which was hilarious to watch as they dragged one another on the ground in the tug-of-war oriented game), sitting in conversation with new friends, and enjoying a wide variety of local fare the women prepared right there on the beach to entice our taste buds (soup, tuna-chili spaghetti, and custard).  We had so much fun being silly with them (they brought food coloring and we put it on our hands and chased each other around to “tag” each other resulting in some dirty faces and funny photos), learning about them, and loving them.

Last night, we came together and had a time of quiet praise claiming this land for our friend and exalting his name when others here constantly fail to do so.  It was significantly strengthening for each of us and really gave us a good foundation to head into our work today.

This morning the team is working in the regular classes at the school.  They’re spread out through various grades and subjects and are seeking to continue in relationship with the teachers at the school.  The students in the classes on this island are not well behaved so our presence in the classroom encouraging the teachers through the student’s constant disrespect is palpable.  During breaks the team has been bringing the teachers to a nearby café for breakfast and tea.  As I’m typing this, we have four tables filled with our students having conversations with local teachers.  It’s incredible to see such interaction in this remote part of the world.  While we have come to see it as normative, we recognize that it is only our friend’s light that breaks through the cultural barriers to create these highways to bless our new friends.

This afternoon, the team will come together and pack as we prepare to head back to the capital island tomorrow.  This evening, some local friends have volunteered to bless us by preparing a buffet of local food and coming to our guest house for an evening of traditional drum and song (called bodu bera).  We are excited for these continued opportunities for interaction.

Tomorrow our team will assist in the morning classes one last time before catching our flight in the afternoon.  Tuesday will be our last full day in this country.  We’ll spend some time debriefing as a team, focus walking the capital one last time, and shopping for souvenirs before catching our flight back to the US early Wednesday morning.  We hope to update before then but if not, please know that it is because Internet here is next to impossible to find.

Please lift up our remaining time here.  Ask for questions to be asked and intentional conversations to occur in a secure environment.  Ask for the exchange of emails and a foundation to be set that relationships can continue even after we leave.  Ask for our travel from this island and ultimately, back to the States.  Ask that things would be on time and we wouldn’t experience any problems or delays.  We know he wants to do a great work in this place.  We sense it.  We don’t know when it will be but like the patriarchs of old, we will walk with them faithfully towards the Promised Land even if we don’t get to take them into it.

You guys are awesome!

With love,

Jim & Katie
Country Coordinators

The team has arrived safely in our new home in the south!

Just as we were looking to move on to Plan B because of the delay in the boat cargo, he came through!  Our good friend Ahmed from last summer called on Sunday afternoon and told us to be ready to leave in three hours!  We jumped into action and within no time, made it to the dock, loaded onto our lovely dhoni (boat) named Dhoores, and took off on a true adventure.

The sea journey took around 27 hours, the majority of which was spent in the open ocean.  For some reason that we are still unsure of, our boat captain thought it would be fun to navigate open waters the whole way instead of traveling through the shelter of the atolls.  We certainly enjoyed the never-ending landscape view of the water and dad’s handiwork (including packs of dolphins and gorgeous sunsets) but were ready to de-board once we arrived at our destination.

We woke up to a hearty breakfast yesterday (Tuesday) morning and spent some time as a team chatting about our experiences on the boat.  After some much appreciated time in the book and much focus time, we came together at our guest house for our first opportunity this trip to sing together.  What an incredible blessing it was to softly lift our voices in song!

Afterwards, we did a teaching on the victory of our friend and how it will only comes by means of our focuses.  We were reminded anew that our presence here and our obedience to speak to our friend constantly has greater power than we could ever imagine.

Naturally, as a result of the teaching we spent some time focusing before heading to our first encounter at the new school we’re partnering with.  This particular school is the same one the ff team partnered with last year and walking in, it was an incredible blessing to see the joy and greetings of old friends and the establishing of new relationships with new team members.

Today we are seeing our team build on the foundations of those who have gone before them.  A friend from last summer, Riaz, treated the entire team to breakfast this morning just because he wanted to!

In the afternoon, the team went out and focus walked the village near our guesthouse, played Frisbee with local children, and ran into some of their students from the night before who remembered their names!  It is incredible to see how light can shine through the smallest interactions.

Currently, the team is in the classroom helping out in the evening sessions.  We are all tired from the activities of this afternoon, but truly overjoyed at the work that is already being done.  This afternoon, we spent a couple hours playing a soccer match against the teachers of this school.  Last summer, a healthy competition was born between the ff team and the teachers here.  When that team left, the winner for our soccer competition was still to be determined (or so the teachers claimed).  As a result, within hours of this team being here the teachers had already challenged us to a soccer tournament (of which we’ve played the first game and won!), invited us to a picnic island this weekend, arranged for an evening of bodu bera (a traditional drum song and dance), and are opening their lives for us to enter.  We are so blessed and overjoyed to see what our friend is doing in this place.

Please lift up our time here.  Ask that we would be fully present, that doors to relationships would open wide, that questions would be asked, dreams would be had, grace would flow out, that the enemy would be bound from attacking, and that we would walk in the power and authority of our dad.  Lift up continued health, a newfound passion and joy, and our ability to get into the school at other times (besides the evening classes) also.  We know he wants to do a great work in this place.  We sense it.  Please ask for a girl (M) who is seeking desperately, asking about our book, and wants to know about our friend but has no physical means of coming near our team as she is on another island nearby. Lift up her circumstances and ask for a miracle to be had that she could come and we could bless her with the greatest news anyone has ever heard.

Tomorrow we will be assisting in the school again.  We hope to do so in both the morning and evening.  In the afternoon, we will be focus walking and claiming this land for our friends glory and praise.  Friday we will have soccer match #2 and a free day for relationships.  Saturday will be the picnic with the staff and administration of this school.

Thank you for walking this journey with us.  Bear with us as the internet on this island is incredibly difficult to find and truly, as slow as molasses. J

With love,

Jim & Katie
Country Coordinators

We received a text from Katie that no internet is available where they are right now, so they are unable to post any reports or send pictures.  However, they wanted everyone to know they are all fine and excited about the ministry where they are.

Awe Star staff

Good news we just got a text message from the SA team and they are on dry land once again.  The boat made it and all are well,  just a little tired so they were ready to get some sleep then see if they can start helping in the school tomorrow, their tomorrow not ours. 

Just keep praying for them and the people that the friends they met last year can be renewed and hearts will be open.

Awe Star Ministries

We got a call this morning (Sunday Morning) from Katie that the team is getting on the boat.  They are so excited and will let us know when they arrive but it might be several days.  Please continue to pray for them that there will be no seasickness and that God will prepare the hearts of the people they will encounter.

Thank you for your prayers.

Awe Star Ministries

Thursday was our last day of working at the International school and the last day of our Olympic games. The sadness on the faces of our students and new friends was palpable as we entered the school grounds for what they knew would be our final time.

Throughout the day, the team was stunned by the array of gifts, notes, and hugs that were lavished on us by the students and faculty. We learned that it is often in the act of saying goodbye that the depth of impact one has made in another’s life is fully realized.

After teaching, Olympics, an awards ceremony for the students, many many pictures, hugs, and email exchanges, the team gathered in the teachers’ lounge for one final meeting with the administration of the school. They presented us with gift bags as a token of their appreciation and expressed sincere gratitude for our time working with them. The principal went on to say that he has high hopes for future groups to come and do a similar work and asked our opinion of bringing teams to work at summer camps here where students from many other M’lim nations would come and learn from us. Incredible right? It goes hand in hand with a comment the school director, a M’lim, made several days prior stating that “We need people with C values, like your group, to come and work here in our schools.”

Yesterday, Friday, was the team’s free day. We opted to spend the day together and journeyed to a picnic island not far from our current location. A picnic island is an uninhabited island that is specifically set aside for water sports and a great day at the beach. We enjoyed our time together swimming, snorkeling, playing football, and interacting with nationals who were also hanging out on the island.

Today, we’ve been working to clean up our flat, get packed, and prepare our hearts for the journey ahead. Right now, the team is out watching the sunset and engaging dad’s heart for those we’ve worked with, our travel ahead, and those he has for us to impact in the journey ahead.

At the moment, our boat has been delayed but we are praising our friend that the majority of the requests you’ve been lifting on our behalf have been answered! The boat is here, the weather is fantastic, we have two people of peace helping us out, and we as a team are ready to go. The final piece of the puzzle we are waiting on is the cargo to fill the boat. It isn’t cost effective nor smart for the boat to head that distance without a load to carry. Please ask for a true miracle load to come and quickly get put onto the boat that it can leave early morning tomorrow with us in tow. We yearn to get to the southern atoll as quickly as possible and any delay is cutting into our time to build relationships with the people there.

Also, please ask for continued health (no seasickness on the boat!), continued unity, focus, strength to be fully present, discernment to see that we are making an impact for dad’s great name here, good rest, dreams and visions for the nationals, workers to come behind us and continue the work on this island, the enemy’s defeat and strongholds to be broken, and favor to go before us to open the doors for our new work in the south.

In all honesty, we could not do this work without you holding the rope on our behalf at home. You are a pivotal part in this journey and we are so grateful for your love for us and for his glory in the world.

Hopefully, the next time we update will be from down south. Please be extra patient with us as the journey down there takes a little while and the Internet when we get there is less than reliable. Thank you!

With love,

Jim & Katie
Country Coordinators

New pictures are up.  We’re on the go but we’ll update soon.

Love you all!

Jim & Katie

 So many neat things are happening here! 

After our last update, the team came together at our contact’s home for some teaching time on unity.  It was an instrumental time for us and reminded us of the importance of laying aside our desires and dealing with in our sin in order to come together as one.

Yesterday, we did many of our normal activities (teaching, Olympics, tea time with new local friends, etc.) but threw in some variety that was incredibly gratifying.  After focus-walking the beach outside of our flat, we walked across to the other side of the island and had a time of praise while watching the sunset.  In a land where it is not permissible to verbally express our hearts, our individual opportunities to experience Dad’s love lavished upon us through creation were a huge encouragement to keep battling for the day when the cries of these people join in the chorus of Dad’s handiwork. 

After the sunset, we headed to one of our host family’s homes to enjoy a spaghetti dinner they had graciously prepared for us.  The opportunity for a good meal, great conversation, and the wonder of air conditioning was a tangible blessing to be sure.

Today was similar schedule wise to that of the last couple days.  It is really starting to hit us that tomorrow (Thursday) is our last day working at the school we’ve come to know and love.  Saturday, we hope to catch a boat to a southern island (the same one the team was in last year) to begin work in a new area. 

Please ask for tomorrow.  Ask for an incredible outpouring of dad’s presence in our last opportunity to be light in this particular school and part of the nation.  Ask for our hearts and emotions to withstand the separation from new relationships and get excited for those ahead.  Please beg for our travel.  We really need a cargo boat that will leave on Saturday.  For that to happen we’ll need clear skies, the cargo to be in the dock on time, and a man of favor to assist us.  Ask for our protection from attack, continued love for one another, and continued good health.

We love you and thank you for walking this journey with us.

With love,

Jim & Katie
Country Coordinators

Dear Friends and Family,

Since we last talked we have started on our second week of classes at the International school.  Here, the school week starts on a Sunday so we actually went back to school yesterday.  The week has started off to be another great week of teaching and showing our love to not only the students, but also to the teachers.  We are continuing to grow closer as a team and coming together as one.  We are becoming a very strong unit and family and we can’t wait to see where Dad is taking us.  Every week we have had our difficulties but what makes us special is how we have handled the problems and have helped one another.  The students are doing very well and are getting better at putting together lesson plans.  They’re using their many talents and abilities to put it all together…from lessons, to coming up with games, or even making posters (see photos).

Yesterday was a great time of team bonding.  After teaching in the school, we came back to our flat and had a time where we shared our testimonies.  We quickly realized that we are truly a group of broken people that have come together to offer what we have in this land for His renown.  It was a pivotal time for us as a team as it helped solidify our group in unity as we now more fully recognize where each other are coming from.

The group went to bed a little bit later than usual last night because they were putting together stuff for this week’s many activities.  The assistant principal came to us yesterday morning and asked us to put together some fun after school activities for the students at the school.  The school usually gets out at 2:10 but they changed that time to 3:00 so we could spend more time with them and teach some American activities.  Within an hour of our brainstorming session and submitting our proposed activities, the assistant principal got very excited and wrote a letter for all the students to take home to tell their parents about what was going on with the American volunteers after school.

Today was the first day of our activities (see photos).  In our planning session, the team decided to call the competition the International Olympics. Today’s events consisted of 4 different relay games.  The first game was the spoon and egg race, the second was the three legged race, the third game was the Frisbee toss, and the fourth was a jump rope race.  We put the students together in 3 groups consisting of both girls and boys mixed together.  Each team had its own team name based on American sports activities: Team Touchdown, Team Slam Dunk, and Team Homerun.  Today’s events went very well and the teachers and principal just loved it.  There was laughter, smiles, and high fives all around.  The majority of the teaching staff stayed to watch and many were taking pictures and video of the events that were taking place.  The opportunity to display light and bring joy has truly been an honor for our team.  We are hoping the camaraderie that is being built through this open door leads to deeper relationships and open doors for questions about Truth.

Overall we are pretty excited about what the week has in store with us.  We have 3 more days of events and we are keeping score to see who wins the International Olympics.  The students are anxious and the spirit of competition is contagious!

Please continue to lift up the requests mentioned previously.  We love you and thank you for walking this journey with us.

With love,

Jim & Katie
Country Coordinators