Well spring is here and with it always comes lots of growth and exciting new happenings! God has been doing so many incredible things in my life personally. It is definitely a new season full of the richness and fullness of His presence and love. He has been speaking to me regarding my identity in Him and it has been a beautiful time of recognizing that I am deeply loved by my Creator. One of the key verses that has defined this season for me is in Isaiah 54, "For your Maker is your husband-the Lord Almighty is his name-the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit-a wife you married young, only to be rejected,' says your God. 'For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,' says the Lord your Redeemer." Coming out of a dry season, where I had to rely heavily on the knowledge that God is good and faithful, that is good news!
Yesterday, I watched the movie The Passion of the Christ with a few friends. I like to pull it out during the Easter season as a visible reminder of the awesomeness of the cross. I feel like every time I watch it I catch a glimpse of another characteristic of God. This time I connected more with the flash backs that Jesus has as a carpenter, preaching the Sermon on the Mount, His encounter with Mary Magdalene, etc. It was such a good reminder of the sweetness and yet fierceness of Jesus. Of course this is just a movie, but we can tell from Scripture that these are definitely parts of His character. It moved me to consider if I was moving in these ways in my own life. With the boldness and intensity of speaking the truth into people's lives regardless of the cost, but also having the love and sweetness that looks past people's faults and failures to love them so deeply. I can honestly say that I fail at this time and time again. My heart yearns to be more like Christ in this way. I wanted to share that with you so that you guys can take part in keeping me accountable in this area.
In other exciting news, I have a boyfriend! Many of you had the chance to meet Tyler Dean when we were out in Colorado a few weeks ago. We did our Discipleship Training School together in 2008 and have both been on staff at Pismo for the same amount of time. As many of you know, he joined as full time Project Sixty-One staff back in November of last year. He is incredible and it is such a joy to be dating my best friend! We took several weeks to pray over our relationship and felt like God was giving us the go ahead to start dating. So we are excited to see the things He has in store for us!
We are embarking on our first outreach in a week. On Monday we will be leading a team of ten to San Francisco for a 5 day outreach. We will be staying at the YWAM base there and will be focusing on homeless and human trafficking ministry. Please be praying for us that God really blesses this outreach, that these young people see God in a new and exciting way and come away knowing Him more intimately.
Immediately after returning from this outreach we have two families coming out to spend a few days in Pismo doing a mini outreach with us.
Also, Project Sixty-One will be heading up an outreach to Haiti on May 16 for a three week outreach. We will be based in Port-Au-Prince, sleeping in a tent city, focusing on medical and refugee ministry. So far we have a team of five and are so excited to see the things that God has in store for that time. Haiti is so ripe for Christ and we are walking into this time expecting to see God move in the lives of the people.
Normally the students participating in these outreaches will cover the cost of us as leaders, but due to the fact that our group is so small and we have two leaders going, it would be a large financial burden on them to have to cover our costs for this first Haiti trip. So I am needing to raise my own funds for this outreach which will cost $1600. If you would like to partner with me financially for this outreach, please email me at Jacque17lyn@aol.com and I will give you directions as to how you can go about that.
You guys are amazing! Please let me know if you have any prayer requests, I want to be lifting you up in prayer as well!
Love, Jacque
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