Justice Water with Jamie

Sitting here in Houston, I've realized that I haven't updated anyone on what has been happening in my life for quite some time so this should be a whopper of an update.  I spent this summer in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti and was blessed to really see and get to know the island deeply and intimately.  In the three months that I was there, I spent at least a week in 6 different cities, full on learned a language, learned more about what fully relying on God is like, and built some deep, lifelong friendships.  

During my time in Haiti, I feel like my perspective on what is normal, what is necessary, and what life really entails was completely flipped on its face.  We spent a week just outside Port-Au-Prince, a week near Mont-Rouis, and then 11 days on the isle of La Gonave.  That time on La Gonave was incredible, crazy, difficult, and completely unlike my life in Red Deer or Kona.  While there I met an incredible group of kids with an amazing young lady from Washington who, at the age of 19 decided to spit in the face of the american dream and start an orphanage with her Haitian husband.  That would be an orphanage worth praying for (called New Beginnings Orphanage).  They have encountered tremendous opposition by the community that they are near in term of voodoo attacks and hostility and the orphanage will be moving to a new town but it has been a crazy time for the orphanage and they could use prayer support.  They have also been dealing with dengue fever in a serious way over the last month so that has been a heavy attack.  I was touched by these brilliant and fun kids during the time spent with them.  While we were there we focused on specifically working with the orphanage- so teaching about sanitation, hygeine, how God uses and sees those kids, and the older kids' responsibility as the leaders of the family.  We also did some projects on the land; building a chicken coop, making their toilet usable, building 2 hand washing stations, and more necessary jobs.  It was an incredible week and a half.  

I spent my last week on Hispanolia in Juan Dolia- the location of the YWAM San Pedro base.  I was planning on going to Samoa last Wednesday but got Dengue fever so will be heading home for about a month.  I am healthy now and excited to see everyone back home.  I will be heading back to Kona in mid or late September to teach again and the future is a little foggy from  there (and I am excited to talk with you all about it in the next month) but is exciting and I trust that the Lord will continue leading me.  I will attach a few pictures of projects that we have done by us this summer or projects that we have fixed up that were done last summer.  Thank you everyone for your prayer support and for your thoughts.  

Jamie

Daniel 4

My time in the DR is nearly over and we will be going into Haiti on Tuesday!!  I have loved being around this country and have gotten a much more thorough view of what the whole country is like over the last few weeks.  We got to build a house and latrine with the base in San Pedro and then last week got to build a rain catchment tank with a DTS team from Kona in Santo Domingo.  It has been incredible to get to meet so many people who really love and are following the Lord and want to show what God's kingdom really looks like.  Our team is great- I have really gotten along well with everyone here and couldn't ask for a much better team (unless some friends from back home were here).  I will put some pictures up today too!!

God has been developing my leadership; I got to lead the last project and has been showing me how much I enjoy teaching and specifically showing how the Bible is so applicable to us and the humanity of people in the Bible.  I have been struck lately by what a big step it was for God to become man and how much more relatable and loveable that makes Him.  I miss you guys from back home and am excited to see my parents in a month!!  

With love from Azua,

Jamie

Bible verse in Matthew 14: 22-33.  Read thinking about Peter actually getting out of the boat in a raging storm and then what Jesus did when he stumbled.  

I am well into my time in the Dominican Republic now- have been here for a week and a half already!!  We are living at a YWAM base in Azua.  Most of the staff here are Haitians who were a part of the Port-Au-Prince DTS last summer.  Sean and Stephen- the guys I came with, were also involved in that DTS; Sean was the school leader and Stephen was a student in it.  The country is beautiful- we live a 2 minute walk from the ocean and last week we did a tour through some of the country.  I feel blessed to be living here and working amongst the Dominican people, who have been very friendly and welcoming.  We have started on the first Justice Water rain catchment tank in a small town about 10 km from Azua.  It is an underground tank and is quite a beast- when we are all done with it, it should be about 5 feet around and 8 feet tall.  This will provide clean water for a good percentage of the village; a huge advantage to the current situation where they have to pay to truck in jugs of drinkable water. 

I have been blessed by how welcoming the base has been to me and how everyone has been very friendly even though my Creol is horrible.  We have been eating well- something which I really appreciate after our recent long, hard days.  I was really thinking about what the next step in my life will be over the last few weeks and last night the Lord showed me that it is perfectly fine to just be focused on right now during this time.  Things will come clear about what is next in a little while- especially if I keep asking Him and following where He is leading me. 

Romans 5: 6-9

Been lots of moving around these last few months!  I am flying out of Hawaii on Friday and my time here has been flying by.  Last week I was privileged to get to teach Justice Water 4 out of 5 days in the foundation school for the high school kids.  It was neat to get to prepare the classes and teach them with total control of what we covered and where my focus was.  A couple members of our staff helped me by critiquing the classes that I taught and by checking my material beforehand and that greatly improved my teaching.  I learned about the importance of going through everything out loud before teaching and about speaking enthusiastically and loudly.  

This week my focus is on preparing to be ready to leave on Friday and having everything prepared.  It is exciting to be going to a new place again but also a little daunting and I am trying to figure out what to take, what to leave, and what to expect.  I expect that I will have a much better idea of what the summer will look like for me in my next update.  

God has been working on me a lot lately and a big focus for me has been on comparison between different branches of the church and denominations.  I noticed how so often our focus is on making sure that we are right on issues in theory without focusing on the issues that have a tangible impact in our life.  I also watched How Great is Our God by Louie Giglio again and was blown away by how huge, majestic, and well designed our universe is.  I was blown away by the intricacy and by the shape of laminin- the adhesion molecules that hold everything together in our body.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up laminin.  God really does hold everything together.  

That's all for this update.  I'd love to hear what is happening in everyone's life who's reading this so keep me updated.

Jamie

It is the beginning of my third week in Kona now and I am now feeling more used to the pace of things and what my role is.  I will be working as a teacher in the DTS classes this quarter and helping Stephanie and Jenessa with teaching about the water crisis and sanitation in the Elementary school.  On Friday last week, we worked with Water for Life on a tank that is being built on campus.  This tank is being done differently than tanks have been done before- instead of wood forms being used the forms were made from tin.  We should be finishing the tank up this week so that is exciting for me (there are a few new picures up of this tank).  Our team has been talking about and figuring out specifics for our trip this summer; discussing where we will be for how much time, finding flights, bouncing ideas off each other, and getting really excited about our team outreach!  

It is great to be a part of an organization where everyone cares so much about each other and is willing to help in whatever way necessary to build each other up and to work towards our goal of bringing clean water to the thirsty and through doing so, showing God's tangible love.  We have been talking extensively about how to make sure that projects have long term impact and having the communities where they are built in really buy in and make the project have it's desired impact.  For example, if we build ten toilets in a village and half of the people in town still use the field as a bathroom, our toilets don't acheive their desired impact.  So we are brainstorming different ideas of how to build a real attitude among the people that we are working with that the projects are helpful and will improve their quality of life.

It has been great to live in a community where people are so focused on following and serving Jesus.  I have seen (once again) such amazing works of God in terms of providing for people to work for Him when the funding doesn't necessarily seem possible.  He provides!  More importantly though, God has been radically working on the students who are here right now for DTS and been showing people who He is more clearly and how worth serving He is.  It is awesome for me to see young people selling out for our Lord wholeheartedly and talking about their dreams of following him into the business world, media industry, overseas missionfield, or wherever else their dreams are leading them. 

One last point is that Ryan and I started making bow and arrows out of PVC pipe yesterday and we are looking for a 3/8" diameter by 4 and a half foot long piece of fiberglass for the inside of the PVC and can't think of where to find it.  Any suggestions?  Anyways that's all. Thanks for reading about me.

Jamie

Philippians 4:12-13

Well I finally got back to Hawaii and am incredibly excited to be moving into this new stage of life.  I'm realizing that even though i am back in Kona, it really is something new with an exciting new role, different people around, and a different focus.  There is going to be tons for me to learn during this season of life but I am here now in a position of teaching and some leadership instead of being here as a student and because of this, there has to be a slightly different mindset about how my time is used and what my focus is.  I won't pretent to now what exactly that will be like yet but know that it is not the same as it was during DTS.  Should be an adventure!

My first day back at the University of the Nations was excellent.  I was blessed to get to spend a good chunk of the day working with my good friend and mentor, Dax, and got to be a part of my first Justice Water meeting.  It was thrilling to finally be a part of this and no longer be in the stage of preparing for it or wondering what's next.  The people that I am working with seem like awesome examples to learn from and grow with and I am blessed to be surrounded by such a solid staff.  The vision and goals line up well with my hopes for Justice Water so thus far, I am psyched!  That's all for now.

Jamie

Busy day today- I'm just trying to wrap stuff up here at home; see people who I haven't yet seen, get banking and insurance stuff all perfect, and help the family with what I can.  Today is Cara's birthday and I went out to Lacombe this morning to see her and eat breakfast with her.  It was great to get to hang with my little sister- she is becoming an amazing woman of God.  I also got to enjoy the priviledge of talking to my mom's class of grade 5 students about my journeys and experiences over the last 6 months and what is coming up next.  That's all for now. 

Micah 6:8