jetSTREAM missions

Coming home tomorrow!!

We had a great day today! We cooked a spaghetti lunch for about 75 homeless people and hosted it in the YWAM base. It was a great experience for the kids to wait on people who are not often treated with such respect. We had great conversations and were happy to join with the YWAM staff to pull the event off!

We’re leaving early in the am from S.F. See you all so soon!

Hi friends!

I don’t have a lot of time to update because it is so late right now. But we are doing great. The big news today was being able to bring sack lunches that we prepared to separate groups of homeless people in different parts of the city. It was a great experience and I am sure your student will have some great stories to tell you when they return home!

Tomorrow we will be serving food to around 100 homeless people at the YWAM base. It is our last big ministry and we are excited about it! Please pray for us that our energy levels would remain high and that we would love people well! Home in two days! Everyone loves and misses you!

-j

This was one if my favorite trips of all time. I had an amazing time with my junior high group, parents and leaders. Sad I have to take a red eye back to Dallas tonight but I have an ordination meeting with our Presbytery at 10am Thursday morning. I’ll be a bit tired but being with the students just a bit longer on Wednesday night was totally worth it. Parents I can’t wait till you get to hear from them how much their eyes have been opened to the needs of this world and the way they can help. -Lars

Hi friends!

We are having a great time in San Francisco!

Today one of our teams served meals at St. Anthony’s (a place for homeless and poverty stricken people to get a free meal). The other team spent most of the afternoon at the San Francisco food bank sorting through cereal that will be distributed. Both experiences served as reminders that missions work does not only occur in the spiritual abstract (prayer, the secret and mysterious work of the Holy Spirit…) but also in the physical and concrete as well. We are called not only to minister to people spiritually but to also care for their physical needs as well. Today was a good day to remember that.

This morning we had the opportunity to talk through what it means to love people as “persons” rather than “projects”. The point being that often times we can use missions as something to check off our holier-than-thou checklist (don’t kid yourself, you’ve probably got one too) instead of truly entering into the lives of people and genuinely caring for them. Being with and for them as Christ is with and for the world. When we love people as “projects” instead of “persons” we can only love selfishly, caring only for how our service is received or what the person will do or how they will perform for us. Conversely, when we love people as “persons” we enter into their stories and love them for their sake. This is selfless love and the only kind of love that can take on suffering, compassionately care, and selflessly serve the world. Would you pray that our team would love this way?

We had a free night tonight to hangout with our team and, perhaps more importantly, eat Inn n Out burger. It was a great night to take in more of San Francisco culture.

We only have a couple more days here. We are tired but enjoying what God has in store for us here! Love you all back home!

-j