The Willson Tribe: 2015

Our summer quarter was really monumental for me. It had been a few years since I had a more hands on role with DTS and it was great to be able to invest into deeper relationships with our small group of guys and my one on one and good friend Tom. Being able to sit in on the lectures was also an unexpected treat. I hadn’t heard any of the guest speakers before so it was great to be able to learn right alongside of everyone. At the same time there is a stirring that’s happening here on campus and the response is genuine, hungry, and desperate to see an increase in the work of the Holy Spirit both in our city and in the lives of our community members. More on that below.

We just sent out our AGDTS students to minister in the San Francisco /Bay area of California and then Mexico. We look forward to hearing a report back when they return in a month and a half J.

Now things are geared up for another Korean DTS and we’re in our first week of lectures. Bora is full time staff with the school and serves as their translator. I’m a ‘friend’ of the school and am watching the kids full time, while getting released to work more in the area of prayer and worship on and off campus and getting ready for our new school. Watching the kids is exhausting and so rewarding and I know I will reap the rewards of this exclusive quality time down the road. Moms you rock. It’s a combination of thinking of new ways of communicating the Kingdom of Heaven and the love of Jesus to a toddler… and also protecting them from constant death that lurks in every electrical socket! Bora and I are both very full-on with our schedules right now, but THANK YOU LORD we have so many babysitters here on campus and are able to go on a few dates a month! It’s awesome, raising kids in YWAM is such a blessing.

The School of Worship - YWAM Salem from YWAM Salem on Vimeo.

Right before the start of the quarter Bora and I announced that we’ll be running a new school here in Salem, a School of Worship. It was a step of faith but also a response to a hunger that we were sensing for deeper and more frequent encounters with Jesus on campus. It was around that time that our Monday morning worship times were really going deep. Spontaneity and Spirit led prayer was beginning to take over our worship sets! We’d prepare 5-6 songs but end up doing 2-3, with much of the time being led by the community, the Spirit’s hand being on individuals to bring a word or exhortation, encouragement, deep healing, and intercession. There was an exciting “What’s today gonna look like!?” but it was also orderly and led beautifully by the Holy Spirit, with individuals submitting to each other and honoring each one who had a gift to bring. It is beautiful and it’s growing more and more beautiful.

Soon our Monday mornings couldn’t contain all that the Lord has to pour out over us and we began weekly corporate fasts, daily intercession for more workers for the harvest, an extra time of worship added to our Thursday morning intercession, and a monthly prayer burn. We feel like our School of Worship is an extension of the raw hunger of the community here and it’s exciting to have the leadership and staff as excited for the school as Bora and I are!

Our worship school will be bilingual for Korean speakers and will include an outreach that me and Bora are praying about leading ourselves. Lecture starts on Bora’s birthday and finishes on our 10^th Wedding Anniversary! We’re also expecting Bora’s parents to be with us throughout the 12 week lecture phase so we’ll have live-in childcare, freeing us up a bit to co-lead together with greater focus and maybe allow for more off campus times of ministry for both of us together. Please be praying for us as we line up speakers and staff for our school.

Jubilee is learning about grace and about Jesus’ death and atonement on the cross. We talk daily about the Kingdom and her desire to learn and experience Jesus is beautiful to see. She regularly bursts into spontaneous song, singing about Jesus, then asks “Dad is Jesus smiling when I sing?” It’s awesome. She loves to pay ‘superhero’, but is struggling with the fact that the Marvel characters always kill the ‘bad guys’ and thinks that they don’t know Jesus yet. She’s asking a lot of questions about why Jesus had to die and about forgiveness of sin, how we were all children of wrath and enemies of the cross. It’s heavy stuff and she keeps asking me these deep theological questions that churches split and denominations bicker over ha ha. She’s gonna be a heavyweight fighter for the Kingdom and I couldn’t be more proud as a Dad.

Jinha is finally a punk with an opinion, and he’s stolen my heart. He loves to roughhouse and wrestle. He loves to make dinosaur noises and has great rhythm. He also has the loudest mouth of any two year old on the planet. He still doesn’t go anywhere without his best friend and number one stuffy Walter. We had to take the sound ox out because on low batteries Walter sounded like the Monkey of Perdition. Jinha doesn’t like to sit on laps for long, he’s always on the move, but he often asked to be held just to wiggle out a few seconds later. He loves to laugh, and I think we’re going to share the same goofy sense of humor. He is becoming a handful, strong willed, loud. He’s gonna be a devastator of enemy plans and a front liner for the Kingdom. I just wish it wasn’t so hard to strap him into a car seat!

When you’ve been married for almost a decade spiritual growth sometimes is measured gradually over long seasons or even years. But In just the past year I’ve seen so much in my wife to boast over, so much Christ-likeness. We’ve walked through some heavy storms in ministry and to see the grace and patience that she moves in just blows me away. She wrestles with the Lord and comes out stronger and with a deeper faith and commitment to Him. I’m so thankful for this wife. Our times of playing together in worship have increased and it’s an honor to support her leading during corporate worship. Her heart to host and bring people into our home makes for a lot of fun evenings, and it’s fun to set a fire in the pit in the backyard and talk long into the night with friends.

I’ve been enjoying an increase in music in my life. Jinha lost my Halo 4 disk but that’s given me time to ponder the deeper questions of the universe. Most of my energy is consumed with family and with music, which I’m happy with. Both Bora and I feel the Spirit’s leading to prepare to teach more, and I think as a tag team. Just need to prioritize studying to teach. We’ll take a week of our SOW so we’re praying about what our message might be. I believe this pioneering quarter next Spring will require us to prepare for many things that the Lord has planned for our families’ future, it’s exciting and busy. Sleep is treasure these days.

I never know how to end these…peace out gangstas!

We just finished experienced what Oregonian's call "Winter". It kinda felt like that cool chill you get at the grocery when shopping for produce and you think to yourself "Good thing I brought a long sleeve!". In other words unless you live in the cascades Oregon residents don't know what real winter is....what it feels like to have your face hurt in subzero Hoth climate of Maine, or to scrape a centimeter of ice off of your car windshield every morning. Yes we felt spoile
d by what even locals call an unusually nice winter!

Our KDTS wrapped up and we've been serving alongside some really precious students who've stayed on as volunteers this spring. Yohan, the only single male student from the fall quarter KDTS has been helping in maintenance and is even praying about coming back as staff. He's got the DNA in 'em... we've had long talks over coffee about his heart for international students, particularly the Chinese studying back home in Korea. It's journeying with people like Yohan and seeing vision from the Lord realized that constantly reminds me of the responsibility to lead by the Spirit and in step with Father, and bringing all focus back on his Son. I think I rubbed off a little too much on him, he's been talking about international marriage ha ha :)

We can officially announce our local church family. Outward Church has the best coffee and donuts BY FAR, so we've been attending and more recently getting more involved with that family in downtown Salem. We've been going since November and have already made some good friends and are helping with worship. Thought I'd make it official since there was a big bidding war going on in the papers. We prayed that the Lord would lead us somewhere where we can both be family, be fed, and operate in our gifting where they're needed. We're thankful to Outward for making us feel like family and for Pastor Matt's fantastic Bible teaching. Drumming on the worship team is a blast :)

We just moved onto a great spot on campus and are still in the process of unpacking. Jubilee and Jinha have both slept straight through the night the past two nights since arriving...I don't think I've slept through the night completely since Jubilee was born and even less with Jinha. There's a peaceful
presence here. At our old apartment in the 'hood' we were just starting to build relationships with our neighbors on either side of us, so we're gonna have to be even more intentional to love our neighbors now that we're in another 'YWAM bubble'...then again it's nice to sleep again! Please pray for us, that we'll have more opportunity to be Jesus to those around us.

What's next for the Willson Tribe is the privilege of serving as staff for the All Generations DTS this summer! The school aims to see young and old, families and singles grow and glean from one another. I've seen this school run in Kona and it's fantastic. I saw one young man in particular sign up for All Generations rather than another DTS because he didn't come from a Christian home and had never had any spiritual fathers. The discipleship opportunities are abundant. Seeing an elder generation speak into the younger with wisdom from experience, and the youngers' zeal and passion inspiring and challenging the old... it's a beautiful thing! Even in our staff of five we have a married man in his 60s, two single ladies, and a couple(us) working together. It's gonna be fun to see who the Lord brings and how He continues to sanctify our hearts both as staff and students together. So far some who have shown interested and have applied are a military family of believers, a family coming from Germany, a brave single mom and her daughter (who's Jubilee's age!) a young man from Pakistan, a woman from Nepal, and a young girl from the states to name a few. please pray for those meant to be a part of this will be supported by their families and churches to make a big step of faith in coming, and that whatever provisions or arrangements necessary will be provided in Jesus' name.

All Generations DTS Promo - YWAM Salem from YWAM Salem on Vimeo.

-The Family-
Jubilee is continuing to develop into a hyper-social friend magnet. Living on base now she has a new neighbor, a mixed racial 4 year old also named Jubalee! Jubilee loves to make up songs about Jesus and has an empathetic heart. praying for Nepal yesterday she said very matter-of-factly, "If those kids need a home they can come live with us, right? We have lot's of room!" I kinda see why Jesus said in Mark, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jinha is growing an inch a day, and loves to laugh and snuggle. His personality is starting to show, he's a tiny me. He has a monkey stuffy named Walter that follows him everywhere. Jubilee never got into stuffed animals, would rather sneak into bed and cuddle with mom and dad. I think Jinha is more musical than Jubilee...at least he shows more of an interested in musical toys and likes to sing at a much earlier age than Jubilee did. Jinha still hates the nursery at church even after several months.

Most of Bora's work these days is translating course work for the MMBC (Methods and Models for Biblical Counseling). When she's not doing that she's preparing for leading worship on the piano. We've been spoiled rotten by one of our 2014 DTS students now volunteer who has been offering childcare both for work related events like leading worship and for dates every weekend. It's been so nice to spend so much extra exclusive time with Bora.