The Willson Tribe: May 2015

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.