Visas//SouthAfrica//Etheopia//Miracle

Its been a crazy last month, where do I start.

Jian and I had our visa appointment December 1st. We went into the immigration office hoping high to have an easy appointment. We arrived and noticed that when we applied online for our appointment that we had not received waiting numbers.  So we went to the office for some but by the time I had gotten there and gotten the numbers I had missed my appointment time.
Jian was able to get in but they shut him down and denied him the visa. Our hopes were crushed but we were faithful to pray and pray more. We went back into the office to try for a number with me so they sent us to an office and to another one. Finally they asked for all of our paper work and said they would review it. So we sat down in the lobby. Pretty soon they called our names and started asking us questions about what we do and whatnot. We told her and she said we didnt have the right paperwork but we continued to pray. Finally she said, "I'll give you a year. You can print passport photos in the second floor, please hurry." We ran and came out with some wacky visa photos. God is soooo good! We left the building dancing and laughing at how funny our visa pictures looked. Prayer works! God has called us to Germany, that was proof.


We left for South Africa the 8th of December. We had to take a train 4 hours to Frankfurt, with one transfer in the middle. We arrived safe in the transfer city but then missed our train to the airport. We were all bummed and hopped the next train, this one however went to the city and not directly to the airport. We made it to the airport an hour and a half before our flight.  We had no problems and then when we passed through security, they asked one of the staff, "Where are you coming from?" She replied, Berlin. They said "How? the train never made it to the airport and caught fire." We all rejoiced. If we would have made that train we would have missed our flights. God once again is faithful.

We were dreading having to spend 15 hours in the Ethiopian airport(I had a layover there in January, the DMV is more exciting then that airport). We went to the visa office and they said that the airline covers the cost for us to all be put up in a hotel with free food for that day. We arrived at the hotel at 8:30 in the morning and we had the opportunity to walk around the city. I got to show the students some African street food and we were able to play football with some street kids and talk to some locals about Jesus. It was all organic but God worked through it.

We finally made it safe and sound to Muizenberg, South Africa, Thursday morning, the 10th. God paints His glory across this universe. It is so humbling to see so much the the beauty he has painted across this land. This is the view from a hill near our house here.

"It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world."
-Charles Spurgeon

October and South Africa

Once again another month has flashed by. I wonder so often where does the time go? One Monday you’re trying to wake up for worship and before you know it Friday is here.

This month has brought many new and exciting things that God is doing here.

The students are all growing so much. It is so encouraging to see them step up in their faith and be bold. Six weeks ago I created a cheesy challenge for the students to eat all their meals for one week with their hands. It didn’t fly with some people and was shot down after a couple days but what it did spark was a weekly challenge.

The first week was, if you see anyone with a red shirt you have to ask if you could pray for them. It was a real spark for the students and one week later during a sharing time they were all filled with stories. Every week we do this challenge, God is doing rad things every week with it.

One week ago I did a car share to Nuremberg (A city in the southern part of Germany.) It was a 4 hour dive and not only did we get up to 160mph on the autobahn but God opened the doors to share Christ. The guy and his girlfriend said they we’re not “religious” my response was that I wasn’t ether. They were shocked but then I said that I do believe in a personal relationship with Jesus and was able to share the message of the cross.

Peoples view here is so built on religion or the big church down the street but have no idea about a loving God that wants to have relationship with them. We talked for about 20 minutes about God and I believe that it truly impacted them.

On my was home I took the bus, arrived in Berlin and walked to the train to my neighborhood. It is 5 stops but something happened and the train only went 3, I wasn’t sure how to get back. I walked up to the conductor to ask and there was a English guy asking the same question for the same stop. So we got on the bus together and headed to my neighborhood. I asked what he does in Berlin and he asked me too and from there it lead into the Gospel. He was an atheist but after our talk he was so much more open to the Gospel.

In one short month we bind up and head for Cape Town on outreach. We will be serving there for 2 months. We plan to work in the townships outside the city as well in the city with street kids and also in many other ways.

We are all so excited to see what God will do with our time there. It is exciting for me because for most of the students it is their first time going into the mission field, (as Christians I believe we all live in the mission field but to see them and their joy to go to a different continent is so amazing)

Even though we’re still a few months out we are so looking forward to see what God has in store for the 2016 season. There is some rad stuff in the works that you will be soon filled in on in the life of skate ministry here to come.

I would also like to invite you to be apart of South Africa as well as the 2016 season. Prayer is most important, but also financially would be greatly appreciated. Living on support can be quite challenging at points but so rewarding to see Gods faithfulness. If you would like to help that would be AMAZING!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support this month.

Grace, peace and love. 

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My new city.

Time truly does fly. A month ago I sat wondering what and what Germany would be like and now I’ve been here for 3 weeks.

I arrived in Berlin the 11th of September. The first week was so busy preparing for the DTS.  September 26^th the students arrived and we had a kick off bbq. 

The next day (Sunday the 27^th) we went on a city scavenger hunt so everyone could get a taste of the city transit. We finished at the final train stop and began to walk to a restraint. We walked under a bridge and there was a guy who had a sign in English saying, “Money for food and drugs” he smiled at me and I back at him. We got to the restraint and I felt God wanted me to go back and talk with Him, I asked Jian another staff if he wanted to come with me and buy him some food before our food at the restraint arrived. (This is where the story gets weird) we walked maybe 30 meters and watched a lady get hit by a car right in front of us. We waited for the crowd to settle down and walked over to her and asked if we could pray for her. She said yes. After that we made our way to the bridge. I asked the guy if I could by him some food and he said yes after bringing him some Döner (a Turkish sandwich thing) we sat down with him and he began to open up to us about His life. At the end we asked if he would read a Bible if we brought him one, he said yes. We finally made it back to the restraint with two crazy stories to tell about what had just happened.  

Five days later I hopped on a bus for Köln Germany about 8 hour bus ride from Berlin.

I met with a Christian skate team called SRS. It was such a blessing to connect with others who carry the same passion for ministry. Over all it was an amazing weekend and I look forward to see what God has in store for the future.

Before coming to Berlin I knew about the wall but wasn’t really familiar with the whole story behind it. Yesterday was the reunification day marking 25 years of the wall being down. The city hosted a huge event last night and it was such an honor to stand there and see the transformation that had taken place. They showed a video from when the communist party had fallen and the wall was open, people came through so over joyed crying for they were finally free. I believe so much that God has such great things in store for this country. The wall came down and there was freedom from communism. There is still a spiritual wall and this wall is in the hearts of men and woman across the globe, they need the Lord and it isn’t until we experience this that we truly have freedom.

This has been the first 3 weeks of living in Berlin. Prayer request are,

·      Spiritual strength

·      Financial support

·      DTS Students

·      Language (its coming slowly but surly)  

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

P.S. To finish up the story with the man under the bridge, we went back the other day and he was still there. I asked one of the girls on staff who works with people like that if she knew where we could find an English Bible, she ended up giving us hers. (What a blessing! And so humbling.)

We went to the train station and we were having trouble buying a ticket from the machine and ended up missing our train. A lady walked up to us and said “here take my day pass ticket for free.” We hopped on the next train and met him under the same bridge. He was stoked to see us. We bought him some food gave him the Bible. He said he would read it.

I can’t remember his name but God does and if you could remember him in prayer that would be great.