Back at the end of December while I was anticipating a change in my life and would no longer be leading Maintenance, which ended up being longer than expected, I started to see where I could fit on campus. I had decided to meet with department heads about where I could serve on base and truly have something I felt I belonged to. I didn’t make it too far though because at my first meeting they asked that I  pray about a new opportunity. This new opportunity called Frontiers is to work directly with our missionaries who are currently overseas and with those who desire to go overseas.  They asked Wendy and I to develop and run this new program. We prayed about it and accepted the position.

Now that I am out of maintenance full time, we have time to seek God and plan what Frontiers will look like. We have begun to plan for the future and also learn who our current missionaries overseas are.  I have begun to research training that will better equip us to help with current and prospective missionaries. As we begin to communicate with those on the field and plan ahead, we are getting excited for the opportunity and challenges. It is truly turning into something different

My time here at YWAM Salem has been full of  surprises. I originally led maintenance while the director was participating in a school. Then it turned into a bit longer as the maintenance director left to pursue other opportunities outside of YWAM. In less than two weeks I will be stepping out of maintenance to focus on other ministries on base. I will make another post at a later date to detail those opportunities. Although I will no longer be leading or serving in maintenance day to day, I do plan on helping out on a need to basis. I don’t want to lose sight of the importance of serving others.

As I look back on my time in maintenance there aren’t really any clear thoughts about it. I ended up working on more special projects than I ever imagined doing. When it came to projects, I always felt there was someone better qualified to do the work, but by the end I grew more confident in making the day to day decisions. In a weird way God began to help me see beyond the circumstances and care for people again and that became my main factor in making decisions. It may not always have been the best or most skilled choice, but trying my hardest to make people feel cared for was important.

Looking forward, I’m encouraged about the direction maintenance is heading. Not one but two people will be leading maintenance.  Together, I believe they have the skill and care necessary to help create lasting change on our base. Another positive thing is that maintenance will be having quite a few staff this quarter to do the daily load. While I never felt the department was mine in order to make lasting changes to it’s operation, I believe it is now headed in the right direction.

Although difficult and trying, I believe this time has helped me appreciate maintenance and also helped to develop some meaningful relationships that otherwise I wouldn’t have had the chance to.

With the exception of a few volunteers based on schedule the bulk of our work was done with the same three to four guys. Some days it was just two of us digging a hole for eight hours in no-so-great weather. During this time I began to develop a closer relationship with these men.  We would talk about topics ranging from God, movies,politics,sports,relationships etc.  As the project leader these conversations helped me keep focused and not get too frustrated. It is also where God began to answer my question “am I a missionary?”

When we came to YWAM we raised financial support and told our supporters of our plan for missions, we layed it out in three steps. I expected to be on step three sixth months into our adventure here and knowing where we were going overseas long term. Our first step getting to Salem and getting adjusted here I felt would go quickly. Then pressure sets in, am I doing what I said, will people still support me, God what are you doing? As I have said many times God has been working in me, giving me confidence in leadership and working with people again.

Since I don’t have clear defined roles at YWAM in leadership and with my past I think God can’t use me. I can’t do discipleship if it’s not in a program or has a title right?  He has shown me that yes I am a missionary, and am being prepared for wherever He might take us. The things I have been doing here I would also be doing overseas: service projects and loving on people though the people groups will change.

This nearly two month project was one of the most frustrating, draining projects I have been on in my six months here. I went through it without the Maintenance director, who I would have just leaned on and served, but I was forced to trust God and trust others. The truth is discipleship happens in a ditch as much as a classroom, and deep down I knew that but had forgotten that through life’s trials and circumstances. Also you can always do something for others that makes a difference. Most of this project affected our staff housing and buildings associated with a school, so even though we don’t see it, providing water for them can make a difference in their lives and have a spill over affect in the lives of students.

I was not perfect in this and at times had to apologize, but I know that God has used it and I have learned a lot. Someone asked me the other day “you sound like you know a lot, you knew stuff before you took over right?” No not really, but I know more now.

After taking the proper steps of calling the locating service for gas, cable, electric, phone we began to look at the plans some more. They were still pretty much a head scratcher. When the locator for gas came out he was nice enough to use his locator and follow the line we had and mark it for us. We decided to follow the orange line he had made for us where our line was.  We had some pictures of this line suggesting it was abandoned but  we still had quite a few why questions. First we dug a few feet from the leak and found two T joints, one runing east and west and one north and south. Second we skipped to where the locator lost the trail of the pipe and digging it we found that it was capped and ran to nowhere, and fouund no curves or attachments.

So we were back to square one, what is the source of this line? Is it attached to the main feed coming from our multi purpose building? Is there pvc somewhere, does it feed to any other houses? By mid afternoon with few answers and educated opinions, I began to get a little frustrated. So it was time for me to take a walk before I said, or did something I’d regret. Constantly doubting my ability to make a solid decision with the little experience I had, I began to talk with God and bumped into our base director.

My predicament was between what I felt and what I was hearing, our plans suggested one thing but were spotty at best. I didn’t feel I could just cut a piece off and put a more permanent patch on this piece without solid answers. So I had to make a decision that would possibly have our team do extra digging for no reason, and trying to balance the opinons of doing otherwise. The base director heard me out, said it sounded like i had a decent plan and said he trusted my judgment.  With a tad more confidence, and less irritation I talked to the guys about digging another exploritory hole. I didn’t feel right making a decision that could cost 20 people water until we figured it out. So we began to dig, again.

Our digging was in lose gravel and in some hard dirt as well, so it took awhile to find what we were looking for. We finally found that our line did connect to Pvc and first thought it just fed one house. After days of digging the old pipe to 2 feet depth we found the it not only angled but at one pointed dipped down and another line ran in a 45ish angle towards another link to pvc.

The thing I learned this day was to have that confidence in decision making, even in difficult circumstances. It’s not so much about being right or wrong as it is making a decision and standing by the results of that decision. I also found that I had a team willing to support me as I “figured it out”. Going the extra mile sometimes isn’t easy, and sometimes you feel as if you come up empty, I don’t know how many holes we dug after this that had zero results. On the other hand I can’t imagine how I would have felt had we made a rash decision that would have left about twenty people without water for some time.

God was teaching me in this process of leading, serving, and little did I know this was just the beginning…(more to come)

Similar to being overseas there are things on our base that just would confuse and frustrate professionals, however, they were done by people doing the best they could with what they had. By Oregon standards it has been a relatively dry fall so far, which has been a blessing for us. In mid October someone on our leadership team noticed that we had standing water by a concrete slab near our multi purpose building. Standing water when it has not been raining is never a good thing, it means that you have a plumbing issue somewhere.

So we did two things, one: looked at what plans we had to see if we could get an idea of what was beneath the ground, two: began to dig into standing water. I had recieved specific instructions from our base director about if we found galvanized pipe to replace it. Patching this type of pipe usually just creates problems elsewhere in the line.  Although once popular for its long life span, galvanized pipe underground can corrode with time and in most places PVC is preferred, epecially underground.

So after much digging we found our leak and galvanized pipe. We were able to determine once cut that the pipe led to none of the houses so we put a temporary patch on it. We had yet to determine the source, where was the water coming from, where were all the places it was going to? Since it was now late evening these questions would have to wait until tomorrow.

I was asked by a friend on our base to take part in a night called “Experiencing Injustice.”  In short, it is a series of walk-through interacitve dramas that help groups  become familiar with injustices throughout the world. This particular night there were two seperate youth ministries participating. Without going into detail of all the injustices that are dramatized,  I was asked to play an organ doctor trafficker. For my role I did what I usually do and took to the internet to study.  I can’t say my acting was Charlton Heston esque, but I think the groups got the point.

Causes seem to be the hot thing to do right now, there is a cause for everything it seems. The thing I appreciated about this night was that the night’s leader brought it beyond a cause. Simply put there are bad things in the world and God loves the victims and those who are guilty of the offense. We can all play a part in reaching into these areas of society, all we have to do is be willing.

There is an old over used saying “the Lord works in mysterious ways” I’m not sure what I think about that, but in this instance it applies. I had pretty much lost any confidence I had in my ability to lead in any facet, so put me in a quasi leadership position in a situation I know very little about. It keeps me dependent on Him, and my focus not on what I can do but what He can do through me.

Early on through my first few bigger projects it seemed I was always making mistakes, like there was always a better way. Through all of this though I am learning to work with people again. I can’t say that I’m all that confident in what it is we are doing daily, but  I’m doing my best to keep my eyes focused on people and in the end that’s what matters.

Ywam Salem has about 33 acres that we call ours, with a always fluctuating team we have done our best to meet those needs that present themselves.  The campus itself has shown a tremoundous amount of grace as we have sometimes figured it out as we go.

I can’t say that I’m all that much more confident in my abilities as a maintnenace man, or leader for that matter. What I can say is that I’m learning many skills, and growing as a person.

This past Wednesday we sat down to plan such an event. As a former youth pastor myself, I said I’d like to help. So we sat down to plan.We began to discuss the day, what the goal was and how to accomplish it. Then we hit a stale mate on what type of food to cook. It was decided that hamburgers and hot dogs were probably not the way to go. We wanted them to feel that we thought about them, and know that pizza, potato chips, and soda are part of their normal diet when working with teens. So instead we served porkloin, chicken, and brats.  There was even a dunk tank that our staff sat in for the youth pastors to relieve some stress.

The day of the cook out was frustrating: unforeseen things happening, disagreements etc. I even had to apologize to a close friend while I was cooking. The stress of cooking and making it well, combined with the “unknown” elements of the day, had gotten to me. As we put that behind us and began to make progress with the food, the youth pastors started to arrive.  Did I mention none of us had used that grill before?

As the crowd began to gather, about twenty leaders in all, we heard comments on the food. Mainly that they had expected hamburgers and hotdogs. This made it all worth it for us. All the unexpected frustrations, etc. seemed not to matter when we began to hear how the leaders were feeling.

We began these posts to give you an idea of what we are doing at YWAM Salem. I have opportunities to work with students in a non classroom enviornment and to do other things on base, but I am glad that I had this opportunity to do something practical for local workers. I was happy to use the things my grill master father had taught me to bless other people. Kudos pa, Kudos

When I started attending church and began pursuing God, I would hear a missionary give a list of things to pray for at the end of a service, and if it included health I guess I never fully understood.  Our base sends teams out all the time, and for those individuals going to another country it provides many challenges in this area of health.  Food preparation aside, even the oils and methods used for cooking vary, and can throw your body into a state of brief chaos. There is also the chance of drinking or eating contaminated water and food.  When you’re sick it is very difficult to accomplish what you are there to do. To my knowledge most of our teams after a few days to a few weeks begin to get adjusted to the place they are in, that is until they come home and face another adjustment: being away from America for 2-3 months. Wendy has told me that when she was in Saipan, since she was there long term(Saipan), she began to adjust to those challenges. She also believes that this prepared her for our time in India.

I have discovered being back in Salem that I am one of many people whose health has been forever changed by going overseas. The good thing is that we are in a community where we can share tips, etc about remedies, medications, or even diets that might help an ailment. These conversations could be awkward to most as they can be detailed or maybe gross to some.  However when the goal is to help someone else and not be crude they can be very beneficial. I have been able to share with others the things doctors have used on me to help in the process.

So next time you hear someone say “pray for health” maybe you might have some ideas of what to pray for.  At YWAM Salem when we welcome home teams we are usually sending out another within a week or so. As we mentioned recently the Crossroads Discipleship Training School is about to leave shortly so you can pray for their travel, protection, and health while they are in the Philippines.

Justin and I had the privilege of teaching the Children of Destiny class for a week about being a servant.  This year the class has 11 students ranging in age from 4 to 14.  There are also two students who speak English as a second language.  It was fun coming up with a way to make the lessons pertain to a four year old as well as a fourteen year old.  We used games, illustrations, and lots of review to help accomplish this.  The first two days were about what it means to be a servant.  The latter half of the week we focused more on Jesus being our example of a servant and ways He showed us this while He was on earth.  By the end of the week, I think they began to understand the concept of what it means to be a servant.  I wish we had been able to teach on that subject for a few more weeks, because the topic of serving has so many aspects to cover.  I think we only scratched the surface with them.

The children that we were teaching are going to be going on outreach with their families to the Philippines in a few weeks.  Please pray for their adjustment as they go overseas.  These families have already made one move coming to Salem, and now they are going to be in a foreign country for two months.  Also pray that they will have opportunities to share God’s love with the Filipino people.  We will be looking forward to hearing the good stories they will have when they return.