My Boy, Emmanuel! Gonna miss this kid.

No Big Deal

We got in to juba today. We'll be here for 15 more days and then we head back to america! So crazy how fast the time is going. The lord is so good. He does crazy things...for example get missionaries a contact with the United Nations to get free flights on a helicopter. No big freaking deal. Not like it was legit or anything...oh wait. it was. So good!

It was very hard to leave Yei though...All of the people on the YWAM base there are like family to us. I learned so much from all of them and have some super close relationships with them all. They are seriously like my brothers and sisters. The last night we had a man night and the three of us (luke josh and I) watched hercules with all of the boys. So much fun, gonna miss those kids!

While in Yei we ended up building two rain catchment tanks! So crazy! We were able to work with some of the people at the YWAM base to teach them how to do it and pumped out two. One was the way we were taught and the other one was a way that we made up using bricks instead of forms! So stoked that it worked. It's crazy to think of the impact that a rain catchment tank has in an area like that...I totally take clean drinking water for granted but it was such a blessing to them! So stoked about it!

So we're in juba now until we head back to 'merca on march 10th. I can't believe it's coming up so fast! Crazy! We're staying with an organization called CCC (Confident Children out of Conflict). It's pretty much like an orphanage for girls who were in prostitution or trafficking. They teach life skills and other things of that nature. There's currently another ywam team from california here running a camp for them. We just got in today so i don't know exactly what we'll be doing but i know it will be so much fun!

Much love for all of you! Missing you all very much. Stoked to get back and tell some amazing stories of how God moved in South Sudan!

What I'm Learning In South Sudan...

It’s been crazy what I’m learning here in South Sudan. God’s really been teaching me what it’s like to walk through the day with him. It’s definitely about sharing Jesus with people, and that’s what it’s so about, but i’m really learning that it’s less about evangelizing and more about walking with God throughout the day. If I think about it as evangelizing then it sounds like a chore. It sounds like something that I have to do. Sounds like something that If i do it then i’m a better christian or some crap like that. When I look at it like my life is an everyday walk with Jesus then it’s a relationship. It’s something that fruit will come out of because when you’re focusing on Jesus you will see fruit. It’s not a chore, it’s a relationship. It’s not a requirement, it’s a product. It’s not something I have to do, it’s something I want to do. It’s so crazy to see the way God’s changed me since i’ve been out here. What’s even crazier is that although I’ve been changed in a number of ways…i’m still me. I’m still Josh. I’m still the one who thinks will farrell is hilarious. I still quote anchorman all the time. I will still laugh everytime I hear one of his quotes. I’m still the Josh that will joke around with you. I’m not changing my personality or my character. What i am changing is the way that I look at other people. That’s what loving Jesus is about. It’s not about conforming to a mold of what a ”christian should look like.” It’s not about fitting a certain standard or voting republican. It’s not about selling everything you have to go do something you hate. It’s about loving Jesus and letting Jesus love other people through you. It’s about walking with Jesus through the passions you have in life. Passions are not bad, in fact God gave each of us passions like crazy because he loves us so much he wanted to make us unique. He gave us skills because he designed us and want us to be unique. It’s crazy how God made each of us specific to us. It’s crazy how walking with Jesus doesn’t mean changing that…it means running with that in a way that was never before imagined. So good! God is so good. God is so freaking good! I love that i’m really learning what it means to be a christian and to tell other people about Jesus. This isn’t oxiclean. I’m not trying to sell you something. I’m not trying to give you something that i’m saying you need because your life isn’t as good without it…I’m simply telling you of someone who really cares about you and wants friendship with you. I’m simply saying that the one who created you actually wants a relationship with you. The one who made each of us…with our skills…wants us to know him personally. The one that designed musical abilities in us…the one that designed us to be good with money…the one that designed us to be good with computers…the one that made us good with sports…that’s the one that wants to have relationship with us. it isn’t about giving up what we love to follow Jesus…it’s about loving the one who gave us those passions. So good. God is so good. And God loves each and every one of you so freaking much. God wants nothing more than a relationship with you. He doesn’t want you to come to him so he can condemn you. he doesn’t want you to come to him so he can say you do wrong things. Jesus didn’t die so we wouldn’t go to hell…Jesus would die so we could have relationship with him. So good. So freaking good. God is so freaking good. I am blown away by this. I am blown away that the one who made us actually wants us for relationship and not for a power trip. Always remember that. You are loved. You are legitimately and genuinely loved. You have a purpose and that doesn’t mean you have to come to God so you can sell everything you have to move to the middle of no where and do something you hate. That’s not God. He’s not a God of obligation, but of relationship. Seek after him and you will find him. Pursue relationship and he will grow with you. Never forget that.

Crazy Story Time...

Crazy story time:
So Last weekend we were in town using the internet (trying…i havent been able to for a couple of weeks cuz it hasn’t loaded at all…) and we went walking down the street to buy these cookie things (i’m gonna bring some home. Put peanut butter on it and it’s like a nutter butter haha so good i’ve had like 50 packages since we’ve been here cuz it’s 2 for a pound [one pound is like 30 cents]) and we saw a guy with a crippled leg. We asked him if we could pray for him. We did, nothing happened, but God is still good. We took about 3 steps toward the market and someone else stopped us and asked that we pray for his leg too! We did, and although nothing happened in the moment we have faith that it will! Then…like 3 more steps further…a man came up to us and asked us to pray for him because he has stomach ulcers and it causes him incredible pain. We prayed for him and he said thank you and we left. We went back to town this past saturday and he ran up to us and said that ever since we prayed for him all of his stomach pain was gone! so crazy! God healed his ulcers because of our prayers! We are going to talk to him today again! It’s crazy because he was an arab man and here in south sudan if you see an arab man it means he is a muslim (not stereotype…that’s just what it means here) So in Jesus name he was totally healed and it’s such a door opener!