Weeks Seven and Eight

Hey everybody! We have had a super busy but great last couple weeks. Our school is getting closer and closer to that time to go on outreach, and everyone is getting very excited.

In the past two weeks between all of the students and staff, we have seen around $40000 come in for our trip! Praise God. He is so good and faithful to his children. The India team has bought their airplane tickets to India now and are all very excited. Our team (the Nepal team) has not been able to buy tickets yet because we do not have enough of our money. We had a couple students who have all of their money but the rest of us are still needing more. As a team, we need around $30,000 still. Just the two of us alone need just under $6000 still. We do not know how we will get the money, but we know God will provide for us one way or another. We would love for you to be a part of that by partnering with us financially. We cannot do God’s work without all of your help.

This past Wednesday we had our first ever open mic night at YWAM-MN. It was fun to watch everyone bust out their talents. It was a night of fun, laughter, and surprises. Julianne preformed two different monologs, while Nate had fun just watching. We are hoping to try to get something together for us both to do for the next one! On the left is a photo of some of the students preforming together. We have a very talented group of students!

This Friday, the 9^th of November, we had what we call our Love Feast. It is a special night that we dedicate to the students to show them that we love them, care for them, and appreciate them. Earlier in the day the staff decorate the dinning hall so it looks really nice. Everyone gets all dressed up nice. We all hangout, talk, and take pictures around the fireplace while drinking sparkling grape juice. Each student is then escorted to the dinning hall by a staff member. We serve our students their three course meal. After everyone has eaten, we read to each student individually words from God that we had received for them earlier in the week while we were praying for them. We give them the card that has those words on it and some scriptures along with a rose.  After the dinner, all the students go relax again for a bit while the staff quickly clean up. Once everything is cleaned up, the students come back for a giant dance party. It is just a super fun and nice night that we as staff do in honor of our students. We will try to get some photos up from the dance as soon as we can!

We have been having a wonderful time here as DTS staff. The Lord has really been working a lot in our own lives and in the lives of the students. We really appreciate all of your support and prayers in our lives.

We are looking forward to this next week as YWAM Northwoods, WI will be coming and joining us at our base. It will be lots of fun to have new people to meet and fellowship with. And then the following week we will be heading back home to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We would love to visit with whomever we can while we are home. Let us know if you'd like to catch up with us personally! You can send us an email (nategibbons32@yahoo.com) or message us on facebook.

We hope that you have checked our “Nepal” page at the top of the blog. It will give more information about what we will be doing on our outreach with the students. We would love for you to be a part of what God will be doing there. Please ask God how He would like you to give towards our trip to Nepal. We are so thankful for the blessing you have been in our lives!

Love in Christ,

Nate and Julianne Gibbons

DTS weeks 5 and 6

Hello everyone! Our school is going along very well. The students are for sure growing in their relationships with God, which is so awesome to be a part of. These past couple weeks have been very intense and have gone by so fast.

The subject we had for two weeks ago was called “the Divine Plumbline.” This class really focuses on forgiveness. It was amazing to see how impacted the students were. Friday for class we had a ministry time where we split up into groups and each student got to talk about some things in their past. The leaders in each group helped walk through the process of forgiving those people. It was a time of deep inner healing and wonderful for the students.

That same Friday night we lead a team of students out on a little field trip. We went to the Marie Sanvick Center in downtown Minneapolis and volunteered our time there. We first started off by helping with some physical things, like making the dinner for that night and helping organize the clothes that would be given away. After that we sat and talked with the homeless people who had come to that night’s service. That was a really awesome experience talking with them, encouraging them, and telling them about how God had changed our lives. We also had one of our students go up to the front and give her testimony and little teaching that went along with it. A few more of us, including Nate, also shared their testimonies. Julianne and another girl named Heidi sang “Amazing Grace.” It was a great night.

This past week’s topic was about Relationships. It has been a good and busy week. Nate has been working hard on creating and finalizing the Nepal team’s budget. He has been planning it all out and making sure we will have enough money for the 7 weeks we are there. Julianne has been working hard on our support letters and on planning team bonding activities for our team to do while we are still here in the states.

This past Saturday, Julianne went with a bunch of students to attend a college aged group with a local church. They had a fun time hanging out with other students and telling them about YWAM. There was a hay ride, scavenger hunt, and a chili cook-off. It was a nice time getting away from the base without having to spend money doing something fun.

We now have a deadline of when we need all of our money for the trip to Nepal in by. We need to raise $6600 by November 5. Crazy right, but we know God can do it easily; and so we are trusting in him to provide for us.  We would love for you to join our team and partner with us by supporting us and our work financially. We ask that you would please just pray about it and then do whatever God tells you to do. If you would like to help be a part of what God will be doing in Nepal, check out our “Join Our Team” page.

                                                             

We hope you have got our newsletter in the mail. If you have not received one and would like to please send us an email saying you would like one to: nategibbons32@yahoo.com. We will gladly send you one as soon as we can. Also if you would rather it be sent by email, we can do that as well.

We hope and pray that you are all doing well and that God is blessing you and growing you daily. We love you all so much. Thank you for all of your support.

Love in Christ,

Nate and Julianne Gibbons

DTS weeks 3-4

            Hello everyone. It has been a busy but great past couple of weeks.

            First, the DTS outreach locations are set ,and we know where we will be going! The two locations will be India and Nepal. We will be helping lead the team to Nepal and are very excited about that. Exact locations in Nepal are still not for sure, but we are working those out now.  Our team, as of now, will have a total of 14 people going- 5 staff and 9 students. It is going to be a wonderful trip, and we expect to see God working in huge ways.

            

        The DTS school is going very well as we have just now finished our 4^th week. The time is just flying by. Our students are wonderful, and we are so glad to have all of them. We have already seen God working so much in their lives. He is so good and faithful. 

            Last Saturday we had what we call here at the base our Howdy Hoedown. It was our big fall event. We had hayrides, great food, and some good ol’ square dancing. We pulled out our cowboy hats to do some doe-say-does. It was a really fun evening.

Every Tuesday night we have what we call local outreach. This is where we go and do ministries in the local areas. We are working with a group called Homework Help. We go to a local trailer park and help the kids there with their homework for a few hours. It is a great to invest some time in some kids who do not always have the best role models or do not get much attention at home. We are hoping that during these times with the kids we will have chances to share the gospel with them. Keep this opportunity in your prayers!

            We are also trying to get more involved at the church we attend here in Minnesota called Vision of Glory. Julianne helping in the youth group on Wednesday nights while Nate is in a group called Band of Brothers that also meets on Wednesday nights.

            Thank you for taking the time to remember us. We really appreciate all your support! Continue to keep these students in your prayers as the Lord is really beginning to work deeply in their lives. Thanks!

            Love in Christ,

            Nate and Julianne Gibbons

DTS Week Two

            We had such a great week!

We spent last week Friday through Monday in Grand Rapids with Julianne’s family. We rode with Julianne’s Baas grandparents from Minnesota to Michigan. On Saturday we had breakfast with Julianne’s Lanning grandparents. It was a nice time of catching up with them. That afternoon we went downtown GR to look at some of the art pieces at ArtPrize. We saw an exhibit of a bull moose being attacked by eight wolves. They were all real animals that were now stuffed. It was incredible! On Sunday we went to church with Julianne’s family. After church we had lunch with Julianne’s extended family. It was a great weekend to spend with her family. Monday morning we ran some errands that we needed to do in Grand Rapids.

On Monday morning Nate’s parents came to pick us up from Grand Rapids and take us to Howell. We went out to dinner with Nate’s family on Monday night. It was good to catch up with his family. Tuesday morning Julianne went to the women’s Bible study with Nate’s church while Nate went with his dad to pick up a cover for his truck bed. We spent Tuesday afternoon FINALLY looking through some of our wedding photos. On Wednesday we picked up Nate’s absentee ballot. We went to his church that night to visit with friends there.

We left to return back to Minnesota early Thursday morning. Nate’s parents drove us back to the base. We spent all day Thursday in the car.

Friday we were able to sit in class again with the students. This past week they had been learning about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Friday morning they all brought something that represented what they wanted to give to Jesus so they could follow Him more. They each took a turn sharing what they brought and then laid it before a cross. After us as staff came around them to pray for them. It was a very powerful moment for the class.

Friday evening was our annual YWAM banquet. Nate’s parents came to the banquet with us as well. It was very well attended. We all had a great time.

On Saturday Nate’s parents took us to the Tigers v. Twins game in Minneapolis. We sat in the second row in left field. It was a great game. We were a bit on edge in the last inning but the Tigers pulled through it and won! We had such a wonderful time.

We are excited for what this next week in class will bring. Thank you for all the support and prayers you have given us over these last few months. We appreciate it so very much!

Check out the link at the top of our page called Bean Sent Coffee and learn how you can support us by drinking coffee!

Love in Christ,

Nate and Julianne Gibbons

The First Week of DTS

The students are HERE!!! Last Sunday the rest of our lovely DTS students arrived. We had a great time meeting their families and friends who brought them to the base. We played a couple games getting to know each other it was a lot of fun.

This amazing puzzle mural was made by our staff and students! We each painted a piece to describe what we wanted to [re]learn, [re]turn to, and how we wanted to [re]act. We had a time of sharing what God was putting on our hearts and then put the puzzle together. Nate's piece is the winter camo looking one on the left side. Julianne's is the mostly blue piece with the top of the r and the e.

This past week was a lot of orientation for the incoming students. It was also a time of figuring out our new roles as staff instead of students. We have fourteen students: ten girls and four boys. Most of the students are from the states. We do, however, have a girl from South Africa, a guy from Ecuador, a girl from Mongolia, and a girl from Brazil. It is pretty exciting around here at the base!

Our responsibilities as staff will begin within the next couple of weeks. The students will be broken into small groups and we each will be co-leading of on the groups. The small groups will meet once a week for about an hour and a half. We also will be one-on-one discipling some students over the next three months. We will meet with assigned students once a week for around an hour, talking with them, encouraging them in their walk with the Lord, and praying with and for them.

In a couple weeks we will know for sure where we will be going for the two month outreach portion of the DTS. Once the locations are set, we will help plan and prepare the trip: contacting people in the countries, booking plane tickets, and setting up ministry opportunities for the students.              

We are so excited for what God will be doing in this next season of our lives!

AMAZING STORY!!!! We had a time of worship together as a class on Thursday morning. A half hour into it, we split into pairs to pray for each other. One of the guys, Nick, in the DTS really felt like he was supposed to pray for healing for someone. Nate directed him over to Julianne to pray for her knees that had been hurting. Several years ago when Julianne was visiting the doctor, they discovered that her right leg was longer than her left leg.

If you look closely at the picture on the left of her old shoes, you can see that the tread on the right shoe is more worn down than the left shoe.

When Nick came over to Julianne to pray for her, he almost immediately asked her if one leg was shorter. He began to pray for her leg to grow. And it DID!!! A warm feeling flowed through her leg. It felt like someone was tugging on her jeans, stretching it out. Now both legs are the same size! Our God STILL HEALS!!!





Thank you so much for all your prayers and support over these last three months! We really appreciate all of you! Continue to keep this fall DTS school in your prayers as we are deciding on our outreach locations soon. Thanks!

We are currently back in Grand Rapids this past weekend visiting Julianne's family. We will be heading over to Howell tomorrow morning to spend a couple of days with Nate's family. It was been such a refreshing time being back "home" again. (Plus we picked up our fall and winter clothes! It's been getting chilly.)

Keep in touch! We will be sending out our newsletters this week. If you want to receive one either by mail or online, please fill out your communication information for us. We would love to keep you updated.

CONTACT INFORMATION 

We will be sending out more information about joining our team and how you can partner with us next week. Get ready! It involves COFFEE!

We love you all lots!
Love in Christ,
Nate and Julianne Gibbons

For more information about YWAM and the DTS program click here.

The Last Weeks of SOMD

Our last week of class flew by! Its topic was Servant Leadership. We discussed how great leaders are always great servers, focusing on how to make each person the best he or she can be. It was definitely a great topic to go over we are all preparing for the next part of the class.

            Our lecture portion of our class officially ended this last Tuesday. One couple headed to Malaysia, a girl to the International House of Prayer, and another couple will be coming back to the YWAM base in January to help with the Discipleship Training School that starts then. The other five of us are staying here at the base to help with the fall DTS that starts on Sunday, 16 September.

            We have been preparing for the fall school this whole week. Nate has been three-hole punches lots of papers for the students while Julianne has been helping with the decorations for the class room. There has been lots of running around getting ready for the students to arrive.

            We had a student from Ecuador arrive on Thursday and another from Ohio on Friday. We are expecting the rest to come on Saturday and Sunday. Our first day of class starts on Monday. We are really excited for what God is going to do in this next season of life!

            We are so thankful that you continue to follow us online. We are preparing to mail our first newsletter update. We want to make sure we have your mailing address so you can receive a copy of it. Click on the link below to fill our your contact information. Thanks!

CONTACT INFORMATION 

            Please keep this upcoming school in your prayers. Also Julianne’s knees have been hurting her a lot lately. We would love your prayers for those as well. Thank you for all your support and prayers!

            Love in Christ,

            Nate and Julianne Gibbons

Week Ten!!!!!!

            Hey everyone! Sorry it has taken us so long to update. We’ve been super busy these last couple of weeks.

This past week was about personal evangelism. It was a really cool week that has given us a new outlook on evangelism. We learned that sharing our faith does not have to be something scary but can actually be lots of fun.

            This week we learned different ways to do street or door-to-door evangelism, how Paul and others did evangelism in the early church, and how to disciple new believers. We put many of these things right into practice this week as well. We went to a local trailer park and did door-to-door evangelism. Some people would just not answer; some would answer but say they were too busy to talk right now; but others we got to actually talk with and that was great.

            Here’s a short story from one of the houses that Julianne went to: When I first walked up to the door, I thought that no one was home. I could hear what sounded like a TV but didn’t see any lights on in the house. My friend, Jaime, and I thought about walking away but decided to knock anyway. A woman probably in either her late 20’s or early 30’s answered the door. We asked her a couple of questions about the community and worked our way into talking about God. She had grown up in a Lutheran church but had not been attending church lately. We could tell that she really wanted to know more about God and to restore her relationship with Him again. We were able to encourage her in her faith and invited her to the church we have been going to. We prayed with her before we left. She was so thankful that we stopped by her house. The whole experience really encouraged Jaime and I to want to talk to more people about God.

            This weekend we actually got away from the base and went to the LifeLight Music festival just outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We went there with two other students from our class to do some PR for our base. It was a great weekend talking with people about God, missions, and YWAM. It was also great getting to hear some of the bands too.

            It seems crazy to think that next week is our last week of classes and that in two short weeks the DTS will start and we will be staffing and leading the 3 months here and 2 month outreach! Some prayer requests we have would be for God to show us where He wants the outreach teams to go for the DTS and for the release of funds for us and for other staff members. If you are interested in partnering with us to do God’s work then please check out the “Join our Team” page at the top. We would really appreciate it!

            Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. We would not be able to do this without all of your help. God bless!

                                                                                    Love in Christ,

                                                                                    Nate and Julianne

Week 9!!!!!

Week Nine…two thirds of the way through class!

This week we had a guest speaker from down in Louisiana. It was fun to have someone new from off of the base. All the staff here at a retreat up further north, so we were almost on our own. Let’s just say we watched a ton of movies, ate ice cream and pizza, and ran our own show. ;) Here is a picture of our one prank we pulled for our school leader:

This week’s topic was about compassion in ministry. Our teacher, Ray, has been working with AIDS patients for over the last 20+ years. He shared oodles of stories with us, helping us to have God’s heart for those with HIV. He really compelled us to look beyond what we see and to look for what God sees in each and every person. Ray definitely opened up our eyes to seeing people in a new light. We had a great week.

On Saturday we went to the wedding of Brenden and Kirstin Mills, friends of ours from our YWAM base. It was a great time to celebrate with them.

Thank you for following our posts and keeping updated with us. We really appreciate all your support!

Love in Christ,

Nate and Julianne

WEEK 8: Trip to Pine Ridge

We are back in Minnesota! We had such a great experience working on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We met up in SD with a high school youth group from Aberdeen, SD. We worked with them throughout the week. There are lots of stories to tell, but we’ll try to sum it up as best as we can. :)

Saturday (11^th)

Most of our class left for Pine Ridge while we stayed back here at the base. We had such an incredible catching up and fellowshipping with two of our friends, Becca and Kendra, from Grand Rapids. They stayed overnight with us in our apartment for their last night of their road trip.

Sunday (12^th)

The remaining six students from our class left around 7am for the reservation.  Nate drove for the first 5 hours until we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We ate our sack lunches there and looked around at the tourists shops.

We arrived at the reservation for dinner. Then we traveled to White Clay, Nebraska where we were going to be sleeping for the week.

Monday (13^th)

We spent the morning preparing for the Vacation Bible School for the local children in Allen, SD on the reservation. We were planning on having them come that afternoon, however, the children did not know there was a VBS. So we instead took a trip to Wounded Knee. In 1890 a massacre happened to the Lakota Sioux in this town. We visited the memorial burial spot. It really helped us to connect with the history of the local people. We were all very glad that we were able to go to Wounded Knee.

After dinner we all gathered for a debriefing time. We began to worship, thank, and praise God for what He had done throughout the day.  Some of the students from our class began to pray for the youth group students. Soon the youth began to pray for each other. The worship time continued for over an hour with everyone praying for each other. We could feel the presence of God in the room. It was such a great way to kick off our week!

Tuesday (14^th)

We worked in the morning at a location organization in White Clay, NE called Lakota Hope. White Clay is just outside of the reservation, where it is legal to purchase and sell alcohol. Over 10,000 cans of alcohol are sold there a day. The organization working in White Clay tries to connect with the men and women living on the street and to give them the hope of Jesus Christ. We spent our time pulling weeds, moving tables, and scraping paint off of the building.

After lunch we traveled to Allen for the Bible School for the local kids. Julianne worked with the 3-6 year olds while Nate worked with the 10 years and up group. It was a lot harder than we had thought it would be. Nate’s group was especially tough. A lot of the children come from tough home lives. The older children were very disrespectful and trying on Nate’s patience. We were a bit afraid of what the rest of the week was going to look like.

Wednesday (15^th)

We again spent our morning in White Clay working at Lakota Hope. We scrapped paint off of one of their buildings that was going to be repainted.

Once that was finished, the team was split into groups to go walk the streets and talk to the men and women there. An older lady started to yell and threaten Nate because he looked like a guy she knew named Clay. (And so we jokingly called Nate “White Clay” for the rest of the week.) Nate got a chance to talk and minister to some of the guys on the street. Julianne had stayed back and was praying for those out on the streets.

We went to Allen after lunch for the VBS. Some of the older kids were acting off before it began and were told they had to go home. It was sad to see them leave but a blessing as well.

It almost felt like a completely different group of kids. The whole afternoon was much more behaved and organized.

Thursday (16^th)

Yeah! Our 2 month anniversary!

We spent the morning in White Clay again. We scrapped more paint off another building before going down town.

Half of our group worked in the thrift store sorting clothes while the other half talked with the people out on the street. Nate met up with one of the men he met the day before. On Wednesday they had talked about angels and demons since the man said that he could see into the spiritual world. Nate told the man that if he saw a demon to “rebuke it in the name of Jesus.” That night the man had seen a demon standing by his feet. He had tried to hide from it but kept seeing it. He remembered what Nate had told him and so said to the demon, “I refute you in the name of Jesus.” The demon, of course, left him. It was so exciting to hear that story! There is power in the name of Jesus!

We went to Allen for our last day of VBS. We had a lot of fun playing with the kids. We ended the day off with a huge water balloon fight. The kids had such a blast.

It was a bit sad to see them for the last time. We can only hope and pray that they will remember what we taught and showed them throughout the week.

Friday (17^th)

FREE DAY! Before we left for the day, we cleaned up the house where we had been staying. The youth group left to go back to Aberdeen while our class took a trip to Mount Rushmore. We spent a couple hours there sightseeing and then got pizza for dinner. It was a fun relaxing day.

Saturday (18^th)

We once again pilled into the vans for the 11 hour car ride to the base here in MN. It felt so good to be back home again.

We cannot believe how quickly this summer has flown by! We only have three more weeks left of our class before we will begin preparing to help lead and staff the next upcoming school here.

            We could love and appreciate your prayers for us in this next season. We are excited for the DTS. We know this is where God wants us to be next. We are looking forward to it and, yet, a bit nervous about leading.

            Thank you for all the support you have shown us over these last two months! May God continue to bless you!

In Christ,

Julianne and Nate Gibbons

SOMD Week 7

            Hello everyone! Wow, did we have a great week. This week was all about other religions and how to reach them.

It was so great to learn about some other religions and how we can reach each of them. We learned about Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, Buddhism, and Witchcraft. We continued to see that, although all of them were far from truth, they each had a bit of truth in them. It showed us that God is always so faithful to point back to Himself. He never gives up on His people. To every people group and religion, God always makes Himself known. That gave us a lot of hope. Some times it can be discouraging when talking to people of other faiths; it seems like they will never understand. We can know that God is faithful and loves them. We will share with them and let the Holy Spirit minister to them on a deeper level.

As we learned about all these religions, Islam and Buddhism both stuck out to us the most. We feel like we are called to working with people who believe in those two religions. This is just even more confirming for our heart to spread the gospel to China. It was pretty cool to get a new piece of what God has in store for us in our future.

On Tuesday afternoon we went on a tour of down town Minneapolis with John Mayer. It was a great experience that we learned a lot during. Minneapolis is home to so many immigrants and especially ones whose homelands missionaries cannot get into.  For example, Minneapolis has the largest number of Somali, Hmong, Oromo Ethiopian, Liberian, Karen Burmese, and Anuak populations in the US, as well as the second largest Tibetan population. We don’t have to go around the world anymore to reach people of a different nation, they have come to us. It is like the great commission has come to us now.

                                           This is John Mayer

                 These are two houses that are right next to each other. The top one

                 has 5 people living in it while the bottom one has 70-90 people living

                 in it. 

This is a garden that is used by some witches around the area

This is the produce section of a Latino store in Minneapolis

These are some Somali kids

This is a mosque above a store

They have camel burgers at the world market.

This is us with our food we got at the world market. It was really good.

It really was a great week that we learned and got to see a lot of neat things. Next week we will be in the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation leading a youth group on a one week mission trip. Prayers for that would be amazing. We leave Sunday the 12^th to drive there and will be back on Saturday the 18^th.

Please pray that we will be able to help minister to the youth group students. They are middle school aged students on their first mission trip. Pray that God would give us the words to encourage them in their faith. Also pray for the Native America children we will be working with. Our class along with the youth group will be giving a Vacation Bible School in the afternoons for the local children. The program is for 5-10…but we are expecting younger and older kids as well. We are excited and know that God is going to do great things during our time there. Thank you so much for all your prayer!

God bless you,

In Christ,

Nate and Julianne Gibbons

Week Six

WOW!!! We're half way through the School of Ministry Development! We can hardly believe how quickly the class has just flown by.

Over the past weeks we have been attending a church in Plymouth, MN. We are really enjoying our time there meeting new people and fellowshipping while studying God's word. A group of us from the YWAM base head out there every week. This past Sunday the church held its annual service in the park. We had worship and the preaching outside at the park on our lawn chairs and blankets. After the service we all walked down to the lake for a baptism. Then we returned back to the pavillion to grill our hotdogs and burgers. It was quite fun. They had some games for the little "children." Our YWAM group of course joined in the fun of the water balloon toss. Some of us got quite wet. In the last game we played, Nate decided that he was done tossing and instead threw his balloon straight at our friend, Jarryd. It was a good time.

This week in class we talked about "Community in Development." We learned that God has created us all to be together and become one as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. We talked about how we can truly be the church, the body of Christ, by removing the focus off of ourselves and back onto God. Our speaker reminded us that sometimes we can get so "caught up" in whether or not we liked the songs we sing at church or the message or the colour of the carpet that we totally forget that coming together with other believers at "church" is supposed to be about worshipping God. We need to stop focusing on our "experience" and simply worship our holy and loving God.
We also were reminded to stop tearing apart our brothers and sisters in Christ, that we each are a part of the body. Some of us may be hands while others are noses and still others are toenails. We each have a ridiculously important job to play, and we cannot spend our time tearing each other apart. It was good for us to remember that we all together form the body of Christ, the church.

We had another Mission Adventures team come this weekend. Nate and I had a chance again to lead worship with the teens. And this time we got to sing together. It was a lot of fun! This team is heading out to the Native American reservation in Pine Ridge, SD. We are excited for them as we will also be heading out there next weekend.

Nate and Julianne leading worship

SUPER AMAZING STORY:

We had a MA team over at the base two weeks ago while they were doing Vacation Bible Schools in Minneapolis. Some of the students and staff at the base got to know the kids really well. A couple students in our class felt like God was telling them to pray for a certain girl on the team. They believed that God wanted to show her His love through them. While praying, they wrote down different things they believed God was telling them to tell her. When they talked to her, she confessed to them that she had given up on God and had been seriously contemplating suicide. She said the last week at MA really changed and probably saved her life. GOD IS SO GOOD!

The MA team loading up supplies

This weekend Julianne's family came up from Michigan for a vacation. They will be camping throughout MN and through the UP. They stopped by the base Saturday night to eat dinner with us. Julianne's sisters, Hannah, Bethany, Moriah, and Sarah, spent the night with us. They came with us to church and then we all drove up to Pease, MN to eat lunch with Julianne's family. We had an amazing time visiting with them.

Thank you so much for following along with us on our adventures out here in Minnesota! We are having such an incredible time our here learning more about who God is and who He has created us to be. We are getting very excited for the upcoming fall DTS. Please keep this school in your prayers. We are still needing more students. Continue to pray and listen to God as He tells you names of people you know who could have a life changing experience through a DTS.

To learn more about DTS, click on the link below:

http://www.ywam-mn.org/index.php/focus

We would also love your prayers as we will be preparing to leave for the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Pray that our hearts and eyes would be open to see these people the way God sees them. And also that their hearts would be open to receive the love that we want to show them. Thanks so much!

We are so thankful for all of you!

Love in Christ,

Julianne and Nate Gibbons

P.S. Julianne went a bit crazy this week...and decided to dye her hair BLONDE! Pictures will be coming soon! :D

Week Five!

We had a very exciting and different week!

Monday: We left the base and took a field trip to visit Maple Hills Estates. We were able to meet with couple who have been working in this community over the last ten-ish years. Maple Hills is a trailer park located outside of Maple Grove, MN. The focus for outreach in the park is to get involved and engaged with the children and teenagers in the community, to introduce them to God, and to give them hope for the future. The couple we met with have actually moved from Maple Grove into Maple Hills for the summer to really see what it looks like to "incarnate" Christ. They want to be His hands and feet in that community. It was really inspiring for us to see.

Tuesday: We began our normal class week. This week we talked about public speaking/ how to prepare a sermon/ message. We each had to give a 5-7 minute speech on the fly. We all gave speeches on things that either interested us or were the first things we could think of to speak about. Nate gave his talk on "What Makes a Good Hockey Goalie a Great Hockey Goalie" while Julianne taught the class how to bake sugar cookies. It was fun for all of us to get a chance practicing speaking in front of each other.
       We also met with our outreach groups today. All of the fall DTS (Discipleship Training School) staff gathered together to talk about the upcoming school and to pray for the students. We would love your prayers as we prepare for this fall's school. We are needing more students to attend to have a big enough school. We know God will send those who need to be here. We don't want anyone to miss out.

Wednesday: We continued with our speech practicing. This time we split the class into two groups. The first group had to give a 5-7 talk on a topic they learned from DTS...but pretending to give it to a youth group. The second group had to give a 5-7 talk to a group of supporters, explaining what they were doing and trying to raise money for outreach. Nate and I were split into the opposite groups. I did the youth group talk while he have the support talk. We each had a half hour to prepare and then gave our speeches to our respective groups.

Nate teaching in class

Thursday: We had another field trip. This time we journeyed into Minneapolis. We visited an organization called Urban Home Works. This organization buys old/ foreclosed houses in Minneapolis, fixes them up, and then rents out the homes to lower income families. What is really neat about this organization is that they rent the lower and upper parts of the houses separately. The lower is rented out to low income families while the upper is rented out to Christians. Those in the upper commit to a year long program of intentional community. These "neighbors" make a point of reaching out into the community and showing their neighbors the love of Christ. On our tour, we first met with a couple named Heather and Nate. They lived in north Minneapolis with their three little boys. We visited with them, heard their story, and looked around their house and neighborhood. We next traveled over to the main headquarters of the organization to learn some more of the background of the organization and their goals. After lunch we all got to help do some landscaping on a nearby house that Urban Home Works had purchased and were fixing up. Nate dug and filled a trench while Julianne weeded, planted new grass, and watered. We had an incredible time. We are hoping to keep connected with this organization because we really believe in what it is trying to do.

Friday: Last day of class. Each of us students had to prepare a 15-20 mini sermon on something God had been showing us lately. It was also to be translated. Nate gave his on "Trusting God and Living in His Rest," and Julianne spoke on "The Person God is Looking For." It was a challenge, but we both grew so much in all of it.

Saturday: Our day off!!! Well, kinda. :) We watched a bit of the Olympics right after breakfast. Someone here at the base hooked up the TV to our big projector in class. The guys here are loving it. Nate wanted to stay and watch for more, but we had work to do. We have FINALLY finished all of our wedding thank you's! We will be sending them out early next week. We had not forgotten about all of you. :)

         This evening we had a class picnic at the Buffalo Lake Park. We grilled up some burgers and played frisbee. We worshipped together at the park on some blankets. We then broke up into groups to walk around the park and the town to see who God wanted us to talk to. Some of us had a chance to speak with some other people, but the park was pretty empty. Nate and I walked around the town with our friend, Jaime, praying for the community. It was such a lovely night.

Worship in the Park

        And now we are here at McDonalds for our weekly update. The Internet at the base doesn't let us get onto our blog. So we have to take a trip here. We get a large drink every week and sit in the little booth, typing away. It's a good time.

We are so thankful for all your support in our lives. We LOVE your prayers! We would really appreciate you joining with us in prayer for this upcoming DTS this fall. We really need students. Pray that God will open the doors for students to come and that they would only listen to God's voice. Also pray and ask God if He is wanting anyone you know to come to this DTS. We have three different focuses: a Dance focus, a Wilderness focus, and  Justice and Mercy focus.
We also would personally love your prayers for our future. Please pray that God would give us the ears to listen to what He wants to say. We only want to do what the Father tells us to do. We are longing for His direction and wisdom.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you! We love you all dearly! May God continue to bless you!!

Love in Christ,
Julianne and Nate Gibbons