Last Blog from Greece; Spotlight: Jenn
[Sunset in Porto Rafti, Greece; we will miss it here; Photo John Paul Vicory]
After such great teaching from John Childers over the last 2 weeks, getting revelation after revelation from the Holy Spirit through the Word and his teaching, we are yet again blessed; David Hamilton, VP of YWAM’s University of the Nations, is joining us for the next 2 weeks. He is taking over teaching for the next 15 days, on location about the New Testament Epistles. This week, Dan Shannon and Andrew York will also be with us, imparting to us experiences of the chapters of Acts that are still being written today with their lives and the Holy Spirit leading them around the world.
Personally, I am excited to have them all there because of their commitment to follow the Lord and the experiences and lessons that they have been learning over the course of their lives. Exciting things are happening in each one of them and with the world that they influence.
On Tuesday (the 20th), we went to the Acropolis to get the teachings of Acts 18. We will be taking a tour of the area, learning the historical significance to be able to place the book of Acts in context. Then tomorrow (Thanksgiving in the US) the 22nd, we will be heading to Corinth to learn about the first and second letters to the Corinthians. All this is before we leave Greece on Saturday to arrive in Turkey where we will be visiting Ephesus. Each one of these locations, we have been informed, is bigger and better than the previous, so we are all very excited. There is something about studying the Bible where the events took place that makes the words come to life to each one of us. (Please refer to http://johnvicory.blogspot.com for a more in depth personal experience in Athens).
[Acropolis at Night; photo John Paul Vicory]
[First Olympic Stadium; Photo, John Paul Vicory]
So, pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal more and more to us through the Word and through knowledge and experience of the locations we will be visiting. Pray for safety as we travel and for the safety of the speakers as they will be leaving us at various places. We are taking a ferry to Turkey, which should be very interesting and an adventure in and of itself.
Spotlight: Jennifer Nicole
[Jennifer Nicole; photo compliments of Jenn]
I learn more and more each week how small the YWAM world is. There are people all over the world that know each other without actually knowing each other. Until we actually met in South Africa, this was the story with Jenn and myself. She is from my hometown of Metro Denver, which is great, but we actually knew many of the same people especially in our high school years. She goes to Jubilee Fellowship in Lone Tree (South Denver), which was helped to start by some really good friends of mine, the Smiths. So Jenn and a really good friend, Malori were in the same youth group together and we may have even met prior to the “first” time in South Africa.
Jenn got involved with YWAM through the pastor’s family at Jubilee Fellowship. The pastor’s daughter Amy Leech was involved with the base in Kona so, as follows other people become aware and get involved. Jenn was at a place where she really needed to step out in faith and discover who she was in the Lord, so she went to Capetown to do DTS at Media Village, close to where we were in Muizenburg. She found what she was looking for and so much more. What stuck out the most to her was the revelations of God not only as just Lord, which is common in the West today, but also as Father and Lover.
While on outreach in Namibia, Lesotho, and Johannesburg, God’s heart for the women and children of Africa was made evident to her and captured her own heart. God started speaking to her how she could use photography to tell countless stories across Africa to give them a voice. After DTS she went home for a little while. She was heavily involved with work, so it was hard for her to make it to church every Sunday, but there was one morning that, even though she wasn’t going to go, she ended up feeling like she should go. That same morning Paul and Susi Childers, the leaders of our school, spoke at Jubilee Fellowship about the Voice for the Voiceless booklet and ministry. The vision that Susi has is what Jenn has for Africa, so she applied for the PhotogenX program to get more experience with photography and how it can be used in missions. In the meantime (since she had already done DTS), she went back, out of obedience, to Media Village in South Africa to complete the School of Video Production there. She was just finishing there when she joined with the Track at the end of September.
She hopes that this school will help launch her into full time ministry with Voice for the Voiceless Africa. She hopes that through the skills and experienced here, she will be able to get more of God’s heart for her and for the women and children she feels so close to. She also hopes that she will be able to be based in Capetown and subsequently sent out to the rest of Africa, taking pictures and writing stories that will capture the true heart of Africa as a whole; not through human eyes, but through God’s heart, showing his love and his beauty.
To you readers and to the friends and family of all of those on the track, “Be in the presence of God daily; every minute of every day.”
Pray that God will impart more and more of His heart and His vision to her as she is in His presence daily.
Until next week in Turkey!
John Paul Vicory and the PhotogenX RTW Track
Labels: Advocate, Awaken, Photoblog, PhotogenX, Photography, voice for the voiceless, world, YWAM
Last full week in Porto Rafti: Spotlight, April Joy
[The view at sunrise a short walk from the Bethany House; Photo: John Paul]
Our time in Porto Rafti has been incredible. Not only have we been getting some tremendously profound and valuable lessons from the Bible, we have been surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation as well. It is starting to get a bit colder now, but most of the days remain beautifully clear. We have also had some amazing sunsets and sunrises although we haven’t been getting out as much to capture them with our cameras.
One of the things that I wanted to do with this blog is go through and introduce everyone on the team. Thus giving you, the readers, a little bit of background information on a different person each week with a picture and a few of the pictures they have taken as well. They will appear in no particular order, just what happens to fit in their schedule.
[April Joy; Photos courtesy of April Joy]
The first person that I want to spotlight is April Joy. April and I actually have an interesting connection. She is from the United States, Anchorage, Alaska to be specific. When I went to Westmont, there was a guy named Josh that was also from Anchorage. It turns out that April was pretty good friends with Josh’s younger brother.
Raised in a Christian home, April spent time in and out of Christian schools. Her first interaction with YWAM was from a neighbor, friends with her mother, whom had done the School of Photography in Kona. April has a passion for photography and was indecisive at the time when university came around, so she applied to the U of N in Kona to do a DTS. It was kind of a last minute decision, but one that changed her life. She arrived in Hawaii in July of 2006 carried out the lecture phase and then went to Japan for outreach.
From the first weeks that she was in Kona, she had received encouragement from both her school leader and Paul Childers to come and staff the PhotogenX DTS and continue on the Round the World Track as a student. Suzi Childers had being doing some photography workshops, during that time as well, so April was able to get to know our school leaders pretty well. She came back in April of 07 for staff training and eventually a leadership position with DTS. April recalls those times of being a student and staff in Kona as times of extreme development in her character as well as her relationship with God. He took her on outreach to Australia and India recently for the outreach portion of the DTS and ultimately to remain on the Round the World Track.
God has done a lot with April during the course of her time in YWAM and she looks forward to what he has for her in the coming year and a half on the track. On her past outreaches and missions, she has found value in discovering other people and cultures. It has led her to a better understanding of her world and who God is. Sometimes it is easy to find yourself in a metaphorical bubble made up of what is right in front of your face, especially the comforts of home. When confronting the world, she couldn’t help but see who God was and who she was on a much deeper level.
She expects that God will continue to build and develop her character through this track and reveal more and more of himself. She anticipates that he will do this by way of the intense Biblical studies as well as the interaction with various cultures around the globe. As she discovers more about Him and His creation, we can all be sure that she won’t be disappointed.
When asked if she had any advice for the fellow trackers and readers she replied, “If God isn’t the center of your life, everything will suffer.” I think that we can all learn something from the simple, yet profound wisdom.
That does it for this week. Please let me know any feedback, comments, suggestions that you have. I would love to hear them
Until then, peace and love through Christ, our Lord
John Paul
Labels: Advocate, Awaken, Jesus, Missions, Photoblog, PhotogenX, Photography, voice for the voiceless, world, YWAM
