sign on the dotted line

August 2008

Brad and I had just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary in June and were about to find out in October that we were expecting our first child. I was sitting in a Starbucks (of course) writing in my journal and praying about whether or not I should apply to APU to get my teaching credential and master's degree. I original thought that it would be a good idea to get my teaching credential so that if we ever moved overseas that I could use it anywhere. I wanted to have a skill that would be useful here or there. 

I had been praying about this decision for a couple months and at that moment felt that God was telling me to apply. I was late in the game and had one week to submit everything that they needed in order to start classes in two weeks! I remember just trusting the Lord and say "ok...Ill do it"

In June 2010 I graduated with my Master in Education: Digital Teaching and Learning.

December 2011

Brad and I received word from his Dad who was in Thailand at the time, that there was a family who wanted to get in touch with us in regards to moving to Thailand. We had never met this family but Brad's dad had and Brad had a college roommate who worked at the church this family attended.

We emailed back and forth with this family until eventually they called to chat. After a 20 minute phone conversation the family informed us that they wanted to help us move overseas and they knew we had a significant amount of student loans from both our undergraduate studies at private schools and from my master's program. The husband of this family told Brad that they would pay off a portion of our loans when we decided to leave for Thailand. We were elated! We could not believe that God had brought this family into our lives. We were SO thankful for that!

**We stayed in contact with this family over the last two years and have given them updates on our process. We have had the chance to Skype with them, but still have never met them in person.

November 2012

Brad, the kids and I went to lunch with Mike and Becky, who were home (US) for a couple weeks. We had not seen them both in years. We ate at this fab Thai restaurant in Pomona called Mix Bowl. Mike and Becky expressed how they wanted us to move to Thailand and partner with ITDP. They have known our conviction and desire to do so for years and they felt that the time to do so was now.

Every year of our marriage, Thailand was always a talking point. We have been praying about it since we got married in 2007. November of 2012 we decided to charge full steam ahead with it.

We quickly had a meeting set up with a church in San Diego where we met with a mission's Pastor who is friends with Brad's dad. We asked him a ton of questions and we walked away with an organization that we were interested in...Crossworld.

** Side note: To this day, every church that we meet with in regards to Thailand always asks, "You have a large amount of debit. How do you plan to pay that off?" Most people who are moving overseas are expected to have little to no debit. That would have been a HUGE problem for us because we had at least 10 years of debit to pay back.

November 2013 

We attend candidate orientation where we are told that Thailand might not be a for sure place to go. Its a long story but the most important details are that we are pursuing moving to Thailand with Crossworld but there is an off chance that we could end up somewhere else. But, Hey Jack, our plans are not God's plans... we just buckle up and trust where He drives.

When we got home from our training we called the family to let them know how our training went and to share where our hearts were. We understood that they wanted to help facilitate us moving to Thailand but we also didn't want to hold on so tightly to what they were offering if God had something different for us. If it wasn't Thailand, then we wanted to be obedient and let go. Our obedience was more important then money. So we talked with them and expressed that Thailand was our target right now but there is a chance that God leads somewhere else. We don't believe that it is anywhere else but in the off chance that it was then we wanted to be as honest and transparent as we could.

They decided they still wanted to help us out. But.... not just to pay a portion of our loans but ALL of them. Yes you read that right...ALL of them! I know, I still can't believe it. I actually have to pinch myself at times!

Often I go back to that table at Starbucks where I was praying for direction and decide to just trust where God was leading me. I had no idea that my decision would lead to where we are now. More then 50% of our loans were from my graduate work.

God is so faithful! Truly. This story for me is a tangible faithfulness. There are some many pieces that God is arranging on a daily basis that will eventually unfold and it is my job to be obedient to Him now. Not to worry about 10 pieces down the road. I read the Jesus Calling devotion by Sarah Young and she had written one devotion about time. She mentions that God isn't bound by our time, dates, years. He knows what next year holds for each of us. Can you imagine if God gave us life months at a time? Years at a time? I picture sitting in a movie theater and watching 6 months of the future on the screen and absolutely freaking out! Even if there wasn't one event that was really overwhelming to handle on a daily basis, seeing all that 6 months entails would probably throw me over the edge. God gives us one day at a time. He knows that we can only handle that day. So that is all that we need to be concerned with. Living in this moment.

December 2013

Last Wednesday we paid off all of our student loans!

Praise the Lord

Officially Appointees

Although I am long overdue with writing this post, I wanted to give a recap of our two week training in Kansas City, MO. At the end of the two weeks we were officially accepted to partner with Crossworld! We were and still are stoked. We were so impressed with Crossworld and are so thankful to have the opportunity to work alongside such a great organization.

We came home the week prior to Thanksgiving and had to jump right back into real life...ho hum. I left the day after Thanksgiving for a 9 day trip to Orlando, FL for soccer and Brad was on daddy duty. We are now 3 weeks out from returning home from Crossworld and are still trying to process all that we were exposed to while there. Sawyer is constantly asking when we are going to be going back because she had a wonderful time! We look forward to attending Pre-Field Orientation in 2014 and reconnected with those we developed relationships with.

Prayer request: We have a list of things "to do" in regards to continual personal development. Pray that we will make the time to continue to grow and be receptive to whatever God is teaching us through this moment in life

"You don't love God's word"

Today was our 4th day here in Kansas City, MO at Crossworld's Candidate orientation. We have had a great time meeting the staff and other candidates. Going into these two weeks we really didn't know what to expect. We were given some instructions but basically didn't know what we were getting ourselves into! haha

We have been learning some really great stuff! What I want to share in particular was a story from today. Dale is the President of Crossworld and he plays a large role in the C.O process. His session today was all about making disciples. Dale has written a book titled A Better Way, which speaks on what is means to make disciples. The book is a direct reflection of what Crossworld values most. The concept is so simple. Make disciples. These instructions come start out of Jesus' mouth right before he ascends to heaven. Make disciples. So today we looked at Biblical examples of what that looked like. It was so interested to dig into. You cannot have discipleship, if you don't have relationship. A true, genuine, caring, relationship where you sacrifice time, resources, your self in order to share the truth about Jesus Christ and facilitate the process of being refined. That is something that a lot of us miss. The American church misses it. 

I can go deeper into making disciples but that is not the purpose of this post. This post is about five words. Five words that have sorta rocked me a bit. The story goes something like this...

Dale's wife, then girlfriend, came from a family where her father was a well known youth pastor. Everyone in the San Diego area at that time knew who Pastor Jerry was. Dale describes him as being a very serious man who only every talks about two things. God and his word. Not sports. Not the weather. God and his word. Pastor Jerry was very intentional with how he spent his time it seems. When Dale wanted to spend some time with Pastor Jerry before he was going to propose to his then girlfriend, he thought is a good idea come up with some questions to ask Pastor Jerry. This is what he came up with: "Is there anything in my life that you see needs improvement?" Wait..what? Insert shoes into mouth. Dale explained to us that he had no idea why he thought that would be a good question to ask. Not even 2 seconds after the question was asked did Dale receive his answer. Pastor Jerry said, "You don't love God's word". 

crickets....

Could you imagine being told that. But wait, I do my devotions everyday. I have some scripture memorized. I am involved in a small group weekly. I also want to get into ministry. How can you say that I don't love God's word?! 

A lot of what we have been learning these last two days is all about the heart. What is your heart full of? Anger, jealousy, bitterness, selfishness, greed and the list can go on. We know that we are all sinners and are in a constant battle with our flesh. Since we are followers of Christ, we have his Spirit living in our sin infected bodies. The Spirit is at war with our flesh. The things that are in our heart are the things that eventually come out of our mouths. When we face trials our heart is exposed and whatever we are feeding ourselves, what we have given into apart from God, is going to seep out. If we are feeding ourselves God's word, then we are able to saturate our hearts with it and when we are bummed in life, our hearts pour out God's truth. 

But...in order to do that, we need to LOVE God's word. Not just revere it. Not just use it to defend our actions. Not just to slap down rules. We need to swallow it. We need to envelop ourselves in what it says. 

I don't LOVE God's word. I love it. I think it is a priority. I know its essential to my faith. But I don't LOVE God's word. I am still chewing on why that is what it is. I think that I could tell you all the surface reasons I don't read scripture like I should but I don't think that would solve the real issue. Deep down there is something that I hold onto that inhabits me from swallowing the word. 

You don't love God's word... something to wrestle with

The Great Commission

One of the coolest things that we are experiencing here at the Crossworld is the intentionality of the staff and other candidates. Yesterday Brad was in line to get lunch while holding Barrett and Dale, the President of Crossworld served him a grilled cheese. Then tonight we sat at dinner with one of the VPs and an International Direction of Crossworld. These same men and the ones who are teaching each of our sessions about disciple making and all the other topics. Each meal we are sitting at a different table with different staff members who are asking great questions and genuinely interested in what God is teaching us or what we have been learning. We are so humbled that we are even here.... we are so thankful for all that was provided by God and through God to even have this opportunity.

I wanted to just recap a little bit of what we learned today during our Making Disciples session. I wish I had more energy and time to explain it all because man did it blow off our socks. But anyhow the point I wanted to throw out there is this: what does it look like when we are not following through with what Jesus commissioned us to do in Matt 28? Go, make disciples of all nations, teaching them and baptizing them. Dave  who is an International Director here at Crossworld served in Haiti for 21 years. He spoke about the church in Haiti something like this... Haiti is considered a reached country for missions. There are churches everywhere. But, church is happening and discipleship is not. That is why church is a mile wide and an inch deep. Did Jesus say, "Go plant a church then make disciples". No. Don't get me wrong, church planting is very important. But, similar to our church in America, we aren't making disciples therefore the church is shallow.

Think about this...have you ever been purposely discipled? Have you purposely discipled anyone? Why haven't we? Im am still ponder that question. What is it about me that inhabits or hinders my obedience to the great commission?

I'll finish up with three questions. Dave gave us these three questions in order to start the process with ourselves of where are at with making disciples:

1. Where am I now? (not physically but spiritually)

2. What do I need to learn next? (in relation to what I discovered above)

3. What Biblical truths relate to this?

The purpose of this is hopefully help us recognize where our hearts are at. Starting from scratch. What does God want to reveal, teach and change in me and how does that relate to scripture?

I am so appreciative of this process and look forward to sharing more to come. 

Kansas City

Today is the first day of our Candidate Orientation with Crossworld. We arrived late last night in Kansas City, MO. The kids did well traveling but we are all kinda fighting a cold that has been lingering for 3 weeks.


As we woke up this morning and went for a walk in beautiful Missouri, Brad and I reflected on how surreal this moment is for us. We have been talking, praying and processing about these next two weeks for a long time. The Lord has given us little bread crumbs along our journey and they seem to be just big enough for us to work through and not too daunting. It would be so easy to have minor (major) freakout moments when we take the whole picture into account. Today was the first time that Thailand felt tangibly real. I could feel it. In my heart. Quick get me a paper bag to breathe into! 

Our next two weeks are full of assessments; Bible, personality, language aptitude and interviews.We also will receive training on raising support.  We are going to be pretty busy, but there are a couple days off. The kids will be in classes as well. Since Sawyer is home schooled, she will continue to do her school work but also will be going through studies on missions work and moving. Barrett will do the usual, playing and eating! Both the kids are having fun thus far playing and running around outside in the crisp weather. 

We are staying at Crossworld's training center. There are 7 other family's or candidates here for the CO and 8 other families that are doing their Pre-field orientation. We each have our own rooms with 2 bathrooms, a living room area and a kitchen. Its sort of a merge between hotel and dorm. Its roomy which is nice for antsy kids. We were able to walk to the grocery store and by food and snacks for the stay. 

I am going to try and write a couple updates during our stay. 

We walked to Dunkin' Donuts this morning to get some treats and Vanilla Chai!

 "This is deer country!" from none other than Brad

Sawyer loves seeing actually leaves on trees that are red and yellow!

Official Invite to Candidate Orientation!

We just received an email that had formally invited up to Candidate Orientation in November! We have been waiting to receive this email for a couple weeks and are thrilled that Crossworld has invited us. Thanks for your prayers during. We will be at the training November 9th-22nd in Kansas City, Missouri.

We also have a couple meetings with Churches in the upcoming weeks and would appreciate your prayers for those meetings. Thanks

The Jenkins Family

Upcoming Church meeting and COFFEE

Thanks for the prayers for our meeting last Sunday. It went really well and we loved sharing our story with a group of older believers. There was about 25 people at the service and we were able to have a candid conversation with the group. They asked a lot of good questions and were so curious about what we want to do and why Thailand. It was such an honor to be invited to speak and we loved it! Brad is actually meeting with one of the gentlemen that we met on Thursday. We served brewed Lanna coffee and they enjoyed looking at all our village artifacts...especially the gun!

I also wanted to let you know that we got a call today from a large and very well known church in San Diego. Brad's parents attend the church and we have been to many services over the last 7 years and know a lot of the people in the congregation. We have been invited down next Thursday at 6:30pm to meet with the mission's committee. After our meeting we will know whether the church is going to take us on as missionaries and support us financial. The head of the mission's board at one time was actually a board member of Crossworld which we did not know. I love seeing how God has tied together our process and how he has continued to provide and bless us through this time. God is so good.

One last little plug... One of the projects that ITDP does is a coffee project. Coffee beans are grown by villagers and then sold directly to various companies such as Starbucks! The same beans that Starbucks buys are also roasted and sold by Lanna Cafe. Lanna cafe partners with ITDP and they have cafes in Thailand and they sell whole bean coffee in the states. If you would like to buy Lanna Cafe check out the website link below:

http://www.lannacoffee.org/

As watch this video to get a clear picture of what ITDP and Lanna cafe set out to do:

Prayer Request

I wanted to write a quick post asking for prayer for tonight. Brad and I are going to be speaking at a church in Orange County at 6pm. We are stoked for the connections and relationships God has weaved into our paths and look forward to meeting new people.

Thanks for your support and prayer lately!

Here is a picture from our family vacation two weeks ago. This is actually the place where Brad and I met 13 years ago while in high school at church camp.

Crossworld

We are so excited to share that we have been invited by Crossworld (http://www.crossworld.org/) to attend the Candidate Orientation this coming November for two weeks! Our mobilizers have to make a recommendation to Crossworld on our behalf in order to be invited. We had another great Skype conversation with the mobilizers this week and yesterday received the email from them on the update. We are so thankful and praise the Lord for this step. Once we attend the Candidate Orientation we will be set up with a Personal Development Plan and a Coach. The PDP will include budget, support raising, cultural adjustment, reading materials and many other tasks and tools that will lead us up to launching. If we are recommended for the next step we would be attending a Pre-Field Orientation in June of 2014. After that, if we had our funds raised, our ducks in a row, we could leave. Oh my!

Also, last night we met with our home church for the last time. We should know by the end of the week if Cornerstone will be supporting us and what that will look like.  We can not say enough great things about the community of believers we are in at our home church and how thankful we are for the pastoral staff and elders.

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers! If you have time check out the Crossworld website.

...Possible Agency...Woohoo!

Brad and I were in contact this last week with an agency that we are really interested in. Brad had a 40 minute phone conversation with a mobilizer. He wanted to get a feel for who we were and what we were seeking to do. We will have a couple more phone interviews/ conversations and if the mobilizer feels comfortable with us he will move us along in the process. If we continue in the process we would have 2 mandatory trainings within the next year that we will attend as a family.The first training would be in November and is called Candidate Orientation training that last two weeks. If the agency approves us after the training, then we would continue in the process and then attend a 3 week training in June of 2014 called Pre-Field Orientation. Once the PFO is finished we would be able to launch whenever we were ready to go! It is a answer to prayer to have more direction now.  We are very excited about the process and think that this agency is a good fit for us.

Prayer request:
Can you pray that we will be attentive to the spirit's leading during this process. We want to continue to depend on God and not create our own path towards Thailand. We are certain that this next journey is our call and we want to trust God's path as we move closer and closer to launching.

Intro to ITDP

If you are unfamiliar with Integrated Tribal Development Program I would encourage you to watch this video. I think it paints a good picture of what we will be coming along side of when we move. (Mike and Becky Mann are the missionaries who founded ITDP)

Prayer Request - Praise

Thank you for reading the blog. Up until today we really did not have many updates to give. We are in the long process of filling out applications, writing testimonies, making a budget and all the other stuff that is kinda boring ; ). It has been hard to squeeze time into our busy day to check things off our "Thailand to-do list". So prayer request number one is that we could be more diligent in tying up loose ends on paperwork. These days with work and 2 small very energetic children we are barely able to make it to 9pm without falling asleep standing up.

We have sent in one application to a church is San Diego and we are awaiting an interview in front of their mission's board this summer. We would appreciate prayers for this process because it would be a huge blessing to be supported by this church. We also have an interview with our home church very soon. We are excited to be possibly commissioned by our home church. We look forward to partnering with them. We are very thankful that God lead us to our church and we have been transformed during our 5 years attending the church.

We received an email today letting us know that we have received our first financial support check! Its another little reminder of God's provision and love.  We were not expecting anything so soon, but we are stoked by the gift. It helps bring God's vision for our family serving overseas in focus a little bit more.

We appreciate your prayers during this process and look forward to discussing what is next...

...The Jenkins Family...

Thank you for visiting the blog! We thought that this was the best way to stay in touch with you through our process. We are excited that you are partnering with us in prayer and we look forward to your encouragement throughout our journey. Most of you might not know Brad and I very well or our history with Thailand, so I wanted to give you a little history that will help you understand our decision.

Brad Jenkins:
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Brad served on a short term missions team to the hill tribes in Thailand in 1996. Since then he has served on many teams and also led many teams to different regions of the jungle. When returning in 2014 full time Brad and his family will spend much of their time living among the hill tribes in order to meet the needs of the hill tribes as they continue to be marginalized by the government and forced into lifestyles with ties to poverty, sex slavery, drug cultivation and an absence of God. 

Brad went to BIOLA University his freshman and sophomore year of college, then transferred to San Diego Christian College where he graduated top of his class with a B.A in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in Intercultural Studies.

Shannon Jenkins:
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Shannon first served in Thailand in 2003 on a short term missions project to the northern jungles of Thailand. Since then she has returned multiple times and lived in the jungles for many months. During the summer of 2006 she started a child sponsorship program that still runs today for many young kids and teenagers of this region. The sponsorship program helped fund the building of  schools in the region that has educated many children.

Shannon attended Florida State University her freshman year of college to play soccer. She then transferred to Azusa Pacific University where she graduated with a B.A in Global Studies. Shannon also received her Multiple Subject teaching credential and M.A in Education: Digital Teaching and Learning from APU. 

The Jenkins Family:

Brad and Shannon have been married since June 2, 2007. Brad currently works at a non-profit called Boy's Republic where he is a Supervisor. Boy's Republic is a placement center for juvenile delinquents. Shannon is heading into her 3rd season as the Women's assistant soccer coach at APU. In 2009 Brad and Shannon welcomed their first child, Sawyer in June. Sawyer is full of energy and she loves playing outside. In February 2012 the Jenkins welcomed a son, Barrett.