Does God heal?

On Sundays, a group of men gather on the base to play basketball. Two Sundays ago while Jeff was playing, he heard and felt a pop in his calf and then was unable to walk. He managed to make it to our room so that he could ice his leg, but as the day progressed, he was in more pain and his calf really tightened up. He decided to call his parents and brother to ask for prayer, and when he woke up in the morning, his calf was less sore and stiff than the night before. He could carefully walk, but his steps had to be cautious and calculated. He went to teach in Foundation School and the kids noticed that he was walking slowly. They surrounded him and prayed for him. His calf began to loosen up, and he was able to give the students a walking “tour of campus” he had originally planned to do (but thought he wouldn’t be able to), sharing moments when and where God had spoken to him. Friends, God healed Jeff’s leg that day!!!! According to what we researched and the injury we think he had, it could have been a 6-8 week recovery, but he was healed and began to walk normally! We praise God for this miracle. 

Foundation School kids (children of our students) that Jeff got to teach about total surrender and trusting God to lead us well because He is a good father. They also prayed that Jeff would be healed, and he was!

Other healings to report from our DTS after our students prayed. We love partnering with the Lord!

• One student’s tooth was completely healed, and she never had to go to the dentist despite previously being in enormous pain. 
• Another student’s leg had been numb for three years after a procedure, and she thought she’d never have feeling again. After being prayed for, she got feeling back and could straighten her leg. It is back to normal! 
• Here is an original prayer request from a student on our Uruguay team:

May I please ask you to join us in prayer for my best friend’s husband. He is a doctor and a surgeon, and they and their four sons are long-term missionaries in Central Asia. Some of their work involves training local medical professionals. He has had an accident and has serious injuries involving a skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. The last update I have is from three hours ago. He was then on the operating table at a local hospital. Please join us in prayer for him, the doctors and the family.

I won’t go into the long story of this man, but he was in a coma, had a lethal infection in his lungs and it looked like he would not live. We are so thankful to report that although they said he would have many mental and physical problems for the rest of his life if he survived, he is actually walking, talking, joking around and doing well! It is truly a miracle!

Some of our students’ kids (we have a few of ours in there as well)

Does God transform us?

Trying to sum up the last few weeks in a way that truly tells what has happened is an incredibly difficult task. He has done so much!!!! Our topics for the last few weeks have been:

• Pure Heart: Freedom from wounds, shame, sins and negative influences in our lives
• Marriage: Restoration in ALL areas of marriage – whole and healthy Chrisitan marriages display to the world a reflection of true intimacy with God
• Story Week: Each student shared a 10 minute testimony – it was powerful
• Lordship and Fear of the Lord

The fruit of these weeks has been immeasurable! The students in our class are like the majority of married believers. They did not come here thinking that their lives or marriages needed a major overhaul, but God has worked in their lives in such unexpected ways! Individuals who have been carrying weights for years have been deeply healed and have found freedom from shame and the effects of life. During our marriage week, one husband asked his wife to marry him again, another couple wept together as they extended forgiveness for the ways they have hurt one another, and every marriage was launched into new beginnings. This week, every single one of us has been challenged to make Jesus the center of everything.

Praying for the couple who will be getting married again!

Will we only love Jesus if good things happen to us?

I have to laugh at this question as I consider my responsibility as a parent. One of our kids has been avoiding his school work, so he has lost freedom to partake in extra activities until he gets caught up. Although our purpose is to help him mature and take responsibility, he sees this consequence as uncaring on our part, but we actually discipline him because we care deeply for him. Kids sometimes have a much different perspective than parents!! 

Caleb is still having fun during their Walkathon even though he is on restriction.

God never tempts us, but he does allow us to be tested to show us areas that may be hindering our intimacy with him. As God teaches us, he wants us to become all he intended. It’s not always fun, but his heart for us is always good (Hebrews 12). Will we respond to him with trust?

What do we do when bad things happen to us? Aside from tests, we live in a fallen world, so bad things will happen. The enemy intends to destroy us (John 10:10). Even Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world, but we are to take heart because he has overcome the world (John 16:33), and he will turn all things to good because we love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Are we willing to trust him? Do we believe that He has good things for us (John 10:10)? Or do we believe the lie that God is the one responsible for hurting us and those we love?

Is He Lord?

Many of us are afraid to make him Lord because we’re afraid of what he is going to ask us to do. Often, we stick with easy and comfortable living where we don’t have to rely on God, and we may miss out on a closeness with him. Because we fear that he may ask us to do something hard, we relinquish our ability to fully know him because we never really have to rely on him. Perhaps we don’t trust that He is good and when he asks us to do something, he is on our side. 

Making Jesus truly Lord may mean intentionally stepping into uncomfortable financial situations, selling something that is really important, getting held at gunpoint for your worldly possessions (this happened to a group this last outreach), getting struck by lightning (this also happened), falling off a structure (this happened as well), being sick for weeks on end or leaving a job. It may mean keeping a job you would rather leave. Why would we CHOOSE to step into hard things and potential danger to bring the love of Jesus to others? We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and He stepped into the hardest thing ever, dying a brutal death in our place. Ultimately, our goal is to know him intimately, hear his plans for us and obey. That may mean saying yes to things we think are crazy! (To be clear, no one died in the above challenges – they came back excited about following Jesus!)

I want ALL of Jesus. Maturity as a follower of Christ is actually choosing dependence on GOD. Maturity is trusting God while not knowing the outcome of a choice. When we come to a place of complete surrender and trust that what HE asks of us is way better than any plan we can make for our own lives, suddenly we see him for who he is and enter into depths of his love that would never have been possible if we had continued to control our own lives. 

When we deny Lordship, we end up missing out on the greatest love story that could ever be written for us. We easily carry on believing that we know better than God about what we should do in the future. We carry on living our own lives and writing our own stories. God is challenging all of us to hand over the pen and let him write any story he wants with our lives. 

Students waiting to be pummeled by a wave so they can fall into the salt pool. To me, this is like following Christ – Saying yes to an adventure that involves risk, hold-our-breath anticipation, and being pushed into something challenging that has a beautiful ending. 

Our Family

Please continue to pray for our family and all of our students, that we would completely surrender our lives to him so that we can love Jesus even more and faithfully share his love to those he has called us to.

We as a family have had a challenging four weeks. As the mom, I have felt pressed on every side and often felt like it would be easier to go back home to Idaho where it’s quieter and more comfortable. But then I find Jesus and his sweet presence. He urges me to not give up, helps me to keep doing this work he has invited us to do, enabling me to trust him. 

This week, I am feeling refreshed and ready to continue. Our family would love to have your continual prayers that we would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and do exactly what he is asking us to do. 

Outreach Preparation

Tuesday morning team building

Hakon was trying to look mean so he could play the part of Goliath. We were all cracking up because there’s no mean bone in his body and he just kept laughing while trying to make a mean face. 

More outreach prep – P.S. Eli just turned SEVENTEEN!!!! We know you see him even though he is hiding his face from being photographed.

Our stellar student team minus the kids!

Below is a table that shows information I am often asked:

January 10	Family DTS and Lecture Phase began
March 11	Final amount for outreach is due – We now have $12,000 to raise! We are halfway there!!!!
April 1	Team Uruguay flies from Kona to La Paloma to begin ministry
May 25	Our team returns to Kona from Uruguay for debrief
May 31	Graduation!
June 1	Some students go home as missionaries, some stay to staff, study or begin training to launch long-term into other countries; all are deeply changed.
June 8	Jeff and I finish staff debrief for this DTS. We will continue to work on base as building directors and serve wherever we’re needed until God shows us the next step.

If you would like to be part of supporting our outreach to Uruguay, here are some links: 

YWAM account (tax-deductible):

https://ywamkona.my.site.com/staff/s/donate?id=6938

It’s also okay to send gifts (not tax-deductible) to our PayPal (please send as “friends and family”) or Venmo. 

https://www.paypal.me/toriswan

https://venmo.com/u/Tori-Swan

We love you all!!

Jeff, Tori and the crew

75-5851 Kuakini Hwy #189

Kailua-Kona, HI 96740

Side note – It’s birthday season for six members of our family! Feel free to send birthday wishes to encourage our kids. You can use the above mailing address or tswanywam@gmail.com 

The ages we are turning are in parenthesis. We leave for outreach on April 1st.

Eli (17) – March 1

Natalie (16) – March 7

Zech (14) – March 31

Tori (50!!!!) – April 9

Areana (16) – April 16

Caleb (13) – May 10

EVIDENCE OF GROWTH:

On his birthday, Eli discovered that Zech is now the exact height and weight as Eleah! Our kids are becoming adults!!!!!  😳

Eli came to me just now and asked me for forgiveness because last year he lied to me about taking just one cupcake when he really had two. Of course I forgive him (it seems so small…), but Eli is in the process of being refined, so I find this beautiful and wanted to share.