All of our students and families arrived back in Kona after their two-month outreaches in Burundi, Cebu (Philippines), Mazatlán and Uruguay. It was wonderful to hear about how God not only brought healing and salvation to so many, but about how families were also radically transformed. We had another beautiful renewal of vows right before graduation. Now, our students are integrating back into their communities or launching into full-time ministry. For example, one family has already started their work in Thailand as full-time missionaries, and another family is headed to Lausanne, Switzerland. 

Vow renewal ceremony!

I had the blessing of doing what we call “one on ones” with these three ladies. What a privilege it has been to help them process all that they were learning!

Jeff and the men about to play Dodgeball!

The first of MANY goodbyes as families began to leave Kona

Beyond DTS

Jeff and I are still going strong in other areas. I have been taking another course in counseling and have really enjoyed learning about God’s design for healing the heart. Jeff has spent many days and hours studying and preparing for speaking at an upcoming high school camp. The theme of the camp is “Journey with Jesus”. Please be praying for him as he delivers what God has put on his heart. Please also pray for summer camps in general as they have historically been a place where many begin to follow Jesus.

Speaking of, this summer will be full of camp activities in Kona! We will welcome hundreds of campers to campus and our specific building throughout the summer. We call this “hotel season” because we check so many campers in and out of our building and care for the facilities. The energy of the youth who come is quite fun, and the messages challenge kids to go “all in” for Jesus. 

We also have begun a summer program with our own kids. This means that we are intentionally having our kids exercise, work on reading, math and writing, work on a personal skill and continue to contribute to the care of our home and their personal lives. An exciting thing we are doing as a family is looking into what it has been like for each one of us throughout the process of fostering, adopting and becoming a family.

Above, the kids are answering a question about what they felt the night before we all came together on July 25, 2020.

Celebrating our Kids!

Caleb graduated from 6th grade.

Zech graduated from 8th grade with honors!

Areana completed 9th grade and did very well!

Natalie completed 10th grade at West Hawaii Explorations Academy and will be starting her associates degree while finishing high school.

Eli is still working hard on his GED, and Eleah graduated from high school while in Uruguay! She plans to take a gap year and do a DTS in the fall.

What IS Next?

For months, many of you have asked us, “What are your plans?!” We have continued to say, “We’ll let you know when we know!” The most accurate thing I can say about us is that we try to do everything WITH God and to ask him if we are on track or need to change course. We never assume anything about our future, so it’s often hard to answer that question… until we know!

Currently, we feel strongly to continue serving with YWAM and Family DTS and have actually been asked to help lead the school. We said yes and consider it such an honor to be invited to do this! We have seen a lot of fruit in this ministry, the nations, our students and their families, and our own family. At this point we are planning to stay at least one more year, and we will always be in prayer about what lies ahead.

What is some of the fruit we have seen?

• People in other nations finding freedom in Christ through salvation
• Discipleship in other nations and families 
• Marriages being strengthened and restored
• Believers understanding what it means to walk in truth
• Believers sharing truth with people all around the world!
• New and old believers learning who they are in Christ and walking in freedom
• Our children walking in true faith
• Our children growing in who they have been created to be
• Having Christ at the core of our family and growing closer to one another
• Being missional with other believers

If you committed to supporting our family for two years and would like to continue to partner with us, we would be so grateful! Having you as part of our team has enabled us to do what God has called us to. We are so thankful for you and will keep sending updates. 

We want to let you know that we welcome communication of all kinds. Please let us know if you would like to talk more about what we are doing (via Zoom, a phone call or some other modality). As always, you are more than welcome to visit us and get a feel for what we do!!! It is so encouraging when people really get involved with us!

As always, thank you for your love and encouragement!

Let us know if you would like to partner with us through monthly support. We’d be happy to share more with you!

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

Non tax-deductible gifts can go to our Venmo or PayPal. 

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

https://www.paypal.me/toriswan