Newsletter 5.11.11: We packed some guests into our car!

Come and join us at our Mission Vision Night coming up on Sunday, May 22nd at 6:00pm @ Hope Chapel West Oahu. It will be a night to share about our call to the Philippines, support raising, and as well as a night to say farewell to our wonderful friends and family!

If you are interested and would like to be on the Mission Vision Night Evite, email us your email address at dj_lynnette@garcesunplugged.com. Looking forward to seeing all of you!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttYtFThvjQY?rel=0&hd=1]

Completed our rigorous 12 day missions training today! Check out our classmates...

 

After 12 days, we finished our final day of missions training today. We met some amazing people while we here, the FMI staff and the trainers have incredible hearts, vast knowledge and experience. For anyone within Foursquare considering long term missions, this training is a must! We thought that after a dozen or so short term trips that we had under our belt, we were well equipped...we were wrong! We didn't realize how much we didn't know until we came through this. 

The rest of our classmates/missionaries in training, were equally amazing. My faith increased immensely just hanging around them. Sooner or later they'll be heading to places like, Peru, East Africa, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Singapore/Thailand, Israel (or India), China (or Cambodia), Foster kids in the U.S., and of course the Philippines. We are grateful for the new family we've gotten to know! 

Took a day off to visit a couple of magical places...

We had a day off from our intense missions training on Sunday, so we decided to enjoy our day with some of our new friends from class! 

The gift was finally released!...

Today and for the next few days we have a gifted couple who is teaching us how to do ministry with the power of the Holy Spirit - John and Sonja Decker. However the assumption was that everyone in our class had been baptized by the Holy Spirit and could speak in a unintelligible prayer language (or tongues, even though this is not necessarily the only evidence). Anyway at the end of session I raised my hand and said that I didn't have this gift and apparently I was the only one in the class. In the past I had been prayed over for it and even brought one of my friends to support me in getting prayed for and he ended up getting the gift instead of me! Even my wife has had it for years.

Well, today Sonja prayed for me very simply and after I asked God to release it. She told me to listen because the Holy Spirit will tell me what to say. It took a few moments and I heard what this new language sounded like and I opened my mouth and began to speak it. I was reluctant because it was strange so I spoke it quietly and couldn't tell if it was really the Holy Spirit. But it just kept coming out of my mouth naturally. After we were done, I went to the bathroom to make sure I didn't lose it. Since no one was in there I just released it more and more and could really sense the Spirit's presence.

As excited as I am about this, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not about the gift of tongues, it is about moving in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:29, Acts 1:8, 1Cor 14:4, 14-15). Thank you Lord!

Eye Opening Training in our first week

I surrender, I give my life, I will give up everything, I will serve you whole heartedly... 

By the end of the week of FMI training, we have been transformed and our eyes has opened even wider. Training sessions from 8am-7:00pm have been many insightful sessions of hearing veteran missionaries advice, suggestions, and most of all their experiences on the field. It has been a priceless experience and definitely building lifelong family and mentors. Many times we were touched and tears would roll down our cheeks as we imagine and feel the love of God of what they have gone through for God. 

We went to the training with a time frame of 1 year in the Philippines... and we are now going in complete faith and moving as if it is for LIFE or until God moves us elsewhere. "Whole heartedly" has been the theme of this week. Worship whole heartedly, pray whole heartedly, and serve whole heartedly. 

Looking forward to the rest of the sessions this week and next: Marriage Enrichment, Ministry skills (Healing the sick, dealing with demons...) etc... 

On top of all that... the FOOD has been mouth watering delish!

We've left already?!!! - Newsletter 04.05.11

We were blessed to be sent to Los Angeles to receive missions training, thanks to our church Hope Chapel West Oahu. Join us as we document our journey here for the next 2 weeks. We'll include more videos and photos, but we won't send email updates so you'll need to subscribe to our channel on YouTube or visit our website to keep up with the updates. 

If your interested in supporting us by mailing a check, just email us your mailing address at: dj_lynnette@garcesunplugged.com. Or support online by clicking here. We are praying for monthly supporters.

Newsletter 2.27.11: Ways to Support Us...plus a backseat special!

In this episode you can find out about supporting us financially by giving online. Click here to find out all the details on our SUPPORT page. 
Also find out about a new segment in our video called the "Backseat Special".

If you're wondering what this is all about, be sure to check out our first video newsletter where we talk about God's call on our lives to move to the Philippines this June.