Christmas in a Foreign Land

What does Christmas look like in an eastern, non christian land? VERY different. Just TRY to imagine: no presents, no Santa, no decorations, no parties; just some church Christmas programs & believers coming together to celebrate the birth of Christ. This year we had a very new experience of Christmas in one of the most non Christian places in the world in northern India. 99% of the millions of residents in this state have never heard of Jesus or rejected the Good News. We were blessed to go to a small, remote village for church on Christmas morning. We traveled through beautiful, tropical farm land down a long dirt road to a village of straw huts with no vehicles, electricity, running water, heat, or toilets. It was a picture of the humble beginning of Jesus life, born in a cave on a cold night, with no bed. The believers warmly welcomed us with a parade of dancing, music, and flowers; and Evan was able to preach. These people have a hard life, carrying water from the pump, women & children working in the fields with their bare hands. 2 men have started this church/school/hostel recently. These pastors & their family are supported for just $40 per month! The buildings they are working on made of straw and mud are incredibly cheap to build, yet they lack the finances. A roof can be put on the building for less than $300. There are 16 of the village congregations that our host's organization oversees, The Good News Center. If you are interested in partnering with them, please contact me.

Then we traveled to another town, and back to the village we stayed in for a couple of days. Also a village of straw huts and no modern day conveniences as mentioned. New experience. We stayed with our host's family. His family threw a big party on Christmas and invited the Hindu village to come over for dinner and the Word was preached. Christmas really is a great opportunity to share our faith in India!!! We stayed with a Hindu family and they happily and warmly received us. Yes we greatly missed our family this Christmas, along with all of its pleasures and traditions, but the Lord greatly blessed us in a new way.

Aside from that we are still doing well and enjoying our time in India. Please continue to pray for our health, especially Evan's digestive system, and energy. God bless you in the New Year!! Merry Christmas from India!

The welcome procession

The village church

Joy in New Delhi!

We have been in New Delhi, India since Saturday! Thank you so much for all your words of encouragement and prayers during this time!!! We reached here good but exhausted after traveling 24 hours. It has been great so far, an overwhelming and amazing experience! It is far from any culture or city I have ever seen! The culture is so complex and interesting. You must see it to understand, no matter how much you study it in the books. The poverty is like nothing I could have imagined. The mass of people (17 million) and traffic with no organization is crazy. We are staying in a nice place with a missionary family here. They are living in a middle class neighborhood, yet the conditions from the outside is the poorest I have ever seen. We have driven around what seems like a large part of the city, but I know there is so much more, and I have not seen any nice or clean place. The dust is constant.

In the past 2 days we had the opportunity to visit 2 new churches in totally unreached areas and visit and speak in 3 home cell groups. Each is located in a different slum or poor area that is totally unreached. The meet in family homes about 8x8 ft. We visited one of the worst slums in India twice where a small group of women are meeting. I can't begin to describe the conditions here, ask me if you're curious. Before our friend went in to share the Gospel no Christians had gone there before. These groups are gathering together everyday for fellowship, prayer, worship, and study. A light in the darkness. They were so happy we were there and very hospitable. We have been so full of joy and gratitude to meet with our brothers and sisters here, give and receive love, see a glimpse of their lives, and hopefully bring encouragement.

We are seeing the huge needs here and trying hard to understand their spiritual needs and how we can show them the love of Christ. It is a process to understand. But we are thankful for the unique ministry our friend has going here that is in line with our vision and what we have been learning about. Many small home churches built on relationships and discipleship. And wow what an immense need for workers here, the opportunity is great. You are surrounded everywhere by people who have never heard about Jesus.

It is amazing to be here as we have seen God's faithfulness in bringing us here and fulfilling the desire in my heart to come. We are praying it will work for us to take a train later this week to Ranchi where we will join Hoola For Happiness. They are already there and we were excited to see them at a kids Christmas program this weekend. I'm confident we will have a wonderful time together there, but for now we are happy to fulfill God's purposes for us here now. Please continue to pray for our protection, for the hearts of the people we are meeting, and that God would use us to bring His Word and love to them. :) :) God bless you!

With girls in the slum who gifted me bracelets & earrings.

New teen group in another slum learning to read, write, and live for Christ.

With the teen group.

Countdown to India!

Hey friends! Hopefully you have received our newsletter and know by now that we are heading to India in less than 2 weeks! (If you don't get our newsletter click on the Connect page above to sing up) God gave me a desire to go to India 4 years ago and I can't believe its really happening! I was actually trying to go to India when I met Evan (he said he would never go there), thankfully it didn't work out. But God is saying now is the time, and we have some great opportunities! He has given us a unique vision for creative ministry including hula hoops, music, and yo-yos to start with! These can all be used to spread joy & the love of Christ that many people have never experienced. In a way that only the Lord could arrange we connected with Carissa from Hoola 4 Happiness & a woman who happened to have a ton of yo yos waiting to be used for ministry! We are excited to put this into action as we partner with Hoola For Happiness and the Good News Center. We also have opportunity to travel with the founder of Khusi Hona, supporting orphanages, and to visit some friends :) We hope to stop in Charleston for a couple of weeks in Feb. before we head to Kona to staff a DTS there. Please join us in prayer for this step of faith. They will be extremely important for us during this time. Please pray that God would prepare us with His heart and dreams for this nation. Also for guidance with every step and protection spiritually & physically (especially Evan's health). We have a large financial need to cover the costs of travel. God loves India and He is calling us now to glorify Him there. If you are interested in giving toward this mission check out the Partner page above. Otherwise things in Armenia are wrapping up nicely. Thanksgiving was spent with American friends here, complete with turkey, pumpkin pie, and stuffing shipped from the States, and even a Trader Joe's pumpkin bread! It was really nice, but we definitely missed being with family. We are in our final week of class now and it is great to be done with so much work. This has been a blessed time of preparation and we are looking forward to what's next in our journey! Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and love! www.hoolaforhappiness.org www.gncranchi.com www.khusihona.org

With friends at Indian Cultural Night in Yerevan.

Hoola For Happiness!!

I'm so happy to be a Hoola For Happiness Joy Spreader! This is an amazing ministry with a huge vision to reach the nations through hula hoops! God is so fun and creative :) I love it. From the time I started hoop dancing I wondered how I could use it to bring glory to God. I had some ideas but never had a picture of what it would be in reality. This ministry is doing it! The founder, Carissa Caricato, loves Jesus, loves to love others, and has given her life to this mission. I am excited and honored to be a part of it! I haven't had too much direct involvement yet, but I'm excited to see how we are able to partner together in the future. Our paths crossed in a divine way and I know He has a purpose for it! We hope to meet up with Hoola For Happiness in India soon! Check out the website www.hoolaforhappiness.org

www.hoolaforlife.org Here with your purchase of a hula hoop (great gifts)one gets sent around the world to spread joy :) Travel Gospel hoops are also available for mission trips!

The Faith Adventure continues

Here we are! This is our School of Frontier Missions class taken the 1st week. We have students from Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and USA! Quite diverse as you can see :) Sorry it has been a while since our last update but we have been good and busy with school! The first month flew by already. It was packed full of great teaching, growth, and a lot of research and reading for school projects. Our first 2 weeks we were blessed with pioneers who have been with YWAM for over 40 years and have even worked alongside Brother Andrew! The first week was about Pioneering new works in new places. Second week was leadership. Third week we learned about building and following Vision. Last week we were blessed with the teaching "How not to burn out in ministry." A really great message and much needed in this area of the world; stress management, rest & Sabbath, depression, etc. And this week we have a YWAM team from the States teaching us about Bible study and then Church planting. In addition to classes Evan is leading worship at school and church and we are beginning to host worship nights at our apartment.

We have some EXCITING news! Thank you for those who have joined us in prayer discerning our next steps from here. Through many crazy contacts and open doors we are moving ahead with going to INDIA in December! We are working on visa and trip details now. We plan to go until the end of February. We will travel to several different cities connecting with different ministries. One we are very excited about is joining up with Hoola For Happiness and using hula hoops to spread the love and joy of Christ! We believe God will teach us a lot through this trip and enable us to build relationships for future work. He will move and open our eyes to His vision for the nation. In West Bengal state of India alone there are over 600 people groups, hundreds of languages, many millions of people almost completely unreached with the Gospel. It is insane. We are so excited to see more of God's part for us in His great plan!

We are VERY excited to share that in March we will go to Kona, Hawaii to the main YWAM University of the Nations to staff the Awaken DTS that begins in April! Check it out www.awakendts.com We will be honored with the opportunity to lead an outreach team wherever in the world God leads. There are amazing people there and amazing things happening! We know God has BIG things in store for us in the next season.

Its all very exciting but it doesn't happen easily. We cannot do this without your support! We NEED your prayers. Please pray for us for the finances needed to get to India and our time there and then to get to Kona. Another request would be for the planning process, for favor and open doors with the visa and all the details. We have a busy schedule with school going on and with the administration aspect of our work it can become stressful. Pray for God's grace that we can manage our time well and keep priorities straight. We can't wait to share with you how God provides for this journey! He is so faithful. If you feel led to support us please contact us or give through our paypal link on the right.Truly we are so blessed with your friendships and encouragement. Partnering with us is a picture of the body of Christ fulfilling the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Thank you so much for being a part of this mission. 

By the way, if you would like to be on our newsletter email list go here to sing up! http://eepurl.com/qdZnb 

Much love and blessings. We look forward to hearing from you. Enjoy fall and pumpkin lattes!! :)
Alicia & Evan

Independance in Armenia

We have been back in Armenia for a month now! Our last post was after we finished the 2 week DNA conference. If you didn't get to watch that video, please check it out there is a great story!! After that we began looking for our own apartment. We were praying that it would be somewhere near to the school, have a washing machine, oven, good bathroom at least. Our friends and a broker helped us look at 4 apartments. (Here you have to pay a broker even to find an apartment, thankfully we got a little discount.) The place we chose is great! It has the biggest kitchen we have ever had! It is in the downstairs part of a house, not a big old Soviet apartment building! We have our own entrance and our landlord is super friendly. She speaks a tiny bit of English and almost daily asks us up to eat fruit and drink coffee. We have shade here and the owner has a nice garden where flowers and grapes are growing. It has been really hot here, 90-100 without AC anywhere except some stores; but the night drastically cools down. It is such relief.

We have had a lot of time to get all settled in, enjoy our own space again, read, and spend a lot of time with Jesus. He is really speaking to us and stirring passion and desire in our hearts. It has been really good. We just got internet 2 days ago. I (Alicia) am adjusting and learning what it is like to prepare 3 meals a day from scratch with a limited selection of products compared to America. The women here must spend the whole day in the kitchen! But talk about eating on a budge, I am always amazed for how much produce I get for so little. There is no "organic" or "genetically modified" here. Its all organic and they almost give it away! Watermelon <$1, 2 lbs of peaches- 50 cents, 3 red peppers- 25 cents, 2 lbs cherry heirloom tomatoes- 50 cents, etc. Love it. I'm adjusting to that, but striving to honor the Lord and serve my husband well in it. I'm really being challenged to be creative and prepare healthy meals for us and begin a healthier lifestyle. It is so important for us to take care of the bodies God has given us, where He dwells! This week my devotional is on healthy eating. I'm working through "Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be, a 90 Day guide to living the Proverbs 31 Life" by Donna Partow. It started off slow, but its getting better. "When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive." Prov. 23:1-3 In our world we are surrounded by deceptive delicacies! God wants us to use self control for our own good. Twelve teaspoons of sugar will decrease your immune function by 60%. The average American adults consumes 32 teaspoons a day. We are leaving our bodies defenseless and open to sickness. Really challenging stuff to pray about and practice self control in. Pray for me as I walk this journey to a healthier lifestyle.

Sunday we went to the international church, which is a short walk from our place. The pastor is American and there are people from all over, but mostly consisting of Indian students. We are excited to see how we can get involved there and Evan will be leading worship. The weekend before we had a great visit to Vanhazor up north. I found the beautiful part of Armenia! Wonderful tree covered mountains and scenery. We visited some YWAM friends there and had a great time. We got to visit an ancient monastery from like the 11th century! Older than Americans can imagine! Beautiful place. We have also been spending time with friends here and yesterday I visited the Sisters of Charity orphanage for disabled children. The sisters were so friendly and the children seem well taken care of, but it is so sad. I spent time with the babies up to 6 years old. Many of the children have spinabifida. I don't know much about it but the kids develop mentally and physically normally, but they won't be able to walk. Because of this families just leave the baby at the hospital. These sweet ones, God's creations, just want to be loved!

So thank you for all your prayers. We are excited to start classes Monday morning! We would love for you to join us in prayer about our ministries while we are here; that we would fulfill His purposes for us here, for passion and vision from classes, and our future plans as we seek confirmation for a couple of exciting opportunities! And let us know what is going on with you and how we can pray. Much love. Definitely missing Charleston!

Blessings, Alicia & Evan

 Our kitchen/dining room

 At Haghpat Monastery

 Near Vanhadzor, Armenia

Our bathroom

God is so so so Good!

We are back in Yerevan after 2 weeks in the mountain town of Tsakhkadzor. We really enjoyed the cool mountain air as well as the rich teaching of the conference. We are so blessed at this point to be involved in what is going on in Eastern Europe and are looking forward to doing some local outreach here in Yerevan. Speaking of Yerevan, it is really hot! We are used to heat, but not with no AC! Yesterday we joined a Switzerland counseling school outreach team and went to a small church outside of Yerevan. It was a really nice time. This week we will begin looking for an apartment in Yerevan. Join us in prayer that we would be at exactly the location to fulfill God's purposes, preferably close to the school and with a washing machine and all things working!

Check out our video this video that we just made about an exciting thing that happened at the conference. Sorry it is so long, but just watch, its really cool!

Here are the links that I was talking about in the video. I hope you enjoy!

-Evan and Alicia

 For innovations at YWAM Kona campus:  http://vimeo.com/album/1502955/video/31749761

For Sourceview Bible website:  http://sourceviewbible.com/sv/

Oh forgot to mention in the video. During the offering almost $3000 was given to cover the extra costs of the conference and to go to the Iranian earthquake victims. That doesn't include the much more that was given between participants and material things such as clothing and jewelry. And the week before that a little over $1000 was given to an outreach team of teenagers from Kazakstan who came to Armenia with only enough for a one way ticket. Pretty amazing what God can provide through a bunch of poor missionaries when we ask Him what to give! :)
Also Evan had a really bad toothache during the first week that was causing a lot of pain. We believed that God would bring healing and just kept praying. Praise God now its fully better!

DNA Conference Highlights

We have had a great first week back in Armenia. We are staying in a mountain town for a 2 week YWAM conference with workers from all over Eastern Europe including Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. We have loved getting to meet so many awesome people and hearing from these wise speakers! The sessions have been so rich. I wish you could hear the full teaching but I want to pass on some highlights from the first week. The conference focuses on the vision of YWAM but I think its applicable to many people in all areas of life and society. I hope that you will think about these things in your life and that something will speak to you, as we each seek to fulfill our purpose.

*True love is living to make the dreams of your beloved a reality.
   Are we living this way for Jesus? Let's live to make His dreams for our lives come true! If you're doing something that Jesus isn't getting excited about, quit doing it!
-Our picture of God is like a postcard. The real thing is so much more beautiful than the picture, there are so many more facets to see. There is always more.
Leadership
- We will all leave a lasting legacy. We all have a spiritual line and family. What legacy are you leaving?
 *A leader is a person who knows what they believe and why.
-If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead others.
  -Questions for leading self: How do I manage my thought life, body, relationships, finances, calling, etc? Is there still passion for what God has called me to do? If not, why not? Do I know the state of my character? Do I have accountability? What do others see in me that I can't see in myself? Is my love for God growing?  Is my capacity for loving others growing? Are there undealt with offenses in your heart? You are responsible for the issues in your heart.
-When reconciliation takes place it is initiated by the one hurt the most because he has come to a place of forgiveness.
-We cannot lead with influence those who we don't love and in the areas we don't love.
-God's perspective is truth in all situations, and always includes hope and redemption.Tell yourself His perspective.
-Be honest, is Jesus enough?
-Don't let your emotions lead you! Emotions guiding causes pain. Prov. 4:23 Above all else guard your heart.
-Leadership is a sacred trust given from God.
Integrity & Decisions
-Do our actions line up with what we say we believe? What is the root of why we do what we do? When we continue to ask why about an action it leads us to the root of our worldview. That comes down to our view of who God is. And asking 'so what'? It leads from our belief to an action.
-God has called us to be change makers because He is a change maker.
-Individuals & societies become like the gods they worship.
-Any description of the living God must describe Him as infinite & personal, big & close.
-If you don't believe in God because of injustice in the world, you have no foundation to talk about justice and goodness. In that case, we are equal with bugs and there is no justice.
-If you do not decide on perimeters to raise your child, the culture will raise your child. 
Biblical Worldview
1. God is infinite & personal
2. Man is finite & personal
3. Truth is constant & knowable
4. Our choices are significant: Men & women are responsible for our actions.
-We pray because we believe God is faithful, He hears, He cares, is powerful, is Creator. Praying, "if its Your will..." is a safe prayer. There is no faith, no risk, no power needed.
Purpose & Vision
*Purpose is something or an idea that God dreams up and decides on then creates someone to fulfill it.
-Purpose is to know you are living for something bigger than yourself, something that will still be around when you are gone.
-Without vision we die.
-Vision is precious like a baby. It starts as a dream of God and He drops it in a heart. We need to treat it that way. Nourish it and care for it. Don't let it die. Be a door opener for people with vision!
-Our job as spiritual leaders is to know and affirm when young people hear from the Lord.
-When we are committed to obeying God with a right spirit, He will protect the vision.

I know its a lot but this is most of my notes. It was hard to narrow down! I'm sure this week will bring a lot more inspiration. God has been pouring out revelation and vision on us this week. So thankful and amazed at His goodness and faithfulness! Truly we are called to a life of great adventure in Christ. The security that we have found in Him is so much more than anything the world has to offer. I hope you find these words encouraging.

Alicia

We're Back!

Hello everyone!

We arrived back in Yerevan, Armenia last night and we thought we would take a few minutes to update you on how we are doing and give you a little picture of life in Yerevan. Watch and enjoy!

We will try to keep you updated here. Sorry it has been so long. Thankfully we got to catch up with many of you back home! Our DTS ended well in June. It was very challenging, but God taught us soo much about His character, love, humility, etc. He really gave us hearts for people who don't know about Him and we desire to show people God's love. We have really taken on YWAM'S motto for ourselves, "To know God and to make Him known." We had a great, restorative time visiting family and friends in Indiana, New Jersey, Florida, and South Carolina! It was a restful time that we really got to process our experience and all that God did! He is such an exciting, loving, LIVING God! A life in relationship with Him is truly more fun and rewarding than anything I ever could have imagined. And that is why I keep on living this crazy life of faith! Now we are excited to be back in Yerevan the capital of Armenia following His call for us. We came back early for a 2 week YWAM conference that starts tomorrow. Then in September we will do the School of Frontier Missions as students. The focus of the school is church planting in unreached nations, with a focus on the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window is the region with the most people in the world who have never heard about Jesus. It includes North Africa, Middle East, and Asia. That is really where we desire to focus our ministry in the future. This school ends in December, but from there the world is open! We are praying about where to go for our independent outreach :)! Thank you all so much for the love, encouragement and support that you show us! We can't do this without you all! Everyone in YWAM from the president down raises support. No one is paid. This is not another short term trip for us, God is calling us to give our lives to serving Him in missions. If you feel led to support us financially monthly or with a one time gift you can always give on Paypal through the link here on our blog. Or you can send a tax-deductible check to Church of the Holy Cross at P.O. Box 506, Sullivan's Island, SC 2948. Make the check to Holy Cross and write "Georgia Mission" in the memo line. We fully believe that God will bless you for sending in prayers, finances, and encouragement as He does us for going. We desire all of God's blessings for you! Much love! In Christ, Alicia & Evan

A Beach of Rocks

I write from Batumi, Georgia located just a few miles from the border of Turkey on the Black Sea. Its been a while since we have updated and as you know, we are not in Israel. But this is where we will spend the last 3 weeks of our outreach, just a little over 1 week left now. You may wonder why we are not in Israel if we believed God told us to go there. It is a question our team has wrestled with, but we have some understanding. God's purpose is always bigger than ours, His perfect plan, invisible to us, is always for our good. I have seen that when God speaks, we most obey- fully, faithfully, trusting Him, without argue, doing our best to walk in His will.  We learn from mistakes and see more of God's grace. He does not punish. When we found out that the girls visas were not approved in our time frame, the door opened for us in Batumi. It was a great refreshment to be in a new location, especially for Evan and I to be on the sea! There is a beautiful park with walkways along the beach, which is a rock beach! Its so interesting, so many rocks all different colors, shapes, sizes, but all so smooth from the water. Even glass from broken bottles is so smooth. We go there usually everyday to meet new people. We have been able to tell some people about Jesus and start to build relationships with them. We will meet with quite a few people again before we leave so please pray that their hearts would be ready to receive the truth and life through Jesus that we desire to share with them.

We are staying in an apartment office for a student ministry. (No, not ideal living condition but we're not on the floor and we have water!)We are working with their small groups that meet here. The students and leaders desperately need encouragement and Biblical teaching. We have seen here that the evangelical church is very divided, something this group is working to overcome. And the Orthodox traditions are so strong in this country that everyone identifies as a Christian and goes to church. Many are not interested in talking about faith because they believe they know it all.  But when you ask them about prayer, Jesus, the Bible, they don't have a clue! It is so interesting to ask to pray for someone, but they believe you can only pray a certain way in the church. They believe books of their saints to be on the same level as God's Word, which most never read anyway. The city is about 40% Muslim being so near Turkey. There is a mosque and also a synagogue.

Please pray for the people we speak with and for open doors, and also for our team. Most days it seems our team is drowning in discouragement, doubt, and tiredness. Evan and I our determined to keep moving forward and finish well, but it is not easy. We need supernatural strength, joy, and energy everyday. This outreach has been very difficult spiritually, but I can say God has taught us so many unexpected valuable lessons. This has not been what we expected, but we have learned a lot about love, humility, and endurance.

On a positive note Evan and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary Monday! We had a night at the Sheraton and we were so very thankful! We could take as many showers as we wanted without thinking the water might run out :) We had cold water to drink from a mini fridge. A comfy big bed and privacy. Internet. Its so crazy that in America the thought about using water never crosses our mind, but most people often run out or have maybe 1 bucket a day, maybe none! Tuesday is Evan's birthday so it will be another good day. Oh yeah, Evan also got to be a best man in a Georgian/Brazilian wedding in Tbilisi! Traditional Georgian costume and all :) We were also blessed with 2 YWAM visitors from the States, Dan & Mark, such an encouragement!

Thank you again for your prayers and support! Some of the team did not have money to cover the costs of school and outreach, and none have support coming in. Because God has provided through you we are able to cover the costs for our last 3 weeks of outreach for the team. We spend about $7 a day to feed 5 of us 3 meals. You guys have such a huge part in this mission! We honestly could not do it without your obedience and faithfulness. We love you all! We will be in Charleston for July. Please let us know if you want to meet up and we would love to share about our experience with any small groups if you would have us. We want to get a calendar going :)

Check out our friends Matt & Tricia's blog www.matthewandtricia.com They are raising money to adopt a baby and the latest fundraiser is raffling an ipad 2! Check out how you can enter to win and support this loving family :) 

 Tanya & I looking at rocks

 There we go :)

 Bruno & Ira's wedding :)

Boys will be boys with daggers!

Villages, Hula Hoops, Jesus

Hi friends! We are almost 2 weeks into our outreach here in Georgia. We are staying in a little Muslim village just on the edge of Tbilisi; where the paved road, gas, and city water end. It is a very interesting to see the village life. We have been doing many different ministries. Here we have helped with the Kids club that our hosts run each week for the village kids. I was thrilled to find supplies to make hula hoops here and I got to share them with the kids Friday! I used red, black and white on the hoops to explain our sin, Jesus blood that covers our sin and makes us white as snow. Then we played games,  they loved it and so did I! It was so sweet to finally see my vision for hula hoops happening, praise God! I can't wait to see how He continues to use this ministry.

We visited a family in an isolated village who take care of their little fields, animals, and of course with traditional hospitality served us homemade bread, cheese, cake and coffee. One of the girls got to share her testimony and we sang Jesus songs with the kids. There is no church in that town. We also did a program with a preschool there. Our team has also visited some churches and been able to share testimonies and Evan does worship. One church we visited was in a Muslim village and the church was so full of joy! We were encouraged, but even cooler God gave us words and vision for the church that was confirmation and encouragement for them. We also visited another YWAM ministry house in a YWAM village and met the YWAM outreach team from Azerbaijan. We hiked up to an ancient church (no longer used and no other churches here) overlooking many miles all around. Together we praised God and proclaimed God's kingdom over the land. It was really neat. We had fellowship with the team there and Evan finally had guys to play soccer with!

A really ancient church foundation

I am thankful that we're also doing ministry in the city. We're helping a street kids ministry with Muslim children. Their families send them out to beg everyday. This ministry brings the kids in every afternoon and plays, does a Bible story, teaches them reading, writing, math, and feeds them. We are also doing street evangelism. Yesterday we had a good lesson. Our team missed one of our scheduled ministries and we had no other plan. We started to pray and Evan had the idea to make a sign that said Come for Prayer. We went to a bus stop, Evan played guitar and we held the sign. Some people came and we got to share about Jesus and pray. It was so encouraging that the Lord still had a plan for us even when we messed up and He gave us so much joy after that! Here is an ancient castle overlooking Tbilisi where we prayed for the city.

 
Our team has also been focused a lot on getting visas for Israel. Two of the girls applied for their visas today. Our team has faced a lot of struggle and attack regarding this and some other things. It really feels like we've been on the front line of attack here. We are praying for the impossible to be possible. We need your prayers during this time and are so grateful for them! God has been speaking to us and giving us His strength each day to move forward. There are challenges, but we are learning so much and know it is preparing us for the future. It is most important to keep our focus always on Him and His purpose: to know and glorify Him. We will be back to Indiana/Charleston in June and we look forward to seeing many of you then! We love you all.

Blessings,
Alicia

What's next for the Adams?

Wow where can I start!? Its been a busy few weeks around here! Last weekend we went to a celebration to end the month long Women's month here. We enjoyed traditional Armenian dancing. And Sunday our team did a program at the church for Easter. Monday we celebrated my birthday, 25!! It was a really joyful day with the team eating delicious grilled chicken (a treat) and homemade brownies. God gave me 2 special gifts, the tulips bloomed and He multiplied the brownies! :) Thank you Jesus and thank you to my wonderful hubby for planning a special day! Our teacher and his family came from YWAM Georgia to teach us about studying the Bible. Our team has been praying and meeting, working through some difficult issues, and preparing for our time of outreach. Really praying for unity, passion, and God's great love to fill the 5 of us during this time! Oh and Evan will be assistant staff to our leader so pray for his wisdom and discernment. One student will stay in Armenia for outreach, and one student went to Africa for hers!

We will stay in Georgia for 3 weeks in a Muslim village on the edge of the capital. We will work with street kids in the city, do a kids club for the village kids, and see where else God leads us! We plan to go to Israel from there! We are still working on making contacts and plans there. We are expecting a miracle soon because our team only has enough money for Georgia, none for plane tickets or anything; and 2 girls need visas. Please join us in praying that once again God will make the impossible possible! We are so excited to see what He will do, He is so big and mighty and His ways are much higher than ours! I think we're off to a good start; on our jam packed bus ride to Yerevan today we were able to share about Jesus with one woman and pray for her, then the 3 women next to her also wanted us to pray for healing! Sooo cool :)

Now here is another big UPDATE: We have decide our post DTS plans. We will return to Chicago June 10 then to Charleston a little later. We will spend all of July in Charleston! August we will return to Armenia for the 2 week YWAM DNA conference, led by the founders of YWAM. In September we will begin the YWAM School of Frontier Missions for 3 months. This will teach us about how to go into places where the Gospel has not been preached and there is no church. To reach the unreached. And there are billions of people around the world who have never heard about Jesus! We will learn how to study language, plant churches, study about Islam, etc. An outreach time follows where we can discern where God wants us to go. God's adventures are so much cooler than anything we could come up with!

So I just want to do a little recap of our time in Kapan. After I last wrote we had a wonderful joyful team from Norway/Latvia join us and teach about church planting/evangelism. It was such a good time of fellowship for us. Their radical faith and holistic strategy are inspiring. It brought back many joyful memories of my River Church family! The next week we learned about worldview and Old Testament. Our views of the world can be so inaccurate its important to be teachable and always thinking for ourselves, seek the Truth, not just what a professor or pastor tells you. So we could both say so many things we have learned during this time and many things Jesus has changed in our lives. Maybe I will save that for another blog post. But I will say that our lives have been changed, we have more freedom in Christ, our identity in Him and His authority has grown, our hearts have been healed from wounds and sin, and we have a desire to see Him more and more everywhere! It has not all been easy, but it is all so worth it!

We love you all so much. We could not be here without you. Your prayers and support make you as much a part of this team as we are! Truly this is the body of Christ in action, working together to reach the world with His great Name! It is all such a huge blessing to us and we are so grateful for you all! Again please join us with your prayers for our outreach. Our team thanks you!

Much love and blessings,
Alicia
My birthday tulips!

 My birthday lunch :)

 Homemade brownies yum

 Our Armenian church on Easter

 Armenia Easter food

Kapan, Iran, and Pizza Hut!

Wow where to begin!? We have had 3 weeks of teaching and a week of outreach since we last updated! The teaching was good, deep stuff! One week was about how our wounds and sin affect our relationship with God and others and how to get rid of the bad stuff. Another week was about intimacy with God: hearing His voice, walking with Him day by day, and having fear of God instead of fearing man. Really good time of just focusing on knowing Him more and more. He is so mighty and infinite! We had fellowship with a Creative DTS team from Norway who came to Armenia for outreach and joined us in Kapan. It was a blessing to have them, and Evan and I got to perform together at a coffee house night they hosted. First performance out of the states whoo! It was really fun :) You can see the video here http://youtu.be/-PArKoxc0Go Then we had a week of Encountering the world of Islam course. It was eye opening, challenging, and very interesting to learn about our Muslim neighbors; created in God's image who we are called to love. We learned about the religion itself and a lot about the culture of people living in Muslim countries.

Then we got to put into practice what we have been learning with a week in Yerevan! Last week began the Islam new year holiday and thousands of Iranians came into Armenia to celebrate in freedom. We made the long, scary drive through the mountains (these roads are nothing like America) and we got the great opportunity to meet people and make friends! It was so cool for us to learn about their culture and just hang out with them, not something we get to do in America much. If you would like to hear more about the time there just ask we would be happy to share! We did have some frustrations as our 1st time doing outreach together, but overall we really enjoyed the experience. And of course Evan and I enjoyed the comforts of a big city: always running water, good food, restaurants, Pizza Hut, KFC, etc :) It was a busy, tiring week but also a refreshing break from the classroom.

Now we are back in Kapan for just 3 more weeks of classes! This week the topic is church planting with 2 guys from Norway and 2 girls from Latvia. I have already been reminded of the great blessing it was to be a part of the core team at River Church! I can only say good things about what they continue to do; love and serve others and share that I experienced a loving family there in a whole new way.

AND finally, we know where we will go for OUTREACH.... 3 weeks in Georgia then 4 or 5 weeks in ISRAEL!!! We are very excited!! The Lord continually spoke to our team about Israel during many times of prayer together. In the coming weeks we will seek His guidance for ministry opportunities, accommodations, visas for 2 team members (not so easy), and finances for the team. We did not anticipate traveling that far for outreach and it so we need God to provide more. Some students still don't have enough to cover even just the lecture phase. We trust that He will continue to provide for the expenses to where He calls us. He is always faithful! Please keep us and our team in your prayers regarding all these things! Your prayers are powerful and have great impact in God's Kingdom!

Today I shared about my life with the team. As I prepared and looked back at this journey I have been on I am full of joy. Joy that I have love and peace in my life and freedom that can come only through Jesus Christ. My pain and shame is gone! His grace is more than we can imagine and it is always enough to save us! This great adventure that I have found by following Christ is full of more fun and happiness than I have ever known or found in the world. All the traveling, concerts, parties, and drugs don't compare to the new life I live with Christ. My dad Always told me, "Don't do anything you'll regret." I always thought I don't have regrets, these experiences make me who I am. But now I can see I regret not having a relationship with Jesus sooner because I had pain instead of His great joy!

Shout outs: Congrats to Alex & Tiffany Baker on their MARRIAGE!! May your lives be full of God's love and blessings!
Congrats to Peter & Tanya & family, on getting their new boy Will from China!! It has been so amazing to see God lead and provide for their China adoption. God bless your family!!
Congrats to Will on his baptism! Blessings to you beloved brother!

We love you all, blessings!
Alicia

Kapan, March 17 snow covered

 Evan leading worship at International Church in Yerevan

Mt. Ararat, where Noah's Ark landed!

 Typical Armenian mountain village

Republic Square, Yerevan

Latest from Kapan!

Wow where can I start!? So much happens each week and we are almost finished with week 7! We have 5 weeks of lecture phase left, one of those will be spent in Yerevan doing outreach to Muslims for the Iranian new year. We have been praying as a team about where we will go for the 2 month outreach. God has definitely been speaking and guiding those times of prayer through pictures, words, visions, and Scripture; but we continue to seek clarity. It is an exciting process!
Since the last post we had a week on Holy Spirit & spiritual gifts with an American couple who are missionaries to Turkey. That was a great week for me! Holy Spirit really spoke to me in new ways and renewed passions :) We learned a lot about our authority in Christ as well, to do His works and to stand against the enemy! Mark 16:15-20- Jesus has sent us All to preach with signs following! But most importantly, we must know God and always keep Him at the center of our lives. When we do, everything is answered. Out of the presence of God, comes the power of God. Please draw near to Him and ask Him to draw you near.
The following week was Identity in Christ with a YWAM leader from Norway. He taught about God's love for us and the joy of Christ. And our identity in Him. How cool is it that we are seated with Christ in heaven because God loves us so much!? Ephesians 2:4-7 now that is something to be joyful about everyday! And of course more repentance and healing (seems to be a constant theme here). Are you learning to love more each year? What is hindering you from receiving and giving love?

Last week brought 2 YWAM guys from Russia, sharing about priorities, preparing for the return of Christ as His bride, Christ's fulfillment as the tabernacle, and evangelism. This week and next we have a couple from Canada who have been with YWAM for 25 years and lived all over the world. The material this week about our sinful personalities, wounds, and healing has been really great! I'm sure their 2 weeks here will be very fruitful!
As for us, we are doing well and thankful for this great time! As the only Americans here, the cultural and language difference is still a struggle, but God is good and He brought us here with purpose! Water has been a problem for the last couple of weeks making it difficult to do dishes, shower, or do laundry; but it seems okay the last couple of days. Praise God! We are growing closer to our Savior and closer to one another in our marriage through everything. Last Sunday Evan led worship and shared his testimony at the church which was great. This week has been sunny and warm and really lifted our moods to spend time outside!

We have a couple of prayer requests: First for clarity and direction for where God wants our team to do outreach. For financial provision for our team. Many of the students here are still in need of much more to cover the cost of the school. They are all ages, from different countries, and they all have a huge heart for the Lord. Some have left their children and wives behind to come, jobs, etc. Even when everyone raises the money they need it still doesn't cover all the costs of the program and outreach. If you are interested in sponsoring a student or giving to the school please let us know! And last, for our direction after our time here is finished this summer. Sorry this is long but I hope you enjoy. Here is a video of our house

http://youtu.be/Ks1lDaa7PEw

More pics to come, internet is too slow right now. We love and miss you all! We are very grateful for your prayers and love hearing from you!

ps. If you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus and you think this all sounds crazy, please call out to Him and welcome Him into your heart! God's love given to you through Christ on the cross is more than anything you can imagine in this world. He sent His Only son to earth to die on the cross to save YOU, so that He can have a loving relationship with YOU. His salvation brings love, joy, peace, and freedom like you can't find in anything else (and I looked in A lot of other places!) 
Love and joy,
Alicia

Week 3 Father Heart of God

Last week was a good one. I'm feeling more adjusted to the very full schedule and we're learning a lot. Still waiting for the snow to stop and melt. We havent had water for 3 days And maybe the Lord was even teaching us through that. He has definitely called us out of our comfort zone! We were reminded last week of our heavenly Fathers great love for us, and you. Much of the teaching was about wounds that effect your relationship with God and how you view Him, forgiveness, and confession of sin. The last 2 days were, all day, a time of inner healing prayer ministry for each person. For some a new journey of healing began and for others the process continues. We never end this process of getting closer to God, can you imagine His infinite love, personality, and might? There is Always more to learn about Him! And the Father's love and grace is so amazing, He has forgiven us and enables us to forgive others. I want to say a little about forgiveness because Evan and I have both experienced its power.

Forgiveness is God's key to being set free!! Forgiveness is for us not them. Forgiveness is not automatic trust, it is not forgetting how we were wronged. It is releasing the person to the justice of God, giving Him control. It is a decision we must make, even if we don't feel like it. Are you willing to forgive? Willing to be willing? Think about this. Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, you heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." Pretty serious. He saves us, forgives us of all our junk but can we do the same?
Leave and release them- a person, country, church, people group, etc. Bless them. Cling to God and receive from Him. Let God become our Father and receive His love. God's healing is a process and it begins when we open our hearts. God loves you so much that Jesus left His Father to come and give His life up for you! Forgiveness is the key to our healing. So here is the challenge: is there anyone in your life that you have not forgiven, big or small? Try it and experience the difference in your relationship with your Daddy.

On another note I am amazed at our times of intercession and how much the Lord reveals even about the nations to those who seek Him and pray on their behalf. I think we will share more about this in our next post. We would ask your prayers for God's vision for our future and where He wants us. May we all keep Him the focus of our lives and know Him more and more.
Alicia

WAR!

Hey everybody! Sorry about not posting anything this weekend, I was busy with things so I will update now for last week!

Last week was spiritual warfare week here at our DTS! We were taught about the spiritual battle that we face every day as Christians against the spiritual forces in this world. How we are to deal with evil forces that seek to deceive, hinder and destroy our walk with Jesus Christ and how we are to wield the power given to us through Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit. We learned more about the spiritual gifts that God has given us and also how to use them for God's glory. That is an EXTREMELY brief overview of what we are learning about, an trust me, if you deny that the things that I have just spoken of aren't real, please come to this side of the world, the spiritual battle is VERY real, and you should be aware.

We have been doing many things here other than just learning in class. Most notably we have been interceding for the city that we are living in (Kapan), interceding for people groups, prostitutes, alcoholics and more. The Lord has been giving us very unveiling visions about the spiritual state of this city and we are taking up the authority given to us as well as the guidance, both from Jesus to combat the spiritual forces of evil in this city. We believe that this city is going to experience its first ever spiritual revival because of the praying we have been doing and it is already showing in small ways!!! We are soooo excited about being apart of this glorious mission for God's kingdom. Please pray that we remain steadfast against the enemy and that we all continue to seek the Lord with everything that we have.

I ask that you would all start to pray about the battle that the Lord would have you take up in your own city. I am so convinced of the power of prayer in numbers and I know that the Lord wants to set each of our cities free from whatever spiritual bondage that has it captive. We also certainly covet your prayers in this time for both Alicia and I, as well as our team. We are on the front lines here and Satan is hard at work.

We love all of you and will update you on the next week when it comes that time! THANK YOU for your support!

In Christ
-Evan

Kapan, Armenia!

I would like to share a little about Kapan, where we will be doing our Discipleship Training School for the next 3 months. The school has a focus on reaching the Muslim world. As Evan shared we just finished our 1st week. Each of the 12 weeks will have a different topic with a different teacher from somewhere around the world. Soon we will begin to pray as a team about where we will go for outreach.

Kapan is in southern Armenia about 25 miles from the Iran border. It is nestled in a mountain valley with apx. 30,000 people. It is not extreme poverty, but in comparison to most of America, it is. It is a developing nation and I believe still considered 3rd world. Christianity just came to this town about 10 years ago and pagan sacrifice sites still exist today. So as you can imagine it has a lot of room for salvation and growth! We are very excited to learn more and see how the Lord shows His love to this town and pray He will use this group as a tool.

Your prayer is so valuable to us. You are all the hands and feet of the church as you join us. Whether we are here, praying at home, or supporting financially we are fulfilling the Great Commission and God's dream, that His glory will be known in all nations! May He give us all His love and heart for the nations. Please pray for our transition and culture shock: food, language, schedule, focus in class. Building relationships within our team. Sharing the love of Christ with this town. God to speak and transform our minds in the likeness of His.

Love & blessings in Christ,
Alicia

1 week down!

Hey everyone! I am currently sitting in the dining room/teaching room relaxing after a long but good week learning about Missiology and getting to know the people I am living with more. There is snow all over the place, as yesterday it snowed over a 1 foot here! I have attached pictures of where we are living with and without snow, as well as a picture of our team.

It has been so fantastic being here in Kapan, Armenia. We have now been here a week and our week has been full to say the least! Our typical day starts off with breakfast at 8, then quiet time for 1 hour, then either worship or intercession for 1 hour followed by 3 hours of teaching then lunch. We usually have free time for a while after this but reconvene for learning methods of outreach, worship, or some team building exercises, followed by dinner. After dinner we have free time until coming together to go over the "YWAM" values. Finally BED TIME! It has been challenging to keep up with the fast pace of the day, but we are managing well. We thank you all so much for your prayers, as I feel like we will start to rely on prayers more and more to get through our days.

The language barrier has been a fun challenge for me. Everyone here speaks Russian with only some of the people speaking broken English. I have learned a good amount of Russian this week and hope to be able to speak it by the end of our DTS. We are finding that we have to rely totally on the Lord during our prayer sessions as well as worship, when I'm not leading because they are totally in Russian. It has been so good though, we know that the Lord knows all of our hearts and that by the spirit we are all praying with one purpose!

I would like to share more but fear this is getting long. I will try to get Alicia to send out a quick overview of what we are getting into and prayer requests this weekend. Just know that we are doing very well and love that God has lead us here!

(pictured is our team, our staff leader and teacher for the week, view from our front porch, Alicia and I, view over Kapan, view without snow from our porch.)

In Christ
-Evan

We are here!

Hey everybody! We are so excited to say that the Lord has gotten us to Tbilisi safely! After a long 24 hours of travel we arrived at our temporary home in a village just outside of Tbilisi.

We have been acclimating nicely and have been seeing different sites in and around town here. Pictured we have the home we are staying in, an overview of Tbilisi, a road around the house we are staying in and a picture of us at McDonald's as I write this :).

We are heading to Armenia on Thursday and will spend the night in the capital city of Yerevan. On Saturday we will head down to the southeastern city of Kapan to begin our Discipleship Training School (DTS). We are pretty sure that we will be doing outreach to the Iranian community in Kapan while we are there.

I'm sorry I can't go into more details now, as we are in a hurry to leave McDonald's now. I will try to update more soon on what we are doing and what the Lord is doing here and in Armenia.

We need your prayers for u here an for the people here. We know the Lord has massive plans for the people here and we are excited to be involved.

We would also like to here how you are doing back home. Please email us at epa529@yahoo.com to fill us in on your lives and thoughts, we truly care about you and would love to hear from you.

We love you all!

-Evan