3 months, 150 hours of language studies, over 60 hours driving, 5000km and…

I am finished with Language studies in Tilza! It is so very bitter-sweet. I have come to truly enjoy the people and town of Tilza. The people have and always will have a very special place in my heart. I have found great community there and great friendship as well. It will be hard to not be there in community with all of my dear friends as I was in the past three months.
Looking back on the past three months I cannot figure out how I actually did it!!! Thinking now as I sit here on a Wednesday night more rested and relaxed than I have been in a LONG time, then realizing that Wednesdays for the past moths have been a VERY LONG day!
Tuesday night packing, preparing to get up at 4am in the morning, drag my sorry butt out of bed to my car to drive for 3 to 4 hours depending on weather, to a desk to study language for 4 hours, makes for a stinkin’ long hard day! Praise Jesus that he is always so ever-present in my absolute weakness!
Thank you to all of you for your prayers and encouragement through this very difficult time and for your understanding with my lack of communication as well.

Now it is back to Riga! No, the language is not over! The way it is going I think I will be fluent by the age of 80! But I will not give up, no matter how hard it is and how slow I might be. I plan on working with a language helper at least 3 days a week and hopefully get into a tutoring class in the beginning of January.
My goal is to be able to have flowing conversation with Latvians by the time I return to Arizona in November 2008 for furlough. Keep praying! I will need it ;)

Merry Christmas from Me and my Girls!!!

Click the link it is worth the wait!!!!

This past week

This past week was crazy busy, yet really good and full of blessings! I was out in Tilza for my second to last week of language school. It was hard and I am finding myself hitting major walls. Mostly just a lack of desire to put in the effort to learn more…. Which does not seem normal or me as I have been dying to learn the language! But it is not that I don’t want to learn, just having a lack of excitement in it all. I do know I want to speak, and that will never change so I will press on and keep moving forward no matter how hard or boring it may get! Please pray that I will not loose the vision and commitment of learning this language.

After Language in Tilza I drove almost 6 hours to a location where we had our second weekend of “Intro to Youth Ministry” (formerly known as “School of Leaders”). This weekend was sooo goood! We have 12 young leaders in training this year and they are full of passion and desire to serve the Lord!

Another blessing was having the whole team there! For the first time Kelly, Donna, Joe and Nick were there with us! It was great to share that time all together also.

Here are some pictures of our time together at Intro to Youth Ministry:

A little clarification

I was please to get feed back from someone back who really cares about me and what is going on here in Latvia. It was brought to my attention that I am lacking in the area of sharing with you all how I am sharing Christ to the people around me! Wow, that is so true! Sometimes I get so caught up in life here and all the “things” that are happening that I forget to share with you the joy I am experiencing in ministry here! I apologize. And I will do my best to be more ready to share the “God stories” before “My stories”! I ask for your forgivness in this.

I would like to share with you really quick the difference between ministries here for me depending on the season, so you can get an idea of where my focus is at a certain time. Summer ministry is full of evangelism and sharing Christ with the youth around Latvia. Full of energy, relationships, and evangelism. (Honestly my favorite time of the year!).
But just as important (if not more) is the Winter season. This is focused on building into the relationship already established and discipling and encouraging. Intro to Youth Ministry is one of those types of programs that give me that opportunity.
Summer, I am out and about with the purpose of sharing Christ through spoken word and life lived out.
Winter has a different feel as the days are shorter and MUCH colder, things slow down and give me a chance to meet one on one with students and really pour into them.

I open the door wide open for anyone at anytime to let me know if I am lacking in any area when it come to communicating to you through this blog, website, or monthly updates. Thank you for caring. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers!

A quicky....

I am in Sweden.... will be here until October 30th...

then go to Tilza... there till November 2nd...

then go to Bauska... there till November 4th... then home!!! I hope!!!

Sweden....
Here for sharing about Latvia and missions and just a time to visit dear friends for a little while! It has been amazing so far!

Tilza...
will be the 4th week of class and i can say it is amazing and i feel like i am learning much!!! A huge blessing!

Bauska.....
first School of leaders starts this coming weekend!!! cant wait to see the young people God will bring to us this year!!


Thank you for checking in. I will Post more pictures as soon as I get better Internet access...

I will not have my computer for most of the days to come until the 4th.... so i hope to find a way to relpy to e-mail and such... so just so you know where and what i am doing!!!

love you... I hope you know that!

sorry!

Hey all! sorry I have not written any updates on the trip or Language or anything. I am doing a terrible job of keeping you up to date...
I will try to at least catch you up in the next few days... until then here is a slide show of the Road trip to go get the car that was donated to me by a dear friend in Germany...

Enjoy... I am off to Language training for the next 4 days... will update soon!

9 countries....in less than 2 weeks!

Lots to say…
I am in Czech right now and I have been here for almost 5 days… I am attending the annual Fall Conference here, and it is amazing!!! So many cool things God is doing in my heart and in Latvia and especially all through Eastern Europe!
I cannot even begin to explain what my heart is feeling as I walk around seeing so many nationals from so many countries on fire for Christ and youth!! It is nothing less than a taste of heaven (every nation praising the Lord!)

So I leave tomorrow to travel to Slovakia…

Why you may ask?!

Well… The Lord has blessed me with a car! My friend from Germany has donated her car to me and my ministry!!!! Crazy! I know!

So I head to Slovakia, spend then night and travel to Bratislava, Slovakia to jump on a plane to Switzerland, get to Switzerland and drive to Germany, pick up the car stay the night there hang out with my dear friend, then head half way up Germany to visit one more friend and rest, then drive to the north tip of Germany and jump on a boat with my car and float myself 27 hours back to Latvia!!!! FUN!!!!!

You may ask…why all that traveling!!!! Believe it or not, it is the cheapest way to do it!!! Haha! Go figure! So I should be back in Latvia by September 28 or 29th! And then I start Language Training on the 3rd of October!!!

Can you please pray for safety and logistics of this journey, and that the whole way I will keep Christ as my center and that HE gets the glory?

Thank you for checking in. thank you for your prayers!

Update again when I can!

A hard day for me

Paul Levenda, my dear friend a partner here in Latvia left this morning to return home to Arizona. he has been a major support to as i have made my transition into life here in Latvia. he was always there to take me places, fix thing in my apartment. move me in and out of all the places I was in before now. but more than anything he was the person who I knew without a doubt was there for me not matter what! He listened, encouraged, laughed and cried with me. a true friend and brother to me. he will be deeply missed.

If you are in the Arizona area and happen to see him please always give him a hug for me and tell him that Jaycee misses him.
pray for him also as he transitions back into life back in the states. being in Latvia for two and half years will defiantly have an affect on him and getting back into the culture there.

Be blessed by him as I have have here!

Where am I going next?

On September 16th I will head to Czech to our annual Fall Conference with JV. This conference is different then the Spring conference. The Fall Conference is more about equipping and training. And we get the blessing of bringing some of the nationals from Latvia that are involved with youth ministry and connected to us in Latvia. This year we will be taking about 6 Nationals with us this year! Very exciting!
I will be in Czech from the 16 through the 22nd of September. Please pray for safety as we travel. We will be taking a van for the 18-hour (one way) trip there and back.

Gonna do it!

I have a chance to learn Latvian in a different way. I am not doing as well as I was hoping to do by now. My understanding of the language is not too bad, but my conversational Latvian is terrible. So I have decided to go to a small town about 4 hours away, a VERY SMALL town! And go through a three month intensive immersion program. It will be very hard to do this as I have already seen the great opportunity for ministry after this summer. But I cannot give up this chance to finally get the language! So I will need a lot of prayer as I enter into a new world of language learning in the next month. The program is October through December. I am praying that I will be able to find some form of transportation to and from that town, other than public transportation. As I will be commuting back and forth several times a month.

Summer coming to an end...

So summer is practically over. It is sad to say because I truly love the summer time and the ministry that goes on during the summer time. And if I am honest I definitely prefer the summer weather to the wintertime. But I do have to say that I am already excited about what God is doing because of the fruit of this summer and even into next summer and what that will look like!
During this summer I found myself on fire for what God is doing and what he can do through summer ministry here. The Lord put on my heart so many ideas and ways we can make this summer ministry into something even better.
We have so many different parts of the body of Christ come together each summer to make the summer work. Of course we have the full time JV staff here, then we have the churches that we are involved in training their youth leaders, and helping them by using a camp to jump start their youth ministry in their town. Then we have the North American Church teams that come for short term mission trips here to help run the camps. Then we have the summer interns, who are here for the whole 3 months of summer ministry teaching English, running camps, doing outreach, service projects, and much more.

Needless to say, it is a very fun but challenging task to communicate and bring it all together. God has been more than faithful in working it our over the past summers and he again did an amazing job of working it out perfectly this summer.
I cannot wait to see how he is seen and glorified in it again next year!

Just so you know it looks like I will have a big part (even bigger than this year) in the planning and running of the summer ministry this next summer. And that starts even now with communication and planning! So I have my work cut out for me, and I cannot keep my excitement in! I am stoked to start!

Merging worlds

For as many years as I can remember I have found myself in many different worlds that have never seemed to come together. In 1998 I came to Latvia for the first time, since then I have returned to this country several time, and now live here. I have also found a special place in my heart for Sweden. I went to Sweden for Bible school and it truly became a “home away from home”. I have lived in these worlds only dreaming that they would someday meet each other. But I never thought that dream would become reality.

This summer it did!

As you can see from the picture here! "my girls" who have become my family ...with my family! Words cannot explain how cool this was!

My Parents and Grandmother came to Latvia to visit me in my new place of residence. It was such a peculiar feeling as I drove them from the airport through the town I have loved for so long, yet never being able to share it with my family until that moment! Latvia was no reality for them, and everything that I talked about for so many years was no right in front of them, they could smell the smells I smelt, they saw the blinding green all around that I could never really explain, they saw the face of the Latvians that until then were just names. It was a dream that I was living out!


They were here for 10 days and it was great. For the first time I shared this “world” I have loved and longed to share for so long with the ones I love. It was a beautiful time.

But boy did I keep them busy! We walked, we drove, we flew! Toured Riga and the town. Visited several towns all around Latvia. Met with many people who have become very special to me. Spent a lot of time with “my girls” and letting them enjoy my parents and grandma. We also took a quick 2 ½ day trip to Sweden to visit the school I attended, and met some very special people who live there.

All in all it was crazy busy but so much fun! My mom kept saying, “I need to try to figure out how many miles we have traveled during this trip!” I don’t know how many they figured out, but I do know we went EVERYWHERE!!!

It was hard to see them go. It definitely was not long enough for me, but I am truly blessed by the time the Lord gave me with them!


More Photo's Here

Intern Wrap up...

What an amazing end to an amazing summer of ministry! We spent 4 days in Liepaja, a town on the cost of the Baltic sea (sounds exotic, I know!). we stayed at a little bed andt a 2 min walk away in California!
It was a great time of rest, fellowship, reflection, prayer, food, laughing, crying, vision, and fueling the passion that was ignited in each of us through what Christ had done with and through us during the past 3 months.
I could go into great detail about all that time was, but no words would ever give justice to what we experienced there, but I guess that really goes for the whole summer! I guess that’s what you get when you are just a little part of a BIG GOD and his work!

I can definitely say without a doubt that this team of six interns were hand picked by our Jesus, and there was no one or nothing I would have wanted to change. I spent months worrying and recruiting for interns with NOTHING to speak of, yet out of that “nothing” Christ put together HIS team. I love it when I can say I did nothing to have such a great outcome, because HE gets the GLORY! And all I can say is TO HIM BE THE GLORY!



A little bit about each one of the Interns from this year:

Linda (Riga, Latvia):
This was probably the best surprise and best gift of the summer for me. I did not know Linda at all, actually no one did except for Lelde. Lelde knew I was struggling terribly to find people to serve this summer and so she went to work, and asked a couple people. Linda was one of them that she mentioned the internship to just in passing, and without hesitation Linda said ok! What?! She is ready to commit to serving hardcore for three months straight without much of a break, not knowing anyone? Are you sure she knows what she is getting into Lelde, I asked completely shocked!
Lelde was sure she was committed and would be great. I was still very hesitant because I did not know her and I was not too sure if she would “fit in” with the team… but I needed as many Latvian as I could get and so I said OK!
Linda turned out to be an amazing addition to the team that I could not imagine this summer without! She completed “us”! she was a ball of energy. She was/is passionately in love with our Jesus in a way that inspires me (and makes me jealous, if I am honest). She is real to the core, nothing superficial about this girl! NOTHING! I feel more than honored that I got to spend 3 months serving along side this woman of God! And pray that this will not be the last time I will be able to be blessed by her presence.

Lelde (Riga, Latvia)
about youth and serves in any way possible when she gets the chance. Even as I type this, though our JV camps are over she has been involved with other camps goinWell Lelde is nothing short of a lifesaver! She is more than a servant. Lelde is our JV office secretary, and MUCH MORE! She is passionateg on, and at this moment is serving in one now! Amazing! Lelde throughout the summer held us together. She was the “go to girl” for any question we had pertaining to…well pretty much everything! And if that was not enough she still led an English class, and small groups, and was deeply involved in relationships. This girl amazed me! Not only was she amazing, she was personally a huge support to me as a dear friend that I have found a refreshing blessing that I am so exited to be able to continue! Lelde is so focused on meeting the real Jesus everyday and that was seen and experienced by each of us on the team several times through out the summer. She is a prayer warrior! She is determined to live out Christ! She is humble and a true servant of the King! A woman that blesses people she comes in contact with in ways that I only pray I can do some day.

Ilja (Riga, Latvia)
This kid… this NOW true man of God! Ilja and I go back a long way! He was a little squirt running around in 1998, my first year ever in Latvia. And he has been around ever since in different ways. Involved as a camper, then as a helper, then as an intern, then… well honestly I lost track of him! Just to find out he was attending the same bible school in Sweden that I had attended 2 years previous. I went to go meet with Aaron (we will talk about him in a minute) about the Internship. He was also attending the Bible school at the time. While there I got to talk to Ilja, and the boy I remembered from so many years past was gone! I was shocked at this man who was talking so deeply about our Jesus and his passion to serve him! He met me in so many areas of my desire to serve Christ! At that moment I felt like I had found a true brother in Christ! And I was flippin stoked because he said he was interested in the internship as well!!!
What a blessing to have him on our team. Ilja brought a dynamic to the team that brought a joy that would not have been there without him. He has a heart four youth that we covet for here in Latvia and JV. He has a sense of humor like no one I know, I don’t think I have laughed so much in a long time! A laugh that is nothing short of contagious. A heart that is bigger than most I have seen in my life. He was and is a true encourager, something that is priceless when you serve in such an intense way. His desire to follow Christ was evident and he had no problem telling us when he struggled, or was not on the right track. He brought us into true community through his transparency! Which brought us to deep spiritual commitment with each other, that I did not experience until this summer. I am deeply touched by Ilja and his realness, and his readiness to give up all to follow His Jesus.

Ashleigh (Mesa, Arizona)
This girl was with me last summer as I helped lead a group of youth to Latvia for a 10 day mission trip. Ashleigh and I were already acquainted before the trip, but I truly got to see her heart during the summer of 2006 when we were serving together. She expressed the desire to return as an intern almost right away, and I was ecstatic! I knew I would be in Latvia by that time and most likely leading the intern team, and I could not think of anyone better to have on the team.
And boy was she a blessing! She is quite and very laidback, something so refreshing when there is so much to stress out about! What touched me about Ashleigh was her true desire to follow Christ. Not just “follow Christ” as “all” Christians do, but to be a true follower! No matter what the church, or Christians, or religion was saying she should do, she looked only to Christ! She was ready to turn away from anything no matter how it looked to follow her Jesus. such an inspiration to me, such a true example! She has touched me deeply and I cannot wait to see how the Lord will use her and her true devotion to Him! One thing I learned from this, barley 18 year old young woman, is that no matter the age of a person, it never determines the power and knowledge of the holy spirit inside of them! I learned so much from Ashleigh this summer that will keep me in tune to the family of Christ all around me, no matter how old or how young, ALL have the Spirit of God Himself inside and he is ready to speak through them right to my heart!
I pray that the Lord will keep me close to Ashleigh so I can be blessed by her and her passion.

Susan (Vancouver, Canada)
Well Susan is one of my dearest friends in this lifetime. I met Susan at Bible school in Sweden and we have held on to a deep friendship since then. Susan has a long story about how she got here this summer. I probably could write a book about! But I will try to keep this short.
Right before we left Sweden to return home I was walking with Susan and mentioned some things about Latvia and like a lightning bolt from heaven I got this vision of Susan serving in Latvia with JV. Susan spiritual gift is administration… I know, weird! But if there is any spiritual gift that is needed in missions it is that of administration! There are so many people with the desire to reach people through evangelism, or service that the organizational and administrational needs are left WAY behind. So that being said I convinced Susan to try and be an intern that next summer so she could check it out. She was not as excited as I was, but she did it… and then came back again this summer cause God is doing something in her heart! ha, I knew it!!!
Anyway this summer just showed me in so many ways how much Susan should be here and how she could be used in such powerful way for the kingdom of God here! she has a way with people that I covet! She has a sense of humor that is so attractive. And yet she has a depth about her that keep her level and a true blessing as a support and counsel. She loves youth and building deep relationship through discipleship. I cannot wait to see what God does with her here in the next years to come! Please pray for her as she begins the hard and trying time of becoming a full time missionary here.
If you know her or just feel called to encourage her you can contact her at:team_spike@hotmail.com

Aaron (Vancouver, Canada)
This guy was a big surprise, but and even bigger blessing. Through a contact he had with Susan he heard about the internship in Latvia and was interested. At that time he was attended the same Bible school as Ilja. I had never met Aaron and I wanted to check him out before accepting his application. So I took a trip over to Sweden to have a chat with him. He impressed me from the beginning, asking tough questions and just sharing his desire to serve Christ in a new and real way!
Aaron was a born leader and we looked to him throughout the summer for direction. He naturally leads in a way that people want to follow, and seeing his heart for Christ made his leadership refreshing and a blessing to have on the team. Aaron had a way of being completely real and transparent that brought us back to the true meaning of community. Through Aarons example and lead we entered into conflict that was brought with love that inevitably brought us into a “community of Grace”. Something that once you are a part you will never be satisfied with nothing less!
He is a leader lead by the love of Christ. He is committed to being a man of moral integrity. He has a sense of humor that kept all of our stomachs sore. He loves adventure. He loves youth! He is a true man of God.


So that was our intern team! And that really does not come close to explaining the time we shared together this summer. But I do know that this summer was like no other I have ever experienced.
“When failing striver's stumble into a community of grace, safety, and vulnerable repentance, it radically disrupts their game plan. Suddenly, they are face to face with a real, tangible option of sweet freedom. And the ongoing environment of the community tells them that they have not dreamt up this way of life. As the community treats them as they have never been treated before, their confidence grows that grace can support the FULL WEIGHT of their sin.”

TrueFaced, Bill Thrall

Just got back from Intern Debriefing..

We just walked in the door from a four day end of summer debrief with the Interns... the summer is over in 3 days....

i will write about the time in debriefing soon.

thanks for checkin' in.

Kuldiga Camp

Back from our last camp for the summer, and I am loving life and lovin Jesus! he did amazing things throughout this past week and a half. I am sitting back trying to put my mind around the whole things and it seems to be impossible! God was present and moving in this camp in Kuldiga in ways I can only say that I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to be apart of.
Everything from the kids, to the town, the ministry team of Kuldigas Baptist church, to the Colorado team that came, to the interns, to the weather, EVERYTHING was absolutely amazing! And I believe with all my heart that it was that way because Jesus was living and breathing through his people during this time! What a huge honor to be apart of his work!

I could tell many stories of salvation, of relationships, of God coming through in times of great need, and sooo much more. Ahhhh, where do I start to even come close to sharing how this camp and outreach went?
I don’t know if I can!

One thing that blessed my socks off was the Colorado team! There was a group of 13 high school and college aged students who come o be apart of this camp, and all I can say is that I saw Christ through them! And what is sooo exciting is that I see God moving in the hearts of young adults for the country of Latvia!!! Almost half of the team has expressed desires not just to return to Latvia but the desire to be summer interns and even possibly more! It is so cool to see God moving even where you don’t know!

About the town of Kuldiga. This was our first camp there so it was defiantly fun breaking new ground. But more than that I just sensed a great openness and joy throughout the town. Of course there is a lot of hurt and darkness, but a sense of hope that I have not felt in other towns. And the church is behind the youth, seeing them as the future church!! That is stinkin sweeeet! Even people not involved with the church were interested in what was happening this week. The second day the news paper called and asked if they could interview Paul, Lelde and myself about the camp and why we were there! What a great blessing! The next day we were on the front page! Top story of the newspaper, color picture and all!!! Kuldiga is amazing and I sense God moving in really cool ways there!

The camp its self was so fun! Of course it is one of my favorite things about being a missionary here. seeing kids just grow, and transform before your eyes. Building relationships, and just watching Christ revive these youth and give them a joy that is not of them! Ahhh, what a beautiful savior we have!

Here are some pictures of the Kuldiga camp and outreach daysCLICK HERE