This week in Israel has been really wonderful for me.  We got to tour Galilee and I watched two of my sisters rededicate their lives to the Lord and be baptized in the Jordan River.  I love baptisms.  It is such a beautiful moment and it always reminds me that the Lord’s grace and forgiveness are available all the time.  We spent the rest of the week watching the five children that have become our ministry for this month.  The children have had a hard life, but are so blessed to have a loving mother who takes such good care of them.  It is our wonderful privilege to get to show them love each day.   Since I don’t have much news to share since my last post, I thought I would focus this post on finances. 

 I am so very blessed to have such amazing supporter that I do.  I seriously want to thank all of you who have sacrificed to help me get on the field.  Every time I watch someone new come to the Lord, or enter into worship with new brothers and sisters, I pray that you all will know how much you have made those moments possible.  These God-moments are all of ours to share.  I seriously love posting stories from the field because you all get to see exactly how God has been using your prayers and contributions.  I love that God is all about connecting things and that no sacrifice is ever small in His Kingdom.  

I am so happy to tell you all that my account is only $3100 away from the goal required for the World Race!  Again I want to thank everyone so much who has supported me thus far.  I know some of my readers have expressed wanting to become a supporter, but not knowing how much is needed, or how to contribute.  I did the math and I think it would only take 25 people contributing $20 a month for the next 6 months to keep me on the field.  That averages out to about one cup of coffee a week until June.  If you, or anyone you know is interested in supporting this next year of ministry, you can click the link below.  Will you please join me in praying that the Lord will provide the necessary funds required allow me to finish this race?

If you are interested in supporting me, you can click here.

When I was in Romania, I felt the Lord give me a bigger vision for my photography.  He gave me some very clear visions of where it would go in the future, and I am really excited about it!  I believe that photography is going to be a big part of supporting my missions work in the future and I am really looking forward to that.  I have been reading in Thessalonians how Paul encourages the believers there to work, just has he and his friends worked as they preached.  One of my fears in going into full-time missions work has always been raising support and balancing missions work and a job.  I believe this photography dream is the Lord’s answer to that fear of mine.  One of my goals when I get back to the states will be establishing some sort of non-profit with photography that will provide the funds necessary for missions work all around the world.  I am VERY excited about this dream and would love your prayers on this new venture as well. 

 I really want to thank everyone who has prayed for this trip.  Know that your prayers are being answered daily and I know that the amazing things God has done would not have been possible if they were not first bathed in prayer.   Thank you also to everyone who has been supporting me and encouraging me as I have been gone.  Your prayers, emails and facebook messages are a wonderful glimpse of home, and I treasure them all so much.

The hardest part so far for me, other than leaving my loved ones, was the jet lag.  We left JFK around 8 at night and got in at 4:30am.  Then we had to wait in the airport until around 7 for the other squad to arrive and get on the bus.  Once we got to the site, we hit the ground running.  AIM had set up a “race” of sorts to keep up awake and see the Dublin sites.  Coupled with being sick, and being completely emotionally spent, the jet lag was killer.  That day was a rough one for me, and my teammates as well.  A friend on my squad, Heather Dodge,  took some hilarious pictures of all us falling victim to jetlag.  I include them here for your enjoyment.

This week we camped about 10 miles outside of Dublin, for training camp.  We had a squad leaders, coaches, and AIM staff come and help prepare us for the next 11 months.  I really enjoyed out worship time, I love being with 100 other people worshipping the Lord.  The staff really taught us the importance of listening to the Lord at all times.  We began putting that in to practice, each day asking the Lord to speak to us, and teaching us to respond in faith and obedience.  Honestly, I was a little uncomfortable with this exercise to begin with.  The Lord has spoken to me before, but never really on demand.   I had trouble feeling like we were requiring something of God, or coming at people with agendas.  But the Lord taught me through this week that he really is always speaking.  He wants us to ask all the time what he is saying to us, and what he is saying to other people.  We began to get comfortable listing to the Lord and speaking what he was saying to each other.  We spoke words of life and encouragement over each other.  I felt like it was true Christian community.  So often in our lives, there are very few sources of pure love and encouragement.  I could see how this practice began breaking down some heavy walls in other people’s lives.  Then AIM threw me a curve ball.

They said it was time to take it to the streets.  Each team was to go out on the city streets and Ask the Lord what his will for them in that moment is.  They said sometimes God gives words, pictures, or places.  The whole point is just for our team to go out and listen to the Lord, if he leads us in conversation, great, if not, great.  As missionaries, and as Christians in general, we need to get into the practice of listening to what God is saying, even when we go about our daily lives.

My team didn’t feel any particular leading that day, so we walked through the streets and prayed for houses and people as we walked by them.  Even though we did not have any tangible interaction, I know that we were doing the Lords will and that we were listening to him.  The guys were so open to following God, they ended up in a pub with a bunch of young Irishmen, singing bar songs and speaking to them about our trip.  Tim and Joel planted seeds, even in that interaction, and that really excites me.

We are now on a bus headed up to Coleraine, Northern Ireland.  We will be working with the Causeway Vineyard church.  4 of our 6 teams will be at the same place, so I am very interested to see what we will be doing.  We’ll be here for 2 weeks, and then fly out to Romania, for only the Lord knows what.

I cannot express how much all the comments and love on my last post means to me.  Ya’ll touch me from thousands of miles away.  I am so blessed so have so many dear and precious readers and supporters.  I hope that ya’ll can hear my heart from halfway across the world as I say I love you so much and I miss you tons.  While this experience is going to be great, I can’t help but think that the only thing to make it better would be to have my loved ones here with me.  I am so blessed by each one of you, and I cannot wait to return to you in a year.

I hope that everyone is doing well, feel free to hit the “Contact Me” link and shoot me an email.  I love to hear how life in the states is.  I also want to encourage us all to go out of our way today to listen for the Lord’s voice.  He is speaking, let’s try to listen and obey.  I believe he has awesome things for us in store in Ireland, and for everyone back at home as well.  I love you all so much!

I also want to let you know about some things that I am doing to earn some money for the Race.  Right before graduation I packed up the bare minimum that I thought I would need over the next few months, and put the rest out to sell.  It was a difficult process for me, as I was selling most everything I had to raise support for the Race, but I was overwhelmed with the response that God brought!!  Though I now carry a much lighter load, the Lord blessed me with $500 from the garage sale alone!!

~ Jennifer M.

God has opened up an incredible door for me to serve Him around the world, and I know that no ministry is done without first being bathed in prayer.  It is for this purpose that I write to you.  I ask that you consider praying for my team and me as we minister this next year.  I am hoping to form a group of prayer warriors that are constantly lifting us up as we travel.  There is always a risk when traveling abroad, especially to countries that are at political unrest.  Countries such as Israel are much safer place than the media would portray, however, there is always risk.  I do believe that risk isn’t averted by one’s distance from danger, but by ones closeness to Jesus!  Please pray that Christ goes before us in every step of our ministry and that we can be acceptable vessels for Him to use to reach His people.
The World Race has provided me with a blog, which I would love for you to follow me on!  Throughout the year I will be posting pictures, journal entries and prayer requests.   I cannot wait!  As I get ready to leave in the coming months, I will also be posting our updated trip plans and be keeping a record of all of the financial support raised for our trip.  The blog will be a great resource for us to stay connected, so I hope that you will check in on me You can visit and subscribe to the blog at http://JenniferMitchell.theworldrace.org.

I am cannot tell you how excited I am to go out and serve those in need around the world.  I know that I could not have gotten to this point if it were not for all of your prayers and love in the past.  You truly have touched me and I thank you for all of your encouragement to this point.  I thank the Lord for the wonderful relationships and people that he has brought into my life.  I covet your prayers as I embark on this journey.  I hope that you will prayerfully consider being a part of my future ministry.  I thank you once again for all the prayers and/or financial support that you have provided me in the past and continue to provide. May we continue to serve the Lord, looking for every opportunity to sacrifice for Him and for the sake of His wonderful message.
I love each of your dearly, thank you for the impact you have had on my life.

Shalom and God Bless!

~ Jennifer Mitchell

JLMitchell7@gmail.com

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* I would love to have your contact information so that I can send you updates while I am in the field.  I am hoping to send newsletters out each month.  If you would like, you can send your information to JLMitchell7@gmail.org, or click Contact Me on my blog.  This way, we can all stay in touch!

* As I said above, I am looking for a team of prayer warriors who will pray for us while we are on the field, if you are interested in joining please send an email to JLMitchell7@gmail.com so that I can send you prayer requests & thank you personally.

* AIM requests that you send all donations by August 1st, 2009.  Adventures In Missions is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501 © (3) non-profit organization.  Donors will receive receipts for their gifts with the understanding that the disbursement of those gifts lies completely at the discretion of Adventures In Missions and that the gifts are non-refundable and non-transferable, per IRS regulations.  Gifts may be tax deductible; please consult a tax advisor.