provision.

Well, it's no secret that we saw the Lord do the impossible yet again. I'm sorry I have been so delayed in updating this week, we thought getting all our finances in would allow enough time for things, but that hasn't been the case. Totally okay though, we are getting through it. And, the reason I am writing is to testify the goodness and provision of a faithful Father & friend. We saw not only over us, the provision of the Lord but over our entire team, so we are all going on outreach. AMEN!! But then again how could we not when we are seeking first the Kingdom of God? 

URGENT NEED!

Hey friends, we are needing major financial break through this week to be able to lead our team to NYC for the three months of this DTS outreach. We trust the Lord fully for this provision but please if you have it on your heart to donate, let us know! Click here to donate. (It's tax deductible) 

December 3, 2012

 Journal Entry

Kenzie

'I cannot believe it's already December. Or that in only 15 days, I will be celebrating one whole year of marriage with my dear husband. Or that in only 17 days, I will be getting on a plane to New York City for the next three months. Or that we are about to see the craziest financial provision in our lives personally, this far, and for our team. And not to mention all the other little surprises the Lord has in store for us in this month. So December, we joyfully welcome you. 

Meet the Team: Alexander S.

Alexander Sorensen. 17. Denmark. 

A faith- filled, zealous man of God. Though he is the youngest one on our team and hasn't even graduated high school yet, he is a man that desires to go after the heart of God with everything in him. He loves to be challenged in the things of the Lord, Will Farrell movies and anything Nutella. 

The day of thanks.

Well I know, it's a day late. but Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day yesterday, with a lovely thanksgiving lunch with our entire school and some guests. There were about 160 people in attendance with six huge turkey's, heaps of stuffing and mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole and so much more. I left the day not feeling overly full, which was a great choice in my opinion. Later that evening, we had time of beautiful community with our fellow staffers, including a time of worship and possibly the best apple pie i have ever had. And if that weren't enough we have thanksgiving number two, at our home tonight. Let the thankful meals continue!

Even though the culture I am part of spends time being thankful both on a corporate and individual level daily, I still love that we have a holiday set apart in our nation to enjoy food, one another and a time of thanksgiving in some form or another. It's really what the Acts 2 church was all about, and for one day our entire nation takes part in it. Praise the Lamb.

I am thankful for my salvation, thankful that I have been adopted as a daughter into the Kingdom of heaven. I am thankful to be married to my very best friend. I am thankful to be part of a organization that listens to the word of the Lord, for a community that is all about seeing His kingdom come to earth. I am thankful for discipleship, both being discipled and refined and getting to disciple. I am thankful for every person that supports us, both financially and in the place of prayer, and for the radical provision of the Lord. Just to name a few...

We hope your day was filled with the joy of giving thanks to the Father in all things. Many blessings! 

Meet the Team: Emily J.

Emily Jones. 21. California. 

A women with one of the purest of hearts, I have ever known. She has one of the greatest friendships with Jesus I have ever seen and loves to be with Him always. She is one of the most fun loving gals who loves wild adventures with friends, photos of nature and a good cup of tea. 

Get ready NYC.

So I just thought we would share a brief little update about our team, with prayer points as we prepare to go in just a few short weeks. We have officially booked our plane tickets and for our entire team! We leave Kona on US Airways, the 19th of December and arrive the evening of the 20th at JFK airport. We are still trying to hunt down housing for the initial first weeks, but we do have it for the rest of our stay.  We as a team are still praying for a release of finances, with about three of our girls praying for $3,000 to come in, not knowing where it will come from and for us we still are looking at about $5,000. We all have so much faith for the Lord to absolutely do what is impossible to get us there. But please pray with us and trust the Lord for it with us! Or if you would like to give, please let us know. 

These are the ways you can be praying for us at the moment:

1. Visas- The two men on our team have just applied for visa extensions, which they need in order to stay in the US. Please pray for favor on them as they apply and get it settled. 

2. Housing- which I shared about already, we are looking for a low rate during the holiday season which can seem next to impossible, luckily that is not so for our God. Please pray that we would have clear direction of where to look around and the Lord would provide the perfect thing for our first few weeks.

3. Financial breakthrough- We love that the Lord always provides, but we would love if you would partner in prayer for us as we trust the Lord for all the finances for our team. 

4. That the Lord would continue to prepare the way for our team! We are trusting Jesus to break into hearts in a new and mighty way in NYC during our time there. Pray even now for an out pouring of His spirit over the city. 

My dear friend Vanessa made this little gem this week on her iPhone! It was a quote from David Gava, our speaker that is challenging us all to the core. 

who are you?

I have tons to share with you about our speaker from last week Eric, but for now I wanted to post a brief little bit from our speaker this week called David Gava. This man walks in wild faith, has crazy stories of provision and healings and miracles because he knows God commanded us to do so. He is wildly increasing our capacity of faith this week. One thing he shared yesterday was that God always speaks to our potential. When He talks to us, it's at the level of where we could be rather than where we are in that moment. And then, the loving kindness of God leads us to repentance and we realign our hearts with how He sees us. So when we listen to the Father, when we walk closely with Him and chose to put on the mind and likeness of Christ like we are taught, we should never not know who we are because we have our maker telling us at all times, our part is just to listen. 

David also shared with us four parts of what defines us. How God sees you. How you see God. How you see yourself. How you view and value people. 

Meet the team: Nikki

Nikki Scales. 20. Texas.

A very wise and honoring women of faith. She is down for anything as long as Jesus is being glorified, and ready to see people walk in deep levels of freedom. She is a trustworthy friend to everyone, and absolutely loves cute, cuddly animals. We love her. 

Meet the team: Emily M.

Emily Meuiner . 19. Kentucy. 

Emily is a fun loving, totally unique individual that we are just so blessed to have on our team. She has a very compassionate and pastoral heart for all people but especially the ones left out. She is not afraid to be fully herself, has really fun style and loves anything chocolate peanut butter. 

Meet the team: Ben

Ben Froese. 18. Canada. One of the most hungry men I have ever met, he eats up the word like no one I have ever seen before. He is a man of great wisdom even at such a young age. He has such a servant heart and is a natural leader. We are so excited to lead such a teachable man of God. 

The Passivity Plague

So I would love to start writing posts about what our teachings are on and what we as a class are learning! I have pages of notes, with not enough time in the day to put them online, but don't want to withhold anything from friends and family about all the Lord is taking our class through!

This week we have a speaker called Brian Brennt. This man and his family have committed their lives to seeing freedom breakout in families across the globe but even more specifically in America and are a huge leading role in the 'Circuit Riders' movement birthed out of YWAM Kona. They are a prophetic voice for our nation and commited to the word of the Lord over every other thing.

'PASSIVITY: It is the opposite of initiation. Passivity makes us move slowly and resist change and transformation.'  Definition from the Freedom Class Manual.

So in the last few days we have gone through, over and over again, dealing with our passivity. When Monday morning came around, I (Kenzie) had spent specific time in prayer for the passivity of our team (going with us to NYC) both as a whole and individually. I knew the Lord would be dealing with this thing, but I didn't realize how crazy it would be. Spending time in prayer the Lord highlighted how passivity effects relationships both in friendships, in marriages, in our families and many others. It keeps us from growing deeper in the Lord, from dealing getting freedom from other things that have come against us in our lives. It keeps us from even being able to share the gospel with the lost and disciple people into their fullness and destinies. So basically, passivity keeps us from being us and what we are called to. 

A beautiful student and I got to talking today about how for the last four years she hasn't been herself, though she didn't realize it. But now, as she allows the Lord to penetrate her heart in such a deep way, she is coming fully alive in Christ, her old self is coming back who is actually who she was created to be, but that little sneaky passivity stronghold kept her from believing and walking in that. She didn't desire to try to become that person at all because passivity crept up.

We corporately repented joyfully for these things that have been holding us back from what the Lord has for us, and immediately walked in the opposite spirit by getting in groups and yelling as loud as we could the beauty of the gospel and about how much we hate our sin ESPECIALLY our passivity. We are so free from these things, I fully believe it with my whole heart!!

Thanks for reading. 

going to the big apple.

This is our team that will be going to NYC this coming December! (not pictured: Noelle Owens) We have had it on our hearts to go on outreach to New York City, since before we started dating early 2011. And now, the Lord in His faithfulness has brought this team of beautiful Jesus followers to us to go mid December to mid March. We have only met together for the last week, but are so excited to be leading them.

After living outside of America for the last year+, God has stirred something inside our hearts for our Nation coming to know Jesus. Seeing our nation profess His name and be passionate about Him. I (Kenzie) have been to NYC twice since being in full time missions, and know it is not too hard for the gospel and also know that the time for transformation is here and now. Please be praying for a release of finances over our whole team. Peter and I are still in need of raising $5,000 for this trip alone.  Also for our team dynamic to continue to grow stronger and stronger as well as for continued unity as we prepare for this outreach. And of course be praying for an openness for each person we get to encounter in NYC. We still have a few months before going, but are so convinced that by being in the place of prayer, we will indeed see a difference.

*More updates to come, and hopefully a real website too!

Our Staff Video.

Meet The Staff : Peter & Kenzie from Community Transformations on Vimeo.

Update: In Kona, Hawaii

We would like to apologize for the lack of updates in the last two months since leaving South Africa.
We spent about three weeks on the main land with family, friends, and supporters, and since then have made our way to Kona, Hawaii. We will post about the campus here soon and more of why the Lord has called us to this base specifically, but for now we just wanted to briefly share about what we are actually doing here.

We have been preparing for students to arrive for the school we are staffing called Community Transformations DTS. A DTS is 'discipleship training school' where students come to get trained to go into the nations and discipled in the process, this school is six months long. DTS is the entry level program for YWAM. We both did this same school two years ago in 2010, and had our lives radically transformed by Jesus. The cool thing about DTS is you get people of all ages and all walks of life, people from many different nations and with different callings on their lives. But the one thing that remains constant in almost everyone that comes to DTS, is the true hunger for Jesus and to see His name glorified in all nations and all spheres of society. We are so grateful to be part of this experience and pass on things we have learned over the last two years/ continue on the process of looking more like Jesus everyday. (We are looking at around 120 students for the Comm Trans school, and about 450 DTS students total. )

As of now, preparing for us looks like a ton of admin work in the DTS office processing applications for all schools. It has been an honor to work in the office and see future students really get excited, and even get to walk with them in their struggles with finances has been so cool and increases faith in our hearts even as we pray and see the Lord provide for them in multiple ways. When we are not in the office, we are more than likely in the prayer room which has been such a joy. We have multiple times each week of corporate intercession on the base, which has been really great to be part of. We have really even more in the last few months learned the Lord's faithfulness in the place of prayer. We have about two teaching days each week, where we have intentional teachings on leadership, and really cultivating the culture we will set for this coming school and for the rest of our lives as leaders.

**Thank you for your faithfulness and willingness to love us, pray for us and support us in what the Lord has called us to. We will write again soon filling you in on ways you can help and pray for us as well as just keeping you updated on further details of what we are involved in. 

Harvest Bashta- Make Us Ready

The song we cannot get out of our heads these days, I guess it's our heart cry...

Almost there...

No we have not left yet, but come Monday morning we will head for the airport, onto the next bit of the journey Jesus has in store for us. This is such a bitter sweet feeling for us. Looking back at the last year of life and everything that Lord has done, how we've even grown up here, fell in love & became a family. We have got to pour ourselves out into a community, and sometimes failed but bottom line, Jesus made His name known more and more, and I fell blessed to have been part of it this last year. My thoughts are still all over the place, but we are in deed ready. 

For all you people in Southern California: 

We look forward to seeing you!

Testify- Tickets booked and ready to go!

I don't think we have been totally on it when it comes to updating you on testimonies in our own personal lives, which we are deeply sorry for. So with that being said we are going to take this time to testify that we now officially have plane tickets from here to Kona, Hawaii with stops at our families homes along the way! As many of you already know, our year commitment to the community plant here is South Africa is over, and as much as we love this place and every way the Lord is moving here, it is our joy to follow Him to Kona, Hawaii to staff the Community Transformation DTS for the next two September schools. We will update more on that later, but for now I am so excited to celebrate Jesus in getting us these tickets after months of being uncertain on how to even pay rent (not to mention one way tickets to Hawaii are extremely expensive). But Jesus told us to leave here on May 28th, and He made a way! & thank you so much to all who donated, you continue to bless us in so many ways.

Check back for dates of fundraising events in California coming soon! 

Oh Glorious Day.

It rained all day and was super cold over here in Cape Town, but Jesus was glorified and that was pure beauty. For me (Kenzie), it began helping out at Thanda Scrubs, followed by an amazing lunch with my friend Hannah, then off to a baptism of I think six people total, a dinner with our friend from Masi, followed by time in tears laughing with our friends Josh and Rebecca. I am so thankful for days like this. Majority of the girls getting baptized met the Lord in the last week during a bible study at the Jesus house, held by the Fire & Fragrance outreach team that is here. It is so encouraging to me to watch new believers say yes to Jesus and display it publicly in front of others. And to top it all off, our friend DZ who comes over for dinner every Thursday night, told us he too would like to be baptized,and will be doing so tomorrow afternoon! Praise the good Lord for souls longing to be with Him!

Kids + Art

This was a little bit of how Thursday looked at the Jesus house.

I absolutely love the children of Masiphumelele, they continue to bless me even when they act up. These boys got a nice little lesson the other day in obeying and being honoring. But regardless, they all want love and that is what I will continue to give them.  It is a joy. 

Our week in Masiphumelele...

This week was so full of joy. We spent time with many of our friends, I (Kenzie) got to share Jesus with some ladies that had been very closed off in the past. Peter spent a few afternoons with his good friends Fabio and Eddie in the shop they have back in the wetlands. The outreach teams from the Crossroads DTS and Fire & Fragrance DTS came to join us here for the next the next few months, (Fire & Fragrance team now stays in the Jesus House in Masi.) We got to watch our little friend Fungai for a few hours on Wednesday, while his baby sister Carol was sick. I also got to spend some time with my friend Sike, whom I adore, Jesus continues to teach her so many amazing things. YWAM Muizenberg's base worship was held in Masiphumelele this week, which was so much fun. YWAM, All Nation's, and other ministries, along with many of our African brothers and sisters came to celebrate Jesus together. We had a late night hospital run, on no gas ( which Jesus definitely multiplied for us) for our friend Vussie. I will not be sharing any of the details, he is okay and got discharged yesterday morning., so Pete and our friend Siya went to pick him up, they got to bless him with a meal and insight on Jesus' love for him. Please be in prayer for him. Our friend DZ came over for dinner which is always good to catch up and talk about what Jesus has been speaking to one another, this week we talked about humility. As always on Friday afternoon's, we have a community thankfulness and communion time, it's so good to celebrate with one another the goodness of Jesus in our lives. We hope your week was as great as ours, and as always, thank you for your prayers.
Blessings,
The Mitchell's 

Worshiping Jesus on the streets.

This is our good friend Jake Mason, worshiping with the kids yesterday afternoon in the township, right outside of the Jesus house! Such glory!

Instagram

Instagram picture of Peter in Masi with our friends Nceba and Naomi. 

Worship night in Masi

This video was taken a month or two ago in Masiphumelele at the Jesus house. Our friends from the Comm Trans DTS were here as well as many African friends from the township. Such a joy to worship with friends. Enjoy!

Pray with us// Grandpa Freddy

My (Makenzie) grandma passed away the other morning after a stroke. This is my first experience with death really, so it was quite hard on me especially being so far away and longing to be there for my grandpa. As I sat yesterday morning with Peter, I just smiled and told stories about how in love grandma and grandpa were, and all the beautiful memories I have of my sweet, sweet grandmother. These last few years had been getting harder and harder on her, right before the wedding in December she fell on a step and broke her hip, so my soul is at such delight knowing grandma gets to dance with Jesus, and just meet her maker like she was intended to.

My mom, little sister, and aunt Bonnie flew from California to Florida already along with my uncle Dan from Michigan to be with Grandpa Freddy. So please be praying for them all. As I have told everyone who asks about her, grandma and grandpa's marriage and love has had a huge impact in my life. Just a year ago, when I had got home from Africa the first time, I got to talk on the phone with grandma Arline for about an hour and she told me all about the first time she met grandpa, how he tried to impress her on the roller rink. She was able to tell me every detail from what they each were wearing. Grandpa took really good care of her, and always called her his "beautiful bride". He would carry her purse, open every door, always make sure she was okay and feeling loved and adored. They have been married for over 60 years. In later years, when I realized how special they were to each other, and unlike anything I had ever seen, except for maybe in the Notebook, but this was real life, and I swore I would have a marriage that looked something like theirs.

When Peter and I got engaged, my parents were shocked we decided to get married so fast and even tried to convince us that our original plans to get married in March or July would be better, but we knew it was of the Lord for us to do it in December instead. Which is amazing on so many levels because my grandma was able to be there, we were all able to have her last Christmas together, and it was not long ago since we all have seen her. Oh and Peter got to spend time with her which is maybe the sweetest thing of all.

Please continue to pray for Grandpa Freddy especially as he is at a whole new place than he has been in over 60 years. His role was to look after his bride and now that shes gone, I know he is having a hard time already wrapping his head around everything. Pray that the Lord continues to comfort his soul and really just refresh his spirit. The funeral will be this coming Sunday, and I wish with everything that I could be there. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Our video to Real Life Church

Peter and Makenzie from Real Life Church on Vimeo.

Buy coffee, a new kind of support.

Dear friends,

About one month ago we came across this really rad organization that supports missionaries through coffee sales. We applied, and the accepted us. Now I know many of you long to support what God is doing here, but cannot necessarily be consistent from month to month, but this is a great way to get involved! Here's how it works; go to their website by clicking here, then purchase a bag of coffee. For every bag of coffee sold, we will receive $5 of the proceed. Which can really start to add up, so everyone pass the word that we are doing this, and even by buying coffee you can sew into the Kingdom! 

Blessings,

Peter & Makenzie