Had
more than twenty come out to the House of Prayer in our apartment
tonight. Such a good time in the presence of God. Experiencing an
incredible move of the Holy Spirit in Pohnpei, Micronesia.
MATTHEW 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to all nations. And then the end shall come." PSALM 86:9, "All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name." REVELATION 5:9, "You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation."
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Ministry at PICS High School
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
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Ministry at PICS High School
So many doors
have opened up to us for ministry here in Pohnpei, Micronesia. We have
officially partnered with Every Home for Christ, a radical group of
Jesus-lovers that we worked with when we were missionaries here in the
past. One of the doors that have opened up to us through this
partnership is to be able to go into PICS public high school once or
twice a week and minister to the students.
.
Once a week
I've been ministering to the students that attend HSSC, High School
Students for Christ, which is a Christian club. Every other week I will
be sharing with students during their English class. For today's English
class, I took my guitar and sang, "Your Love Never Fails" by Jesus
Culture. Then I had them try to remember some of the lyrics I had sung
and wrote them on the chalkboard. After that I talked to them about the
love of God and used the story of the prodigal son. I found it amazing
that (1) the students were on the edge of their seats listening to every
word and (2) that I am allowed to share the gospel freely at a public
school. I am looking forward to more good times with these high school
students this school year. If you think about it, please pray for them,
that the Holy Spirit would draw them into the arms of Heavenly Father
through the love of Jesus Christ.
.
Christian Young
Sunday, September 23, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Exposing the Darkness
U, Pohnpei
This morning,
some of our other friends who were at our Saturday night fellowship
asked if we could anoint the new local house they are building on their
land in the “U” municipality, as the wooden beams have already been
invaded by bugs . The locals are attributing this to a curse and have
been trying to get our friends to use more black magic to combat it. Our
friends denied their request and are trusting in Jesus to break this
curse. I anointed every wooden post with oil and in the Pohnpeian
language wrote Joshua 24:15 on the center post which says, “As for me
and my house, we shall serve the LORD.” We all prayed together and
dedicated the home to Jesus, breaking off all curses and black magic.
These same friends had an amazing encounter with the Holy Spirit at our
fellowship last night and said that for the first time, their family
didn’t argue at home in Kolonia. They want us to pray over their house
in Kolonia as well because black magic was placed in the cement as the
front fence was being built. On our way to their home in “U” this
morning, Jonas and I saw a half-naked woman who didn’t seem to be in her
right mind shouting at our friends in the car ahead of us. Our friends
said that they have taken care of her for a long time now, giving her
shampoo and helping her to shower. It was the first time she has ever
cursed them. It gave our friends the goose bumps. We know that when a
line is drawn in the sand, and through faith in Christ we choose to be
children of the light, the darkness is exposed as we simply live our
lives. For whatever reason, the battle between light and darkness is
more “in your face” here in Micronesia and in other foreign nations we
have lived in and traveled to. But the truth is, this battle is all
around us no matter where we are in the world. The question is: Will we
choose to shine the light of Christ?
Sunday, September 23, 2012
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Exposing the Darkness
We’ve had an
incredible weekend of exposing the darkness here on the island of
Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. On Friday night, Jonas
and I decided to go on a treasure hunt, asking the Lord to lead us to
His treasures that are hidden in the darkness. On Friday nights Kolonia
town is bustling with Pohnpeians gathering at sakau bars where they get
intoxicated on the mild narcotic called kava, or in the local language,
“sakau en Pohnpei.” On the surface it doesn’t seem entirely bad, but
more of a cultural practice. I’m still not certain what to think about
it as it is such an integral part of Pohnpeian culture and society.
Pohnpeians use sakau en Pohnpei at traditional feasts and gatherings, at
times offering the cups of sakau to the spirits before they drink it.
So there is a spiritual connection with sakau en Pohnpei that needs to
be carefully and delicately looked at. But the modern sakau bars seem to
be a place where Pohnpeians drink in order to escape the stresses of
life and to help them sleep well as the drug has a calming effect. We
hear Pohnpeians say that they drink it so that they can fall asleep,
which means it probably has addictive qualities, as other narcotics do.
It is also a social practice, where they hang out with old friends and
meet new friends at the sakau bars. From what we’ve heard, many
Pohnpeians will fall into adulterous relationships at these modern sakau
bars. Whatever the case, if Jesus was walking the streets of Kolonia
town in Pohnpei, He would more than likely be hanging out with the
“least of these” who self-medicate at the sakau bars. So on Friday
night, after cruising around Kolonia and praying for God to lead us to
the right people, Jonas and I felt led to hang out with some of the
youth in our neighborhood near the sakau bar close to our house. We live
in a section of Kolonia called, “Chinatown.” We want to prophetically
rename the area, “Shekinatown,” as we want to see the Shekinah glory of
God inundate this place. We went and bought some sodas at the sakau bar,
then sat with the local youth that we always see playing basketball and
hanging out every day. They kept their distance at first and didn’t
seem so welcoming of us. I think it may have been because they were all
underage and drinking alcohol from a bottle. We just sat and spoke with
them in English and Pohnpeian. Then one guy named Troy came and hung
out. He is older than the rest and is half Yapese, half American. At
first he was a bit “stand-offish” as well, but as Jonas and I just sat
and listened, he began to ask questions of us. We engaged in some really
good conversation with him and the others, didn’t once condemn them for
their drinking, but just sat there, loving on them all. They’ve invited
Jonas and I to come and hang out with them anytime. Thank you Jesus for
leading us to these treasures. It has been said, “it is better to shine
the light than to curse the darkness.”
.
On Saturday
night we had our usual gathering in our apartment. We believe these
gatherings to be the beginning of the House of Prayer that we will start
here in Pohnpei. Our friends came in and we had an awesome time of
prayer and worship. I had our friends write down on a piece of paper all
of their personal prayer requests, then on the other side all of the
things they would like to see change in Pohnpei. Then as we worshiped
together, we took time to pray through all of the requests. It was an
incredible time in the presence of God. Before and after our time of
prayer and worship, we always get to have such good conversations with
our friends. The more we sit and listen to their stories, the more we
realize how dark the darkness really is here in Pohnpei. Of course from
living here before we knew about the history of Pohnpei being the center
for human sacrificing in the islands. We also had experience tremendous
opposition and outright open attacks from the enemy as we saw many
youth delivered from evil spirits and cling to Jesus. We also knew of
the black magic that is practiced here, but are coming to realize how
many Pohnpeians are involved in such practices, even though many of them
are professing Christians. This Saturday night, the daughter of one of
our friends wanted prayer. A few months ago she had accompanied her
parents to pray for a girl who was demon-possessed. Her parents were
able to cast out the evil spirits from the girl, but the daughter had an
open door in her life due to a pattern of sin, and from that time on
the demons began to torment her and her older sister. Because of the
demonic oppression, the daughter lost over 50% of her hearing and was
even vomiting metal objects that she had never swallowed. So on Saturday
night, we had her close the doors to the enemy by repenting of her sin.
Then we anointed her ears with oil and prayed for her
healing. Within moments, her hearing had been completely restored. When
the light of Christ exposes the darkness, evil must flee.
.
Christian Young
.
Update on the house that we prayed for...the termites were prematurely
eating the wooden posts...so we anointed every post with oil and
commanded the termites to leave in Jesus' name, breaking off all black
magic that had been placed on the house...and now two weeks later, there
are no more termites. Booyah! That's called dominion over creation!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Trip to Liduduniap Falls
Saturday, September 22, 2012
.
Trip to Liduduniap Falls
Today there was
no school, so we decided we would take a little trip to Liduduniap
Falls. Before we left I’d heard a story of four guys who died there
because a curse was put on them. A huge flood came and drowned them. I
was a little scared because dad said it was a dark place. But as we
drove there I thought about how God was protecting us and how
the angels were surrounding us then and I felt comforted. We got there
and we had to walk down some mossy, uneven steps to the falls. Once we
got to Liduduniap, I thought about the meaning of the name of the falls.
Lih=lady, Duhdu=shower, Ni Yap=from Yap (Yapese). So the person who
named it obviously thought it looked like a Yapese woman taking a
shower. Didn’t make sense to me. We took some pictures and it started to
rain, so we made our way back home.
.
Jordan Young
When we got
there…we walked down a narrow trail with lots of flowers. When the trail
ended, there was steps that led down to the waterfall. Dad took some
pictures of us all sitting on the rocks. I thought it was really fun.
.
Justine Young
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Re-Learning the Pohnpeian Language
Nett, Pohnpei
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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Re-Learning the Pohnpeian Language
“I anahne
pwureng esehla lokaia en Pohnpei,” (I need to re-learn how to speak
Pohnpeian) is often said early in conversations that I have with
Pohnpeians in their indigenous language. WeI have decided to
spend a good portion of our time in these early months back here on the
island of Pohnpei re-learning the language. Although I was near fluent
in Pohnpeian twelve years ago, learning to speak Polish, Portuguese,
Spanish and Yao on our journeys has made me realize that I am getting
older, and because of this, am having a more difficult time cataloguing
each of these languages in my mind. In saying that it’s only been two
weeks back in Pohnpei and it seems to all be coming back to us quickly.
.
Every other
day, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we have been driving to
Nan Pohnmal where our friend Joyce lives and re-learning the language
from her and her niece, Stephanie, both of whom were in our youth group
many years ago. We are having a blast re-learning the Pohnpeian language
and get to have fellowship with our dear friends at the same time. We
are filling up our notebooks with the notes that we are taking on the
language. My thoughts are that we will be speaking near fluently again
within the first six months back in Pohnpei.
.
We are in turn taking what we are learning from Joyce and Stephanie, and
teaching our children how to read, write and speak Pohnpeian as well.
Our children have had the wonderful opportunity to learn and speak
different languages depending on what countries we have lived in
throughout their childhood. They continue to fill up their language
learning notebooks and even get to illustrate what they are learning to
make it more fun. Almost all of our kid’s classmates are Micronesian, so
they get to try out what they are learning here at home with them. It
is amazing how quickly our children adjust to new cultures. At least
this time, our plans are to stay here indefinitely, which means that our
kids will be able to stay the course in learning and using Pohnpeian
here in Micronesia. As missionaries, we place a high value on learning
to communicate with the indigenous population in their heart language.
Soon our whole family will be fluent Pohnpeian speakers.
.
Christian Young
Friday, September 14, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Nahlap Trip
Friday, September 14, 2012
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Nahlap Trip
As a part of
attending Calvary Christian Academy, I was required to take part in a
“Junior-Senior Leadership Camp” where the school takes the upper
classmen off island for a few days to learn about being spiritual
leaders in our school. The school took us to a small island resort on
the island of Nahlap, off the southern coast of Pohnpei.
.
Our guest
speaker for the three days was a Baptist pastor from Guam, who taught on
various topics based on questions we all wrote down on note cards.
These questions included ones asking about alcohol, drugs, sex, music,
etc. To be honest, most of was taught was either review for me, or I
just did not agree with what was taught.
.
However, I
actually did enjoy my time there because it gave me an opportunity to
get to know my classmates better. I’ve gotten to know my fellow juniors
pretty well, due to being in a small class and having almost all the
same classes each day. So I really enjoyed getting to know the seniors
better and make friends with them. We all spent lots of time together
swimming, eating, playing games and other activities. This brought us
all together, and made us even closer friends than before.
.
Jonas Young
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Pics from Nett Point
Beautiful panoramic of Sokehs Island and the Pacific from the beach at Nett Point
Christian doing some spearfishing at Nett Point
Stephanie and Jarleen having some fun at Nett Point
Christian doing a backflip off the old dock at Nett Point
Some beautiful tropical fish taken with our underwater camera
Monday, September 10, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Revival - Our 1999 Totyota Spacio Vehicle
Monday, September 10, 2012
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Revival - Our 1999 Toyota Spacio Vehicle
We are blessed beyond imagination. We sold our 2002 Honda Civic back in the U.S. to our good friends James and Jody Atchley in hopes to be able to use that money to purchase a used vehicle in Pohnpei. We were originally told before came that we would probably need around $8,000 to buy a good, used vehicle from Japan. We were a little bummed about that since we only had $2,500 saved from the sale of our car. So when the girls and I arrived, we began the search for a used vehicle in our price range. Everything seemed really over-priced to us. I went to the relative of one of our Pohnpeian friends if he knew of any used vehicles for sale. It just so happened that he was wanting to sell one of his vehicles that he used for his business. When we asked him how much, he said $2,500. We checked out the vehicle, drove it around and loved it! Again, we are so blessed!
.
The vehicle is a 1999 Toyota Spacio from Japan, so the driver's side is on the right, even though we drive on the right side of the road here in Pohnpei. Makes you kind of feel like a mailman or something. :) It seats seven comfortably, although we've already squeezed more people than that into the car. They don't have seatbelt rules here. The speed limit is 25 miles per hour around the entire island. We have named our new vehicle, "Revival" as we believe it is prophetic of what is going to take place here in Pohnpei, Micronesia, the Pacific islands and beyond! Woohoo!
.
Christian Young
Sunday, September 9, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - First Day of School at CCA
Jonas, Jordan and Justine on their first day of school together in Pohnpei. Looking pretty good in their school uniforms.
MICRONESIA 2012 - First Prayer and Worship Meeting at our Apartment
Kolonia, Pohnpei
Sunday, September 9, 2012
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First Prayer and Worship Meeting at our Apartment
So we’ve moved back to Pohnpei with an agenda: To take the
hand of Daddy and to take the hand of His Micronesian bride and join the two
together. Of course, the vision that God has given us reaches beyond the
Pacific islands, but we are coming back to Micronesia “low and slow.” As our
family has been praying and dialoguing about how to start out our ministry
here, we felt led to just open up our apartment on Saturday evenings for prayer
and worship. We invited a handful of our Pohnpeian friends and family yesterday
and had an INCREDIBLE first meeting!
.
Our friends Johnny, Joyce, Ingrid, Jarleen, Stephanie and
Helen, along with some of their little ones came out. We led
a time of worship in Pohnpeian and English. The manifest presence of God was so
tangible. Then we invited them to come to the middle for prayer one by one. All
of them wanted prayer. We prayed for them and for their families. We felt to
break off generational curses and magic that had been placed upon them through
their family lines. We ministered SOZO and the Father’s heart to them, helping
them to break off lies that they have believed about themselves and about God. ONE
of them made a first-time decision to receive Christ…we led her
through a simple prayer of salvation. THREE of them received a baptism of the
Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues for the first time. They all said
that they felt “lighter” after our time of ministry together. We had such a
good time in our little apartment. I can’t wait for next Saturday evening.
These are the days of humble beginnings back in Micronesia and we are ecstatic
to be back “home” in Pohnpei.
.
Christian Young
Friday, September 7, 2012
MICRONESIA 2012 - Arrival in Pohnpei
Friday, September 7, 2012
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Arrival in Pohnpei
Well the girls
and I finally made it to Pohnpei after waiting in Guam for two and a
half weeks for their passports to be renewed. We had an amazing time
with our new friends and family in Guam, but it has been so nice to be
reunited with family at home in Pohnpei. That's what it feels
like here, too...that we are finally HOME.
.
Getting Settled In
We are renting a
two bedroom apartment from Bernard's, which funny enough is the same
people we rented our first apartment from when we arrived here in the
late '90's. It is a modest apartment, but is inexpensive, which is what
we need right now. It has a working stove and refridgerator. For the
time being we are all sleeping on the floor using our sleeping mats. We
purchased our first pieces of furniture the other day: one platic table
and five plastic chairs. We are definitely returning to Pohnpei "low and
slow." The view from our apartment is nice. We use fans to try and cool
us down during the day and while we sleep at night. The temperature in
Pohnpei is around 80 degrees and between 80% and 90% humidity. We will
try to write more about the culture and climate in future blog posts.
.
We live close
enough to the center of town so that we can pretty much walk everywhere
that we need to go. We do need a family car, though. We have been
praying into it and yesterday, we checked out a used Toyota minivan that
some friends were selling for the same price that we sold our Honda
Civic for back in the U.S. Jonas has been attending school at Calvary
Christian Academy, which is one of two private schools on the island.
Jordan and Justine just went to CCA to take their placement tests
yesterday. More pics to come of the kids in their school uniforms. :)
.
Reconnecting with our Pohnpeian Family
It is amazing
how the love of God for one another transcends both time and distance.
We have been reconnecting with our Pohnpeian friends and family. It has
been so wonderful to see Johnny, Ruth, Cynthia, Jane, Ingrid, Senelyn
and Penry. Even after twelve years, our friends are so young and
beautiful. We've been offered different pieces of land to both build our
house as well as the new Iris base on. I am in the process of getting
"Iris Micronesia" registered as a non-profit here. God is giving us
incredible favor in Micronesia.
.
Jonas has been taking various pics. We love this journey that
the Lord has us on and are so thankful to Him that you get to share in
this beautiful journey with us.
.
Christian Young
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Guam 2012 - Repenting of Colonialism
Saturday, September 1, 2012
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Prayer Meetings at Sally's House
Powerful
worship and intercession is being lifted heavenward from the Pacific
Islands...God is speaking...we are listening...tonight at a prayer
meeting westerners washed the feet of the indigenous Chamorro of Guam
while repenting of the colonialism that has taken
place in the name of missions...in the spirit, an angry sea creature
that's been hell-bent and out to destroy the work of God in the Pacific
has been killed and it's carcass has been washed ashore in a distant
land...cloaks of humility and love are being handed to the saints of God
as keys to unlock the doors of His Kingdom coming in power to the
Pacific Islands...prophetic words are being spoken over people and
nations...the sick are being anointed and prayed for...songs of praise
and worship are both bringing deeper intimacy with the Father and
breaking chains that have held people captive for centuries...the
watchmen and the intercessor are being called to rise up and position
themselves for war...get ready all you islands of the Pacific...the
Kingdom of God is here...embrace your destiny...you belong to Jesus!
.
Christian Young