As I look outside, rain is coming down hard. When you live in a climate that doesn’t change much, a sudden down-pour, with a massive temperature drop, is cause for celebration…..It’s also motivating me to do a blog update, something that we haven’t done all year. Here’s a picture of Austin, who just returned from a run, soaked! See, I told you it was raining!!

The first 3 months of this year have just flown by! Paul staffed the Justice Ships DTS at Port YWAM under the leadership of our close friend, Sean Murphy, who we’ve known since 2002. This DTS role was in addition to Paul’s normal role, not instead of. And because the school was at Port YWAM, not at University of the Nations, this meant many trips back and forth. Fortunately, Port YWAM is only about a mile down the road!!

The school had a total of 43 students, and 24 staff, from many different nations, including one Kiwi and a few Aussies, which was fun for Paul. The “lecture phase” of the school focused on personal discipleship. Speakers taught on topics like hearing God’s voice, God’s Father heart, Spiritual Warfare, Evangelism, etc.

Paul’s role was to take care of the school finances. Sean, the school leader, commented that he’s never had a school with such clean finances! 🙂 Paul also had 2 “one on one’s”, which was a weekly time of discipleship with Isaac & Pete, two of the students. Here’s a picture of Paul with Isaac, shortly before Isaac left for outreach. Below that one is a picture of Pete and his family, on their way to the airport. It was so fun getting to know both of them better, and to be able to encourage them in their faith.

After 3 months of “being transformed by the renewing of our minds”, the outreach teams began departing at the end of March, with the last team leaving April 7th. They are now spreading the gospel in 8 nations: Cambodia, France, Haiti, Micronesia, Panama, Thailand, Togo and Vanuatu.

The team to Vanuatu was a response to the category 5 storm “Cyclone Pam” that devastated that country on March 13th, with winds of up to 200MPH. Within days of the storm, we were able to mobilize a team of 7. The team is helping to bring physical relief in terms of restoring shelter for some of the thousands of people who have lost their homes, and spiritual relief, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Here’s a cool video about YWAM Ships, which features Nick Mason, one of the students from our DTS. For his outreach, he is spending 1 month in Vanuatu, and then going on to Haiti.

The teams will return to Kona at the end of May, for a time of debriefing and graduation from the school. We are so excited to hear their stories and testimonies of all that the Lord has done through them in the nations.

So, what now? It’s back to our normal schedule. Because of the hectic schedule during the DTS, we’ve been intentionally laying low for the past few days, trying to recover from what was an intense season.

For those on our email list, you will know that Josiah and Lynnette are in the midst of planning an outreach to Cambodia this July. The purpose of this trip is to give Josiah a solid foundation in his walk with the Lord before he starts High School next school year. They will work alongside the YWAM ministry in Battambang. Ministries there include orphanage, sports, youth center, teaching English, cafe; tons to be involved with. They can’t wait to be part of it. If you’d like to be part of making this 4-week outreach a reality, we’ve set up a GoFundMe page: www.gofund.me/ryk5dzg.

We were also hoping to make a return trip to Washington this Summer, in June. However, the financing for that has not eventuated. We are bummed, as we were very much looking forward to visiting family and friends. But we feel it is the best choice, to avoid going into debt.

For those of you who are part of our support team, we are SO APPRECIATIVE of you. Literally, we cannot serve in YWAM without our financial partners. So, you share in all the things the Lord is doing around the world, through the ministry of YWAM Kona. If you would like to join our support team, please visit our partner page at www.RandersonOhana.com to find out how you can join our team. And since it’s April 15th, I will remind you that donations to our ministry are tax deductible for U.S. taxpayers.

Thanks for reading! God Bless you!