Trying to get to Redding, CA for the Holidays (& to the Mediterranean Sea for Ministry)!!

So friends,

I want to drive to Redding, CA (my former home) this holiday season to visit my friends and my church...

And I have an awesome ministry opportunity to staff a sailing ship with YWAM in the Mediterranean Sea for January and February...I will be helping in whatever ways they need (basically, I don't know specifics). We will be evangelizing, discipling, and encouraging the local churches along the way!!! This is SO on my heart, and something I believe God has for me to learn there.

BUT...

THE DILEMMA...IS...

I don't have the money yet...

I need money for gas and food for Redding, CA,

and

I need money for my plane ticket and and living expenses while staffing the 42 meter sailing ship! I am trying to buy my plane ticket by Friday, December 19, 2008.

And I am hoping to leave for Redding, CA by Monday, December 22, 2008.

If you would like to find out more, or feel led to help out, please e-mail me ASAP at speppermintz@gmail.com!

Thank you for being part of my life!!!! I could not fulfill the Lord's call on me without you in my life!!!

Shannon

imagine december 2008

Above Pic: Enjoying the view off Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park.

Discover... New Adventures...

sights... mtns, lakes, mtn goats, sounds... laughter, silence, friends, smells... nature, bbq

I love summer. Although I was sad to see my Winter DTS students go, summers in Montana are an awesome and beautiful time. After working the month of June as base receptionist and performing in a play, I took the 4th of July weekend to visit my dear friend Paula in Calgary, Alberta Canada. It was a splendid visit with her and mini-break to a new city. After my return I transitioned to serve as grounds crew for the base. I loved working hard outside all day, watering lawns, planting flower beds and trees, and pulling nap weed. My friend Kate and I dedicated ourselves to trimming all the trees on the base!

My summer continued as I traveled by train to visit my parents. We embarked on an old family past time, camping, at Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River. I then spent a week with my sister Marte before her wedding. On August 24th family and friends gathered to celebrate Marte and Devon’s marriage. What a beautiful, blessed day!

Back at the base, my days were mostly filled with brush strokes-climbing roofs and scaffolding to paint siding! They were renovating the DTS dorm all summer, and by August we were in the mad rush to finish before the fall schools began. We squeezed in prep time for the fall school around these painting sessions!

Fall 2008 Discipleship Training School was ON before I knew it! I loved these students. They were a quieter classroom group but so desiring to go deep with God. From the beginning of this school, I felt that many have leadership potential! It’s exciting to see that is true and to be part of their discipleship and discovery process! I can’t believe I am so blessed to do this--to pour into young people’s lives, future leaders, missionaries, who are learning who God is, who they are in Christ, and how to impact today and tomorrow for Christ! They left on outreach Dec. 3-6 to Brazil, Cambodia, India, and Thailand, Malaysia. Please continue to pray for them, that they would be released into witnessing about the Savior of the world!

Summer Playin' Pics

During my free time, I became friends with the DTS Equip students and hiked the breathtaking surrounding mountains: Mt. Aeneas at Jewel Basin, Hidden Lake Trail at Glacier National Park, and Big Mountain near Whitefish (black and white photo above).

New Possibilities...Setting Sail...

Above Pic: My Fall DTS Small Group (L-R): Me, Jenn (BC, Canada), Christy (OR), Emily (England), and Jentry (MT).

I am not going on outreach with this school but have the amazing opportunity to serve on a 42 meter sailing ship called the Next Wave with YWAM’s Marine Reach Ministries for January and February. This came about through praying about what I would do between staffing the fall and spring schools at YWAM Montana (I am staffing Spring ’09 DTS), a desire to go back on outreach, to go on a boat, and back to the Mediterranean. When I searched the internet, I found YWAM had ship ministry, and a ship would be in the Mediterranean! The purpose of the Next Wave is “to demonstrate Christ’s heart of hope and compassion to those in need around the world” through humanitarian and reconciliation efforts (mercy ministries such as medical teams, community development), and evangelistic outreaches while training its staff and crew in character and leadership development, “[raising] up leaders of tomorrow” (http://www.marine reach.info ; /?page_id=61 ; /?page_id=33).

While I am there, a School of Biblical Studies and DTS outreach will be on board, and we will be in the Mediterranean area, the port in Sicily, and sailing to the DTS’s outreach locations (possibly to some of Paul’s missionary locations). As of yet, I do not know my specific jobs, but I will be crew, supporting the needs of the ship, staff, and students. I also hope to grow in new ways and learn more about community, discipleship, and leadership through this new aspect of YWAM community and ministry. I am excited to be on outreach, to minister to staff and students, and to reach out to the locals. Also, we may be docking in Izmir, Turkey, my outreach location this spring. If this happens, I would be so blessed to reconnect with the friends I made there--I pray the Lord would work and reveal Himself through ongoing friendships with them!

Thank you for being a part of my adventures. May Christ bless you this Christmas season. Shannon

Some Fall DTS 08 Pics

1. Me, Kelsie, Ruth on mini outreach, Spokane, WA

2. Dance Track performing Be Near to Me, Cafe Night (me in center)

3. Bruce & I with Japanese students, who were learning English, Spokane, WA

Would you help me set...SAIL?

In addition to meeting my regular monthly support (I still have staff fees in MT), I will need support for airline tickets and my expenses on the ship (estimate min. $1,600 needed). If God is leading you to partner with me, please let me know SOON as I need plane tickets and hope to leave early January! Please e-mail me at speppermintz@gmail.com if you would like to contact me or want more info on how to give. Thank you and God bless you. Shannon

The Bus Ride

Above Picture: While we worship at the park, Turkish youth gather around to listen and talk with us.

Saturday, May 3, 2008, part of our team left Izmir, Turkey with our contacts to help with a birthday, while the rest of us went to the memorial service for the death of a Turkish Christian who was murdered one year ago (along with two others). Our way there was quite the experience.

First, we know we have to take the 1:00 p.m. ferry to Konak to get to the bus depot (no problem—done that before). Then we have to get on a specific bus at 2:00 p.m. This is where it gets tricky. Our pastor wrote instructions IN TURKISH for us to show the bus driver so he would know where to stop the bus (I do not know what the note says), and so I show it to our Turkish speaking (no English, mind you) bus driver, and he nods. Okay, so I think we are set.

We wind through the city to places I have never seen before, gazing out the windows, but not really worried—yet. But it seems to be taking longer and longer, and I begin to wonder (as the responsible one for my team), “Are we on the right bus? Did we miss our stop? Does the bus driver understand the note?” The driver motions and speaks to me in Turkish—I have no idea what he says. But when he stops next and by interpreting his charade-like gestures and assuming what his Turkish words are, he says, "Get off now, and get on that bus over there." (Just to give you a picture of what this looks like, imagine our driver, an older than middle-aged but not quite elderly man, with mostly dark, but graying hair. He is rolly, wrinkly, and weathered on his face, and he looks like he is more that just sitting on but he is melded to his seat, slouched over and encompassing the entire area of the driver's side.) At this, I am thinking, "What is he saying? Ack!! What is he saying?" But we all get off the bus anyway onto a street surrounded by tall apartment buildings--obviously, there is no cemetery in sight in this residential area. And then I discover that there is a bus across the street waiting for us, which is heading in the direction we came from. Our gruff, dear bus driver had flagged down a passing bus for us to ride!

As we wind back through the city I am thinking that at least we will make it back to the bus depot and not be lost anymore. My girl students tell me that they like the "great bus adventure." And I am a bit fatigued with getting us lost with no translator in a Turkish city. But as it nears 3:00 p.m. and Pastor Can, I am sure, thinks we will miss the service or be late (he told us specifically not to be late), I see stone crosses behind a stonewall! I get excited and know it's a small Christian cemetery (there is a large Muslim cemetery across the road), and the bus pulls over and lets us off. We walk into the gate at 3:00 or 3:01. Pastor Can is waiting expectantly. Now we stand in the beating sun, our skin growing redder minute by minute, watching people we do not know, listening to words we do not understand, nor understanding what it feels like to lose a loved one because he believed in Jesus.

This martyr reminds me of another martyr 2,000 years ago, Stephen in Acts 6-7, who was killed for his faith in Jesus Christ. When faced with false accusations, he did not ignore the Holy Spirit. But Stephen preached boldly to his accusers, testifying of the tapestry of love and salvation God has brought to prepare the Way for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, our sins are forgiven, and we are made righteous, able to come into personal and direct relationship with the triune, holy God.

What must this person have been thinking before death? Maybe, I can imagine that he was full of the Holy Spirit like Stephen, able to forgive his enemies in the face of death and seeing the Hope set before him--Jesus at the right hand of God. This overwhelms and compels me to share this gift, which God desires each person to have, what this man, Stephen, and I will inherit for eternity--access to God on His throne. How is God moving you? I pray He moves you to seek Him more deeply and live out this gift of Life so others may know Him!