Radical

After spending four days in Salu, an Indian village outside of Darjeeling, I now understand what the word radical means.  I had the opportunity to be a part of the village's church service this past Sunday. And it was amazing! We had the service in a small classroom of a school. We had about 35 people, including our team, squeezed into this small classroom. It was a good bonding time with the village people to say the least. If any of you have read Radical by David Platt, his story about the house church with one lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, no chairs, and no sound system, pretty much summed up this service! For the first time in my life, I saw what raw worship looks like. And it was incredible to be able to join (even though I couldn't understand the words haha). I realized that all the nonsense we try to place in the way, to "help" us get a better worship experience, most of the time actually doesn't do that. It is when we have nothing left, that it is easiest to worship God, not ourselves. 

God also presented me with an opportunity to bless a brother. Sunday afternoon, he asked me to give my guitar to Barnabas, a 21 year old teacher and worship leader in the village. I knew it was God speaking so yesterday evening, I presented Barnabas with a beautiful western guitar. He told me that for 3 years he has been asking God to provide him a quality western guitar to lead worship with and that I was the answer to his prayer! Man what an amazing feeling. It made it so much easier to give it up after hearing that. It was definitely hard but I knew it was Gods plan. 

After showing me what it looked like to be radical, He wanted me to put it into action. And all I want is to be completely obedient to His instructions. God is good. India is amazing. Thank you guys so much for your support and encouragement. Merry Christmas! 

We made it to Darjeeling!

So we're here! We made to Darjeeling yesterday around 2:00 pm. We started in Calcutta. We took an overnight train ride to Siliguri. We left at 10:00 pm and arrived in Siligury at 10:00 am. It was a decent ride. We took a jeep from Siligury up to Darjeeling next. It was about a 3 hour ride but we finally made it. The ride was pretty scary at times but we made it safely. We got to see Mt. Kangchenjunga on the way up to. It's the 3rd tallest mountain in the world! It's pretty awesome! Check out the pic! So far I'm loving if here. It's so different but the people are amazing. And the food is awesome too. Haha I'm excited to see what this week holds. I'm ready to start some ministry. We'll see what God has in store! 

India!

Made it to Calcutta last night around 9 pm. Took a taxi to Hotel Trimoorti. We stayed here last night. It's a very nice hotel. The taxi ride was crazy. The things I saw, heard, and smelled were just so different and shocking. Today we're taking a train up to Siligry (I think that's how you spell it) Well ride through the night and get on a jeep and head to Darjeeling. We should arrive in Darj around 3:00 pm. Keep praying for our team. Much love.

SINGAPORE!

We're in Singapore! Our flight landed about an hour ago. We're relaxing for a few hours in this amazing airport before we leave at 7 for Calcutta! When we land in Calcutta, we'll check into our hotel, stay a night, then get up the next day and hop on a train. We will ride 12 hours north, then hop in a cargo Jeep and head 3 more hours north and arrive in Darjeeling. We're so excited and ready to see God move! Keep praying! I'll keep you guys updated! 

I survived Survivor Week!

Well, I'm back at YWAM Brisbane. We spent a week at Stradbroke Island. It's an island about 30 minutes off the coast of Brisbane. We camped about 100 yards from the beach and had lectures on Spiritual Warfare. Man, were they good! Totally changed my perspective on what I thought was spiritual warfare. As lectures were going on we were in an intense outreach team battle! We began on Tuesday night at 1 am with Mission Impossible. We were timed from one o'clock until we finished a forest/swamp obstacle course! It was increadibly fun! Over the last few days of Staddie (Stradbroke) we played close to 40 survivor (the show) games against outreach teams. They were all team building games and were so fun! We had incredible time! Our team got 1st and so much closer! (I had to add the fact that we won ;) ) we're back at base now getting ready for outreach. Only a few more days until we hop on a plane and head to India! Keep praying for safety and smooth travels! Much love! God is good!

Back in Brisbane... For a day.

Well after 3 weeks on the road, I'm back at YWAM Brisbane for a day. We were in Airlie Beach for two weeks, as I shared before, and in a small town about seven hours inland called Roma. It's definitely a country town. It reminded me a lot of Texas. The town is known for its cattle sales. It hosts the largest cattle sale in the Southern Hemisphere. Pretty impressive. Even though I didn't get to witness the exciting cattle sale, I did get to do some pretty amazing things last week. We stayed at the small Church of Christ in Roma and worked out of the church all week. We did some door to door surveys for the churches in Roma. We asked questions like, "What is the greatest need in this community?" And "How can new churches help grow the community?" We talked to some amazing people and got some very helpful answers. We gave these surveys to the town pastors to use as try continue to bless Roma. We went to some schools and led some Religious Education classes, which was so fun! The kids are always so fascinated that we are from all over the world. It's pretty funny. We taught our class on Joy. And what joy looks like in everyday life. I think the kids got a lot out of it! It was a great day. We led two youth groups on Friday night as well. It went great too! I led worship, which went good. Then we got to pray for the kids, which was a powerful time. Overall, it was a great night! We arrived back yesterday, around noon, and we leave tomorrow morning at 8:00. We're heading to Stratbroke Island. It's off the coast of Brisbane. We'll be having lectures on Spiritual Warfare and roughing it as well. From what I hear it's a pretty memorable week. We'll find out what that means! I'm excited. I won't have my computer or phone all week, so I'll let you guys know how it goes when I return next weekend. Thank you so much for supporting me. I wouldn't be here without everyone supporting me! It's a true blessing. Much love! Oh and by the way, Happy Late Thanksgiving! Haha!

God is a Healer

For the past three weeks, I've been praying and asking God to reveal Himself as the Healer in my life. I have always heard and been taught that He is but never fully experienced His healing power with my eyes. My faith had definitely lacked in this area of Gods character. A lot of unbelief. So in effort to boost it, I asked Him for an opportunity to see Him as a Healer. 

For those who don't know, my family has encountered a strange and hard case of sickness/injury the past few weeks. Mom and Dad both have had the flu, my sister Katie experienced a bad stomach virus, and I have had a rash on my face, poison ivy-like rash on my ankles and feet, and a toe smashed by a sledge hammer. I thought for sure God was just getting us really sick to show me that He is the Healer.... Not quite. 

But He did provide. Last night. It was our last night of Schoolies in Airlie Beach and I was on the tent welcome team. Me and a few team members engaged in a conversation with a 17 year old named Rafael. He was a very interesting guy. Near the end of our conversation, one of my teammates asked if there was anything we could pray for. He didn't understand. So my first statement after that..."do you have any physical injuries?" He immediately responded with "my ankle!"

He went on to explain that he had a huge passion for soccer but about 16 months ago, he had a nasty injury that completely tore his ankle to pieces. So what did we do? Asked for it to be healed so he could play again. As I was praying for Rafael, God spoke, "Here he is Jacob. You wanna see healing? Command it." So I commanded all the tendons, ligaments, and bones to be restructured to their original state. God spoke, "He's healed." 

I asked Rafael to try to run to see if it hurt. (He hadn't ran in over a year) He didn't wanna risk it. I understand his logic, being an athlete and all. He told us he would try running later in the night and come back and let us know! As he was leaving, I just whispered, "dude. God healed you. Trust Him." He returned a small smile and nod and kept walking. 

He came a few hours later, ecstatic! He was saying that his ankle was all better and that when he ran it didn't hurt or anything! He was so excited....and so was I! 

God answers prayers. 

God is a Healer. 

God is good.  

Much love! 

Jacob

Airlie Beach

Oh! And here is the beach where we are! It's unbelievable! Gods creation is so amazing! 

Schoolies 2013

Schoolies is an event in Australia where all grade 12 graduates go to the beach and just throw a massive party. It's totally accepted by the country and has become almost the norm, so to speak. The students have to register when they arrive and they receive a badge of identification. Since the drinking age is 18 here, the kids purchase and drink lots of alcohol out of celebration. It's craziness.

So what are we doing? 

YWAM Brisbane and YWAM Whitsundays have teamed up to create an awesome event for these students. Tomorrow we will be setting up a massive tent and running a chai tea and coffee cafe out of the tent. Our goal is to bring kids in, serve them in a safe environment, and create amazing conversation. We are creating a mood of relaxation and openess. We're gonna have live music throughout the nights and people at the tables, creating conversations. We are going to be open about our faith and hopefully be able to speak truth into the kid's lives and lead them back to God. I'm so excited about what God is gonna do this week. He's so good and he's always doing amazing things! 

What to pray for?

-Safety of all of the students 

-Open hearts and minds in the tent

-The Spirit's presence would overflow the tent

-Endurance and strength for our teams

Thank you guys so much! I hope you guys can join me in prayer for these kids. God wants to tear some walls down and get into their hearts! 

Relationships and Road Trips

This past week I've been back on base at YWAM Brisbane. It's good to be back after three weeks of evangelism. Good to see familiar faces and new ones. While we were gone the MAD (Music Art Dance) DTS started. So when we got here we were greeted by them as well. They are some pretty great people. An interesting group but really cool. I just had an interestingly unique discernment when I arrived and was here a few days. But they have big things coming! 

Anyway, this week we had lectures on relationships! It was a great week. We touched on everything from our relationship with god, to our relationship with friends, to marriage. So lots of points were covered and definitely lots of notes were taken. God taught me a lot this week about my relationship with him and how to grow that, and also my relationship with others (family, my girlfriend, and friends). Now just to turn the information into action. 

What's next? Well tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. we hit the road again. This time we're off to Airlie Beach. It's a trip about 16-17 hours north. Should be a fun ride. We'll be there for two weeks, having class for one, and outreach for another. I'll try to update sometime within the next week about what all of that looks like. Be praying for our trip. Safety and health. Thank you so much. Much love. God Bless.

Last week: Toowoomba & Lectures

It's so good to be back on base for a week. After three weeks of being away, it's good to see some familiar faces here in Brisbane. Last week we were in Toowoomba, QLD. There is another base in Toowoomba and they allowed our team to stay there for the week and have lectures. God really sparked a new desire to play guitar last week too, which was cool. We had a speaker who is originally from Uruguay, did a YWAM DTS in Brazil, and is currently a base leader in Adalaide, Australia. His name is Pablo Nunez and he was an amazing person. He spoke on Evangelism. He really challenged me in some areas in my life, which has lead to some amazing breakthrough with God. He touched a lot on having dreams for our life. He posed a super deep quesion, which has really stuck with me and has actually inspired some ideas and dreams for when I return from YWAM. If you could do one thing the rest of your life, without having to worry about finances or providing for yourself or a family, what would you do? I challenge you to ask yourself this question and honestly answer. Are you pursuing and changing the dreams and desires that God has placed in your heart? Get out of your practical mindset and dream big. Trust that if you follow the desires God has placed in your heart, that He will provide the rest.  

Tenterfield to Beaudesert

So we're in Beaudesert now! We finished our first roadtrip week in Tenterfield doing the Pass It On Tour! It was an amazing week. 12 people accepting Christ as their Saviour and we handed out over 200 bibles! It was crazy! God is definitely moving in Tenterfield! Please pray for the churches and community there, as well as the youth! We're doing lots of labor work here in Beaudesert, such as, landscaping and planting trees and cleaning churches! We're having a great time! Today, I and a few others get to go hang out with some aboriginal youth. We're gonna play games, sing songs, and just hang out! It should be fun! I'm excited! The picture below is from our roadtrip from Tenterfield to Beaudesert! The Aussie outback is beautiful! Please keep praying! It is much appreciated! I'll blog again, as soon as possible! Much love!

Packing up!

Well, we leave today at 2:00 for the Pass It On Tour! We're all pretty excited and can't wait to see what God has in store! I'm learning so much and something new everyday. God is really challenging me and changing me into the person I am intended to be. I wanted to let you guys know that I might not have wifi access for the next 2-3 weeks because we'll be on the road. So I don't know if I'll get the chance to blog. But keep checking occasionally. I will blog as soon as I can and let you know about all the cool stuff we're gonna be doing! Thanks so much for your support! It really is encouraging and helpful on this journey! Sending love back to the states! 

Hillsong Church

I had the opportunity to attend Hillsong Church: Brisbane Campus last night! It was awesome. We arrived a bit late due to transportation issues. We took a train, then got on a bus, but got off the wrong bus stop. So we ended up walking a few miles to get to church. A pastor from Texas named Robert Madu spoke. He was such a funny guy and had an amazing message on comparison! I loved it! We didn't hear a ton of worship but what we did hear was great! I'm getting crazy cool opportunities everyday! Thanks for making this happen with your support! Much Love! 

Last day of Lordship

It's Friday, October 4th. And it's the last day of the week on Lordship. Our speaker, Mark Parker, has done an awesome job this week. He's from New Zealand and has been with YWAM for 27 years. He's crazy! He's always jumping around, yelling and calling us out for things. It's so good to have a teacher who is just straight up honest with you. Today we will be having an all day class. We're gonna be sacrificing things in our lives to God and spending all day lifting up our lives to Him. We have 2 student getting baptized today as well! We're all pretty excited to see what God has in store for today. Thanks for support an prayer! Much love! 

Missions Simulation

Friday morning at 10:00 am, we began a 36 hour missions simulation. We were put through a plane ride, and international airport with strict security first. We had things stolen from the airport workers and were interrogated harshly. We encountered beggars and a market to purchase food. We learned how to barter and handle the beggars. We had to cook our own lunches and breakfasts. We made camp outside with no shelter. Eight of us slept on a rain tarp with 4 sleeping bags and no pillows. It began raining around 5 am as well. It was an interesting night. Over the two days we had to plan and do kids ministry, door-to-door evangelism, have a host meal (which had to be the spiciest curry I've ever tasted), prayer walk, prayer meeting, and church service (message, 3 songs, and 3 testimonies). It was so tiring and non-stop work. It was so intense. But we learned so much and bonded as teams! 

God is good

God is good. I love Him. He is revealing things to me every second. I can't describe how bad I want my heart to be just like His. I don't want anything other than to be a radical young adult who people see and think is out of his mind. I want to be the one God calls to when He needs someone who is unbelievable bold and obedient to change the world. I want to be the one He uses to heal the sick and change nations. I want to be the one that Is so obedient that He knows all He has to do is ask and it will be done. I'm ready for the storm. I'm ready for the fatigue and the tough times. I'm ready to face challenges that no one has experienced. I want to be the one that people come to, to find hope, so I can point to them God. I want to be the one who changes the way humans think about religion and God. I want to be His sharpest tool. The one that He can pull out and use for anything.

I'm ready God. I know you are good and everything you do is good, whether is hard or easy. And I'm saying, right now, that I place full trust in You and EVERYTHING other than You is secondary to You. Have your way. 

Rainbow Beach

This week we were at Rainbow Beach. It was absolutely beautiful! We had lectures on The Fear of The Lord. It was good but extremely challenging this week. God is really beginning to work in me and break me down so He can start over and form me into something even better. I have a feeling a storming is coming soon. Please pray for me, as well as my team, as we begin to face challenges and it gets harder. God told me last night, as I was sittining under the most amazing sky of stars I've ever seen feeling such a great peace, "There is always a calm before a storm. It's coming. Just remember that I am always good." So comforting to hear from Him. He is about to shake me up. I'm ready though. 

Rainbow Beach

Well, the B2B team will be leaving for our first week away tomorrow morning. We're gonna head out around 8:30 and hopefully arrive around lunch. We'll be staying at Rainbow Beach! Everyone I've talked to says only amazing things about it! Take a minute to google it! It's awesome! We're all really excited.

Some really amazing things happened this week. We had some awesome lectures on the Holy Spirit and God was definitely moving! I had some amazing things happen this week. I'm anxious to see how God moves as we're out of town. We'll be studying the Fear of The Lord this week. Our school leader Nico will be speaking and I just got asked to lead worship. Please pray for our team's safety and just an overwhelming peace while we're away! I'll give an update when I return! Much love!

God is good!

Awesome testimony here! Our outreach team, Team India, had a person who needed all of their outreach money still. We needed all of our money in by today so we could purchase plane tickets to India! As of today, our plane tickets are completely paid for! All 8 of us! Within 2 days, all of the money came in plus some! God is so crazy! He will always make it happen! Never quit believing in His support! He's so rich! 

Camping in the Green Mountains!

So this past weekend, 13 of our B2B students went with 3 leaders to the Green Mountains. They are about 3 hours south of Brisbane. We stayed overnight on top of one the mountains. We camped out in tents and hiked 12-15 km on Saturday and around 2-3 km on Sunday! It was so tough but so much fun! We saw some amazing things! Throughout the hike, were waterfalls and cliffs, with views that were breath taking. For the first time in my life, I think I truly recognized God as The Creator! He showed me how creative and beautiful He really is! It was just unbelievable! Check out this pic from the last waterfall cliff we spent time at! 

OUTREACH!

This is our outreach team! We will be going to Darjeeling and Pondicherry, INDIA! We are all super pumped! God has awesome things planned and we are excited to see how He uses us to impact the people there! 

Week 3 has begun!

Don't want to overload y'all with blog updates, but I just wanted to catch you guys up since I haven't blogged for a while. Today we began week 3. Our topic this week: Hearing the voice of God. Jason Solari, a staff member here on base, is speaking. Today was a great start! I think I'm gonna love Jason and what he has for us this week! I have an awesome feeling about this week! I'm so excited to see what God does!

We also will decide (with God) where we will go on outreach this week. We will be given a list of locations tomorrow night, and have Wednesday and Thursday to pray over the list and allow God to give us a peace about where we should go. I'm super excited! Please be praying for these things! A clear understanding of where God wants, not only me, but my whole team! Thanks! Much Love! 

Arise Event in Redcliffe

Last Friday night was awesome! So much fun! We went up to Redcliffe for a night of praising God through art. The event was called Arise. We got to meet so many cool people. People were just relaxing, enjoying each others company, and of course, having coffee. (Not me though. I'm not a coffee guy.) Anyway, I got to meet a guy named Ryan. Emily and I, who were going around meeting people and writing encouraging words on their hands, began talking to him and he spilled everything. He told us his whole life story, of how he was bullied as a kid, with his dad being Buddhist and mom being Christian. It was amazing. He was so humble and strong about it. Had an amazing spirit that didn't match up to the story. We got to pray over him and fill him with uplifting words and encouragement. It was an awesome moment! Please say a prayer for Ryan, as well as the Redcliffe communtiy! Thanks! I'm excited to see what he does in Redcliffe! 

A cool title that I can't think of!

So this week is going good. God has revealed some sweet stuff to me. He's shown me that pursuing Him isn't always running after Him and striving. An apple tree doesn't try to grow apples, it just does. We shouldn't try to get God, we have Him already. I'm learning to rest in His presence. When we hang out with a friend, we don't just tell him/her our problems and what we want, then leave. We spend time with them and talk and just hang out together. I'm learning that I just need to hang out with God rather than just giving Him my problems and asking Him to give me something. He's moving even though I thought he wasn't. It's getting exciting! This next week should be very moving. Thanks for the support and love! Love you guys! 

New week!

Before I begin, we did find Jeff's game. It took us 2 and a half hours but we finally got there and it was awesome! We had a blast. 

Anyway, we've started week 2 of lectures. This week we're exploring The Father Heart of God. We had community cleaning yesterday, followed by community worship. It was really good. We began our first day of lectures at 10:30 yesterday. Chris and Jill Twinn are our speakers this week. They just shared their testimony yesterday. It's a crazy story. I'm excited to hear them speak this week. Today we begin with Family Intercession. Emma and I are leading that this morning at 8:30. We'll be interceding for athletes this morning. It's something both of us have talked about and have hearts for. We're excited about what God has in store. 

Jeff's Football Game

Me and Scott are headed to Jeff's American Football game by train. We've been in the city all day, now we're trying to figure out how to get there by the railway system! Hopefully we can get there by 4! Haha We're living the adventurous life! Gotta love it! 

GoPassItOn Tour and Arise Event

Got news today that our team will be involved in two awesome events, GoPassItOn Tour and The Arise Event. The Arise Event is an event being held in a café in a small town about 45 minutes away. It is being used to show that community that you can use your creative gifts to praise God. We will have different projects going on around the café that night. Outside there will be a sidewalk chalk art session where people can praise God and express feelings through chalk art. A poetry session inside, where people can learn to write poetry to lift up God. A portrait session, where Cali, a leader here at the base, will be doing portraits of people for free and praying over them as she draws. A session where two people (one will be me) will be greeting people as they come in, then writing words that God gives them to show them their identity in God on their hands. It's next Friday night from 7-9 pm. It should be an amazing night! Our team is super excited! Be praying for open hearts from the people in the town! 

The GoPassItOn Tour is an amazing event where we will be running, yes running, from country town to country town and spending a week in each town spending time with kids and churches just loving on them and sharing the Truth! You can look up more details online. I think the website is www.gopassiton.org! I could be wrong... You might have to google it. Just please be praying for these two events and our team! God is moving already and we're so excited for what's happening! Love you guys! Thanks for your constant support! 

God is moving...

God is really working is me and my whole team. Last night was an awesome night for us. Simon spoke on the Names of God in the Bible. The truth about who He is and what He does. For me, it was eye opening. I realized that I thought I knew who God was, when really I only knew parts of Him. I now know that I need to know all of Him. I need to have Him as all of who He is and that's what I'm going to work for. To be a son of God who knows everything about His father. Scripture says that our Heavenly Father can offer more than our earthly father ever could. If that is true, that means that He can offer a lot because  Dad has given me so much and poured so much into my life! I can't wait to get close to him! My goal is to be so close that I can hear Him whisper to me. I'm determined to pursue Him fully and give up everything I need to, to be there! 

Week One of Lectures

We began our first week of lectures yesterday. We are digging in to The Character and Nature of God. Our speaker this week is Simon Smith. He is from the UK and is super funny. He is a pastor here in Brisbane. He has a lot of knowledge about God and is a very Godly man. Day 1 was great. We talked about Intimacy with God. Really great session. Can't wait to see what God speaks through Simon today. Can't wait to learn more about who God is and for God to show me the things I am learning through adversity. 

First Road Trip!

We're leaving tomorrow at 9:30 for our first road trip. We're heading to a town called Toowoomba! It's about an hour and a half from our base. We'll be there all day and make camp that night, then head back Sunday morning. Our school leader, Nico, said we'll be playing group games, hanging out by a campfire, and sharing testimonies. Just taking the weekend to get to know each other. From what I can tell, our group is awesome! Can't wait to get to know them even more! 

Aug. 22, 2013

Last night we had our Welcome Celebration Dinner! It was good! We got to see everybody and met everyone! It was really good. We had an awesome worship time with the whole base! Very exciting to get started. Today we began our DTS orientation. Not very exciting because it was just a bunch of info, but we got to become more familiar with our teams! There is also a Film and an Acting school going on right now. They're all pretty cool people as well! My roommates are Jason, Scott, Stephen, and Josh. Us guys are outnumbered 5 to 12 by the girls... Our guy slogan is "Keep the testosterone level high!" So far we're good. We'll see if it lasts! Haha I'm laying in the hammock that Scott brought and put up outside our dorm. It's pretty chill. Dinner is in about 30 minutes so we're just relaxing until then. Everything is good so far! I'll keep y'all updated! 

First Day!

So I'm here! It's awesome! It's dead of winter and it's beautiful! My flights were long but good! My base is awesome and the people are amazing! Missing my family but trusting God! I love everyone there! I'll keep y'all posted!

Sally gets a vacation.

I just finished cleaning my 1989 Ford Mustang GT 5.0, Sally. She has been so great for me (minus a few hiccups along the way) so I cleaned her up real nice and put her in the garage for a six month vacation. She deserves it for all the hard work she's put in. I'm gonna miss her. Love you Sally.

Packing!

I'm packing! This is just making me more excited! Got 12 t-shirts, 8 pair of athletic shorts, 4 pair of khaki shorts, a pair of khakis, a pair of jeans, one dress shirt, 3 polo shirts, boots, merrels, and my hat in that bag! Gonna last me 6 months! I think that will do! 

Brand of the Cross

Today I had the amazing opportunity to speak about my story and what is to come today at one of my biggest role model's church, Brand of the Cross. It was amazing. They have service in a barn out on a ranch. I had the privilege to talk to a few people at the church about missions and their experiences.They  welcomed me with arms wide open and I am so thankful for their hospitality. They have some amazing people there and I was honored to be asked by my good friend, James Hall, who gave the sermon, to share my story. Thank you so much James and the Brand of the Cross church! 

First Post

Well, my first post. I think I'm gonna just keep it simple. Over the past few days, I've been busy printing support letters, getting stamps, and addressing envelopes. My magnets just came in today and they're pretty cool. I hope you are using yours and it serves as a good reminder. I'm currently sitting in my living room, watching the Atlanta Braves, who are currently losing, play the Los Angeles Dodgers. I'm also finishing up these envelopes. I'm stuffing these magnets in here and sealing them so I can take them to the Post Office at some point tomorrow. I am already seeing great things happen and receiving incredible encouragement from friends and family. And it's just the beginning...