Just wanted to fill you in on what’s been going on this last month. I greatly appreciate your prayers. Click on the above picture to read the update. Thanks
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May Update: summertime in the city
Welcome to summer. I pray that warmer weather is finding you wherever it is that you are. First of all a little housekeeping, I’ve heard from a few that the print lately has been getting a little small for ease of viewing. I see this as both a good thing and a bad thing. The good side is that I’m getting to see God do so many cool things that it makes it tough to fit in the space allowed. The bad news comes with not being able to read said news.
So in order to accommodate and be easier on the eyes I am going to post the full newsletter on my ministry website and then the edited highlights will make it into the actual newsletter. In order to find the website go to www.jakedemaray.wordpress.com and you’ll find the whole post there and hopefully some other cool, more up to date stuff as I find time to post it. Once I report to campus that will be the place to see lots of pictures and (fingers crossed) daily updates.
So now on to the good stuff. Summer is already in full swing and I can tell because the wedding season has started. This summer I’m excited to get to celebrate the weddings of several friends. (including my “boss”) I am very excited for each and every one of them and I know God has had a huge hand in each of their relationships.
Summer assignments are also in full swing and while it is sometimes hard to hear about all of the amazing stuff that is going on all around the world while I am still raising support the news and stories I’ve been able to hear have been very exciting. I have Campus Crusade staff and student friends in Japan, The Zone, Breakthrough, Grease, Italy, Venezuela, Costa Rica, as well as several spots around the United States. Montana State’s primary focus is Breakthrough (middle east), The Zone (east Asia), and Lake Tahoe.
The team to The Zone this year is wholly composed of students this year and is being let by a senior in the nursing program who last year interned on the Breakthrough project. They are currently focusing on a couple previously unreached campuses and a looking to expand the current influence that Campus Crusade has there.
The team on the Breakthrough project is being led by Matt & MeeHee Kirby, MSU staff who finished raising support the year I did my internship. That team is hitting the ground running with some of the friends made during the spring break trip a couple months ago and is helping the long term team finish the year strong as well as give the new team which arrives in August a serious head start. This new team will be led by my partner in crime and fellow MSU staffer Pete Zagorda and also includes one of my friends Tim Kelly.
The Lake Tahoe leadership team just showed up to a very white (snow) location in order to kick off the “summer” project and get the place ready for students to show up next week. The Tahoe project is a perfect place for newer believers to really get a firm foundation as they begin their life long walk with God and also gives a few older students the opportunity to give leadership to the project as interns. The staff, interns, and students work together for the first half of the project when the staff leaves and the students are given control and leadership of the project. Several of the guys I’ve been working with are working as staff on this project and it’s an exciting opportunity for them to get to pour their lives into students from around the region as they also get to stretch their leadership mussels. This project is being directed by Matt & Jody McComas (former MSU staff now giving leadership in Portland, OR and is being staffed by staff members from all over our region.
One last project I would like to highlight is being directed by my friend and brother Gen Nakumura who I met last summer at New Staff Training. Gen is on staff in Hawaii (rough right?) and has had a roller-coaster of issues and victories with the project even before leaving. Because of the terrible earthquakes that rocked the small country there has never been a greater need for the Gospel in the Japan area. That has also posed trouble to the project as student’s parents were very worried about the conditions. Right now God is using Gen and the students to pioneer new ministries as they try to reach a people very in need of the Savior.
Please join me in prayer for the goings on around the world and that God’s kingdom would be spread through the efforts of a few and that the effect would be felt by many. Pray that God is made much of and that all of the glory is given to Him.
On the home front we are fighting flooding in Montana which has severally hampered my support raising efforts. Roads have been closed and I’ve been marooned a couple times as I’ve been driving across Montana. Please pray for safety for myself and the rest of the state and that God would use this hard time to gather up his people to be a light to the areas hardest hit.
Know that I am praying for you this summer and I very much appreciate your partnership and prayers. God Bless.
Things you can pray for…
- That God would be providing meetings with people to talk about support as right now I am desperate for people to talk to.
- That God provide for me financially as I continue to follow Him.
- That I would finish support and be able to participate in a summer project.
- Praise God that my need for a laptop has been provided for. (no more excuses for late letters ;D)
a life worth living
i thought i’d share what’s been going on over the last couple weeks and what i’ve been thinking about. here’s my prayer letter from march… april one will soon be on it’s heels.
Due to the events that have taken place over the last week and a half and what God has really been putting on my heart, what I had written for this seemed a little out of place so I will be updating you on what took place on the spring break trips next time.
These last couple weeks, for me, have been surrounded by thoughts and conversations about life, death, and the will of God. In I Corinthians 14:33 Paul writes, “For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.” But when it comes to the issue of life and death we have many, many questions. We are troubled, we are confused, we don’t understand and we cry out, “Why God?”
The reason that this has been so heavy on my heart and yet so hard to write about is a little over a week ago someone close to me was suddenly diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. It was a fight he could never win and at first there were so very many questions. The foremost was “God, what is your plan in this?” because it seemed to come out of nowhere.
He was admitted into the hospital where family and friends came to visit from all over. It was known that very little could be done for him and all that the doctors could really do was try to make him comfortable during his last days.
In that small hospital room the ones he loved the most crowed in to celebrate a life that few men dare to live. That room was home to laughing, crying, singing, and praising God for everything that He had blessed that family with.
At 5:19am April 10th, 2011 this man of God breathed his last and went home to be with his wife and his Savior, leaving behind kids and grandkids who would always remember him as a man who had lived a full life, as someone who lived a life worth living, someone who had purpose, who loved his family and his Lord.
It’s easy to be upset, it’s easy to be sad, it’s even easy to be mad at God for taking such a man of character from this world. The beauty in the situation is that this was a part of God’s plan. We don’t see it from our vantage point but this happened so that God could be made much of. That the most glory could not be given to this man for living a life that was worth living but that ALL the glory would go to God.
I hate the fact that we live in a broken world. I hate the fact that sin has corrupted our relationships, our view of the world, and almost every other part of our lives. But I’m so grateful that this life is going to be redeemed. That’s God’s plan all along. Romans 5:12 starts, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” This is why we hurt, this is why loved ones die, because we broke what God had made perfect.
But I love what comes next in verses 18 and 19, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness (Jesus’ life and death on the cross) leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” I love how the Gospel is there to show that this isn’t the permanent result of sin. That this brokenness will soon be replaced by justification and redemption, to be made available to all.
That’s why I continue in this ministry, that’s why I feel such an urgency to share this Gospel of redemption. It’s because God uses us, people who have experienced that justification and redemption, to show and share it with those who have yet to experience the grace of God.
sorry for the lack of updates
i’m still in between computers, which will hopefully be remedied here in the near future… but i am keeping good notes as to what’s going on and based on me flat ripping off what a good friend of mine (Gen Nakamura) is doing on his blog i intend on posting at least something everyday… but until i have a way of posting the first couple weeks to a month of posts will be combined. i hope you’re getting to experience God here at the beginning of 2011 and that the holidays were a blessing for you and your loved ones. here’s my december update, just click on the below image.
OCTOBER!!!
it’s that time of the month again!!! (no not that time)
to read about what i’ve been up to click HERE!!! or the image above. thanks and have a great day.
September Update!!!
New newsletter can be found right about here.
newsletter update: august
here’s the link for the august update. if you would like to be added to the mailing list feel free to send me an e-mail at jake.demaray [at] uscm [dot] org.
bridge to life…
one of the people i went through new staff training natasha (her blog is here) posted a link to this in her blog and i thought it was pretty cool. hope you enjoy it.
welcome
welcome to the new home of my ministry website. the idea is to keep my ministry website and my personal website separate so that this site won’t get bogged down with weird unnecessary personal stuff and be able to clearly focus on what God is doing at montana state through campus crusade for Christ. if you are looking for the personal site you can find it at www.himynameisjaked.wordpress.com. thanks for visiting and please feel free to share with your friends.
