This Fall

Aloha!

I haven't put up a new post since June so it is definitely a long time coming. This fall has been a whirlwind to put it simply. I spent part of the summer in Maryland and back in Alberta, visiting family & friends and meeting future family as well! It went by quite fast and sooner rather than later I found myself back here at YWAM Maui, cooking for our secondary school (SBFM) and a DTS team from the YWAM base in Kona doing outreach here on Maui. 

First of all, Emmy and I are engaged! I'm sure you already know, but on September 22nd, I got down on one knee and proposed to my beautiful girlfriend on a beautiful beach in South Maui. We are having a small summer wedding next year on the East Coast and so I think it's safe to say that that has been the most exciting thing in my life lately! 

We hadn't hosted a team in years and so it was such a privilege and blessing to be able to live around them, cook for them, and see how the Lord was moving both here on Maui and in their own personal lives as they were stretched and challenged in so many ways. They did all kinds of ministry in the community here, primarily with kids and youth all over the island. Joining up with some of the local churches here that we, as YWAM Maui, are also partnered with, the outreach team went day in and day out reaching out and spreading the love of Christ in so many ways for a month. They headed off to the island of Kauai after some time with us with the eventual destination of Oahu. 

Besides cooking for the Kona team, I've had my hands full feeding our secondary school students as they balance quite a heavy workload. We have seventeen students from the United States, Canada, the UK, South Korea, and Norway. They are split into two outreach teams, with one going to Myanmar and Thailand and the other going to that big Asian country I've been to twice, as well as Thailand at the end. My fiancee is leading the team going to that big Asian country! It's pretty crazy to think of the twists in life we go through. Even though we may seem to have a good, solid plan to go with, it seems like it never ends up going that way. Maybe that's just some people's lives, who knows. Anyways, they are headed off for Southeast Asia on December 8th and return to Maui towards the end of February. 

Beyond all this, our DTS is going strong too. There are four different outreach teams heading off to Asia the same time the SBFM teams leave, going to Nepal, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and that big Asian country! It has been so neat to see them grow, learn, wrestle, and mature in faith over the past couple of months. Since I live about ten minutes away from the main base this fall, I don't see them absolutely every day and so I can recognize the growth in them all the more. They are going deep. God wants to do amazing things in our lives and have such awesome relationship with Him, but He wants us to pursue Him. Are we willing to seek Him and find Him? Are we willing to go to those deep places that still need His light? Do we have the desire to even go there in the first place? I pray that we all want more of Christ in our lives - in every area of our lives. Friends, finances, work, everything.

This will be my last quarter on staff. I am planning on moving home around Christmas so I'm basically trying to go out with a bang here! It's been an incredibly busy fall thus far (the busiest quarter I've had on staff yet) and has flown by. Through it all, God continues to show me more of Him and more areas in my life that He wants to refine and redeem. People are being changed, impacted, saved, blessed, provided for. It has been an amazing time in my life to be a part of this significant ministry! So thank you for your continued prayer and support. You have played and continue to play a significant role in our ministry here and ultimately in what God is doing globally. I do appreciate all of your prayer and blessings and I pray that God pours out his love and blessings on each of you who read this. Please continue praying for me and for our ministry here, which is primarily making disciples, training them up, and a lot of serving! And please pray for Emmy and I as we plan a wedding and as she leads another outreach! If you feel led to contribute financially, please let me know so that I give you some information with regards to that (how to do it, tax deductibles, etc.) The most important thing is prayer. Thank you and God bless! I'll see you soon!


Dave Grabowski

Back in the West.

Hello all, 

If you haven't seen or figured it out yet, I am back on the beautiful island of Maui. We arrived back here a couple of weeks ago and have been busy debriefing and processing our time in Nepal since then. Our students have all gone home and are now figuring out how to be disciple makers wherever God takes them in life! 

Nepal was truly an amazing time. We saw a good number of people healed and many come into relationship with God. He worked in some very amazing ways, with and without our team! And of course he did much work in us as individuals and as a team. 

We spent the first month of our outreach in the capital city, Kathmandu. Four times a week we would go out and tell others about Christ, distribute Bibles, and share our testimonies on the streets of Kathmandu. We would also go on a practice hike once a week, getting ready for our trek in the Himalayas. On Saturdays, our team would often teach and preach at church, either sharing a word, giving our testimony, our preaching the main message. Afterwards, we would either go to a youth drop-in centre or an orphanage which were both nearby our place, teaching English, hanging out with the youth, or loving on children. 

After about a month in Kathmandu, we headed off to West Nepal to hike around the Annapurna Range in the majestic Himalayas. They were certainly the biggest mountains I've ever seen. We were trekking for roughly 10 days, evangelizing and distributing Bibles along the way. Our contacts in Nepal are very discipleship orientated so those that come into relationship with God are very well taken care and brought along in their walk with God. And so we walked, hiked, sweat like crazy, and shared about the love of Christ the whole way. It was an amazing week and a half and definitely the highlight of the trip for me. A few people gave their lives to the Lord while we were trekking which was amazing to see. All of us on the team definitely lost some serious weight in that time. 

Next up was Pokhara. This is a very pretty city in West Nepal on a mountain-fed lake with a whole lot of tourists there. People go there at the beginning or the end of their trek usually. We were able to continue sharing the gospel and our testimonies there, as well as fellowshipping with a local church there nearly every night in their prayer gatherings, oftentimes sharing a word or little message. It was awesome to be able to get to know and pour into the church in Pokhara in that way, sharing with them lots of revelation that our students received while in lecture phase on Maui. To be able to worship God and share life with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation is such a beautiful thing. 

Kathmandu wrapped up our trip to Nepal. We spent the last couple of weeks visiting friends that we made in the first month and met lots of new people throughout the city, once again sharing the gospel, distributing lots of Bibles, and sharing about what God has done in our lives and how he has transformed us. Overall, we saw many people come into right relationship with God in Kathmandu, both before and after our trek and time in Pokhara.

The Lord is moving in some pretty awesome ways in Nepal. The harvest is ripe. People are hungry for truth, purpose, and for real love. The body of Christ is actively learning how to make disciples and how to develop those under God's saving grace to full maturity in him. Please continue to pray for Nepal and for the Kingdom of God to be released in that country. 

As for me, I am back on Maui for a few weeks (working in the kitchen) before heading to the mainland for a month and a bit. I am going to Maryland mid-July to meet Emmy's family and see where she grew up and then up and over to Edmonton at the beginning of August for a few weeks. I'll be back in Hawaii this fall continuing on with YWAM Maui and with what God has for my life. 

We just sent off our spring team to Ch!n@ and Thailand for the summer so God is continually working through us in Southeast Asia, even as many of us are in the background, whether it be office work, cooking, cleaning, or fixing things! It is wonderful to be able to support our teams in any way needed and that is one of the biggest things I love about YWAM Maui. Everyone is so willing to fill whatever role needs to be filled and to be so selfless in that! So thank you for your continued prayer and support. You continue to have a significant role to play in our ministry here and ultimately in what God is doing globally. I do appreciate all of your prayer and blessings and I pray that God pours out his love and blessings on each of you who read this. Please continue praying for me and for my ministry here, making disciples and serving. If you feel led to contribute financially, please let me know so that I give you some information with regards to that (how to do it, tax deductibles, etc.) The most important thing is prayer. Thank you and God bless! Hopefully I'll see you soon!


Dave Grabowski

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Hello all!

It has been a crazy two weeks since we have touched down in Kathmandu. We got right into things pretty much as soon as we got here, spending the last couple of weeks sharing the gospel in a few different parts of the Kathmandu Valley, going on a couple of practice hikes for our trek in May, and sharing and teaching in a couple of local churches. The ministry is going very well, as many have already come into relationship with the Lord. The people of Nepal are definitely ready to hear about Jesus so it is such a blessing and privilege to be some of the ones to tell them!  God has definitely given our team a big heart for this nation and these people. It really is a beautiful culture. They place a very large emphasis on family and even just treating everyone around them like family which makes it so easy for us to build relationships with those we come across. I love the encouraging words of Paul when he speaks to the church in Rome:

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'"

Romans 10:14-15 (ESV)

I love being able to do this. To be able share the love of Christ to these amazing people. To be able to make disciples just as the Great Commission speaks of. I am blown away everyday by the goodness of God and how He is always faithful and chooses to work in and through us even in the times when we choose to be unfaithful and look to ourselves, not Him. 

I hope you are all well. Thank you for reading this post and keeping up to date with me as I follow what God has in store. All of your support is appreciated so much. Please keep praying for us in Nepal. You have such a vital part to play in global missions as you do pray!

Please keep praying for:

• continued unity within the team
• boldness to proclaim the light of God in the darkness
• that the Lord will continue to go ahead of us and prepare the way
• more wisdom, discernment, and a servant heart to lead
• whatever else pops up in your head!!

If He moves you to donate financially, please go to http://ywamcanada.org/donations.html and follow the directions given there.

Thank you once again and God bless! Hopefully I can update again in a couple of weeks. Blessings!

Dave Grabowski

Nepal!

Nepal!

Hello all, I hope you are all doing really well. On Saturday, I'm taking off to the beautiful country of Nepal for two and a half months. There are ten of us that are more than excited to bring the light of God  to this nation by way of teaching, discipling, evangelizing, and serving wherever possible. We want to be a blessing to these people and so our heart is to serve just how the Lord has served us. I know that the Lord has big things in store for our team so I am very much looking forward to seeing the big things that God does but at the same time I know that we must, as a team, keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and on heaven. We'll be doing lots of teaching and discipleship in churches and different home groups and then all kinds of evangelism on the streets, in universities, in the mountains.. really wherever we can! Hopefully we can do lots of practical service as well, such as loving on children in orphanages and the like.

It's amazing that outreach has already come upon us. Lecture phase has come and gone quickly so it really is hard to believe that we're off so fast! In case you were wondering, the school went really well this quarter. We finished off the last few weeks with teaching on evangelism, worldviews, Bible overview (getting into depth on some of the main themes of the Bible), Holy Spirit, and spiritual warfare. We also had weeks on identity in Christ and relationships, among some others! The students have learned a lot and so have I. I love being able to sit in on lectures and receive so much truth and wisdom from all these people who have lived such amazing lives with the Lord.

Some prayer points might include:

• that the Lord will go ahead of our team and prepare the way
• blessing and safety traveling
• continued unity within the team 
• boldness to proclaim light in the darkness
• anything you can think of!

Anyways, I know that this is a bit of a shorter blog but hopefully I can post another update whilst in Nepal at some point. I love you all and hope and pray that the Lord continues to bless you and keep you in whatever you are up to!

If He moves you to donate financially, please go to http://ywamcanada.org/donations.html and follow the directions given there.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers! I love you all and can't wait to share all that the Lord does on outreach!

In Christ,
Dave Grabowski

Alive in Christ!

Hello everyone! It's been a couple of months since my last post so I believe I have lots to fill you in on. My last update was in November so here we go. Basically, to sum everything up before I get started, God is good. He is faithful in all things and always delivers on His promises. Why? Because that is His nature. The end of Matthew 28 says "and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." I think it's pretty easy to see that the Lord is near in all situations. So don't give up hope in Christ with whatever you're going through!

At the beginning/middle of December, we sent off our outreach teams to several different nations in Southeast Asia, going to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, and a certain large Asian country! They were in Asia over Christmas time and are due to come back this week! We are all excited to hear firsthand what God is doing in that part of the world because we already know He is doing so much. These truly are exciting times that we're living in, folks.

As for me, I was blessed to have the opportunity to go home for Christmas and hang out with friends and family for a bit. It was good to reconnect and get refreshed a little bit at the lake before I went back to the islands and dove into DTS staffing.

Right now, we are in the middle of lecture phase, with the lecture topic this week being relationships! Our speaker is from the base in Kona on the Big Island. I'm looking forward to learning more about that topic seeing as I have entered into a relationship.. finally. Emmy, my "special friend", hails from the great state of Maryland. God has given her an especially big heart for teaching, discipleship, and loving on orphans who have no one to love them, which is really cool I think. I'm really excited about this so we'll see where the Lord leads!

At the end of March, I'm leading a team to the spectacular country of Nepal. I am so excited to be surrounded by the majesty of the Himalayas for this outreach. It really is a dream come true for me. My team consists of five Canadians, with the rest from the States. We'll be doing a lot of amount of evangelism and training all across the country, whether we're trekking in the mountains or traveling between different cities. We should have the opportunity to serve at some orphanages as well, but we will see. I'm really looking forward to what amazing things the Lord has in store for Nepal, as well as all the grand adventures we will have as a team!

Some prayer points before I head off to Asia include:

• that the unity of my team will continue to grow
• that the Lord will go before us in Nepal and prepare hearts
• that students will be able to understand and apply lecture material
• continuing wisdom, discernment, and integrity for me as I lead

Thank you so much for reading this blog and for continuing to pray and support me in this ministry! May God bless you in whatever season you're in and whatever work you are up to. I'll be sure to get another post up before I leave. Blessings!!

Dave Grabowski