Morocco & Spain.

Spain and Morocco was awesome thank you guys for all your prayer! On this trip we learned a lot as a couple and as individuals. We were able to interact as a family in a new way as this was our first trip out of the country as a family. Sarah and I both grew individually as leaders through the "ups" and "downs" of leading this team. One of the ways Sarah and I grew together was through learning pair our giftings so that we could function better as a team.

Initially we flew into Spain & had some fellow co-workers with a lot of experience give us some orientation on the muslim religion and the moroccan culture before just heading in! This was necessary due to the fact the Morocco is a Muslim nation and a closed country which means that preaching the Gospel is illegal. The team had the opportunity to get training in language, cultural protocol, and ministry.

When we got to Morocco we started building relationships in the market which happens to be the largest open-air market in the world. Many of the shop keepers spoke English so this was the best service we could do with no language barriers. We were able to make friends quickly with some of the shop keepers and would visit them almost every day.

Shortly after we arrived, we did a 35 mile trek on foot with 40lbs pack for 8 days into the Atlas mountains to minister to the Berber people group who are largely unreached. We did this with more fellow co-workers in Marrakesh who own an expedition business to be servants to this people group. Every night we would stay in a Berber home and share as the spirit lead us. Meanwhile during those 8 days, Sarah stayed back with another leader and the kids and kept up with our friends in the market.

When we returned from the trek we connected with another fellow co-worker in Marrakesh that has an English school which has a program called home stays. Home stays are pretty self explanatory, you stay in Moroccan homes for a certain amount of time the intention is to get ministries to get involved to to show the families that Christians are not bad people and share culture. Our team did this the remainder of our time in Morocco while also continuing our friendships in the market. During this time William picked up on a few arabic words & it is still hilarious to us when he responds to us in arabic. We absolutely love it!

We made life long bonds with the friends we made in Morocco and will always try to keep in contact with them! Some of our friends names that we made were Abdul, Mohammed, Anas, Isai, & Jesus. Please be praying for them with us!

At the close of our trip we returned to Spain and worked locally with the ministry at the Spain base. The team got to take part in their English teaching classes, "tea time" which was centered to draw Muslims/Spanish Moroccans in, and also worship and intercession for the city. 

We would like to THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for helping us make this trip happen. It was not only amazing for our family, but we really feel like we planted seeds that will blossom into something beautiful. Yeah, Jesus!!!

If you would like to know more or have any specific questions, please feel free to e-mail (ryanandsarahowen@gmail.com) or facebook message us anytime! We would love it!

Here is a slide show of pictures from our trip!

Aurora, Chicago ,London, Spain & Morocco.

God changed our plans a little for our outreach, but it's a good change!
We prayed and felt like we were to spend less time in London & Morocco, but add Spain into the trip. We will be spending about 2 nights in London, 3 weeks in Spain & 3 weeks in Morocco! Ryan and I are so excited to be leading (along with 2 other leaders) these 10 Discipleship Training School (DTS) students to these 3 countries with William & Jude. As much as we love and care about these students, they feel the same towards our family. They are so good with William & Jude..it's like they have 10 older siblings!

In order to personally go & show Jesus to these countries we need donations!! Any amount that you can give will help us. Our goal that our family needs to raise is $6,000. I know God will provide since He told us to go, but we believe that He wants to use his people to do this! Please, prayerfully consider giving our family a one time donation or supporting us monthly!

Also, on March 31st we will be driving to Aurora, Il for stateside outreach!! We will be there for a few days, working with the Warehouse Church & different ministries in Aurora & Chicago.
The students are really excited that God told us & them to go to Aurora!
We are looking for host homes for 2 or more people to stay, we want to bless the homes that we set our feet in, so we want to know if there is anything we can do for you while staying in your home!!
We also are asking for people to make meals for us or donate gift cards to grocery stores or restaurants!

Thank you so much for your support so far!
We seriously love each of you!
-Sarah

God speaks.

The Discipleship Training School (DTS) that I (sarah) am small group leading is going really well. As the students learn from the different speakers that come each week, i'm learning things as well. I love watching God speak to the students and hearing what He says to them is always amazing! I'm hearing Him speak more to me in different ways too because i'm listening more! If we all would seek the face of God, we seriously would change the entire world. As a friend of mine said, "The most beautiful being of the universe says,"look into My eyes!"" So let's receive that!! To go along with that Ryan and I were asking God if we were supposed to go on outreach with the students and a couple other leaders, God gave me a picture of a huge hand pointing to street children and said, "GO!"So were going to listen and go, yay! We will be heading to London for 2 weeks & Morocco for 6 weeks this April as a family. Our first responsibility will be to provide leadership to the students as they share their faith in a country that is mostly Muslim. We will be coordinating with the long term missionaries so that we can best come along side what they have been doing in Morocco and continue to do after we leave. Sharing Jesus in a closed country can be very challenging! Will you please commit to praying for our family and the team as we finish the school and head out! We will be trekking through the Atlas Mountains to visit unreached people groups of the Berbers. The Berber people have never heard of the Gospel before! As we spend time in their village and home we will build relationships with them. After our trek we will be in the cities of Marrakesh and Agadir to develop relationships with the university students through english lessons and coffee shop ministries, so that when we share Jesus with them we can do it authentically. A practical example is to gather and sing worship with a guitar. They love music and will want to know what the lyrics are about and why we are singing, which provides an open door! To do this we need your help! For our family of four to travel there we will need to raise $9,855 to cover plane tickets and our expenses while there. We are strongly believing that God will provide this!

Ok, I know this is a lot of good stuff all at once but, there's more great news!

This is the DTS that I'm small group leading!

Willow and Jude going to the park

I attending a YWAM Nashville School of Worship (SOW) in June. As a student, I will be trained in music theory, instruments and vocals, as well as learning why music plays such an important role in worshiping God. I'll also be trained in the understanding of the biblical concept and mandate of worship and how to teach and impart those truths! As this school gets closer I'll let you know more about it!
After my SOW, our goal is to start raising funds for Thailand!

So those are our plans so far..crazy awesome huh?!
William & Jude are doing really well, very healthy and energetic! Jude is sleeping through the night now..YES! He's also trying to sit up by himself at 6mos and trying real hard to crawl. William is so curious and adventurous! Ryan took him into the woods that we have near our apartment and william came back telling me all about the trees and how he was running! He loved it! Ryan is also doing well..he's working in the accounting office at YWAM and also staying home with the boys when i'm with the DTS students.

Thank you all for your love & support. We appreciate and love you!! Please always let us know what is going on in your lives as well.
-Sarah

Fall Stories and Winter Beginnings!

I hope you all had the greatest of holidays this winter/fall season! As you know I did a School of Strategic Missions which went excellent, I feel awakened. God gave me a lot of fresh and new revelation regarding the topics we covered during the school. I learned even deeper importance of going into a culture as a learner and being humble. The speakers talked a lot about the difference from being a salesmen missionary as opposed to a trader in that it is a necessity to learning their culture and that when we go to another country to their home it is our responsibility to submit culture in humility just like Jesus did when He put on flesh to come to us.
One of the speakers talked about theology of place and the importance of knowing your city (I won't be sharing names of speakers as they do may do work in closed countries). This speaker is the city director YWAM San Fransisco so he shared a lot about how he does ministry there. He talked about "exegeting" your city which means to know it, to be in relationship with it by figuring out, for example, what nationalities your city has and where do they live?  He also shared about his experience with coming along side city officials so that you have a voice and good reputation in the community.
That's is just a taste of the topics that we learned about in this school and I would love to dialogue with any of you who have more questions!

There is a required 6 month field assignment that our family will be embarking on soon to Thailand and we will keep you posted on the details!
-Ryan

The boys are doing very well..William has been getting really interested in singing and painting. And Jude is sleeping a little better through the night and is always all smiles!!

This January till June I will be a Discipleship Training School (DTS) small group leader.
It just started today (January 9th) and the students are of course amazing! There are 7 girls and 3 guys..altogether 10, small but awesome.
After 3 months here in Tennessee they will be trekking in Morocco for 2 months!
I will be updating all of you more as the weeks go on about how it is all going!
-Sarah

Ready, Set, Go!

Hello dear family & friends!
As i'm sure all of you have heard already Jude Gabriel is finally here in the flesh and I'm (sarah) thanking God for that because he was a big baby!
He was born at 12:49am on August 4th weighing with a grand total of 9lbs 9oz & measuring at 22in!
The labor from sitting on my couch having contractions to Jude being delivered was only 4 hours total, it was amazingly fast (praise God!). He's a very healthy, beautiful, sweet boy. William adjusted so well to him, he's not even jealous of him at all..i think maybe he's too young to be jealous of his little bro as he calls him..no toys to share or girls to fight over yet ;)

On a different note...As many of you may know I (ryan) have a heart for Thailand and a passion to see modern day slavery(human trafficking) be abolished. Thousands of women and girls get bought and sold everyday in Thailand due to poverty, poor family structure, low societal values of sex, and many other unfortunate circumstances. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand but rarely prosecuted as it brings much revenue into the country but the costs are high. This type of work ruins many lives the souls of the "slavers", souls of the girls and women, and the patrons. You can see how all this wreckage can ruin a society. Is all that revenue worth it? Is there a going rate for compensating trauma? I think not.


Does this happen in the US? Of course it does, but in the US we prosecute and are currently improving laws against human trafficking. Thailand is doing none of this so when a neighbor is in need we help them. Yes Thailand is our neighbor we are apart of an international community called humanity. This is something God has put on my heart. I have decided to do a school here at YWAM Nashville called School of Strategic Missions (SOSM) starting Sept 18th till Dec 21st to get training to go out in hope of fighting against this injustice in Thailand.

During the first 13 weeks of the school I will be challenged by experienced missionaries in the following topics:
Language Learning
Cross Cultural Communication
Culture Shock
Team Dynamics
Discovering Keys to Culture
Community Development
Injustice

I will also learn more about the logistics of going overseas in the key areas:
Health Insurance
Raising Finances/Developing a budget
Taxes while overseas
Secure Communication
Power of Attorney

After the "lecture phase" of the school we will go on outreach as a family overseas to Bangkok,Thailand for around 6 months. We're both super excited for this time in our lives but nervous because this will be the first time we've been to another country as a family!

The tuition for the school is $3,200 and we will also need $3000 for our outreach to Thailand. If you would like to partner with us financially you can make checks to YWAM and for IRS reasons please use our memo #130 instead of our names on  the check. There are other ways to give please see our website site ywamnashville.org or call our accounting office at 615-696-3096 all donations are tax deductible. And for those of you supporting us already your support is of course still needed & greatly appreciated as we are still YWAM Nashville staff. Prayer is needed and we would like people to also commit to praying for us in this season please let us know if you are interested or have any questions at all. We love you all!

To you and yours!

A new short season has arrived! YWAM Nashville is undergoing renovations and focusing on preparing for the fall DTS. For the next 7 weeks we will be doing various building projects to improve our campus. These projects include tiling, dry walling, painting, etc. We will not be running any schools this summer until fall so the administration has rearranged the staff working schedule so that everyone can be involved in this time of preparation. Three days a week are purposed for our normal schedule of operations and two days out of the week are now purposed for campus renovation which is done by all staff. Through the entirety of the schedule since we have a staff deficit everyone is pitching in and filling gaps. It has been really good in this way because everyone gets to rub shoulders with other staff they don't work regularly with and has improved our community even in the short time this schedule has been in place. We are also doing procurement and fundraising for all the improvement projects which we hope will stick with YWAM Nashville even after this season is over.  I (Ryan) have now transitioned into accounting as my new work duty! I have really found a niche there as I am a very detail oriented person when it comes to numbers but haven't fully exercised that talent until now and I really enjoy it. I am in charge of staff support, bank deposits, account reconciliation, paying the bills, and other accounting practices.

Our family is doing very well! YWAM had us move to a bit bigger YWAM apt that is closer to the base. We were blessed with our smaller apt but would have been very crammed with Jude & his baby items :)
So we love the new place & being closer to the base means that we can just walk instead of drive over there to save gas money! I (Sarah) am 39 weeks and 1 whole day pregnant! Me and Ryan are both so ready for Jude Gabriel to be in our arms! I am already 4 cm dilated and just waiting for my water to break or to start consistent contractions. William still doesn't understand that he's going to be a big brother since he's so little but a few of our friends recently had babies and he loves them! Today a baby was crying so he started making silly faces and dancing and the baby would stop!
Just be praying for our family that the transition from three to four would be smooth and sweet. Also that the labor goes as well as it can!
Once Jude is born we will write another blog and post pictures for sure!

Thanks for reading our update!!

-Ryan & Sarah.

p.s. a special thanks to Kim & Kayla D'Escoto for taking beautiful pictures of our family (the one on top is one that they captured.) !
If you would like to check them out they are located in Aurora,IL and you can go to their facebook page Kimberlee Kay Photography or their website kimberleekayphotography.com

UPDATE!

The last few months have gone really well! My (Ryan) social injustice class was very beneficial for the students! Through the curriculum I was able to give them God's heart for injustice. We had some good discussions regarding the oppression on women in society and how that causes injustice towards women. They also did a research project to get them familiar with injustice topics and presented them to the class through power point and video. I had great speakers come in to discuss injustice including Troy Sherman, Heather Margebanks, and Collette Bercue. Troy is the son of a long time speaker in YWAM Dean Sherman and has been apart of many projects to fight against injustice. Heather Margebanks is a YWAM speaker that has done extensive sociological research on global injustice and speaks at injustice related conferences all around the world. Collette Bercue is the CEO of Free for Life Ministries and the leader of an anti-human trafficking coalition with the governmental Rescue and Restore initiative. Free for Life works with anti-human trafficking shelters all around the world raising funds for the their operations.

Recently Ryan helped lead a short term outreach in Nashville & Sarah helped lead worship for a college group from Clemson University located in South Carolina. They had a 6 day trip with us and Ryan was responsible for the last 3 days. We had devotional time and worship each morning before we went out to a local church to get some painting done for their new building. The church owns an industrial building that they have church in and rent out the other parts of it to the community. One of these renters is a thrift store that operates to support missions in Africa. We helped sort donated clothes for their part of the building. Later that night during a bonfire we had a worship "jam session" that the college group actually helped lead as well. The next day we went out to Nashville to teach them about human trafficking & to show them the different parts in Nashville like Dickerson Pike that we know has prostitution & such going on. We went to our church's ministry center where we watched a Rescue and Restore video about human trafficking in the US and discussed it. We did a prayer walk and Ryan showed them specific places that have been on the news. He also introduced them to backpage.com which is a website where "slaves" are bought and sold . I called & posed as a buyer to show them the reality of it. That night we had worship and debriefing to talk about their time here and process the ministry that they did that week. The next day we said our good byes and closed up the trip! It was awesome.

Sarah is now finishing up her last month as Kitchen Coordinator. It has definitely been a good learning experience! She has figured out how to budget & organize meals for the whole base which is about 50 people give or take. With budgeting well she has been able to bring more organic items to our meals at YWAM Nashville! God is really making me step up as a leader in being kitchen coordinator and helping a lot with worship not just with YWAM but our church in Nashville too.

William is growing of course & saying a lot of words. He really loves people & is not very shy to anyone. I think it helps being at YWAM Nashville where there is different kinds of people here all of the time but also a core group for him to really know. He has a best friend & girlfriend named Isabella who is only 5 mos older than him...we've decided that they will get married ;)  It has been so awesome to have a lot of other babies here at the base for him to play with, there are at least 5 his age.

If you haven't heard yet..We are having another little stinky boy! We're very excited of course!!
His name is Jude Gabriel & he is kicking/ practicing karate as I type all of this out. I am currently 24 weeks and 2 days along & my due date is July 31st. He will be delivered here in good ol' tennessee!
There are also 4 other women that are pregnant here at the base so Jude will have friends too :)

We are getting real ansy to visit another country or two! Just praying about when, where and with who!!
We might be going to Thailand for a week long anti-human trafficking conference in January but that is still up in the air! Also friends of ours are moving to Berlin, Germany soon and after Jude is born we would love to help them settle in. But for now we will stay here in our own country till God says to go.

If you would like to donate heres how:
Sending cash or a check-
P.O. Box 78219
Nashville,TN 37207
Please make the check out to YWAM Nashville & in the memo write the number 130.

If you would like to donate online, here's the link!
https://www.ywam.org/donations/donate
operating location name is YWAM Nashville
operating location address is 5801 Keysburg Rd Adams, TN 37010

If you would like to become a monthly supporter please contact us:
RyanandSarahOwen@gmail.com
or Facebook Message us!

the owen clan.