Official Newsletter for December 2016!!

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"In the meadow we can build a snowman,Then pretend that he is Parson Brown.  He'll say: Are you married? We'll say: No man, But you can do the job, When you're in town. Later on, we'll conspire, As we dream by the fire To face unafraid, The plans that we've made, Walking in a winter wonderland."

Merry Christmas!

I hope that this year finds you surrounded by family and friends. But even if it doesn’t I hope that you have the hope that truly matters. A hope rooted on the life, death, and resurrection of the man whose human life we celebrate on Christmas day!!  

I am spending this Christmas with my family. It will be the first Christmas since 2011 that I have spent with them. I am so excited to be with them. I am excited to fill stockings for my two nieces and two nephews and to sing carols together. It is so exciting to contemplate being with those I love the most. 

This past year has been a very busy one. One that had so many surprises and changes. Last Christmas I was still going to the clinic that I thought may work out for me to be employed by. Last Christmas I was not dating anyone. Last Christmas I taught Biology at the homeschool co-op but I was not housing students. Last Christmas all five of my close women friends were still living in Kunming. Last Christmas I was on a team that was working on Permeate. Last Christmas if you had told me that I would be a year away from almost married I would have laughed in your face. 

This Christmas I plan to continue working with Eden and the Home School Co-op but don’t anticipate any medical work for the time being.  This Christmas I am engaged. This Christmas I am a teacher and a dorm mom. This Christmas all my closet women friends except one have moved out of Kunming. This Christmas I find myself on so many teams but there is no team for Permeate. This Christmas if you told that I would be a mother in a year I may actually believe you. 

There are lots of changes ahead-please continue to lift Luke and I up. I feel a little overwhelmed by all the possible changes. However, Celebrating the King of kings puts everything into perspective.  What changes are upcoming in your life? Please pray for me and Luke to continue to grow in favor with God and man, that we would seek Him first in all our ways, that we would trust and obey, and that we would walk humbly. Please contemplate what or who you are trusting in for your future. I pray that you also will trust in the King of kings to guide and direct your path. 

You will not get a newsletter from us until We have returned back to China sometime after Feb. 

Love and Merry Christmas!

Denise and Luke too!!

Official Newsletter 2016 November!!

Happy Thanksgiving! I have much to give thanks for this year. 

I am thankful for the company that I have been working with here in KM for the last 7 years. I have been supported by everyone in Colorado as well as anyone on any OC based team. 

As Luke and I continue to make plans for a wedding in January, We had to make some choices about which company to join. Last month’s newsletter, I told you a little bit about Luke’s team. 

Now I would like to tell you about Luke’s company, because we have made the hard choice for me to leave my company and join his. Which, if you desire to continue supporting the work that Father is having me do, will affect you.

Luke's Company is based out of Charlotte, North Carolina and has a long history of working cross culturally.  

Sudan Interior Missi0n (S1M)began in 1893. Canadians Walter Gowans, Roland Bingham, and American Thomas Kent had a vision to reach the 60 million unreached people of sub-Saharan Africa. Unable to interest established missi0ns—most of which said reaching the Sudan was impossible—the three set out alone.

Malaria overtook all three. Gowans and Kent, respectively died in 1894, and Bingham returned to Canada. Unable to return to Africa, Bingham sent out a third team. They successfully established a base 225 miles (364 km) inland at Patigi in 1902. From there, the work of S1M began in Africa.

Today, it is an organization that has joined many different agencies together. In the 1980s, Andes Evangelical Missi0n (AEM), Ceylon and India General Mission (CIGM) and Poona and Indian Village Missi0n (P1VM) merged to become International Christian Fellowship (1CF), and Sudan Interior Missi0n (S1M) joined forces to become Society for International Ministries: S1M. Africa Evangelical Fellowship (AEF) joined with S1M in 1998. In 2000, S1M adopted the trade name (or slogan) "Serving 1n Missi0n," for English-speaking countries, but our their name around the world today is simply S1M.

Although there are a lot of sad things about leaving My Company, OC1, one of the great things about joining S1M is they have experienced workers who have worked and served in EBOLA rich areas. For some of you, you are unaware that I have had a preoccupation with Ebola since early high school. These are people who love J*sus, love medicine, and want to help people live long enough to know J*sus themselves. I CANNOT WAIT to get to know these people and to listen to their stories as well as perhaps get to help out at some point in the future. 

However, never fear, I will not be traipsing off to the African continent anytime soon. Instead, I will be working in all the areas that I currently work in today, while providing member care to the members of Luke’s team.  If you want to do some research into SIM on your own please see their website. You can type in wwwdotsimdotcom.

I am currently going through the application and interview process with S1M and the plan for Luke and I is that we will need to be back in Charlotte to go through the acceptance and training processes. Then we will want to introduce one another to our support networks. You are a part of my support network.  We are hoping that we will be able to see as many of you as possible the summer of 2017.

If you have questions regarding our decision or how this will impact you please email me at denisejasmer@outlook.com.

Official Newsletter for 2016 October!

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Hi. Last Spring, I told you that I would be coming to America to do more fund raising-which did not happen. I wanted to share with you some of the reasons that I did not return this past summer as well as give you some information about my future. The main reason that I did not return home this summer was mostly to accommodate future plans and decrease additional spending. 

As the time approached for me to return to the States,  I encountered a new life situation. I had been dating my boyfriend, Luke, for a very short time but we had already begun talking about marriage. When my parents asked us what our possible timeline was and we discussed a U.S. wedding in January and then again returning to America in June for required training with Luke’s organization. My mom suggested, I consider not coming back in May and instead when Luke and I return in June of 2017 doing fundraising together. This allows me to be a good steward by limiting the amount of times I return to the states during this next year. I discussed this with Luke as well as my team leader and everyone agreed that this was a better use of funds and time.

By staying here this summer I was able to attend Luke’s team meetings and go with a short-term team to a village. At this point some of you may have already inferred that perhaps this means some changes for me in the future, and that would be correct.  It was not an easy decision, but after careful consideration and much discussion between us as a couple. I have decided to start the process of joining Luke’s organization. In many ways his organization is very similar to the group I work with now.  I encourage you to contact me regarding how to learn more about his organization.

I anticipate continuing the work that I am currently doing with the added bonus of being on a team that is actively working toward helping a people group have access to the Good News in their own heart language. 

Our wedding is planned for January 7, 2017 and we would love your petitions as we prepare things from a distance as well as for our future.  Joining a different organization not only includes many changes for myself, but if you give financially to me there will be changes that will effect you in the future. Since I am not yet accepted as an SIM employee and I don’t know what they will require I will try to keep you all informed. However, I am currently still under supported and could benefit from either 25 supporters raising their monthly support by $20 each or by 25 new supporters giving $20 a month. 

I am excited about the summer of 2017, not only for the opportunity to get to know his organization better but also for the opportunity to introduce you all to Luke. 

2016 September Official Newsletter!

September 15, 2009 was the day, seven years ago, I arrived in Kunming.  It was a day filled with expectations and hopes. The Kunming I landed in and the person who flew into Kunming are both very different today. I thought that is would be fun to look back and ponder the ways we have all changed. 

C-H-I-N-A-V-E-R-S-A-R-Y

Construction: With a subway under way and old areas under construction, the landscape is rapidly changing. Ask that as old buildings are removed that this would prepare hearts to hear the good news. 

Home: Moving from a sixth floor apartment to a first floor apartment, my life is more seen by my neighbors. Ask that I may be a witness that testifies to all that my Father has done for me and gives off a fragrant scent to my neighbors. 

Imports: Today, I saw a man on the street selling blueberries. Seven years ago, the prospect of finding blueberries was unlikely. All around me are changes like this. As western items are brought in to be sold, I ask that when the newness of the news of grace is brought into lives that it would also be welcome. 

Need: I truly believe that Father doesn't need me to be here, but I have come to realize that because I have chosen to join His work here that I have grown in my need for Him. I ask that when and if you join in what Father is doing around you that you will also find more of who you were made to be as well as more of Him. 

Academics: Moving from only studying to teaching as well as studying. Teaching both national students as I talk with them about how to make good choices and avoid being trafficked as well as expat students as I teach them Biology. Ask that I might continue to learn from the people around me  but that I may also be a clear and truth bearing instructor. 

Vision: I came to help leprosy affected people and that changed to working with women who had escaped sex trafficking and now I work mostly with youth-educating them how to avoid being trafficked. Ask Father to continue to make his direction clear. 

Relationships: In 2009, most of my friends were single women. I was privileged to start a youngish single women's small group. But as the years have progressed, many of those women have either returned home, gotten married, or moved to more remote areas. Please life them and what Father is doing in them up. These days, most of my friends are married women. I have learned a lot from them. Please life up women and families on the field. Especially, lift up their marriages and the stresses that are on them. Also, spend some time lifting up your own relationships. 

Supervisor: Moving into leadership roles. I am now the supervisor of a small team as we work on the trafficking prevention work. I have also been on the Permeate Planning team in the past but this upcoming year I will be heading the team up. Thankfully there will be others working on it with me but I will be leading meetings and delegating. Please keep this leadership aspect of my life in your petitions. 

Adjustable: In 2009, I had no idea the amount of flexibility and molding I would be subject to. I am thankful that I am less rigid and unchanging than I was before. China has a way of breaking you down. I have gotten used to it and I am able to go with the flow much more easily. Thank Father for His patience with you and with me and thank Him for the sanctification that you can see in your own life. 

Romance: Over the past four years, Father has really been speaking and teaching me about romance. I have learned that He desires me to long for Him more than I long for an earthly mate. I learned that I can trust Him in my singleness, He knows my heart, He sees my hopes. I learned that I love Him more than my wishes of a family and a husband. I have been adventurous and brave as I have followed Him through open doors that closed. He has given me peace in the place where I am at. I am dating a wonderful man and I cling to Jesus now as things seem to be moving towards a wedding and life together. Please ask that Father would make things abundantly clear to both Luke and I as we journey forward. That He would help us to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit and that we would choose daily to exercise them toward each other and to those around us.

Yoke: The team that I joined in 2009 was a much larger. My team has lost many members over the seven year. It has been a harder aspect of living here than I had anticipated. I had not predicted that those people would come and go. My team is now only one family and myself. Unless Father directs me differently before December, I will also be joining a second team, Luke's team. One of the exciting things about joining another team is the connections and networking possibilities that are available. Luke's team is working with a language subset where there are no know people who believe in the good work and life change that Father and His Son can do. I would be a part of supporting that kind of work. Lift up those doing language work as well as building relationships. 


Thank you for celebrating my CHINAVERSARY with me!

July and Aug 2016 Official Newsletter

Dear Faithful Supporters,

I want to first say that if you are expecting to see me this summer, I am sorry to disappoint you. I had a change my plans. I will be back in the States sometime within the next 7-8 months but that information is yet to be determined and will be communicated to you as soon as possible. 

I wanted to share with you some quotes from students of the home school co-op that I teach Biology at. I feel like I haven’t shared very much about this program. This is a program where most of the students live in remote areas of the country and come once a month for a week to take classes. So for one week each month they have class from 8-5:30. Then they return home for the rest of the month and work on their homework and do assignments that they then either bring back to class or submit via the internet.  This past year I had 7 Biology students. They were from six different cities and four different nationalities. All of these students’ families work in various areas of bringing the Kingdom to those areas of the world. If is very exciting to know that I am helping that work by teaching their kids. I hope that it will be exciting to see how your support of me is also supporting those ministries. 

The students were asked to share what this school program means to them. Here are a few of their statements. 

“I feel very thankful and blessed to be a part of MSG. I am very shy but by being at MSG, I learned how to open up and talk and participate with other people. I learned how communication is important when you want to build a healthy relationship with people around you.”

“MSG has positively influenced me in more ways than I can fit on a dozen of these pages, but mostly it has provided a better social environment, made me smarter (a lot), and helped me mature.”

“MSG’s most valuable contribution to my life has been what it has taught me about myself. One thing that I’ve learned from going to MSG is that you don’t have to be very similar to someone in order to be friends with them; you just have to be mutually willing to be friends. Every year, MSG brings together people from all different places with different interests and personalities, yet we all get along and are kind to each other.”

I have been very blessed to be able to be apart of these students’ lives and impact them both academically as well as character developmentally. Praise Him above for the parts that we get to play in his greater plan. Thank you for your part. 

Winds of Change!

CHANGE OF PLANS!

There is a breeze of change coming. 

I will NOT be in the United States this Summer.

This is a correction to here printed newsletter that got mailed out before some changes took place. 

I am currently in Kunming and have plans to be in the States this winter but may not be available to visit supporters until next spring or summer. 

If you have concerns or questions regarding this please contact me via email: denisejasmer@outlook.com

June 2016 Official Newsletter!!

你们好！

Hello! 

I have been very busy with amazing things this spring. 

I hope that the new life that surrounds you highlights the new life that our

 Lord and Savior has given you.

I’ve been busy learning more Chinese, teaching biology, training and teaching women in Flourish, working with youth group girls, introducing my city to friends, planting flowers, and working with students in our trafficking prevention program.

I recently, learned how to play the famous Chinese game: majiang. It looks so complicated but once you have learned it, you realize that it is a lot like Rummicube.

Working with the Shine School Program English Corner, has proved to be a lot of fun as well as very rewarding. The kids are very receptive and the teachers are glad that WE are talking to them about hard issues.

I decided that I would teach Biology again next year, but May marked the end of this years term.

I gave Flourish graduation certificates to the girls from my home school co-op who participated over the course of this year.

We also had a graduation of Flourish leaders in April and it was a fabulous time of good food and good conversation.

I got to introduce my city to one of my best friends early this year. 

It is always a privilege to show my world to my loved ones. 

Feel free to visit anytime.

Please continue to lift me and these works up.

In my printed and mailed hard copy version of this letter I stated that I would be in South Dakota and Nebraska this summer. I have to apologize to those of you who were counting on that time with me. 

Some things came up that changed my plans. 

Know that when I am available to sit down with you in South Dakota or Nebraska I will let you know. If you would like to know more information regarding these change of plans please email me at: denisejasmer@outlook.com

2016 Permeate-Return of the King

Thank you to all the people who have donated to, prayed for, inquired about, and attended Permeate 2016. It was a blast. Let me tell you about some of the awesome things that Father did as well as some of the really fun things that we did!

This year, was very different for me personally. I had shared with you all in a previous post/newsletter that I was taking on a new role on the Permeate planning team. Since the two who have been more publicly in charge of Permeate are returning to the States in May, planning the next Permeate (Permeate 2017) will be much more of my responsibility. Therefore, this year we have begun to transfer many of the titles and duties to me. This is exciting and terrifying. Please lift me up.  So because of those new responsibilities, I did not have a small group this year. This was both sad and a blessing. I missed hearing the comments first hand from students who are encountering Father's work in their lives. I missed the enthusiastic excitement about candy or treats from the USA. I missed talking to Father with specific girls for specific things that are on their hearts.

However, I got to be involved in many areas that in the past I just thought magically happened. :) It is exciting to be in on the behind the scenes activity.  One of my favorite parts of the organization and preparation of Permeate was working on the games. Who would have thought games would take so much planning? I didn't. But the student leaders that we had involved did a fabulous job coming up with them.

The really great thing that happened in relation to playing games, was that Father changed the weather for us. The weather forecast stated snow. 

Thursday, the day Permeate started it was cold. Really cold. So part of my job included brainstorming how we could have all the games in doors. This meant that we were also brainstorming how to modify and change some of the games so that they no longer included water. 

 However, Friday afternoon came and the sun was shining and the grass was dry and so we didn't need to use the alternative locations or activities! What a fantastic show of Father's all powerfullness!

We had four different speakers this year, each one spoke on a different aspect of how the truth of The Son's second coming should impact our lives. As a planning team we were not sure how well it was going to go. It was one of the things I was praying for. Asking that Father would help all the speakers' messages to meld well together. Praise the Lord that one of His chief concerns is that His word would be understood and taken in by His children.

Spoke on: The way to the Father and his house: John 14:1-14 

Spoke on: Resurrection life and being anchored on Christ: 1 Corinthians 15: 35-58

Spoke on: Suffering and Future Glory: Romans 8:16-25

Spoke on: New Heavens and New Earth: Revelation 21:1-22:5

 I feel that Father used their messages to not only touch the students by me as well. It is exciting to remember that we have a King who is preparing a place for us. A place where there will be no sun because He will be the sun for us!


Every year we have one night where we have extended worship and prayer. We usually take the the theme of the year and do something related to it during the evening. Since our theme for 2016 was Return of the King we focused on Revelation and the prayers for the seven churches. We talked about what each church needed prayer for and encouraged them to see where their needs fit into one of those prayers. We spent time praying for ourselves and for one other student. Then we spent time praying for the nations. That since Jesus is the Hope of all Nations and that one day there would be people from all nations, and tongue, and tribe gathered before His throne we could be praying for His Kingdom on earth. One of the leaders posted on Facebook: "During our Permeate worship night, we prayed over our nations as a mixed group and one of the kids brought up the amazing fact that we as believers get to be united in every election. Not because we agree on the candidates, but because we agree we should honor, respect, and pray for our elected officials! Beautiful reminder from a great kid!"

This night is often one filled with tears and excitement. The planning team received a note from a student telling us that the worship night was hugely impacting her to see God's heart and that she would be forever changed by it. Another young woman chose to start a new start with her King that night. 

 

 

"The Band" was exhausted after 3 hours of playing Rock and Worship Music. Epic is generally how it is described. Songs like: My Lighthouse, God's Not Dead, Happy Day, and Forever were just some of the anthems we proclaimed late into the night. 

  

It was a weekend full of fun, laughter, growing, and experiencing the Holy Spirit. For those of you who donated scholarships to students I wanted to let you know that we were able to provide scholarships to 18 families. Thank you so very much.  


Thank you to all who signed up for prayer slots. Having it covered in prayer is very important to us and you partnering with us in this way is very precious. I strongly believe that our minimal medical problems is in part due to your faithful petitions. 

  

One thing that we got to participate in this year was a homeless ministry. Every year the conference center requires us to purchase a dinner meal that we do not use. This year, instead of just forfeiting that money, we chose to purchase the food and packaged it up and sent it to some individuals who carried out a homeless feeding ministry. We were able to provide food for 35 families, and 40 individuals. We were also notified that that night, one person who received food also received a new life in JC. PTL!!

The last night we had arranged to have a bon fire and s'mores. It was very lovely. When the guards lit the fire the anticipation was very high. We are very thankful that no one died. 

 

All in all it was a great success. We were tired but happy by the time we got home. 

Next year we will miss Nate and Mikayla. They have been wonderful examples of God's hands and feet to the ex-pat youth of Kunming. We have been blessed to have them in our lives and we look forward to seeing how Father uses and works in them in their next season of life. 

For those of you scrolling through these pictures and thinking-Wow that looks like fun! You too could be involved. We are also in need of some full time youth workers-so if you are or know someone who wants to work with youth feel free to contact me. These kids are precious and thirsty to know God more. 

Thank you for all that you have done to support this conference and to support me in it! 

Denise