Sorry it has been so long...

It's been a while since we've posted! We've been super busy!

Everything has been going well. We are thankful for the prayers!

We've already had a few big on-campus events this semester that have been great. We started the semester off with a huge open-mic night/video game tourney, where we gave away an ipod touch to the winner of the open-mic contest and a Wii to the winner of the video game tourney. We had around 150 show, and here's the best part: everyone there heard the gospel!

We were able to pull the gamers away from the screen long enough for one of our students, named Trevor, to get on the microphone and share the gospel. It was awesome.

We've also begun an event that happens every Tuesday morning, where we bring coffee and breakfast food to campus and give it away FOR FREE. You know how much college students love FREE! The cool thing is that most of the students don't take food and leave, but they get food and stay! So every week, we get to hang out with the same lost students and share the gospel with them until they become saved students!

Melissa was sharing with one girl who responded to the gospel with, "Why would God send His son for us? That just doesn't make sense." To which Melissa replied, "You're right, but that's why it's so amazing."

Pray for this weekly activity. It's huge. Also pray for Thursday nights, which is when we have our mid-week worship on campus. Pray that more people would come and that I would be faithful to teach from the Bible and that I would handle the Scriptures properly.

We also need your prayer for this church. There's been a lot of division among the body and mishandling of God's word. Pray that the pastor-search comity would be diligent in seeking after a God-fearing, Scripture-spittin' Pastor who will really lead and care for the sheep.

As for Melissa and I, all is well. For Valentines Day, we went to a super expensive restaurant called Roy's, but it's okay, we had gift cards. (thanks Aunt Christy and Uncle Eddie) The food was good, but the portion was tiny, so when we left we went home, made our own HUGE desserts and watched Lion King. I love being married! (BTW: been married for 275 days!)

Again thanks for your prayers. Be expecting more frequent updates from now on!

God Bless!

Love,

Jay and Melissa.

P.S.: You can check out all our pics from over Christmas at these links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044415&id=61702022&l=d930e211e7

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044412&id=61702022&l=1b679de007

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044027&id=61702022&l=f9c6fb4d03

My Wife is AMAZING!!!

So, you guys may have recently read about how Melissa's crazy and about how she thinks that I'm the best thing since sliced bread. I thought that I would take some time to clear some things up. Be it known that I'm the one who is blessed beyond understanding. I have been studying a series of lessons by John Piper about Biblical manhood and womanhood. Piper has adopted and, throughout his life, helped develop a complementary view of the roles of manhood and womanhood in a marriage. That's complement, as a complete circle or a complete set of something, not compliment as in, "you look nice." Basically, Piper asserts that men and women are equal in the sight of God, and have been blessed in receiving unique roles as man and not woman/woman and not man. These roles do not make the man higher than the woman, rather they assist man and woman in equally completing a marriage. The man is to take primary responsibility for leading a marriage. One could argue as to how good of a job I have done at that. There is no mistake, however, that Melissa has done an incredible job of fulfilling her role of supporting me, affirming me in my leadership, praying for me in whatever I do, and in honoring me, even when I don't feel that honorable. She is gentle, kind, servant hearted, a lover of God's word and passionate for His glory. She has ministered to young women, old women, immature women, mature women, children, single moms and broken youths. She speaks the word appropriately and biblically and understands the truths in the Bible better than most of the guys I know. If I can be accredited with leading this marriage, she can be accredited with being a wife who fulfills her roles in a way that makes it hard for me to mess up. She takes seriously our calling to share the gospel through our marriage. I am not leading an immature, selfish, gossip goodie-goodie. I am leading a woman who has a broken heart for what it is that breaks God's heart. The most important thing is that she loves God more than she loves me. He truly is BEFORE ALL THINGS, and IN HIM, ALL THINGS ARE HELD TOGETHER.

She doesn't know I'm writing this, she's working on our budget.... sexy... ha ha.

I guess I should tell you guys how things are going.... We had some big events and some smaller ones.... and then... we had a day off. That was good. We did an open-mic night and we had a HUGE turnout. We were able to share the gospel there and have built significant relationships with some new students. The day after the open-mic night, Melissa decided to try to scare the mess out of me with a really bad migraine. I ended up taking her to the hospital when she spent all of Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The hospital wouldn't let me stay the night with her, so I had to go sleep by myself at the creepy old annex. Fortunately, Melissa feels much better and we were able to find a neurologist and get an appointment within a day. We're still looking into options for treating the migraines, so please pray for us. We've had a lot of suggestions..... Some of them were helpful. lol. We were unable to promote the next event, a hip-hop concert, because of our hospital fun, but God blessed it and we had a good number on non-believers there when we shared the gospel.

We're having a Thanksgiving day dinner at the student dorms for the ones who cannot go home or be with family. We will have a lot of food. Pray for this event as we often have opportunities to meet new people every time we have an event at the dorms. We cannot initiate a gospel conversation, but the students generally ask why we give them food for free, so it works out.

This will be my first Thanksgiving without my family. Good chance to practice the "leave'n'cleave" technique. We're excited about the first Thanksgiving of OUR family. I think we're going to have lasagna.... we don't want too much turkey.

We're super excited about the arrival of our newest nephew, Jonah. We've been looking at pictures every 10 minutes, but Melissa hogs the computer. It's funny to think that I'm a Godfather.... lol. Congrats to Matthew and Casey.

Melissa and I are enjoying marriage and we appreciate your prayers. We are looking forward to coming home for Christmas and seeing everyone! We love you guys!

I'll upload some Pictures from our events later!

Jay

b.t.w. Thanks for the money Zack. You're very generous/ugly.

In awe of God's grace & my husband's obedience...

Jay is at Avery's house right now so he can't get mad at me but I just wanted to brag on him a bit. Last night, we had our normal weekly worship event on campus where Jay teaches, and currently he is teaching through Acts. It has been so ridiculously good but it just seems that it gets better and better. It is incredible to me the reverence Jay takes with teaching the Holy Word of God, and the time of study and discipline he puts into his time of preparation! It makes me so proud and ecstatic that the man that I was so blessed to marry, loves the Word of God THAT much! Not only that, but his obedience in getting out of the way that God may speak clearly has been amazing. He taught on Acts 3 last night, and I don't think I have ever been more proud of him. He exalted the Scriptures and it's complete sufficiency. He glorified Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer. And he enabled others to worship our incredible, and soul satisfying God! I count myself overwhelmingly blessed to see God work so incredibly in the life of my hubs, and see his teaching conform into something that is so rich and full and life giving and SO FOCUSED ON THE WORD! What a great God that we serve - who does all that He promises!! To God be the glory. ALONE!

Jay's Teaching...

Hey just wanted to let you guys know that we have our podcast up of Jay's teachings that happen on Thursday night on our website...

http://web.me.com/criticalmass3/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

October.....the whole month in a nutshell!

Here are some pictures from our trip in O'ahu in October. Jay and I hate carrying a camera around everywhere we go, especially when we are walking lots, so we only have three pictures. Sorry! But we had so much fun. Got there Friday and enjoyed a breakfast with our state advisor, which was encouraging! The rest of the day we walked all around Waikiki and Ala Moana area, just enjoying quality time with Jay :) It was a lot of fun. Ate way too much at Todai, an all you can eat sushi buffet, and then took a nap at the beach and then walked it all off haha! Then the next day we got to meet up with our old pastor back in Mississippi, Brother Greg, and his wife, Susan Belser. We got to hang out with them all day, which was super refreshing, and drove around North Shore!!! We had a blast and a pretty relaxing weekend.

After this trip that kind of kick started our October craziness, we came back to Maui to begin all that would go on in October. We had a whole week with the youth in October during their Fall Break, where we got to go camping and hang out with them a lot, which is always a blast! We also had the guy in charge of youth leave for a whole month for a mission trip to Thailand, so Jay and I have been in charge of running the youth as well since Oct 12th.

The highlights of the many activities that we did in October would have to be the Slip-n-slide that we did on campus on October 22nd! It was incredible and was so much fun! We got to co-sponsor the event with the Student Government (huge answer to prayers) and a ton of students came out to participate. You can see a lot of pictures from this on my facebook account...it takes too long to load them all on here sorry! But anyways we got to meet, further relationships, build credibility, and share the gospel with many of these students!

Another big event we had was in the student apartments. We had a big BBQ for Halloween and a costume contest to win 100 dollar VISA card. It was a huge turn out and a whole lot of fun! Got to share the gospel with the girl that won the contest. She is a student at MCC with a 15 month old baby (the one in the nun costume and the lil baseball player who is too cute!) who I got to meet last time we had an event at the apartments! God is at work and caused her to ask many questions concerning Christianity and what it was all about. Expressed a huge desire to raise her son right and was open to hear how Christianity could aid that! Oh that Christ would be so present in the raising of that child!

We also took a service trip to Ke'anae where we helped the local YMCA with a bunch of projects there and also got the chance to work with some local Hawaiian families out in their taro patches. Was hard work but so much fun and great fellowship and service to the Hawaiian community!

Anyways, to say the least Jay and I have been SUPER busy this past month but that does not excuse my lack in writing on the blog so please forgive me. How we need your prayer and more then that, how we need God to continue to work mightily and move in the hearts of the people here!

So please pray for....

* Jay and I to continue have focus on what God has called us to specifically - that He would give us discernment in things that we need to say no to.

* Jay and I's marriage to reflect the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and that we would continue to honor it as such. That we would find time to spend time together apart from ministry purposes in order to specifically nourish that!

* Valley Isle Fellowship's current vulnerable state, in which there is no head pastor. There is however a transitional pastor or interim. Pray for him as he is coming to leadership this week. His name is Bob.

* Pray for youth leaders for VIF to be brought up

* Pray for a revival and awakening to occur on the MCC campus and that students' would be seeking for something that truly satisfies and gives joy - that they would be able to see the Beauty that is Christ!

* Pray for Jay and I's time management and diligence in spiritual disciplines!

* Pray for Thursday nights - that students would be drawn in and that Jay would exalt Truth and preach the Word of God alone!

Upcoming events to pray for -

* Haleakala camping trip on the 13th-14th

* Open Mic Night at student lounge on the 17th

* Turkey Feast at the apartments for those who don't have Thanksgiving plans on the 26th

* Tuesday night small groups...every Tuesday night

* Thursday night worship on campus...every Thursday night

Thank you for your prayers and for your support! God has been so faithful and has continued to supply grace upon grace! We can't wait to see all of you in the coming month! I will try my best to update again soon! Love you guys!

More Pictures

Us at the beach with Licona...Jay was getting a little picture happy! Kind of a cool picture though, the one with the palm trees in the glasses.

This is Mike Licona and Jay and Dave up on Haleakala...WAY to early in the morning!

The whole group that got up at 3 am to see the sunrise on the volcano! From the left you got James (in other pictures being baptized), Mike Licona, Jay, Me, Allan (who does all of our sound and cooks all of our food for big events), Amanda (works for the Pacific Whale Foundation and comes to Critical Mass a lot), and Dave (used to work on the mountain as a wildlife manager).
Me and Amanders...
Me and the most incredible man in the whole wide world!
10,023 feet...it was cold. And wet...and early!
Sunrise from the Annex..where we stay!
Nick Tanaka, who leads the other small group Bible study for Critical Mass.
Paula Higuchi, holding Loki's (one of the girls that comes to Tuesday night small groups) baby!
Jay eating his home-made Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle Taco Burrito! He enjoyed himself as you can see...

Sorry it has been so long...

I am so sorry it has been so long since we have posted on our blog. I am trying to do better and have no excuse. It has been on my to do list for like a week but everytime I have had free time, I choose sleep or quality time with my hubs instead of blogging. I will attempt to do better because I really do believe that you guys praying specific things, greatly affect the ministry that God is doing over here! And I want to relay those specific requests to you.

Anyways, I cannot fully update you on all that has happened since I last blogged but I can assure you that God has been so faithful throughout our time of silence on the blog :) Jay and I had a week of us not feeling good and being drained but God sustained us through it. Small groups have now met 3 times and have been so great! Jay is teaching a study on Biblical Manhood and I on Womanhood. Another leader is teaching on the character of God and we have about 20-25 students show up! God has really blessed it and we pray that it continues to grow in number and in depth!

This past week we had Mike Licona, a well known apologist, come to speak at a bunch of different events. This guy has studied unto a PhD, propelled by a pursuit for Truth, in trying to decide which world view was correct and held substantial evidence. Through his 585 single space, paged dissertation that he had to write for his PhD, Licona came to the conclusion that there IS substantial and overwhelming historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore proved the authenticity of Christianity! He has searched for Truth his whole life, and continues to study and research for more, but has come to the conclusion that Christianity is what is real and True above all other religions or world views. He follows Christ diligently and God has called him to take on debates against top scholars throughout North America. He has debated many top notch scholars that are Muslim, Free-thought, Atheist, etc. Anyways...our supervisor pastor, Gary, got him to come to Maui and on Wednesday he spoke to our youth and then on Thursday, a normal night for Critical Mass on campus, we asked him to speak as well. He shared his "journey" to Truth and to Christianity and then we had an open forum for Q&A for the students that came. God moved in a HUGE way by bringing about 80 college students to this event!!! We average about 35-40 on a normal Thursday night but through prayer, lots of promotion, and most of all God's miraculous power, 80 students showed up! Despite that, the discussion and questions were great and really exalted the Word of God as Truth and Christianity as the only way! Oh man it was so good and Jay and I are just so in awe of what God did that night.

Throughout the week that Licona was here, we got to hang out with him and learned sssssso much from him. He has given us such a desire to study apologetics and to be obedient to 1 Peter 3:15 "...but sanctify Christ as LORD in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense ("apologian" - to make a RATIONAL defense) to everyone who ask you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverance..." Anyways Licona challenged us with some really good stuff and we are really excited to see how God will use all that we learned and are hard pressed to learn through apologetics. Especially within sharing the gospel with those who are skeptics of the Christian faith. If you guys want to check him out more, go to 4truth.net or arisenjesus.org. GOOD STUFF!

Before this past week, we have been busy with a huge spaghetti dinner on the apartment grounds, doing a star gazing trip up on Haleakala, having a One Love Surf event at Lauinipoko, doing "See You At The Pole" with the youth, and having another youth lock-in with Lanai, a neighboring island. And then of course all the normal weekly youth and college events. So we have been busy but so incredibly blessed to get to see all that God is doing here on this island!

Here are some specific prayer requests that you guys can be on your knees for:

* Valley Isle Fellowship - that God would continue to unite the church in pursuit of the pastor He desires to lead and shepherd us. That God would ignite hearts to hear God-exalting Truth and nothing else...that we would not desire a "us"-exalting gospel! And that God would rise up a head pastor that would ensure Biblical, sound teaching and who's utmost concern is God's glory!

* Youth and College leaders - that God would rise up parents and others to be burdened for the youth and college of this island and that they would help with one of these ministries. Pray that God would provide a desire for mentorship to take place within both ministries! Also pray that God would give Jay and I clarity on our role in the youth...and discernment of where our direct focus needs to be!

* Young Adults - that God would give Jay and I guidance and wisdom on how to reach the young adults of this island and that we would be sensitive to how He would have that look. That He would give us His vision and His way and not be distracted by our own desires or preconcieved ideas from the main land and our past.

* Discretion on what a potential partnering relationship looks like between Critical Mass and a church plant that will be launched in April 2010. Bind Satan from our minds, that we would have no room for deception.

* Small groups TONIGHT - that God would continue to create community within these groups and that we would grow deeper into His word. That we would be conformed to the Truth in all ways!

* Thursday night - Jay is teaching...pray for guidance and clarity and strength. That God would be exalted and heard...not Jay, not Critical Mass, but God alone!

* Our marriage - has been incredible...man God is way too good to me in giving me the SERVANT leadership and love that Jay continuously shows. He must have had some good role models :) But you can pray that we would ensure that we make time for just us and not have ministry consume us. You can pray that we would be diligent in proclaiming the gospel through our lives, specifically through our marriage. And that God would continue to grant us patience during times that can be potentially stressful!

* Oahu - God has given us the incredible opportunity to go to Oahu for the weekend to meet with our state director, Shaun Lathorp, and also to see Brother Greg and Mrs. Susan! We are so excited for a little vacation/date and super excited to see someone "from" Mississippi :) Can't wait! Pray that God would make this sweet time, were we would gain strength and would be rejuvenated for the ministry He has called us to!!!

Thank you guys so much for your continuous prayers. And even though we haven't updated this in a while, we can tell that people are praying for us and we are incredibly indebted and grateful!

Here are some pictures of Thursday night Critical Mass, group of us fellowshipping at Jacks after worship, one of the college students getting baptised this past Sunday, and some of the surf event! We are planning to upload some pictures and/or video of the thing with Licona either on here or our Critical Mass website soon! Will let you know when we do so!