Best Job I Ever Had

            It’s hard to believe I’ll be 34 years old soon.  Each day I live, I am continually growing in awe of God. I believe in order to keep your zeal for the Lord we must be amazed at him.  We say all the time, “He’s a big God.”  And I couldn’t agree more. But I don’t picture Jesus as a normal looking white man with a beard and long hair, because that’s clearly not in the Bible anywhere.  I picture him like he is described in the book of Revelation, with eyes of fire and a sword coming out of his mouth, riding on a white horse. 

            I have the great privilege of living in the beautiful big island of Hawaii.  Living there has awakened new levels of adventure in me.  When I stand at the summit of Mauna Kea and watch the sun set above the clouds or stand beneath a 200-foot waterfall, I just think, ‘none can fathom’.  I say, “Who are you, God?”  We can’t fathom how he made this earth and all the vastness of the galaxies or how he is uncreated or how he could humble himself to become like us and die for us.  But that’s why he is God.  If we could figure him out, if we could put an equation on him, he wouldn’t really be worth serving.  

            Last June, when I returned to Kona from leading a two-month outreach to Brazil, I was exhausted.  I wanted to do something new in missions besides staffing a DTS (discipleship training school).  I didn’t really know what that was, but before I could express that to my leaders, they were already asking me to staff the next school starting in the fall.  I immediately gave a firm no!  Then the Lord told me to rest and stay in Kona for the summer.  My plans to travel to Los Angeles for 3 weeks were shut down by the Lord and so I stayed in Kona and explored the Big Island as much as possible. 

            After 6 weeks in Kona with nothing to do, I gained a couple of best friends and was able to continue to find the Creator in his creation.  In the midst of that, I was trying to figure out a way to go back to Brazil, possibly long term.  The idea was proposed to me go back to Brazil in the winter with another team and see if that’s what the Lord wanted to do with my life.  Made sense to me.  So I joined in the Fall Fire and Fragrance DTS.  Shortly after, the doors to Brazil closed and the doors to Amsterdam soon opened up. 

            

             In late September 70 students showed up in Kona for this DTS.  My third school to staff.  Second one this year.  Another revelation I received in God being a big God is how he can redeem anything and everything.  As the school was starting, I had this renewed passion for discipleship, (I had pretty much lost all previous passion for it).  I was reminded that what I’m doing in making disciples is a Biblical mandate by Jesus himself.  I could do this the rest of my life and be fulfilling God’s will in my life. 

            Not only has this school been unlike any other, it has also easily been my favorite school.  A lot of that has to do with the people, but more importantly it’s because of my mindset.  I watched these students who came from all different walks of life and different walks with God come together as a family quicker than any group of people I’ve ever been around.  I saw them fight for one another each and every day.  I saw them celebrate one another.  I watched them constantly be so selfless.  And most importantly I watched them fall in love with Jesus. 

            Three quarters of the way through our school, tragedy struck our tribe.  One of our students drowned in an accident in the river at Waipio Valley.  Waipio is a very famous and sometimes dangerous hike that leads to a 200-foot waterfall.  Most people in our school had never experienced loss, much less someone so young.  Any and every emotion barged in everyone’s hearts.  I honestly don’t know how people go through the loss of a loved one without Jesus in their life. 

            Although it was extremely painful to watch, I witnessed a group of young people come together like never before.  They came together in the midst of confusion and pain to say, “God we don’t understand, but we choose to say you are good; and we still say YES to you.”

            Wow! There really aren’t words or adjectives to describe that.  So I won’t try.  But I hope that as you read this, it gives you hope among the sin and evil that exists on this earth.  Hope, that there are people saying yes to Jesus.  There are people giving up on the American dream to follow him.  There are 18 year olds dropping out of college to go the most unreached people groups on the planet that have never heard of the name of Jesus.  There is a group of young, revivalists going to Amsterdam to love those who are looking for a false love.  Friends, there is no greater word we can say to Jesus, other than YES!  Following him will cost you everything, but the reward is priceless.  As I write this, I am currently in route to Amsterdam to help lead a third outreach team.  The same city where the Lord took me on outreach just a couple of years ago.  I am reminded of the prayer I prayed as I walked through the Tokyo airport in 2011 on my way to India.  I told the Lord, I wanted to do this for the rest of my life and challenged him to make it happen.  I’m thankful he accepted the challenge. 

Best job I ever had!

HE ALSO MADE THE STARS

I have the privilege of living on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Some don't appreciate it as much, because of the lack of nice beaches due to all the lava rock.  But there really is no place like this island.  The Big Island is only a 4,000 square mile rock and it has 8 of the 13 climates.  In my two and a half years here, I've had the chance to explore it quite a bit.  Everything from waterfalls with rope swings to volcano craters to underground water-filled lava tubes.  I feel the closest to God when I'm out in his creation opposed to a church building or a prayer room.  I heard someone say the reason for that is because its where we come from. The dirt.
I've been meditating on Genesis chapter 1 lately and there are two passages that have just blown my mind.
1.) Verse 2-"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."  Everything I previously had thought about the earth and its beginning was shattered at the revelation I got when I took my time to read.  "The earth was formless and empty...." So earth was just a bunch of water without form, floating in the heavens.  Land or sky had not been created yet.  Only water and darkness since the beginning. I get the image of a potter molding a pot or a vase.  In the beginning the clay has no form.  Its all a mess.  God took his time.  So theres that time between 'the beginning' and that 'first day' when God said, "Let there be light." I marvel at the fact that no one will ever know the time between the two.   In fact, I'm sure we won't know until we're all sitting at the foot of his throne.  Trying to think about that and eternity just fries my brain.  If God could be figured out, he wouldn't be that awesome of a God would he? So studying something I can't fully grasp makes me love him even more.  Crazy.
2.) Verse 16-"God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.  He also made the stars."  If you look at everything God created, it all has a purpose.  The vegetation feeds us and the animals.  Water is our main source of life.  The sun and moon give light for us to see, but the stars.....The stars have no purpose.  'He also made the stars.' Basically, he made them because he could.

To go along with this blog, this is a time lapse I made at the peak of Mauna Kea on the Big Island.  I also have an additional video of Psalm 27 that I shot on the island as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj3NSTKZonc&list=UU3CfPzl7W5qCg5JJ31mVELQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TivBaWucTko&list=UU3CfPzl7W5qCg5JJ31mVELQ

The Journey Continues

These four Brazilian students gave their lives to
 Jesus and the young man in the pink was healed
 of back pain after
his leg grew out!

     Sometimes I have to pinch myself.  Not literally but figuratively speaking, its hard to believe how blessed I am.  I am often taken back to June 2010 as I was on my way to Kenya.  As I walked through what felt like a nightclub of an airport in Toyko, I said to the Lord, "I am so happy right now, traveling.  Do something about it."  Was I challenging the Lord? Yes, but I think he likes that because it comes with expectation that he will do something. So since Kenya, I've traveled to India, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, all over the East Coast of the states and now Brazil....and soon to be Italy and Portugal.
     Once I was asked what I wanted to do besides missions.  My response was many things, but one thing was to travel and see God's creation.  In the last 5 years, I have come to know God more through his creation.  More than being in a church service or fellowshipping with believers.  There was a quote I heard recently that has been haunting me.  "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."  While traveling and doing all this ministry, if I don't keep Jesus as the focus of my life, it will all be a waste.   This isn't a new teaching obviously, but its one that all of us need to hear and apply to our lives constantly.  Why? Because there isn't anything we can do in our own strength.
     Jesus is always moving amongst the nations and the Holy Spirit is making him famous.  We are living in the most amazing hour in the history of mankind.  We have seen 20 plus salvations in just 2 and a half weeks of being here in Brazil and we know many more are coming. College students are STARVING to hear the good news of Jesus.  It is always good news.  The news we see on CNN and Fox is 99% bad and no one ever wants to here it again.  But the Gospel is always good news and always good to hear again and again and again.  People want to hear what Jesus did.  Its needless to say that the harvest is ripe here in Brazil and all over the world.

If you would be interested in partnering with me financially, you can simply click this link below.

 http://derekowen35.flavors.me/#7ec/custom_plain

Full Circle

            Recently I’ve been studying Revelation chapter 4.  John starts this chapter out by saying, “After this I looked….” After what? After Jesus had given him the letters to the seven churches.  So to have a better perspective of chapter 4, it is important to go back to chapter 1 verse 19.  Jesus said, “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.”

           ‘What is now?’  Chapter 4:2-3, “At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.  And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby.  A rainbow that shone like an emerald ENCIRCLED the throne.” Encircled is the key word here.  Though rarely seen, all rainbows are full circles.  They are mostly seen in their fullness by pilots or sometimes around the sun if the lighting is just right. We normally see them as an arc because the bottom half is usually blocked by our horizon and due to the angle you are looking at the rainbow. Rainbows are also actually an optical illusion, thus impossible to approach. Sorry to burst your bubble of one day finding that pot of gold.

            Back to my point about ‘what is now’ in Revelation.  John is seeing the throne room of God.  Not just as it is now, but like it always has been.  When God showed Noah his rainbow as a covenant sign, it’s possible that he saw a full circle rainbow, because in Genesis 9:14 it says, “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds…” When God gave Noah this sign, it wasn’t just a reminder to never flood the earth again, but it was God bringing heaven to earth.  So it’s definitely not certain that Noah would have seen a full circle rainbow, but interestingly enough, all the water had dried up before the appearance of the rainbow, so this tells us that it wasn’t raining any more and fun to think that the first rainbow could have been a full circle rainbow. 

            Why am I even talking about this? Well, I received a revelation by learning that all rainbows are full circles, whether we see them or not.  Much like God’s promises.  We don’t always see the fulfillment of his promises right away because he has not allowed us to see things at the right perspective yet.  Since God has always had a full circle rainbow around him in his throne room along with colors of jasper, emerald and ruby and seas of glass and weird creatures; it gives me more faith to believe that his promises always have and always will come full circle. 

The Christmas Spirit, Joy and a Moped

December 2, 2013 was a day like no other. 

12:30 pm

I went to the shop to pick up my newly fixed moped.  After spending $567, it was running great.  I was excited to have a completely different moped. 

6:30 pm

Upon leaving campus that night, I stopped at the gas station to fill up.  As I was filling up, it started pouring down rain.  I prayed that the rain would slow down so I could drive home.  A minute later, it slowed down enough for me to drive in it.  I fired up the moped and started to drive up the hill.  As soon as I started my descent, the moped started sputtering and suddenly would no longer go.   The throttle was wide open, but it wouldn’t budge.  So I wheeled it back down to the gas station to try and figure it out.  A few minutes later as I was praying for it to go, a homeless man was walking by.  He asked if I needed help.  He came over and started looking at it and telling me everything that could be wrong with it.  He started making phone calls to try and get some tools.  Although he was homeless, he seemed to know what he was talking about.  After about an hour of troubleshooting, I followed him to downtown Kona where I met several of his homeless friends.  Frank James was his name and soon he was on his 2^nd and 3^rd beer while working on my moped amongst everyone else trying to give their two cents on how to fix it.  Moments later, drugs deals were taking place and fights nearly breaking out. 

10:30 pm

 A friend I had called brought some tools to me.  Although helpful, we stilled lacked one specific socket that would remove the sparkplug.  Suddenly a friend happened to drove up. She took me to Wal-Mart to purchase that specific socket size.  Throughout the night I was speechless as to why this man who doesn’t know me from Adam, would offer this much help.  I could tell he didn’t want a meal out of it or anything like that. I was experiencing this love that we talk about. Selfless love.  The Gospel.  My friend that brought me to Wal-Mart and back, was nice enough to stay with me throughout the rest of the night, so I would have a ride if the moped didn’t work.

1:30 am

Two problems, no solutions, a dead battery and a half-drunken homeless man.  I as I decided to call it quits, I found someone who had jumper cables.  We jumped it and it fired right up.  But it still didn’t want to run.  So I pushed it up a very familiar and very steep hill.  Locked it up at campus and rode home with my friend.  Frank said something that is still running through my brain.  He said, “God has you here tonight for a reason.  You’ve got Jesus inside of you and I can see him.”  I had no response.  I don’t believe there is a better compliment to receive. 

2 am 

I arrive home and hop in the shower and immediately to bed.  Knowing I had a men’s leadership meeting at 5:30 am, I texted my leader and briefly explained what had happened seeing if I could get a ride with him. 

  

5:15 am

It was a miracle I woke up.  And to no surprise, my leader had not yet read the text.  So I started my way down the hill, as he lived just down the road from me.  I was in eager expectation that he would read the text and then pick me up as I walked.  Keep in mind that the Starbucks I was going to was about a two mile walk from my house. 

5:20am

I am now walking on the main highway half asleep.  I threw on some worship music and become okay with the fact that I am walking to this meeting in the dark with no sleep.  A few moments later, I became more than okay that I was walking.  I had flashbacks to when I was in Kenya and saw people walk for 3 hours to make it to a church service that some white men they didn’t know was speaking at.  The Holy Spirit came upon me and I went into a time of radical thanksgiving.  I started thanking God that I have legs to walk, money to fix my moped, a roof over my head and countless other things that we all have taken for granted so many times.  Now, by the grace of God, I have been living a lifestyle of thanksgiving, but at times it can seem very routine and monotonous. 

5:25 am

I am now ¾ of the way to Starbucks and my leader pulls up.  I am laughing as I jump in the car.  I briefly explain what happened and we go on to our meeting. 

7:00 am

After a good meeting and a venti iced-coffee with plenty of sugar, we head back to campus. 

8:00 am

Second day of staff training.  I couldn’t sit down.  I was dancing all over the place.  I had so much energy it was weird.  Euphoria.  But why? Why was there so much joy in the midst of all this that had just taken place in the last 12 hours?  We joined Sean Feucht and Rick Pino in worship.  I was so full of joy and was dancing like I imagined Kind David did when he returned the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. 

8:30am

I have now received the personal revelation that choosing to worship God when you don’t feel like it, choosing joy over your circumstances and walking in radical thanksgiving is the highest high honor that we get while on planet earth.  When this life is over and we are eternally starring into the face of Jesus, we won’t have issues.  We won’t have problems.  We won’t have sickness.  Worshipping Jesus won’t be a choice.  It will be like breathing.  It will continually happen without thinking twice for the rest of eternity.  There is always more.  More joy.  More to be thankful for.  More revelation to receive.  There is always more of Jesus.  John 3:34 says, “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without LIMIT.”

Flourishing in the Land

The following blog is compiled of some of recent sermons I preached and some new revelations I have received from the Lord.

In Genesis chapter 26, King Abimelek forced Isaac to move from his home in Gerar, because he had become too powerful.  So Isaac journeyed on and set out to re-dig his father Abraham's wells.  The first two wells he came to had been re-dug and claimed.  He gave them names that meant opposition and dispute.  The third well he came to had yet to be claimed, so he re-dug it and named it Rehoboth (open space) and then proclaimed "Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land." Two verses later in verse 24, the LORD appeared to Isaac and promises to bless him by increasing his descendants.

When we speak life into our situations, we move God into action by our faith.  The LORD saw Isaac's faith by proclaiming that they would flourish in the land.  When life happens and frustration rises up, how do you react?  Do you speak life or death.  Because we have the power of both in the tongue.   Hebrews chapter 12 says, "And let us run the race with endurance....." Just this weekend, I worked security for the second year at the World Championship Iron Man triathlon, which includes 2 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and then a 26 mile marathon.  The first place winner finished in 8 hours and some change.  I'm sure he might have encountered a few problems along the way.  A tight hamstring.  Heat exhaustion from the heavy humidity here in Kona.  But he probably didn't complain or carry on negatively about any hindrances.  That verse in Hebrews goes on to say, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." The Iron Man champion kept his eyes focused on the prize.  No matter the task of the day, when Jesus is the main focus of our eyes, everything else really does become blurry.

When Paul describes the full armor of God that we are to equip ourselves with, you might notice in Ephesians 6 that we aren't given any armor for our back.  The reason for this is because we are not to turn our backs and run from the enemy.  We are covered from head to toe on the front side, but nothing for the backside.  Not only are we to continue on the offense, but God has our back.  Paul repeats the word 'stand' many times in the final chapter of his letter to the Ephesians.  We're given this armor for a reason.  Not to retreat, but to stand our ground.

I leave you with a quote from Rocky Balboa and two of questions.
"You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.  But it ain't about how hard ya hit.  It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

What are you proclaiming?....Life or death?
What are you focused on?....The problem or the solution?

God bless,
Derek Owen

To learn more about my YWAM ministry or to donate, click on the link below:
http://www.uofnkona.edu/support/missionaries/?id=5841&search=derek%20owen

The Father's Way

I can't say that I know what it means to be a father, but after leading an outreach to New York City for two months, I can say that I have some idea of what it would look like.  And I know you can never fully prepare for parenthood, but leading 8 students in NYC definitely helped.  I now know that one of my biggest dreams in life is to be a father.  There were a few days in New York where I was getting such deep revelations of the Father's heart, that I couldn't function.  I literally couldn't focus on even the smallest logistical task.
Fathering takes loads of patience, sacrifice and obviously love.  But the most important thing I think it takes is perspective.  Perspective of how our heavenly Father would handle each situation.  Perspective of how he looks at each one of his children. Always proud.  Always dancing over us.  Perspective of how he disciplines and disciples.  Its the perspective of the Father's way that will make us all better fathers.  And thats what this world really needs.  We don't really need another Billy Graham to come on the scene.  The youth of this world simply need heaven-minded fathers.  Mankind is the Father's greatest creation.  We are the only creation that was made to love him back, to worship him and to partner with him.  We have the opportunity to create eternal beings that will worship Jesus for all eternity.  We have a chance to bring a child into this world and bring them up in the ways of heaven.  God has always been about family.  When God created Adam, he said, "Let us make man in 'OUR' image."  A family effort.  This is the first time we see the unity of the Trinity at work on the earth.  I love how simple, yet deep the Trinity is:  The Father always pointing to his Son.  The Son always doing what he sees his Father doing.  The Holy Spirit at work on the earth today and revealing our Lord and Savior.

This is all for now.  This summer I'll be traveling the mainland of the U.S. from L.A. to Pennsylvania to Kansas City on the Circuit Rider tour where I'll be filming a documentary on what the Lord in doing in America through an evangelistic training school, called the School of the Circuit Rider.  The purpose of this school is to train the body of Christ to save the lost, revive the saved and train them all.

If you would like to become a partner in prayer or a financial partner, you can email me at: fletch3535@yahoo.com or click on the link below.

http://uofnkona.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=652&MN=5841

God bless,
Derek Owen