Nine Days And Counting

On August 9th, 2014 I get to marry my best friend! The past couple years have gone by so quickly, we have grown so deep in friendship and have seen the Lords faithfulness in so many ways. We can't wait to start this adventure of being a married couple and pursuing the dreams the Lord has placed on our hearts. 

-Wedding In 9 Days-

-Moving Back To Kona In 21 Days-

Sara and I met in Kona Hawaii during our Discipleship Training School. Since that time we have been full time staff at YWAM Kona and traveling to serve YWAM globally in places like California, Turkey, South Africa, London and Amsterdam. 

In September Sara will be embarking on her educational journey as she pursues her passion to become a midwife. Sara will be apart of a two year Midwifery school that will certify her as a midwife. With this certification she will be able to deliver babies all over the world in homes and in birthing centers! I am so proud of her for taking this step and it is such an honor to support her as she studies to achieve such an incredible calling. 

I will be serving the YWAM base with the Furnace to Fields community. From facilitating worship in the prayer room,  discipleship training schools, and corporate worship times, Furnace to Fields is a ministry that focuses on taking worship and intimacy with the Lord, out into the streets and the nations. Along with leading worship, I will also be using other skill sets such as discipling incoming staff and students that will be sent into the nations, and using my passion for photography and videography in any area that needs it. It is my desire to continue to make trips into the nations to share the Gospel of Christ in places like Amsterdam, and to continue building connections, serving the incredible YWAM leadership, and keeping relationship with those working overseas.

-Join The Family-

If you are interested in sponsoring us financially and with prayers please email me at theshaws8914@gmail.com. We love our support family and desire to be a prayer team for all who support us. We still have a current need for monthly sponsorship in order to continue our volunteer serves with YWAM. We ask that you would pray and ask the Lord if this is something you would support. Your obedience and cheerful heart of giving is what we desire not your money. We also value a prayer covering. 

-What You Can Pray For- 

-An incredible wedding ceremony, stress free and full of joy

-That Jesus would be the central part our wedding and marriage 

-Safe travels for all who are driving/flying in for the wedding 

-Smooth transition back into serving the YWAM base

-Sara's tuition of $400 a month for school be provided for

-Doors to open where we can serve and love the local Kona community 

-Our Current Need-

-Pledged monthly sponsorship of $2000 which covers: food, housing

transportation, health insurance, cell phone, car insurance, 

Sara's midwifery tuition, mission trip costs and other bills.

(We are currently at $725 a month and need it to increase to cover these costs.)

Feel free to call me at 405-308-3860 or email me at theshaws8914@gmail.com if you have any questions , need prayer or want to join our monthly sponsorship family. 

God Bless

Want To Join Our Sponsorship Team? Click Here!

UK // Engaged

       Over the past 3 weeks I have been living in Harpenden, United Kingdom. I am here with a team of 6 scouting out the land and seeing what God is doing in England. During our time here we have spent time meeting with national leaders within YWAM and Burn 24-7. God has opened up many doors for our team and we are very excited for the future! (Another blog soon with more details on that)

      I GOT ENGAGED! On April 8th I asked Sara Ghiasi to spend the rest of her life with me! It was so joyful and greatest day of my life! I made a little picnic in the near by forest which is full of blue bell flowers. I proposed and we celebrated with the team! They were hiding in the bushes taking pictures!

    During this trip I have had the honor of leading many times of worship for the YWAM base. Before I left for this trip I received a Taylor guitar which was payed for by a many of my friends that believe in the calling on my life. I am so blown away by my friends and by Gods goodness!

 
   We have just a few more days in the UK before Sara and I head to Holland. We will be visiting the YWAM base in Amsterdam and connecting with close friends. If we plant in the UK, Amsterdam will be loved greatly by us and visited frequently. My dream is to send outreach teams to Amsterdam on a regular basis and bless the local ministries within the city.

  Thank you so much for your support and love! Sara and I will be releasing a new website together as a soon to be married couple! We can't wait to share the plans the Lord has begun speaking to us about for our first two years of marriage!

LOVE YOU ALL

Prayer Requests
- Our travels to Amsterdam include an over night stay in an airport (safety)
- Wedding planning continues to stay smooth
- That financial sponsorship would come in for Sara and I as we continue with YWAM
- For Sage and Mariah as they prepare to welcome their first child into the world!


To Know God And Make Him Known

Next Stop...London

The last 6 months have been so packed with amazing ministry and life giving things. Here are some pictures and videos showing all that I have been up to. 

Visiting Roosevelt Highschool handing out donuts and praying with students. 

We gathered 400 students at Roosevelt public high school in LA. They heard about God creating them as a master piece and how they are beautiful no matter what the world says. This Bible club is going to take over the entire school by showing Gods insane love for everyone! One student started this bible club and now hundreds are being touched by it! 3 girls gave there hearts to Jesus and several others received prayer! So blown away by Gods goodness.

During my last visit in Kona at the YWAM base I got to help with worship.

Here is a picture of the ONE LOVE event that we put on at USC in LA. 1200 students gathered to hear the message of Jesus's love for all and the simple gospel. It was incredible. We spent hours putting up this tent and the Lord was faithful to pack it out!

I was blessed with the opportunity of leading worship at a prayer room that is on Sunset blvd in Hollywood. Radiance International.  

I was blessed helping lead corporate worship for a week in Kona Hawaii.

More leading worship! : )

Me and Steven doing what we know best. 

Isla Vista looks like this EVERY weekend. Packed with college and high school students partying. In the midsts of the wildness God is shining. Watch the video below.

While I was in Isla Vista California I was asked to help create a video of us asking the students what they thought of Jesus. Every weekend thousands of UCSB students are out partying and an incredible ministry called Jesus Burgers is out sharing the love of Jesus in the midsts of the craziness. Honored to spend a weekend with that ministry. We were able to pray with the students after interviewing them. God is on the move in Isla Vista

All of this was possible because of your generosity. My life has been forever changed and I can not thank you enough! God has opened some incredible doors which involve me being able to go back to where my heart longs to be, Europe. Jesus LOVES Europe and I can't wait to go back. 

THIS IS WHAT'S NEXT!!

[Opportunity]

At the beginning of this year I was approached by my leadership at YWAM Kona, to pray about being apart of a Fire & Fragrance Discipleship Training School staff team that would go on a one month missions trip to London. (In case you may have forgotten, I led a team to London just last May!). I will be leaving the start of April and as of now, I am in Oklahoma gathering supporters who will partner with me while I am overseas! This is a very important and exciting trip for our team because it will help us determine what the next few years of our lives in missions could look like if we were to commit to launching long term to the UK this upcoming fall. 

[Why London?]

You might be thinking, of all places in the world, why London? Well, for the past two years, Fire and Fragrance has sent short teams multiple times to the UK, to partner with the workers there, and do ministry at universities such as Cambridge and Oxford. The leaders of F & F and the leaders of YWAM Harpenden (a small town located 30 min outside of London) have been dreaming about what it could look like for a community from YWAM Kona with a heart for worship, prayer and evangelism, to move to London in the fall and join in on all that God is doing there! 

The purpose of this trip is to 'scout' out the land (see what life and ministry would look like if a group of missionaries moved there long term!). We want to see London the way God sees it and get his heart for how he longs to move there. 

The plan is to meet with the YWAM base leaders in London and other leaders around the city, to see what partnering them in ministry could look like! 

(Testimony: During my time in London last spring, my team spent a week at Cambridge University and saw over 60 salvations. We know that the students in these universities are longing to know Jesus and we desire to share the Good News with them!)

[Communities Around The World]

Fire & Fragrance has commissioned a handful of teams to the nations to establish themselves in the local communities and commit themselves to the people of the land.

Rather than a lone missionary venturing off solo, we desire to see whole communities of 6-10 missionaries launch together. This will ensure a much healthier start and help long term vision prosper. 

Right now, there are groups of YWAM communities living in South Africa, Oman, Nepal, Ireland, Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Spain and Japan. God is using them for amazing things in the nations! 

[Be Involved]

Become a financial sponsor by helping me raise approx. $2,500 to cover the costs of flights, housing, and food during this trip. (To give, click the "Donate" tab at the top of the page)

• Partner in prayer: 
• That our team would be unified.
• That we would be led by the Holy Spirit.
• That we would have Gods heart for the city.
• For eyes to see what God is doing in London. 

• Praise Reports:
• I currently have a full time position at Lowe's.
• I have housing and transportation while I am in Oklahoma.
• My girlfriend Sara surprised me with money that she gathered from my friends to buy me a guitar. 
• Good friends Noah and Vanessa Whitnah had a healthy baby boy, Sparrow Levi Whitnah.

What I Am Currently Doing In Ministry

The Last Ten Months

    In the last ten months I have had the privilege of leading a mission team to Europe, staff three evangelistic summer schools with YWAM and be apart of a massive outreach on USC campus in California. My team traveled to Amsterdam, London and Cambridge and saw over a hundred people receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, sick people were healed by the power of God (deaf ears opened!) and hundreds were reached with the gospel of Jesus. During my time of staffing the summer schools we saw over 320 people surrender their lives to Jesus and connected with churches across America. Last month the missions team I was with gathered over 1000 people at the University of Southern California in a 1000 person tent, sharing the love of Jesus and building faith in the student believers of the university.

What Is Next

I am currently living at YWAM Kona (one of the largest missions bases in the world) and home to Loren and Darlene Cunningham, our founders, they sit in and speak at our weekly meetings! With around 500 staff, our base is a hub for innovation. With our natural farm, clean water projects, film and music studios, world mapping and bible translation teams we are seeking to influence every area of society for Jesus! I am one of 18,000 volunteer staff world wide. YWAM trains close to 25,000 students a year! I am one of the 4 MILLION students YWAM has trained and launched into missions. I will be serving the base and launching into different nations every 3 months. I will be going to Amsterdam for the month of December to serve at the YWAM base and to do missions work in the Red Light District.
 
How Can You Partner with me
 
So many of you have asked about support needs. I have $445 of the needed $1000 a month.
If you believe in what I am doing please consider joining my amazing friends and family who support me every month! I would love to share even more of what I am doing with you, my day to day responsibilities and what I feel God is calling me to in the future, BUT this update is already long enough! SO please email with any questions you might have and I would love to talk on the phone. 

CONTACT
Joseph@equinoxvisual.com
Email me for my number

-To Know God & Make Him Known

Summer 2013

    Over the past 5 weeks I was given the incredible opportunity to travel with the YWAM Circuit Rider team.  During the five weeks hundreds were trained in the simple gospel, hundreds received salvation and the kingdom of God was advanced in America. Here are a few stories.  

   One of the stops this summer was Lancaster Pennsylvania. We were blessed with the ability to use one of the massive conference rooms in a Marriott in the middle of Lancaster for 5 days. A training school of 400 students miraculously grew to nearly 2000! During the days we trained students, and at night we opened up the evening worship/training times to the public. Hundreds were getting saved on the streets and were invited to the evening services. In the course of 2 days of outreach over 300 people were saved and over 60 people were healed! 

    One of my favorite testimonies is from a student named Daniel. This student, with joy in his heart and faith to see people receive Jesus approached 5 guys sitting on a porch in a near by neighborhood. These men gave their hearts to Jesus, and during this time the neighbors overheard what happened and came over and gave there lives to Jesus! That night, those 7 men brought 5 friends to our nightly gathering and all 12 surrendered everything to Jesus!

   This is just one of several incredible stories from Lancaster. The gospel of Jesus was shared and nearly 2000 people gathered around the simple story of His LOVE! 

Night gathering in Lancaster


My view every night playing percussion


 
Matt and I taking some time from worship to let the kids strum on our guitars.


     From Lancaster we traveled to Kansas City where a school of 150 gathered! One of my favorite testimonies from KC is of my buddy Kurtis. A few students and Kurtis went to a local skate park where they managed to gather 14 high school aged skaters to listen to Kurtis share the gospel. They all received Jesus and were given contact information to local ministries to get discipleship!  Sharing the love of Jesus is so fun!

circled up praying 

Kurtis praying over them

      Now I am in Orange County California with the Circuit Rider crew preparing for One Love. The team is putting on an event by University of Southern California by the LA Coliseum in a big 1000 person tent. This event is called One Love. We have been handing out fliers and meeting with churches and group leaders from all different universities. The night will be based around uniting students around the message of God's great love for us. The team as developed a small booklet handout for everyone who comes called "21 Days Of Love". The booklet has a simple challenge everyday, a unique way to love someone. From giving your professor flowers, taking cookies to your neighbor, sharing the gospel with a stranger to taking water to greek row during a prime party time, the challenges get you out of your comfort zone and promote the character of Jesus for 21 days! We believe that One Love will be a night of the lost getting saved and the saved getting encourage and challenged to love! The event is on wednesday august 28th at 7pm in Parking Lot Two by the LA Coliseum,

Here is the website for more information. 

www.oneloveus.org

I am currently raising $1000 (plane ticket) in order to go with the team with Norway to help with a Circuit Rider school in Oct. If you feel lead to give please contact me at Joseph@equinoxvisual.com to send a tax deductible donation.

Or donate to my paypal at Joseph@equinoxvisual.com 

Everything I do is volunteer and would love your support. 

Also please be praying for the universities we are working on here in california. Jesus is moving!!

Update From Oklahoma (Future Plans)

   

   

The Fire and Fragrance Discipleship Training School wrapped up on June 8th with an amazing graduation and time of testimonies. Over the course of 2 months, our wild teams ministered to thousands of people, seeing over 1300 people give their lives to the Lord and over 3000 people healed through prayer by the power of Jesus name. Blind eyes, deaf ears were restored and our team that stayed on the big island of Hawaii encountered someone being raised from the dead. The God of the bible is living today, signs and wonders are happening around the world and we are ALL invited to be apart of Gods story in our generation!  Pray crazy prayers full of faith and watch our mighty God move in ways you could only dream of!

Here is a picture of my family (team)! They are all back at home now, not as they once were, but now even more full of faith and stepping out and seeing God move in the most unlikely of places. I keep hearing testimonies almost everyday of someone getting healed through prayer, or receiving salvation. My team truly lives a life style of sharing the gospel of Jesus. I was blessed to have each and everyone of them on team Europe, they all were so filled with faith and did amazing things of the kingdom of God.

Here is a video I made showing testimonies from our time in Europe:

  

WHAT IS NEXT:

     Currently I am in Oklahoma visiting family and friends! I finally met my new nephew Walker Shaw and spent some precious time with my niece Huntley! They are both bundles of joy and I love them so much! It has been such a great time catching up with friends and hearing all that God is doing here in Oklahoma! Edmond now has a house of prayer! WOO What a joy it has been! The past few weeks have been full of work and play. God has provided me with some odd jobs to sustain myself financially while I am home and to invest in near future mission trips! I was blessed to spend some time with my father and two boys he is mentoring out on the Illinois river, we floated six miles on kayaks! It was a blast! 

     On July 23rd I am flying out to Irvine California to staff the Circuit Rider school put on by Youth With A Mission. The school focuses on training believers how to share their faith effectively and to believe for revival in America. We have times of outreach to the local communities where the students see God moving. After the week of training and outreach, students are filled with faith to live a life of sharing the gospel of Jesus to anyone who will hear! I will be staffing the school in California, (July 25th - August 1st), the school in Lancaster PA (August 4th-10th) and the Circuit Rider school in Kansas City (August 11th-17th). Last year the schools saw an outbreak of God during times of evangelism and over 800 people were led to the Lord! We are believing for the same thing to happen this year! 

Here is a video that shows more history on Circuit Rider made to promote the school for last year.

2013 PROMO VIDEO FOR CIRCUIT RIDER!

After these schools I plan on continuing my volunteer work with YWAM in the vein of discipling and worship leading. I will be returning to Kona in the fall to prepare for the January Discipleship Training School.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Outreach Update from Cambridge

Hello friends and family!

   I am currently in Cambridge at our host home relaxing on our day off. The past few weeks have been slammed packed with ministry! God has been so faithful to us. Since I am the guy with the camera I am the guy who usually records everything, so with that being said I am not in much of the updates. BUT I REALLY want you guys to watch them. We share some amazing testimonies and it's a way for me to show you what is going on here in the mission field!

  Over the past 3 weeks we have seen close to 70 salvations! God is moving in the UK. We still have 3 days left for street evangelism and are so excited about what God is going to do! Our first day out on the streets of Cambridge we saw over 40 come to know the Lord. It's crazy! We are blown away and the group we are working with here is insanely encouraged and in shock of what God is doing!

  We spent time in a busy public park over the weekend with "free prayer" signs and were able to pray for countless people! So many people we talked to made first time commitments to following Jesus as their Lord and savior. I have never seen anything like it, everyone is wanting to hear the good news of Jesus!

     In 2 weeks I will be done with this DTS. I can't believe how fast it went by. I have seen my students grow so much in the Lord. This team has become family. When you spend your days perusing the lost and broken and desiring to bring healing and love to their hearts, you become so close to the ones you are living with. Parting ways will be so hard but I know that God has amazing plans for us all and the students are prepared to go home and testify all that the Lord has done. I can't wait to hear how they transform their homes!

   My plans are to go home for most of the summer. I am praying about staffing some evangelism schools over the summer called The School of Circuit Rider. (one in LA and one possibly in Norway). I will be at home working and leading worship anywhere people ask me to lead. I really would love to get a Taylor electric acoustic and start pursuing worship leading more. I have been working on some songs of my own and hope to record over the summer. As of now I am not sure if the Lord will have me continue with YWAM right away (miss my family). I know for now that I want to meet my new nephew and spend time with friends and family. Jesus is so good and loves to see the desires of my heart be met, my desire is to hug my sweet niece and spend time writing worship music with friends back home. I sure hope that God says yes to all of that. : )

  Some crazy doors have opened up in NYC, California, DC, Amsterdam and doors remain open in Kona for me to continue mission work, building community and training students to share their faith confidently. I am asking the lord for direction for the fall season and the future. Please pray for clarity as I press into his word and heart.

  I am hoping to be on a plane leaving Kona on Tuesday june 11th heading home. BUT I am short $400 for my ticket. If you feel lead to support me to get home that would bless me and my mom greatly. : )

my paypal is Joseph@equinoxvisual.com

Here are video updates from my time on outreach that I made.

Hope you enjoyed the videos!

love you guys!!

Leading worship at a church outside of Amsterdam