Dear Family, Friends, and Other Supporters,
Hello from Dubai! My team and I are currently on our way from Colorado Springs to Nepal! We left the morning of the 4th and have been traveling for about 28 hours now. The good news is that we only have one more flight to Kathmandu! Dubai is commonly referred to as the “City of Dreams” in the Middle East, and really this all feels like a dream to me. Not only do I seem to keep waking up and being reminded of the fact that this is reality, but in a lot of ways this is a dream come true.
Ever since I felt called to Nepal almost two years ago, my heart has been burning for the nation ever since. Getting the chance to go last year was the adventure of a lifetime. That experience in itself was so rewarding and fulfilling, but I knew there was more. When I was asked to lead this team back to Nepal, I was stoked out of my mind. It is such an honor and a privilege to be selected to lead a team of 10 people back to the place where I feel called.
In the last newsletter, I shared some of the details, what the process has been like, and what lies ahead with this upcoming trip. Things have really continued to ramp up in the last few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach an extended session for 2 hours in front of our Discipleship Training School. While I have talked and done smaller teachings in front of this group before, I have done nothing to this extent before. My previous longest teaching was 1.5 hours with translation so really I had never taught this long before. I spent a couple of weeks preparing, a couple of late nights practicing, and then I gave my teaching. Honestly, it went really well. I got a lot of good feedback and encouragement from my leaders and people I look up to. It was a rewarding experience, felt very fulfilling, and I was grateful for the opportunity to grow in my teaching ability.
Soon after my teaching was our Thanksgiving break. I was able to come home and visit friends and family for about 5 days. It was so good to get some stuff done, disconnect from a bit of my responsibility, and spend time with family. While it was a little weird to think about spending the rest of the holidays away from home, it was nice to be able to spend Thanksgiving there, and I tried to soak that up.
The break seemed to come to an end much sooner than I would’ve liked it to. Soon enough I returned to the base in Colorado Springs for one last week before our trip to Nepal. As exaggerated as this sounds, it truly felt like one of the busiest and most stressful weeks I’ve experienced so far in my life. I had a several-page to-do list, several dozen meetings, and spent 14-15 hours a day working. There were so many loose ends to wrap up, so many logistics to iron out, and a lot that needed to be done along the way.
Thankfully, that is done now, and we’re on our way. I kind of thought the stress would end and I would feel relieved on the plane, but the reality is, I know what I’ve experienced so far is just the beginning. All the prep work was really just one type of stress, but now that we’re traveling and I’m responsible for 10 people’s lives, that’s a whole different kind of stress. We’ve already run into a few stressful situations while traveling for the past day or so, but God is good, and we’ve made it through them.
I don’t know how to describe how I’m feeling right now besides the fact that God’s grace is sufficient. Seriously, he covers me in so many more ways than I can even imagine. He’s watching over me and my team throughout every step of the journey. I can’t help but smile, and sometimes even laugh, when I think about how crazy this is. How in the world does an organization put a 21-year-old in charge of leading a team of 10 people to a nation on the other side of the world? The answer of course is that they believe that God has called me, equipped me, and will be with me on this adventure. I’ve seen that so far and I can’t wait to see what this next couple of months hold!
Thank you all for the support, your encouragement, and for enabling me to do this. None of this would be possible without the generosity all of you have demonstrated. I’m so grateful for this opportunity and truly thank God every day that I get to do this. While it’s an incredibly hard job, I believe it’s the best job in the world, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. As I go forward with this trip, I would appreciate all the prayers I could get, I know I’m gonna need it. I will also be praying for all of you to have a happy and blessed Holiday season.
Sincerely,
Jacob Frenzen
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