To Mexico, With Love

Dear Mexico,

      I bet you never knew that as I traveled here many years ago as a little girl with my missionary grandparents, I fell in love with you.  I bet you never knew the thrill I felt every time my feet crossed over into your soil, making me feel like the character from Alice in Wonderland standing inside the looking glass.  The brightly colored houses on little dirt roads, the smell of delicious Mexican food, the poor little children with dirty faces looking back at me.  The little faces who at the time were not that much younger than I, yet their sad eyes unspokenly told me their stories.  I knew I shouldn't stare, but I just couldn't pull myself to look away...

      To tell you the truth, I never did look away that day.  I kept those memories and every memory after tucked in my heart.  These people are part of my heritage, part of my story, a big piece of my heart.

    Now, years later, I find myself here again.  This time a beautiful family of my own in tow, and I get to watch as they experience the same wonder for the first time.  

   
      Tommy was asked to speak at the YWAM Tijuana, Mexico base for a Mission Adventures team from Norway.  We made life long friendships and fell in love with the entire team.  We partnered along side them for two house builds with Homes of Hope, orphanage ministry, and served at a soup kitchen.  It was the first time the kids have ever experienced anything like that.  They were quick to jump in, they grabbed a hammer and paint and help wherever they were needed.  I loved watching their little willing hearts serve the hundreds of homeless that came in for the only meal they would eat that day.  I don't think they fully understood the concept of the orphanage until we actually got a chance to download together.  They listened with tears in their eyes as we explained to them how they didn't have parents to tuck them in at night or read them a bed time story or to say their prayers with them. The eyes filled with pools of tears staring back at me, told me that moment was one to be recorded in their hearts.

     As a parent you want the very best for your children, but the last thing we want to raise is spoiled, selfish, entitled littles that can not see beyond themselves.  In this trip we got to witness life changes, not only in the beautiful people we served but in our family, in our children, in ourselves.  It's so easy to take for granted all the good things, all the GOD things...

      It's so easy to forget that for some of us, life looks a whole lot different just across a border that separates one privileged nation from one that is not.  Just a little over 2 hours from us, this border, this nation is our backyard.  The beautiful country and people of Mexico in whom frequent the playground of my dreams.  The country we hope to one day be a part of serving again.

      Thank you for opening your hearts to us and the ONE who sent us.  Until we meet again, you will always be my Mexico... with love. 💗

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*******UPCOMING EVENTS*******
     In one week we will be traveling with our 3 oldest to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Please cover our family in prayer.  This will be the first overseas adventure we are blessed to be a part of with our children.

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If you would like to partner with our family in all the things we are doing, here's how...
1. Prayer- We need a strong prayer covering & we are so grateful for all of you who pray for us.
2. Word of mouth is the best way to promote something, so please pass along our business info. (If you would like more info about Sand & Stones please read our Dreams Awakening Post
3. A purchase to Sand & Stones- Our family is going to be doing ministry in Thailand this April, this will help us with our tickets and ministry we will be doing while we are there.
www.bysandandstones.com
4. You can make a U.S. tax deductible donation for our family at:
 YWAM Los Angeles (Lien family in the memo)
11141 Osborne Street Lake View Terrace, CA 91342 
or online at www.ywamla.org - Donate pay tab>>>Staff Donation.
5. Canadian tax deductible donations: YWAM Project Funding office. 
Please include our name and account
#LT11 P.O. Box 57100 RPO East Hastings Vancouver, B.C. V5K 5G6 Canada (604)-436-4433

Much love & a million Thank You's to all those who empower our ministry.  We love you all & are praying for you. 💕💕💕


💚,
Tommy, Vanessa, Kreedan, Kaleb, Canon, Caymin & Emberlin Sky

Dreams awakening

     

DREAMS AWAKENING... 

      I'm super excited to share some things that have been happening in my personal life.  Being a  mom has been the most life changing but rewarding journey for me.  I have felt that in the midst of being pregnant, changing diapers, endless long nights,  and caring for my family, I started to lose sense of what God had for me.

      It's amazing how having children changes you to become more selfless. So much so that you base your identity on being a parent.  I started dreaming for my children, and championed the dreams of my husband's heart.  As time went on, I didn't even realize the dreams that I held in my heart that were dying.  I know there are seasons for everything, so I embraced my season with young children to it's entirety, and I still do. I absolutely love being a mom.  I think it just gives me a good excuse to act like a child and do what I love doing best, enjoying life. :)

   
      Even though I felt fulfilled in my family life, and our extensive involvement in ministry, I started to ask myself Why.  What was the purpose of it all?  What was MY why?  I could sit here and give you generic answers that you may or may not want to hear, but I won't do that.  I won't, because it wouldn't be honest.  This question has probably been one of the most challenging and life changing because it has made me recognize that there were pieces of myself I couldn't see anymore.  Not, that they weren't there, I just couldn't see them.  It's always easier to believe what someone else says about you then to believe what you think about yourself.  I happened to come to a point in my life, where I didn't want to do either.  They both were so exhausting.  Trying to meet up to my expectations of myself, which I always fell short of, and trying to keep up with what others thought about me, which I also fell short of.  That also was exhausting.

      So, one day I decided to change it. Kinda like a light switch that turned on inside me.  I decided that from that day forward I would make more intentional choices to be a "freer" me.   A person that made it a priority to rediscover who this "me" really is and what dreams lie hidden inside the dusty treasures of my heart.


      Never had imagined what I would find, or even know where to start to find it. As I began to pray, the Lord started to give me glimpses of dreams I had dreamt and that were now coming into being.

www.bysandandstones.com

(All proceeds go towards missions work done by our family, as well as supporting ministries in Nepal)

      If two and a half years ago you would have told me that I would be designing jewelry and owning my own business, I would have never believed you.  What started as a hobby has turned into passion. My business Sand & Stones has had much favor since it's meager existence.  It has been in two stores until a few months ago & the Lord has recently led me to put my designs online.  Last week, I also had the privilege to host a well known Brazilian Jewelry designer in my home.  The Lord is opening doors and creating opportunities that I might not have otherwise had without this business.

     This small business, has BIG, BIG dreams.  Dreams that started in my heart to help missionaries around the world in hopes to one day build a church, a school and an orphanage.  Right now we are targeting one area we know, and love. Nepal.  We are currently working to enable ministries there to further the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I will document more about that another time.


     If you would like to champion the work we are doing, there are many opportunities :)

1. Prayer- We need a strong prayer covering & we are so grateful for all of you who pray for us.
2. Word of mouth is the best way to promote something, so please pass along our business info.
3. A purchase to Sand & Stones- Our family is going to be doing ministry in Thailand this April, this will help us with our tickets and ministry we will be doing while we are there.
4. You can make a U.S. tax deductible donation for our family at:
 YWAM Los Angeles (Lien family in the memo)
11141 Osborne Street Lake View Terrace, CA 91342
or online at www.ywamla.org - Donate pay tab>>>Staff Donation.
5. Canadian tax deductible donations: YWAM Project Funding office.
Please include our name and account
#LT11 P.O. Box 57100 RPO East Hastings Vancouver, B.C. V5K 5G6 Canada (604)-436-4433


   
Thank you to all those that have given so sacrificially so that we can do all these amazing adventures as a family.

XOXO,

The Lien Family
 

The Lien's Mission Adventures

And this is us!

It's amazing how a picture can capture personalities so perfectly...

        Hi, everyone! I know I start every  newsletter off the same way.  An apology for my lack of consistency with the updates.  So sorry, oops my bad! **Cringe**

So, I think this (Blogger Platform) is where we decided to establish our posts for our ministry work in Los Angeles.  So when you're wondering what's up with the Lien's, you can catch up with us here.  I do solemnly swear  promise to update or at least post pictures more often than not. :)

So what's up? What's new? What's the haps?  ←←←←  We work with youth so we gotta keep it fresh, ya know? Anyways, about that... We are so excited to be serving along side our church here in L.A.  We voluntarily run the youth program from our home.  I have to brag and say that we have the coolest kids in town as well as an amazing couple, Chris & Haven who help us out.  Chris is a Sheriff & Haven is a nurse who we all have fallen in love with.   This has been one of the biggest blessings being in L.A.  A privilege to open up our home & invite these young people into our hearts, lives and family.

IGNITE YOUTH

Mission Adventures

We are in process of running our second mission adventures program.  In short it is a missions summer camp for youth groups.  We do three days of evangelical training and three days of inner city work within L.A.  (If your church is interested in being a part this year there is still space available.)

This program is really amazing because, it gives young people a real world view of the need and poverty within the Unites States.  We obviously love missions. We are missionaries, but we firmly believe that if you can't live an authentic gospel at home, (family, neighborhood, community, city) then how can you live an authentic gospel anywhere else?  We teach young people that it starts with them.  

 Here's some pictures from MA 2016- We did homeless ministry and partnered with Fred Jordan Mission. VBS & evangelism on Skid-Row & Venice beach as well as feeding the homeless in local parks.

Welcome Teams to L.A.

Training Phase

Students praying for Nations & the persecuted church

VBS & Skid-Row

These pictures are real.  This is in the U.S.  This is my city... :(

Blocks with peoples homes (tents) and all the belongings they have to their name .

Re-pioneering the Mission Adventures program has been one of the most difficult things we've faced so far in our ministry journey.  Our summer was HARD, really hard. BUT despite all the hardship, God moved!  We saw so many cool encounters take place, regardless of what was going on around us.  

THAILAND

   We have the privilege to travel to Thailand with our three oldest boys in April.  For 3 days we will be meeting for a Mission Adventures conference & the rest of the time we will be doing orphanage, village, church & street ministry.

   It has been over 10 years since we have been able to do missions overseas, so this is a big moment for us!

We value your prayers more than you know, & we value you!  Thank you for sharing these precious opportunities with us!

XO

~The Lien Family~

If you would like to partner with us, here's how...
 You can make a U.S. tax deductible donation for our family at:
 YWAM Los Angeles (Lien family in the memo) 
11141 Osborne Street Lake View Terrace, CA. 91342
or online at www.ywamla.org - Donate pay tab>>>Staff Donation.
 Canadian tax deductible donations: YWAM Project Funding office. 
Please include our name and account
#LT11 P.O. Box 57100 RPO East Hastings Vancouver, B.C. V5K 5G6 Canada (604)-436-4433