Bansenblog

Hello Everyone!
Greetings! Much has happened since we wrote our Spring / Summer Update (which is part of why it took so long to post that update to the blog). Some have been the normal day-to-day things of ministry here, others have felt like testing in one form or another. Here’s a quick update on what’s going on currently…

Shawn's surgery went well--thanks for your prayers!
Shawn had the surgery to correct bilateral hernias late in September. We are thankful for the many prayers and words of encouragement we received through phone calls and email during that time. And we thank God for those who have sent special gifts to help out. God’s favor has also been with us in finding a caring doctors who understand the challenges of not having health insurance in today's economy. Here at the end of October, Shawn is almost back to full speed, after about 3 weeks of "light duty" work as Head of Maintenance. We appreciate your continued prayers for complete healing.

Teaching for the DTS and Crossroads classes
In this time of needing physical rest, Shawn was called upon to teach in the DTS (Discipleship Training School) and CDTS (Crossroads DTS) for the 1st two weeks of October. This perfect timing gave him a break from Maintenance responsibilities and a fresh chance to pour into the students. He taught in the mornings on "Our Identity in Christ" as believers. He enjoyed seeing the students really come alive as they discovered God’s heart towards them and better understood their authority and position as children of God. Let us know if you want to here more about this powerful message.

Mission Builder Work Team
In mid-October, a work group from Lacy, Washington, joined us to assist with some major renovations in the Conference Center, including carpet removal in two floors of dormitory housing. It’s so exciting to have this extra help for this huge project. We are all thankful for all their hard work and expertise! Some even spent the weekend moving bunk beds back into the rooms. God bless them all!

K-2nd Grade at the International Christian School
Ginger is loving teaching the Primary Class again this fall. It was a tough decision to move classrooms again, but God provided a wonderful new staff member to teach the Jr-Sr High class, and Ginger began to feel drawn back to her "roots" in early childhood education. She also continues as the Lead Teacher / Principal, so she gets to keep using all the things she's learned about running a private school over the past 3 years.

This year, Ginger has a class of eight — seven of whom are energetic and animated boys, ranging from 4 ½ to 8 years old. Thankfully, for this multi-grade level classroom, Ginger was able to get an aid for ½ of each day… She’s really enjoying all of her students; each have bright young minds, and the heart for Jesus that her challenging students have is especially beautiful. One particularly difficult day, in the middle of dealing with computer network issues, she got blessed by a precious impromptu prayer from one of her most challenging boys.

The Crossroads DTS is almost over, when most of her students will go on Outreach with their parents. As we approached this fall, we felt God wanted us to accept the various challenges with love and patience, relying on HIS power, wisdom and grace to help these beautiful families grow and receive spiritual and emotional healing during their 12-week Crossroads DTS. Every week we see how God is blessing them, and us, as we must rely – sometimes moment by moment – on the direction of the Holy Spirit. It's such a pleasure to be able to serve in this way.

Check out our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/shawnNginger.bansen, to see more photos of the Maintenance Men, Crossroads class, and International Christian School!

The Chronicles of Bansania

The Newsletter of the Bansens serving with

Youth With A Mission

in Chico, CA

Spring / Summer 2009 ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ Vol. III, Issue 2

Hello and greetings to all of our friends and families!

We trust that you are all doing well and are growing in God’s grace. This summer God has been teaching us more about how to live a balanced life, as we submit ourselves to following and knowing Him.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’…and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:11-13.

We are discovering that God is a God of balance. He doesn’t lead us into one extreme or another. Often it’s easy to pour ourselves out, giving our all in our service to the Lord. Yet there is the risk of being too busy, and therein can lie the enemy’s trap. In Ministry, and in Life, there are busy seasons and there are times when it is healthy to withdraw and just “be” His, waiting on the Lord..

A recent song from Lincoln Brewster reminds us that “strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord!” It must be the waiting upon Him that is the key to finding His strength and that balance. God desires to be worshipped in every aspect of our lives; in the working, in the playing, in the waiting, in the running, in the quiet, and in the busy times. The bottom line is that He wants us all to wait on Him and to trust Him in every way. We pray that this will be a season of God’s grace poured out upon you as well, no matter how hectic life seems. God is not surprised by life’s circumstances! Rest in His grace… He brings us the strength and perspective that we need when we wait upon Him.

Shawn’s Year in Administration

Last August Shawn was put into the Administration Office as Personnel and Assistant to the base director, after serving as the Maintenance supervisor for a year. As many of you know, Shawn (by his own admission) is not a details kind of guy. But our base director really wanted someone in the personnel office with a pastor’s heart. (And that he has!) This was a stretching and growing time for him as he learned how to use all the applications of Microsoft. J Fortunately he has had a wonderful and capable assistant who helped keep him up on the administrative details of the office.

Mostly, however, he enjoyed coming alongside different staff members as they serve at YWAM-Chico, and being a catalyst for their growth in the Lord.

Like all good things, however, this season has come

to an end. Early in July, Shawn returned to lead the Maintenace Department. His first task was to rewire and lead the guys to finish renovating a house for a new staff family – “Back in the saddle again!” :) This is in addition to still leading worship, and overseeing the sound department here.

X-Ten Extreme Leadership Training Adventures

This summer Shawn once again took thirteen young people into the mountains of northern California for three days of teambuilding and outdoor challenge. This was the beginning of the summer intern program, called 24Seven, in which teens spend 7-8 weeks of their summer serving, learning and playing together here at YWAM Chico. They are part of the core that make Summer Camps possible for 1500+ kids and youth each summer.

(If you are interested in more information about this awesome summer discipleship program for 15-18 year olds, check it out at www.ywamchico.com ...Copy into your browser -- this is not a link..)

Ginger’s Jr-Sr High Class at ICS

In addition to continuing with her responsibilities as the Lead Teacher at the International Christian School here, Ginger had the joy of teaching an all-girl Jr-Sr High class this past year. (Aren’t they beautiful?)

During the year, Ginger watched “her girls” each grow spiritually as well as academically. As she shepparded them through some struggles with their identity, she’s found herself recognizing more how to function in her own identity in Christ. Praise God for His presence, always teaching us as we grow!

One of Ginger’s favorite activities with ‘her girls’ was their weekly prayer and “intercession” times. This was a time in which we each spent 15-20 minutes waiting on the Lord and asking Him to reveal His heart for a particular person, then praying those things over that person. The girls would get scriptures, words of encouragement, and even visions and pictures. It was fun to see God work through the hearts of these wonderful young women!

During the Summer, while moms have no “official” work duties, Ginger has enjoyed just being Mom, while also taking turns watching other kids during Kitchen duties, Hotel Turn-Around, etc. (Ok, and she’s also looking a little at new students for ICS...J …She’s back to teaching K-2^nd grades again this fall!)

Kids Korner

Hannah finished 4^th grade and turned 10 years old in August. She’s growing into quite the young lady. A fellow staff member here has started teaching BALLET to some of the girls, and Hannah is in her element with dancing again. Her teacher has danced for years, and had worked with YWAM-Brazil’s Kings Kids. She’s teaching the girls discipline in practice and directing their focus towards worship of the Lord as they dance. Hannah loves it!

Elijah completed his 1^st grade year with 2 less baby teeth! He turned 7 in May, and has become quite the speedster on his bike. He is loving the summer – There are frogs and lizards to catch, a creek to explore, light-saber fights to be had with friends in the yard… Best of all, there are 3 new boys on staff, who are just as eager for battles!

1500 Teens Experience God at Summer Camps!

For over 30 years, the Springs of Living Water has hosted Kids’ and Youth camps during the summer. Now hosted by YWAM-Chico, our facility is a prime location for outdoor activities and character building experiences. Although YWAM no longer leads the camps, we continue serving in the same spirit of evangelism and discipleship, by working ‘behind the scenes’ as camp hosts, making the Springs’ camps flow smoothly. This is a great season for “plowing the ground” serving and interceding for the hundreds of Campers, their counselors and camp leaders. Summer Camp is a time where many young campers’ hearts are connected to God for the first time!

Now that the summer is over, please pray for the 1500+ campers whose lives were touched by God this summer, that their hearts will continue to seek and receive from the loving God they encountered while they were here.

Also keep the staff at YWAM-Chico in prayer as we now switch gears and prepare for the fall Discipleship Training Schools to begin. We desire God’s anointing to serve with His love.

The Support Report

The Support Report

We want to first say thank you to those of you who have supported us in ministry faithfully over the past 3 years. Your gifts are greatly appreciated!

As we begin our third year with YWAM-Chico, we, like many others, are feeling the effects of a struggling economy. As the cost of living is increasing, our monthly support that covered the basic essentials is no longer enough. Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to increase our support base.

All YWAM Missionaries must raise their own financial support through individual friends and contacts. We are seeking an additional 10-15 ministry partners, who would be willing to send $20-50 per month to help fund our ministry. This $500 increase would help us to cover our monthly essential expenses, as well as set aside funds for those periodic major expenses like auto maintenance, health, dental and eye care. We also need to make a trip soon to visit our supporters and family in the Midwest. Would you prayerfully consider joining our team?

In closing, we pray God’s hand be upon each of you friends and family. May His hand direct your paths, and may He bless you with His love and presence. Many hugs and love to you all!!

In His love,

ShawnGingerHannahElijah

Hello everyone from the Bansen clan in California. We are all doing good and are being stretched in our roles here on base as Ginger and I each lead our different departments. Our apologies for the length of time it has been now since our last blog post. We would like to catch you all up on what has been going on these past seven months since our last blog communication.

We are currently working on our newsletter, which will fill in all of the gaps. I do want to just share this praise report with you all. It does have a bit to do with why we have been so long in our communications and it really seems like it has been just one more thing in mix of busy-ness here.

At the beginning of the year, we began to have operational difficulties with our older laptop. So, upon great need we then proceeded to wipe out the hard drive of the computer, reformat the hard drive and begin again from square one. Only after we had done this did we discover how difficult it really is to recover anything from this backup unit. I tried for a long time to do it (months...don't ask me why it took so long), I could only find a plethera of folders marked with numbers which meant nothing to me.

The more I tried to find our precious documents folder the more desperate I became and the more I tried to decipher the instructions which came with the back-up software of the external drive. It was almost despair, I'm not trying to be dramatic, there was so much to lose in that folder. Finally, during a conversation with a buddy here on base, I mentioned this situation to him. He wanted to try something different on the software. We got into it and discovered that a critical peice of information was missing...the catalog file! (I know - this is the long drawn out version, but hey, you haven't heard from us in awhile). The information is stored in the backup drive like you could store the furniture of your house in a storage unit and the catalog file is the map and list of where each item is located in that storage unit. Well now imagine a full storage unit with no map or list. We did manage to recreate the catalog list and 'vuola' our things unfolded and identified themselves! Can you tell this was a huge hurdle for us...I'm not very computer literate. We prayed and God opened this up to us! And a huge thank you to my buddy James who figured out the hierogliphics of the software!

And thanks for your prayers and interest in this blog and in what we are doing! Watch for our newsletter in the mail soon! (And if you're reading this, but don't yet receive our newsletters, send us a note with your address--email or snailmail...)
Shawn

Greetings from ICS (International Christian School) at YWAM-Chico! Several friends have asked to see pictures of my students, so here they are!

When they came West for her uncle and aunt's 50th wedding anniversary, Ginger's Mom and Dad also visited us in California this summer over the 4th of July. Here's just a few photos of a great time together...

After the reunion with family in Oregon, we took Mom and Dad to see the west coast. The kids got soaking wet in the cold waves, but loved every minute of it!


















Back at the YWAM base, Dad put on his work clothes and was a huge blessing helping Shawn finish wiring a cabin just in time for one of our largest camps.



We also took Mom and Dad on a hike above the YWAM base to see some more of the beauty here.

Hi everyone,

Sorry to be so out of touch. It's been a very busy Summer and Fall. It’s been hard to get to email at all right now... not b/c of internet this time - just our schedule. We are doing well. Just staying really busy with our duties, children, and trying to still connect with each other, too. Shawn has been in charge of the Maintenance dept. since August, and Ginger has been doing a lot more administrative stuff at the elementary school, since our Principal/administrator retired last year. (More about those major changes forthcoming.) Another newsletter is (finally) in process.... We wanted to at least get some quick notes and pictures out here for you to see on the blog. We’re trying to do better at sending short updates more frequently. Here’s the beef on Shawn’s leading Extreme Encouters this summer….

This summer I got to help lead the X-TEN program, which stands for Extreme Encounter. It’s a weekend (or 3 day) venture taking teams into the mountains, using games and exercises designed to push and challenge participants to work as a team and to excel personally beyond their own expectations. The week is strenuous and emotionally demanding as campers get a glimpse of what is truly possible when they believe in their team and learn that they are able to accomplish what they previously thought was impossible.

Many kids and youth come from difficult home situations, and a trip like this can be a positive shock to them. One of the greatest blessings is to be able to see kids who have a poor self image, or they’ve been told that they “can’t do it”, come out on top and conquer their fear or that wrong belief about themselves. We took long hard hikes, did a lot of team building exercises, ate some pretty rough food (just nourishment), learned some very important life lessons, and found in the end that God has gifted us with one another for strength and support.

One guy in particular, Roger, experienced a personal victory right in front of us. The entire group one-by-one had done a backwards fall from a three-foot height and then a seven-foot height to then be caught by their teammates. It was finally Roger’s turn, and he wanted so badly to accomplish this just like the rest of his team. He stood at the seven foot platform for almost a half hour while his team spoke words of encouragement. He was just too afraid to commit himself to his friends. He finally made us proud…with a deep breath he turned around and fell into the waiting arms of his teammates. Yeah!!! After that, there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do the rest of the time.

I got to lead two X-Ten’s this summer, both of which were very fruitful. The X-Ten teaches principals of leadership, servanthood, outdoor skills and teamwork. Together, all work, rest, and pay consequences for breaking team rules—as a team-- including the leaders. (I haven’t done so many “crunches” or “tree sits” since college!) Though the experience was physically and emotionally challenging, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully next summer, we will have more groups scheduled to come. Check out YWAM-Chico’s website, www.ywamchico.com if you’re interested in knowing more about these Extreme Encounters.

Our leadership team atop Pilot's Peak: Bruce, Me, Rebecca, and Evan.

The entire group made it after a grueling three hour hike/climb of Pilot's Peak.

Hi Family & Friends! Ginger here. I'm just learning how to do the blogging, and I think I'm hooked! Below is something I wrote after the DTS and Crossroads teams left for Outreach in late April... With being new to this web stuff, plus the busyness of the end of school, it's taken me a few weeks to get it posted. Next one will come faster! :) --Ginger

MISSIONARIES SENDING MISSIONARIES - More of what we're doing here:
The week before the Outreach Teams left, the Crossroads families and students had their final dinner together. Because we have such an impact on the lives of their children, and also enable the parents to attend the training, we teachers and our spouses are always included in this special celebration. It was a moving time of testimonies and stories of God’s work in their lives, as well as samplings of songs prepared for the various countries.

This photo is of the Grigg family, whose two youngest were some of Ginger’s students.

Cheyrl, previously a home-schooling mom, expressed deep gratitude for the care and education we gave their children at the International Christian School (ICS), enabling them to focus on growing closer to God and preparing to share His love abroad. (By the way, after returning from Outreach, the Griggs have applied to come on staff here! I may get to have Thomas & Barbara in school next fall!)

During this same dinner last semester, the team heading for Guatemala sang the 2 Spanish choruses I had taught them. My teacher’s heart melted as the presence of God filled the room while we worshipped together in Spanish.

Again during the program this spring, I was reminded that THIS is WHY we are here at YWAM-Chico serving in the areas we do.

Due to the remoteness of our location, the International Christian School is essential for the continuing education of Crossroads children. In addition, having the school on the base here enables them to have family time at lunch. This is a great help and comfort for these kids who, like their parents, have left everything familiar to obey God’s call. YWAM-Chico really has a high priority for families, to minister to them and foster growth in service as a whole unit, not just Mom and Dad with “missionary kids” in tow.

Danny and Shawn running wire in House #24 last Fall

Shawn shows off the finished Kitchen!

I hope this gives you a bit of a better picture of our purpose in serving at YWAM-Chico. Every week we see God move and differences made in the lives of people around us.

This has been a busy season for us. We're glad for your prayers and support at this time. God just keeps showing us how much He cares for us as we hear from each of you and we also see Him provide for each of our needs. My dad (Peter) has been here visiting and working, refinishing some old furniture and painting different projects that we've working on. The weather here has been been wonderful, which was a big transition for dad from Michigan where it was snowing when he left. Last weekend we took dad to Yosemite National park and it was...amazing! God's handiwork on display! So now taxes are due and it's good to done with them. Ginger has been busy and I've held the tide of other work back and away while it's being done. This has been a good growth time for us. Anyway, I wanted to get back into the swing of posting to keep in touch. Bless you all...more soon!

Shawn