To all those who are weary and heavy. Come and rest.

Now I know what that man felt like when Jesus said "if you want to follow me, sale all your positions and follow me." the man walked away because he had great wealth. The Lord is telling us the same thing. He is calling us to give up everything that is secure and trust that He will provide. That He is our source! I have been trying to figure all the ways he would provide for us. It's been harder this time because we are all the way across the country with an apartment to pay for. I woke up desiring peace so I just prayed to the the Lord.. I'm scared. I don't want to doubt your provision, but I am. Then instantly I saw a little child hand in hand with her father going towards a swimming pool. The child is scared about swimming for the first time. The father holding on to her hand knows he is protecting the child & nothing will harm the young one. The father is confident that he can teach the child to swim. He is fully capable of keeping the child safe. The child is still very terrified.. Hesitant to get in the unfamiliar waters she comes to a halt The father is now walking ahead or her with arm's length distance. He encourages the child to come forth and step into the water. After much encouragement and instruction the child takes baby steps closer. Scared for her life and eyes opened as wide as they can possible open the child's feet are now emerged.. The child thinks.. That wasn't so bad, I'm still alive, then the father gently says come on to the next step. The child slowly and steps down to the next step. The child thinks once again that wasn't so bad. She smiles as she saw her father smiling back. Burr! its cold the child belts out, the father said come on your almost in.. The child stepped down to the third step. On this step she felt her fathers warmth. "Almost there he encouraged there, you can do it! I'm right here. I won't let you go under. Her faith rises and her heart pounding the child then leaps into her father's arms. He grabbed her into his arms and shouted you did it! Did everyone see my daughter?!? She is in the water with me! He rejoiced over her! He then asked her "now, are you ready to go under?"

Thank you Jesus! Your here with me, even though I'm scared your cheering me on, there is no way I'm going go drown your fully capable to keep me up, and loving enough to direct me. Your a good father, you don't leave me to learn on my own. But your God with us every step of the way. You rejoice over me, yo take time to show me. Your proud of me. You want the world to see how you love and take pride in your beloved child who listened. Lord, I follow you to the deep waters.. If I'm scared help me to be Secure in your Holy Spirit. My helper.

The child learned to swim. It became her favorite thing to do. Swimming brought the child the most joy she has ever experienced. The father proudly watched her play. It filled his heart to see so much joy in his beloved child..

Matthew 6:26

New King James Version (NKJV)

26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Pictures from our journey out West.

Faith brought us out West. We desired ministry, & community the Lord said go and we went. First to Redding, CA to visit a ministry there and to see if we wanted to be apart of that. Nothing opened up to us and we felt discouraged. So we prayed and felt peace about heading south to San Diego, CA. Patrick's birth place. Patrick had family there and we ended up have more that one places to choose from it was like doors were wide open. With in a week we got jobs and found an amazing church, within two weeks we found a beautiful apartment where we now call home.

PiCtUrEs!
*A huge famous Mormon temple right next to our apartment isn't it a sight.

*Patrick and Lindsey over looking La jolla at a BBQ on memorial day.
*On our 1 year Anniversary celebration we had cupcakes & went hiking to a beautiful waterfall.
*Patrick Loved his Kindle I got him for our anniversary! (fun fact : his favorite writer is: Sadhu Sundar Singh.

*Patrick at his favorite Skate park in Del Mar.

*Patrick Playing with the fuzzy Caterpillar while hiking.

La jolla Shores. aka Seal beach.

Here is a beautiful story that moved my heart.

Baba- translates to father in Arabic and Turkish. This name mean so much to me.. This is the story of how I met baba.

Finally! After a whole 24 hours of flying we finally arrived to our destination! The place we would be for 2 months on our out reach to turkey! We were all so anxious to see the hostile we were staying at in Antalya, Turkey. We were picked up at the air port and driving straight to Ursula hotel. We pulled up to see a group of Turks waiting for us at the door. One woman Stood and the guide informed us, this is Ezra, she can speak english and she is also a Christian, but no one else knows. She was very pretty petite lady she greeted us all with hugs, and says welcome welcome and also says welcome in Turkish. Her boyfriend the hotel owner stood nodding his head with a halfway smile on his face, his name Is Soner. We called him Hollywood after getting to know him.. He was always dressed to impress.. He couldn't speak English but seemed to know all the American movies stars names as he call Patrick brad Pitt and me Angelina, we thought with his slick back hair and nice clothes we would call him Hollywood. Then we saw a short older man on crutches with a smile from ear to ear! He seemed ashamed to be handicapped but I saw the sweetest spirit I have ever seen. His right leg was gone from the knee down, he couldn't speak any English but he wore the most genuine smile. He would smile so big his eyes would be squinty on his darkened sun kissed skin. He was probably 60 years or older. As the days go by we noticed how how was up late every night and he was up when the hot Mediterranean sun came out. He would always have fresh baked goods and tea on the table as he would sit looking off into the distance i would come and sit at the table with him and he would quickly pour me some tea and break a piece of his bread and share his olives.. Most of the time Ezra was there and she would sit with us and we would enjoy the morning together. Esra would be talking to me asking me questions and I didn't want to leave the sweet man out so I asked her to translate. His face lit up as I asked him questions.. I asked hi. About his children and he said he has a daughter that looks like me, and he said he will call me Gizem which means daughter.. So I asked what is father in Turkish....? And Ezra said baba! So I looked at him as said baba as I pointed at him and smiled. Morning after morning night after night our team spent time with baba! He call me daughter, no one else.. But everyone called him baba! Even Esra and Hollywood. One thing I noticed about baba was every time the Muslim call to prayer would blare over the loud speakers he would pray either where he was, he would get out prayer beads or he would make his way slowly up to the third floor to get on his knees on his carpet and pray. He was so devote. It taught me a thing or two watching baba! We had so much fun together many laughs teaching baba English. I would take my breakfast out side to share with him. He tried the french dish crepes with nutella for the first time. I said crepes slowly so he could pronounce it.. And he pointed to the crepes and said crapps!!! I laughed so hard! We had so much fun together! One early morning I woke up to a cat squalling loudly! I got up and saw the cat jumped to the bottom to the drained pool.. So I went Down stairs and helped the frantic kitty out. On my way up I see baba with a thick book under his arm as he makes his way up stairs. He greeted me with a good morning in Turkish "" and I tried to explain the cat in the pool the best I could in the little Turkish I knew. He seemed to understand and laugh a bit. But I couldn't keep ,y eyes off the book Pinned under his arm. I pointed and asked.. Allah...? (god in Arabic) he said yes. After that I know it was a religious book.. And I told him I was going back to sleep. Ugh I wished I could speak Turkish so bad!! I laid in the bad with such a heavy heart for baba! I prayed for him.. I felt God love for him so strong! It was so deep, tears rolled down my face as I told God to reveal himself to baba. I heard god say softly you have a book I want him to read and the time will come when you will give it to him. So that day was our off day so I slept in. I woke up went down stairs and saw baba and Ezra at the table. We sat had tea and talked. I Told Ezra about the cat in pool and told her to tell baba. I the. Asked about the book he was reading this morning. She said it's a book of prayers Lindsey, she went on to tell me.. See Lindsey baba do not believe like us. He does not believe it Jesus she says.. So I told her to tell him this.. I have a book of prayers too. I have the incl which is the new testament. In Islam it's considered s holy book and is recommend to read, but not many Muslims have access to it. He agreed! I asked if he has one. He said no.. Then I got off subject, I asked Ezra, do you think he would mind if I asked him about his leg.. And she asked him for me. He got hit by a car. He then tells me his son got kidnapped and was missing for years. He found him when he was older spent a year with him. His son had a bread shop on the street, another shop owner became jealous because his costumers came to his shop and one afternoon the jealous owner killed baba's son! He sat there quietly as Ezra translated. Tears came to my eyes.. I told him I was very sorry. Then I go on to tell him about how Jesus was Gods son.. And then Ezra goes on to explain everything in Turkish, taking breaks to tell me what she is saying In English. " now I'm telling his Jesus is gods son and he died for him to give him life. That God loves him. He nodded and said somethings. She looked at me and said Lindsey he says he believes this. So I excused myself and ran to my room got the new testament and wrapped it in a bandanna and gave it to baba as a gift. He kissed it and gently placed it on His forehead. He said My grandmother read me this when I was a boy. He never had one of his own. He said he would read it in two days. Nothing else was said about the gift. We left 1 week after he received it. With tears in his eyes we hugged baba goodbye. That man changed my life.. I know the Lord changed his.

I'm still intouch with ezra, and she is still my translator to give baba our love.

Ready, willing, lets GO!!

This is Patrick and Lindsey Otterson writing to you! We want to share some exciting news about what God is doing in our lives. As you may know we have been married one year now. Through our first year we have had the amazing opportunity to be a part of many spectacular adventures for the kingdom of God! On June 21st last summer we did our disciple training school with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in Orlando, Florida at the end of our training we went on outreach to the beautiful country of Turkey! There we gained a world view and experienced God’s love for the people and were able to share the gospel with many. The Lord did an amazing work in the 2 months we spent in Turkey. After graduating we came back to Alabama for the holidays to spend time with our beloved family and friends. After much prayer about our future plans in ministry we decided to road trip out West to a ministry in Northern California. We got to travel the historic route 66 and see the beautiful Grand Canyon and many other famous sites. When we arrived to Northern California we didn’t feel God’s peace on committing to the school of ministry. After prayer and receiving prayer we knew we were needed to head back south to San Diego. We didn’t know what we were going to do in San Diego, we didn’t know of a ministry to plug into, all we knew is God said go and we were obedient to his word. We got involved in a small group fellowship that we are like family with within a week of being in San Diego; God provided us a place to stay until we found jobs and an apartment which all happened within three weeks. Everything was covered in peace. So here we are in sunny San Diego; after few months of working and at Starbucks and lots of prayer and asking God why we were here...The Lord divinely connected us with a family who is with YWAM San Diego. We explained to them we weren't sure why God sent us to Southern California, they immediately asked us to be a part of pioneering a ministry with them. They enthusiastically explained to us that we would be helping establish a ministry called YWAM ships which take volunteer missionaries like us on board to developing nations around the world delivering medical, housing, training and evangelism to the poor and needy. They have already spent over 20 years working with mercy ships and are now starting up a new location for YWAM right here in California. We would help lead teams of young people through their discipleship training school like the one we just graduated from and take outreaches to the various ships already serving out there. We can't explain the joy and peace that filled our hearts after hearing this family's vision and seeing their passionate hearts for the Nations. Isn’t this exciting? Right now we are currently working at Starbucks full time and we are wanting to transition into full time ministry as soon as possible. This is where we need to body of Christ to partner with us to fulfill God’s dream and reach his precious people. Our financial needs are 2,000 dollars a month. Would consider adopting us as your missionaries? We will contact you in a couple of weeks to ask for your decision. Please feel no pressure or obligation. May God give peace to your heart to know if he wants to use you in this ministry.