January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
June 2009
God's Heart, Jeremy and Jasmine Dean...serving Sri Lanka
By Eva Dunn
Jeremy and
Jasmine Dean grew up in two different countries; both walked two
different paths, neither serving God, both looking for answers to
fill empty voids, God-shaped voids. She came from an abundant life,
the other from missionary parents but he was not close to God, he
rebelled. Both had no real purpose in life.
These two young people did
not know each other existed and through a series of events, both
ended up in Sri Lanka, across the world, helping Tsunami victims.
Jeremy had cried out and found the Lord and went to this country to
serve His Lord, his only focus. Jasmine had heard God's voice, and
obeyed His command to go to Sri Lanka, to serve others.
Their story is full of
miracles, hope and promise, and yes, love! Jeremy and Jasmine
returned to the States and were married in 2007. But they never
forgot what God had put on their hearts; to be His Hands and Feet
in a third world country. To this end, they continue to raise funds
to return to Sri Lanka in January 2009, to live among its people,
to teach English, to reflect Christ's Love by serving the people of
Sri Lanka. Jeremy and Jasmine have many other exciting plans to
help the people; we will share those in future columns.
The Deans want to raise support and awareness for
Sri Lanka. They have many people in their network and we would like
to cast the net even further, asking for your support too. The
Gold Country Times will carry the ongoing story of Jeremy and
Jasmine Dean, God's young evangelists, answering The Call in Sri
Lanka. Please pray about supporting this ministry as God leads you.
Send your check or money order to:
Renaissance Church, The Deans, 745 Westminister Street, Providence,
RI, 02903. Visit
http://jeremyandjasmine.com for more information. Updates of
their ministry at:
www.srilankablogs.weebly.com. Life in Sri Lanka, subscribe to
their blogs and http://YouTube.
December 2008
Top Photo:
Jeremy and Jasmine Dean, serving Sri Lanka. Your Kingdom Come,
Your Will be Done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Second Photo: The
children of Sri Lanka are excited to have someone come and live in
their city, to be a help in time of need, to teach them, to care
and love for them. Photos courtesy
to the Gold Country Times.
The latest news: 'Live Your Love' is now a legitimate nonprofit
organization!
Live
Your Love Update
JANUARY 09 -
Our time in
California has come to an end and we got back to the east coast in
December 2008. This last 3 months have been great and we've enjoyed
almost every single day that we were there. We were sad to leave
but at the same time excited to move on to the next stage of what
God has in store.
Looking back, we can see
what a blessing our time there was; not only for the freedom it has
given us to really focus on how and what we can do to be most
effective in Sri Lanka, but also for all the relationships it
allowed us to make and pursue. We met some amazing people and are
totally excited for where God will take these relationships in the
future.
We have our plane tickets
and will be leaving for Sri Lanka for six months on January 20,
2009. We are very excited for what lies ahead, for what God has in
store for us, following God's leading and purpose for our lives. We
will be continuously updating our travels, adventures, and life in
Sri Lanka once we arrive. We know SO many people want to
help/support our trip to Sri Lanka but don't know what to do.
Here are a few
suggestions.
1. Send us a one time, or monthly, financial gift. (check out where
to send money on our "support info" link) Our goal is to raise
$13,500 for our first 6 months! 2. Pray (check out our updated
prayer list on our "FAQ" link) 3. Throw a Dinner Party o' Love. We
have a friend who came up with a great idea for
fundraising/supporting people we love. Let me explain: a. Invite a
bunch of your friends over for a dinner party. b. Make a big dinner
for them and enjoy a lovely evening with your closest friends. c.
Share about your lives, your friends that are overseas and how much
you miss them. d. At the end of the lovely evening, everyone
pitches in the amount of money they would have spent going out to
eat. e. Seal up the money in an envelope with a note about your
lovely dinner and send it to Renaissance Church, c/o The Deans, 745
Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903. If you have any
fundraising ideas feel free to share them with us...or just go
ahead with them. We're excited for all the creativity that's out
there! We have a place for our blogs, Youtube videos, and new
photos:
www.srilankablogs.weebly.com. You can also read about Jasmine's
Sri Lanka 2005 visit:
www.jasmineinsrilanka.blogspot.com Also check out our
'Jeremy and Jasmine are going to Sri Lanka' Facebook page. The
Fundraising was amazing.
What do you need prayer
for? Good question! And one of the most important ones, too.
a. Peace in the country of
Sri Lanka. There are over 460,000 internally displaced people
around the country because of the conflict and violence of the 25
year-old civil war. This country is in desperate need for peace.
b. Money We need to have
money to serve the people in this country. Please, pray that people
will really feel called to support us financially and prayerfully
while we are there and before we leave.
c. Safety For us as we
travel and as we are there.
d. That we would be led to
the "right" people. Right now we are just praying that we are led
to the right people to work alongside and that we would find the
right people to serve amongst the HUGE numbers that need help.
In the next weeks we will
be sending out our last mailing before we leave for Sri Lanka. We
will share details about what we'll be doing for the first 6 months
and a request for support as we only need about $10 from each
supporter to achieve our goal. We are so blessed by the way so many
of you have already supported us. Thank you! Love, Jeremy and
Jasmine January 2009
Live Your Love!
Hello Friends,
Our three months in California came to an end and it was incredibly
productive. We are amazed, every day, at how things have come
together over the past couple of months. We arrived in Sri Lanka on
the 22nd of January, and we are over-whelmed with ideas and excited
to get to know the country. Our purpose in Sri Lanka is to find the
greatest need of the poor and help them out of poverty. We plan to
do this one person at a time by getting involved within the
community, building relationships with the needy and finding
practical and attainable ways to aid those in need. We want to
Raise Awareness for the need in Sri Lanka for education, livelihood
projects and for the people themselves.
We know that you have such
great hearts and desire to help those in need. We are so blessed to
get to be the ones to facilitate those needs. We want to Empower
the People by creating micro-financing projects, and getting
involved in the garment and tea industries that produce most of the
countries exports.
We are scheduled to teach
English to college students and volunteer with kids in the city
slums as well as Community Concern Society in their schools for
poor children. Our vision is still to be in Sri Lanka long term
but, for our first trip, we will be in the country for six months.
The focus of our time will be to start laying the foundations for
our long-term vision called Live Your Love which embodies
everything we hope to achieve in Sri Lanka. We are most excited
about the future of Live Your Love and how it will not only impact
the lives of Sri Lanka's poor but also the lives of people around
the world...including you.
Our goal is to have about
$13,500 for our first six months and we only need $3,000 more!
Although this may seem like a big number, we know that it is 100%
attainable considering we have almost 400 people involved and even
$10 from everyone would surpass that goal. We pray that you will
believe with us as we step out of the boat. ‘Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like
it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
As we settle into our new
home, please pray for safety in our apartment and our neighborhood
as we travel the busy city every day. We are meeting people almost
every day and we're praying that God will open all the
opportunities to move forward. Please pray along with us that God
will continue to open all the right doors and close all the wrong
ones! Love, Jeremy and Jasmine Ready, Set ... Sri Lanka!
Contact Jeremy and Jasmine
at: Renaissance Church, c/o The Deans, 745 Westminister Street,
Providence, RI 02903. Their blogs, Youtube videos, and new photos
are online at:
www.srilankablogs.weebly.com You can also read about
Jasmine's Sri Lanka 2005 visit:
www.jasmineinsrilanka.blogspot.com February 2009
The Indian Ocean
On the 17th we took a trip down to Hambantota
with a friend of Jeremy's parents who runs a program for Smile
International. 
It is a preschool in the
morning, after-school classes for older kids in the afternoon and
they have a monthly program for widows and poor women in the
community--giving them food and teaching them to sew. It's a
wonderful program and I think we'll probably get to go down again
soon. We fell in love with the kids too.
Photo: Two of the children that
are helped by Smile International in Hambantota. The kids in the
program are chosen to get an education and daily meals from the
facility. Photo courtesy to the Gold Country Times
Prayers
We have now been here a month and have made
some friends but they do not live in the city. Please pray that God
brings us wonderful friends to hang out with and share life with.
We are beginning to miss just "hanging out" with friends.
Sometimes I get so lost in
what I'm doing, I forget I'm in an entirely different world. I'll
be unpacking, reading one of thousands of articles on Obama or just
thinking about something when I'll be thrown back into reality by
the smell of the city, the lack of warm water or the extreme
humidity that sticks to my skin for all but the 10 minutes that I'm
actually in the shower.
I've decided to share some
of my top differences about Sri Lanka so far. I figure that in a
couple of weeks, America will be a distant memory and life in
Colombo will almost seem normal. Life here, right now, is
definitely different – that's an understatement.
*There is no food that
tastes like it does at home. Even the apples don't taste like
apples. Spaghetti sauce costs way too much to buy and the irony is
that the most comfortable, easy, safe thing to cook is spaghetti.
* My hair is constantly
frizzy; those of you who have thick hair know what I mean. There is
no adapter powerful enough for me to use my hair dryer or
straightener and I'm forced to live in the frizz.
*Bugs are the rule, not
the exception. When you see one you don't think, "Why is there a
bug in my kitchen?" You think, "Where is the rest of their family
hiding?"
*Three-wheelers are the
main mode of transportation and you willingly give your life to the
random stranger who is driving. Trust me, any ride could be my
last.
*Rupees are the currency
here. One US dollar is equivalent to about 114.034 SL rupees and
I'm constantly trying to do the conversions. It's kind of
exhausting.
*DVD's are sold in stores
that only sell DVD's and CD's. They're bootlegged and legal. You
pick out your movie of choice, check it on the DVD player in the
store and buy it for 200 rupees.
*Most things that you'd
think might be expensive are pretty cheap and others that you might
think would be cheap (like Spaghetti sauce) are over the top,
unaffordably expensive.
* Most showers, excluding
ours (thank God) have zero hot water. You'd think that wouldn't be
a bad thing considering it's usually between 80-90 at all times of
the day and it's never below 80% humidity.
*We keep our garbage in a
tight bin on our back porch to keep some creatures out of the
kitchen if at all possible. This, I think, is wishful thinking.
*Things are dirtier here,
to say the least. Cows roam the streets and there's no such thing
as recycling.
*When we're awake, most of
our friends and family in the States are asleep and vice versa.
This makes me sad when I want to talk to people I miss. We are 10 ˝
hours ahead of the East coast and 13 ˝ hours ahead of the West
Coast.
*You can't find anything
to eat that's not spicy. If they say it's not, it is and if they
say it is than watch out. I will conquer the spice!
We are in the process of
filing Live Your Love as a non-profit. Live Your Love is a
practical way for you, whoever you are - wherever you are, to
support someone in need by a product with a message. Imagine going
into a store, picking up a piece of clothing and finding out that
buying it would not only make you look super cool and feel
comfortable but it would also benefit a third world community by
creating commerce and jobs in a poor community, a means for an
impoverished person or community to start their climb out of
poverty. To support this outreach, send checks payable to The
Renaissance Church at: The Deans, c/o Renaissance Church, 745
Westminister St, Providence, RI 02903.
March Prayers
The Heat: It has gotten so hot here in
the last couple of week that even locals think it's hot. Please
pray for either a break in the heat or some miraculous sleeping
because the hot days take all the energy out of us. Rain would
bring a break from the heat; there are talks of turning off the
electricity (most powered by water) if rain does not come this
week.
We would not have fans at
night, no refrigerators and possibly no water. God's teaching us to
give up some luxuries but that could possibly be miserable.
Editor's Note:
since this report on the unrelenting heat, Sri Lanka has received
some showers giving them some relief. However, the heavy heat
continues to be a constant.
Check in next month when these young
missionaries ask: "Pray we can have incredible wisdom in how to
"Love our Neighbor."
HOMELESSNESS
This is a loud part of every day for me. If
we go down the road to grab lunch or catch a ride in a 3-wheeler we
are guaranteed to see beggars at any point during the day. They
approach cars, stick their hand in your face as you walk by and
call out to you from afar. The beggars may or may not work for
someone else so it's not a good idea to give them money because we
have NO idea where it will go. Sometimes they won't even take food
when we offer it to them.
The night time is a
different world. As we walk home at night, the main road in Colombo
is lined with homeless. They are not the beggars we see during the
day. These people do not have a place to sleep. Young and old
create makeshift beds, even if it's just a sheet of cardboard, and
hunker down for the night. It is a painful and gut-wrenching,
in-my-face reality.
The beggars are usually
deformed in one way or another: facial growths, missing limbs,
enlarged or swollen appendages and even open wounds. The homeless
at night, however, are just individuals and sometimes families with
nowhere to sleep. We are praying about whether we should hand out
food to the homeless one night a week but this could turn into a
dependency issue. This is a constant prayer for us: how can we help
those in desperate need without enabling them to become dependent
on us?
HEAT - Like I
mentioned in our prayer requests, it's been unseasonably hot here.
The hottest part of the year is usually April. We don't have air
conditioning so sleeping can sometimes be a challenge. It rained
the other night and cooled it down for about a day. Looks like
temps are rising again and makes things a bit more difficult. It
drains our energy during the day and it's hard to sleep at night. I
know, I know...most of you are reading this, buried under 3 feet of
snow and have zero sympathy. I'm pretty sure I'd be thinking the
same thing. I'm not complaining...just sharing the reality of life
in Sri Lanka. I didn't say I wanted to jump back into the snow or
anything : )
JOY IN THE MIDST -
As depressing as all this may sound there are some beautiful and
amazing things already happening in this country. Yes, there is a
lot of sadness, chaos and confusion in this country - that is quite
evident. But, when there is hurt, joy is close behind. God promises
to be near to the brokenhearted. There is still a lot of progress
to be made in this country but there is a lot of joy too. As you
can see from some of the pictures last month, we were able to visit
Smile International in Hambantota.
The kids in the program
are from the poorest families in the community and chosen to get an
education and daily meals from the facility. The joy on the kids
faces makes the sadness almost obsolete at moments. I would
literally forget where I was when I would see those kids laughing
or eating or enjoying the one-on-one attention from "Sudu Auntie."
(They call any visitor or friend auntie or uncle and sudu auntie
means white auntie - I'm still not used to being called white; I
guess I haven't spent enough time at the beach).
There are also a group of
the poorest widows in the community, chosen to participate in their
program that provides them with sewing classes, monthly fellowship
at the facility and food to last almost a month. The women and
children are so incredibly enriched and blessed by this outreach
and it is OBVIOUS by the looks on their face when they leave. One
step at a time, right? April 2009
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