Brief Update

Hi all we apologize heavily that it has taken us so long to post, but it has been a busy busy winter.
Here is a list of what has been happening since we last posted.

1) I, Austin, acquired an internship position at our home church, The Chapel, and have been working side by side with, Dan Sommer, the high school youth pastor to increase the reach of our high school youth group here in St. Joseph, MI as well as to increase the impact it has on the students within, challenging them to share their faith through an evangelism training group I got to design and run called The Core.

2) Kelsey has been working hard all the way to the end of  2013 and is still growing and maintaining her photography, videography, and design company called Maiko Media. She has booked well over 15 weddings this year and many more already for 2015. She even has a new and awesome website check it out here http://maikomedia.com/

3) We have got to see lots of family. In November 2013 we visited Kelsey's brother and sister in New York who just recently had their first baby, a healthy baby boy named David  Masuda. In April of this year we visited my sister and her boys in Tennessee because my nephew Parker who is 1.5years old had a successful open heart surgery to fix a hole in his heart, and now along with his still huge smile has a nice scar running longways down his chest.

4) Lastly in the late winter Kelsey, I and our company Bound For Freedom found a brand new store front in our dream of downtown St. Joseph, MI. Located at 404 State Street, Bound For Freedom rolled onto the scene very unexpectedly after a local business closed down in mid January, we signed a lease at the end of February, renovated until mid April and opened on April 18th. Business has been so great already and the people of our hometown and surrounding areas have been so receptive and encouraging to us.

Thanks for all the love and support, hopefully this gives you a taste of what has been going on in our lives. Sorry that it has taken us so long to post, we hope to get back into the swing of things here shortly as we get settled into our normal routine here in St. Joseph, MI. God Bless.

New Home/Circuit Riders Worship

-Weeks after celebrating our first year together, Kelsey and I found our lease on our apartment finishing up at the end of the month. Scrambling to find a new place we found, with help in the search from my parents, a beautiful duplex in Stevensville, MI (pictures to come), but couldn't move in until the 2nd week of September.
-After moving in and settling down, which took a lot longer than we had anticipated, we have been finding more and more and more how good the Lord truly is, we now have space to invite and host people without feeling crammed/claustrophobic. We also have a basement that we have been using for worship nights with some of our high school kids from The Chapel, and on top of all this enough storage space for our Bound For Freedom merchandise as we continue to pursue a store front location.
-One of the messages we got to experience when we were at School of the Circuit Riders back in August, was taught by a worship leader named Lindy. As we look back over our time of moving into our new home and the times of worship that we have been able to put on for our high school students over the summer, this message is so important for us to remember as we strive to worship Jesus and give Him the glory that He deserves for all that He does. Enjoy.

CR-Worship Teaching - 35min

Celebrating 1 Year

A few weeks back Kelsey & I enjoyed our 1 year anniversary. Time absolutely flies when you are having fun. So this is a medium length highlight vid, I put together from clips shot by close friends of ours Andrew Wade & Robby & Tiah Ciganek. Hope this brings back some fun memories, it definitely did for us while watching it.
 

A&K Wedding 2012 from Austin Bock on Vimeo.

Also don't forget to read out other posts and listen to some of the great sermons, from our trip down to the Circuit Riders school.

Movin Out, In Unity

Happy Labor Day everyone!!! So this past week has been incredibly busy, from Monday-Thursday Kels and I moved out of our first apartment and into our first duplex. As I write this we have not even fully moved in yet because the renovations (which are incredible) the current landlord is doing have not been fully finished yet, so we are living with my parents in the meantime. Then from Friday til now we have been out of town for a wedding between two of Kels and my close friends. Congratulations to the new Mr. & Mrs. Urbanick.

As we have desired to do we want to share another message from the Circuit Rider training we got the opportunity to attend in KC, MO. This particular message is about Unity and Community within the church and how we can move beyond just loving one another, to actually needing one another because the Lord is glorified through the team, more than just the individual. Click the link below to hear more. Its really good.

CR Message on Unity

Circuit Riders (Audio)

One of the best, and most freeing, nights of teaching during our time of the week came from Andy Byrd a YWAM staff member who helped start Circuit Riders in 2011. His message was on keeping the simplicity of the gospel. We put so much pressure on ourselves to do EVERYTHING in our own faith walk, but its all about Simple Obedience to Jesus, to wake up every morning and focus on God & what He is doing. Enjoy! AndyByrd - MessageAudio

We Are Circuit Riders (More to Come)

Alright, so as soon as we started this Circuit Riders course we knew there would be no way for us to do all the updating we had promised. So over the next week, or so, we are gonna be sharing some more of the teaching we received, stories from outreach, as well as the audios of all the sermons & some worship (once we edit them down to size). Thanks to all of you who have so faithfully followed our journey and sown into it, we pray you receive a blessing from the Lord, as amazing, & greater than what we received in our hearts from this past week. 

So the last that you all knew we were about ready to go out into the streets of Kansas City and did we ever. For those of you that are familiar with our hometown of Benton Harbor & St. Joseph MI we really couldn't have been sent to 2 better places over the 2 days of outreach. On Tuesday we went to Hickman Mills, which looks and feels a lot like Benton Harbor. A group of 18 or so of us from all over the globe  (Mexico, Canada, Germany, Korea, and all over the US from Alaska to Texas up to Michigan and Indiana) loaded into a 20 passenger van, which I was selected to drive because I'm 25 and have chauffeur license, and then drove to Hickman Mills. 

When we arrived to the area we got into teams of 2-3 and all went in different directions, most went into neighborhoods and basically went door to door stopping and talking to anyone who had 1 minute of time sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ. If people wanted to know more, had more time talk or even made a decision to follow Jesus then our response was to pray with them/for them, lead them in a prayer of repentance, bless them in anyway we could whether just talking with them or even praying for physical healing right on the spot. 

My small group consisted of Kelsey (my wife), Ju-sook (a 41 year old teacher from South Korea who Kelsey really connected with at a deep level), and myself. Our group went the opposite way of the others and went to some of the local businesses in the area. Most of the people that we encountered along our journey claimed to be Christians, so when we met them we would ask to pray for them and would rely on the Lord to speak words of life and encouragement and perseverance over their lives. 

Our first stop was a local beauty salon. The sign on the door said "only customers welcome" but we said. "these people need the Lord because He has been so good to us." So we went in anyway. After we entered we got some stares, because here were 2 asian girls and a really raspy white boy (I had lost my voice) in an african american hair salon with about 12 people sitting around talking/doing hair inside. As soon as we entered I mustered up some courage with a little nudging from Kels and said "My name is Austin & my wife Kelsey and I are here from MI with our friend Ju-sook who is from S. Korea. And honestly we are here because Jesus Christ has radically impacted our lives and we want to share Him with you." Because of this we had the opportunity to bless almost all of the men, women, and children in the beauty parlor with prayer and encouragement as they pursue Christ and all that He has planned for them. We even got to pray for a woman who had hip problems and she said that after prayer it was feeling better. God is so good.

We parked our van at Joe's Tobacco in the background & the building
in the foreground is now a beautiful hair salon, that we shared the love of Jesus in.

Check back here over the next few days/week as we share more testimonies of God's goodness and mercy on our journey to become Circuit Riders.

First Day Completed - Outreach To Come Shortly

Well, a lot has happened in the last few days. In fact Kels and I have already completed our first full day of training and let me just say it was intense. Nerve wracking, sweat producing, and intimidating were only just a few ways to describe the madness/chaos that would ensue. As Kels said it was like they pushed us off a 100ft cliff into deep water expecting us to be just fine and not freak out. But it was so good. For our first session we basically did simple evangelism unto one another, granted everyone in the room is following Jesus to the best of their ability, but we still didn't know anyone, so sharing the simple truths of the gospel with one another was a little intimidating. 

Basically the simple gospel boils down to this: God is Holy, He is Love, and He is Just. We have all rebelled against Him, because even one sin is enough to separate us from Him and His requirement of us to be with Him is that we be made perfect not by our own strength but by the grace of Jesus Christ who poured out His blood on the cross for us. Nothing that we can do will ever get us close enough, only through belief and relationship in Jesus can we be saved. 

But the whole point is that this is good news, there is joy laced all through it because its not about us at all its about what He did. The lost do want Jesus, they are not opposed to Him everyone wants a King & friend like Jesus, but they are opposed to religion which can be defined as a detached knowledge of God that is void of the heart of God. (More to come on this topic later)

Last night Lou Engle came and spoke to us about the word Ekballo which is basically how Jesus told the the disciples to pray to God about sending workers into the harvest. That He would thrust workers into the world because the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. But in order to do this we need to have a passion for souls, that at all costs we would see the Lord's compassion for the masses in Matthew 9:35-38 to pray that The Lord of the Harvest would send laborers into the harvest. That we would have His heart for the lost so that He could receive the reward for His suffering.  

More to come soon (audios might not be available till later) pray for us as we are about to out into Kansas City in a few minutes and tomorrow at the same time to see the lost returned to their Papa

WOW.

We are shocked, absolutely amazed and incredibly blessed by all of you. Not only did we raise all the money needed to take Kelsey and I to the school of the Circuit Riders for 1 week in Kansas City. But the overflow of over 1300+ dollars is what is so fantastic. This extra blessing, as we have shared with you before, is going directly to Bound For Freedom to see this other portion of our ministry here in Southwest Michigan grow and expand. For those who have not heard currently B4F is invested in over 13 different freedom, life and hope bringing organizations around the world that rescue women, children, and families from the clutches of sex trafficking, poverty, child soldiering, and more all the while raising awareness for issues like suicide prevention, human trafficking, fair labor, and lack of education, dental care, & hygienic care. These extra blessings from you will be used to invest in more organizations like these that help bring freedom to people across the globe. Thank you so much for all of your generosity. We are truly blessed. May the riches that you have so generously poured on us be heaped upon you 10 fold. Keep checking back for more updates/posts from us while we are at Circuit Riders.

Sending the Bocks to the School of the Circuit Riders!

Written By Kelsey - Hello! As you all may know, Austin & I have been pursuing a fair trade & social justice movement through business called Bound For Freedom --www.boundforfreedom.org -- & are continuing to grow ministry in corporate prayer & the youth at our church here in St. Joseph. We have gotten into several fairs this summer & have a couple more lined up for September & October. So, we are excited & so blessed to have the opportunity to further the stories & causes we're partnering with.

One thing I have noticed after getting married & having settled here this past year without any plans to move or travel (which is something, in the Lord, I'm learning to die to) is that my desire to understand Who the Lord is, is not only showing me how little I know, but it's increasing my hunger for Him so immensely that I can't help but feel antsy & stir crazy at times. Don't get me wrong, deciding to move to Austin's hometown & settle awhile before heading back to Japan is something that has become so awesome to me. I love this place, I love the people & I love the beach! :) 

But this is all to say that that hunger to be further equipped for ministry & knowing the Lord even more has led Austin & I to apply for a spot as a student in YWAM/I-HOP's School of the Circuit Riders. This "school" is a one week intensive for those that hunger after the Lord & want to learn more. There are classes, speakers, ministry opportunities & a jam-packed week of allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our lives as well as those all around us. 

So, we applied. And last week on Austin's birthday, we got an email congratulating us on our acceptance into this one-week program, which happens to be NEXT week, August 11-16th!! We are beyond ecstatic to drive down to Kansas City, MO for six days to see what The Lord has in store, but we need to be sent! For the both of us to get further training in this, we will need to raise $1000 by SATURDAY!! We fully believe The Lord opened doors for this to even be a possibility, & fully believe The Lord will provide the means to get there. We would enthusiastically appreciate any form of support! We both are incredibly uncomfortable asking for financial support from people, but know this is what the body is all about. The school itself is $200 per person, the gas money for the round trip will amount to about $200, the housing & food expenses gets the rest.

Like I said, we are extremely grateful for literally any kind of support in this. Any money that we raise beyond the $1000 is going to go directly to our business Bound For Freedom

An UP side for all those that are moved to send us to KC is that there are perks to your giving!

50.00 = Handwritten artsy thank you letter from the BOTH of us.

75.00 = Artsy/antique home made soy candle made by me or an 8x10 print of one of Austin's Lighthouse Photos

100.00 = A Smiles For the People Toothbrush & a bar of SoapBox Soaps (LemonGrass, Lavender, Orange, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus, Spearmint, Unscented & Black that smells like tropical licorice) from two of our awesome partner organizations 

150.00 & over = Bound For Freedom TSHIRT (blue or gray)

To donate simply click on the "Donate" Paypal button to the left of this blog post that can be found on the blog home page here blog home page link and follow the instructions, don't forget to include which item you would like in return for donating the correlating amount (sizes, scents, etc.)

If you have any questions please call myself 317-473-2230 or austin 269-930-9330 or email us at info@boundforfreedom.org. We are so thankful for all of you and for what the Lord is doing.

We love you all so much, be BLESSED!!! Kelsey

Ps heres a little video about the school of the Circuit Riders, so AWESOME!!!

REvamped & Ready to Go

Things have begun to look a little different around this blog as you can see. My wife Kelsey and I are going to use this blog as our personal/ministry/business blog that we will do a whole lot better job than I ever did of updating you all on what is happening in our lives.  Since my last update, that in my mind didn't seem so long ago (only 7 months) that have absolutely flown by, a lot has happened.

Bound For Freedom (B4F) is up and running. Thank you Jesus, He is so good to us. B4F is doing local markets, shows and festivals to get to know our customer base throughout SW Michigan, get the word out about these awesome products, shed more light on some of the heart wrenching social injustices like human trafficking as well as raise money for our hopeful store front location in the future. We currently have 12+ different organizations that we do business with and sell their amazing products. You can find more about these organizations and B4F at our awesome website www.boundforfreedom.org designed by Luke Anspach who you can see more of his great work here LukeAnspach. Also a neat video made by Kelsey showing our summer of work through B4F.


Bound For Freedom. from Kelsey Maiko Bock | Maiko Media on Vimeo.

This year has been going really amazing for Kelsey as well, already she has captured on photo and video over 5 weddings & still has a few more coming up this fall/winter. It makes me so happy to see her doing what she loves and absolutely blowing her clients away with the amount of greatness, love integrity, creativity and beauty she puts into all her work. She doesn't do weddings only in fact she has begun to tap into the other wells of creativity the Lord has given her in these past few months. Her career in graphic design is being put to good use as she constructs the media guide for our alma matter Indiana Weselyan's women's volleyball team. Our house smells a whole lot more amazing since she tapped into making custom candles with vintage housewares (teacups, mugs, candy dishes, mason jars, etc.) and a plethora of scents and colors. I'm not sure how she finds all the time but also this fall Kelsey will be doing senior photos for some of the seniors in our youth group as well as taking time to chill out for herself by painting, sketching, and/or knitting. If you want to see some of here amazing work check it out at kelseymaiko.prosite.com. If you couldn't tell already, I love her and am so proud of her.

Well that's enough for today keep checking back regularly again, because we will have more info and updates coming your way very soon. Peace and Love in Jesus Christ - Austin Bock

Bound For Freedom Business Meeting

Bound For Freedom has really begun to take off, we are advertising all over the internet (website coming soon), social media sites, crowd funding and we are getting the business plan and financial plan all in order. All this work is coming to a focal point this December on Monday the 17th. At 6:30pm we have an informational meeting to share our vision with the southwest michigan community. The meeting will be located at our home church, The Chapel, in their youth room. (located at 4250 Washington Ave, St. Joseph, MI). We hope to see you there. 

Keep checking us out on these links - IndieGoGo, RocketHub, Facebook, & Twitter

Off & Running & In Need Your Support, So Pass It On

Summer Recap & Fall Plans

This summer flew by throughout July and August my now wife Kelsey and I were planning our wedding, getting married, and honeymooning until about the beginning of September.


Being married has been the greatest experience of my life, Kels and I have now been married for 2 months and are learning, loving, growing, and cherishing every day that the Lord God has given us. We are learning so much about His love for us and how what we think of Him affects every aspect of our lives. He is teaching us to answer the question “who do YOU say that I am?” every day. We delight ourselves in Him and seek comfort and love in His presence in every aspect and realm of our marriage and because of this we feel as though He delights in our marriage. If you would like to see pictures of our special day you can check out this link…..OurWedding: FacebookAlbum


Earlier this summer amidst the hectic wedding planning, in the month of July, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak before the high school youth group in my home church (The Chapel) in St. Joseph, MI. if you would like to hear some of my messages (topics: temptation, who we are, & stories of God’s power) you can click this link….. AB Sermon Dropbox



Lastly and most currently Kels and I are beginning pursuit of a personal dream of ours, to open and run in downtown St. Joseph, MI a christian bookstore/art gallery/cafe/ freedom center called “Bound For Freedom.” The goal for this bookstore is to be a non-profit organization that portions of purchases (from: books, art, music, movies, coffee, and many other items) go to supporting missionaries, and organization around the world and in the US that are bringing freedom to people found in slavery of sorts. Some causes we would like to bring freedom to are ones such as world hunger, orphanages & adoption, the abolition of abortion, the ending of sex slavery & pornography and many many others, as many as we can find and pour into. If you would like to know more, show your support or get involved please contact myself or Kels, we would love to share more with you and brainstorm any ideas you may have



That’s it for now keep checkin back and stay alert for more details & updates

Big Day Draws Nearer

So this may or may come as a shock to some of you who only stay in touch by reading my blog, since i haven't updated in quite a long while, but in a matter of two weeks to the day, I will be marrying the love of my life Kelsey Masuda, since my last post back in May, Kelsey and I have gotten engaged and have planned relentlessly for our Big Day on August 18th, 2012. If you would like to hear and see more of our stories check out our wedding website here at http://www.mywedding.com/kelseyandaustin/ Our desire to vow to a lifelong journey of commitment, friendship, love, good and bad times, happiness and hurts, sickness and health comes directly from our individual love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We desire to become more like Him through the continuous shaping of marriage and the commitment to one another through all seasons of life. He is our one true desire, our one true goal in life and when we come together for a life of worship of Him we hope that He will mold us and shape us even more to look like Him and increase our love for each other everyday as well.

My Testimony - Shortened Version

---Last night I had the opportunity to share my testimony in the Lord with the high school youth group at my home church in St. Joseph, MI, The Chapel. If you would like to listen feel free, click on the link below and enjoy.
---Afterwards the high school leader all went to eat at Cracker-Barrel and what a night, we met, Serena an 18 year old waitress, and got to share the love and power of Christ with her,  I had the opportunity to pray for her and she experienced God's miraculous healing touch and instantly her back was healed of pain.
My Testimony - 30min Audio

Prayer & The Urgency of the Hour

Prayer is the most important thing we can do on the face of the planet, there is no higher calling than to pray

-It is how we tell God how much we love Him
-It is how we listen for God's voice and hear how He feels about us
-It is how we commune with God
-It is how we change the environment around us, with God's help
-It is how we learn to obey God's commands
-It is how hard hearts are changed for God
-It is how our own hearts are changed
-It is how we are forgiven of our pasts and sins
-It is how we ask God to move and work in our daily lives
-It is how we change cities, how we change nations, and how the world will be shaken for Him
-It is how we can make a difference
-It is how lives can be saved

---Our spiritual lives started with one little prayer and now all He asks of us is that we would pray until He returns. Will we be a generation that falls asleep like the disciples (his closest friends) until he returns or will we stay awake for Him praying, watching, waiting, eagerly anticipating His return
---Our time is now, there is an urgency in the air, Will you pray? Will you tarry? for Him? for His children?
---A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument and I have seen what prayer can do

Time to Update

So it has been a very long time since I updated all of those who had been following my blog while I was with YWAM in Japan but lots has happened since my last post.
---First, shortly after I got home, I asked Kelsey Masuda my long time friend and crush at IWU to be my girlfriend and begin a relationship with the intention and purpose of pursuing marriage. Her and I had been skyping quite often while I was in her hometown of Tokyo Japan. It's quite amazing how the Lord works, she and I both have the desire to live and serve the Lord in Japan and hopefully in the future the Lord will allow us to do so together.
--- Shortly after I got home, mom and dad suggested I get a job to help begin building savings for myself and my future so I am currently delivering pizzas for pizza hut near my hometown and am really enjoying it more than I thought I would. I enjoy driving for work and the other people I work with are a hoot to be around. The Lord is also slowly allowing me to build relationships with those I work with to hopefully open the door to share the good news with them.
---Lastly during my time home I have begun to slowly learn the Japanese language with the Rosetta Stone language program. I would not be able to study the language if not for my home church The Chapel of St. Joseph MI and their willingness to sow into a young missionary financially.
--- The last few months haven't been easy to say the least. But the Lord in His goodness and grace is helping me through everyday. I long to be in Japan and to serve alongside those who love the Lord and want to see Him made known throughout the world.

Time to Come Home

---It is hard to believe that my time here in Japan is coming to an end, tomorrow will be my last full day in Japan before I fly out on Thursday the 25th. It has been an amazing journey full of learning, growing, breaking, discovering, and so much more. Thank you all so much for following my blog and staying in touch with me, I hope to share more of my time here in Japan with you when I come back to the states.
---The next season of life is hard to pinpoint exactly but i do feel the Lord releasing me to do a few things when I get home 1) prepare to come back to Japan, by learning the language and raising money 2) visit family, friends, sponsors, churches, etc to share my experience here and pour into those i love 3) to pursue after my lifelong dream of playing professional soccer and lastly 4) to deepen future relationships that I feel will be with me for the rest of my life
---I hope that by reading this blog you have been blessed and have felt the Lord move in your own life, I pray that from my blog you will draw closer to our Lord and savior and see just how much He truly loves us and His people all over the world

Mt. Oyama

---The days of my time here in Japan are quickly winding down only 10 days left, sooo crazy. Tomorrow, 8-16, we have been given the opportunity to go out by ourselves and just be with the Lord. We have been encouraged to really seek the Lord, pray and ask Him what the next step of our lives is. I have some plans of my own as to what my time coming home is going to look like, but as I have come to find so often in my life, when God is in control my plans are not always His plans which is perfectly ok. Tomorrow is a great opportunity to really hear from the Lord and begin to look into my next season of life.
---The place where I am going is called Mt. Oyama which in Japanese literally means "Big Mountain," "Rain Mountain," and my favorite "Guardian of the Land Mountain." The mountain itself is one of the tallest mountains in the Tokyo region and overlooks much of the area that I have been living in for the past 5 months.

If you would please pray for me
1) The voice of the enemy would be silenced and the voice of God be amplified/magnified
2) To really connect with God the entire day, see what He is doing/has done here and back home
3) He would give me wisdom and guidance like so many of those who have come before me
4) Openness to whatever the Lord has for me
5) It would be a time of preparation for coming back home
6) Energy because I will most likely be tired from hiking
7) A fun day remembering all that He has done for me and just being with my Lord and Savior

Don't forget to check back soon to see what the Lord says after I go up the mountain haha Bible humor

Hi everyone thanks so much for all your prayer support. Below is a short video of my last outreach here in Japan. As most of you know this outreach had extra meaning because we went to Ishinomaki, which is one of the many hard hit areas from the earthquake and tsunami back on march 11. This outreach will be one of my most precious memories from my entire DTS. It was an honor being able to serve the Japanese people in such a way and to see how loving and beautiful they are. The outreach i feel like was a snapshot or a glimpse into seeing how the rest of Japan will be when they come to know the Lord. The people in the tsunami affected areas are so open, friendly, giving, loving, thankful, and interested in others, even more so than those in Tokyo. Enjoy the video. It may be one of my last ones while i am here in Japan, I only have 2.5 weeks left before I come home. If you would like to see more photos from our time in Ishinomaki you can follow the link below the video. God bless

---TsunamiReliefPhotos