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Welcome to the Youth With A Mission News Show for October 2023. This month we hear about Loren Cunningham, YWAM’s founder, passing away, a prayer request for the Middle East, we get a report from the latest YWAM Leaders Gathering, hear a bit about the importance of missionary care in YWAM, see a medical outreach to a remote island in Vanuatu, and more …
Thank you for downloading this, the 138th episode of the Youth With A Mission News Show Podcast, I’m your host, Bill Hutchison.
You can contact us, subscribe to future episodes, leave comments, and find links to all the stories we talk about on the show notes for this podcast at ywampodcast.com/138 …
Stories:
Loren Cunningham Passes Away
Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) went to be with Jesus on October 6, 2023 at the age of 88.
Loren was the first person in history to travel for the sake of Christ and the Great Commission to every sovereign nation on earth, all dependent countries, and more than 100 territories (Mark 16:15). Now he has added one more “stamp” to his well-worn passport: HEAVEN!
Loren is often called the “de-regulator of missions” because he broke the 1960s missionary paradigm by creating opportunities for Youth to serve short-term, globally and unsalaried. This foresight opened the floodgates so that millions could come FROM everywhere and go TO everywhere as missionaries around the globe to proclaim the truth of God and display His love.
Over at ywam.org you can read the full obituary, and also see messages honouring Loren by Franklin Graham, David Hamilton, and Lynn Green.
As we talked about last month, Loren’s ministry focus in his last days was for translating the Bible and message of Jesus into every language on Earth. You can watch that vision, and find out more about that vision at ywampodcast.com/137. Loren was also busy writing a new book in this final months with Jeff Rogers called No Boundaries Within God’s Will. The book is already at the printers, and due for release in November.
You can download the first chapter of the book for free at lorencunningham.com/legacy. You can also preorder the book on that page.
Pray for the Middle East
It is now more than two weeks since the latest escalation of violence in Israel / Palestine. As the horrific images and video footage is broadcast across the world our hearts are broken for the suffering that is taking place among both Israeli and Palestinian families. Until now, our YWAM family in Israel / Palestine and the wider region are all okay and most are remaining in place.
With no end in sight to the current crisis, and with the conflict spilling across borders into Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, we would like to ask our family and friends to pray:
- For an end to the violence and bloodshed
- For the Israeli hostages and for the Palestinian people in Gaza
- That the conflict will not widen to the surrounding nations
- For the Y family serving across the Middle East north region to shine with the Light of Christ in their various towns and cities
- For the dwindling Christian community in Gaza who are burying their dead and still searching for bodies in the rubble on the property of the St Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza City
- For the Messianic community in Israel, who’s sons and daughters have been called up for military service
We appreciate your prayers.
Let’s keep our hearts aligned with God’s heart and find comfort in the words of David in Psalm 34:18: ‘the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit’.
YWAM Leaders Gathering
620 YWAM leaders came together from Sept 14-18 in Chiang Mai Thailand the a long awaited Leaders Gathering.
After all of the 85 nations in attendance were celebrated, the gathering began with a video from YWAM founders Loren and Darlene Cunningham. Due to Loren’s lung cancer he spoke lying in bed. He spoke of YWAM as a family, not an organization, and urged us to use our gifts and callings for Jesus and “keep living for Him.”
The following day, Jim Stier, the YWAM pioneer who helped to start YWAM’s work in Brazil, reflected on the vision that came from Loren over the years and still came from him in his video. “He’s lying there in bed and he’s still pressing in,” Jim observed. Jim challenged the YWAMers not to settle for what we’ve already accomplished but to keep pressing in for more of God and more of God’s purposes for the world.
Later, one of YWAM’s leaders in C. Asia continued this theme as he urged YWAMers to keep going to the hard places. As a symbol of this commitment he asked the audience to take off their shoes, hold them over their heads, look at the back wall and imagine one of the places or people groups where “we are not” and then do the wave from the front to the back of the auditorium as a symbolic act. The YWAMers did this as they prayed. Throughout the whole gathering there was a call for a resurgence in prayer at every level.
The event also included presentations about Oral Mother Tongue translation, a ministry that Loren Cunningham has passionately spoken about for the last few years. This method is already providing spoken translations of the Bible with accuracy using only two or three bilingual people from the language group. Many resources explain this method at prayomt.com.
The participants left the meeting with the prospect of seeing each other again at events coming up in the next year. The first is the YWAM outreach at the Paris Olympics July 22-August 11, ywamparisjetaime.com, and a YWAM Together gathering for everyone in the YWAM family worldwide which will take place in the Philippines from September 2-5.
Throughout the event, Loren’s health was on the minds of many of the leaders gathered. The message they heard time and again was to keep pressing forward. One of YWAM’s leaders in the Middle East spoke of asking for a double portion of Loren’s anointing just as Elisha did with Elijah. Said Garth Gustafson, one of YWAM’s leaders in SE Asia, “This is a tender time and a critical time and I believe it’s time to rise.”
Reach – Malasia
Reach is a two-day equipping event hosted by YWAM Experience Asia in Kuala Lumpur for believers of all ages and backgrounds on November 13 and 14. Reach will equip participants to be who Jesus created them to be, empowered to walk in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a lifestyle.
Head over to ywamexperienceasia.com/reach to find out more about Reach.
Rugby World Cup Outreach Report
Last month we shared about the ongoing Rugby World Cup Outreach. Here is a rough translation of the final update from their Facebook page.
At the last match that was played in Lyon, we met a lot of people. It was a relaxed evening and we were able to hand around 180 New Testaments and many Gospels of Giovanni (which, best I can tell, is the Gospel of John in Spanish and Italian). Many young people embraced the New Testament, and the team had the opportunity to pray for several who were challenged that night.
Another story from the night was about Sofiane, a young Muslim married to a Christian woman, who also accepted the New Testament. They had a really deep discussion with people on the team, and addressed questions about salvation in Jesus Christ. They ask that we continue to keep him in prayer as he is in a true walk of faith. He really wasn’t far from converting and seeking God sincerely.
Another team spent time with Anis, a young man also of Muslim descent who accepted the New Testament and was really thirsty because he was researching. He agreed to be prayed over for his eyes to open as he reads, and to have a true encounter with Jesus.
The final story that they have for us is about many members of their team speaking with Nicolahé, a man of Ukrainian descent who expressed himself in very basic English. He had lost his family to war and didn’t want to hear from God, he cut off the conversation. The couple who were speaking with him were a little disappointed to see Nicolahé leave when he needed God so much in his suffering. They later found him at the end of the street where he was speaking with Elena, another girl from the team who spoke Romanian with him, another language Nicolahé mastered well. She was able to share the Gospel with him, pray with him, and offer him a New Testament in Ukrainian that she had taken in her bag “by chance”. They believe that God had an appointment with Nicholas that night and that the team were indicators on his path as on Sophia, Anis, and many others, and yet the Holy Spirit was not done working in their lives and drawing them to God.”
You can actually read many stories of their outreach on their Facebook page, linked to at ywampodcast.com/138.
YWAM Paris Connect Olympics 2024 Outreach
Next year France will see another large sporting event, when the 2024 Olympics will be hosted there.
The Paris Olympics will be happening from 21 July – 11 August 2024. YWAMers and the body of Christ both in France and around the world are invited to come to impact the nations in Paris.
Head on over to ywamparisjetaime.com to find out more about this opportunity, including of course, how you could get involved.
YWAM North American Cities Conference 2024
The City servants circle and YWAM Vancouver are hosting the next North American cities conference in April 2024.
During the North American cities conference from April 15 – 19 they will be exploring the spheres of society, and how God wants us to operate in them. During the week they will journey through the spheres of Arts, Business, and Education. Participants will hear from local practitioners and seasoned veterans, and there will also be plenty of discussion and small group times to process with each other.
There will also be times of worship, intercession and prayer for all the locations in attendance.
Head on over to ywamnacities.com to find out more about the conference, and how you can get involved.
Lighthouse Foundation | YWAM Muizenberg Impact Ministries
This month we get to hear about the Lighthouse Foundation at YWAM Muezenberg in Cape Town, South Africa.
Head on over to ywammuizenberg.org to find out more about the ministry.
YWAM Saint Marc Food Donations
As we have reported previously on the YWAM News Show, there is a still a lot of unrest in Haiti. Despite that, YWAM has a very strong presence there, with multiple ministry locations operating there, providing training, and ministry to the people of Haiti.
YWAM Saint Marc is very active in providing relief and supplies for the people in their community. Part of this relief is provided through donations sent to Haiti from other nations. This is one of the latest reports from their Facebook Page:
We are packing up the trailer getting it ready to come to Haiti! This is such a critical part of our ministry and helps us to function at 100%. Thank you so much to everyone who is helping us!
Here are a couple of things you can pray for:
- Safety for our staff when they go to pick it up and come back
- Provision for all of the items, customs and shipping fees
If you head on over to their Facebook Page you can find out h0ow you might be able to help, and more about their ministry.
YWAM Vanuatu Family Care Centre Medical Outreach
From their Facebook Post:
This trip was so incredibly special to the team of six that travelled down to the village of Malfakhal for what ended up being six days. Here you can see their journey from start to finish!
During their trip, our team was able to see and treat 137 patients, deliver medical kits to the aid post and school, and deliver medication to the local nurse!
We cannot thank you enough for your support in prayer and finance. God loves his people, and he made that known in Malekula.
(source)
Missionary Care Courses
Missionary Care is something that is vital to the long term health of Youth With A Mission, and all the missionaries that are part of the ministry. To help to facilitate this YWAM International Member Care has put together many fantastic online resources, and also runs multiple training courses throughout the year, and many different locations.
Some of the online courses and resources that you can find on their web-site includes many free ebooks on their web-sites, and individual sessions on the YouTube channel.
In the next year there are also three different training opportunities for staff to learn how to better care for the staff and students at their location. This includes courses in the USA, Europe, and Australia. Right now there are currently courses running in both India and Brazil.
If you head over to ywammembercare.net you can find details for all those courses, find links to the many resources that they have made available, and also learn more about the what and why they do Member Care.
YWAM Wollongong
I thought that we could finish off this episode of the YWAM News Show with this message about God’s Character, brought to us by YWAM Wollongong.
You can find out more about YWAM Wollongong on their web-site, ywamwollongong.org.
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