Friday, October 31, 2008

Fairwell to England

The last sight of Brittish shores

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Flying to London England

Last spring the international chairman of YWAM, Lynn Green, asked me to join a meeting of minds in Kona Hawaii. Today, I depart for the YWAM base in Harpenden England (just north of London) to continue the conversation we started six months ago. I look forward to sharing in more depth all we do at YWAM Orlando to draw this next generation into missions with the team assembled there. As always I appreciate your prayers, especially as the issues discussed may effect literally hundreds of thousands of potential missionaries. (Photo: Creagon and Lynn this spring at the YWAM base in Kona Hawaii)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Guess who made the front page of the newspaper











To read the article from the Samford Crimson Follow the link below.

UMin calls Samford students to go global - News
-Junior international relations and Spanish double major Hannah Joiner visits with representatives from Youth With A Mission at the Go Global Missions Emphasis fair held yesterday.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Finding God's Messengers on University Campuses

"I want to get in to missions, but I just don't know how"
"YWAM goes to South Africa? I want to go to South Africa and work with children. Can I do that?"
"Thanks for sharing your story. It helps me know that this (Missions) is really possible"

Today I got to meet and chat with the students of Samford University. Each student that stopped buy our display for the missions emphasis week wanted to make a difference in their generation, but many needed to understand what their first step would look like. I trust that with their drive to impact our world and the information I got to share today they will take action. I got to meet one student who met our YWAM team last year at this event. She will be departing for training in a few months before she spends time reaching out to the least reached people of South Asia. She is proof and encouragement that I must continue to search and find God's next generation of messengers among our university campuses.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Effective Funding for Experinced Misisonaries

Imagine being told that with in the next 3 months you would be overseeing a budget ten times greater than what you are currently operating on. To most of us this sounds too good to be true or the work of a freak chance like finding the winning the lottery ticket on a sidewalk, but for one team of dedicated missionaries this may be their new reality.

Last week I traveled to a YWAM center in an urban community to teach biblical principals of raising financial sponsorship and support to the local staff team. Many of this team have been struggling to get buy on only enough income to pay for very simplistic community style housing and donated food.

Many of God's dreams and visions for this team were consistently dismissed and thought impossible because nearly all of their funding was being absorbed by the most basic needs of life and so little was left for reaching out effectively with the Gospel.

It was my goal in a 5 day visit to help these dreams become possible again. I challenged each of the full time volunteers to create a budget based on the amount needed to be effective, not on the amount currently available. Only then was the true disparity between a mindset of Effectiveness and Poverty revealed.

By the end of last week I was amazed to see a visible glow in the eyes of each team member. God given inspiration that was once abandoned, now filled the spirits and minds of a revitalized team. Unique ways to reach out to the most oppressed of our nation with the love of Jesus once again filled the hopes of these experienced missionaries.

To be sure, there is still much work to be done before each of these visions are fully funded by committed sponsors, but a new paradigm has been discovered and a shift in thinking. There is now a marked feeling of measured optimism leading to the setting of achievable goals. I am quite certain that I will get to see astounding growth during future visits as the experience of these dedicated workers and the freedom of effective funding now will combine to share the truth of Christ in a very needy urban neighborhood.

Thank you, For your help allows me to experience the freedom of effective funding!