autumn 2009 Number 109

StorieS from the field …... to challenge and inspire!

the new face of YWAm englandoutreach reports from …

… South Africa …Spain … italy … China … ireland

inSide thiS iSSue

For inFormation or address changes, contact: YWAM, Highfield Oval, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 4BX, England. Tel: 01582 463216 Email: enquiries@oval.com Website: www.ywamengland.org the advance team Paulo Carvalho, Jonathan Edwards, Donovan Palmer, Jeremy Weightman. Advance is published by YWAM England. © Copyright exists on all material in Advance and nothing within it may be reproduced wholly or in part without written permission. Youth With A Mission England is a registered charity — number 264078.

Write Carl Tinnion, YWAM, PO Box 321, York, YO24 3WA. tel 07525 449774 email ctinnion@ywamyork.com Web www.ywamyork.comin

fo

Who are you?I have been In YWaM for 15 years, which sounds scary, as I am 33 years old! I met my wife Melanie, a new Zealander, at holmsted Manor; we’ve been married 12 years and have three children — alanah (8), Gabriel (5) and Rhys (2).

During our foundational time in YWaM at holmsted, I ran the Church and Missions Link team for eight years, which involved youth ministry and youth leader training. after three years at holmsted I became national Director of Youth and Children’s ministries, also pioneering a ministry called Cords, which discipled teenagers through a monthly youth meeting and equipped them for missions locally and overseas. Cords grew to 300 teenagers coming every month and was planted in six other locations nationally. before this I led DTSs and have worked in India, China, Thailand, and Spain.

This was a great time of formational leadership for me as it taught me much about leading people as well as God’s love for the nations. In 2004 we moved to York to pioneer a leadership training community.

the YWam movementGod has called YWaM to a distinct role in the body of Christ.

by nature we are an unusual organisation, or more aptly, movement. Five decades ago, God gave Loren Cunningham a vision of empowering young men and women, training and equipping them to a transient life of building his kingdom throughout the world, touching all the nations and communicating the immense kindness and love of God. Whether it is loving the poor, standing up against injustice, serving the church or working with kids on the streets, YWaM is a family of ministries that seeks to listen to God’s voice and follow his leading.

vision for YWam englandYWaM takes many forms, depending on the nation it’s working in. In england we work with many churches, serving through training and preaching the gospel, as well as being catalysts for creating new ways of doing ministry. One of our great passions is to equip and empower british people who have a missions call, particularly overseas. If you are reading this and you sense a calling to the nations, we want to help you!

I feel eternally grateful for the Godly and consistent leadership of Donovan Palmer over the past five years. He has built great unity among the leaders of

YWaM england. We believe we are in a place now where God can continue to use us and multiply our work in this nation and overseas.

I love different cultural expressions. I look around this nation and feel grateful to the new communities among us that have become part of what it means to be english — Polish, Kurds, Pakistanis, Chinese, Indian, african … I see the immense creative beauty of unity with diversity. This reflects the heart of God and is deep within YWaM’s Dna. My hope is that we can make new friendships with churches from these communities and make room for them to work in and with YWaM, as we are called to be interdenominational and international. This is where God truly blesses us.

Finally, we sense God is calling us to be present in some of the largest and most diverse urban centres and cities. This will take many forms as God leads us, but as we grow, we will begin to experiment and think out of the box in the way we communicate the kingdom of God. It will mean doing new things in new ways and pioneering among unreached peoples and unreached culture.

There is an amazing team bringing leadership to this movement; it’s an honour to

work with them. I will continue to be based in York, though one day a week I will commute to the National Office in Harpenden. I believe this is a strategic move as we are glimpsing a future of leadership from the fringe, rather than from the centre.

I believe our future will include many people who have been part of YWaM in the past or who completed a DTS years ago: we want to communicate with those who are working elsewhere but still feel some connection to YWaM, to rekindle friendship with you and find new ways of working together and serving you.

thinking out of the boxYWaM is a movement of people from all over the world connected by shared values, deep relationships and a commitment to seek God’s will and make it happen. There is an incredible amount of devolved power, allowing people to seek God for themselves. It is a visionary movement where we are empowered to think out of the box, not being constricted by set ways of doing things. Godly risk is cool and all young people have the opportunity to pursue their destiny with good support, no matter how mad their ideas are. It is a platform to pursue the calling of God on your life.

hearing the carlYWam england has a new leader — carl tinnion. advance asked him to introduce himself and his vision for YWam england.

one of our great passions is to equip and

empower British people who have a missions call“ ”

South Africa (Worcester)Catherine Kennedy reports: a team of 30 children, teens and adults gave up four weeks to go and love the children, mainly in the mixed-race communities of Worcester. alcoholism and domestic abuse mark many homes. Destructive patterns emerge in the

children’s and teens’ lives as they feel unloved and unlovely. We partnered with YWaM Worcester and “Kinderbond”, a children’s outreach ministry, in their regular work bringing Jesus to these children.

Our team ranged in age from 5–50 years. everyone played their part in the fun we brought through circus, magic, drama, dance,

face-painting and many other activities. above all, the team brought open arms, ready to hug the many children to whom a big cuddle was their main delight!

Ours was a group of prophetic young people — God used them many times to bring breakthrough. On one occasion, Toby

lighting a WildfireWildFire, YWam england’s intergenerational outreaches for youth and families, sent three teams abroad this summer, following a training camp at the King’s Lodge. advance got the teams to report back

Summer 2009 outreach reports

(10) said he had received a picture from God of a girl in bed not sleeping well. a teenaged girl responded and shared that her sleep had regularly been blighted by terrible nightmares owing to trauma throughout her childhood. We prayed and sensed that God wanted to set her free as a sign of his ongoing healing. We saw her regularly for the next three weeks — since that evening she hadn’t had one nightmare and had been sleeping like a baby!

On another occasion, the team asked God what he wanted to do at a Kinderbond programme in a housing estate. The Lord highlighted some ways the young people tried to fill the holes in their hearts — following the crowd, relationships, gangs, violence, addiction. Out of that came a drama, with a conviction that God wanted to speak through it. We shared the drama that afternoon. The presence of the holy Spirit was strong — every child watching intently. Many children responded, wanting to give their hearts to

God and receive healing. The team prayed and ministered God’s love to each of them.

WildFire outreaches aim not only to see the lives of those we reach changed but also to see team members grow in their relationship with God. as a 16-year-old team member said, “In everything we did we could feel God’s presence and see him move in the most incredible ways … I think I now know how to trust God in my heart, not just my head, especially for joy and strength.”

Spain (malaga/motril)Steve Bishop reports: We spent five days in Malaga then four days in Motril, working alongside local churches. Our 42-strong team included five families with 16 children ranging in age from 5–14, plus teenagers and young adults.

During the day some of our team helped at an english language summer school for local children, playing games with them, face-painting, and teaching circus skills.

In the evenings we went to the sea front, where local families and those on holiday stroll. We had four groups in action — playing parachute games, face-painting, making balloon animals and doing circus skills. a fifth group prayed. Once we had a large number watching, we would present dramas

and dances, interspersed with testimonies. each

evening built on the previous one; our last night we saw more people than on any

other night. Often people came back night after night.

One Moroccan lady came every evening with her daughter. every night she had long conversations with team members, and even wanted to send her son to join us next year — amazing considering she is a Muslim.

each night, after the last presentation, we all went to the crowd and chose one person to tell them that God loved them. We baptised two of our group in the Mediterranean. Many people on the beach came to look and take photos: it was the first time I’ve had a deep conversation about my faith waist-deep in the sea!

Many of our young people did things for the first time — speaking in public, sharing their faith, street performing. Through these things we saw God at work in their lives. This was an outreach for them to grow in confidence and to realise that God is the same, wherever we are.

italy (Pescara)Jonathan Leva reports: This summer, an all-age team of 15 people went to Pescara, on the adriatic coast of Italy. We worked with re-housed children from L’aquila, where a devastating earthquake hit a few months back. We put on a programme for them — face-painting, balloon modelling, fun action songs, games etc. It was so rewarding to see the joy on these kid’s faces!

We put on similar programmes in a couple of local parks, where many local children and families spend their evenings. We had spontaneous times of worship in the town centre and handed out homemade scones, leading to conversations, sharing God’s love and praying for people. We were all challenged to go deeper in our relationship with God during these weeks.

info Write andy Kennedy, YWaM, The King’s Lodge, Watling Street, nuneaton, Cv10 0TZ

tel 02476 348128 email info@kingskidsengland.co.uk Web www.kingskidsengland.co.uk

the chinese waySummer 2009 outreach reports

Write Paul baker, big Shot Cricket, Highfield Oval, Harpenden, AL5 4BXtel 01582 463300 email info@bigshotcricket.com Web www.bigshotcricket.com

Write Beijing 2 London, YWAM, Highfield Oval, Harpenden, AL5 4BX tel 01582 463204 email ilovesilk@oval.com Web www.beijing2london.netin

fo

the Beijing 2 London team took a summer outreach to the Far east. here one of the participants reports back.

i could not contain the tears

when i saw the living conditions

in the orphanage. in a short space

of time i really got to love these

people and even though they have

‘nothing’, they gave us so much.

there was a real interchange (give

and take) between them and us.

“

”

IT MaY nOT aLWaYS be eaSY to deal with the level of newness of culture and environment in west China, but we found that, if you do things the right way, so many doors are open to you.

We had members on our team from five different nations, including mainland China. Partnering with our Chinese colleagues at a team level was in itself super-significant. The encouragement we could give to and receive from each other on a daily basis made the trip worthwhile, even before reaching out to others who did not know the Lord. I had never experienced this kind of team dynamic before.

One of my new Chinese friends shared with me how she feels urged by God to go to Japan, but that she is afraid and not really wanting to. I felt so blessed to be able to impart hope through sharing with her about God’s faithfulness in my life, and to give her some tips on how to prepare practically in prayer and so on. This little interaction once again underscored the understanding

that the Chinese are truly not only targets for outreach, but significant partners in mission. Seeing this practically was so refreshing for me. What a privilege to experience the beginnings of this new day in China.

as a team we were able to do many things. We visited orphanages; made friends through sports, music performances and team games; did cultural exchanges; got invited to people’s houses and could pray with them; told stories about our culture and our way of life on the streets; and so much more. I think some of the most significant serving we did was through prayer. The longer-term workers in China were immensely thankful for the prayers of those at home, but also related to us how significantly our seemingly small prayers of faith served to move the work along. I will remember that forever.

Finally, I must say that the level of openness and eagerness

to talk about and engage with issues of faith that we experienced in China were quite astounding. I had heard about this level of “readiness to hear” before, but having experienced it for myself I am now even more of an advocate for believers to go and share what they have in places like west China.

YWAM hAs AlWAYs sought to do new things in new ways. so it was that two teams based at YWAM harpenden headed off to the city of galway, Ireland, for an outreach called Creideamh 09 (gaelic for “Faith”, pronounced “kray-jif”).

the EtEAM (Evangelism through Education And Mission) and Crossing the Jordan Worship Ministry (CtJ) went primarily to serve at the festival, through performing in various venues and locations in galway. the teams brought music, magic, and testimony onto the streets, in the main public square, and in café locations. they joined with a number of other artistes (music, mime, and dance) to draw a crowd and help people see that Christians have fun and produce high-quality music and shows — but also have a message of hope for anybody who will listen.

Creideamh 09 was run by a group of Roman Catholic organisations along with

YWAM Ireland. this was a festival to celebrate Christian life in galway. Its aims also included to challenge those who had fallen away from their faith, bring the message of the good news of

Jesus to those who hadn’t heard it, and also train and equip members of the Church in

galway in evangelism.

the Festival of Faith was run at the same time as galway’s Arts and Music Festival and also its Film Festival. As a result, thousands of young people descended on the city during the two weeks of Creideamh 09.

Apart from the live music and shows, there were plenty of other opportunities for visitors to be involved in the Festival of Faith — a 5-a-side tournament for boys in the 7–14 age group, a special youth event in one of the local cafés, two marriage workshops, a series of evening meetings on different topics, daily mass in the abbey, and on-the-street adoration of the blessed sacrament and confessions.

over 300 local people were involved in the event, and over 6,000 homes were visited across the four parishes of galway. Many people were prayed for, many were moved forward in their faith, and some came to know Jesus. Follow-up includes an Alpha course, prayer groups, a seven-week “life in the spirit” seminar, and a six-week “Knowing god Better” course.

Creideamh 09 was an event that brought the local believers together, that showed the Catholic community that they can “do” evangelism — even among their own — and that has raised the spiritual temperature in the west of Ireland.

two YWam england teams went to ireland

in July for a festival with a difference.

Write Paul baker, big Shot Cricket, Highfield Oval, Harpenden, AL5 4BXtel 01582 463300 email info@bigshotcricket.com Web www.bigshotcricket.com

fest

ival

of f

aith

Write YWAM England Enquiries, Highfield Oval, Harpenden, AL5 4BX tel 01582 463216 email enquiries@oval.com Web www.ywamengland.orgin

fo

Get passionate!

www.ywamengland.orgVisit www.ywamengland.org and download our DTS video or our DTS brochure to see how you can be a world changer. Or phone +44 1582 463216 and we’ll send you a copy.

Come and do a DTS … and join a generation of young people with a passion to be world changers