I surprised the heck out of myself

Becca has just completed her DTS at YWAM-Paisley:

These past 6 months have been intense; some good, some bad and some insane. I’ve hiked more than I ever thought I could; ate food I didn’t even know existed; met people from countries I’d never heard of, flew more miles in 2 months than the entirety of the rest of my life, created some life-long friendships, taught kids English and surprised the heck out of myself. I’ve walked through Cambodian jungles and cooked Turkish food. I’ve explored London, Istanbul and Ephesus. I’ve learned from some amazing people for 4 months of lectures.

Most importantly I was stretched. I grew up, I cried, I laughed, I shared, I got angry, I freaked out, and I completed a DTS. I did something I didn’t think I could do.

I left home for 6 months, to live with people I’d never met; I embraced a few new cultures and relied on The Lord. I let Him take me on an adventure I wasn’t expecting; an adventure I never could have imagined. I’m so thankful and blessed.

I’m going home a different person and I’m slightly terrified and a whole lot excited to see what’s next. God is faithful and good.

The next DTS at Stanely House starts on June 6th. Check out their website for more details: https://stanel3.wix.com/stanelyhouse

I felt such peace

Wayne is staff at Ywam Seamill, he is currently preparing for the DTS starting in February. Read on for a short testimony:

‘I got on the train at Glasgow to go back to Seamill. This girl called Bernadette sat down next to me and we got chatting. She had just broken up with her partner and lost her job, so I asked if I could pray for her. She reached out for my hand and started crying as I prayed. After I finished praying she said ‘Wow, I don’t know what that was, I’ve never felt that before, but I felt such peace!’

At Paisley, a friend got on the train and we continued the conversation and got to encourage her and pray for her more.’

He said he was intrigued by the genuine joy

Thomas is doing his DTS at YWAM Seamill and shares this short testimony:

‘We were on the bus back from our midterm outreach and I sat next to this guy. We got talking and I shared some about what I’m doing with YWAM. Somebody else on our team shared the Gospel with him using the Gospel bracelet (a cool tool to share the Gospel easily with people). He had lots of questions and we ended up having a two hour conversation about God. Through all this he decided to start studying the Bible for himself. He said he was intrigued by the genuine joy he saw in us Christians.

We shared contact details and have been in touch since.

He said he got chills

Here’s a short testimony from Maddie who is currently doing her DTS at Ywam Seamill:

‘We were in Bristol, working with the YWAM Bristol team for our midterm outreach.

One day a group of maybe 15 of us were doing worship on the streets. A man called Luke, stopped to listen so a friend and I went up to him to ask him what he thought of the music. He said he was enjoying the music so we asked if he recognised any of the songs, to which he said no. So we told him it was worship songs. He told us he used to go to church but didn’t have any faith in God any longer. So we used the Gospel bracelet (a cool tool to share the Gospel easily with people) and shared the Gospel with him and got to pray for him. He said he got chills and so we talked some more and got to share some more about God. We prayed with him again and his whole face lit up. At the end he said he wasn’t ready to make a decision to follow Jesus, but he was so thankful that we took the time to share with him and pray for him.’

We prayed that God would provide and not even 5 minutes later…

Christian, from YWAM-Paisley reports:

‘In the last two days my team and I went out to share God’s kingdom with Athens. We saw some crazy things happen because of Gods love! We saw one boy’s wrist healed and a brake dancers shoulder become healed.

Then we met a man with a broken leg and we ask if we could pray for him and he said ‘no’… And we said ‘Ok’. We walked away for an hour or so and then he saw us again and called us over to pray for him, so we did and God took away all the pain in his leg! He was so blessed he wanted to meet up with us again. So we met up again and he said that he still needs surgery but he had no money for it. So we prayed for him that God would provide and not even 5 minutes after we prayed, a man called him who he has not talked to in years and ask ‘how’s your health?’ And he ‘said I have a broken leg’ and the man hung up the phone and called him back and said! ‘I am sending someone tomorrow to give you money to see the doctor!’

Lol I am blown away by God loving this man!!’

I think I need to go talk with ‘Reverend Rose’ once I get home!

YWAM Scotland alumni Rachel Cuddy shared this fun testimony with us from the SHINE outreach to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival:

‘As a group of us prepared to go do outreach, I felt God tell me that He wanted me to go on a ‘solo adventure with Him’. So I shared this with the group and we agreed I’d go off and follow God’s leading and join them later.

I had a sense of excitement and adventure as I headed out and simply prayed “Holy Spirit lead me”. I wanted to just go where I felt God lead, no hesitation or second-guessing. And wow, did God amaze me! I could write a lot about that afternoon and all the people I got to share the gospel/pray with.

But my favourite part of that afternoon was when God pointed out to me a young lady in a wheelchair waiting in the queue to buy festival tickets. All I knew was that I had to talk to her. So I joined the queue behind her and simply asked God to open conversation. She smiled at me and we began to chat but I was aware that I had no reason to be in the queue as I had no money with me, let alone have a show I wanted to see… Yet within the next two minutes I had befriended “Lucy” and by the time we reached the front of the queue we had decided to see a show together. I even got a free ticket as a disabled person’s assistant!

We chatted excitedly about the festival, shows she had seen and the hilarity of meeting strangers in queues! It turned out her boyfriend had left her after a bit of an argument, so she was happy to have a friend and someone to help her get around. She was such an inspiring woman. She is a human rights worker and had travelled the world advocating for disabled persons’ rights. We had common passions and talked easily about travels experiences etc. Conversation turned naturally to God and I shared my faith with her. She was interested and asked questions. She mentioned a “Reverent Rose” who she would go to for advice and comfort. At the end of our time together I prayed with her and God gave me some words for her. Her eyes lit up and she shared how earlier in the afternoon she had been wondering if meeting me was a sign from God! I then shared about my mission for the day and how God had pointed her out to me. She was amazed and after a moment of silence, said “I think I need to go talk with ‘Reverend Rose’ once I get home!”.

I knew God had begun a work in her! It is amazing at what God can do when we are simply open and willing to step out!’

But when we left they were full of joy and life!

Our friend ‘Lydia’ did her School of Frontier Missions at Seamill a number of years ago and has been working in India since. There, she has adopted 26 children. In 2012 most of these children were victims of sexual and verbal abuse and as we heard about this, God put it on our heart to go out and support ‘Lydia’ and the children in their process of trying to work through the pain and trauma of this. Inger and I went for two weeks and, before going, we asked God for His strategy for how best to be of use.

We started every day with a devotion on hearing from God and it was mind-blowing to see how God spoke to the children. One day we asked them to write down the lies they believed about themselves, and then we burned them. Then we asked God to speak about what he thinks about them and they were given opportunity to speak it out to the rest of the group. They would say things like: ‘God says I am a handsome boy’, ‘I’m a good worker and a good student’, ‘God loves me’. At the end we prophesied over them all. God spoke such words of destiny and it was incredible to see the kids’ eyes as they took hold of these words instead of the lies.

One of the little boys came up to me one day. We had prophesied over him that he would be a peacemaker and he told me ‘yesterday a few of the children were fighting and I went up to them and made peace’. It was so cool to see how they were taking hold of what God had spoken over them and starting to walk it out already!

When we first got there, the group was sad and quiet. But when we left the group was different, they were full of joy and life! One of them said: ‘Before you guys came, I had nightmares and flashbacks but, since you prayed with me, I don’t have that any longer!’” #Godisgood #YWAM #outreach

Rebekka, from Germany, works at YWAM Seamill where she does Healing on the Street in Saltcoats and is working on developing leadership training.

Trading in Tarot cards for the Bible!

A lady who had been ‘searching for more’ in all sorts of places (psychics, spiritualists, tarot cards…) found herself opening up her heart to one of the healing teams. As they shared and prayed with her, she experienced the presence of the Lord in a very powerful way and decided that she had found what she was looking for, and she started a journey with the Lord! We gave her a Bible and she was so excited to read it. She said that she had heard about it before, but had never read it. As I was talking with her at the end of the evening, she said that she was trading in her Tarot cards for the Bible!

Lance works with YWAM in West Kilbride and is part of the Light and Life team there

God’s supernatural power in West Kilbride

I was walking with a friend through the glen to get to the Post Office. We were talking about what it would be like to see more of God’s supernatural power here in West Kilbride. As we were walking, we started to see angels amongst the trees. As we opened the door to the Post Office we overheard a lady telling the cashier that she had a lot of pain in her back. So we went up to her and said: ‘We overheard what you said about your back pain and are wondering if we can pray with you?’ So she let us. When we stopped praying, she said she felt a warmth in her back, so we prayed some more and then she told us the pain was gone!’

Nicole is currently staffing the DTS at YWAM Seamill

He doesn’t limp since then!

I was out doing some treasure hunting in a pub in Saltcoats where I saw an older man with a limp. We asked the Lord ‘why is he limping?’ and I immediately got the answer ‘he has gout’, which I didn’t know anything about. So I walked up to him and started talking and then just came out and asked ‘do you have gout in your right foot?’ He looked at me surprised and said ‘Yes!’ So I offered to pray for him. He said he was on medication but since he was still limping he let me pray for him, so I did. He doesn’t limp since then!

Allison works at Seamill and is currently preparing to lead the DTS