Coronavirus Update September 2021

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Dear Friends and Visitors to our corner of the web,

Our residential centres are up and running!

It’s been quite the journey as we’ve navigated the last year and a half! Together with the rest of the world, YWAM Scotland has experienced the ups and downs of living through a pandemic. We’ve experienced loss and heartache, learned to explore the world of online learning and teaching, and had a chance for reflection and re-aligning. Through it all, we were so aware of God’s goodness to us, and of his incredible love for our beloved Scotland and for the world beyond. 

As YWAM Scotland, we’ve been involved in a variety of responses to the events of the world. In some areas, we were able to be part of community response strategies that continue to build and grow today. We continued to support our local churches in a variety of ways, including online support and prayer ministries. We also moved some of our teaching online, connecting even more broadly with international students. Although we longed to see each other in person, we were grateful for technology that allowed us even more regular connection online, and several prayer initiatives were birthed that included groups that might not have been possible otherwise. We had some hard goodbyes, and also were surprised by some of the gifts this season brought us. 

Now, as lockdowns and restrictions continue to lift, we are so grateful to be holding more and more schools and trainings in person again. We are looking forward to meeting together as a big YWAM Scotland family soon, as well. Through this, we continue to hold space for the new ways of doing things that God has expanded our capacity for during a tough season. We will continue to keep within government guidance, and are so happy to be able to welcome people from international locations to join us as staff or trainees. 

We’ll continue to work hard to keep our trainees and visitors safe.

If you have current or immediate plans to visit our bases or join in a training course or meeting, please contact the bases directly with any questions or to get the latest updates on training and hospitality.

The Seamill Centre on Facebook Email the team at Seamill: seamill@ywamscotland.org

Stanely House – part of YWAM Paisley on Facebook Email the team in Paisley: paisley@ywamscotland.org

For general enquiries or to reach the other teams please email: info@ywamscotland.org

Thank you so much to those who have been part of praying for us as a mission during this time. We pray that you are also finding restoration and healing as we walk into a new season, and that you find yourself aware of God’s incredible love for you.

In Christ,

The YWAM Scotland Leadership Team

a word from our Scottish leadership team

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A letter to our YWAM Scotland Family and Friends:

Amidst the anxiety and upheaval of these days, we greet you with love and hope. We’re grateful for you and the creative ways we see the worldwide body of Christ reaching out in prayer, worship and action to rise to meet the challenges of this pandemic. As ever, we feel God’s comfort and peace as we draw near to Him.

Like you, we’ve been closely watching the crisis develop and following the advice of our governments. In the UK, and in some of the nations where our trainees and staff come from, we have now reached a new stage of the management of the Coronavirus. It’s with heavy hearts that we must now close our bases to all meetings, gatherings, events and training from now through May and can no longer welcome any visitors. All our communications will move online or over the phone.

Unfortunately, this does have an impact on courses currently underway and planned for the immediate future. We are doing our utmost to ensure safe returns home and to look after any staff or trainees remaining in our communities until they are able to travel or social restrictions are lifted. For future courses, we will continue to monitor the situation and make decisions based on the best information available and with the Lord’s help. See below how you can stay in touch about specific courses.

The University of the Nations, which provides the framework for all our courses, is working hard to ensure that trainees will get credit for any work they have done so far and may apply it toward completing coursework in the future. You can read more about that here: We will also give special consideration to trainees who would like to come back and join us for their DTS at a later time.

We join with you in asking God’s deliverance from the virus, for safety for our loved ones, and for His provision for the most vulnerable in our nations who will bear the brunt of this pandemic. We ask that you would join us in praying for our staff members around the world – for their peace and safety, for creativity in blessing their communities when contact is limited, and for His multiplication after this crisis is over to see a return of all that is lost now through outreaches being cancelled, trainings interrupted and recruiting being halted.

If you have current or immediate plans to visit our bases or join in a training course or meeting, please contact the bases directly to get the latest updates on when training and hospitality will resume. We will also post any updates to our websites and via social media.

The Seamill Centre on Facebook Email the team at Seamill: seamill@ywamscotland.org

Stanely House – part of YWAM Paisley on Facebook Email the team in Paisley: paisley@ywamscotland.org

For general enquiries or to reach the other teams please email: info@ywamscotland.org

Our staff will continue their work remotely as much as possible. Please be in touch if you have questions, concerns or would just like to say hello!

To close, we offer this beautiful Celtic blessing that we often pray over our visitors and each other:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

Taken from Morning Prayer from Northumbria Community’s Celtic Daily Prayer published by Collins.

We look forward to being with you again soon.

In Christ,
The YWAM Scotland Leadership Team

DTS Outreach testimonies part 2

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The Stanely House DTS finished a couple of weeks ago. They had a great outreach in Cyprus. Here are some of Peter’s and Destiny’s stories of what God did through them:

“I met a guy from Bangladesh who was studying in Cyprus. He was from a Hindu family, and I started to build a relationship with him during our time there. I had several really good conversations with him, I got to share the gospel with him and I prayed for him several times. I prayed that God would fill his heart with His love and that Jesus would reveal himself to him. At the end of the outreach he said that He really believed in God, and he believed that what I said was true. So He really had encounters with God during this time.”

 

“I met a lady named Zehra about a week into outreach. She is a Turkish Cypriot who lived in the South of Cyprus until her mid-teens when war broke out between the Turks and the Greeks she was forced to leave her home and move to the North. Now, she owns a little shop on the North side of Cyprus where I first met her. I asked her a few questions about the area, and she told me the story of the war between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots from a very personal point of view. We talked for a few hours and when I asked if I could pray for her she said that she was not interested in “anything like that”, but seemed grateful that I had offered.  I tried to visit her over the next month or so, but she was always out when I got there. I felt God wanted me to keep going back to check. A few weeks before we went home, I went back one last time and finally she was there! I had only been in her shop a few minutes when she hung up the phone and explained to me that her daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer and she was so overwhelmed with what to do next. Before I could even respond, she held out her hands to me and said “Now. Now I would like for you to pray for me.” I was so honoured and blessed by that simple gesture. I prayed for her and for her daughter and I was able to share my testimony with her about my walk through similar struggles as my mom battled cancer. God really touched us both that day. I am keeping in contact with her and I am excited to see how God continues to work in her and her family.”

Testimony from Glasgow

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Our new team in Glasgow has just started, and already they are getting lots of opportunities to share Jesus with people. ‘It is easy to do ministry in Glasgow,’ says Michael.

Oban //

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YWAM Ignite: a team of passionate people, from different countries with different cultures and languages. Together they form a YWAM family with their mission focus on Oban, Scotland. Rolinke Bremer shares a look at who they are, and where this new pioneering project is going:

“A smaller town on the West Coast of Scotland, Oban has about 9,000 inhabitants. In summer though this amount can triple! Many tourists and travelers come through Oban making it a lively place. Our vision is to reach out to the people of Oban and beyond. To show them God’s way for their lives, to launch them into the Kingdom and to be a resource for training and growth.
We are pioneering which means starting from scratch. This makes it sometimes difficult, but always interesting. The last few months we have learned to really wait on the Lord for the many steps we need to take. All we want is to follow His lead, because He knows exactly what He wants for Oban and its people, and also for our team. Coming back to His heart for Oban and acting upon what he says has been one of our primary goals. We want to build on this solid foundation, so that each team member knows who they are in Christ and what they are called to. This means we start every day with prayer and listening to God, and then simply doing what He ask us to do.

A key value for our team is hospitality. We want to open up our house and our lives to the people around us, to meet them where they are at and let them leave better than they came. We believe hospitality and being relational are parts of the new evangelism – ways of reaching out to the people around us whether they are in our house or on the streets.

Some ministries God has highlighted to us are developing an expression of prayer & intercession, with prayer walks, 24/7 prayer, practicing the prophetic and ministering to each other and the churches in Oban. WTeam Ignite2e also have a heart for evangelism, through hospitality and other creative, artistic and prophetic ways. Being relational is – again – the key. Two big areas of focus are reaching children and youth through sports, and travellers and pilgrims through hospitality, nature and the arts. There is a lot to develop with this, but for now we are planning to run a Sports DTS in September 2015. We are very excited about that!!

Currently we are waiting for the right housing in Oban, but are longing to move very soon. Pray with us as we are in the midst of a negotiation for a wonderful house!

Pioneering is hard. It is also fun; because, in all of it, we are so dependent on God. Its like a big adventure, or roller coaster. As we lay down our rights and put our focus on God’s heart in all of this, then faith, peace, and great joy are the fruits. If you have a pioneering heart, or if you are willing to step into this unknown adventure with God, feel free to apply! We might be small now, but we want to grow into a larger, faith-filled, radical family. Not because of us, but because of God’s kingdom here in Oban, Scotland.

Check out our website and join in!

Nepal Updates & Links

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From the YWAM International Facebook page:

Below is a list of YWAM locations with teams currently in Nepal that have reported they are all safe. We also have heard that all YWAM Nepal members are accounted for. Let us know in the comments if you have received reports from any others. Also please continue to pray for all those affected!

YWAM Kona

YWAM Denver

YWAM Salem

YWAM Colorado Springs

YWAM Honolulu

YWAM Montana Lakeside

YWAM Perth

360 Maine

YWAM Las Vegas

Create International

It feels alive

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Frank, thank you for making this wonderful website for YWAM Scotland – tell us about it.
A website is a voice that should speak for you, when you are not there in person. There are many elements to it and they all tell the story of Us. We wanted to portray all of YWAM Scotland for this season – we felt it should be warm, welcoming and friendly, yet unique, determined, bold and without “frillyiness”. And though we live in a most beautiful country, we didn’t want to end up with a postcard for tourists. So we worked hard to get the colors, the fonts, the textures, the visuals and the text to all express that and I think we succeeded.

Often people perceive design as making something look pretty; to me it means making something work. “Are we answering the questions that brought people to our site? Do we connect those that have a call to this nation or a certain ministry with the right people? Are we clear about who we are as a mission in this nation and who we are not?

And it has to work on a practical level and be future-forward – adapting to how we take in information and serve the many digital devices with different screen sizes and ways of interacting. The best navigation is the one people don’t have to think about – if they intuitively, with the least amount of clicks, find their answer.

One of the best compliments I had, was: “ It doesn’t feel static, it feels alive.” We hope that it will “live” well out there and promote the heck out of all of that YWAM Scotland has to offer.

Tell us a little about yourself – what do you do? What does being in missions look like for you?
One of the milestones during my DTS (Seamill ‘95) was a huge portion of grace God heaped on me. He called me out as a “man of excellence”. At the time this did not seem such a big deal or unsual – growing up in Germany the expectation to aim for perfection is very high. Only later did I understand that excellence is the near opposite of perfection – one can never be reached and leads to constant failure. The other allows you to do the best you can with the tools and understanding you have right now – and then do it better next time.

That is what I want to do – learn more, get better and serve God. If that is through discipleship, hospitality, leadership, coordinating events or communication – my almost 20 years in mission so far has stretched me, thrown me in uncomfortable situations and been ever so rewarding.

What has the process of getting this website up and running been like?
This project has been going on for just about a year – including finally conquering WordPress; what started out as a software hate relationship is turning into a friendship.

I think our biggest job was to get a grip on what YWAM Scotland is at the moment. We have a new National Leadership Team and they spent a great many hours and cups of coffee to get to know all the different teams and bases. That helped tremendously – one of my biggest fears was that we would forget someone and what kind of message it would send to that person.

And boy is there a lot going on. Our next task was to organise all that into a format that made sense, especially to those not within the YWAM family. Once we had identified some groupings it became a bit easier – it just makes sense that those with an affinity for arts quite like meeting like-minded people, the same for those with a prayer ministry or a heart for families.

It also shows that we are not all things to all people and that is OK. But we are also not limited by it and leave room for pioneers and individuals and teams that carry a particular calling. Scotland has a built in heart for hospitality and we want to welcome them in and look after them and help them do well.

So the site will continue to grow and evolve and I am quite chuffed by what we have accomplished already.