Glasgow team

Testimonies from Glasgow

Glasgow team

A while ago, I had the chance to sit down with our Glasgow team and hear what God has been up to in the city this year. The answer is: so much! Here are a few of their testimonies.

Nicole: we were doing an Alpha course with a group of refugees, including a couple and their older son from Iran. The father and son had made the decision to be baptised earlier on, but the wife had lots of questions for us. We had conversations about what it means to be a basically good or bad person, and the role of sin in our lives. Through the whole process, she has been on the journey of finding her own identity and relationship with God independent of her relatives, and now she wants to be baptised too!

Michael: we were having a leaders’ meeting for our Light and Life team, just having some iPod-led worship time, and this lady wandered in. She was clearly on some sort of substance, and she had felt drawn to the room where we were meeting— difficult, as it was not easily accessible to the street! We welcomed her and she sat with us and began weeping. Long story short, she gave her life to God because of the welcome and the worshipful space, and she wrote a message up on the whiteboard as we were worshiping: I love Jesus because Jesus loves me.

Gaylin: at the Healing Rooms one day, a lady who had been at a nearby cafe just happened in. She was middle-aged and fragile-looking, and she gave us a vague prayer request about healing. We had a couple of pictures for her— one of an ant infestation getting smoked out, and another of the Father holding and comforting her. We shared our pictures with her, and she told us she had recently been diagnosed with cancer. She was from a Catholic background and was really impacted by the idea of hearing from God and the intimacy of that relationship. We gave her a chance to listen to God for herself and she did, seeing some really clear pictures that touched her deeply!

Like I said, these are just a few of the many testimonies I heard that day. The team shared story after story about God using them to speak into hard situations, minister to complete strangers, and guide people into His love. Members of their team are ministering to communities as varied as the population of Glasgow— from refugees, to takeaway delivery people, to musicians and producers high up in the entertainment industry.

God is at work in Glasgow!

Glasgow testimony

God is doing good things through our team in Glasgow. Watch Gaylin share a testimony from this week

Testimony from Glasgow

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.

Street Art Evangelism

street art

‘What’s you biggest dream?’ I asked the man.

‘My biggest dream is to be in heaven and see angels,’ John answered. ‘And I hope that if I was to go to heaven, I would feel at home there.’

‘Well I believe God has a home for you in heaven. Could I pray for you?’

‘Yes, that would be great. I have anxiety and depression that I have been hospitalised for. I’ve not been able to work for six months. It’s awful.’

‘I’ll pray for that now then…’

 

‘What’s your biggest dream?’

‘Good question. I think my biggest dream is to be happy,’ Matchek from Poland answered.

‘That’s a very general dream, what if you were to be a little more specific?’

‘I have gone through a lot of change in the last year and I dream about feeling peace in my life…’

‘Well I believe God wants to give you His peace. Can I pray for you?’

 

‘What’s your biggest dream?’

‘To pass my exams!’

‘Are you studying here in Edinburgh?’

‘Yes, but we are from Thailand and China’

‘Oh wow! Well I believe in God, and I believe he wants to bless you guys, would it be ok if I pray for you and for your dreams?’

 

During the Mission Explore Weekend in Edinburgh we took to the streets with the youth to do evangelism. We were there to talk to people about their dreams and to offer to pray with them. We got to speak to loads of people: Koreans, Qataris, Swiss, Polish, English, French, American, Thai, Chinese, Singaporean, Scottish, etc and nobody I spoke to refused prayer.

It struck me how many people I met that don’t have anyone at all that pray for them. What a blessing it was to be able to share God’s love with them in such a simple way and see their faces light up as they encountered the living God on the streets!

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!’