Happy Christmas! 2011 has been a challenging but exciting year for me and my team in Youth With A Mission York. Here are some of the highlights.

Discipleship Training School – It was great to have four girls from the USA come on our 10 month training course. They not only received some great teaching and training but made an impact through a variety of outreaches in the city of York, Romania and South Africa for God.

The Barnabas Centre – You will be pleased to hear that on the 7^th September we became the proud owners of the Barnabas Centre. It will be used to meet the practical and spiritual needs of the local area as well as to provide us with much needed office space and a training centre. The structural repairs and re roofing will be completed by Christmas and last month we received a donation that covers 80% of the cost of the building work. It was an amazing answer to prayer and a huge relief! We are now working to raise the further £75,000 to pay off the loan and the renovations and refurbishments. We look forward to opening in February 2012 and I hope you can come and visit.

Romania – This summer I had the privilege of leading a team of 16 young people to Medias, Romania for two weeks. We worked alongside the YWAM team there running a children’s program for the gypsy community, visiting an orphanage, speaking and leading worship at churches and youth groups. We also hosted a cultural evening for the YWAM team and were able to practically help them with gardening and preparing the base for a children’s camp. It was wonderful to see the way the young people on the trip grew in their faith, captured Gods love for the nations and had their world view challenged and changed.