News Updates
Merry Christmas!
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 Sc
hool – 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 7th 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.
Street Angels York - As we approach the end of 2011 it is amazing to look back at all God has done for and through Street Angels York. October saw our two year anniversary and it is amazing to think that in two years we have had over 70 committed volunteers going out in to the city nearly every weekend, we have handed out over 300 pairs of flip-flops, hundreds of bottles of water and helped many, many people. In June we started the first of our monthly prayer times for Street Angels, it has been wonderful to have the opportunity to come together to pray for the city and for one another. It has been especially good to go out for drinks afterwards and to have the opportunity to reconnect with people from our training courses and with new volunteers.
We are so thankful for all God has done this year and are excited to see how God will continue to use us to show his love to people in York and the nations in 2012.
From all of us at YWAM York Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Princes Trust team start work on YWAM Yorks Barnabas Center
Over the last week and a half a group of 8 young men and women from the princes trust have been working hard on seeing YWAM Yorks recently purchased Barnabas centre transformed in to a up todate community center for the local people and for DTS and leadership training courses. The Prince’s Trust Team is a 12-week personal development programme for young people (aged 16-25) at risk of social exclusion, run through Askham Bryan College.
They have been stripping woodchip wall paper, sanding, re wall papering and painting and decorating the downstairs of the centre.
We have been busy applying for grants and putting together a promotional brochure in order to see the £100,000 needed to be raised in the next few months to pay it all off and have the centre furnished and ready to use in the new year.
Update from South Africa!
Sawubona! After seven months of lectures with YWAM York and a short two week outreach in Romania, I made it to South Africa for our 2 month outreach! I am very excited to tell you about the ministries we worked with while in Durban with YWAM. We spent most of our time in Burlington, a small township outside of Durban, teaching women how to use computers and other valuable life skills. We ran a book club for children to help them improve their reading and have fun learning about the Bible. We taught them about Moses and did countless songs and games with them. We also volunteered at a Rehab Center, leading worship there and chatting with the residents. Once a week we helped make dinner at a drop in center for homeless men and led worship there as well.
Going to Burlington was my favorite ministry by far. As we entered into the community there was always a group of at least twenty children chanting “how are you” running up to the road. They called us “Mlungo” which means white person. I had quite a few little girls ask to braid my hair because it is so different to their own. I let one of the girls braid my hair and she absolutey had a ball and did a fabulous job =]
I visited a lady called Thandazile twice every week. She is unable to visit people in the community because she has been bound to a wheelchair for the past 14 years. She lives at the bottom of a hill and it is a very difficult path up to the road. She is just 27 years old. She does not have a husband and her only real company is her one year old son, Kuligane. She is an absolutely remarkable woman of faith. She is so angry at her wheelchair because she doesn’t have the ability to do more things for God. She has completely faith that she will walk again someday. She amazed me every day. I think I would come back to South Africa again just to see her again.
I am now in Cape Town with YWAM for our last 3 weeks of outreach. The past week has been a little different. We have been sitting on on the School of Biblical Studies class because the Vice President of the University of the Nations was speaking on Acts. For the next two weeks we will be helping with a bible study for the homeless people of Muizenberg and working in a Township. It will be ver different though because we have been working wi the Zulu people for the past month and a half and now are working with many different people groups including Xhosa. I am very excited for the next two weeks though!