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Edinburgh Outreach

Written by Kristan Christian

Hello friends! I’m Kristan Christian from India. I was a student in the mobile DTS with YWAM Scotland. It was a breathtaking experience! I had such an amazing time and I felt like God was with me every single moment and wherever I went. He is so good! This is a story about my experience during my Edinburgh outreach.

God working in Edinburgh

I was in Edinburgh on outreach doing evangelism when I met a guy named David sitting on the street. I had seen him twice before but this time God spoke to me and told me to talk to him. So I went and David told me lots of things like how he had left his family and felt like a failure.

God started to speak to me and tell he that David’s left hand was causing him pain. I doubted this and though, “that is not possible”. However, God told me “trust me my son”. He said this 5 times before I had the courage to finally open my mouth and ask David. David confirmed that he has been having pain in his left hand. At that moment I felt so connected with God, like I was just sitting in my Father’s lap.

The faith to persevere

I asked David if I could pray for healing and he said “yes”. I prayed for healing and asked if he had felt any improvement. David responded by saying “no, no improvement at all”. I prayed the second, third, fourth and fifth time but still no changes, no healing. I began to doubt again. But my Father said, “You can do this because I have given you authority and there is no sickness in my kingdom.”

I prayed again with renewed hope and faith. David suddenly stood up, gave me a hug and started crying. Father God had healed him! He accepted Jesus as his Saviour and has decided to go back to his family. I was able to bless and encourage him with the good news that his Heavenly Father loves him so much. I did not see David again on the streets of Edinburgh throughout the remainder of my outreach.

Lessons from DTS

Throughout the mobile DTS I learned a lot and grew a lot in my faith. I have learned two things from Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and that God is my provider. I walk by faith with Jesus who is our Lord of lords and King of kings. I encourage everyone to gaze on His face and experience the trinitarian God.

Want to hear more testimonies from the mobile DTS? Check out this story. Interested in applying for our September DTS? Click here.

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Representing Christ in the Ordinary

Written by: DTS student from our September DTS 2019

This is a testimony about our lives and actions representing Christ, whatever we do, and how someone is always listening or watching. 

The hostel

It was about midway through the week of our mid-term outreach in Inverness. After our group had been singing worship songs in the hostel lounge in the early evening, a friend and I stayed later. We asked to join a game the group of five was playing. We went from answering trivia questions, to talking about Canadian maple syrup, to holidays/traditions we each celebrate. This ended up with the question as to why each of us were at the hostel. 

When we were talking about holidays, we had been talking about what Christmas means to us as Christians. Why we celebrate it and what it looks like in our families tradition wise. By this time, some of the others had left, so we were specifically speaking to one Chinese man. This led into my friend and I talking about what we were doing in Inverness. We explained what YWAM is and in essence what evangelism was. This led into us sharing that we believe everyone can hear God’s voice. Eventually, the man shared how at one point he had the opportunity to get baptised but felt like he had missed his chance. 

A God encounter

Then I got a word of knowledge about his back. So I asked him if he had any pain in his back because God told me he had pain. He was shocked and asked “how did you know?!” He shared that he had gone in for a doctor’s appointment right before coming on his trip. I asked if I could pray for his back for it to be healed because we believe God loves to heal people. He agreed and we prayed. I don’t know if he felt anything actually change physically in that moment, but he definitely experienced something emotionally. He said “Wow, I believe your God is real.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes and watched as God was doing something in his heart. Next he brought up some questions too. He started talking and going on about a story he had once heard about someone who got healed by a witch doctor by offering up sacrifices. My friend jumped in and said, “But that’s the difference between Jesus and other spiritual acts, Jesus gives his love and healing and talks with us freely, we don’t have to sacrifice things, it’s a free gift.” 

We talked more about what Jesus did for us and conquered on the cross. We talked about why He did it, and what that means for us now. That it is a freely given gift that brings us into relationship with Jesus. He gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us so He can talk with us, and He actually wants to get to know us. 

The response

Eventually my friend asked, “So do you want that? Do you want to pray?” He responded with “Yes. Yes I want that.”

We sat in more silence, and then led him in confessing his sins and inviting Jesus into his heart! As we were sitting there, we could hear him whispering “Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.”

Representing Christ

It was such an amazing and incredible experience that started from such a far off topic of conversation! We definitely couldn’t have guessed everything was going to play out like it did. God had our new friend’s eternity on his heart and was chasing him down that night!

The man brought up several times in our conversation how beautiful the worship music had been. It was a cool reminder that no matter what we are doing, we are always representing Christ, and there will be others watching and listening. 

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With a Mission Always

Written by: Heidi

The beauty of being part of YWAM (in my case at YWAM Seamill) is the freedom to follow God’s leading when He speaks within the simple but profound context of “To know God and make Him known”. This leads to being with a mission always.

We are two single women of very different backgrounds who met doing our DTS in Hawaii – and not even on the same DTS. Going to do a DTS when the “youth” bit no longer applied, was a step of faith. However, I was following God’s lead (though it did not necessarily making sense in my own logic). He gave me a new friend with whom I could start dreaming out loud on sunny Sunday afternoons at the Kona Pier. The deep desire to be able to go to other lands and peoples and share God’s love was a shared dream and desire. It was great to be able to share dreams with someone and in turn hear her dreams.

God had His own plans

So it began. In early 2018 we went on our first short-term (2 & ½ months) mission trip. In this blog post I would like to write about our second, and hopefully not last, mission trip to South East Asia at the end of 2019. We had 3 locations planned, 2 in Vietnam and 1 in Cambodia. However, according to Prov. 16:9 “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps”. God indeed changed our plans to 1 location in Vietnam and 2 in Cambodia.

This change of plan was not in God’s quiet voice, but by the cancellation of our second location in Vietnam at the end of our first week. We were in the midst of acclimatising to the tropical climate and catching up (we live in different countries). “What now?” we thought. Through a wonderful lady we met on our previous trip to Central America, we connected with a long-time missionary who “just happened” to be not just in the same city as us, but in exactly the same guesthouse! At a 7:30am breakfast appointment on the day we were leaving we met up and she connected us to a young man in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Locals rising up

The absolute beauty of what we experienced and saw in all 3 locations was that all these ministries are pioneered and run by people in their home towns and villages. We foreigners join in as encouragement and support. I was so thrilled to see this. Because when I was younger and first started dreaming of missionary work, all the ministries I knew about in South East Asia were pioneered and run by people from the West. Big thanks to all those who gave their time and put their faith and energy into loving strange and foreign cultures to make Jesus known! Now their fruit is multiplying and new ministries are springing up and spreading the love of Jesus.

Our first location was in Northern Vietnam. A young single lady started this location only 4 years ago. It has already grown to 3 houses, many national staff and multiple international teams a year. We were only to be there for a short time. So we clearly knew from God that we were to offer to do exactly what she needed us to do. We first had a very fun day of orientation. This included learning about the history, present and culture which of course includes food. After this they kept us very busy. We loved every single minute of it (exception might be crossing roads with a continual flow of scooters!). It was a real privilege to be able to help in this vibrant work.

Growth everywhere!

The second location was the newly established connection in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Here we met a young man who was not YWAM, but had been part of another US based mission organisation. He was a youth on the streets before he was found and helped by Christians. After years of growing strong in his faith, God led him to go and live in a very poor community along a filthy subsidiary of the Mekong River. Two families live in container size homes built literally on top of each other. The community space and church he built only a few years ago is already too small. It cannot hold his Sunday and midweek meetings. We joined in where needed and played a lot with the roaming children, of which there are plenty.

Our third location was in Battambang, Cambodia. Here YWAM connected us to a man who is reaching his community by running an English Christian school. This is a school for children of all ages to attend when they are not at government school. The man is from this village and God used him to pioneer and run this ministry. And yet again, this school is expanding faster than the space available.

A blowing of God’s Spirit

Throughout our travels, I had the same impression and message while praying for the workers and their work. This is that God is blowing His Holy Spirit into these kindling, letting them erupt and shine forth.

I feel so privileged to be able to go, visit, and spend a short time with these amazing people who dare to step out and do what God is calling them to do.

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