YWAM turns 50

Loren Cunningham founded YWAM in 1960. Since then the staff has grown from 2 to over 20,000 (holding over 150 passports I think). We have bases/presence in over 1200 locations and we are still passionate about Jesus and finishing the Great Commission.


Last week we celebrated YWAM's 50th in Denver. Loren and Darlene Cunningham (and their daughter Karen) came to tell us more about what's going on in the world, where we are at with the Great Commission and what still needs to be done.

It was a fantastic time of meeting new people, catching up with old friends and just having some much needed time of getting new vision and excitement for what I do.

Since we drove to Denver (13 hours!!) and took the DTS, it was also a great time to get to know the students and talk with God whilst driving... Totally legal! :)





While at the conference we stayed at 'Eagle Rock', part of the YWAM Denver base, just located in the middle of nowhere... Beautiful... So here are some pics! :)





The dorms















the sun











more sun
















YWAM Vegas peeps











dining room and kitchen











YWAM Colorado Springs peeps










yeah, it was nice! :)












the crazies...












fearless Vegas DTS leader













fearless Vegas DTS












Vegas peeps












Vegas peeps

The rubber band gun and why it is significant for me

Last night we had a giving night here at the YWAM Base. Giving nights are awesome and usually very powerful.
This is the way it works: you ask God what He might want you to give away and to whom. Then you wrap it up (just cover it) and bring it to giving night.
You ask the person to join you in the middle, give him/her whatever you brought, explain it if you need to or if God gave you a word or something and then you pray for that person.

It's amazing how powerful giving something away can. Sometimes God asks me to give something big, something my heart is really attached to... (i.e. guitar, money, ipod, computer) and sometimes he asks me to give something small (flag, candle, clock etc)

This time I received something: A rubber band gun!
I'm pretty excited about the gun, but it was the 'explanation' that came with it, that made me cry and thank God for the fact that He really knows what's going on.

It was just one sentence... The guy who gave me the gun said: 'when I see you, when I see you lead, you lead out of a place of fun with God. You're a fun person.'

You got to understand that I don't know this guy very well and he doesn't know me.

To hear that he sees me as 'fun' and to hear that he sees me and God having fun was amazing...

Why, you ask?

Well, for the past couple weeks I haven't heard that at all. in fact, I have heard quite the opposite! A person I really respect came up to me and told me that I look pissed off all the time and mean. He has a problem with my face! (which I can't really change...)

I've asked God to help me through that, coz it seems petty to make a big deal out of that. I love having fun with God and I know that often times that is NOT reflected in my face. But there's nothing I can do about it... except for fake smiling, but that's actually exhausting and not me.

So for someone who doesn't know me to say 'here's a rubber band gun, because I think you're a fun person'... That was pretty much God speaking to me audibly.

So I've had WAY too much fun with that gun today!

Thank you Lord.

Grace

These past couple weeks I've been studying up on grace.
In YWAM we have the privilege of getting some amazing teaching and the grace teaching is one of those that really started to change my life.
And now it was time again to brush up on what grace really means in my life and how I can live it out more.

Here are some things/quotes I learned/liked so far:

Grace is always free for the one who receives it, but it always costs the one who gives it.

The Russian Doll Analogy...
When we get saved the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us (Smallest doll placed in next bigger one)
Then we are also placed IN Christ. (put first 2 dolls into the next bigger one)
When God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ.
The image of grace is the image of Christ.
(thanks to Daniel Susenbach for that analogy)

Of course the question of 'cheap grace' comes up... How can you learn something when you're just constantly being handed grace and sort of a free way out? What about knowing that you WILL be forgiven if you sin? The whole attitude of what can we get away with?

Philip Yancey in his book 'what's so amazing about grace' describes it pretty well (page 190)

He makes a great example with a groom who in the wedding night has this conversation with his bride:
'Honey, I love you so much and I'm eager to spend my life with you. but I need to work out a few details. Now that we are married, how far can I go with other women? Can I sleep with them? Kiss them? You don't mind a few affairs now and then, do you? I know it might hurt you, but just think of all the opportunities you'll have to forgive me after I betray you.'

If I approach my relationship with God the same way this groom does, then I don't understand the first thing about love or grace.

Extending grace to others means forgiving them.
Receiving grace means knowing and trusting God, that everything really IS taken care of. Sometimes that is still the hard part for me.

What do you think?

PS: Read 'What's so amazing about grace?'. Great book. :)

Huge Praise:
My car fund grew from $500 to $1400 in just 2 month. Pray for the remaining $600+ to come in soon, so I can get a car with air con soon!

110 degrees (or 43 Celsius) is just about normal for summer in Las Vegas and insanely hot! The fact that it is a dry heat doesn’t matter when you burn yourself with the seatbelt!

212 (or 100 Celsius) is the temperature that water boils at and changes from water to gas. During Junior High Camp we talked about living your life in pursuit of 212—having a relationship with God that’s boiling hot and at that level you have the ability together with God to start changing the world.
The 5 day camp with 300+ Junior High Students was up in the mountains in Arizona with lots of trees and rocks—beautiful, but I was glad for the 5 day limit.




My girls (a group of 9 students) were amazing. Throughout the week we had lots of time to talk about what it means to live a life in pursuit of 212—even though you’re pretty much going through hell at home. These girls want to live their lives for God and have so many ideas on how to make that a reality.
It was a huge blessing and privilege to be their leader and I can’t wait to see what God has for them.


In the beginning of the summer I had a chance to ‘go back to my roots’ and lead the Mission Adventures Summer staff in an afternoon of team building activities.
This is something that goes back to my days in Darwin eons ago! :)
I hadn’t had the chance to lead anything in terms of team building for ages, but it felt like ‘home’.
Since I get to hang out with youth at the Boys and Girls Club in our neighborhood, I will try and do some team building activities with them once summer is over.

Boys and Girls Club has been going good, with me hanging out and playing Basketball with the teens.
Most of them come from broken homes and want nothing more than someone who cares about what they do. This makes for interesting conversations at times.

Please pray that I will be able to share the love of Christ with them and the hope He brings for their lives.

The Pier is continuing to grow in several areas. We now offer Basic English Classes 3 times a week with an average of 6 students each time; Tutoring, and the Job Readiness Classes are starting at the end of this month.
Of course we are still serving over 800 people with food each month.

By the way….
Germany got third in the world cup!! Just in case you missed some awesome games!

My friends and me hung out at the Las Vegas Hofbrauhaus every now and then to watch the games! Go Germany! :)

Tweets

* YWAM’s Mission Adventures Training had a great summer, seeing people saved,
healed and delivered.
* In January 2011 YWAM Las Vegas will run it’s first Abolitionists DTS, fighting Human Trafficking in the world
* The August DTS has just started this week with 6 students from 3 different nations!
* I have a car fund of $1400+ !!!!

Thanks for all your friendships, prayers and support. I couldn’t do this without you!


frauke

That guy... And me....

It seemed like a normal day. I had just finished the shopping trip for the week and came out of Walmart, wondering why people were going on and on about how hot it is in Vegas. Didn't seem that hot today...

As I was putting my groceries into my car I noticed him. He was in his mid to late thirties, dirty clothes that were hanging off him.

From a distance he asked me something, but I couldn't understand him.
As I was coming closer I heard him say 'Don't come closer. I'll just stay back here. I was just wondering if you had something to eat for me?'

This is almost normal in Vegas, as sad as that sounds. Depending on what part of town you're in, you will be asked by homeless people for food, money, booze, whatever else they feel you should give them.
I usually don't buy into that, knowing what services are available and how little they are used at times, and also knowing people who have made it off the streets and the stories they tell me.

But we were far away from any place that I knew of that offered services to the homeless, so I decided to dig through my groceries and see if I could share stuff with him.

Til this point all was very normal, except for this: he kept on insisting on staying away and not coming close, and whenever I came closer, or handed him stuff he said that I must either be an alien or a Christian...

While he's dead on with both (Legal Alien AND Christian) it saddened me to think that only Aliens (I know what he meant!) and Christians would even consider giving towards people who are asking.

I mean, don't get me wrong... Go Christians... Apparently you DID listen to that sermon...

But do you know what I mean?