50 Years YWAM Training, Sustainable Development, Syrian Refugee Work

Youth With A Mission celebrated 50-years of training last year, YWAM Mozambique experiences an exciting movement of God, YWAM Guana is operating a Sustainable Development Centre, people are having their site restored in Papua New Guinea, Loren Cunningham shares with us about the new YWAM Ship going to the Philippines, there is a huge need for volunteers to minister to the people affected by the Syria Refugee crisis, and more on this episode of the YWAM News Show ... Thank you for downloading this, the 121st episode of the Youth With A Mission News Show Podcast, I’m your host, Bill Hutchison. You can contact us, subscribe to future episodes, leave comments, and find links to all the stories we talk about on the show notes for this podcast at ywampodcast.com/121 … Stories: 50th Anniversary of YWAM Training Late last year Youth With A Mission celebrated 50 Years of training in YWAM. https://youtu.be/jVYZChnEnTw As Luzanne shared with us, you can watch all of the sessions from the time of celebration on the YWAM YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/ywam. YWAM Mozambique Movement of God When the first YWAM church planting team came to a Mozambique province in the mid-90s to reach the Yao people, they learned there were very few Yao churches or believers in that area. They were told the Yao people were the hardest and most difficult people group to reach. Now “churches are popping up like popcorn,” says Paul (not his real name) a local church planter and disciple maker. “This is a phrase that Paul likes to use a lot because he is overwhelmed with what God is doing,” says Shephen Mbewe, a former YWAM location leader in Mozambique. The Yao people are a tribe found in northern Mozambique, Malawi and parts of Tanzania in Africa. They are mainly Muslim, but their Islamic faith is also blended with folk and animistic beliefs. When the YWAM team first came to the area they began spending time praying for the Yao, developing friendships with them by playing sports—especially football—together, using mercy ministries such as caring for the sick and wounded as a way to enter communities and demonstrating the love of God to the Yao. It wasn’t long before people became interested. They began reading the Bible and sharing the Gospel message with other Yaos. The Gospel has also spread to the Makua Meto and Chewa tribes through the Yaos. “The people movement is growing with the awareness that others outside their own people group and tribe need to hear, too,” says Mbewe. “The Gospel is spreading like a wild bush fire, utterly unstoppable.” But coming to Christ hasn’t come without a price for some of these new believers, said Mbewe, who spent time with Carlos (not his real name), a man who had been beaten up by a best friend after he became a Christian. The best friend had been hired by Carlos’ own uncle and intended to kill the new Christian. However, instead of hating his former best friend for trying to kill him, Carlos forgave him and shared Christ’s love with him. The former best friend became a Christian and the two friends share Christ together. As new believers risk their lives to share God’s love, God is working through them. Recently there was a special Yao conference that brought in 750 people from the tribes of Yao, Makua Meto, Chewa, and Nyanja, during which 76 new believers were baptized. You can actually read more about the conference, and the movement of God in Mozambique, in the main article at ywam.org. YWAM Akosombo, Guana Youth With A Mission in Akosombo, Guana is currently operating an Isaiah Sustainable Development Center (ISDC). The base has undertaken ecological housing and vineyards as one of their projects. ISDC works with poor people in deprived rural areas to build descent but affordable houses using environmental friendly available materials like, clay, gravels, stones, sand and straw to inhabit,