Year Wrap Up

Year Wrap Up

so much to say...
This year has been a a crazy journey. I have had two paying jobs and was going to staff three DTSs.
Last September I went back to Arkansas for a “Go Team” (support team) conference, and to prep for the up and coming DTS. Two weeks after flying in to Arkansas I was flying out again. The DTS was canceled due to a lack of students and the “Galilee Project” (a leadership training course) was starting in Salem, OR. With much prayer and petition I decided to not raise support for this $3,000 endeavor. It was a hard decision, but God ended up providing the money in an amazing way.
After finding myself at the end of the three month long course and in debt to the Salem base, I remembered that God told me I would be getting a “paying” job in January. So, I started my hunt. I landed a contracted night janitorial position at “Sparkle and Clean Janitorial.” It had hard hours, but I was making money.
As I looked at my new expenses (car, rent, food, ext.) and my paycheck, I realized that I was not getting out of debt. I asked God, “Why am I here? I am not getting out of debt and on top of life.” He said, “You are here because I love the people you work with and you are the only Jesus they have ever seen. So, love on them and tell them about Me!” I did that for 4 months, and by the end I saw some real change in their lives.
In April I applied for a job at a christian camp in Oregon called Camp Tadmor.
All of May I was on a Mobile Trip. The trip was to motivate people to walk out their faith. In the middle of the trip I told the group that I need a week away so I could touch base with my church, family and friends in SoCal. I felt that I needed to get my support raised, or I would not be able to do long term/full time missions any longer. So Sunday was the kick off, and I needed to get a good amount of meetings scheduled for that week (although I could have made them sooner). And I did not get a single one.
Discouraged, I told God, “ I am fine with scrubbing toilets for the remainder of my life. If that is how you want me to bring glory to Your name, then “sign me up,” but I feel like that is not what you have for me.”
Not needing a whole week for meetings, I met back up with my team. My first day back with them was a “rest day.” Luke, the team leader, had the whole day planned. We didn’t know until a block away what we were doing. He had gone online and gotten us free tickets to be in the audience of a game show called “The Pice Is Right”. I ended up getting on the show! Not only getting on, but winning! I won just under $10,000 worth of prizes!
People have told me, “God will bless you in ways you can not imagine.” And there was no way I could have imaged that.
I should have never doubted His call on my life. Even if “all has failed” and I am “down and out” I know God wants to bless me. And I KNOW GOD IS FOR ME.
This last summer I got a job at Tadmor as a Lead Counselor. I was on a team of four “Leads.” We had fourteen counselors that we looked after and helped to be “better” in all aspects of the word. It was, in a nutshell, a summer to remember.

Winter 2008 NEWS

For the last 3 months I have been involved in a leadership training program called the Galilee Project. Its aim is to develop quality servant leaders for the Nations. During the Galilee Project we raised money and went on a “Mobile trip,” aimed to mobilize young people to do something extraordinary for God with their lives. Our team of 12 split up in to two teams; one went to California, and the other went to Washington. We met back up in Colorado for the “GO Conference”. The objective of the California team was to tell students in Universities about missions and how they can change the world. The Washington team empowered people to help stop injustice around the world, while also helping out in the local area.

I was on the Washington team. On the trip, I spoke at a youth group on the importance of missions. One thing that I kept coming back to was a statistic that really hit me in the face and it’s that 1/3 of the world’s population (about 2 billion people) has never heard the name of Jesus even once. However, only .2% of the world’s population are Christian and reaching out to the unreached. This fact really scares me! I ask myself what are we doing about this as Christians? How are we doing on the “Great Commission”? So I am now looking at this problem wondering how I can solve it.

In turn, I have made it my goal to see that number be 0 by the end of my lifetime! I am not playing around any more, it is time for me and my generation to take our place in history and finish the “Great Commission” at ALL costs.

So in this next season of life when I am staffing the DTS in Arkansas I am going to take it full force and do what I can with what I have. Will you join me in doing the same?

Blessing to you from our Lord God Almighty,

7119 Mountain View Dr, Ozark, Ar 72949 bigmikegervasi@gmail.com 951-858-2675 www.mikeywam.blogspot.com

Did you know!

A Call to the Church

by Landa Cope

I was channel surfing, mindlessly flipping through scores of TV programs to pass the time. I landed on a show where a British journalist was saying that Christians believe that many of their members being in a community will affect that community for good. The greater the Christian presence then, the greater the benefit to the society at large. I agreed with the commentator. That is what we teach.

The TV journalist went on to propose that we look at the most Christianized city in America and see how this influence works out practically. He said the definition of "Christianized" he would use would be the community with the largest percentage of believers actually attending church regularly. This is a good conservative working definition of "Christianized."

He said that by that definition, Dallas, Texas was the most Christianized city in America at that time. More people per capita were in church on any given Sunday than in any other community in the country. Churches abound in Dallas and a large number boost full pews. Our journalist proposed that we look at the social demographics of Dallas and see how this "Christian blessing" worked out practically within that community.

We looked at various statistics and studies, including crime, safety on the streets, police enforcement, and the justice and penal system. We looked at health care, hospitals, emergency care, contagious diseases, infant mortality rate, and the distribution of care givers. We reviewed education, equality of schools, safety, test scores and graduation statistics. Jobs, housing, and general economics were evaluated. Could you get a job? Could you get housing? Did potential income match available housing? We looked at homelessness and programs for those unable to care for themselves. Each of these categories was evaluated using racial and economic factors. Was there equity regardless of color, creed or income? And so on.

The TV host had chosen the kind of statistics and information you would be concerned about if you where going to raise your children in a community. As Christians we want to be ready to go wherever God sends us. However, we also know that there are some places we would rather live than others, for obvious reasons. Will my children be safe on the streets? Can they get a respectable, safe education? Will I be able to house, clothe and feed my family? Will my children have blatant exposure to drugs and other destructive influences? Can my family be relatively safe from disease? Is adequate medical attention available if they get sick? Can I get legal help and a fair hand from the judicial system? Are the police equally interested in our protection, and, is all of this true regardless of my color, nationality or creed?

The program was, perhaps, an hour long and I watched it alone. By the time my English host was done with the Dallas study I was devastated. No one would want to live in a city in that condition. The crime, the decrepit social systems, the disease, the economic discrepancies, the racial injustice all disqualified this community from having an adequate quality of life. And this was the "most Christianized" city in America. I wanted to weep.

The program was not finished. The host now would take this devastating picture of a broken community to the Christian leaders and ask for their observations. He chose leaders of status and integrity. He chose the kind of Christian leaders other Christians would respect. One by one, each pastor viewed the same facts about the condition of his city that I had just seen. With simplicity, the narrator asked each minister, "As a Christian leader what is your response to the condition of your community?". Without exception, in various ways, they all said the same thing, "This is not our concern... we are spiritual leaders."

The program finished, the room was silent, and my world began to crumble. Many years of my work as a missionary had been spent addressing Christianity's critics, specifically those in the media. (This is not generally very difficult as their accusations are often ill informed or poorly formulated.) If this journalist had turned the microphone to me for comment at the closing of his program I would have been silent. A rare occurrence. I was shocked to silence... by the facts.

I had no argument against the case this journalist had built. As Christians, we do say our faith, lived out, will influence a society toward good. We go beyond this. I have heard it said, and have taught, that it only takes 20% of a society believing anything to influence, even lead, the other 80% in a given direction. We teach that the gospel is good for a society, that its values will bless those beyond the members of faith! But the facts about Dallas do not support this notion. We must look at the facts! Dallas has many more than 20% professing Christians. Can we say that this city is the legacy of Christian influence?

I was reeling over implications and questions. Why had I not been honest enough to see the discrepancy between my teaching and the visible results? Why had it taken a non-Christian to point these things out to me? How could we as Christian leaders say "quality of life issues" are not our concern? If the Gospel does influence all of society, how could America, with more Christians per capita, possibly, than any other time in its history, be slipping from Biblical values in virtually every arena? Slipping in crime, immorality, poverty, corruption, justice, disease, drugs, homelessness, literacy and more? How was it that I, and the myriad of committed Christians I know, had never put this all together? Why had we not judged ourselves? And... found ourselves wanting!

If you Want to read more go here:
http://www.templateinstitute.com/

YWAW Salem, OR Fall DTS 2008

Videos of the DTS teachings

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dts-live!---ywam-salem

EMERGENCY PRAYER ALERT – CALL TO PRAY FOR INDIA!

EMERGENCY PRAYER ALERT – CALL TO PRAY FOR INDIA!

Youth With A Mission staff members have been among the thousands of followers of Christ in India who are suffering under violent persecution by Hindu radicals.

The violence has increased in recent months across the nation, most particularly in the states of Orissa and Karnataka, where thousands are fleeing their homes in an attempt to escape the persecution. In the state of Orissa alone, 51 people are confirmed dead, while over 40 000 have been forced to flee their homes as gangs of Hindu radicals storm through, beating up pastors, priests and nuns, burning churches and homes and vandalizing property.

Reports have come in from over a dozen YWAM staff and students who have suffered beatings and injuries, the loss of their homes and damage to personal and ministry property. Other teams are engaged in efforts to support the refugees who are often left with nothing. All are desperately praying for God to intervene, and they are asking YWAM International to join them.

A group of 90 Christian leaders meeting last week in Mumbai felt in prayer that the situation for Indian Christians is similar to that in the book of Esther, when God’s people were also being subject to a plan of extermination. YWAM leaders from India who were at the meeting explain, “Queen Esther appeals, through Mordecai, to the people of God to go on a three day fast. The rest is history. God intervenes. That's the objective of this call to pray and fast. Accordingly we are urging all our friends to declare three days of prayer and fasting for India from Monday the 29th to Wednesday the 1st of October. “

YWAM International Chairman, Lynn Green, echoes this call to prayer. “This coming Thursday is YWAM’s monthly Global Day of Prayer and our focus is on strengthening yourself in the Lord," Lynn says. "Our brothers and sisters in India are suffering in a way many of us have never faced and we must stand with them, strengthening them with our prayers as they pursue God’s purposes in that nation.”

Prayer Points for India :

1) Read Esther chapter 3 and 4 to see parallels between what is happening in India today and the enemy’s goal at that time to wipe out God’s people. Pray for “Esthers” to rise up and speak to influential people in India who can work to prevent further violence.
2) Pray that God will bless those who persecute, according to Jesus’ instructions and that they would come to faith in Jesus through the example of the believers and the supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit
3) Pray for believers across India to be strengthened in their faith and persevere through these hardships. Pray that God would use them especially in this time, to be salt and light in India.
4) Pray for the victims of this violence, and for intervention from the Central Government to prevent further attacks. Pray for relief efforts which are assisting those who have been hurt or have lost everything.


For updated news on violence against Christians in India, please go to the Evangelical Fellowship of India website at www.efionline.org

For this month’s Global Day of Prayer teaching, go to : www.prayerday.org

A full list of prayer points from the Esther fast and other information is available from : ict@oval.com. Please include your full name and location when requesting further information.

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