Teens bring the Good News to a notorious Haitian village

St Marc’s District Five stretched before us, dotted with small villages of cinderblock houses with thatched roofs. Dust hung in the air while the intense sun baked the earth.

District Five is notorious in St Marc for its voodoo practices. It’s a rough, impoverished community. According to YWAM Haiti director Terry Snow, the village we were in has never been visited by a team of missionaries. That would soon change with our team of teens and young adults. …

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Rejected no more

Today I’m surrounded by people who have lost their jobs. Who have broken dreams. Who are societal failures and yet persist to live.

Here in Japan, many people commit suicide when they lose their jobs. They have brought shame to their families and want to restore their honor through their death. These students have chosen something else.

I’m in a government sponsored English class for the unemployed, teaching English conversational skills and discussing our cultures. But most importantly, my team and I are sharing a message of encouragement and value.
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Jungle Bible School

Our five-seater plane flew over the verdant Congo jungle, buzzing and bouncing through the clouds. Wycliff Bible Translators invited us (the YWAM Bible School for the Nations) to run a several-week Bible seminar for key church leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We touched down in a very remote town. The damp, thick jungle heat blasted us when the plane doors opened.

Although this town is very remote, people from all over the Congo came for this Bible training seminar. Fifty pastors and leaders, both men and women, are very excited to learn the truth and have it transform them so that they can know how to teach others.

World Changers in Training

One hundred years ago, college students changed the face of modern missions. It’s time for a new movement! This summer, fourteen students have converged on the UW Madison campus to learn how to make an eternal difference in the world. They’re passionate about ending poverty and human trafficking, providing clean water and more!

But before they embark on their international mission adventure, they’re building a stronger spiritual foundation. The last few weeks, they’ve been going deeper in their friendships with God. They’re learning what it means for God to be their perfect Father. They’re beginning to recognize his voice.

(If you’d like to be part of the 2011 U-DTS, you can apply now.)

Children at Risk DTS: Fall 2010

Throughout the world millions of children are orphaned through war, AIDS, and extreme poverty. Every seven seconds a child dies from a preventable disease. Children are sold into prostitution or forced to become child soldiers. They’re lost and they have no place to live. These children have no hope. And these are the ones that are on the heart of God.

The Children at Risk DTS will focus on the needs of children around the world and the issues that put them at risk. We will also focus on the heart of God who promises to be a “Father to the fatherless, who sets the lonely in families.” (Psalm 68:5,6) Children at Risk DTS begins September 19, 2010.

Apply today and make an eternal difference!

Underground Bible School

We spent our first three days in a remote, mountainous area at a campground. The purpose of our camp was to teach new believers who have little or no access to Bible training. And the location of the seminar was intentional–we needed to be somewhere remote, away from the prying eyes of authorities who would not hesitate to imprison these Christians for their beliefs.

My team of Bible School for the Nations students and translators were excited to start! More than thirty people crammed into a small karaoke room, waiting for the Bible classes to begin.

“Expect to get closer to God this week,” I told them. I looked around at this group of strangers. [...]

How I learned to relate with God

I love to relate with people and I am really good at it! But for some reason, it has been very difficult for me to relate with God. For a long time, God seemed like that new guy in school—the one everyone knows, but who is still so mysterious. No one knows where he came from or what he did in the past. He’s just a cool guy.

That’s what I thought about God until I took the initiative to get to know Him. I’ve been studying the Old Testament for the last few months in the School of the Bible. It’s like studying God’s life.

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Meeting Jesus Under the Mango Tree

Our pickup truck bounced down the dirt road, kicking up a trail of red dust clouds. The truck swerved around a giant termite mound and I grabbed the side of the truck bed. We finally pulled to a stop between two mud huts, where a dozen people waited beneath a cluster of mango trees.

I glanced at Job, the man who brought us to Pader. He looked nervous. Would his twenty-five year prayer be answered today?

“Jall,” an elderly man greeted us. Hello. He led us to a circle of wooden chairs in the shade. The man was Job’s father.

“Apoyo matec,” I said shaking his hand. [...]