YWAM DNA Conference (by Joel)

Nobody ever told me Missouri was beautiful.  

All I knew about the state is that I should be able to get some good BBQ ribs.  For my 37^th birthday I did just that – along with an apple pie made by some lady named Barbie.  But did you know Missouri is also a beautiful place?   I didn’t! 

We found out Missouri was beautiful while spending two weeks at a YWAM conference held at the Windemere Baptist Conference center on the Lake of the Ozarks. 

Back in February we’d felt God prompting us to attend this conference, a ‘DNA Infusion’ for the Americas, held April 10-22.  The founders, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, as well as David Hamilton and other long-term YWAM leaders would be spending two weeks passing on the values and calling of the mission to the next generation of leaders.  I’d like to share a little about this conference so that you can get a better feel for this tribe called YWAM.

{At the time we registered for this conference, the cost for the children’s food, housing and program had not been worked out.  When we heard the total cost for our whole family we really had to go back to what God had told us to do, even if it meant emptying the savings account and still not having enough!  So we did, and just before the fees were due some good friends, without knowing our need, made a donation that covered the rest!}  

Early on in the conference we found that even the Cunningham’s had been unsure of how they would pay for their flights to come to the conference!  These are the leaders of an organization with 20,000+ staff, plus 30,000+ students/year with a presence in every country in the whole world!  But that is the way they live, and the lifestyle they model for YWAM because that is specifically how God called YWAM to live.

YWAM Value #16 says: “YWAM is called to practice a life of dependence on God for financial provision. For individuals and YWAM corporately this comes primarily through His people.  As God has been generous toward us, so we desire to be generous. YWAMers give themselves, their time and talents to God through the Mission with no expectation of remuneration.”  

The conference was attended by roughly 300 people from 45 different bases representing 32 nations.  YWAM Minneapolis showed up with 27 staff and students.  We spent roughly 8 hours a day in worship, intercession, teachings, workshops and simply hearing the stories that have defined who YWAM is.  

              
I sometimes forget that YWAM teaches most often not by lecture and instruction but by story-telling and modeling.  We were more ‘infused’ than taught the nature of the mission.  Essentially it’s the way a family stays together – being together doing things they love and telling stories. It's easy in YWAM to feel you are in a family when international leaders who’ve been so influential in the world, happily give you a hug, pray for you, then help you stack chairs and vacuum the floor when it’s time to clean up! 

Speaking of family, the kids had their very own DNA conference learning about and praying for the nations, learning to hear the voice of God, writing their own worship song, doing lots and lots of crafts and playing outside in the Missouri spring-time.  The staff at YWAM Madison did an incredible job and we are grateful for the way they served the families.    

Here are a few highlights of the conference: 

>>>Workshops on Families in Mission, conversations with long-term missionary moms, and families just starting new bases. 

>>>Fellowship, processing, praying, hanging out at the Funky Buffalo coffee shop, hiking and eating apple pie with our MN staff friends. 

>>> Hearing about the YWAM method of decision making at every level:  Hear God.  Obey God.  Don’t Give Up. 

>>>Truly seeing that YWAM is not all about YWAM.  It’s all about King Jesus, His church, His mission.  We’ll partner with anybody who wants to see Jesus worshiped by every nation, tribe and tongue:   

One night we prayed for the President of CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) and he was healed of a heart condition. 

On the same day, YWAM made a historic intellectual property agreement with Tyndale Publishing so that the SphereView Bible App can be released for free.  Learn more here: http://beta.scripturesys.com/

>>>On that note, Ending Bible Poverty is not only one of YWAM’s goals for 2020, it’s been a core part of the mission since the 1970’s.  Here's Loren speaking to the Azuza Now Gathering earlier this month:     

>>>YWAM’s calling:  Young people from everywhere, going everywhere, taking the Gospel to the ‘Alls’ and the ‘Everys’ through Evangelism, Mercy and Training.  Time and time again we heard stories of crazy, new, innovative ways YWAMers are doing this, or being the “boots on the ground” for other Christian agencies.  The scope is getting the whole Gospel to the whole world.  Kinda ambitious!  But it fits the verse God gave us as a motto when we first came into YWAM:  Matt 24:14 “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” 

>>>YWAM’s leadership comes through influence, not authority.  The international and national leaders have laid down their titles.  Direction comes not from the next level of seniority, but through circles of relationship convening to seek God together.   Relationships built around geographic proximity, or target people groups, or target spheres (such as the Cities conference held in San Francisco last week for YWAM bases wanting to saturate the different spheres of culture within a metropolis.)    

>>>Praying for the nations:  This is Rachel standing on China and India where she rushed as soon as she found out we'd be praying on a big map. 

I'll finish up with a few more pictures.  Caving!   Family time! Missouri State Park with castle ruins!  New friends!  And Beautiful Missouri!  

Some highlights from End of July through August

Our first stop worth mentioning was Montana!::

The beautiful F Family!

Lots of machine fun at L & D's house!

The kids became fast friends :)

Beartooth Pass, highest elevation in Montana: 10,947 feet above sea level

Getting into the Montana spirit

Onto Washington State!!::

Dear Grandma Ann

A lot of Joel's lovely family

South to Oregon!:

The lovely S Family!

The men and boys went on an 8 mile hike in the mountains.

Best friends forever

Joshua and O were baptized in a mountain river. A little chilly but a momentous occasion!

 Back north to Washington!:

The wonderful C family, Yes the llama is included.

Mount Ranier

Mount Ranier and four wonderful troopers!

Washington sure loved their espresso kiosks!
Here's Dutchman Brothers Coffee- good coffee and positive messages on the lids.

British Columbia, Canada!::

Met our newest nephew and his beautiful mommy K.

I (Renée) enjoy Canada's road signs. Here's a deer being hit by a car.

Biggest truck in the world. Sparwood, BC.
See the kids in the wheels?

Alberta!::

Camping with Joel's family

Joshua and Nana

Juneberry Pie with homemade ice cream.

Cousins!!

Cousins again!

Cousins! They all had so much fun together.

Sister and Brother and an inlaw.

Back home through South Dakota:: 

We stopped at one statue the whole 4800 miles.
It was a doozy.

Later on in August::

Rachel got baptized!

And that concludes our summer! Hope you had fun seeing the pictures! We loved seeing our wonderful family and friends this summer!!

loveminneapolis247.com

Our comfort zone is gaining new territory.

Love Minneapolis 24/7 is an evangelistic push going on in the city all this week, from 6/21-6/28. There are 28 outreaches planned for the 8 days, one every six hours, all week long, with the final outreach being concurrent with the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday. At this outreach last year on the same Sunday 80 people with sexual brokenness received Jesus. 80 from the LGBTQ community! LoveMPLS is backed by mandatory training and 24/7 worship and intercession. And we went.
 
Actually, it was mandatory for Renée as part of her School of Ministry Development. (Which ends tomorrow!!! Tonight (6/25) is her Commissioning Night. 7 pm right here at YWAM Minneapolis. All are welcome to attend!) So yes, Renée didn't have much choice in the matter, but we thought it would be good for the whole family to join her class. Street evangelism, why not? We are being trained as missionaries, right? Renée's spent a few Friday afternoons in this school out in the parks and malls looking for people to pray for or share the Gospel with. She wouldn't say it's gone all that well or that she's even enjoyed it. Just being honest.

So, 9 am we arrived at an Alliance Church, which they calling the Firebase for LOVEMPLS. There was a 45 minute briefing held with Hans L. who would be our outreach leader and the 40 other 'messengers' we were to go out on the streets with. Hans asked if there were any worship leaders among us. I raised my hand. He asked if I had an instrument along. I'd felt led to bring my guitar, so yes I was now to lead a 'flash mob' worship time once we got to the streets. (Which is cool because I'm planning on taking my Worship Focus students in this Fall's DTS out for some worship evangelism, and I need practice!)

Following the briefing was 2 hours of worship and 'consecration' time to prepare our hearts to go out. Knowing that would be too long for the kids we brought UNO and some snacks. Our friend Christine, Renée's mentor, offered to hang out with the kids so she could stay in the worship time. Does two hours seem a little long? Not to me anymore.  The real work of evangelism belongs to the Holy Spirit. Prayer and worship is how we come into alignment with Him, allowing Him to remove anything that would hinder us from hearing His voice as we go out to talk to people. We'd be on the streets for 2 hours. So 2 hours of heart preparation seems reasonable to me. (The worship leading is going on night and day ALL WEEK, with new leaders setting up as the previous one finishes every two hours, night and day.)

After the worship time we loaded into our vans and drove downtown, paid $20 for parking because there was a Twins game last night, and walked 4 blocks to Nicolett Ave just at the noon hour. I pulled out my guitar and led all 40 of us in It Is Well right on the busy street corner. Someone suggested I Love You Lord, then another Bless the Lord and we finished up with Set A Fire (gotta have something for this younger generation too!) People walking mostly skirted us, rather than taking the lane we'd made through the middle of our group. After the singing we dispersed in groups of 2, with the exception of our family of 6.

This is when it got awkward. Now what? We sang a song that I wrote for the kids at Cornerstone and the kids and Renée did the actions. Really awkward. The kids were armed with Revive Twin Cities Bibles and bracelets. Rachel was very eager to tell someone about Jesus, but we didn't really know what to do. Renée doesn't like being in the city, especially with the kids. We were hungry and getting testy. We walked back to the van and put my guitar away, crossed the street to a pharmacy to find they didn't have public restrooms.  Well, lets find a place to eat. Qdoba? What's this Lunch Cube down the block, or hey, the Dancing Ganeesha, maybe we'll meet some people from India to talk to. Nope. The server was from Ecuador and our hostess was Persian, from Iran. Tried to make conversation with them but it didn't go very far. The food was amazing though. Then we wandered down the street to Loring Park where they were setting up tents and booths for the Pride celebration. Tried to talk to an older couple on a park bench. No, they didn't want prayer for anything. Couldn't find a playground for the kids and there wasn't enough time to cross over to the Sculpture Garden so we prayed for the Pride Parade outreach and started back toward the van taking a different route. As we were walking Rachel told me she'd seen a lady give her life to Jesus while we were singing back at the beginning.  "That's cool," I said. Rachel has a tendency to see more than is really there. Crossing through the courtyard of University of St. Thomas School of Law we found ourselves just down the street from the Dancing Geneesha, and our hostess was outside taking a smoke break with a friend. "Rachel," I said, "Do you want to give our hostess from the restaurant a bracelet?" She did, but I had to help her. "Hi again!" I said, "Rachel here would like to give you something."  "Aww..." was the response. That's the great thing about kids. I don't get "Aww" when I try to give people something. We gave the hostess and her friend Bibles and asked them if we could pray for them. They said yes, so Renée and I prayed for each of them. I guess we could've tried to talk further with them, but, well, we're still kinda new at this and I suppose we made our get-away while we were still in good standing. "That was easy!" Rachel said as we got back to the car. We were hot and sticky, somewhat deflated, trying to teach the kids that evangelism was a lifestyle, not just a one-time event.

Back to the Alliance Church for a 45 debrief. We filled out Encounter Cards (they do a really good job of making sure there is follow-up with people who were engaged with the Gospel) and people told stories. 4 people saved! A lady came up and introduced herself to me. She thanked me for leading worship on Nicolett and said it was really anointed. As we were singing a little boy on a scooter had rode right through our midst. His mother had walked around us. This lady talking to me had stopped the mother and engaged her in conversation. By the time those few songs were over she'd gone from not having anything to do with that 'Jesus stuff' to saying, 'This is for real!', surrendering her life to him and being filled with His Spirit! Whoa! The lady who led her to the Lord insisted we record it on our Encounter Card and not hers because she felt strongly that it was the worship that opened her heart to Jesus.

Notice the little guy on the scooter on the left whose mother gave her life to Jesus.  

So, that was our day. Then we had to run down to Savage to the chiropractor. Got home exhausted. Spent a couple hours on the mower to deflate and went to bed.

Thoughts on the day:

We have great kids. They can put up with a lot. And other people don't mind hanging out with them. They are "outreach worthy".

We're thankful the Great Commission is not, "Go and make converts, " but, "Go and make disciples," because Renée is finding herself loving to disciple while evangelism is not her strength. I don't mind talking to strangers, but I've never actually led someone to accept Jesus.

God uses us when we don't even know it. When we're faithful to what He calls us, moment by moment, He will use our lives to move people closer to Jesus.  THAT is what we've seen Him do over and over, and THAT is why we are at YWAM Minneapolis, because THAT is what we want most in life: That through our lives the kingdom of the Jesus we love will flourish.  Amen?

June Newsletter

   Renée’s pre-school “apprehension” about this role reversal was not unfounded, on many levels.  But within the first week of school she was coming home with Divine and life-changing revelations, and I was gaining a deep, experiential respect for all that she does as a homemaker!

What the SOMD has done for Renée is to make ample space for God to speak truth into the areas in which she’s believed lies for many years. Often this process is very painful.  It has not been a pleasant time emotionally for us.  But the fruit is worth it, in being better prepared for future ministry. In the last few weeks I’ve seen Renée step out with boldness, speaking the word of God into other’s lives. I’ve seen her catch a vision for what her ministry could look like overseas. I’ve seen her heal emotionally. And although I’m not good at letting my face show it, I’ve been repeatedly astonished at the work of the Holy Spirit in her life. 

In one way we are moving forward as a family is by looking back.  Who has God shaped us to be?  What has God planted in us that we can cultivate?  Renée has, through the years of dealing with disease and diet restriction in our children, developed a passion for healthy living (she hosted a seminar on that topic last Thursday!) By September Renée will begin pursuing a 4-year degree in naturopathic medicine by correspondence through Trinity School of Natural Health. 

For myself, years of interest in missiology, music, recording and a passion for calling out creative worship in others is leading me to the field of ethnodoxology (the theological and anthropological study, and practical application, of how every cultural group might use its unique and diverse artistic expressions appropriately to worship the God of the Bible.)  In November I’ll fly to western India for a 20-day Cross-Cultural Worship Ministry Seminar for credit with YWAM’s University of the Nations. 

We see these passions, naturopathic medicine and ethnodoxology, as a way for us to be serving among the unreached within 5-10 years.   Thank-you for your friendship along this journey!

Upcoming Dates:

June 25: SOMD Graduation

July 9-18: Joel leads a Mission Adventures trip to Pine Ridge,  SD

Sept-Nov: Joel leads Worship Focus in the Fall DTS.

Sept 8: Renée begins course work at TSNH.

Nov 2-20: CCWMS in India

Jan-Mar ‘16: Renée & Joel teach ECCO Bible Class

Finances:

Renée: 1^st year tuition & books, Certified Health Specialist:    $893.39

Joel: CCWMS fees and flights: ≈$1500

We will need your help with these expenses as we are about 10% or $300/month short of being fully supported.  Thank-you!