Graduation with a difference

The Youth With A Mission (YWAM) campus that I work on is quite a large campus with a little over 120 full time staff, and so we have training courses running here year round. With new ones starting every quarter, and also graduating every quarter. This means I have seen a number of graduations over this last year, from the Discipleship Training School (DTS) which is the foundational course for everything that YWAM does, to design schools, humanities schools, and community development schools. Harpenden is also the main UK campus for the university of the nations (UofN) (http://www.uofnkona.edu), which is YWAM’s university; training and equipping people to enter all spheres of society (i.e. politics, science, healthcare etc).

The graduation that we had last week was special because it was more than just a school graduation, it was a degree ceremony for two trainees. The trainees who were awarded degrees have undertaken a number of different training courses, in several different places round the world over the last few years. These courses have given them credits with certain faculties within the UofN and now they have enough to be awarded a degree within this faculty. It was great to be able to honour them for all the work they have done, and what they have achieved. One graduated in the sciences, with a degree in community development, and the other in humanities with a degree in nation building and reconciliation.

It is such a blessing to see the people who you help to teach and mentor achieve the qualifications and then go onto use that either within YWAM, but more often outside the organization. To be able to see them living the passion that they have along side their faith is very inspiring, and I am looking forward to seeing many more graduating over the years as this campus grows and runs more training.

A chance to teach...

The foundations in community development course (FCD) that is currently running here on the campus gave me the chance to do a week of teaching with their trainees this month. I was asked to focus on environmental stewardship, which is a passion of mine, especially after working in marine and terrestrial conservation in the Seychelles for several years.

The trainees are form a variety of backgrounds (Korea, Malawi, Switzerland, Cameroon, Rwanda, Egypt, USA and England), which was amazing. Getting to spend time with such a variety of culture and worldview was a real privilege. We spent the week having discussions around a number of topics that I felt would best help them in this subject. I am not so good at just speaking/lecturing people, I like to get them to think, so to have the freedom to facilitate and have discussion was amazing. The trainees all said at the end of the week that they enjoyed sharing ideas and trying to work things out together.

I felt that they learned a lot, and it was really good that they saw that it is no good addressing just the problem and setting up legislation. You actually have to get involved with the community and educate and mentor the people so that they can catch the vision for what they have. It is more than just about looking after the animals, it involves resource management, such as fresh water etc, pollution management and so on, it is a big subject.

But why is this a passion of mine? Why do I think we should be looking after the planet? Because God has given it to us as a gift and asked us to look after it for him. God created it all. If you were given something by a good friend, and told you can use it, but that they would like it back eventually, are you going to look after it so that they can have it back in good condition? It would be selfish if you did not care for what your friend gave you.

Prayer walking London

On Wednesday, eight of us went to London to join an amazing man for a prayer walk. His name is Mark and he took us around the City of London (the square mile that was originally settled and where the city grew from, now the financial district). It was a really great time visiting some significant places. We started at the Tower of London, walking and praying until we reached St Paul’s Cathedral, stopping to pray along the way. 

Mark shared a lot about the history and spiritual significance of the area. The city itself has an amazing heritage having had, at one point, 96 churches in the square mile itself! It was great to be able to pray and intercede for the big decisions and trading that is done here. Also to speak blessing over the place, asking God to restore it’s heritage. 

When we got to St Paul’s Cathedral we met a few of the people who were camped around it protesting. It was a great chance to talk and pray with them. One guy was so thankful for us praying for the integrity and protection of the members of the camp that he prayed for us also and was in tears. It is amazing to see what God can do when you step out and engage with people, even in small things like prayer walking. I love to be able to engage with what God is doing, to see what He’s done in the past and through that see what He’s doing now and what He wants to do in the future.

London truly is called to be a city of blessing and influence for the Kingdom, a place of diversity and Father’s covering to the nations. 

Back to Batchwood

Last Friday I took a group from the current September DTS (Discipleship Training School) to Batchwood (a local club). Where we give out water and lollies to the folks coming and going to the club, and talk with the people we meet if they want to. A group of us goes there most Friday’s and it’s always really good. 

It’s been a few months since I last went, as I was away leading a short-term mission trip, so it was really nice to see the bouncers again and catch up with them, they always enjoy having us come down. The club was not as busy as it has been, but everyone who came with me ended up in significant conversations with people. I spent about 45 minutes chatting with a guy called Matt before him and his mates headed off. His comment to me was that it is really nice to be able to talk with someone who listens. He had some really deep questions that he wanted to talk about, but said he has found it really difficult to find anyone to be able to talk with. He was really open to God and very close to actually making a commitment to follow Christ.

One of the guys we talked with (on the left)

We did not manage to pass out all the water that we took, but we certainly blessed a few people, including all the taxi drivers that come and wait for the club goer’s at the end of the night. It is really nice to go and reach out, and do something that people do not fully understand, but really appreciate. So many said that it was really cool what we were doing. We all had a lot of fun, and I ended up going to bed about 5am on Saturday.

Something Matt said to me really got me thinking, “You get two types of people, those who listen to listen and those who listen to talk.” If Christians are really going to be people who make a difference to the those around us then we need to get good at listening to them, and hearing where they’re at and what’s going on in their lives, not just engaging with people to try and tell them things that maybe they are not in a place to hear.

Being in Church is great, being with other Christians and encouraging each other, but we need to get out there as well. I really believe that Jesus is walking the streets, and you see so much of God’s heart for you and those you meet when you go on that walk with Jesus.

A Gathering in London

I spent the last week (6^th-12^th November) in London at a DTS (Discipleship Training School) Gathering. What is this you ask? Well it is a coming together of a number of different DTS’s from different Youth With A Mission (YWAM) bases from around the UK together with two Schools Of Evangelism (SOE) (one from Norway, the other from Carlisle). This was organized by the Forever team (which I am helping with part-time at the moment, www.forever2012.com) and is run as a week of teaching on evangelism and also actual outreach in partnership with the churches in the local area.  We are focusing on cities that are hosting Olympic events at the moment, so they have been run in Cardiff, Newcastle, Manchester, Weymouth/Portland and now London, with the next in Coventry in March.

Numbers can vary from gathering to gathering, but we had over 200 people join us in London in an area called Tower Hamlets. It was an incredible and encouraging week for all involved. The churches really loved to have us alongside them and everyone really wanted to get stuck-in to what was going on and didn’t want to miss God. In the end we had hundreds of stories of how God touched people’s lives in the area through a big range of outreach activities such as: prayer walking, litter picking, various sports and art outreaches, and treasure hunting (asking God who to talk to and going out and talking to them). Also something as simple as engaging people for a chat and hot chocolate on a sofa in a park. Everyone really enjoyed the range and different things that they got involved with and it was a really good time of listening to the local community and blessing the area.

The week was very significant for me, with God speaking more about the next few years and also having my heart broken for people in a new, deeper way. On the Thursday afternoon we had some free time, so I asked God what I should do. He told me to go for a walk (which ended up being about 7 miles!) After an hour of walking, while praying for the places I wandered through, I felt God ask me to buy a bag of lollies and that I should give them out as I walked back toward the church we were staying in, because He wanted to show me some things. 

As I kept walking I offered lollies to all sorts of people, but most of them didn’t take any. The majority of people who did take them were those that wouldn’t normally be noticed. I got to bless people sweeping the streets, people who are homeless, young and old etc. I approached a group of young guys, probably between 16 and 20, and offered them lollies to which they asked, “So why are you doing this then?” A very good question as it probably does not happen very often! When I told them God had told me to do it they did a double take and thanked me for my craziness, it was great! 

I also stopped to talk with a woman who was working trying to sign people up to support St Mungo’s (a homeless charity). We talked for about half-an-hour, in which she told me that she was once a Christian and that meeting someone like me gave her hope in people again. 

But the conversation that really broke my heart was the last guy I met. He was sitting on a bench, drunk, and threw his can of drink in my direction as I walked toward him. When he spotted me he looked really confused, I offered him a lollie and as he took it he also took off his hat and made space for me on his bench. He seemed so crushed, so hopeless, his first comment to me was “well I guess this means that God hasn’t given up on me yet.” We sat and talked for 45 minutes, or so, about God and what had happened in his life. He told me he was an ex-Catholic priest and from what he said he had been greatly crushed recently. What broke my heart most was that he stopped part way through our conversation and started yelling, almost sobbing, that he was a Son of God, but he was in despair as he didn’t know how to come back. I prayed with him a number of times during that encounter and when we parted he managed to stand up straight after a bit of a struggle and I gave him a hug and blessed him. He told me as we parted that before I sat down he was going to end his life that night, but now he was having second thoughts and thanked me for giving him hope. It was really interesting for me to be there with him, as he was seeing God through me, he kept looking at me and saying things like “you look like an angel.” My heart broke, I felt a bit more of what God’s heart is for the broken in this world, and it hurts!

I talked with a good friend of mine when I got back to the church, as I had questions and needed to pray with someone myself. The thing he said that really stuck with me was, “Jesus is walking the streets looking for the broken wanting to reach out to them, and he needs our help to do that.”

How can we just sit back and not do anything when God is weeping? When we ask God to break our hearts for what breaks His, are we really ready for what this means?

That's My King!

I was passed this the other day, and it really inspired me and lifted my spirit, so I wanted to share it. You may have seen it before! It speaks for itself, watch and enjoy :)

That's My King! from Albert Martin on Vimeo.

A Week of Prayer

We have just come to the end of an amazing week of 24/7 prayer on the campus. The best thing was that when we first started talking about having a week of prayer we thought it should be focused on the U.K. but when we got together, prayed and asked God how the week should look we felt He said that we shouldn’t have a focus, but that it was about Him and intimacy with Him. This by far has been my favourite week of prayer that I’ve ever done because we had no agenda. The week was His, not ours.

It was such a special time for everyone who came. We had a small team to cover the prayer room for every hour which meant that everyone else here was free to come and go as they pleased. Allowing them to spend time with God, no pressure and only His agenda. It was a time of freedom for a number of people, and God spoke a lot about who He is, and who we are. A time of firming up our identity in Him individually and as a campus. 

As the week started we felt like we should have a day of pure worship. So on the Wednesday we set up some times of live worship and had an ipod at the ready to cover the rest. In the end the ipod didn’t get used much as many people came in and picked up the guitar to play and worship, which was awesome! By the end of the week God had spoken a number of very specific things for this next season for us as a campus and also a number of things for the U.K. as we move toward the Olympics.

All in all it was an incredible week. The younger people on the campus stood up and declared that they are not satisfied with where they are and want to see more of God. That they want to see God’s kingdom move in this world. All of the people who made up the core team and organized this were under 35, most in their late teens or early 20’s. God is awesome.