YWAM Family Ministries International Leadership Team & YWAM Taiwan's National Leaders
Mel loves the Philippine Flag (and me! )
Shaking and moving in Taiwan!
Greetings! Yes that's right we were moved and shaken in Taiwan spiritually, emotionally & even physically! Please allow us to explain.....
Earthquake
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter-scale with several aftershocks shook Taiwan on our fourth night there. News reports said that buildings in Taipei were damaged, 4 people were killed and more than 200 injured. It was quite an experience in our hotel room on the 7th floor and we surely prayed hard. Its at times like this that you are so aware of the powerfulness of our God. We were extremely thankful for His protection and grateful for your prayers - they are so essential!
University of the Nations Workshop
We had an outstanding time together during the conference. The work of the Holy Spirit was evident among us from the very beginning. Of the 16,000 long term YWAMers around the world 2000 of us gathered in 4 locations for five days linked by video-conference. The locations were as follows;
South Korea, with 900 participants from 44 nations
Thailand with, 460 participants from 34 nations
India, with 500 participants from 37 nations
Taiwan with 170 people from 23 nations.
Pagentry & Celebration
Opening night was filled with pagentry and celebration with presentations from each of the four sites. It was a spectacular and inspiring evening, watching rich cultural diversity displayed from throughout Asia. Loren Cunningham opened the conference with a fatherly appeal to all of us in YWAM to "stay close to each other" and to affirm the fact that we are all part of the YWAM family and to make sure our relationships were okay.
The Call To All
The first full day of the conference focused on "The Call To All!" We were challenged by David Hamilton, Mark Anderson and Loren Cunningham to embrace the mandate in scripture to reach ALL (nations, families, individuals, etc.) and to go and preach the Gospel to EVERY creature. Our commission is to ALL, ALL, ALL, EVERY, EVERY, EVERY. Mark Anderson shared how God sovereignly led him to become the leader of the Call2All global initiative. God has called together a coalition of over 200 major ministries and denominations to work together in completing the Great Commission. Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, had called together these 200 leaders before he died and challenged them to work together to win 1 BILLION new converts in the next 20-25 years and to plant 20 million new churches. YWAM is being challenged by the Lord to step forward and to lead out in this initiative over the next several years.
The Holy Spirit
The focus on the second day of the conference was the Holy Spirit. and for us to acknowledge our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit to accomplish what we have been called to do. "Does the Holy Spirit have all of you?" was one of the questions we were asked.
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter-scale with several aftershocks shook Taiwan on our fourth night there. News reports said that buildings in Taipei were damaged, 4 people were killed and more than 200 injured. It was quite an experience in our hotel room on the 7th floor and we surely prayed hard. Its at times like this that you are so aware of the powerfulness of our God. We were extremely thankful for His protection and grateful for your prayers - they are so essential!
University of the Nations Workshop
We had an outstanding time together during the conference. The work of the Holy Spirit was evident among us from the very beginning. Of the 16,000 long term YWAMers around the world 2000 of us gathered in 4 locations for five days linked by video-conference. The locations were as follows;
South Korea, with 900 participants from 44 nations
Thailand with, 460 participants from 34 nations
India, with 500 participants from 37 nations
Taiwan with 170 people from 23 nations.
Pagentry & Celebration
Opening night was filled with pagentry and celebration with presentations from each of the four sites. It was a spectacular and inspiring evening, watching rich cultural diversity displayed from throughout Asia. Loren Cunningham opened the conference with a fatherly appeal to all of us in YWAM to "stay close to each other" and to affirm the fact that we are all part of the YWAM family and to make sure our relationships were okay.
The Call To All
The first full day of the conference focused on "The Call To All!" We were challenged by David Hamilton, Mark Anderson and Loren Cunningham to embrace the mandate in scripture to reach ALL (nations, families, individuals, etc.) and to go and preach the Gospel to EVERY creature. Our commission is to ALL, ALL, ALL, EVERY, EVERY, EVERY. Mark Anderson shared how God sovereignly led him to become the leader of the Call2All global initiative. God has called together a coalition of over 200 major ministries and denominations to work together in completing the Great Commission. Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, had called together these 200 leaders before he died and challenged them to work together to win 1 BILLION new converts in the next 20-25 years and to plant 20 million new churches. YWAM is being challenged by the Lord to step forward and to lead out in this initiative over the next several years.
The Holy Spirit
The focus on the second day of the conference was the Holy Spirit. and for us to acknowledge our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit to accomplish what we have been called to do. "Does the Holy Spirit have all of you?" was one of the questions we were asked.
.........................
The focus of the third day was on....... David Aikman who wrote the book J...... in B........... gave us a very insightful overview of the history of God working throughout ........ especially in the underground church. It is estimated that in 1949 there were 4 million believers in ........ Some officials now estimate there are 135 million believers. The great need among believers in ........is for teaching and discipleship. They are excellent in evangelism but there is a cry for teaching that "touches and transforms the heart."
................... Our Focus
We were all encouraged to make ............a focus over the next 10 years and to ask the Lord to show us initiatives we should take during this next year and beyond. YWAM has produced a booklet to help everyone interested in taking teams into ........... We are all encouraged to go into .......... but we are encouraged to go in through some Gateways that have been set up for orientation and for security.
9 x 6 Metre Map of ................
We finished off our focus on ...............with a very special application. At least three of the sites had made huge maps of ............broken up into the 850 Omega Zones. The map in Taiwan was 9 x 6 meters in size. The map was on the floor and we then did several prophetic acts. We marched from East to West Across ........., then we marched from North to South. We all stood inside the borders of .......... and had a powerful and extended time of worship and intercession. We all took slips of paper from the various Omega Zones and then found them on the map to pray over each of the 850 Zones. It was an incredible and exciting event to participate in. ............. will never be the same and neither will most of us.
We were all encouraged to make ............a focus over the next 10 years and to ask the Lord to show us initiatives we should take during this next year and beyond. YWAM has produced a booklet to help everyone interested in taking teams into ........... We are all encouraged to go into .......... but we are encouraged to go in through some Gateways that have been set up for orientation and for security.
9 x 6 Metre Map of ................
We finished off our focus on ...............with a very special application. At least three of the sites had made huge maps of ............broken up into the 850 Omega Zones. The map in Taiwan was 9 x 6 meters in size. The map was on the floor and we then did several prophetic acts. We marched from East to West Across ........., then we marched from North to South. We all stood inside the borders of .......... and had a powerful and extended time of worship and intercession. We all took slips of paper from the various Omega Zones and then found them on the map to pray over each of the 850 Zones. It was an incredible and exciting event to participate in. ............. will never be the same and neither will most of us.
Praying over the Map of ..............Focus on Children
The final day of the conference focused on Children. Loren Cunningham shared how the Lord had spoken to him 25 years ago in a strategy conference about a Christian Magna Carta that included the right for everyone to have access to Christian education. He also shared how the Lord had spoken that Christian education was to begin with preschools and then go all the way up through university education. YWAM's focus is to be at all levels. Our goal is a discipled person not just an educated person. Loren used this workshop to announce the formation of a Global Accreditation Association for Christian schools. This is the first time in history that anyone has set up such a global accreditation association.
Commissioning
Our workshop was concluded with a very exciting commissioning service and again we were challenged to Converge and Convene. Loren implored us not to miss our moment in history. He shared that 380 disciples to whom Jesus appeared after the resurrection were not present with the 120 on Pentecost and missed their moment in History.
Family Ministries
Following the UofN workshop we then had the YWAM Asia-Pacific Family Ministries Consultation. Another incredible time where God spoke to us of how he wants us as a ministry to be involved in ............. The following day we also met as the International leadership team of YWAM Family Ministries and Family Resource Centre. It is so wonderful to be together with like minded missionaries!
The Family Ministries International Leadership Meetings in Taoyuan, Taiwan
Asia-Pacific YWAM Family Ministries Consultation Taoyuan Taiwan
Marvelling, Absorption & Processing Time
Now that we are home again we are marvelling at all that happened and yet at the same time trying to absorb and process all that this will mean for us here in the Philippines both personally and as a ministry.
Thank you so much to all of you who stood with us in prayer for this important event. We are grateful.
Blessings!
Mel & Brenda
P.S. By the way Joanna was fine and hardly missed us! Thanks again for your prayers.
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