Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

In this edition of The Invitation, we invite you to consider what we can learn from the contemplative tradition of the global Church, and why contemplative practices might be a helpful balance to our busy, activity-oriented lives.

Download the Audio Version of the Letter

Steve Cochrane, one of YWAM’s leaders, spoke of his own journey into contemplative practices. “In the past decade, I’ve been on a more focused pilgrimage to listen to what Spirit is saying from a diversity of those that have walked the road before in deeper devotion to Christ.”  As Steve says, the work of “friends from the past” teaches us to sink down into the presence of God in the midst of our active lives.

Over recent years, a significant number of us in the YWAM family have, like Steve, been growing more familiar with contemplative practices. This is a helpful development for us, who are so used to active, outward-focused expressions of faith. Our desire “To know God and make God known” emphasizes the way we are to give attention to both our inner life of knowing God and our outward expression of making Him known. Indeed, contemplation is really about maintaining in all our activities a listening attitude toward God. This helps us live out YWAM’s shared value of hearing the voice of God, and helps us to expand that experience beyond our community meetings and prayer times.

Since around the third century the people of God have been engaging in practices that we now call Contemplative. To be contemplative is simply to develop a prayerful attentiveness to God—this attitude of listening—as we go about our busy, not-so-quiet lives. These prayerful practices help us to take note of how we’re doing on the inside and to develop an ongoing conversation with God no matter what is going on around us. In this way, our moods, our feelings of resistance or engagement, and our responses to our surroundings can all become prompts that direct us to God and enable us to listen to Him and discern His loving action in our lives.

A few of these contemplative practices involve: breath prayers, which consist of praying a short phrase with your in- and your out-breath; lectio devina, which is a meditative way of reading short passages of scripture; and silent prayer such as Centering Prayer.

As a mission, we are focused on the process of discipleship. And yet the process of transformation is still more mysterious than we’d like to admit! The truth is that it is God Himself who changes us to become Christ-like. Our part is simply to arrange our lives so that our motivating desires become more and more aligned with Him.

So these contemplative practices can benefit you, whether you are a Discipleship Training School (DTS) leader, working hard to create an environment in which your trainees can meet with God; or a worship leader, seeking to draw up living water from the well of your inner life of faith; or a community development project leader, daily facing the needs of those around you and desiring to put the Gospel of the Kingdom into practice. To do all the diverse activities we do, without running dry and instead experiencing fullness, we must cultivate a rich inner life with God by the Spirit.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of June to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, June 14. If you only have a few moments to pray, ask the Lord to convict each of our students and workers to experience God in deeper ways through contemplative methods.

Prepare to Pray:

Once your group has gathered for prayer, consider playing a song such as Christ be all Around Me by All Sons & Daughters which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmge-ycIkoo. Give people time to settle into this time with the Lord.

Introduce the theme of contemplative prayer and developing new ways of listening to God. To do this you might read aloud the scriptures below, or choose others that come to mind.

Explain that Breath Prayers are one way we can cultivate an awareness of God and a listening heart through our daily activities. Lead people through steps 1 to 3 of Explore a Contemplative Practice as outlined below. Do this by giving people time individually and in silence, prompting them gently to move from one step to the others after a few minutes with each instruction.

After completing step 3, give people time in twos or threes to share their Breath Prayer and their image. When they have done this, encourage them to continue with steps 4 and 5 in their own time. You might consider checking in with people at your next staff gathering to ask how their practice is helping them.

Explore a Contemplative Practice (Written by Tonya Stanfield.):

1. Write: What spiritual truth do you want to become a part of you? Write this truth in the form of a Breath Prayer, a simple, short phrase that can be expressed in one inhale and exhale. (Examples: “I am alive… in you, Jesus.” Or, “You sustain me… with your love.”)
2. Imagine: What mental picture do you want to hold in your imagination as you practice your breath prayer? You could call this image your Wordless Prayer. (Examples: The Trinity or God’s loving gaze, etc.)
3. Practice: Spend a few minutes praying your Breath Prayer as you inhale and exhale while you hold your Wordless Prayer in your imagination. Do not rush. Feel the fullness of your breath. Give it your full awareness.
4. Commit: Breath Prayer is a transformative tool if practiced until it becomes a near-effortless, bodily rhythm. At first, the hardest part is simply to remember to do it, but you’ll know it’s taking root in your soul when you discover you’re growing in self-awareness and God-awareness.
5. Redeem A Routine: What’s one routine you perform every day that’s in need of redeeming? Maybe you know your chosen routine right away, or maybe you want to spend a few days paying attention to your attitudes and emotions as you go about them. Consider praying your breath prayer at these times in particular. (Examples: Getting your kids ready for school. Walking into the office. Waking up to social media.)

Let’s Pray:

• Pray for YWAM to deepen our experience of listening to God:
• Acknowledge before God our tendency to get busy and distracted in ways that make it hard to listen well. Thank Him for His faithfulness in continuing to draw our hearts to Him.
• Pray for your own team, for another team that works in your area, and for YWAMers in at least one other country. Ask God to help our people to cultivate daily practices of listening to Him as part of our life in community.
• Pray that as God works with us to deepen our own experience of listening to Him, we would become those who cause others to grow in their desire for intimacy with God.
• Reflect on the busy pace of life in many parts of the world, the way people are often too busy to be aware of their own inner life and longing for peace. Ask God to be at work in the busyness and noise of our modern world, to draw people to Himself, the true source of peace.

Take Action:

• Want to discover more about the role of the contemplative in your walk of faith? Turn to Dr. Curt Thompson’s book, Anatomy of Soul, for a more thorough explanation of how developing a contemplative rhythm helps to support spiritual vitality and psychological health.
• Consider downloading the app called Centering Prayer and use it to cultivate a regular moment of silent prayer in your day.
  • Apple App
  • Android App
• Read more by Ruth Haley Barton, especially her book titled Sacred Rhythms,: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation.
• Check out the podcast by the Transforming Center called Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership.
• Develop the habit of allowing moments of reflective silence during staff gatherings or leadership meetings.
• Take a look at Solo, a collection of lectio devina meditations by Eugene Peterson, the writer of The Message. Try using these with your team.
• Consider adding one or two retreat-style days to your regular team times. Contact us for recommendations of people who could advise or facilitate your time.
• Learn more about the role of Spiritual Directors and how they could support you in your walk with God: http://www.transformingcenter.org/2013/04/spiritual-direction-with-pastoral-and-corporate-leaders/
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

May 2018 – Refugees

• One person cited Isaiah 56:1-8 and asked Father God to call, draw and establish these refugees in His house and to bring them to His holy mountain.

These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer . . . Isaiah 56:7

• One person prayed that God’s invitation to an eternal home would be accepted and also praise God for covering refugees with His loving kindness to draw them to him.

Future Topics:

• July 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9 (Be Broad-structured and Decentralized, Be International and Interdenominational, Have a Biblical Christian Worldview)
• August 9, 2018 YWAM Together
• September 13, 2018 Kolkata

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

During the month of April we invite you to join YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, as we focus on three of YWAM’s Foundational Values:

• Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer (value 4)
• Be Visionary (value 5)
• Champion Young People (value 6).

In values 4 – 6 we see the very core of YWAM: without youth, there is no Youth With A Mission and without worship and intercessory prayer we don’t hear God and we don’t receive His vision for our lives.

Download and Listen to the Letter Here

According to the late Iain Muir, formerly YWAM’s International Director “From the very beginning, we learned that as worship brought us into His presence, we could hear His voice and experience His heart, leading us into intercession. All that we did came out of guidance we received during intercession and worship.” Please see below for a testimony of how the value of worship and intercession continues to shape a YWAMer from India.

A YWAM leader and author, John Dawson  recalls the ancient Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision” when thinking about being visionary and says “To be visionary is to see Him. To be visionary is to see His nature, His character. It is in seeing Jesus, in the ’call to intimacy‘ with God and with each other, that we receive the grace of His presence, the revelation of the government of Jesus, and the birth of new vision and purposes of God for our lives, our families, our nations and even for civilizations.”

And lastly, regarding youth, another YWAM leader, Danny Lehmann, says “Championing the young among us is essential for our very life as a mission. They bring new life and fresh vision which helps us avoid slipping into the comfortable rut of doing what we’ve always done. Young people are not YWAM’s future, they are YWAM!”

As you pray and contemplate these foundational values, we would love to receive stories from you regarding how these values have shaped your ministry or your life (prayer@ywam.org).

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of April to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, April 12. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for YWAMers to grow in worship, intercession, understanding of God’s vision for us, and inclusion of youth.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray, consider this scripture from Psalm 40: “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted … May those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the Lord.’”

Begin by taking time individually to write down those blessings you have experienced in the past month. How have you experienced God’s goodness in your life during the past few weeks? Make a short note of each experience of goodness and blessing in your life during this timeframe that you can recall.

Who has made a note of 5 things? Who has ten? Who could remember the highest number of blessings in their life from this time? After 5-10 minutes you might want to take a moment for people to speak out their thanks to God for these very real experiences of His goodness.

Next encourage people to reflect on their list of blessings. What was God revealing to you about His character through these experiences? Challenge yourself to write something different for each blessing. Were you learning that God is faithful? That He is generous? That He is detailed and intentional? Write those things down. Then get into groups of two or three. Allow time for each person to share one or more of their blessings and what they learned about God through that experience.

Close with a time of worship and thanksgiving for all the ways God makes Himself known to us and for His goodness in our lives.

Pray for YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6:

• Pray for YWAM locations to keep our values as foundations in ministry.
• Pray for YWAMers to better know God through worship and prayer.
• Pray for the Lord to give us tremendous passion in worship.
• Pray for clarity in God’s direction during intercessory prayer.
• Thank the Lord for visionary missionaries who have gone before us.
• Pray for YWAMers, young and old, to have mature and powerful statements of Jesus.
• Pray for clarity in our life message, our vision and for our godly character to shine.
• Pray for visionary leaders and continuity of such leaders.
• Pray for us to be energized by the vision and callings given to us by God and that we will embrace His vision.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Ancient Irish Hymn

• Pray for youth to be drawn to YWAM for discipleship.
• Pray for effectiveness of our discipling activities with youth. Pray that we will seek out the reliable young men and women among us (2 Timothy 2:2) and challenge them to greatness as servants of the Lord. Pray for leaders to be assertive in discipling youth and for our youth to be assertive in seeking discipleship.
• Pray for transformation of people/nations due to ministries of youth.
• Pray for youth to come to Christ in record numbers.
• Pray for wisdom in championing young people.
• Pray for God to provide fresh vision to our youth and for his guiding.
• Pray for our whole mission to learn from the youth among us and to hear God through them.
• Pray for this generation of youth to do great things for God.

Take Action:

• Conduct an evening of worship and intercessory prayer. Focus on YWAM Foundational Value #4 as the topic. Record part of the worship segment and use it in social media to call out your location’s commitment to worship and prayer. Implement ideas that God brings out that will enhance your location’s worship and intercessory prayer time.
• If your location does not yet have a designated prayer room, consider establishing one.
• Watch the movie War Room and/or conduct Bible study associated with the movie.
• Visit the Chazown (Hebrew for “vision”) website or read the book: https://www.life.church/chazown/
• As a group do a word study of the word “vision” in the Bible and/or listen intently to various Christian songs with lyrics that include the word “vision”. Discuss what you learn. (Possible songs: “Be Thou My Vision”, “You Are My Vision”, “The Vision”, and “God, I Look to You”.)
• Talk to people at your location who have been there for awhile and ask them how the location has come to be what it is today. Discuss past leaders/people, the specific visions God gave them, and how those were implemented. Share these stories with others in YWAM (prayer@ywam.org).
• If you are a youth don’t wait for someone to actively disciple you. Seek out a mentor.
• Invite a youth to participate in some social activity like playing pool, cooking or other activity, and have a discipling conversation. Listen to their God-given dreams and serve them in their fulfillment of those dreams.
• Start or add to a ministry at your location that focuses on investing in youth.
• Create a work of art that reflects YWAM’s foundational values that can be put on display at your location or shared with others at your location. (Mural, bookmarks, etc.)
• Conduct a day/evening celebration of testimonies. Ask each participant to include something about one of the YWAM Foundational Values. Share these stories with prayer@ywam.org.
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

March 2018 – Entertainment Industry and Arts and Sports Celebration Sphere

• The Cowboys with a Mission (CWAM) DTS that just started in Meeteetse, Wyoming the week earlier prayed as a group.
• We heard from people who prayed in the following countries: Switzerland, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Cyprus, Australia and France. People also prayed across the United States, from Washington state to Florida and from Minnesota to Texas.
• YWAM Seamill, UK was led by God to pray for more “awe and wonder” of God to be released and they listened to the song “Where the River Flows” that is based on Ezekiel 47 – where the river flows everything will live and they called out for God’s river to flow through the Celebration Sphere.
• A parent of a young man starting a DTS in Mexico in June responded to our prayer request on Facebook and requested prayer for her son.
• Lynn Green, YWAM leadership team reported that this topic is amazingly timely with respect to how the Lord is leading YWAM.

Future Topics:

• May 10, 2018 Refugees Update/30 Days
• June 14, 2018 Contemplative
• July 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9 (Be Broad-structured and Decentralized, Be International and Interdenominational, Have a Biblical Christian Worldview)

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

A Testimony about YWAM’s Value Four: Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer

My name is Khumba James, serving in YWAM Bangalore since 2010.

I joined YWAM to staff Discipleship Training Schools. Honestly I didn’t have much expectation from this value on worship. I thought I wasn’t a musician but I was wrong. But I had this one thought that kept on challenging me– young people.

I began to enjoy our corporate worship times. I remember how my days were filled with thought about worship and worship songs. Every Monday worship time in the base had been my favorite, where I learned to express my worship to God. Lifting up my hands and singing out my heart to Him was new and fresh. And I loved it so much. I started spending time alone with God for not less than two hours a day. The time just went by alone in a room singing and praying. I learned that spending time with God is never boring and wasted. Instead the best of all.

One day I asked one of my senior staff that if I can have a chance to lead Monday worship session. He didn’t say no. He said okay but wait. This is where I started pushing myself to work on my skills and intimacy with God more than before. There is so much beauty and passion within a song we sing. So much wholeness and healing everytime I express my worship to God. I needed fellowship and corporate worship time, I needed God and his presence all the time. My cold heartedness and dryness was replaced by longing for God and passion to sing his songs and pray. This was the becoming of new life and freedom.

People gave positive feedback about my worship leading and ministry. This was overwhelming at times. But I knew it’s God who deserves all the glory.

Two years staffing in DTS has guided me to this vision, and I did YWAM’s School of Music In Mission in 2012. God opened the door to work with my mentor and leader Thanga Nohro. We led worship together. I’m forever thankful to God for this passion, and bringing the right leaders and friends around me in the right time. I have learned to trust God for all my needs as a musician leading worship.

I recorded my first worship album in 2016-17. This is something I never thought of ever in my entire life. God is good and all the glory belongs to him.

To worship God and be in awe of him is always my desire constantly. To know him more and learn his ways, to be more intimate in my relationship with him, to hear his voice and know where he is leading me, and to be used by him is my whole passion and purpose. To respond to him with all my love and reverence, declare his praises and witness his goodness and promises is my calling.

Worship and Intercession is the reason I’m in YWAM. I do help others in churches and schools with this in mind.

May God continue to inspire you and increase his anointing on you for his glory. God is faithful beyond our understanding. God called you and will equip you. This is what I have learned.

Blessings,
Khumba James,
YWAM  Bangalore, India.

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

The arena of arts and entertainment has long set a precedent for culture. And where culture goes, so society goes. Art and entertainment have power to influence and shape not only people’s perspectives, but a nation’s worldview.

Around the world we can clearly see an attack of the enemy on the sphere of celebration (arts, entertainment and sports). The media and entertainment all around us display violence, false pleasures, selfishness, and lies about who we are and who God is. The enemy’s agenda is fully displayed through videos, movies, music, and art and many lives are being deceived through this.

Art has tremendous power to shape culture and touch the human heart. Its artifacts embody the ideas and desires of the coming generation. This means that what is happening in the arts today is prophetic of what will happen in our culture tomorrow. It also means that when Christians abandon the artistic community, we lose a significant opportunity to communicate Christ to our culture.

Philip Graham Ryken

Yet, God is not silent and He has raised up His people around the globe to make a holy stand for this sphere! There are Christians around the world and within YWAM that have taken their calling as artists who will display God’s character and values to the world through the work they create and their platform in art, entertainment and sports.

YWAM has 106 locations in 49 different countries around the world with ministries and schools that focus on training up artists, musicians, and athletes to influence this sphere. These YWAM workers include dancers, filmmakers, fashion designers, actors, culinary artists, fine artists, street artists, musicians, and athletes from multiple sports.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of March to pray for God’s movement in the entertainment industry and the sphere of celebration. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, March 8. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to pray for artists and entertainers to reflect the character of God and for YWAM workers to have more open doors to share God’s message.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray about God’s purposes for the arts, entertainment and sports, consider the following exercise as a way to help you and your group enter into prayer. The imagery uses an artistic and creative approach to provide a way for God to lead.

If you are praying in a group, you may choose to project this image so that everyone can see it.

Take a few moments to gaze at the image. Quietly, as individuals, consider the beauty of the waterfall, the power of the water, the precipitous rocks. Now ask yourself these questions, taking more time with whichever ones resonate most with you:

Consider the life of God as this flowing and powerful water, and your life with Him.

As you reflect on your life currently, where do you see yourself in this image?

• in what way are you paused at the top of the falls, fearful of plunging into the unknown?
• in what way are you carried with the force of the water? To what extent does this feel exuberant and full of energy? To what extent do you feel battered by the rocks along the way?
• in what ways have you, like the rock, been formed and shaped by the life of God, even in those places in your life that were hard and apparently unyielding?
• in what way might you see yourself off to the side, observing the power of the water but not actually touched by it?
• in what ways do you experience yourself as being in the pool beneath the falls, enjoying the rush of the waters, yet with a sense of safety and well-being?
• in what ways are you aware of the beauty of the promises of God concerning your life and the situations and people you care about?

When everyone has taken a few minutes to reflect on the question or questions that most draw their attention, take time to share what you noticed with one or two other people.

To close, consider how God used an image, together with your imagination and your awakened spirit, to bring you to a place of greater awareness of Him and His work in your life. Hold this in mind as you move into the time of prayer about the sphere of arts and entertainment.

Pray for Artists and Entertainers:

• Pray for artists and entertainers to reflect the character of God (godly, humble, willing to serve, full of integrity) and have the fear of the Lord.
• Pray that artists and athletes would see themselves as missionaries and potential world changers.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill artists with skill, intelligence and knowledge in their craft and area of expertise:

Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.

Exodus 35:30-34 (ESV)

• Pray for God’s inspiration and creativity, with the artist as a co-creator with God.
• Pray for more people with a heart for arts to step up and take their place!
• Pray for the Christians in entertainment to have a strong Christian community that will encourage them and keep them accountable.
• Pray for YWAM ministries and individuals that are focused on reaching this sphere, for God’s protection and provision and greater influence in their area.

Pray for the Work Being Created:

• Praise God for the growth in YWAM’s University of the Nations College of Arts and Sports.
• Pray for deeper revelation for YWAM as to God’s purposes through art and sport in the future. Pray that new YWAM expressions would emerge and that existing locations would make room for these new ministerial approaches.
• Pray for more YWAMers to gain a vision for how the Kingdom of God can grow through art and sports, especially that YWAM’s Discipleship Training School students entering our family would be exposed to fresh visionary language as to how they can use their gifting in this way to glorify the Lord, communicate truth and see transformation in this sphere of influence.
• Pray that the YWAM global network for arts and sports would grow closer together, growing in friendship, learning communities and collaborative partnerships.
• Pray that our arts and sports networks would expand into non-YWAM and non-Christian networks.
• Pray that YWAM would adapt and innovate in the area of arts and sports. Pray for growth in wisdom regarding how to preach truth to a generation that views truth as something that is relative.
• Pray for art and entertainment to reflect godly values.
• Pray for relevant and creative ways to communicate God’s message.
• Pray for art content to point the audience to God and to express truth with the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Pray for excellence in the work for Christian artists and entertainers that will be a testimony of God’s excellence and creativity.

What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist’s subject be religious to be Christian? I don’t think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful”

R. C. Sproul

Pray for Influence:

• Pray for more open doors for artists to share God’s message
• Pray for new doors to be opened in media: movies, TV, internet, advertising, videos, music, etc.
• Pray for more art made by Christians to be recognized for its excellence and brought to a wider audience

Take Action:

• If you are an artist or have giftings or passion in the sphere of celebration, consider taking a second-level school in YWAM that will develop you to be more effective as an artist in missions: http://www.uofn.edu/
• If you would like to do a YWAM Discipleship Training School that focuses on arts, entertainment or sports, go to ywam.org and search for an opportunity. YWAM offers many DTS programs around the world that emphasize this kind of ministry.
• Read books that will give you a clearer perspective of what it means to be a Christian artist:
  • “Art and the Bible” by Francis A. Schaeffer
  • “Imagine” by Steve Turner
  • “Art for God’s Sake” by Philip Graham Ryken
  • “Addicted to Mediocrity” by Franky Schaeffer
  • “Art & Soul” by Brand & Chaplin
  • “The Creative Call” by Janice Elsheimer
• Seek one artist/entertainer/athlete around you and encourage and support them
• Pray regularly for a specific artist/entertainer/athlete.
• Subscribe to the University of the Nation’s College of Arts and Sports Dean’s Corner to receive regular updates on how God is using the arts and sports in YWAM by emailing cas@uofn.edu.
• See what YWAM is doing in this sphere:
  • University of the Nations: College of Arts & Sports: http://ywamarts.com/home-27/
  • YWAM Sports (new website coming soon): http://www.ywaminternational.sports/

• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

February 2018 – Community Development

• YWAM Blantyre, Malawi prayed and reported that, at a minimum, they pray on Fridays and Tuesdays, sometimes focusing on global prayer and sometimes on local prayer.
• YWAM Tegucigalpa and YWAM Campus Ministry in Madagascar prayed.
• People prayed from the following countries: Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden, USA, Australia, Germany, Kenya, India, Honduras, and Nigeria.
• Create Thailand prayed for hope and steadfast love and a few particular ministries that are doing community development in YWAM Chiang Mai.
• YWAM Minneapolis used the Invitation during their weekly intercession times. They prayed for bridge building, unity of communities and the seven spheres of society related to growing communities.
• The International House of Prayer in Kansas City prayed for community development. Each month they produce a calendar with daily YWAM topics and monthly focus so that people throughout their organization can pray. In January, their monthly focus was on YWAM’s foundational values #1 – 3.

Future Topics:

• April 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6 (Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, Be Visionary, Champion Young People)
• May 10, 2018 Refugees Update/30 Days

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
•  Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

In February, join us as we pray about God’s intentions for communities around the world, both poor ones and rich ones. We will pray about community development, which YWAM worker Keri Fishlock describes as “helping communities discover their true identity and helping them step toward God’s intentions.”

Framed within a biblical worldview, Keri believes community development addresses one of the biggest topics of all:

• It’s about the Kingdom of God overcoming the kingdom of darkness;
• It’s about Jesus bringing life to the full, undoing the work of the thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy;
• It’s about Truth replacing the lies of the enemy;
• It’s about seeing more of the Kingdom of God expressed in our families, communities and nations;
• It’s about men and women developing right relationships with God, other people and the physical world.

Within this context, community development is the need of every community and the responsibility of every believer. It’s about discipling individuals, families, communities and nations. Coupled with a biblical understanding of poverty (http://www.truthandtransformation.com/the_true_nature_of_poverty/), community development is not only about physical things such as building water tanks and hospitals, but happens when communities step away from lies and into truth, from pride to humility, from corruption and greed to living the way God intended, and when broken relationships are replaced by healthy relationships where healing and fullness can be experienced.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of February to pray with us about God’s intentions for communities around the world. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, February 8.

If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to pray for the communities in which you minister, that the communities would break away from Satan’s grip and into the truth and direction God has for them.

Pray for Community Development

• Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14, specifically that God’s people would humble themselves and that he would heal our land. Thank God for being the one who transforms. Pray that YWAMers would repent for the times we have taken on the role of “savior” rather than pointing to Him.
• Pray for YWAM ministries that are intentionally involved in community development, that students and workers would lead transformation from a solid biblical perspective.
• Acknowledge your own brokenness and ask for His healing and restoration within your relationships with God, man, others and the physical world.
• Pray that the church would take up its role in discipling communities and equipping people for works of service.
• Pray for YWAM’s University of the Nations Community Development and Justice Centre http://uofn.edu/colleges/community-development-centre to continue to grow in relational networks and to help equip people to walk out a biblical worldview very practically in every sphere of society.
• Pray for multiplication of YWAM’s Community Development School. Pray for the new school starting in Nepal on Feb 19, 2018.
• Pray specifically for those involved with Mercy Ministries with YWAM [https://www.ywam-mercy.org/about].
• Pray for those living in brokenness that the lies of the enemy would be broken (including those not only in impoverished communities, but also in wealthy communities) and replaced with God’s truth.
• Pray for God to be faithful in our cries for the oppressed and that He will soften the hearts of community leaders.
• Jesus desires that we have a full life. Pray this verse for communities and people that God brings to your mind:

 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

John 10:10                

Take Action:

• Learn about where poverty comes from. Read this article: http://www.truthandtransformation.com/the_true_nature_of_poverty/.
• Watch this videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-VWc1v77fk

• Attend a YWAM Community Development School (CDS) or Community Development Seminar.
• Attend the Coram Deo free online training course with Disciple Nations Alliance. Watch this video for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJsdes95xRo&t=10s

• Build relationship with people in your community and gain understanding of their story, hopes and fears. Ask God what His vision is for your community and ask Him how you as Christ’s ambassador can step out personally.
• Learn about community development principles at YWAM Harpenden’s CommunityDevelopment Hub: https://cdhub.uk/key-concepts/

• YWAM Mercy Vietnam is a locally run community development program. Watch the stories of:
  • Chien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSAIcNOuHec
  • Ton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3gDfaRfgUw
  • Hue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxqMAgb7oE4
• Watch this video to learn how sometimes our efforts to help others can make their situation worse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_k_AUqo8I

• Read books:
  • “The Book that Made Your World” and “Truth & Transformation” by Vishal  Mangalwadi
  • “The Book that Transforms Nations” by Loren Cunningham
  • “Walking With the Poor” by Bryant Myers
  • “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
  • “Discipling Nations” by Darrow Miller
  • “Old Testament Template” by Landa Cope
  • “His Kingdom Come” edited by Jim Stier
  • “The Great Omission” by Steve Saint
  • “Bring Your Eyes and See – Our Journey into Justice, Compassion and Action” by Steve and Marie Goode
• Watch other videos:
  • “Who Broke Africa?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP2RNfb3kDw
  • Development Dreaming by  Johnny Oommen  https://vimeo.com/20119763
  • Samaan and Garbage City (Zabaleen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e01d4OlTi_k
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

January 2018 – YWAM Foundational Values #1 – 3

• Many YWAMers and friends of YWAM posted on Facebook that they prayed. Some of the countries represented include: Malawi, USA, India, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, and Italy.
• One person prayed for a YWAM ministry center to be started where she is located as a way to further Value 2: Make God Known.
• Several people noted which of these three values was most on their heart that day.
• YWAM Potchefstroom, South Africa had a day of prayer and fasting for YWAM’s Discipleship Training School.

Future Topics:

• March 8, 2018 Entertainment Industry
• April 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6 (Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, Be Visionary, Champion Young People)
• May 10, 2018 Refugees Update

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
•  Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.