Category Archives: The Invitation

Community Development

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.

Community Development Explained From a Biblical Worldview Lens
Photo credits: Keri Fishlock

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:

  • 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/

Conducting a Community Survey on the Island of Lingira (Uganda)
Photo credit: YWAM Torch

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.

YWAM Foundational Values (1-3)

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

Teaching YWAM Foundational Values to a Discipleship Training School
Photo credits: Massai DTS

The identification of YWAM foundational values began in 1985 with YWAM cofounder Darlene Cunningham asking, “What are the basic things that God has called YWAM to live and model to others?” The first official YWAM foundational values document was released in 1992 and was revised in 2004. YWAM foundational values now play such an integral part of YWAM that they are taught in every Discipleship Training School (DTS) and they are regularly shared at YWAM conferences all over the world.

Said one DTS student in Wollongong, Australia, “As I listened to our leader list YWAM’s 18 foundational values, I felt inspired. It was a picture of common purpose, people gathering to hear from God and being unified in mission. I want to be part of this, I thought.”

Over the next 18 months The Invitation will focus on these Foundational Values, asking YWAMers everywhere to pray for three values each quarter, or one value each month. Therefore, in January we invite you to pray about the first three foundational values:

  1. Know God. YWAM is committed to know God, His nature, His character and His ways. We seek to reflect who He is in every aspect of our lives and ministry. The automatic overflow of knowing and enjoying fellowship with God is a desire to share Him with others.
  2. Make God known.?YWAM is called to make God known throughout the whole world, and into every arena of society through evangelism, training and mercy ministries. We believe that salvation of souls should result in transformation of societies, thus obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations.
  3. Hear God’s voice. YWAM is committed to creating with God through listening to Him, praying His prayers and obeying His commands in matters great and small. We are dependent upon hearing His voice as individuals, together in team contexts and in larger corporate gatherings as an integral part of our process for decision making.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of January to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, January 11.

If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for yourself and others in the YWAM family to uphold and practice these values in all that we do.

Prepare to Pray:

Before praying, consider doing the following exercise. It could help you and your group reflect on the significance of the values we are praying about this month.

READ: Read from Acts 15:1-30.

THINK: Read the passage through again silently.

  1. Consider the disciples’ growing understanding of God’s character and His ways. Identify the places in this passage centered on who God is. How does this value shape the disciples’ choices and actions?
  2. Reflect on verse 19. Meditate on what it might look like in your context “not to make it difficult for those who are turning to God.” If you are in a group, discuss this together.
  3. Read verse 28 again. The disciples’ letter reads, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Consider the process of prayerful listening and discerning dialogue that led them to address the issues in this way. What issues are you facing that require this sort of participation with the Holy Spirit?

PRAY: Thank God for His desire to be known, and for the goodness of His ways and His character to be made known both to you and throughout the world. Take a moment in quiet to hold before Him those people and places you long to receive revelation of who God is.

LIVE: What would it look like for you to take an internal posture of listening? Return to this image throughout the day as you listen for the ways God is inviting you to know Him, and to make Him known to those around you.

Left to right: Know God and Make Him Known; Teens at YWAM Mission Adventure camp playing game to understand Hearing God’s Voice
Photo credits: YWAM Cancun; Crazy About You Ministries

Pray for YWAM Foundational Values 1 – 3:

  • Pray for YWAMers to embrace YWAM’s foundational values #1 – 3 so that YWAM can better display His presence to others.
  • Pray for greater integration of YWAM values in our ministries.
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts for any uncleanness. Pray for us to be fully committed to walk in openness and transparency before God and others.
  • Pray for YWAMers to be willing to obey. Pray for YWAMers to be able to leave comfort zones behind and to step out in faith.
  • Pray for YWAMers to hear his voice in the midst of sufferings of non-believers near to us and far from us and for Him to give us the faith to respond as He calls.
  • Pray for courage and faith of YWAMers to make Him known to others with whom we encounter.
  • Pray for wisdom of YWAM leaders in communicating and incorporating YWAM foundation values throughout YWAM.
  • Pray for complete trust in who God is and His plans for our lives.
  • Pray for a greater understanding of who each of us is in Christ so that our response to challenges and setbacks shows us to be faithful servants of God.
  • Pray for DTS students to embrace these first three foundational values and for their lives to be changed. Pray for forgiveness, healing, and redemption as a result.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

Take Action:

  • As a location, choose one of the YWAM foundational values and focus on it for at least one month. Share the value with others outside of YWAM and analyze their response. Create digital media associated with this value and share with The Invitation and/or with Darlene Cunningham in YWAM, Kona.
  • Read this book for the first time or read it again with a fresh perspective: Is That Really You God? by Loren Cunningham.
  • Plan an event (staff meeting, retreat, etc.) where each participant is assigned one of the YWAM foundational values. Have each participant seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit regarding their assigned value and report to the group in a way that will help others apply that value in their life.
  • Watch this short video about Hearing the Voice of God from YWAM Mazatlan: https://www.facebook.com/ywammazatlan/videos/10160059969220001/?fref=mentions
  • 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.

Left to right, top to bottom photo credits: YWAM Blantyre; YWAM Island Breeze; YWAM Southlands Adelaide

How We Prayed

December 2017 – Pyongyang, North Korea

  • YWAM Diriamba, Nicaragua (Near Managua) reported that they would be praying during the entire month of December for Pyongyang.
  • The Invitation was shared on Facebook over 150 times, received over 500 likes and had more than 150 comments. People noted they were praying all over the world including, but not limited to Canada, Haiti, Brazil, India, Philippines, Netherlands, Indonesia, Argentina, Nigeria, Ghana, England, Kenya, Germany, Barbados, Egypt, Mozambique, Australia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Costa Rica, Madagascar, Japan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, as well a many states within the United States.
  • YWAM Perth, Australia prayed for hope and boldness for believers and that they would have influence on government leaders and that the leaders would respond with deep repentance and that nation of North Korea would be transformed.
  • YWAM Seamill, Scotland focused on the Christians in North Korea, inspired by the video testimony included in The Invitation.
  • YWAM Champagne, France is believing the Lord will transform the country of North Korea and they were inspired by Jeremiah 39, Isaiah 61 and 62, Acts 16 and John 7.

Future Topics:

  • February 8, 2018 Community Development
  • March 8, 2018 Entertainment Industry/Celebration Sphere
  • April 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6 (Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, Be Visionary, Champion Young People)

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.

Pray For Pyongyang, North Korea

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

Left to right, top to bottom: North Korea airport, Pyongyang Buildings, North Korea and South Korea Political Map with Capitals
Photo credits: IPE Zone, Earth Nutshell, Stock Vector

As hard as it is to imagine today, Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, used to be a center for Christian mission work throughout the Eastern world. According to the Voice of the Martyrs Canada website in 1907, a revival spread from Pyongyang across the Korean Peninsula and Pyongyang was called The Jerusalem of the East. As late as the 1920s, 90 percent of the Christians in Korea (North and South) lived in Pyongyang.

Listen:

Today, the environment of Pyongyang’s 2.7 million citizens (Operation World) is very different. They live in the nation that has been described by Open Doors as being the worst in the world for Christian persecution. It is also estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, including up to 100,000 Christians (Operation World), are being imprisoned in North Korea’s labor and concentration camps where conditions are so poor that as many as 75 percent of the prisoners do not survive (Fox News).

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of December to pray for Pyongyang. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, December 14.

If you have only a few minutes to pray, please note the eight minute video below and pray that the people of Pyongyang would experience the love and grace of Christ in the near term. If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Dancing in Pyongyang
Photo credits: Chattanooga Times Free Press

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray, take a few minutes to watch this short video. It is the moving testimony of Gyeong Ju Son, a young Christian whose father is one of thousands of believers imprisoned or killed for their faith. In listening to Gyeong Ju Son, consider her grief and loss. Take a few moments of silence as the video closes, and reflect on what could compel a young Christian orphan to dream of someday returning to North Korea, where persecution is all but certain. Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to enter into this deep longing for her fellow North Koreans to know the love of Christ, which is stronger than fear, deeper than sorrow, and more precious than life itself.

As God draws your heart to feel something of His deep compassion for this nation, go ahead and pray using the points below to guide you.

Pyongyang’s Traffic Ladies
Photo credits: Free Malaysia Today

Pray for Pyongyang:

  • Pray that the gospel will spread throughout North Korea and that they will experience revival again as they did in 1907.
  • Pray for those in leadership within the government. Pray that God will open their eyes to the truth of the gospel. Pray for leaders to obey the will of God for their nation.
  • Pray for guidance for Christians in North Korea. Pray that they would not lose their faith despite oppression and the threat of death in concentration camps. Possessing a Bible, saying God or Jesus, and meeting as believers are all punishable by death. Pray that they would be bold in the midst of persecution.
  • Pray for spiritual, mental, and physical restoration of North Korean refugees. Many North Korean refugees go through torture, intense stress and anxiety during their escapes.
  • Pray for the people who are suffering in prison camps and for those who struggle to have daily needs met due to the isolation of North Korea.
  • Pray for the gospel radio programs of TWR and FEBC as they beam deep into North Korea.
  • Pray for Korean Christian businessmen from China who have easier access into North Korea.
  • Pray for those who labor among North Koreans around the world to preach the truth of the gospel boldly and clearly. Pray that the Holy Spirit would use their lives to demonstrate the gospel in a powerful way.
  • Praise God that in spite of the dire conditions in Pyongyang and across the region that the church is growing and people are coming to Christ.

 “Despite efforts to eradicate Christians, we have found the church in North Korea is actually growing . . . They know only God is powerful enough to break through the darkness of the most oppressive regime on earth.”

Vernon Brewer; Founder and President, World Help

Take Action:

Off Duty Soldiers in Pyongyang
Photo Credits: Daily Mail

Future Topics:

  • January 11, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 1 – 3 (Know God, Make God known, Hear God’s voice)
  • February 8, 2018 Community Development
  • March 8, 2018 Entertainment Industry/Celebration Sphere

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.

Partner Churches

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

YWAM Queenstown DTS team at a YWAM Bangkok partner church: Khlong Toey Church
Photo credit: YWAM – All Nations Bangkok

God has commissioned the local church to go into all the nations and preach the gospel. As YWAMers, we could not do what we do without our partner churches. These partnering churches send us, pray for us, support us and alongside us for training, church planting, mercy ministry and other gospel-related activities. The relationship between the church and those who are sent is a beautiful partnership, one that God has chosen to change the entire world!

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

Acts 16:5 (NKJV)

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, this month to pray for our partner churches on November 9. We ask you to celebrate this partnership on a local level by praying for your partner churches, and if you sense God’s leading, by taking action to strengthen those relationships. If you have only a few minutes to pray this month, please pray for the health of your partner churches and that God would bring blessings to them. If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Serving Chai in Partnership with a Local Church Outreach
Photo Credit: YWAM Brisbane

Prepare to Pray:

Take a moment to bring to mind the congregation of your partner church, whether at home or in your present location. And then consider the lead pastor of this congregation.

What are all the things the pastor of a congregation such as this would have to think about, take responsibility for, or take care of? As a group, use a whiteboard or large sheet of paper to brainstorm all the ideas that come to mind in response to this question. Make note of as many things as you can.

Next, take some time to reflect on how such a pastor might feel about all these responsibilities, concerns, and opportunities. Enter into those feelings as much as you can.

Finally, as you hold before God these possible feelings and needs, ask Him how He might like to love, encourage, and strengthen this church leader through you. What comes to mind as a response, whether in prayer or in action? Share these ideas with one another and make a note, so that you can follow through on Holy Spirit’s prompting.

YWAM goals are realized while churches go forward. A true win-win situation.

Mark Nebauer

Pray for Our Partner Churches:

  • Praise God for successful partnerships that YWAM has had and is having around the world with local churches and sending churches.
  • Praise God for your partner churches.
  • Pray for the health of your partner churches and ask the Lord to bless them.
  • Pray for unity and healthy and equitable partnerships between YWAM locations and partner churches.
  • Pray for solid relationships between YWAMers and the people of the local church. Pray for YWAMers to make consistent commitments to the local church.

“The healthy cooperation of the local church and global mission is a major threat to the kingdom of darkness.”

Lynn Green, a YWAM leader

  • YWAM provides opportunities for churches to engage in mission through outreaches for church youth groups, serving opportunities for adults through Mission Builders, mission awareness programs, seminars for families, and more. Pray for long-lasting results.
  • Pray for the church to send more workers to the field where the needs are the greatest in less-saturated nations.
  • Pray for YWAM locations to understand and minister to the needs of churches and the congregations they serve.
YWAM’s Dan Baumann teaching at partner church Oakland Baptist
Photo Credit: Oakland Baptist Church
  • Pray for God to prepare churches in developed countries and in developing countries to send and support those called to Go.

Take Action:

  • Identify all of the partner churches that are involved with your location. Display a map with each church marked. Pray regularly for these churches.
  • Host a thank you event for your partner churches. Brainstorm on ways they can even partner with one another to build the church.
  • Schedule meetings with local partner churches and their pastors/leaders to listen to their needs and dreams without focusing on the needs and dreams of YWAM.

The best way to maintain a relationship with local churches is to concentrate on how we can serve them.

Lynn Green

  • Invite partner churches to send a DTS student to the next DTS at your location.
  • Identify local churches where there might partnership opportunities in the future but where none exist today.
  • Encourage staff and students at your location to regularly attend and participate at a local church.
  • Communicate partnering opportunities via YWAM channels, including, but not limited to:
  • Schedule an outreach event with one or more of your partner churches.
  • Offer to help one or more of your partner churches with a Mission Sunday type event to raise awareness within the church.
A partner church, Living Stones Christian Fellowship, praying over long term YWAM Richmond missionaries
Photo Credit: YWAM Richmond

How We Prayed

October 2017 – Prayer for the Hindu World

  • There was a lively discussion on Facebook about praying for Hindus. One person noted that they regularly pray that Hindus will know Jesus with not only their mind, but also with their heart.
  • YWAM Surabaya, Indonesia prayed for the Hindu world and asked for prayer for pupils to join their DTS starting January 2018 and for staff preparation.
  • YWAM Vanuatu, Oceania also prayed and asked for prayer for teachers that have a DTS background in education to come and teach children alongside locals.

Future Topics:

  • December 14, 2017 Pyongyang
  • 2018 Theme: YWAM Foundational Values (along with other topics)

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.

15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World

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

2017 Hindu World Prayer Guide Cover Page
Photo credits: Friends Network

YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, will be a bit different in October. Instead of asking you to pray on the second Thursday of the month (or whatever works best for you) we are asking you to pray with us daily from October 8 to October 22 for 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World.

15 Days is an annual prayer movement that calls Christians and churches worldwide to take these 15 days to learn about and pray for our world’s one billion Hindus. This period encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Lights called Diwali (or Deepawali). During this prayer focus, we invite you to take a posture of blessing toward Hindu peoples worldwide.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of October to pray for the Hindu world, from October 8 – 22. Informative prayer guide booklets are available on the 15 Days website (www.pray15days.org). To join the YWAM family in prayer in October, take a moment to download or order a booklet. Also, go to the 15 Days Facebook page (via pray15days.org) and like it. The purpose of 15 Days is to call Christians to make an intentional and respectful effort during this period to learn about, pray for and reach out to the Hindu community.

If you are not able to pray every day we invite you to pray during our prayer day, Thursday, October 12.

This is the second anniversary issue of The Invitation and we would like to take a moment to thank the people that have made this possible:

Translation: Yohan An, Seungjun Bahng, Kyoungmi Ko, Eunice Jo, Micaela Oliveira, Jessica Milanez Salve, Adelaide Santos, Isabela Ribeiro, Sharen Song, Renato Wong, French-language translator (name withheld for security reasons), and Yira Patricia Ibarra.

Spiritual Formation/Prepare to Pray: Miranda Heathcote, Tanya Lyons

Social Media: Daniel Norris, Mandy Stephenson, Jeremy Randall

Logistics and Podcast: Bill Hutchison

Manager and Writer: Laura Parli

Ideas: Lynn Green, Lynn Yee

Leadership: Bryan Bishop

Thanks also to YWAM leaders, prayer coordinators and others who have organized The Invitation at their location.

If you have only a few minutes to pray this month, please pray that Hindu people everywhere would be blessed through the Gospel and that God would move them towards Himself.

If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

Speaking blessings over people and situations, and doing so in our authority as God’s children, is a powerful way of agreeing with His good purposes. Blessing prayer helps us to align our hearts with God’s good intentions and, as we see in scripture, blessings given by God and His people are powerful and effective.

As your group prepares to pray, stand together in a circle. You can divide into smaller groups if you are praying as a large community, or you can pray individually if you are alone. Take a moment to consider the Hindu World and God’s eternal purpose to reveal His love as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to draw people into relationship with Himself.

When you are ready, go ahead and open in prayer: “Almighty God, as we stand in agreement with your loving purposes towards all people, help us by your Holy Spirit to speak powerful blessings over the Hindu world that will bear good fruit.”

Then go around the circle and allow a brief moment for each person to speak aloud a blessing; these can be very simple. It may help to imagine a particular man, woman, child or family and their need for Jesus. For example, someone might begin with, “I bless Hindu families with visitors who will speak to them of Jesus.” Or, “I bless Hindu communities with portions of scripture they can read aloud together in their language.”

When everyone has taken a turn, pause a moment in silence. Before continuing with your prayer time, allow your hearts to be softened and enlarged with a sense of God’s deep longing to bless Hindu people.

Hindu Prayer Bells and Group
Photo Credits: Friends Network

Pray for The Hindu World:

  • Pray that more disciples of Jesus would learn how to communicate the Good News to Hindus in ways that resonate with their hearts and minds.
  • Pray for bible translation and distribution in the Hindu world and the ending of bible poverty. Many Hindus do not have Scripture available in their language or do not have access to the Bible. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know you are the Holy One of God” (ESV, John 6:68).
  • Pray that movements of Hindus towards Christ will emerge and grow in all types of Hindu communities.
  • Pray for the more than 2,000 YWAM staff who work in South Asia. Many of them work directly with Hindu peoples.

“Through prayer, we engage in an act of love for Hindu people around the world—sharing their burdens, understanding their concerns and petitioning God to reveal Himself to them.”

Friends Network

  • Praise God for the many people movements that have started amongst Hindu people.
  • Pray for the church in South Asia, that it will endure the recent increase in persecution and grow in hope, as the author of Hebrews wrote, “. . . . hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone . . . “ (ESV, Hebrews 6:18 – 20).
  • Pray for the 2,328 Unreached Hindu People groups (https://joshuaproject.net/religions/5) and that they will receive witnesses of Christ and turn to Him as their saviour.

Take Action:

  • Look for Hindus in your own community and find ways to engage with them. Eat a meal at an Indian or Nepali restaurant and get to know the wait staff.
  • Attend a YWAM Frontier Missions school or seminar (uofn.edu) or (ywamfm.com) to search for DTSes and secondary schools with a focus on the Hindu world.
  • Visit the International YWAM Frontier Missions website and Facebook (you can find both via ywamfm.com) to learn how to be trained and sent as a cross cultural missionary to the Hindu world.
  • Visit the YWAM Frontier Missions South Asia website and Facebook page to hear encouraging testimonies of what God is doing amongst Hindu peoples there and to learn about training and ministry opportunities (you can find both via www.ywamfrontiermissions.com).
  • Bring yourself and your team to the first Global Hethne (Hindu Ethne) Missions Congress in Thailand, October 12-17, 2020. Find more information at (hethne.org).
  • Consult the Joshua Project site that is dedicated to people groups of South Asia for prayer points (www.southasiapeoples.org).
  • Consult Operation World for more prayer points and to learn about Hindu peoples.
  • Read books to gain a greater understanding of Hindu peoples: Sharing Your Faith with a Hinduby Madasamy Thirumalai; Disciple Making Among Hindus by Timothy Shultz; Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains by Janet & Geoff Benge (YWAM Publishing) and Footprints of Faith: Stories of YWAM in South Asia by Sonya Svoboda.
  • Watch short promotional video from the 15 Days website (pray15days.org).

Photo credits: Friends Network

How We Prayed

September 2017 – DTS, Disciple-making

  • Friends Network – “The Invitation has been a great blessing to our mission, the Father’s heart and I am sure for those whom we have prayed.”
  • Several posted on Facebook that they prayed including one who prayed for the current DTS to be a blessing to many and that God would use all participants to bring revival and awakening of the Holy Spirt.

Future Topics:

  • November 9, 2017 Partner Churches
  • December 14, 2017 Pyongyang

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.