Stateside: Lancaster PA

Hey Team!

This last month I had the joy of leading a team of 9 YWAM stduents on a week long trip to Lancaster PA. Prior to our PA trip, my students spent two months doing missions in different nations: The Philippines, Jamaica, & Indonesia . Two days after their planes landed we loaded up in a van and drove 16 hours to share testimonies at churches & schools with the hope of stirring gen Z to be active in their faith!

Our last event was at a youth group with over 100 students (pictured above). At this event, I felt stirred to share a different message than the one I had planned. As I was praying one of my students came to me and boldly told me “we need to do something: these high-schoolers aren’t having it.” He was right: the worship team was playing beautifully, we were in an amazing prayer room, and yet the students weren’t engaging. It confirmed what was stirring in my heart. Instead of sharing about the unreached & Bible poverty, I needed to share the Gospel itself. These students needed a fresh fire and fresh love for Jesus. So I abandoned my missions message and shared the Gospel partnered with my personal testimony of learning to love Jesus. I gave a prayer invitation; an invitation to ask for a greater love for Jesus. More than half the room responded!! One girl in particular came to me at the end of service with tears in her eyes because she related to the message and she wanted to love Jesus more. The room experienced the joy of the gospel that night, and they accepted an invitation into intimacy with Jesus!

Missions start here: it starts with a personal love for & relationship with Christ. How can we lay down our life for a Gospel we haven’t experienced? Thank you so much for supporting me: your support helped get me to these youth students! Through your prayers and generosity Gen Z is getting trained to know God and make Him known!