Outreach overview

After being back from outreach, I've had time to think over the things that have happened on the field.

The sights and sounds of India through China will definitely not be forgotten.  But most of all the friends we made along the way will surely not be forgotten.  This was my first time entering into the 10/40 window and doing ministry in this region, first time going to India, Hong Kong, and China, first time staffing a DTS, and first time leading a time on outreach alone.  It was an interesting experience with many things that I didn't expect and many obstacles along the way but none that could not be overcome.


One last story I want to share about this outreach is on my time in Northern India at Mcleod Ganj.  Some of the things we did were two 24 hour prayer times, a 3 day evangelistic campaign, coming along to English classes and a basketball ministry.  On the last day of our evangelistic campaign we were talking with a Tibetan man who lived in the area.  He had a copy of the book of Luke and Psalms, I believe, and he would read through it constantly.  He had many questions about Jesus and who he was.  Being a Tibetan, his culture is full of Buddhist rituals.  To be Tibetan means that you are Buddhist so the fact that he had questions was an avenue of Hope for us.  During one of the conversations, he said that he wanted to be a Christian but he had to know Jesus first, 100% without a doubt.  One of the members of my team replied back saying that we don't know Jesus 100% either, its a relationship and we keep learning more about who He is.  I think that this took our Tibetan friend by surprise because he went away thinking even more about this.  The next day he was happy to announce to us that he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart and he did.

This was probably the highlight of my outreach and it was worth it to see even just one soul come to the Lord.  

China: a brief overview

It's been about a 3 weeks since I made it back to the YWAM base in Kona, HI. We had a debrief time to go over the things that happened on outreach and tie up loose ends as a team and then as a school. Now all of the students have gone home and I'm in transition time with the base as staff.

Team in front of a potential, future campus in China

During the time I didn't write I was in China and for security reasons I decided it would be better for me not to access internet. But we had an amazing time in China. While we were in China we stayed in the northern regions in the city of Dalian and Dandong. In these cities, we had the privilege to meet amazing staff and Chinese believers who were very hungry to serve others and to learn more about God. These people are probably the most servant-hearted group that I met as a group and not just individuals.

Most of our time was spent seeking the Lord and what He was doing in the city. At the base in Dandong, they had a prayer room on the top of the apartment complex where we spent most of our mornings as a team to seek the Lord and also where we spent individual personal time being with the Lord. We also had the opportunity to see the border of China and North Korea.

Beyond this railing, the grass you see on the other side is North Korea. The stone pillar that is in the river used to be apart of the bridge that connected China and North Korea. During the Korean War, this bridge was blown up to keep China from entering the war but it didn't do anything from keeping them out but it brought them in to aid North Korea. This bridge, was one of the things we were able to do in China and one of the other things was a boat ride that goes along the border of North Korea. The contrast was unreal as the China side was very green and the North Korea side very dry and brown. I'll post up some of those pictures soon too.

One of the other things we were able to do was English corner. English Corner is where the locals come and gather in a location and practice speaking English by speaking with other people. The places where we participated were in cafe's. We would sit down and some people would gather and there would be a discussion topic. They meet weekly and the topics each week change. So we can subtly slip some evangelism in as we discuss the topic.

I thought I had more pictures of the staff and believers but I don't and it's probably better that way for their security and safety. I'll be posting more pictures very soon. Until next time...