The team is on their way home! This was a fabulous trip, full of blessings and over the top God moments. When this team began their journey way back in the dead of winter - January, I don't expect it even entered their minds how great God could be in them and through their lives. But now they have a deeper and wider understanding of God's heart for people who don't know Him, and a more profound awareness of their own callings and destiny. They will never be the same!
Their touch down in Boston after two long days of travel - Friday afternoon! We will be receiving them home with high honors and lots of rejoicing.
Their journey is not over. Sunday night they will preform Encounter at Grace Ministries in Brentwood, NH at 6:30. On June 30 they will begin a 20 day youth outreach with Joshua Generation. Then July 29th... Graduation Day!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Today is our last off day in the UK. It was so wonderful to sleep in and get a full night's rest. It's easy to sleep when God has been so good to our team.
We were in Walsall, England last week. God opened so many doors for us.
We were in 2 schools all week. We gave presentations in the Religious Education classes and throughout the week we met with every student. We were allowed to share the Gospel with the students. Altar calls were discouraged, but our contact said that if we did and anyone had an issue with it, he would clean up the mess later. So we did, and it was fine. One of schools allowed for us to do Encounter, our production, for a morning assembly for one grade. It was incredible. The students responded better than any of us expected.
When Jeremy asked who of them wanted to give their lives to Jesus, nearly 80% of them enthusiastically put up their hands!! Our host, Danny, was shocked beyond belief. He said that he has been working in this school for many years and had never seen them respond to Jesus like that before.
There also were quite a few Muslims there that morning as well. The town of Walsall is becoming very Muslim. One of the schools is over 50% Muslim. Many of the extremist terrorist groups have cells that live in that town as well. Thank God that some of the young people heard about Jesus!We were so blessed by the church that hosted us in Walsall.
They were very kind and hospitable people, the kind you stay friends with forever. We will for sure work with them again! Edinburgh has been great as well. We are working with the Rock Elim Church again this year.
They are so different than when we were here last year. Since our team left last year, they have created a culture of evangelism in their church. Outreach is a regularly scheduled activity. They bought a giant double decker bus and a bouncy castle for their outreaches too!
They planned a big outreach Thursday-Sunday involving their church and us. They were able to get permits to set up big tents and a giant sound system in the main spots in city centre. It was incredible that they had favor with the city council, because they never ever ever let Christians do that kind of thing.
We have been making follow up appointments with every person that prays with us or is interested in hearing more about Jesus. The church is really interested in personally meeting each one and is on it!
On another random note, there is a Christian rapper that we love named Dwayne Triumph. He raps in this song called, "Don't Waste Your Life" and "Don't Pack a Matic." We have listened to him at all our random worship/dance/go crazy/have fun parties. Anyways when we were still in Boston, we saw that he was from London. I told Jeremy to write him on facebook to tell him about us and to see if he wanted to do some ministry with us. He is a legit evangelist.
We never heard back from him until last week. He wrote Jeremy back and gave him his mobile number. So long story short...he is coming today!!! He is gonna chill with us until we leave here on Thursday! Just another way that God has been so good to us!!!
Please pray that it works out for us to do the production on Wednesday night. The venue has not yet been confirmed. We have been telling people that it might happen and they seem interested in coming. Dwayne will also be here for that, and will open for us. (How funny is that?!) Also we want him to see it, so that next year he could maybe hook us up with some shows in London.
Since we have been in the UK, traveling through Belfast, Glasgow, Walsall, and now Edinburgh, we have seen 1,156 people make decisions to follow Jesus for the first time! and 62 people rededicate their lives to Jesus! Yay!!!! His Kingdom is growing! We are so blessed to be working with Him-creatively connecting for transformed hearts and changed lives!!!!
Reflecting His Glory,Jessi
We were in Walsall, England last week. God opened so many doors for us.
We were in 2 schools all week. We gave presentations in the Religious Education classes and throughout the week we met with every student. We were allowed to share the Gospel with the students. Altar calls were discouraged, but our contact said that if we did and anyone had an issue with it, he would clean up the mess later. So we did, and it was fine. One of schools allowed for us to do Encounter, our production, for a morning assembly for one grade. It was incredible. The students responded better than any of us expected.
When Jeremy asked who of them wanted to give their lives to Jesus, nearly 80% of them enthusiastically put up their hands!! Our host, Danny, was shocked beyond belief. He said that he has been working in this school for many years and had never seen them respond to Jesus like that before.
There also were quite a few Muslims there that morning as well. The town of Walsall is becoming very Muslim. One of the schools is over 50% Muslim. Many of the extremist terrorist groups have cells that live in that town as well. Thank God that some of the young people heard about Jesus!We were so blessed by the church that hosted us in Walsall.
They were very kind and hospitable people, the kind you stay friends with forever. We will for sure work with them again! Edinburgh has been great as well. We are working with the Rock Elim Church again this year.
They are so different than when we were here last year. Since our team left last year, they have created a culture of evangelism in their church. Outreach is a regularly scheduled activity. They bought a giant double decker bus and a bouncy castle for their outreaches too!
They planned a big outreach Thursday-Sunday involving their church and us. They were able to get permits to set up big tents and a giant sound system in the main spots in city centre. It was incredible that they had favor with the city council, because they never ever ever let Christians do that kind of thing.
We have been making follow up appointments with every person that prays with us or is interested in hearing more about Jesus. The church is really interested in personally meeting each one and is on it!
On another random note, there is a Christian rapper that we love named Dwayne Triumph. He raps in this song called, "Don't Waste Your Life" and "Don't Pack a Matic." We have listened to him at all our random worship/dance/go crazy/have fun parties. Anyways when we were still in Boston, we saw that he was from London. I told Jeremy to write him on facebook to tell him about us and to see if he wanted to do some ministry with us. He is a legit evangelist.
We never heard back from him until last week. He wrote Jeremy back and gave him his mobile number. So long story short...he is coming today!!! He is gonna chill with us until we leave here on Thursday! Just another way that God has been so good to us!!!
Please pray that it works out for us to do the production on Wednesday night. The venue has not yet been confirmed. We have been telling people that it might happen and they seem interested in coming. Dwayne will also be here for that, and will open for us. (How funny is that?!) Also we want him to see it, so that next year he could maybe hook us up with some shows in London.
Since we have been in the UK, traveling through Belfast, Glasgow, Walsall, and now Edinburgh, we have seen 1,156 people make decisions to follow Jesus for the first time! and 62 people rededicate their lives to Jesus! Yay!!!! His Kingdom is growing! We are so blessed to be working with Him-creatively connecting for transformed hearts and changed lives!!!!
Reflecting His Glory,Jessi
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Team in Edinburgh, Scotland
The team has arrived safely in Edinburgh and are settling into this new phase of the outreach. They are working with an Elim Church there and with our friends Alan & Eileen Scobie. Last year the dts worked with this church and it was fabulous! Updates coming soon.
Friday, June 5, 2009
CAW DTS team in Wallsall England
For the past 5 days our team has been in Wallsall sharing Jesus. They have had amazing opportunites to share in the public schools there. There has been little internet available to them so most of our news has come in bits and pieces. They are doing great.
Kandia wrote on facebook:
"God opened an amazingly miraculous door yesterday, and we were able to do our production IN a school today! It was for 1 grade (10), and there were around 55 students in that grade... we gave opportunity for them to respond to the Gospel, and MANY of them eagerly raised their hands to begin a relationship with the Lord! Thank you Jesus!"
Today they were in a school with 100 youth and 85 or so responded to the Gospel.
Tonight they will do a performance in Wallsall Christian Center.
They leave for Edinburgh, Scotland next week. We will have more news soon.
Keep praying. The Lord is doing remarkable things for these messengers!
Kandia wrote on facebook:
"God opened an amazingly miraculous door yesterday, and we were able to do our production IN a school today! It was for 1 grade (10), and there were around 55 students in that grade... we gave opportunity for them to respond to the Gospel, and MANY of them eagerly raised their hands to begin a relationship with the Lord! Thank you Jesus!"
Today they were in a school with 100 youth and 85 or so responded to the Gospel.
Tonight they will do a performance in Wallsall Christian Center.
They leave for Edinburgh, Scotland next week. We will have more news soon.
Keep praying. The Lord is doing remarkable things for these messengers!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Katie Martin
In Glasgow and loving it! Have seen God do many amazing things. 328 people came to Jesus today...that makes 710 people in just 16 days! We serve a crazy powerful God!
Friday Night Performance in Glasgow!
"Encounter" Performance
Friday night at 8:30pm
at Mosspark Baptist Church, Glasgow.
155 Corkerhill Rd
Glasgow, G52 1PG
Riding the Wave! in Glasgow!
Our team has been in Glasgow since Friday 22 of May. We have seen God working in a different way here than in Belfast. He has opened many doors for us.
It was a miracle that we even made it to Glasgow. We waited too long before booking our tickets from Belfast to Glasgow. Because of the championship soccer matches and the holiday weekend, which we were clueless about, everything was booked. By the skin of our teeth we got tickets, now to make it from the ferry boat to the train in the masses of people with ridiculous amounts of luggage and equipment in only 15 minutes was quite an adventure! Jesus got us there tho!
The first full day that we were here we went to George Square in the middle of city centre to have a time of worship and intercession. We really felt like we needed Jesus to prepare our hearts and the people's hearts, for the spiritual and emotional and physical protection for the team, and for the favor of God to be on us. It was a great start. We really felt like God was doing something in the spiritual realm as we prayed.
After our time there we headed to "our spot" St. Enoch's Square. We were there many times last year and so far this year has been our main source to meet people. It is always crowded there and we often have crowds of 100 or so during shows. It's awesome. Our first weekend here is also a holiday weekend and there was a huge football (soccer) championship game with the Celtics and Rangers (huge rival teams) playing. This combination, as well as the finally sunny weather made for lots of people and good shows! Thanks Jesus!
Sunday we attended the church services at the Glasgow Elim Church. We gave an announcement for our Monday night production in the morning and did a dance in the evening. It was a very encouraging service for the team. The title of the sermon was "Walking in Uncertainty." God was there with us. We did an outreach in the afternoon as well. It was crazy being on the streets immediately following the football match, lots of drunk and excited people. Despite craziness, people came to Jesus!
Monday we had a good prep time for the production. We spent some good time with Jesus in the morning and did a short outreach in the afternoon where 22 people came to Jesus in just a few hours! That afternoon we had a pretty easy time setting up, all things considered. There were about 30 people that came for the show. It was a great show, a very anointed time. At the end 5 people gave their lives to Jesus!
Tuesday we took a nice day off. Laundry, shopping, sleeping, more sleeping, and a trip to Loch Lomond. We had a BBQ on the beach at the loch. It was lovely and as Debi would say, very refreshing. During our day off, our friend Paul made a connection with a pastor friend of his. Pastor Mike. He was so excited to learn about us and started making plans for our team.
This morning we woke up extra early to go to a primary school that Pastor Mike had booked for us. It was a school of 400 kids! It was incredible! Almost all of them raised their hands to pray to commit their lives to Jesus! The pastor was so excited about it that he booked another school for us for Friday and is opening his youth club Friday night for us to do the production. He also wants to make a donation to our team.
Since we arrived here, Kandia and I have had to do all the food shopping and cooking for the team. It looks like some church people are banning together to lighten our load for the rest of the week. They will be helping us out with dinners for the rest of the time! Hallelujah! That is God's favor!
Also our schedule for England looks amazing! I spoke with our contact Danny a few days ago. They have 2 schools lined up for us for 4 days during the week. We will see all the grades on different days inviting them to the weekend production performances. Then we will be doing the production on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night we will also be doing a night club street ministry after the show. We have the full Sunday morning and Sunday evening service as well.
The team is doing well, still encouraged and going strong. Thanks for your prayers! See ya soon!
Blessings,
Jessi
It was a miracle that we even made it to Glasgow. We waited too long before booking our tickets from Belfast to Glasgow. Because of the championship soccer matches and the holiday weekend, which we were clueless about, everything was booked. By the skin of our teeth we got tickets, now to make it from the ferry boat to the train in the masses of people with ridiculous amounts of luggage and equipment in only 15 minutes was quite an adventure! Jesus got us there tho!
The first full day that we were here we went to George Square in the middle of city centre to have a time of worship and intercession. We really felt like we needed Jesus to prepare our hearts and the people's hearts, for the spiritual and emotional and physical protection for the team, and for the favor of God to be on us. It was a great start. We really felt like God was doing something in the spiritual realm as we prayed.
After our time there we headed to "our spot" St. Enoch's Square. We were there many times last year and so far this year has been our main source to meet people. It is always crowded there and we often have crowds of 100 or so during shows. It's awesome. Our first weekend here is also a holiday weekend and there was a huge football (soccer) championship game with the Celtics and Rangers (huge rival teams) playing. This combination, as well as the finally sunny weather made for lots of people and good shows! Thanks Jesus!
Sunday we attended the church services at the Glasgow Elim Church. We gave an announcement for our Monday night production in the morning and did a dance in the evening. It was a very encouraging service for the team. The title of the sermon was "Walking in Uncertainty." God was there with us. We did an outreach in the afternoon as well. It was crazy being on the streets immediately following the football match, lots of drunk and excited people. Despite craziness, people came to Jesus!
Monday we had a good prep time for the production. We spent some good time with Jesus in the morning and did a short outreach in the afternoon where 22 people came to Jesus in just a few hours! That afternoon we had a pretty easy time setting up, all things considered. There were about 30 people that came for the show. It was a great show, a very anointed time. At the end 5 people gave their lives to Jesus!
Tuesday we took a nice day off. Laundry, shopping, sleeping, more sleeping, and a trip to Loch Lomond. We had a BBQ on the beach at the loch. It was lovely and as Debi would say, very refreshing. During our day off, our friend Paul made a connection with a pastor friend of his. Pastor Mike. He was so excited to learn about us and started making plans for our team.
This morning we woke up extra early to go to a primary school that Pastor Mike had booked for us. It was a school of 400 kids! It was incredible! Almost all of them raised their hands to pray to commit their lives to Jesus! The pastor was so excited about it that he booked another school for us for Friday and is opening his youth club Friday night for us to do the production. He also wants to make a donation to our team.
Since we arrived here, Kandia and I have had to do all the food shopping and cooking for the team. It looks like some church people are banning together to lighten our load for the rest of the week. They will be helping us out with dinners for the rest of the time! Hallelujah! That is God's favor!
Also our schedule for England looks amazing! I spoke with our contact Danny a few days ago. They have 2 schools lined up for us for 4 days during the week. We will see all the grades on different days inviting them to the weekend production performances. Then we will be doing the production on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night we will also be doing a night club street ministry after the show. We have the full Sunday morning and Sunday evening service as well.
The team is doing well, still encouraged and going strong. Thanks for your prayers! See ya soon!
Blessings,
Jessi
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Short News from Glasgow
Hello Friends! I just got off the phone with the team. Their internet is down so we haven't heard from them in several days. They are all doing very well. The performance went great last night and people came to the Lord. We will have an update soon, but wanted you all to know that no news is still good news!
Debi
Debi
Sunday, May 24, 2009
More Testimonies
Greetings from Glasgow, Scotland! Here are a few more testimonies from Belfast and most recently, Glasgow. Enjoy!
Before leaving Belfast, I ran into a girl who we prayed with over the weekend. She was with two friends shopping around town. She said she had been using the wordless book to tell her friends about Jesus. She asked if I could tell the story again for the two girls with her, so as I was sharing God's story, the one girl said, "how can I know this Jesus?" So, right there in front of the shops, these girls accepted Him into their lives. The joy on their faces definitely reflected the joy in their hearts!
-April Yates
God has been doing amazing things lately. Last Friday, Lucas and I ran after a guy walking down the street. We talked with him for a while about Jesus. At first he said he was an atheist and then he said that religion was just something put in place by the government to keep society under control. So we talked with him some more. God really used us to speak into his life, and we both shared pieces of our testimonies with him. He finally started to open up about his life and said that his girlfriend had dumped him a year ago. Since then, he'd been looking for something to bring him happiness, so he tried ecstasy, drinking, sex and even tried to commit suicide three times. But each time, the attempts failed or someone found him before it was too late. He said the doctors were amazed he was still alive. In fact, the reason he even met us was because he accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop. As we talked to him, he began to put the pieces together and realized how much God really had protected him. That night, standing on the streets of Belfast, Peter gave his life to the Lord. Lucas and I have been able to talk to him several times since then and it has been amazing. Lucas said he had never met someone who'd had such a hard life, but now that he has given his life to God, I have great hopes for him. God has protected him this long for a reason and I'm excited to see what He does with Peter's life.
-Katie Martin
After we had just finished outreach at Primark in Belfast, a couple of us went to a cafe called the FEED Cafe to help hand out cards and witness on the streets. I went across the street and began talking to four young boys from around the Belfast area and as I began to tell them about the love of Jesus, the boys asked me if I could get them contacts to the Bronx because they wanted to go their to be in gangs. These boys were wanting to understand how and why gangs fight and said they just have an interest in it. That's how all of the conversation started. So we went into the cafe and talked for two hours about the cross, sin and the blood of Jesus.
At first they were distracted and really didn't want to talk about Jesus but Jesus told me not to give up so I continued to speak into their hearts. I could feel they were really listening because their eyes were fixed on me. Then I asked them if they would like to make Jesus their Lord and Savior and they said they would think about it. I could tell they were afraid because their friend walked in and then they just all got up and left. Right before their friend walked in, they knew in their hearts that life is short. After they left, I was honestly mad at myself and I aked God to forgive me and I told him to watch over them. After, Aaron and I were talking and the next thing I knew, a young girl said "your friends are back," and the boys came back to accept Christ into their lives!
-Matthew Glover
During the church service at Glasgow Elim, a few DTS students and I got the chance to go lead a youth service for kids ages 11 to 14 and it was so amazing! We started off with a few worship songs and testimonies and then broke off into one-on-one discussion. I got paired with a 12 year old girl named Victoria and we were so much alike, not to mention her nickname is Tori. She began to ask questions about her relationship with God and her struggles and I was able to encourage her from my life experiences. She was so open and genuine and God gave me such a heart to speak into her life. It was even more exciting because a lady had prophesied over me that I would be used to speak into the lives of young women who were going through the same things that I had experienced! I can't wait to see how God uses me in the future-- Jesus is so rad!
-Tori Smith
Before leaving Belfast, I ran into a girl who we prayed with over the weekend. She was with two friends shopping around town. She said she had been using the wordless book to tell her friends about Jesus. She asked if I could tell the story again for the two girls with her, so as I was sharing God's story, the one girl said, "how can I know this Jesus?" So, right there in front of the shops, these girls accepted Him into their lives. The joy on their faces definitely reflected the joy in their hearts!
-April Yates
God has been doing amazing things lately. Last Friday, Lucas and I ran after a guy walking down the street. We talked with him for a while about Jesus. At first he said he was an atheist and then he said that religion was just something put in place by the government to keep society under control. So we talked with him some more. God really used us to speak into his life, and we both shared pieces of our testimonies with him. He finally started to open up about his life and said that his girlfriend had dumped him a year ago. Since then, he'd been looking for something to bring him happiness, so he tried ecstasy, drinking, sex and even tried to commit suicide three times. But each time, the attempts failed or someone found him before it was too late. He said the doctors were amazed he was still alive. In fact, the reason he even met us was because he accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop. As we talked to him, he began to put the pieces together and realized how much God really had protected him. That night, standing on the streets of Belfast, Peter gave his life to the Lord. Lucas and I have been able to talk to him several times since then and it has been amazing. Lucas said he had never met someone who'd had such a hard life, but now that he has given his life to God, I have great hopes for him. God has protected him this long for a reason and I'm excited to see what He does with Peter's life.
-Katie Martin
After we had just finished outreach at Primark in Belfast, a couple of us went to a cafe called the FEED Cafe to help hand out cards and witness on the streets. I went across the street and began talking to four young boys from around the Belfast area and as I began to tell them about the love of Jesus, the boys asked me if I could get them contacts to the Bronx because they wanted to go their to be in gangs. These boys were wanting to understand how and why gangs fight and said they just have an interest in it. That's how all of the conversation started. So we went into the cafe and talked for two hours about the cross, sin and the blood of Jesus.
At first they were distracted and really didn't want to talk about Jesus but Jesus told me not to give up so I continued to speak into their hearts. I could feel they were really listening because their eyes were fixed on me. Then I asked them if they would like to make Jesus their Lord and Savior and they said they would think about it. I could tell they were afraid because their friend walked in and then they just all got up and left. Right before their friend walked in, they knew in their hearts that life is short. After they left, I was honestly mad at myself and I aked God to forgive me and I told him to watch over them. After, Aaron and I were talking and the next thing I knew, a young girl said "your friends are back," and the boys came back to accept Christ into their lives!
-Matthew Glover
During the church service at Glasgow Elim, a few DTS students and I got the chance to go lead a youth service for kids ages 11 to 14 and it was so amazing! We started off with a few worship songs and testimonies and then broke off into one-on-one discussion. I got paired with a 12 year old girl named Victoria and we were so much alike, not to mention her nickname is Tori. She began to ask questions about her relationship with God and her struggles and I was able to encourage her from my life experiences. She was so open and genuine and God gave me such a heart to speak into her life. It was even more exciting because a lady had prophesied over me that I would be used to speak into the lives of young women who were going through the same things that I had experienced! I can't wait to see how God uses me in the future-- Jesus is so rad!
-Tori Smith
Thursday, May 21, 2009
End of Belfast Outreach- Headed to Glasgow
Hey, hey!
Wow. Our ten-day Belfast outreach has just come to a close as we depart for Glasgow, Scotland today. We had an amazing time see God's work unfold before our very eyes and getting to experience the transformation of lives first hand was unbelievable. God impacted each of us so much and I'll speak for the team: we will leave here with many memories. We concluded our trip last night with evangelism training at New Life City Church and witnessing/hanging out with teens at FEED Cafe. Despite the rain, God took in a harvest that made us jump for joy and eager to hit the streets again:
319 first time commitments and
22 re dedications
Here are a few more testimonies from the team and a lot more to come:
One late afternoon in Belfast, some of my fellow DTS students and myself finished a hip hop dance. I moved to stand in the crowd as I watched some of the DTS students get ready for the drama "Doors." While watching the drama, one of my leaders told me that if the two girls standing not far from me left during the drama, I should go talk to them. So there I stood, thinking that there was no way that the two grils would leave. But sure enough, one of the girls started to walk away from the crowd. I then jogged after her and introduced myself. She told me her name was Donna Mara and she was 12 years old.
While I was talking with her, the girl's friend Marie, who was 11 years old, skated towards us on her roller blades. I asked the two girls if I could share the wordless book with them and they both agreed to listen. I led them to a nearby bench where all three of us sat down and I began to explain what each color represents in the book. During my conversation with them, I told them that God loves them and wants to have a relationship with them.
While talking with them I found out that both girl's went to church but had never asked Jesus into their hearts before. I asked them if they would like to have a relationship with Him and both of them said "yes." Right there in Belfast, the two girls made a commitment to follow Jesus; I was so excited for the girls! Because of my obedience to my leader, I was able to see two girls commit their lives to God.
-Joanna Atkinson
After performing one of our dramas in Belfast, I introduced myself to a man who said, “I’m an atheist. You probably don’t wanna hear what I have to say.” At his surprise, I did. He began telling me about his life story. His mom died when he was only little and his dad walked out on him, so he moved in with his uncle, who died shortly after. The remainder of his family calls him the grim reaper, because everything he gets close to dies. His nickname is the “curse”. Just talking about it brought tears to his eyes. He told me there can’t be a God, because he’s been through too much hurt. He asked why I believe there is a God and I told him, I could give him 100 facts as proof, but the real evidence is the way He changes lives. I said I’ve seen too many miracles for me not to believe in Him. I began to share with him that God can be his Father who will NEVER leave him. I asked if he felt empty, and he told me he has been searching for something, but he just can’t fill that void inside, so I said, “Bro, you need Jesus” and he shook his head and said yeah, I do. After sharing with him proof that God does exist and that He desires a relationship with him, the man began to shake inside and held his chest, saying, “whoa, what was that?” I said It’s the power of God getting a hold of your heart, homey! At the end of our conversation, something clicked and he was like a little boy finding his way back home.
God did a work in both of us that rainy afternoon. He gave a man a new purpose and reason to live, and strengthened my faith in the process!
-April Yates
Wow. Our ten-day Belfast outreach has just come to a close as we depart for Glasgow, Scotland today. We had an amazing time see God's work unfold before our very eyes and getting to experience the transformation of lives first hand was unbelievable. God impacted each of us so much and I'll speak for the team: we will leave here with many memories. We concluded our trip last night with evangelism training at New Life City Church and witnessing/hanging out with teens at FEED Cafe. Despite the rain, God took in a harvest that made us jump for joy and eager to hit the streets again:
319 first time commitments and
22 re dedications
Here are a few more testimonies from the team and a lot more to come:
One late afternoon in Belfast, some of my fellow DTS students and myself finished a hip hop dance. I moved to stand in the crowd as I watched some of the DTS students get ready for the drama "Doors." While watching the drama, one of my leaders told me that if the two girls standing not far from me left during the drama, I should go talk to them. So there I stood, thinking that there was no way that the two grils would leave. But sure enough, one of the girls started to walk away from the crowd. I then jogged after her and introduced myself. She told me her name was Donna Mara and she was 12 years old.
While I was talking with her, the girl's friend Marie, who was 11 years old, skated towards us on her roller blades. I asked the two girls if I could share the wordless book with them and they both agreed to listen. I led them to a nearby bench where all three of us sat down and I began to explain what each color represents in the book. During my conversation with them, I told them that God loves them and wants to have a relationship with them.
While talking with them I found out that both girl's went to church but had never asked Jesus into their hearts before. I asked them if they would like to have a relationship with Him and both of them said "yes." Right there in Belfast, the two girls made a commitment to follow Jesus; I was so excited for the girls! Because of my obedience to my leader, I was able to see two girls commit their lives to God.
-Joanna Atkinson
After performing one of our dramas in Belfast, I introduced myself to a man who said, “I’m an atheist. You probably don’t wanna hear what I have to say.” At his surprise, I did. He began telling me about his life story. His mom died when he was only little and his dad walked out on him, so he moved in with his uncle, who died shortly after. The remainder of his family calls him the grim reaper, because everything he gets close to dies. His nickname is the “curse”. Just talking about it brought tears to his eyes. He told me there can’t be a God, because he’s been through too much hurt. He asked why I believe there is a God and I told him, I could give him 100 facts as proof, but the real evidence is the way He changes lives. I said I’ve seen too many miracles for me not to believe in Him. I began to share with him that God can be his Father who will NEVER leave him. I asked if he felt empty, and he told me he has been searching for something, but he just can’t fill that void inside, so I said, “Bro, you need Jesus” and he shook his head and said yeah, I do. After sharing with him proof that God does exist and that He desires a relationship with him, the man began to shake inside and held his chest, saying, “whoa, what was that?” I said It’s the power of God getting a hold of your heart, homey! At the end of our conversation, something clicked and he was like a little boy finding his way back home.
God did a work in both of us that rainy afternoon. He gave a man a new purpose and reason to live, and strengthened my faith in the process!
-April Yates
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Clear skies, Rainbows and a Divine Encounter!
So last night we went out for some worship and art on the streets. It was raining when we left, but we were praying that God would clear it up for us. As soon as we got down to the city centre it started to clear, and a full rainbow came out! It was amazing!
We had a great time with Jesus, talked with a good deal of people. We were just wrapping up to leave when an older lady and her son came by and were talking to us. It turns out that they were Messianic Jews and wanted to pray for us.
They lady said that in the morning God told her that she would meet someone significant today, she didn't know that it would be believers though. So she prayed for all of us individually, giving us all prophetic words that were pretty much all spot on.
There were 2 people who some of the guys who had been talking to who joined in the circle with us as well. One of them was saved and one named Jonny was not.
The lady's word for Jonny was, You're not a believer?! If you don't give your life to Jesus, your days are numbered.
There was a very drunk man walking around the whole time we were out. He was making us a little nervous. The lady looked right at him and said, Be quiet in the name of Jesus. He turned around and walked away.
After they had prayed, they blew the chofar over us.
So it was crazy!
Then this morning there was a text on our mobile that said. "Guys. It's Jonny i was talking to you about an hour ago. i hope you remember. i want to get saved tomorrow. Hope you can help."
WOW!
So we are gonna meet up with him today!
-Jessi
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Jessi Welsh - Checking In!
Hello Friends!
Here is a little report about what God has done in Belfast so far! Thanks so much for your prayers and support. They are bearing amazing fruit.
Wednesday and Thursday
We did shows downtown all day today...doors, dances, and worship on the streets. We've seen 42 people come to Jesus so far! amazing! there have been so many divine appointments too.
Friday
so i had to tell you this amazing story about our day!
we went on a really expensive train ride up to a town called coleraine. we had a 2 mile walk to the train station at 8am. we ended up running most of the way, bc we were running late. we made it by the skin of our teeth. our purpose in going was to perform at some schools with hundreds of kids and to meet some famous Christian worship leaders at this church, Kathryn Scott and Tre Sheppard. So upon arriving there was no one there to pick us up and it turns out that they forgot about us. great.
so our contact guy tells us to walk around the city center for a bit until they can let us know about the school for sure.but at this point it looks like we will be able to be in one class with 30 kids. so...
we prayed.
we asked Jesus to make a way for us. there had to be a reason he had us pay $19/per person to get here today!
so we started walking up the street and decided that we should eat while we had time. so we walked for a bit with the whole team aimlessly looking for food. then we left the team on a large sidewalk in front of a military base while me jer and kan went and looked for cheap food.
we found some fish and chips!!! so good! really cheap. so we bought some for everyone and walked it back to the team. it was now raining. so we sat on the sidewalk outside the military base in the drizzling rain eating our yummy food. What a site!
then we got a call from our contact at the school saying that they were trying to pull something together and it looked good.
so we ended up doing 3 assemblies for about 100 kids total! it was so awesome! many of them prayed to commit their lives to Jesus.
our contact lady later told us the miraculous story of how GOD worked everything out for us to be here in this corrupt school. and many teachers thanked us for giving them a challenge to follow Jesus! It was amazing!!!
then we went to the city centre and performed in the rain for a decent sized crowd. every person had a group of at least 5 people to talk to after the show!
then we went to a coffee shop and performed there. again...awesome.
at the end of the day we were walking really fast to get to the train station again. we had a situation on our hands because we had only purchased one way tickets that morning. the church had said that they would drive us home. when we arrived they changed their minds because we wouldnt fit in their minibus. so we didn't want to have to purchase another one way ticket. it would have been 3 pounds or 5 dollars more per person. thats a lot times 22 people. so kandia and jer said that i should try my welsh charm on the guy. so i worked my magic. i talked to the guy explaining who we were and what we were doing and that we really need to just pay the difference of a round trip ticket rather than buying one ways for everyone. at first he said no way, thats impossible. i said, you're sure there's nothing you can do? so he made some phone calls and the head guy came down to talk to me. i told him our situation. he said, thats impossible. i re-explained the good things that our team was doing and how we really needed him to work this out for us. so he said YES!!! Yay!!!!!! God's favor is on us!
Saturday - another great day!
always an adventure...we saw 67ish something people come to Jesus today in Belfast city centre!!!! and there was a 70% chance of rain today, its been cold and rainy like mad here. we went outside to leave and stared praying. as we were praying blue appeared out of no where right above our team!!!! it was a miracle!!! the blue skies followed us all the way down to city centre and stayed til we returned home later that day.
Sunday - another great day!
we did the production tonight at a church. lots of people came- from ywam here, the streets, and the church! it was awesome!
i woke up this morning with a sore throat. most of the team is kinda sick, i think from the cold rains. i've been faithfully taking meds and vits, i thought i was immune. guess not. i was worried i wouldn't be able to sing for the show.
the pastor of the church was really apprehensive about us doing worship since Amanda began contacting him a while ago.. i guess they've had some teams come in the past and do a really bad job. but amanda convinced him via email that we were good enough.
so everything was really stressful all afternoon trying to get all the technical stuff up and ready. we didn't even have time to do a run through and we havent done any of this stuff since the friday before we left.
we were all praying super lots and believing that Jesus was going to do something amazing!
Jesus came. we all encountered Him!
it was amazing!
my voice sounded the best it has in a long time! it didn't even sound like me. unreal. even though my throat hurt the whole time and it felt like i was gonna lose it at any minute.
people loved it and God touched them!
the pastor got up afterward and confessed his apprehension of having us. i was so nervous what he would say. he said that amanda said we were good, but tonight he saw that we were awesome. the word awesome means more them here than it does to us. they don't use it for everything. it means he was actually in awe. yay! thanks Jesus!!!!
so good day!
day off tomorrow!!!!
hallelujah!
sleepin in.
The team is doing great. We are all encouraged. Thank you again for your prayers!
Blessings,
Jessi
Here is a little report about what God has done in Belfast so far! Thanks so much for your prayers and support. They are bearing amazing fruit.
Wednesday and Thursday
We did shows downtown all day today...doors, dances, and worship on the streets. We've seen 42 people come to Jesus so far! amazing! there have been so many divine appointments too.
Friday
so i had to tell you this amazing story about our day!
we went on a really expensive train ride up to a town called coleraine. we had a 2 mile walk to the train station at 8am. we ended up running most of the way, bc we were running late. we made it by the skin of our teeth. our purpose in going was to perform at some schools with hundreds of kids and to meet some famous Christian worship leaders at this church, Kathryn Scott and Tre Sheppard. So upon arriving there was no one there to pick us up and it turns out that they forgot about us. great.
so our contact guy tells us to walk around the city center for a bit until they can let us know about the school for sure.but at this point it looks like we will be able to be in one class with 30 kids. so...
we prayed.
we asked Jesus to make a way for us. there had to be a reason he had us pay $19/per person to get here today!
so we started walking up the street and decided that we should eat while we had time. so we walked for a bit with the whole team aimlessly looking for food. then we left the team on a large sidewalk in front of a military base while me jer and kan went and looked for cheap food.
we found some fish and chips!!! so good! really cheap. so we bought some for everyone and walked it back to the team. it was now raining. so we sat on the sidewalk outside the military base in the drizzling rain eating our yummy food. What a site!
then we got a call from our contact at the school saying that they were trying to pull something together and it looked good.
so we ended up doing 3 assemblies for about 100 kids total! it was so awesome! many of them prayed to commit their lives to Jesus.
our contact lady later told us the miraculous story of how GOD worked everything out for us to be here in this corrupt school. and many teachers thanked us for giving them a challenge to follow Jesus! It was amazing!!!
then we went to the city centre and performed in the rain for a decent sized crowd. every person had a group of at least 5 people to talk to after the show!
then we went to a coffee shop and performed there. again...awesome.
at the end of the day we were walking really fast to get to the train station again. we had a situation on our hands because we had only purchased one way tickets that morning. the church had said that they would drive us home. when we arrived they changed their minds because we wouldnt fit in their minibus. so we didn't want to have to purchase another one way ticket. it would have been 3 pounds or 5 dollars more per person. thats a lot times 22 people. so kandia and jer said that i should try my welsh charm on the guy. so i worked my magic. i talked to the guy explaining who we were and what we were doing and that we really need to just pay the difference of a round trip ticket rather than buying one ways for everyone. at first he said no way, thats impossible. i said, you're sure there's nothing you can do? so he made some phone calls and the head guy came down to talk to me. i told him our situation. he said, thats impossible. i re-explained the good things that our team was doing and how we really needed him to work this out for us. so he said YES!!! Yay!!!!!! God's favor is on us!
Saturday - another great day!
always an adventure...we saw 67ish something people come to Jesus today in Belfast city centre!!!! and there was a 70% chance of rain today, its been cold and rainy like mad here. we went outside to leave and stared praying. as we were praying blue appeared out of no where right above our team!!!! it was a miracle!!! the blue skies followed us all the way down to city centre and stayed til we returned home later that day.
Sunday - another great day!
we did the production tonight at a church. lots of people came- from ywam here, the streets, and the church! it was awesome!
i woke up this morning with a sore throat. most of the team is kinda sick, i think from the cold rains. i've been faithfully taking meds and vits, i thought i was immune. guess not. i was worried i wouldn't be able to sing for the show.
the pastor of the church was really apprehensive about us doing worship since Amanda began contacting him a while ago.. i guess they've had some teams come in the past and do a really bad job. but amanda convinced him via email that we were good enough.
so everything was really stressful all afternoon trying to get all the technical stuff up and ready. we didn't even have time to do a run through and we havent done any of this stuff since the friday before we left.
we were all praying super lots and believing that Jesus was going to do something amazing!
Jesus came. we all encountered Him!
it was amazing!
my voice sounded the best it has in a long time! it didn't even sound like me. unreal. even though my throat hurt the whole time and it felt like i was gonna lose it at any minute.
people loved it and God touched them!
the pastor got up afterward and confessed his apprehension of having us. i was so nervous what he would say. he said that amanda said we were good, but tonight he saw that we were awesome. the word awesome means more them here than it does to us. they don't use it for everything. it means he was actually in awe. yay! thanks Jesus!!!!
so good day!
day off tomorrow!!!!
hallelujah!
sleepin in.
The team is doing great. We are all encouraged. Thank you again for your prayers!
Blessings,
Jessi
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Encounter - First Performance of production in Ireland
Just finished talking with the team. They had a wonderful day. Tonight was the first performance of Encounter and the church was packed. Many people came from the street outreaches. The Lord deeply moved. There will be more updates to come, but I wanted to tell everyone that it was a great night! Keep praying. Tomorrow is a day off for the team. A well needed rest!
Debi
Debi
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Belfast City Hall Outreach
Hello World!
So far, outreach has been an amazing, life-changing experience and God continues to blow our minds at each turn. Yesterday, our team went into downtown Belfast to the city hall and spent the day witnessing and forming friendships with the many teens that hang out there regularly. God moved in such a powerful way and we left there with many memorable stories and 74 changed lives. Everywhere we go, God's love leads and prepares the way, ever reminding us of the reason we are here: to be unmistakable followers of Jesus and tell the Gospel to all.
Here are a few testimonies from our team:
So the last couple of days have been really cool! We have talked to a bunch of people and some of them have listened, some of them have not. But the cool thing is that we are talking to people in Belfast, a city in which nobody wants to talk about religion because of all the violence and division it has caused, and people are actually responding! This one lady I talked to was a Christian but I got to talk to her about how Jesus could be her friend and help her with more than just the major decisions in her life. She told me that she became a major alcoholic after her mom died; and 2 1/2 years ago she realized that she was hurting herself and with some help from her church she quit but she still struggles with the temptation every day. I was able to encourage her and talk to her about how Jesus could help her with her cravings and with everyday life. And I was also able to pray for her! I'm really looking forward to the rest of outreach so that I can continue to spread the word about how much Jesus loves these people!
-Sarah Shepherd
There was a man named Matthew who questioned God and his judgment. His question was, "If a man who lived a horrible life and knew he was now 30 minutes from death accepted Jesus and another man who was always good also died, would the man on the death bed go to heaven before the good man?"
The moment was intense; everything was moving fast and I felt a need to speak in haste for the fella. I answered him according to what I know Jesus speaks on. I said "Yes, because Jesus talks about forgiveness and is quick to forgive."
Matthew was quickly angered by my response; I think I disarmed him with words of understanding. I told him "I would agree with him as a (fallen) human being, I would agree the unfairness in this judgment but God is quite different from all of us."
I then asked at the end of our conversation, "Do you want to know truth?" He responded, "Yes." I then said he would want to know Jesus. I spoke this with all honesty in my soul. "Ok," he said with agreement in his tone.
I was deeply encouraged by him. I want Matthew to see Jesus and know him in heaven.
-Jordan Esquivel
God has really been moving here in Northern Ireland and has been proving himself to me through talking to hundreds of teens here; I love it. Because Belfast is so quiet, I can really hear the voice of God in my heart and through the scriptures. It is so great to see what God has been doing. People have been so accepting of us so far and we've grown closer to God through prayers; I feel alive in Christ and can't wait to see what happens through the rest of our outreach.
-Matthew Glover
More testimonies will be up within the next few days as we continue to see God's work unfold. Tonight, we are putting on our production Encounter for the first time in the UK and we are anticipating a large crowd of people we have met on the streets. Continue praying for our team and all those we are working with. God is so awesome!
So far, outreach has been an amazing, life-changing experience and God continues to blow our minds at each turn. Yesterday, our team went into downtown Belfast to the city hall and spent the day witnessing and forming friendships with the many teens that hang out there regularly. God moved in such a powerful way and we left there with many memorable stories and 74 changed lives. Everywhere we go, God's love leads and prepares the way, ever reminding us of the reason we are here: to be unmistakable followers of Jesus and tell the Gospel to all.
Here are a few testimonies from our team:
So the last couple of days have been really cool! We have talked to a bunch of people and some of them have listened, some of them have not. But the cool thing is that we are talking to people in Belfast, a city in which nobody wants to talk about religion because of all the violence and division it has caused, and people are actually responding! This one lady I talked to was a Christian but I got to talk to her about how Jesus could be her friend and help her with more than just the major decisions in her life. She told me that she became a major alcoholic after her mom died; and 2 1/2 years ago she realized that she was hurting herself and with some help from her church she quit but she still struggles with the temptation every day. I was able to encourage her and talk to her about how Jesus could help her with her cravings and with everyday life. And I was also able to pray for her! I'm really looking forward to the rest of outreach so that I can continue to spread the word about how much Jesus loves these people!
-Sarah Shepherd
There was a man named Matthew who questioned God and his judgment. His question was, "If a man who lived a horrible life and knew he was now 30 minutes from death accepted Jesus and another man who was always good also died, would the man on the death bed go to heaven before the good man?"
The moment was intense; everything was moving fast and I felt a need to speak in haste for the fella. I answered him according to what I know Jesus speaks on. I said "Yes, because Jesus talks about forgiveness and is quick to forgive."
Matthew was quickly angered by my response; I think I disarmed him with words of understanding. I told him "I would agree with him as a (fallen) human being, I would agree the unfairness in this judgment but God is quite different from all of us."
I then asked at the end of our conversation, "Do you want to know truth?" He responded, "Yes." I then said he would want to know Jesus. I spoke this with all honesty in my soul. "Ok," he said with agreement in his tone.
I was deeply encouraged by him. I want Matthew to see Jesus and know him in heaven.
-Jordan Esquivel
God has really been moving here in Northern Ireland and has been proving himself to me through talking to hundreds of teens here; I love it. Because Belfast is so quiet, I can really hear the voice of God in my heart and through the scriptures. It is so great to see what God has been doing. People have been so accepting of us so far and we've grown closer to God through prayers; I feel alive in Christ and can't wait to see what happens through the rest of our outreach.
-Matthew Glover
More testimonies will be up within the next few days as we continue to see God's work unfold. Tonight, we are putting on our production Encounter for the first time in the UK and we are anticipating a large crowd of people we have met on the streets. Continue praying for our team and all those we are working with. God is so awesome!
We had a great day yesterday. We took a train and a bus up to Coleraine on the north coast... At a school we got to perform for a bunch of kids, and then we did a show in the town square, and also at a church coffee shop. Our day in Coleraine started with us standing by a field of cows totally lost, and ended with 52 people getting saved! God pulled another one through. All total we've had 111 salvations and 6 rededications"
Thursday, May 14, 2009
News from Belfast
Hello All,
Just a quick update from little bits the team has had time to send. Over 42 people prayed with the team to receive Jesus for the first time during these days in Belfast. The team is doing great. Everyone seems happy and they are adjusting, tired, a little jet lagged, but very happy.
Words like Amazing, and Rockin are the common descriptions I get.
This is just a short story about Katrina, a girl who came to Christ last year with the team. Katrina – She was hanging out near city hall in Belfast last May (2008) when she met our team, heard the message of Jesus for the first time and took a step of faith. She knew something had happened to her; she told her friends, “This is not going to go away, I am changed!”
May 12, 2009 – Our team arrives in Belfast, gets lost looking for a money exchange, and they hear, “Hey! It’s me, Katrina! I’m still a Christian. I still love Jesus. I led my mom and a lot of my family to the Lord. I am so happy you came back!”
We wait for an official update from the staff and students. Until then, pray for them and trust the Lord for good weather, health, doors of opportunity, unity, peace, strength, favor, the rest of their financial provision, (another $1000 was promised today) and His Anointing!
Blessings to all,
Debi for the CAW DTS team
Just a quick update from little bits the team has had time to send. Over 42 people prayed with the team to receive Jesus for the first time during these days in Belfast. The team is doing great. Everyone seems happy and they are adjusting, tired, a little jet lagged, but very happy.
Words like Amazing, and Rockin are the common descriptions I get.
This is just a short story about Katrina, a girl who came to Christ last year with the team. Katrina – She was hanging out near city hall in Belfast last May (2008) when she met our team, heard the message of Jesus for the first time and took a step of faith. She knew something had happened to her; she told her friends, “This is not going to go away, I am changed!”
May 12, 2009 – Our team arrives in Belfast, gets lost looking for a money exchange, and they hear, “Hey! It’s me, Katrina! I’m still a Christian. I still love Jesus. I led my mom and a lot of my family to the Lord. I am so happy you came back!”
We wait for an official update from the staff and students. Until then, pray for them and trust the Lord for good weather, health, doors of opportunity, unity, peace, strength, favor, the rest of their financial provision, (another $1000 was promised today) and His Anointing!
Blessings to all,
Debi for the CAW DTS team
Ireland Tour Dates
| Encounter Tour Dates- tentative schedule |
| May 15 - Friday in Colerain May 16 - Saturday in Belfast - City Center near City hall or Primark May 17 - Sunday New Life City Church - morning service - evening “Encounter” May 18 -Monday day off May 19 -Tuesday Woodvale park in the afternoon - boys school in Belfast on the Shank Hill May 20 -Wednesday Woodvale park in the afternoon May 21- Thursday Woodvale park in the afternoon May 22 - Friday leave for Glasgow
|
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
May 11 - Provision Awaits Faith
The Creative Arts in Worship DTS is ready to launch.
In a word - describe what is happening at YWAM Boston as the team prepares to leave at 7 PM for the Encounter Tour to the United Kingdom?
Hope, Expectancy, Chaos, Peace, Sacrifice, Love, Unity, Fears, Confidence, Adrenaline, Laughter, Humility, Luggage, Encouragement, Order, Security, Faith, Provision, Worship!
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