The last five weeks have just blown away all pre-conceived ideas I used to have. God's done some pretty revolutionary things in the way I acted, thought, and felt before. Little did I know that I would share my testimony to hundreds of people on television in San Salvador! Little did I know that
Earlier this week our YWAM outreach team worked two days on the construction site of a new church building up in the mountains... far from the bustling streets of San Salvador. Wielding picks, shovels and machetes until our blistered hands bled (and then some), we hacked away at the earth and plant
YWAM's spanish/english worship school begins here where our team is at in San Jose, Costa Rica. A worship movement is gathering here in Central America. This video project we did to feature the school is an important piece in fanning the flame of the Latino worship movement. See it now on youtub
As a part of the 2008 DNA conference, those in attendance claimed the Nations for Jesus. We spread out a huge 4K map which divides the continents based on need for the gospel and asked God for prayers for his people. As one, we walked from area to area, writing out prayers and placing them on t
The YWAM Woodcrest DTS team is currently in San Jose Costa Rica on the first half of a unique outreach opportunity in Central America. This week they will be assisting the local YWAM missionaries in video production and other assistance for their "Children a
Bubbles rose as high as they could in the small fenced in courtyard. Kids shouted joyfully as they jumped up and tried to catch them. I picked up a little girl, about two years old, with big brown eyes and curly dark hair. Her face looked empty and sad. I tried to get her to smile, bu
God had something excellent set up for the Resonate Team and Bautista Colegia, a first through twelvth grade Baptist school in San Salvador. We played concerts and ministered to different grade levels each day during the week. A group of older students were with us daily to help with tra
Two weeks ago the YWAM Resonate Arts and Media team drove west from Texas over the plains and through the desert to Whiteriver, Arizona.
At this first stop, we were immersed in the Native American culture on this Apache reservation. We went door to door to invite people to the concert that n
Since we returned from our outreach traveling across China in March, team Resonate has been working on making a documentary. It has been quite the process of prayer, re-writing the script, sorting though fourteen hours of footage, and r
Thousands of miles away, deep in the jungles of South America, there are tribes hidden from the outside world. Their cultural practices have long been preserved, untouched by those seeking to change them. But should every tribal practice be preserved? One of the most heart
YWAM Resonate Arts & Media Here at Woodcrest we have been having graphics and design workshops. Joel & Jeff have been taking us in depth into photoshop and other programs that help us design graphic art. Each workshop is intense and very insightful in deta
The Letter Home
Written by Moriah
Hey friends, You have become my target audience, and what I hope you take away from this wee letter is a brief update on my random life. The plot is closely associated with how I made it through writing school. I don't know how to place the theme except for possibly that I finished without cheating. The premise being: "I did make it through the course".
The cells of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua are dark and dusty. Our team of three filed into the concrete hallway connecting the cells, and began to pray for God to speak to the men and women´s hearts.
The history of the area could be described as religious, though we visited churches thriving with the Holy Spirit. Other long-term missionaries we had met in Nicaragua described a prevalent life-view in which God or the devil determines one´s life choices, and a person is helpless to change certain circumstances in their life.
Reaching through the bars to hold their hands and touch their heads, we prayed for boldness and a surety in Jesus for their lives. We called for a stop to the cycle in which they were caught, reclaiming all that had been destroyed.
Some wept and accepted prayers gratefully. One man showed us a Bible he had. We encouraged him to read from it daily; to drink from it deeply and to expect great things from the Lord. We taught them to encourage one another. To forgive and become the change they only have through the power of their heavenly Father.
Our team continues to pray for the men and women of this Nicaraguan jail. That they would continue to seek truth and reality from their Father God and accept the greatness He gives them as His Sons and Daughters.
From Bryan: "I have been here in Costa Rica for Three weeks now. During my first week here We were given a video project for The Children At Risk School here. I went to shoot footage in an area most Americans would call "the Ghetto", but there God showed me that kids there were still happy even though they lived in poverty.
Later I went to a daycare that was needing more workers to care for the kids, as my teammates began to play with the children there was water coming down on dry soil that has not seen rain in a long time. The one thing that broke me was that..."
In this world with seven continents, over 200 countries and 6 billion people--God brought us to Calle De La Amargura, or in English, "Bitter Street." This artsy street is crowded with university students, full of the world, and empty of life. Bar after bar dot the spaces on Bitter Street near the campus university. Our mission: to use arts and media as witnessing tools (in their language) and to show love to these people. Nathan from PNG, Jeff and several "ticos," or Costa Ricans, played music and talked with people. One of the local YWAM missionaries, Daniel, even used fire stick juggling as a way to meet people to share with.
After some time there we walked and prayed further down the street. Members of the San Jose JUCUM (YWAM) base told us about their desire to start a cafe right here in Bitter Street. This cafe would bring light and life to this searching neighborhood.
This was incredible news--our team has had experience in starting coffee shop ministries. In San Salvador, YWAM Woodcrest partnered with local YWAMers and a church in Ohio to build a coffee shop/community center ministry, now in full operation for more than a year.
As a team we have been praying to God for long-term projects that partner with Latin America. Right here, God is providing that opportunity!
Flying to Guatemala on my way down to meet up with the DTS “North” team in El Salvador, I picked up an English language newspaper produced in Mexico.I was unprepared for the numerous and extremely violent drug related crimes that were reported… murders by the thousands, even dismemberment and decapitation.
One particular story caught my eye because it happened recently in the Guatemalan border region that I would soon be travelling…
2 gangs faced off in the night, fighting over drug trafficking turf that the now defunct Colombian cartels no longer control. The fighting spilled into a nearby street where several innocent bystanders were shot.
One of the gang members was found hiding in the bushes with 2 gunshot wounds…