“Now, Lord . . . enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

The Lord has heard our prayers and He is moving is Athens! This week our team joined with over 300 other YWAMers and volunteers to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Athens in an effort we are calling YWAM United. In our time so far we have witnessed the Lord work miracles and bring people to Him!

From Thursday to Saturday, YWAM United hosted six events for refugees where we welcomed them as our guests and shared the gospel with them. During the day, we presented the Jesus Film with tea and cookies, and a time of prayer ministry for people’s needs. In the evenings, we hosted a dinner and shared the gospel, followed by a time of testimonies and praying for healing.

Divine Appointments

A few days prior to the event, some on our team were in the metro station when they ran into a man we had met in the refugee camp in Lesvos! This man, A, was a refugee and translator in the camp there. Now he is in Athens, and God provided a divine appointment that we should meet him again here! We invited him to attend the event and he came the first night. During the ministry time at the end of the evening, the man prayed to receive salvation!

Remember the Afghani families we shared about in our last update? We’d been praying for them and about the next step God had for us in reaching out to them. Preparing for street evangelism, a few of our team members went with some students from another base to pick up a guitar at that team’s apartment. Walking down the street, they crossed paths with the Afghani families and were able to invite them to this weekend’s event! Some of us were able to sit and have dinner with the family at the event and further share with them, while at the same time the families could hear the gospel message and testimonies others told.

Just to think of the opportunities that could have been missed, had a metro train been later or earlier, had a different street been taken… Of course, the Lord knew exactly where these people He loves would be and directed our steps to them. “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord determines their steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

Testimonies of the Event

At the last night of the event, we met one refugee family of Iranian Christians. They had been Muslim before but had come to know Jesus in Iran. As we were praying for people, one woman in this family jumped onto the stage to share her testimony. She had seen Jesus in a dream and this had prompted her to seek to know Him. This woman encouraged the audience to seek to know Jesus too. By hosting this event, not only did we get to share our testimonies with people, but we created a place where refugees could share the hope of Jesus with other refugees!

Through these weekend events, we know of at least 15 people who accepted salvation through Jesus! Many also received prayer for pain or sickness and were healed! Words of knowledge were called out for people with tooth aches, digestive issues, hearing issues, and more, and people responded! As we prayed for them, we saw the Lord deliver people from their suffering of these issues.

We closed last night’s event in worship, and as we praised Jesus in song and dance, we noticed some of those we had prayed for dancing alongside us! People lingered in the presence of Jesus that we had the privilege of hosting and administering in the room.

The Lord spoke to us last week that the first week of YWAM United was to prepare us for even greater things that would follow. So much has happened in just this week, but God has even more in store than we can possibly imagine! We praise Him for the seeds He has planted and the privilege of sowing with Him.

A few nights ago my team felt heavily that we were to go out and simply worship Jesus. So we went to a popular area for refugees to hangout and didn’t find anyone. It was raining and it was cold and late. In all honesty I just wanted to go to bed and call it an early night.

Yet we decided to go into the Metro and worship Jesus.

As we began it started really slow and people laughed and pointed at us as we worshipped, and I just wanted to give up and head home.

But there was a slight tug at my heart. I realized that the circumstances surrounding me were influencing the faith I carried and not vice versa. So I steeled myself and said regardless of whether I get kicked out or laughed at I want to give Jesus everything. We began to worship, and praise Jesus because He is so beautiful and for no other reason.

Suddenly people stopped and interacted with us. Suddenly the laughter ceased and the gazing began to center around our passionate affection for Jesus and not how “silly” we might look. We looked like people who were possessed by love. Not people seeking attention. After 25 minutes or so security asked us to leave. So we walked right outside and sat at a bench and continued worshipping Jesus. 

To our left were 3 men from Pakistan. They all had insanely difficult journeys to Athens. My team leader and I started talking to them about Jesus. We got a word of knowledge for lower back pain and for hopelessness and depression, so we asked first about the pain. The guy in the middle said he had a lot of pain in his back, so we prayed for his back and the pain left.

Then we spoke prophetically into the other man and prayed for hopelessness to be broken off of him. He told us he felt so much peace and relaxation. We got words of knowledge for the other man’s sisters and family in Pakistan and just saw that Jesus was protecting them.

It was awesome to see how Jesus moving in their lives was not dependent upon their belief in who He really was, but rather His goodness and kindness towards them.

We left them with a Bible and they left encouraged, healed and hopeful for the future.

It was an awesome moment to advance Jesus’ name and what He is really like to His children.

Radical worship and affection for Jesus is its own goal and end, but I have found that when you worship Him with zero agenda, He comes and His love pierces hearts and draws His children together in power. He is so good.

Hello everyone! We have been enjoying Lebanon so very much! Thank you for all the prayers, we sure can feel them. We have seen quite a bit while in the camps as well as right outside of our apartment. The people are so hospitable here. We’ll share some stories from both in the camps and in our neighborhood.

Let’s get to it:

On Sunday we went to a little market of sorts. Our word for the day was Worship, so we took the guitar down and decided to worship on the streets. A man who was running a stand called us over and invited us to come into the shade and continue playing.

We were able to meet and encourage a bunch of Christians, as well as share the gospel with a few Muslims. When we were on our way back to the apartment, a few of us ran into a group of middle school and high school students. One of the boys in the group had a cast on and we asked if we could pray for him. When we did, all the pain left! Thank you Jesus! A few of the girls wanted prayer and we were able to pray with them as well. They said that they felt good and overall peaceful.

And now onto the camps:

Some of the girls have had the opportunity to teach English in a camp for the refugees and are absolutely loving it! The children are so receptive to us being there. The wife of the leader asked us if we could pray for her stomach and the pain went down. Though 100% healing was not immediate, we know it’s only a matter of time before she’s completely healed. It will be so hard to leave when the time comes to head back to the states.

In another camp, we have been able to distribute clothes and other items. This has open the door to some home visits.

Jesus has told us time and time again to release joy. It’s sometimes hard when all you feel is the oppression and the distress of the people there, but Jesus is so much bigger than all of that. Left and right we have seen depression fall off and joy take its place.

Take for instance Mjad, who is 7 and has been in Lebanon for 3 yrs. He had constant chest pain and shortness of breath, but we were able to pray for him and watch as the Holy Spirit fell on him. His whole posture changed and he wasn’t even able to speak because he was filled with such peace! He just smiled and slowly nodded to answer our questions.

The following day a Christian Egyptian doctor and his son joined our group. The doctor went into the home to check out Mjad, and decided he was able to cut his medication in half! Now, a few days later, he still has no pain. God is good!

Stories like these are running rapid through the camps and are happening left and right. Knees, heads, hands, feet, and most importantly, hearts, have been healed. When people are met by the love of the Father, it changes everything.

We love you all.

Until next time,

YWAM Redding Outreach

We traveled to Lebanon last week, and took a day to adjust to the ten hour time difference between California and Lebanon. We were totally blessed by the guest house we are staying in. Such a beautiful view!  We’ve been enjoying the opportunity this week to bless our host as well! We have been lending a hand to build a school for Syrian refugee children, and to help restore a building that will be used as a community center.

Friday was our first time in the city. It was an exciting, albeit harrowing, adventure through traffic to get to the Christian bookshop where our contacts have a ministry. But so worth it! They provided a huge spread for lunch, with the first shawarma for many in our group. Hummus has never tasted so fresh!

Then our Lebanese friends gave our team an orientation to Lebanon and Middle Eastern culture. The most impactful part of the talk was the caution to be vigilant of the common spiritual strongholds present in Lebanon. Our precious friends also prayed over our team and our outreach and gave us encouraging words from the Lord. One even saw a picture of our team queued up in a battle line; everyone united, carrying spears and yelling the battle cry of Jesus! Then we had the opportunity to minister to everyone in the bookshop. The atmosphere of the bookshop was thick with the presence of God and He used our team to speak right to their hearts.

They invited us to a house church that night, where we had the pleasure of praising the Lord while the church worshipped in Arabic. Toward the end of the message, our team started to feel the Lord highlight specific things He was healing in the room. This opened the floodgates for a time of healing ministry. As people were healed, more came forward for prayer. Multiple individuals with severe, long-term back pain and knee pain were healed. A woman with scoliosis was healed, and we have full faith that another woman with Leukemia was also healed! At least 6 or 7 felt the touch of God in their bodies, and more hearts were touched.

A few days ago two members of our team went to get lunch at a local restaurant, and as they were finishing their meal, they struck up a conversation with a man at a nearby table. They were able to share the whole gospel with the man. He had heard it before, but it was obvious that God was really tugging on his heart. He admitted that other people had talked to him about Christ and had invited him to church, but he hadn’t made the commitment. At first he was hesitant, but then they shared that they felt God wanted him to know that He saw him and the depression he had been struggling with. It turned out that this man had struggled with depression along with other things for 10 years. This then opened the door for one of them to share their own story of depression and how they had walked out of it with God’s help. They offered to pray for him and he excitedly said yes. They again invited him to accept Christ, and this time he prayed to accept Jesus! They also prayed for his depression, and he even came to church with us all that night!

One lady we prayed over invited us to speak at her Filipino-Madagascarian church on Sunday and to do prayer ministry during the service. So on Sunday we encouraged the church to let the light of Jesus shine through them into the Muslim world they live in. Others in the team shared testimonies of healing on outreach as well as in their own bodies, and a student spontaneously launched an altar call for healing in the church. About half of the church got healed by Jesus and some even experienced deliverance!

The school we have been helping to build is located in the same area that we will move to for the next several weeks. The students have been excited to check out the area and begin building relationships while we do this service project.

Please pray for more Arabic translators to join our team when we head to the refugee camps. Also pray for supernatural grace and energy for the team. And praise the Lord for all the people who have already been healed and set free in just the first few weeks of this outreach!