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The Heavenly Father wants to be in constant conversation with His children. When we have total dependency on Him, we get to watch His glory and goodness unfold before our eyes! Read this Blog to learn about YWAM Redding’s Faith Outreaches and be inspired by one of our outreach stories – we Jesus provided warm meals, places to stay, $200, divine appointments, and much needed heart-felt conversations!
What is Faith Outreach? Faith Outreach is based off of Luke 10 and Matthew 10 when Jesus sent out His disciples. He instructed them to go without money, without food, and with the singular goal to declare the coming of the kingdom of heaven. He gave them authority to heal the sick and set captives free to back up the message they were to profess: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Each person that joins staff at YWAM Redding and does our School of Supernatural Frontier Missions embarks on a one week faith outreach following the same model that Jesus gave His disciples.
Here are the rules:
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- Pray about where to go and if there is a specific (unreached) people group to seek out. In Matthew 10 Jesus gave very specific instruction about who the disciples were to go to. We want to give the Lord opportunity to instruct our focus to a particular place or people.
- Go in faith and rely on the Father! Jesus wanted His disciples to keep their eyes fixed on the Father, as He demonstrated in His own life. He told them not to use up their energy and time worrying about provision, but to know that the Father would provide for them as they partnered with Him in His work.
- Find people of peace. The disciples were told to look for people and places where their peace could rest. If anyone rejected them they were to simply shake the dust from their feet and move on, looking for the ones who’s hearts were open.
- Proclaim, heal, and deliver! Jesus gave them authority to proclaim as they went, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” and to, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons” (Mt 10:7-8).
And so the story begins…
Day 1
As we had been instructed to do, we prayed about our trip the night before we left. As we listened for His voice, we heard important instructions that defined our time. We felt like God told us to go to San Francisco, and to a House of Prayer. We also felt that in order to get there we should go to the Redding Airport and fly down (trusting Him for the tickets). Lastly, we simply heard the number 7. When our base prayed us out, someone spoke the verse John 15:5 over us. With these words in hand, we were ready to go.
After being prayed out we waited at our house and worshiped until we felt Jesus lead us to start walking to the airport. The walk took about 3 or 4 hours, and we got to talk with people on the way. When we arrived, Jeremy and I started reading scripture out loud and interceding for everyone there. We felt like the number 7 we heard earlier meant that if we didn’t have plane tickets by 7 o’clock it was time to leave the airport and walk back to our car to drive to San Francisco. In the waiting, people came up to us and we also went to talk to others.
When 7:00pm finally rolled around the corner, we finally decided to embark on the 3 to 4 hour walk home in the dark. Our plan now was to drive to San Francisco that night and sleep on the way somewhere. But as we would soon see, God had other plans.
As we walked, we began praying against disappointment and started thanking God that we could be obedient to Him in going to the airport, even if it didn’t turn out the way we had hoped. We thanked Him for His joy, for His presence, and for every good thing. God’s joy never left us, and, despite what we thought we should have been feeling, we didn’t get disappointed!
Less than two minutes after leaving the airport parking lot, a car pulled over from the road and rolled down their passenger window. A guy inside said, “Hey, do you guys need a ride?!” We responded with, “Yeah, sure!” and hopped in our new friend M’s car. He explained to us that he had seen us on the road 3 or 4 hours ago when we were on our way to the airport. He told us that Jesus had told him to pick us up, but he didn’t because he was on his way to watch a movie with a friend. After the movie had finished though and he drove past us again, Jesus reminded him, “Remember, I told you to pick those guys up?”
This was the first of many divine appointments. He began sharing his testimony and then asked us all about who we were and what we were doing. After we told him we were on a faith outreach, he asked us if we were hungry and if we needed a place to stay. To our surprise, he even drove to the bank and told us that Jesus had told him to give us $200! Jesus overwhelmed us with His goodness through our friend M. We were provided with food, a place to stay, and extra money! Later, as we entered the room where we would be staying, M said, “There’s a scripture on the wall for you guys”. The verse was John 15:5, the exact one our base prayed over us before we left! We were in awe of the confirmation this brought to us. We ended the day with worship and we knew that God had made a perfect plan for us!
Day 2
After having breakfast with M, we drove Jeremy’s car to the train station in Richmond, California, and took this to San Francisco with our backpacks and a guitar. Once we arrived we started worshipping and soon felt God remind us to go to the San Francisco House of Prayer. It was about a two hour walk from where we were, so we started on our way and just had fun with Jesus as He led us. I wondered if there was a mosque o
n the way that we could go to and share Jesus’ love in, so we checked google maps. We saw that there was one less than 5 minutes away and since it was Friday, we were more compelled to go, considering it was the main day most people went to mosques. As we got closer, I felt more hesitant, but when I asked Jeremy if we should still go, he said, “Sure” in a very affirming manner. Despite what I was feeling physically, I knew the Holy Spirit was leading us to go. When we entered the mosque it was not crowded at all. Only two imams (Muslim leaders) were sitting in the library, and maybe three or four people were on the mat practicing the routines of Islam. The imams invited us to come have a seat with them, and after we greeted one another, they asked us, “So why are you guys here?” We replied, “We came to tell you guys about Jesus, and who He is in our lives.”
The men let me share my testimony and Jeremy was able to prophesy over one of them, encouraging him by telling him that God saw that he did a good job raising his children. The other imam was not as open to listening to us, but the older one actually asked us to stay. Eventually, before we left, I asked, “Can we pray for you guys before we go?” The fact that they gave us permission to pray after telling them about Jesus for 20 minutes in their mosque still blew my mind. I knew that God was definitely stirring up a hunger for the truth in the imam that let us pray for him. I believe our muslim friend saw the peace and light of Jesus that shined in that dark place.
Later that evening, after having countless encounters with people along the way, we finally arrived at the House of Prayer around 6 or 7pm. Immediately when we entered, the pastor greeted us and began getting to know us. After a talking for a bit, he asked me to lead the first set for prayer that night. It was funny because I had never met these people before but they still trusted me to lead them in worship and intercession that ended up going for an hour and a half. People were encountering Jesus all over the place, and the Lord was planting seeds of love deep in our hearts.
At the House of Prayer we met a new friend named Y from France, and he ended up asking us where we were staying that night. We honestly didn’t know because the train station closed around midnight and by this time it was already 2 or 3 am. He told us he was staying at a woman’s house who hosted missionaries and that she said we could spend the night! At the house of prayer we also met a woman who invited us to visit her church on Sunday.
Day 3
In the morning Y decided to join us for ministry since, in this season, he felt his life was a bit of a faith outreach. As we prayed, we felt the Holy Spirit leading us to a suburb of San Francisco called Fremont. On the way to the train station we saw a man who looked like he was in pain, so we stopped to pray for him. He said his knee was causing him trouble, and after we prayed a couple times he began jumping up and down rejoicing because all the pain was gone! He was thanking Jesus!
On the train Y asked me to start worshiping and releasing God’s presence amidst the 30 or 40 people crammed in our section. As we started ministering to the Father’s heart, we began to see God come and the atmosphere shift. At first, people started staring at us and giving us dirty looks, but Y felt the Spirit leading him to share the Gospel of Jesus and what He had done in his life. People all around the train were becoming very hostile to the Spirit, I could see in them a response of anger and rage. I felt God’s presence come upon me after he had finished and despite the crowd’s reaction, I was compelled to get up and share my testimony as I bawling my eyes out in front of everyone. God had broken my heart for all of these people who were publicly denying Him, but in the midst of that I also had deep joy from the Lord. I remember the reaction of the people listening was very unexpected because the moment I started crying, I heard a sigh from the family in front of me. As I continued sharing my testimony, people got up and crammed their way to leave the train as soon as possible because they were hostile to the Spirit of God. Matthew 10:22 even says, “and you will be hated for my name’s sake…” Regardless of the lack of physical fruit we saw in this time, the Lord encouraged us that He was the one who was going to continue to encounter those people who had maybe rejected Him in the train car. We felt the Lord show us heart to use our obedience to speak clearly to many and encounter many, reminding them of the Lover of their souls.
The rest of the evening we got to teach a small crowd of Christian students from the University Berkeley on the topics of Holy Spirit, tongues, and prophecy. This group was so receptive that they listened to us for two and a half hours, and by the end they were prophesying over each other! It was definitely an honor to pour into these students’ lives because they had literally just met us outside of a restaurant, and some of them were about to start their own ministries! After we laid hands on them in prayer, they laid hands on us and prayed for us as well.
Day 4
Sunday morning, we remembered the woman who had invited us to come to her church in Foster City near San Francisco. Once we got there, we ended up finding even more divine appointments, and after the service they took us out to lunch and coffee for about 3-4 hours. Towards the end of our time of fellowship, the worship leader asks us where we are staying that night.
We told him, “In the car.”
He shouted, “WHAT?! In the car?!”
“Yes,” we replied.
Then the pastor of the church jumps in and says, “No. You’re not sleeping in the car tonight, you can stay at my place. My family is in Canada right now.”
We stayed at his house that night! Before we went to his house, Jeremy still wanted to open air preach in the square near the restaurant were we had lunch. As he shared the gospel, people listened and were receptive! Then I felt prompted again by the Holy Spirit to share how the Kingdom of God is near and Jesus wants to be intimate with us. Then as I proclaimed the Gospel again, a man across the street started yelling at me and saying all kinds of things against me because of Jesus. All of the sudden I felt led to speak to him, to bless him, and to prophecy over him the life that Jesus is calling him to. I said I saw him breaking off chains of depression over other people, and releasing freedom over others as well. As we went to the car on the way there, we passed this man and said,
“Have a good evening, we love you!”
He said back in disbelief, “How can you love someone you don’t even know!”
“Haha.. that’s a good question” said Jeremy as he turned around.
Jesus opened the door for us to share truth in his life even though he rejected what we said. We stayed there for 30-40 minutes, worshipping and sharing Jesus’ love.
After this we went to the pastor’s home, we each had our own rooms that night! He fed us an amazing meals, and we got to talk about what Jesus had done in his life! It was an absolute honor to be able to get to know him. The church he is pastoring has three parts: one International, one Arabic and one Farsi. Which is another divine appointment, for I have been longing to connect with more Christians from Muslim nations!</span >
Through this whole journey, Jesus has shown me His steadfast love. His intense, deep compassion for His people to know and experience His love. He showed me over and over again that the most loving thing we can do for His people is share the amazing testimony of Jesus! He also taught me complete dependence on God! That even when we didn’t know where we were going to sleep, or eat or even go, we knew He was in control- and had a plan! He taught me how to have fun with my Dad!
If you are interesting in doing a Faith Outreach and/or our School of Supernatural Frontier Missions click here.
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