This last month has been full of trial and error, growing and learning, being stretched and changed, and finding breakthrough and freedom in Jesus! I'm falling more and more in love with Him everyday and finding that He really does want to make His home in me as I learn to make my home in Him. This has looked like letting go of a lot of old lies and twisted mindsets that I've believed for most of my life and giving them to Jesus so He can give me His mind, His heart, and the identity He won for me on the cross. He really does want to redeem our pasts and make them into something beautiful. I pray you see Him do the same in your life too!
Budapest Outreach (April 30th - June 18th)
I can hardly believe it, but I and four DTS trainees (Bryce, Anna, Kevin, and Celena) leave for Budapest, Hungary, in less than 2 weeks!! 13 days!
So, what does outreach in Budapest look like?
We will be doing a lot of creative street evangelism (skits, dances, art, music, etc followed by a translated presenting of the gospel by one of us) and helping YWAM Budapest run an outreach through a coffee shop on Friday nights. Hungarian culture is very centred on the arts so skits and art are very effective forms of reaching out. We will also be doing a lot with the local Hungarian church in various ways. As I was praying about outreach earlier this year, God really highlighted the importance of encouraging the local church which is actually a huge part of YWAM Budapest's vision for ministry. It's been really cool - nearly everything I felt God speaking in prayer about this outreach are things YWAM Budapest is focused on, even down to the coffee shop ministry and working with the local church! It's a beautiful city and I can't wait for our team to be there bringing the love of Jesus to its streets!
While we are there, we also have the incredible privilege of being at the Central Europe Staff Gather (CESG) which is being held in Hungary this May. We will be helping with providing youth ministry for the YWAM kids in the mornings and afternoons. It is going to be such an amazing week! The dates for the CESG are May 23rd - 27th. YWAM gatherings are pretty much my favorite events ever because you get to connect with some incredible people who have the craziest stories of what Jesus is doing through them in the nations. And to top it all off, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of YWAM, will be the main speakers in the evenings!! I've wanted to hear them speak since before I even did my DTS, so this will definitely be a highlight of the outreach for me!
There is a lot of prepping that still needs to happen before we head out. Since I've never been to Hungary, there are a lot of unknowns about this outreach and a lot of stuff that I'm going to have to figure out as we go, but it's going to be good!
One way you can be involved with this outreach would be through finances! The cost for me for this outreach is about $1500. If you would like to give financially towards the trip, a simple way is through PayPal at https://www.paypal.me/
The other area to be involved in is through prayer!
Praying for Outreach:
- Pray that we as a team would gain God's heart for Budapest as we prepare to go.
- Pray for wisdom and grace for me as I lead this team!
- Pray that we will really grow together as a family before we go
- Pray that all the small details come together
- Pray for us as we prepare a program for the CESG youth ministry times - that we would have God's heart for these amazing YWAM teens!
Glasgow Midterm Outreach!
"In unity, we listen to God and without fear we choose to release His reality in Glasgow" - our vision statement for midterm outreach
Thank you for praying for the DTS as we headed into Glasgow for our mid-lecture phase two week outreach. One thing that I really loved about this outreach was that we got to minister to Scottish people every day for two solid weeks! I already love this nation, but my heart for Scotland and its people definitely grew while we were in Glasgow!
We spent most of our evenings at Glasgow City Mission serving the homeless and refugees of the city. It was such a great experience and the highlight ministry times for pretty much the whole DTS team. There are so many stories I could share from those evenings, but I think as a leader of the team, my favorite part of City Mission was seeing the trainees grow in courage and in their love for people of all different spheres of life. They would fearlessly pour into anyone there, whether they were homeless or a staff volunteer or didn't really speak English well. They were asked to share testimonies at the last minute, did really random jobs, and had interesting conversations, but they just went with it - even if they didn't really know what they were doing! It was amazing to watch them grow in confidence as the days progressed.
We did a ton of street evangelism, and seeing the trainees step out in crazy boldness was incredible. They would seriously go up and talk to anyone about Jesus anytime, anywhere - praying for them, sharing prophetic words from Jesus, and speaking life into others. They made me want to be more courageous in evangelism!
On our last night we did outreach with Light & Life in the city centre. It was an amazing night! 8 people gave their lives to Jesus and around 50 people came in from the streets for prayer, healing physically/emotionally/
All in all, it was a great outreach, and I learned a ton about leading a team. It was really good to have the opportunity to get the kinks out in leading - practicing putting together a schedule, contacting ministries and organizing things, keeping track of where the team is spiritually/emotionally/
Northern Ireland - breakthrough and personal retreat
Last weekend I took a personal retreat to YWAM Rostrevor in Northern Ireland. The location was pretty spontaneous, but the entire retreat from location to the retreat itself and everything in the week after midterm outreach that lead up to the retreat were totally arranged and planned by Jesus!
The week before I left, the DTS lecture theme was spiritual authority. During that week, I got so much personal freedom and breakthrough from things I've lived with and fought against in myself since I was a kid. A lot of it was insecurities and lies I had believed for a long time. But, not anymore! I had a really intense prayer time with one of the guest speakers and friend from the base two days before I left for Ireland and they fought for my spiritual and emotional freedom. Jesus is so good and faithful! I am a completely different person than I was two weeks ago. I have so much peace and freedom and joy. And it was such a blessing from Papa to be able to leave for the retreat with all of that garbage dealt with and gone. I was able to just rest in Him and enjoy myself without the things that had haunted my thoughts and emotions for years.
It was a beautiful weekend. I got to go hiking in the "mountains" (really, they were just tall hills...) where CS Lewis was inspired to write the Chronicles of Narnia! I was able to just spend time with Jesus on my own. I could sleep in, read books for fun, catch up on journaling and processing, and wander around in the woods whenever I wanted. It was the most refreshing weekend. Rest is a good thing!
Life until Budapest:
We have two full weeks of lecture phase left! The time has flown by. This week's theme is Missions and one of my good friends here in Scotland is teaching. It's going to be a really fun and crazy week. I'm excited to see the trainees catch God's heart for the world and the lost through Michael's teaching.
The last full week is Evangelism. And then we're outta here! A good two weeks to kick off longterm outreach.
Basically, life is going to be full of preparing for outreach, learning skits and dramas, making sure everything is organized, catching up with friends here I won't see for a couple months, and being fully engaged with what Jesus is doing in the lecture times! Yay! Bring it on.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. I couldn't be doing any of this without you! I would love to hear from you :)
Be blessed! Cheers!
Katy
Snail mail:
Katy Flanigan
9 Glenbryde Road
West Kilbride
KA23 9NJ
Scotland
No comments:
Post a Comment