As we are continually researching new technologies that we can use in the mission I have been experimenting with the new Google Hangout On Air and looking at how we can use it. I’m excited to announce that on Monday February 25 we will be hosting our first Google Hangout On Air with the YWAM community on Google+.

The topic for the Hangout will be Support Raising, which is always a valuable topic to address in Youth With A Mission. We will be blessed with having Terry Sherman from YWAM Heidebeek speak to us about the topic, and then take some questions from the viewers.

Since 2002 Terry has been working on developing training about personal support raising for missionaries. She has developed a week long Friendraising Training seminar that she has been able to deliver at various locations around the world. Her dream is to see much more of this training available around the world in YWAM, and we believe that using technology like Google Hangouts On Air will help to multiply it.

If you are interested in watching the training and possibly asking questions you will need a Google Plus account and then request an invite to the event. If you are already part of the YWAM Community on Google+ as of me creating the event then you should have received an invite to join us already.

I look forward to seeing you there, but if you can not make it we plan to make the video and an audio version of it available on the YWAM Conversations web-site and podcast.

You can now watch the video, listen to and download the audio, and access all the resources that Terry talked about on the YWAM Podcast Network site.

You can also watch the video below:

In this day and age when teaching, updates and the like can be sent out and distributed so easily via on-line tools and services it is easy to question the value of Youth With A Mission conferences and gatherings. Shouldn’t the money and time that we put into gatherings and conferences be put towards fulfilling the mission?

The reason why gatherings and conferences are so valuable in YWAM can be sumerised in one word:

RELATIONSHIPS

One of the foundational values of Youth With A Missions has to do specifically with relationships:

13. BE RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED

YWAM is dedicated to being relationship-oriented in our living and working together. We desire to be united through lives of holiness, mutual support, transparency, humility, and open communication, rather than a dependence on structures or rules.

So while we are busy fulfilling the mission that God has called us to in missions we must not forget the value and importance of the relationships with the people that God has brought into our lives. If you avoid or are removed from these YWAM relationships you can lead yourself down the road to burnout, which is what happened to me last year and I talk about in the latest episode of my podcast.

How do you see the value of being relationship oriented being lived out in your life and ministry?

The above video was produced for the YWAM European Leaders Gathering 2013.