While putting together the news for this week’s YWAM Podcast I came across another great example of someone using their skills and training for God’s Kingdom…

The first speaker on the video talks about how he went through a transformation about how he understands his skills and profession, and seeing how he can use that to bring glory to God in the nations. He has been able to work all over the world with the skills that he has with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), partnering with many different ministries.

According to the video millions of people die from a lack of clean water, and there are an estimated 2 billion people around the world who are lacking adequate water supplies and sanitation. Using the skills of a water engineer he would have learned about water supply, sanitation and hygiene. Clean water is a HUGE issue in developing nations, and the skills of a water engineer are invaluable in addressing these issues.

The video goes on to tell more about the project and being good stewards of the world that God created. I’m hoping to look a bit more into the project and what it’s about, but for the purpose of this article I really wanted to look again at how God is able to use a seemingly non-traditional skill set, learned outside of the mission environment, for His purposes.

The program that he is working with YWAM Salem Environment and Resource Stewardship (YWAM EARS), and you can find out more about it here.

In my previous article about Using What You Know For Missions I talked about how important it is for us to use what we already know in missions. It’s my belief that God wants to use our past experiences and skills for His glory and to expand His Kingdom here on Earth.

Normally when we think about God using people’s skills we think of the more “traditional” skills being used for missions. Some of the more practical skills that we think of people using are things like:

• Medical / Healthcare
• Construction
• Teaching

What we don’t often think about are the “non-traditional skills” that God wants to use. Certainly the skills that I use in missions as a missions communicator would not be considered “traditional”.

The following video is a great example of someone using their skills as an engineer, another “non-traditional” skill set, in missions:

The project is called “Vision 10810” and is essentially a “Mobile Gospel Media Centre”. The thing that God spoke to this engineer when the engineer asked how God wanted him to use his skills was:

To design and build semi-trucks which can provide housing for a 12 person team, a full equipped stage to do evangelism and provide a place to store Bibles. These trucks would be more than just a stage. It would be a mission headquarters on wheels.

You can read more about the vision on the Vision 10810 web-site.

How about you?

Regardless of what skills, career or education you have, God wants to use them. They question is not does God want you, the question is, are you willing to let God use you?

I’ve been quite challenged lately with Proverbs 13:12 which says:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

The question I keep asking myself is “Where do I put my hope and expectation?“.

Too often I find that I put my hope in earthly things. By putting my hope in those things, instead of in God, I am setting myself for disappointment and “deferred hope”. Instead of putting my hope in God I find myself put my hope in:

• People
• Finances
• Circumstances

Not only do I need to be careful where I put my hope, but also what am I hoping for? Does my will and what I hope for line up with God’s will?

Where do you place your hope, and what are hoping for?

Photo by Martin Gommel

One of the saddest things that I see in missions is people abandoning what they know so that that they can fit in as the stereotypical young missionary. It doesn’t matter if they have trained to be a teacher, an engineer, a scientist, etc. Instead they stand in front of kids, sing songs and dance because that’s what they think they are “supposed to do”.

Let’s face it, many of our short term missions programs don’t to much to dissuade this mentality either.

When I started in YWAM on my YWAM Discipleship Training School I did dance, singing, sports and drama. I also had the chance to speak in front of churches, youth groups, schools, prisons and a village in Vanuatu. It was an amazing opportunity, don’t get me wrong, but it certainly didn’t use any of my strengths.

What was interesting, and something that I usually don’t admit to, was that after my DTS I was asked to teach dance and drama! It was, shall we say, entertaining. I’m sure many of my former students still cringe in memory of my teaching in these areas…

It wasn’t until I had served for quite a few years until I was able to actually use some of the skills and knowledge that I had gained before going into missions. Then it wasn’t until I actually left the local YWAM Centre I was working at and worked with the GENESIS Centre, and eventually joined the International Chairman’s Team, that I was able to work full-time in missions using more of that knowledge.

Responsible for our Worker’s Gifts

As missions leaders we are responsible for the gifts that our people bring to the mission. We need to make sure not to take them for granted, but rather to realise that they have God given gifts that we need to be good stewards of.

Like the parable of the talents states in Matthew 25:14-30, if we don’t prove faithful to God with the few that he firsts gives us, He will not trust us with more…