New Decade – New Challenges

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This year has been a tough start already. In August last year I wrote about how we were struggling financially with only $2500 per month in financial support. We were blessed with an increase in support after that appeal, but then in December we lost significant support when our original sending church had to suspend their financial support.

Loosing the support of our sending church, after having been in missions for 21-years, is disheartening to say the least …

Currently our monthly support is only $2250.

Next week I’ll be sending out another email sharing what impact we’ve been able to have with the YWAM Podcasts and our ministry with the YWAM Global Communications team.

At the moment, while you anxiously await that email, I ask that you would pray we would find solutions for our current financial crunch.

How School Works Here in Australia

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I have had a few questions recently from our friends in Canada about how school works here in Australia. We have three children currently attending school here, so I thought that it would be worth providing you with a short video produced by a film production group …

It’s a pretty good breakdown of how it’s working for my own children, and I’m happy to say that according to the standards of that video our kids are heading towards receiving an “A”!

Ministry Impact and Financial Stress

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Last night I had a look at a post from 5-years ago called “What is the Impact of the YWAM Podcast” to see what has changed since then. Two things really stood out to me …

  • In 2014 my audio programs had been downloaded 110,000 times. As of right now the YWAM Audio Podcasts have been downloaded 415,000 times! The top download being a podcast about Mobilising Two-Thirds-World Missionaries …
  • In 2014 our monthly support was around $2400. During those five years our expenses have increased significantly, but as of today our monthly support is sitting at only about $2500.

Ministry

Recording the YWAM Podcast

Me looking excited

The fact that the audio programs I produce have been downloaded 415,000 times really excites me with what I am doing in Youth With A Mission. In addition to the audio programs I am also responsible for most of the news content on our main global web-page, ywam.org, and have been responsible for the mailing out 345,000 YWAM newsletters and prayer guides so far this year.

I was also able to help another YWAM Centre to launch their podcast, called the Converge Stories Podcast. They have been doing some great programs, and I hope to be able to continue helping other centres with their communications moving forward.

Support

The support figure was rather disheartening to be honestly. This is what I wrote in 2014:

I hate sounding like “one of those” missionaries, but we are really struggling with our finances at the moment. Our currently level of monthly support is sitting around $2400 per month. This isn’t really very much, and even with some government supplemental benefits, we are barely meeting our monthly expenses at that amount.

Between then and now our expenses have greatly increased and our support is still well below where I would like to see it. I have been serving full-time in missions for over 20-years now and it seems to be a constant struggle to have our financial needs met.

Would you please consider partnering with us financially and prayerfully in ministry? You can find out how to partner with us on the Donate page on our web-site, or your can message me directly here.

 

The Converge Stories Podcast

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YWAM Converge launched their new podcast last year out of The Podcasting in Missions Course with stories from guests about when everything comes together so that the guests could be a witness for God in a particular area of influence, what they call a “Converge Moment”. There are interviews with mission leaders from around the world, as well as people who have been a part of the internships that YWAM Converge offers around the world.

It’s been personally exciting to see YWAM Converge go from their desire to learn how to launch a podcast, to having released 14 episodes by the end of The Podcasting in Missions Course, which each episode increasing in quality. I’m really looking forward to continuing to listen to future episodes, and hearing what is happening with their ministry.

Here is the latest episode that I’ve had a chance to listen to. It’s about Declaration Films, who are heading to South Africa to create films to tell missionary stories.

You can hear their podcast for yourself and subscribe to future episodes at convergestories.com.

What Happened in 2018?

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Last year was an exciting year with my continued ministry with YWAM. It was my 20th year of ministry with Youth With A Mission, which really seems kind of nuts to think about!

In my role with the Global Communications Team of Youth With A Mission my main jobs are:

2018 was quite productive, with significant impact in many of those areas:

  • Over 50,000 audio programs were delivered
  • Over 250,000 news and prayer updates sent
  • 14 podcast episodes released by participants in the Podcasting in Missions Course

I’ll be writing more next month about the YWAM podcasts launched out of the Podcasting in Missions Course, as well as what I’m hoping to accomplish in 2019.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers for the ministry. I am a full-time volunteer with Youth With A Mission, and without the financial support of people like you I would not be able to minister in the way that God has allowed me to for the last 20-years…