Starting the New Year With Gratitude

By On · 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

A few Sunday’s ago we were encouraged by our pastor during a sermon to approach the new year with gratitude. There are many reasons that it is beneficial for us to do this. I share some of these reasons with you, some ways that you can express gratitude, as well as some of the things that I am thankful for, in this episode of the Missionary Coach Show.

Benefits of Gratitude

According to Psychology Today there are at least 7 scientifically proven benefits of gratitude. (source)

  1. Gratitude improves physical health
  2. Gratitude improves psychological health
  3. Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression
  4. Grateful people sleep better
  5. Gratitude improves self esteem
  6. Gratitude improves mental strength
  7. Gratitude opens the door to more relationships

Ways to Express Gratefulness

  1. Say grace before meals
  2. Keep a Journal
    1. Write down things you are grateful for
    2. Review 30-days on and remember
  3. Print and display Psalm 100 and read it once a week
  4. Turn of for corporate worship
  5. Increase your offering
  6. Take every opportunity to thank the people around you
  7. Recall someone from your past and express your gratefulness to them

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Something else was shared that I had never really thought of before, and that was that:

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and hot opening it.

New Computer Needed!

By On · Add Comment

I had hoped that I would be posting photos of our trip to Canada right now, but unfortunately my seven-year laptop has finally kicked the bucket. It’s played dead on three other occasions in the last two years (one bad hard drive and two heating issues), but I was able to revive it those times. This time however the prognosis is final – my computer is dead …

At the moment I have resurrected a nine-year laptop from storage to use. The computer is running Ubuntu Linux, is held together with Duct-Tape, and the screen colour is off, but it’s working for now for very basic tasks. Come the end of the month when I need to produce the audio and video for our monthly YWAM Global Day of Prayer, this computer will not have the needed resources.

This week I have been looking around for a replacement computer that will last me hopefully as long as this one did. I priced out a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 for about $2800 ($2200 USD) with a four year warranty as a decent replacement. When I logged on tonight though I found that the new computer is on sale for $880 off until Thursday! This brings the price down to $1900 ($1500 USD) for the exact same computer. This is a huge savings, but with a very tight deadline for purchase.

Being in Youth With A Mission means that I am responsible for raising all of my own support and money for the tools necessary for this ministry. In the last two days I have been blessed with $400 ($300 USD) donated, so we are already only $1500 away from investing in a new computer. This computer will allow me to continue working in the ministry that God has called me to with  Youth With A Mission in the area of communication.

Would you please pray that the remaining $1500 will come in in the next 36-hours, and prayerfully consider if you are to donate and invest the purchase of this computer for our ministry.Thank you…

Over 250,000 Served!

By On · 2 Comments

I remember growing up, watching the McDonald’s signs creep up with the number served. The number was always written boldly under the “Golden Arches”. It went from the tens of billions, to 99 billion, to now billions and billions served.

While the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) audio programs that I produce aren’t approaching McDonald’s like numbers, we did reach a significant milestone earlier this month. Around the release of the 97th episode of the YWAM News Show we passed a quarter of a million audio programs delivered!

Since launching the YWAM Podcast Network back in 2010 I have managed to produce:

The YWAM News Show Podcasts takes a significant amount of time to produce as it takes me a few weeks to pull in news from around the world for the show, edit the content, write the script, and get it recorded, edited, uploaded, and published. It’s been a challenge getting these out on a regular schedule lately with all of our family health challenges.

The YWAM Teaching Podcast is mostly digitally remastering old teaching from some of our classic teachings. How much time is spent on each episode varies greatly depending on the age and quality of the original content. Some of our most popular teaching includes content from Loren Cunningham, Joy Dawson, Dean Sherman, Lynn Green, Floyd McClung, and Corrie Ten Boom.

The YWAM Global Prayer Companion Podcast is the newest show added to the list. This show is an audio recording of The Invitation, which is Youth With A Mission’s Monthly Global Prayer initiative.

In the last year alone the shows have been downloaded in over 150 different countries around the world. It is pretty exciting and humbling to know that through the work that I have been doing I have been able to have some sort of impact on that many people,  in that many places around the globe…

You can check out the latest YWAM Podcast Network episodes below, or on the original post for this article.

The Importance of Taking Care of Yourself

By On · 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Look Also After Your Own Interests

In addition to looking after others, and ministering to them, we also need to take care or ourselves …

“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:4)

Missionary Coach ShowWe need to look at our own interests, and not dismiss them. In considering what we do, we should first consider others better than ourselves (Phil 2:3), but also we should look at our own interests (Phil 2:4). Too often we do not consider our own interests and needs, often to the detriment of ourselves, others, and our ministry.

Life, and serving Christ and others, needs to be a balance of considering the interests of others and ourselves. If we neglect others, we are being selfish. If we neglect ourselves we will be ineffective in serving others, ineffective in our ministry, and also could burn out …

T1D Parent Researching Breakfast Meme

Commit to the Lord Whatever You Do

By On · Add Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Committing our plans to God does not guarantee success and blessings. We need to be seeking God to find out what He desires from us, line up our plans with Him, and then commit those plans to Him.

lightstock_114252_medium_user_6975010

To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.
All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.
commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
The Lord works out everything to its proper end – even the wicked for a day of disaster.
(Proverbs 16. 1-4 NIV)

We need to be walking in obedience to what God has for us and into the plans that He has laid before us to achieve success that not only has a earthly impact, but also has an effect in eternity, and in establishing God’s Kingdom.

Current Ministry Works: