Grand Opening!

Welcome to YWAM Montana's Grand Opening!  

Okay, maybe not the real grand opening of Ywam Montana since we were actually established in 1985 BUT after moths of shut down Ywam Montana has opened its doors to a new quarter and to the first DTS after Covid-19 outbreak! 37 students from all over the country have traveled to Lakeside Montana to dive into the word of God and to discover the joy of missions! We have had to make a lot of changes to the way we run our campus in order to create a clean and healthy environment for learning and have been running for 5 weeks with no cases of Covid on our campus! As we continues to run programs here in Lakeside our students have been learning about Kingdom culture v.s the culture we are faced with today, they have learned how God speaks to them, and they have been continuing to learn how important it is to know the context, history, and culture in which the bible is written and how to look to the word to know God more. These students have blown us as a staff team away with their teachability and their ability to follow the guidelines that have been put in place to protect our community from spreading sickness of any kind! 

Its no surprise that Covid has flipped the world upside down and maybe even turned it around a couple and a half times. This has inspired creativity in the way that ministry is done. I have had many pity parties with the Lord during the first months of the pandemic as plans got canceled and my students were sent home and I mourned the loss of an outreach that I had put time and heart into planing and creating. I think that pity party lasted about maybe 3 weeks and then God lovingly told me to suck it up and move on. The days after that were filled with projects that would have never gotten done unless there was a nation wide shutdown. I did things from painting rooms that would soon be filled by students who would do to a missions school in a time that makes absolutely no sense, too partnering with Boys and Girls Club to distribute meals to low income communities. In the quiet times of painting I prayed over the rooms, for the people who filled them in the past and the people who would fill them in the future. little did I know back in April praying over empty rooms that they would soon be filled in September! 

So that is where we have been, and now this is where we are going. Next week we will be packing up 37 students and 13 staff and traveling to Bellingham WA (I know wild right?) for one week to practice partnering with ministries within the states and evangelism! During this week I will be spending a majority of that time with 10 students in particular and one other staff who in December I will be going to the Dominican Republic with! After a week of ministry we will return back to Montana to continue in training and preparing for outreach. I am so excited about the opportunity to lead an outreach this up coming winter and I am even more blessed to have the team I have. Joining this team at a later time is 2 women from the winter school who did not get to go on outreach because of the pandemic. All together I will be leading a team of 12 students and 1 co-leader. We are preparing to teach english, to engage with youth through sports, to build a home (maybe 2 depending on if we can raise the funds for it), and connecting with a culture through music all while showing the Love of Christ. 

After 2 months in the Dominican Republic I will say goodbye to my team as they travel home and I will  travel to Mexico to partner with a Ywam base for a couple weeks. I have felt that I am supposed to partner with this base for a while now and I am excited to see what the Lord will do in that time and how I will be able to serve a community of a different culture, weather that is volunteering at the food distribution center or teaching english at the youth center.  

So welcome to the grand opening of Ywam Montana. We are Youth With A Mission to know God and to make God known by training, sending, supporting, and being missionaries. With masks on and social distance kept, with the smell of hand sanitizer and bleach we will continue to do what we are called to do in ways we have never done them before. 

Fall for 2.5 seconds and then winter comes 

Students in their roommate groupings and tables 6 feet from each other, learning about the father heart of God

Please be praying for 

• health (staying healthy during a pandemic)
• Funds for Homes Of Hope (the ministry we will be building homes with)
• personal funds (I need to raise $360 for outreach fees and another $400 for bills here in the states while im over seas and another $600 for my extended time in Mexico for travel, daily, and plane home.) 
• wisdom as Kylie (my co-leader) and I continue to train and prepare our team
• my extended time in Mexico after my team leaves 
• For students as they continue to grow!