YWAM Perth News - July 19, 2024 - YWAM Perth Australia
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The Two-Handed Gospel

Lives Changed Through Simple Acts of Obedience

Ari here, sharing on behalf of the Directors.  

I’ve just come out of our quarterly report back time, where teams returning from outreach shared stories of what God has been doing in the nations. I always love hearing how God moves through the simple obedience of ordinary, available people.

I think of schools like the Foundations for Counselling Ministry that served refugees in Uganda and Jordan, offering care, training, helping them process trauma, and seeing 129 people give their lives to Jesus.

When we meet people’s needs, it’s such an open door to share the good news of the gospel. Our Birth Attendant School just returned from Zambia and were at the very forefront of this. This school was started years ago by a sense from God in a prayer time about how to reach women in the Muslim world. And now they’re serving women and babies right at the point of life or death. In doing what they’re doing, they display the gospel and talk about the gospel, pray with people, pray for people, pray for babies who are dying and see them raised back to life. It’s an incredibly privileged position that God has given us, not just as missionaries, but simply as believers – to be His hands and feet. 

It says in Romans 10:13-15:

“‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

As Youth With A Mission, we carry a deep conviction that God calls us both to meet needs and to share the gospel, not just one or the other. Mercy ministries like health care are not just a means to an end, but they are also an end in themselves. The gospel is for the whole person. If we only seek to meet people’s physical needs, we are only halfway there; but we are also only halfway there if we seek only to preach without also then addressing pressing needs in their communities, such as clean water and basic health care.  

This is the case with our overseas ministry and our initiatives here in Perth, like Australian Relief and Mercy Services. We go into the homes of families with real needs in this city, people who are alone, who have no one who can help them in moments of pain. Being present, by cleaning their dishes, doing their gardening, doing their laundry, giving them a moment of respite, to look after their children, allows us to show them Jesus in a very wholistic way. 

If you can bless someone, then bless them. If you can help someone, then help them. And this is the case, whether we’re serving overseas, or going about our daily lives. When I see a person on the streets and they have a need, my internal response is “How can I help?” The reality is I can’t help every person. But I ask, is this an opportunity where God wants to reveal himself through me being willing and available to be used?  

The question for all of us then is, are we aware of the needs around us? What gifts has God given us? And how is He directing us to be His hands and feet?  

Your life is one big opportunity to represent Christ to those around you. 

Thank you for partnering with us and supporting us.  

 

Blessings,

Ari on behalf of the Directors of YWAM Perth

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