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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for The Entertainment Industry and Arts and Sports Celebration Sphere.

From left to right: Lu’au – Lion Dance; Dance performance in Asia; Photo credits: YWAM Island Breeze, YWAM Hong Kong.

The arena of arts and entertainment has long set a precedent for culture. And where culture goes, so society goes. Art and entertainment have power to influence and shape not only people’s perspectives, but a nation’s worldview.

Around the world we can clearly see an attack of the enemy on the sphere of celebration (arts, entertainment and sports). The media and entertainment all around us display violence, false pleasures, selfishness, and lies about who we are and who God is. The enemy’s agenda is fully displayed through videos, movies, music, and art and many lives are being deceived through this.

Art has tremendous power to shape culture and touch the human heart. Its artifacts embody the ideas and desires of the coming generation. This means that what is happening in the arts today is prophetic of what will happen in our culture tomorrow. It also means that when Christians abandon the artistic community, we lose a significant opportunity to communicate Christ to our culture.

Philip Graham Ryken

Yet, God is not silent and He has raised up His people around the globe to make a holy stand for this sphere! There are Christians around the world and within YWAM that have taken their calling as artists who will display God’s character and values to the world through the work they create and their platform in art, entertainment and sports.

YWAM has 106 locations in 49 different countries around the world with ministries and schools that focus on training up artists, musicians, and athletes to influence this sphere. These YWAM workers include dancers, filmmakers, fashion designers, actors, culinary artists, fine artists, street artists, musicians, and athletes from multiple sports.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of March to pray for God’s movement in the entertainment industry and the sphere of celebration. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, March 8. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to pray for artists and entertainers to reflect the character of God and for YWAM workers to have more open doors to share God’s message.

Swim Meet, Photo credit: YWAM Pichilemu, Chile.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray about God’s purposes for the arts, entertainment and sports, consider the following exercise as a way to help you and your group enter into prayer. The imagery uses an artistic and creative approach to provide a way for God to lead.

If you are praying in a group, you may choose to project this image so that everyone can see it.

Photo credit: YWAM.

Take a few moments to gaze at the image. Quietly, as individuals, consider the beauty of the waterfall, the power of the water, the precipitous rocks. Now ask yourself these questions, taking more time with whichever ones resonate most with you:

Consider the life of God as this flowing and powerful water, and your life with Him.

As you reflect on your life currently, where do you see yourself in this image?

• in what way are you paused at the top of the falls, fearful of plunging into the unknown?
• in what way are you carried with the force of the water? To what extent does this feel exuberant and full of energy? To what extent do you feel battered by the rocks along the way?
• in what ways have you, like the rock, been formed and shaped by the life of God, even in those places in your life that were hard and apparently unyielding?
• in what way might you see yourself off to the side, observing the power of the water but not actually touched by it?
• in what ways do you experience yourself as being in the pool beneath the falls, enjoying the rush of the waters, yet with a sense of safety and well-being?
• in what ways are you aware of the beauty of the promises of God concerning your life and the situations and people you care about?

When everyone has taken a few minutes to reflect on the question or questions that most draw their attention, take time to share what you noticed with one or two other people.

To close, consider how God used an image, together with your imagination and your awakened spirit, to bring you to a place of greater awareness of Him and His work in your life. Hold this in mind as you move into the time of prayer about the sphere of arts and entertainment.

Pray for Artists and Entertainers:

• Pray for artists and entertainers to reflect the character of God (godly, humble, willing to serve, full of integrity) and have the fear of the Lord.
• Pray that artists and athletes would see themselves as missionaries and potential world changers.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill artists with skill, intelligence and knowledge in their craft and area of expertise:

Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.

Exodus 35:30-34 (ESV)

• Pray for God’s inspiration and creativity, with the artist as a co-creator with God.
• Pray for more people with a heart for arts to step up and take their place!
• Pray for the Christians in entertainment to have a strong Christian community that will encourage them and keep them accountable.
• Pray for YWAM ministries and individuals that are focused on reaching this sphere, for God’s protection and provision and greater influence in their area.

Dance and Fine Art, Photo credit: YWAM Lakeside Montana

Pray for the Work Being Created:

• Praise God for the growth in YWAM’s University of the Nations College of Arts and Sports.
• Pray for deeper revelation for YWAM as to God’s purposes through art and sport in the future. Pray that new YWAM expressions would emerge and that existing locations would make room for these new ministerial approaches.
• Pray for more YWAMers to gain a vision for how the Kingdom of God can grow through art and sports, especially that YWAM’s Discipleship Training School students entering our family would be exposed to fresh visionary language as to how they can use their gifting in this way to glorify the Lord, communicate truth and see transformation in this sphere of influence.
• Pray that the YWAM global network for arts and sports would grow closer together, growing in friendship, learning communities and collaborative partnerships.
• Pray that our arts and sports networks would expand into non-YWAM and non-Christian networks.
• Pray that YWAM would adapt and innovate in the area of arts and sports. Pray for growth in wisdom regarding how to preach truth to a generation that views truth as something that is relative.
• Pray for art and entertainment to reflect godly values.
• Pray for relevant and creative ways to communicate God’s message.
• Pray for art content to point the audience to God and to express truth with the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Pray for excellence in the work for Christian artists and entertainers that will be a testimony of God’s excellence and creativity.

What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist’s subject be religious to be Christian? I don’t think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful”

R. C. Sproul

Pray for Influence:

• Pray for more open doors for artists to share God’s message
• Pray for new doors to be opened in media: movies, TV, internet, advertising, videos, music, etc.
• Pray for more art made by Christians to be recognized for its excellence and brought to a wider audience

One Voice, YWAM Together 2016

Take Action:

• If you are an artist or have giftings or passion in the sphere of celebration, consider taking a second-level school in YWAM that will develop you to be more effective as an artist in missions: http://www.uofn.edu/
• If you would like to do a YWAM Discipleship Training School that focuses on arts, entertainment or sports, go to ywam.org and search for an opportunity. YWAM offers many DTS programs around the world that emphasize this kind of ministry.
• Read books that will give you a clearer perspective of what it means to be a Christian artist:
  • “Art and the Bible” by Francis A. Schaeffer
  • “Imagine” by Steve Turner
  • “Art for God’s Sake” by Philip Graham Ryken
  • “Addicted to Mediocrity” by Franky Schaeffer
  • “Art & Soul” by Brand & Chaplin
  • “The Creative Call” by Janice Elsheimer
• Seek one artist/entertainer/athlete around you and encourage and support them
• Pray regularly for a specific artist/entertainer/athlete.
• Subscribe to the University of the Nation’s College of Arts and Sports Dean’s Corner to receive regular updates on how God is using the arts and sports in YWAM by emailing cas@uofn.edu.
• See what YWAM is doing in this sphere:
  • University of the Nations: College of Arts & Sports: http://ywamarts.com/home-27/
  • YWAM Sports (new website coming soon): http://www.ywaminternational.sports/

• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

Contemporary dance. Photo credit: YWAM Hong Kong – Tuen Mun.

How We Prayed

February 2018 – Community Development

• YWAM Blantyre, Malawi prayed and reported that, at a minimum, they pray on Fridays and Tuesdays, sometimes focusing on global prayer and sometimes on local prayer.
• YWAM Tegucigalpa and YWAM Campus Ministry in Madagascar prayed.
• People prayed from the following countries: Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden, USA, Australia, Germany, Kenya, India, Honduras, and Nigeria.
• Create Thailand prayed for hope and steadfast love and a few particular ministries that are doing community development in YWAM Chiang Mai.
• YWAM Minneapolis used the Invitation during their weekly intercession times. They prayed for bridge building, unity of communities and the seven spheres of society related to growing communities.
• The International House of Prayer in Kansas City prayed for community development. Each month they produce a calendar with daily YWAM topics and monthly focus so that people throughout their organization can pray. In January, their monthly focus was on YWAM’s foundational values #1 – 3.

Future Topics:

• April 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6 (Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, Be Visionary, Champion Young People)
• May 10, 2018 Refugees Update/30 Days

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
•  Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for Community Development.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Thank you for joining us this month as we pray about God’s intentions for communities around the world, both poor ones and rich ones. We will pray about community development, which YWAM worker Keri Fishlock describes as “helping communities discover their true identity and helping them step toward God’s intentions.”

Framed within a biblical worldview, Keri believes community development addresses one of the biggest topics of all:

• It’s about the Kingdom of God overcoming the kingdom of darkness;
• It’s about Jesus bringing life to the full, undoing the work of the thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy;
• It’s about Truth replacing the lies of the enemy;
• It’s about seeing more of the Kingdom of God expressed in our families, communities and nations;
• It’s about men and women developing right relationships with God, other people and the physical world.

Within this context, community development is the need of every community and the responsibility of every believer. It’s about discipling individuals, families, communities and nations. Coupled with a biblical understanding of poverty, community development is not only about physical things such as building water tanks and hospitals, but happens when communities step away from lies and into truth, from pride to humility, from corruption and greed to living the way God intended, and when broken relationships are replaced by healthy relationships where healing and fullness can be experienced.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of February to pray with us about God’s intentions for communities around the world. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, February 8.

If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to pray for the communities in which you minister, that the communities would break away from Satan’s grip and into the truth and direction God has for them.

Pray for Community Development

• Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14, specifically that God’s people would humble themselves and that he would heal our land. Thank God for being the one who transforms. Pray that YWAMers would repent for the times we have taken on the role of “savior” rather than pointing to Him.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

• Pray for YWAM ministries that are intentionally involved in community development, that students and workers would lead transformation from a solid biblical perspective.
• Acknowledge your own brokenness and ask for His healing and restoration within your relationships with God, man, others and the physical world.
• Pray that the church would take up its role in discipling communities and equipping people for works of service.
• Pray for YWAM’s University of the Nations Community Development and Justice Centre to continue to grow in relational networks and to help equip people to walk out a biblical worldview very practically in every sphere of society.
• Pray for multiplication of YWAM’s Community Development School. Pray for the new school starting in Nepal on Feb 19, 2018.
• Pray specifically for those involved with Mercy Ministries with YWAM.
• Pray for those living in brokenness that the lies of the enemy would be broken (including those not only in impoverished communities, but also in wealthy communities) and replaced with God’s truth.
• Pray for God to be faithful in our cries for the oppressed and that He will soften the hearts of community leaders.
• Jesus desires that we have a full life. Pray this verse for communities and people that God brings to your mind:

 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

John 10:10                

Take Action:

• Learn about where poverty comes from. One way to help you do this is to read the arcticle, “The True Nature of Poverty” that is linked to in the letter.
• Watch the video entitled “What is Poverty” in the letter.

• Attend a YWAM Community Development School (CDS) or Community Development Seminar.
• Attend the Coram Deo free online training course with Disciple Nations Alliance. You can watch a video about it for more information that you can find in the letter.

• Build relationship with people in your community and gain understanding of their story, hopes and fears. Ask God what His vision is for your community and ask Him how you as Christ’s ambassador can step out personally.
• Learn about community development principles at YWAM Harpenden’s Community Development Hub.
• YWAM Mercy Vietnam is a locally run community development program. In the letter you can watch some very powerful stories about some of the people involved in their projects, including:
  • Chien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSAIcNOuHec
  • Ton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3gDfaRfgUw
  • Hue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxqMAgb7oE4
• Watch a video in the letter called “Charity That Hurts” to learn how sometimes our efforts to help others can make their situation worse:

• There are quite a few books that you can read on the topic that are linked to in the letter, including:
  • “The Book that Made Your World” and “Truth & Transformation” by Vishal  Mangalwadi
  • “The Book that Transforms Nations” by Loren Cunningham
  • “Walking With the Poor” by Bryant Myers
  • “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
  • “Discipling Nations” by Darrow Miller
  • “Old Testament Template” by Landa Cope
  • “His Kingdom Come” edited by Jim Stier
  • “The Great Omission” by Steve Saint
  • “Bring Your Eyes and See – Our Journey into Justice, Compassion and Action” by Steve and Marie Goode
• You can watch other videos that are linked to in the letter, such as:
  • “Who Broke Africa?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP2RNfb3kDw
  • Development Dreaming by  Johnny Oommen  https://vimeo.com/20119763
  • Samaan and Garbage City (Zabaleen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e01d4OlTi_k
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

January 2018 – YWAM Foundational Values #1 – 3

• Many YWAMers and friends of YWAM posted on Facebook that they prayed. Some of the countries represented include: Malawi, USA, India, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, and Italy.
• One person prayed for a YWAM ministry center to be started where she is located as a way to further Value 2: Make God Known.
• Several people noted which of these three values was most on their heart that day.
• YWAM Potchefstroom, South Africa had a day of prayer and fasting for YWAM’s Discipleship Training School.

Future Topics:

• March 8, 2018 Entertainment Industry
• April 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6 (Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, Be Visionary, Champion Young People)
• May 10, 2018 Refugees Update

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
•  Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for and about the first three of the YWAM Foundational Values:

1. Know God
2. Make God Known
3. Hear God’s Voice

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

The identification of YWAM foundational values began in 1985 with YWAM cofounder Darlene Cunningham asking, “What are the basic things that God has called YWAM to live and model to others?” The first official YWAM foundational values document was released in 1992 and was revised in 2004. YWAM foundational values now play such an integral part of YWAM that they are taught in every Discipleship Training School (DTS) and they are regularly shared at YWAM conferences all over the world.

Said one DTS student in Wollongong, Australia, “As I listened to our leader list YWAM’s 18 foundational values, I felt inspired. It was a picture of common purpose, people gathering to hear from God and being unified in mission. I want to be part of this, I thought.”

Over the next 18 months The Invitation will focus on these Foundational Values, asking YWAMers everywhere to pray for three values each quarter, or one value each month. Therefore, in January we invite you to pray about the first three foundational values:

1. Know God. YWAM is committed to know God, His nature, His character and His ways. We seek to reflect who He is in every aspect of our lives and ministry. The automatic overflow of knowing and enjoying fellowship with God is a desire to share Him with others.
2. Make God known.
YWAM is called to make God known throughout the whole world, and into every arena of society through evangelism, training and mercy ministries. We believe that salvation of souls should result in transformation of societies, thus obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations.
3. Hear God’s voice. YWAM is committed to creating with God through listening to Him, praying His prayers and obeying His commands in matters great and small. We are dependent upon hearing His voice as individuals, together in team contexts and in larger corporate gatherings as an integral part of our process for decision making.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of January to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, January 11.

If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for yourself and others in the YWAM family to uphold and practice these values in all that we do.

Prepare to Pray:

Before praying, consider doing the following exercise. It could help you and your group reflect on the significance of the values we are praying about this month.

READ: Read from Acts 15:1-30.

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and eldersabout this question. ³ The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoeniciaand Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶ The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷ After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹² The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. ¹³ When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me.¹⁴ Simon^[a] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. ¹⁵ The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

¹⁶ “‘After this I will return
    and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
    and I will restore it,
¹⁷ that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
    even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’^[b]—
¹⁸     things known from long ago.^[c]

¹⁹ “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰ Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. ²¹ For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

²² Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas,men who were leaders among the believers.²³ With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

²⁴ We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. ²⁵ So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— ²⁶ men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. ²⁸ It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: ²⁹ You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

³⁰ So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter.

THINK: Read the passage through again silently.

1. Consider the disciples’ growing understanding of God’s character and His ways. Identify the places in this passage centered on who God is. How does this value shape the disciples’ choices and actions?
2. Reflect on verse 19. Meditate on what it might look like in your context “not to make it difficult for those who are turning to God.” If you are in a group, discuss this together.
3. Read verse 28 again. The disciples’ letter reads, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Consider the process of prayerful listening and discerning dialogue that led them to address the issues in this way. What issues are you facing that require this sort of participation with the Holy Spirit?

PRAY: Thank God for His desire to be known, and for the goodness of His ways and His character to be made known both to you and throughout the world. Take a moment in quiet to hold before Him those people and places you long to receive revelation of who God is.

LIVE: What would it look like for you to take an internal posture of listening? Return to this image throughout the day as you listen for the ways God is inviting you to know Him, and to make Him known to those around you.

Pray for YWAM Foundational Values 1 – 3:

• Pray for YWAMers to embrace YWAM’s foundational values #1 – 3 so that YWAM can better display His presence to others.
• Pray for greater integration of YWAM values in our ministries.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts for any uncleanness. Pray for us to be fully committed to walk in openness and transparency before God and others.
• Pray for YWAMers to be willing to obey. Pray for YWAMers to be able to leave comfort zones behind and to step out in faith.
• Pray for YWAMers to hear his voice in the midst of sufferings of non-believers near to us and far from us and for Him to give us the faith to respond as He calls.
• Pray for courage and faith of YWAMers to make Him known to others with whom we encounter.
• Pray for wisdom of YWAM leaders in communicating and incorporating YWAM foundation values throughout YWAM.
• Pray for complete trust in who God is and His plans for our lives.
• Pray for a greater understanding of who each of us is in Christ so that our response to challenges and setbacks shows us to be faithful servants of God.
• Pray for DTS students to embrace these first three foundational values and for their lives to be changed. Pray for forgiveness, healing, and redemption as a result.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

Take Action:

• Get to really know the 18 foundational YWAM values. For a detailed version of the foundational values:
  • https://www.ywam.org/about-us/values/
  • https://issuu.com/ywamnorway/docs/ywam_values_english

• As a location, choose one of the YWAM foundational values and focus on it for at least one month. Share the value with others outside of YWAM and analyze their response. Create digital media associated with this value and share with The Invitation and/or with Darlene Cunningham in YWAM, Kona.
• Read this book for the first time or read it again with a fresh perspective: Is That Really You God? by Loren Cunningham.
• Plan an event (staff meeting, retreat, etc.) where each participant is assigned one of the YWAM foundational values. Have each participant seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit regarding their assigned value and report to the group in a way that will help others apply that value in their life.
• Watch this short video about Hearing the Voice of God from YWAM Mazatlan: https://www.facebook.com/ywammazatlan/videos/10160059969220001/?fref=mentions
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

December 2017 – Pyongyang, North Korea

• YWAM Diriamba, Nicaragua (Near Managua) reported that they would be praying during the entire month of December for Pyongyang.
• The Invitation was shared on Facebook over 150 times, received over 500 likes and had more than 150 comments. People noted they were praying all over the world including, but not limited to Canada, Haiti, Brazil, India, Philippines, Netherlands, Indonesia, Argentina, Nigeria, Ghana, England, Kenya, Germany, Barbados, Egypt, Mozambique, Australia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Costa Rica, Madagascar, Japan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, as well a many states within the United States.
• YWAM Perth, Australia prayed for hope and boldness for believers and that they would have influence on government leaders and that the leaders would respond with deep repentance and that nation of North Korea would be transformed.
• YWAM Seamill, Scotland focused on the Christians in North Korea, inspired by the video testimony included in The Invitation.
• YWAM Champagne, France is believing the Lord will transform the country of North Korea and they were inspired by Jeremiah 39, Isaiah 61 and 62, Acts 16 and John 7.

Future Topics:

• February 8, 2018 Community Development
• March 8, 2018 Entertainment Industry/Celebration Sphere
• April 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6 (Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, Be Visionary, Champion Young People)

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for Pyongyang, North Korea.

Left to right, top to bottom: North Korea airport, Pyongyang Buildings, North Korea and South Korea Political Map with Capitals
Photo credits: IPE Zone, Earth Nutshell, Stock Vector

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

As hard as it is to imagine today, Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, used to be a center for Christian mission work throughout the Eastern world. According to the Voice of the Martyrs Canada website in 1907, a revival spread from Pyongyang across the Korean Peninsula and Pyongyang was called The Jerusalem of the East. As late as the 1920s, 90 percent of the Christians in Korea (North and South) lived in Pyongyang.

Today, the environment of Pyongyang’s 2.7 million citizens (Operation World) is very different. They live in the nation that has been described by Open Doors as being the worst in the world for Christian persecution. It is also estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, including up to 100,000 Christians (Operation World), are being imprisoned in North Korea’s labor and concentration camps where conditions are so poor that as many as 75 percent of the prisoners do not survive (Fox News).

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of December to pray for Pyongyang. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, December 14.

If you have only a few minutes to pray, please note the eight minute video below and pray that the people of Pyongyang would experience the love and grace of Christ in the near term. If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Dancing in Pyongyang
Photo credits: Chattanooga Times Free Press

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray, take a few minutes to watch this short video. It is the moving testimony of Gyeong Ju Son, a young Christian whose father is one of thousands of believers imprisoned or killed for their faith. In listening to Gyeong Ju Son, consider her grief and loss. Take a few moments of silence as the video closes, and reflect on what could compel a young Christian orphan to dream of someday returning to North Korea, where persecution is all but certain. Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to enter into this deep longing for her fellow North Koreans to know the love of Christ, which is stronger than fear, deeper than sorrow, and more precious than life itself.

As God draws your heart to feel something of His deep compassion for this nation, go ahead and pray using the points below to guide you.

Pyongyang’s Traffic Ladies
Photo credits: Free Malaysia Today

Pray for Pyongyang:

• Pray that the gospel will spread throughout North Korea and that they will experience revival again as they did in 1907.
• Pray for those in leadership within the government. Pray that God will open their eyes to the truth of the gospel. Pray for leaders to obey the will of God for their nation.
• Pray for guidance for Christians in North Korea. Pray that they would not lose their faith despite oppression and the threat of death in concentration camps. Possessing a Bible, saying God or Jesus, and meeting as believers are all punishable by death. Pray that they would be bold in the midst of persecution.
• Pray for spiritual, mental, and physical restoration of North Korean refugees. Many North Korean refugees go through torture, intense stress and anxiety during their escapes.
• Pray for the people who are suffering in prison camps and for those who struggle to have daily needs met due to the isolation of North Korea.
• Pray for the gospel radio programs of TWR and FEBC as they beam deep into North Korea.
• Pray for Korean Christian businessmen from China who have easier access into North Korea.
• Pray for those who labor among North Koreans around the world to preach the truth of the gospel boldly and clearly. Pray that the Holy Spirit would use their lives to demonstrate the gospel in a powerful way.
• Praise God that in spite of the dire conditions in Pyongyang and across the region that the church is growing and people are coming to Christ.

 “Despite efforts to eradicate Christians, we have found the church in North Korea is actually growing . . . They know only God is powerful enough to break through the darkness of the most oppressive regime on earth.”

Vernon Brewer; Founder and President, World Help

Take Action:

• Read about the growth of the church in North Korea: http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/08/18/christianity-grows-in-north-korea-despite-torture-persecution
• Read books:
  • Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, by Blaine Harden.
  • The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, by Kang Choi-hwan and Pierre Rigoulot.
• Pray regularly about Pyongyang and North Korea. Consult various Christian agencies for more prayer requests:
  • Operation World Website: www.operationworld.org/country/korn/owtext.html and Operation World book: www.ivpress.com/operation-world
  • Read about how Open Doors recommends praying for North Korea: www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/pray-north-koreas-demise/
  • Voice of the Martyrs Canada: www.vomcanada.com/northkorea.htm
• Review Open Door World WatchList 2017 to see the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith. See what they have to say about North Korea: www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/north-korea/ Download info booklet and read it to find out more about North Korean prison camps.
• Learn more about the People of Pyongyang according to a Swedish travel company: www.koreakonsult.com/Attraction_Pyongyang_people_eng.html
• Read about a day in the life of Pyongyang: www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/north-korea-a-day-in-the-life-pyongyang

Off Duty Soldiers in Pyongyang
Photo Credits: Daily Mail

• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

Future Topics:

• January 11, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 1 – 3 (Know God, Make God known, Hear God’s voice)
• February 8, 2018 Community Development
• March 8, 2018 Entertainment Industry/Celebration Sphere

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for our Partner Churches.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

YWAM Queenstown DTS team at a YWAM Bangkok partner church: Khlong Toey Church
Photo credit: YWAM – All Nations Bangkok

God has commissioned the local church to go into all the nations and preach the gospel. As YWAMers, we could not do what we do without our partner churches. These partnering churches send us, pray for us, support us and are alongside us for training, church planting, mercy ministry and other gospel-related activities. The relationship between the church and those who are sent is a beautiful partnership, one that God has chosen to change the entire world!

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

Acts 16:5 (NKJV)

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, this month to pray for our partner churches on November 9. We ask you to celebrate this partnership on a local level by praying for your partner churches, and if you sense God’s leading, by taking action to strengthen those relationships. If you have only a few minutes to pray this month, please pray for the health of your partner churches and that God would bring blessings to them. If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Serving Chai in Partnership with a Local Church Outreach
Photo Credit: YWAM Brisbane

Prepare to Pray:

Take a moment to bring to mind the congregation of your partner church, whether at home or in your present location. And then consider the lead pastor of this congregation.

What are all the things the pastor of a congregation such as this would have to think about, take responsibility for, or take care of? As a group, use a whiteboard or large sheet of paper to brainstorm all the ideas that come to mind in response to this question. Make note of as many things as you can.

Next, take some time to reflect on how such a pastor might feel about all these responsibilities, concerns, and opportunities. Enter into those feelings as much as you can.

Finally, as you hold before God these possible feelings and needs, ask Him how He might like to love, encourage, and strengthen this church leader through you. What comes to mind as a response, whether in prayer or in action? Share these ideas with one another and make a note, so that you can follow through on Holy Spirit’s prompting.

Mark Nebauer said, “YWAM goals are realized while churches go forward. A true win-win situation.”.

Pray for Our Partner Churches:

• Praise God for successful partnerships that YWAM has had and is having around the world with local churches and sending churches.
• Praise God for your partner churches.
• Pray for the health of your partner churches and ask the Lord to bless them.
• Pray for unity and healthy and equitable partnerships between YWAM locations and partner churches.
• Pray for solid relationships between YWAMers and the people of the local church. Pray for YWAMers to make consistent commitments to the local church.

“The healthy cooperation of the local church and global mission is a major threat to the kingdom of darkness.”

Lynn Green, a YWAM leader

• YWAM provides opportunities for churches to engage in mission through outreaches for church youth groups, serving opportunities for adults through Mission Builders, mission awareness programs, seminars for families, and more. Pray for long-lasting results.
• Pray for the church to send more workers to the field where the needs are the greatest in less-saturated nations.
• Pray for YWAM locations to understand and minister to the needs of churches and the congregations they serve.

YWAM’s Dan Baumann teaching at partner church Oakland Baptist
Photo Credit: Oakland Baptist Church

• Pray for God to prepare churches in developed countries and in developing countries to send and support those called to Go.

Take Action:

• Identify all of the partner churches that are involved with your location. Display a map with each church marked. Pray regularly for these churches.
• Host a thank you event for your partner churches. Brainstorm on ways they can even partner with one another to build the church.
• Schedule meetings with local partner churches and their pastors/leaders to listen to their needs and dreams without focusing on the needs and dreams of YWAM.

Lynn Green says, “The best way to maintain a relationship with local churches is to concentrate on how we can serve them.”.

• Invite partner churches to send a DTS student to the next DTS at your location.
• Identify local churches where there might partnership opportunities in the future but where none exist today.
• Encourage staff and students at your location to regularly attend and participate at a local church.
• Communicate partnering opportunities via YWAM channels, including, but not limited to:
  • Outreach trips for youth groups: www.missionadventures.net
  • Outreach trips for adult groups: www.missionbuilders.org
  • Programs for children and teens: kkint.net
  • For parents and families: ywam-fmi.org
• Schedule an outreach event with one or more of your partner churches.
• Offer to help one or more of your partner churches with a Mission Sunday type event to raise awareness within the church.

A partner church, Living Stones Christian Fellowship, praying over long term YWAM Richmond missionaries
Photo Credit: YWAM Richmond

• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

October 2017 – Prayer for the Hindu World

• There was a lively discussion on Facebook about praying for Hindus. One person noted that they regularly pray that Hindus will know Jesus with not only their mind, but also with their heart.
• YWAM Surabaya, Indonesia prayed for the Hindu world and asked for prayer for pupils to join their DTS starting January 2018 and for staff preparation.
• YWAM Vanuatu, Oceania also prayed and asked for prayer for teachers that have a DTS background in education to come and teach children alongside locals.

Future Topics:

• December 14, 2017 Pyongyang
• 2018 Theme: YWAM Foundational Values (along with other topics)

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for The Hindu World.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, will be a bit different this month. Instead of asking you to pray on the second Thursday of the month (or whatever works best for you) we are asking you to pray with us daily from October 8 to October 22 for 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World.

15 Days is an annual prayer movement that calls Christians and churches worldwide to take these 15 days to learn about and pray for our world’s one billion Hindus. This period encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Lights called Diwali (or Deepawali). During this prayer focus, we invite you to take a posture of blessing toward Hindu peoples worldwide.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of October to pray for the Hindu world, from October 8 – 22. Informative prayer guide booklets are available on the 15 Days website (www.pray15days.org). To join the YWAM family in prayer in October, take a moment to download or order a booklet. Also, go to the 15 Days Facebook page (via pray15days.org) and like it. The purpose of 15 Days is to call Christians to make an intentional and respectful effort during this period to learn about, pray for and reach out to the Hindu community.

If you are not able to pray every day we invite you to pray during our prayer day, Thursday, October 12.

This is the second anniversary issue of The Invitation and we would like to take a moment to thank the people that have made this possible:

• Translation: Yohan An, Seungjun Bahng, Kyoungmi Ko, Eunice Jo, Micaela Oliveira, Jessica Milanez Salve, Adelaide Santos, Isabela Ribeiro, Sharen Song, Renato Wong, French-language translator (name withheld for security reasons), and Yira Patricia Ibarra.
• Spiritual Formation/Prepare to Pray: Miranda Heathcote, Tanya Lyons
• Social Media: Daniel Norris, Mandy Stephenson, Jeremy Randall
• Logistics and Podcast: Bill Hutchison
• Manager and Writer: Laura Parli
• Ideas: Lynn Green, Lynn Yee
• Leadership: Bryan Bishop
• Thanks also to YWAM leaders, prayer coordinators and others who have organized The Invitation at their location.

If you have only a few minutes to pray this month, please pray that Hindu people everywhere would be blessed through the Gospel and that God would move them towards Himself.

If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

Speaking blessings over people and situations, and doing so in our authority as God’s children, is a powerful way of agreeing with His good purposes. Blessing prayer helps us to align our hearts with God’s good intentions and, as we see in scripture, blessings given by God and His people are powerful and effective.

As your group prepares to pray, stand together in a circle. You can divide into smaller groups if you are praying as a large community, or you can pray individually if you are alone. Take a moment to consider the Hindu World and God’s eternal purpose to reveal His love as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to draw people into relationship with Himself.

When you are ready, go ahead and open in prayer: “Almighty God, as we stand in agreement with your loving purposes towards all people, help us by your Holy Spirit to speak powerful blessings over the Hindu world that will bear good fruit.”

Then go around the circle and allow a brief moment for each person to speak aloud a blessing; these can be very simple. It may help to imagine a particular man, woman, child or family and their need for Jesus. For example, someone might begin with, “I bless Hindu families with visitors who will speak to them of Jesus.” Or, “I bless Hindu communities with portions of scripture they can read aloud together in their language.”

When everyone has taken a turn, pause a moment in silence. Before continuing with your prayer time, allow your hearts to be softened and enlarged with a sense of God’s deep longing to bless Hindu people.

Pray for The Hindu World:

• Pray that more disciples of Jesus would learn how to communicate the Good News to Hindus in ways that resonate with their hearts and minds.
• Pray for bible translation and distribution in the Hindu world and the ending of bible poverty. Many Hindus do not have Scripture available in their language or do not have access to the Bible. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know you are the Holy One of God” (ESV, John 6:68).
• Pray that movements of Hindus towards Christ will emerge and grow in all types of Hindu communities.
• Pray for the more than 2,000 YWAM staff who work in South Asia. Many of them work directly with Hindu peoples.

“Through prayer, we engage in an act of love for Hindu people around the world—sharing their burdens, understanding their concerns and petitioning God to reveal Himself to them.”

Friends Network

• Praise God for the many people movements that have started amongst Hindu people.
• Pray for the church in South Asia, that it will endure the recent increase in persecution and grow in hope, as the author of Hebrews wrote, “. . . . hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone . . . “ (ESV, Hebrews 6:18 – 20).
• Pray for the 2,328 Unreached Hindu People groups (joshuaproject.net/religions/5) and that they will receive witnesses of Christ and turn to Him as their saviour.

Take Action:

• Look for Hindus in your own community and find ways to engage with them. Eat a meal at an Indian or Nepali restaurant and get to know the wait staff.
• Attend a YWAM Frontier Missions school or seminar (uofn.edu) or (ywamfm.com) to search for DTSes and secondary schools with a focus on the Hindu world.
• Visit the International YWAM Frontier Missions website and Facebook (you can find both via ywamfm.com) to learn how to be trained and sent as a cross cultural missionary to the Hindu world.
• Visit the YWAM Frontier Missions South Asia website and Facebook page to hear encouraging testimonies of what God is doing amongst Hindu peoples there and to learn about training and ministry opportunities (you can find both via www.ywamfrontiermissions.com).
• Bring yourself and your team to the first Global Hethne (Hindu Ethne) Missions Congress in Thailand, October 12-17, 2020. Find more information at (hethne.org).
• Consult the Joshua Project site that is dedicated to people groups of South Asia for prayer points (www.southasiapeoples.org).
• Consult Operation World for more prayer points and to learn about Hindu peoples.
• Read books to gain a greater understanding of Hindu peoples: Sharing Your Faith with a Hindu by Madasamy Thirumalai; Disciple Making Among Hindus by Timothy Shultz; Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains by Janet & Geoff Benge (YWAM Publishing) and Footprints of Faith: Stories of YWAM in South Asia by Sonya Svoboda.
• Watch short promo  tional video from the 15 Days website (pray15days.org).

• For additional information: prayercast.com see link to their video leading people through a prayer for Hindus (http://www.prayercast.com/hinduism.html).

• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

September 2017 – DTS, Disciple-making

• Friends Network – “The Invitation has been a great blessing to our mission, the Father’s heart and I am sure for those whom we have prayed.”
• Several posted on Facebook that they prayed including one who prayed for the current DTS to be a blessing to many and that God would use all participants to bring revival and awakening of the Holy Spirt.

Future Topics:

• November 9, 2017 Partner Churches
• December 14, 2017 Pyongyang

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray about Families, Singles, and Married Couples serving in Youth With A Mission.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Left to right; top to bottom: 1) Quote from Marian Jordan Ellis, 2) Celebrating the marriage of two YWAMers. 3) YWAM Family Ministries Forum in Asia, Photo credits: YWAM Family Ministries; Andrea Howey (Flickr); YWAM South Sudan.

God speaks to all of us through the Bible and other means in all stages of life and gives instructions for how to live in different stages: as singles, as married couples, as part of a family. God gives each of us, no matter our status, a holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9). The Bible is full of stories about people who are single, married spouses, and families and how He used them for His good purpose.

But how does this fit in with our work on the mission field? How do YWAMers in different stages and statuses of life, with different needs, come together to fulfill God’s purposes? How do we minister to non-believers who are in a different stage than we are?

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. . .

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of August to pray for family, singles and marriages. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, August 10.

If you have only a few minutes to pray, please lift up all YWAMers regarding their stage in life. Pray for contentment regarding stage of life; unity regarding differences; wisdom and provision. Pray for God to strengthen YWAM ministries through a greater understanding of the needs of people in different stages of life.

If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

“Please don’t wait for marriage” blog. Photo credit: YWAM Montana Lakeside

Prepare to Pray:

If you are praying with others, consider taking some time to discuss these questions before you pray. If you are praying alone, you could journal your own responses to the questions:

• What are some things that make you personally grateful to be single, or married, or a family in mission?
• What are some of the challenges of being single, or married, or a family in mission?
• What have you learned as you have related to those who are single, if you are married; or married, if you are single; or from those who have kids if you don’t? Feel free to be specific with the people in your prayer group.
• In what ways do you experience the diversity of people in your teams (singles, couples, families) as something that strengthens the ways you can reach out to others? Give thanks for that diversity.

Pray for Family, Singles and Marriages:

• Praise God for this stage of your life (family, single, married) and reflect on the ways that your ministry is enhanced due to your current status.
• Pray for those at your location who have a different status than you currently do. Reflect on what their challenges might be.
• Pray for guidance on how to include and take care of everyone – couples, singes, young people, old people, and children in a way that lives out the Gospel.
• Pray for wisdom, resources and adequate training for those within YWAM who provide member care to others.
• Pray for recognition by YWAM leaders of the needs and challenges facing each group of YWAMers and for recognition of differences from area to area. Pray for fairness and equity for housing, leadership positions, ministry opportunities among all regardless of current status.

Singles

• Pray for singles in YWAM and that they would stand firm against Satan regarding purity.
• Pray for balance between ministry and social life. Pray for staff and leaders to not make decisions just because someone is single. (For example, assuming it is easier for them to travel.)
• Pray for our singles to not feel lonely and isolated.
• Pray for provision (financial and other) for our singles. Expenses for singles can be close to that needed by married couples and they may not have as many contacts.

 Marriages

• Pray for YWAM couples to be anchored in the Lord as individuals.
• Praise God for the ways He unites cross-cultural couples. Pray for wisdom regarding differences.
• Pray for YWAM couples who have or are experiencing difficulties regarding fertility, pregnancies and post-pregnancies.
• Pray for sexual purity for our YWAM marriages.
• Pray for unity of married couples in purpose and vision for ministry and family matters.
• Pray for wisdom in handling time away from one another due to travel, leadership responsibilities, etc.

Family

• Pray for all YWAMers to sense they are part of “the family” at all YWAM locations.
• Pray for security and peace for YWAMers who are away from their primary or extended families frequently or for extended periods of time.
• Pray for resources and guidance for YWAMers in educating and caring for their children.
• Pray that the children of our staff would receive clarity regarding ministry.
• Pray for grace to set our priorities right. (Investing into our own marriage, investing in our children, being a family in missions, investing in others, etc.)
• Pray for balance between discipline and love where there are challenging family issues including adoption, health concerns, behavioral concerns and others.

YWAM Family Encounter Day. Photo credit: YWAM Family Encounters.

Take Action:

• Whatever your current status, spend time with YWAMers who are in different stages of life. Pray with and for them. Learn from them. Help them meet a need.
• If you are interested in YWAM member care and helping others throughout their missionary journey, attend a Missionary Care Foundations Course. The next one is November 5 – 17, 2017 in Prod, Romania. Contact membercare@ywamce.com
• Attend a YWAM family ministry forum. (https://www.ywam-fmi.org/tag/forum/)
• Find training material for families and family ministries at this website: families-in-ministry.com. Read the book: Families In Ministry, by Andreas and Angela Fresz.
• Attend a family ministry school: uofn.edu or www.fam-studies.info
• Subscribe to the YWAM family ministries newsletter: https://www.ywam-fmi.org/newsletter/

Families in Ministry book is now available in multiple languages.
Photo credit: Angela Zeidler-Fresz, YWAM Family Ministries International

• Research ministry opportunities for singles.
• Attend a marriage weekend. See YWAM St. Croix for an example: https://www.ywamstcroix.org/marriage-ministry
• Teach a marriage class to the current DTS students at your location.
• Seek a mentor-type relationship with another married couple.
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

July 2017 – Two-Thirds-World Workers, Financial Support

• There was enthusiastic support for this topic on Facebook. One individual exclaimed: “YWAM is a step ahead, well done!”

Future Topics:

• September 14, 2017 DTS, Disciple Making
• October 12, 2017 The Hindu World (The Invitation’s Second Anniversary issue)
• November 9, 2017 Partner Churches

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast by clicking on the player at the bottom of this email. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.