We receive urgent requests for prayer almost daily from Ukraine. It is incredible how God can orchestrate ministry even in such a dire situation. 

 Texas Winter Storm Puts Missions to Action

After a week of freezing temperatures and, in some cases, no heat in homes for days, Mercy Works, our compassionate ministries department at YWAM Tyler stepped into action.

WHAT I DIDN'T REALIZE ABOUT THE SEX INDUSTRY IN THE USA

A YWAM outreach definitely opens your eyes to what's happening in the world around you. We love taking students on two month outreaches as part of their Discipleship Training School. It's in moments on busy downtown streets, a remote dusty village, on a crowded college campus, where God shows his love for the world. 

I was texting with a student on who is currently on outreach and decided to blog our conversation here for you to read. When God opens our eyes, there's just no going back. 

We thought it would be awesome to take two very different, but vital departments on our campus and switch them for day. You know there are always two sides to every story. Well, this is no different!

ME: Who am I?

GOD: Marina: Sea Harbor ~ one who leads people to the living waters

ME: What does that even mean? (rolls eyes)

GOD: Allow me to show you.

Yeah, the title can be a a little cliche. It's a saying that we hear a lot at YWAM Tyler. There's even a banner with the quote across it on the wall above my desk. For me, it is more than a catch phrase though. It's something God spoke to me during a transition period of my life that I have gone back to time and time again.

In all the talk today of measuring success by numbers, based on how many “hits,” “clicks,” or “likes” we get on our social media, I am often taken back to the memory of my very first Youth With a Mission trip in 1984. We were traveling through the Atlantic Coast of Canada, performing an evangelistic drama known as Toymaker and Son. It was a 52 minute long drama performed in full costume to a soundtrack recorded by a professional orchestra. It was all mime and dance, a real workout for us young people to perform in the hot summer sun, and we performed it anywhere we could. One performance stands out above the rest to me because we performed it on an empty grass lawn, to no audience at all.

Earlier this year, YWAM Tyler had the opportunity to serve New Life Church in Henderson, Texas. Recently, after a ministerial fellowship meeting in Carthage, I re-met Pastor Josh Blizzard, who I had originally met in 1994 in Adrmore, Oklahoma. Josh was part of a youth group then, and I was serving on a college mobile ministry team.