To start this entry off, I need to correct a mistake in the last entry that I wrote. As it turns out, Andy happens to be a student in the School of Evangelism, not a staff member. With one hundred people, it is sometimes difficult to know who belongs where.
Okay, now back to my real reason for writing.
When I applied for the DTS in Skien, I had no idea that I was entering into YWAM on such an awesome year. This year is YWAM's jubilee year, its 50th birthday if you will. In order to celebrate 50 years of young people bringing God's good news all over the world, celebrations are being held all over the world at various YWAM bases and the gathering place for all of Northern Europe (Scandinavia plus Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania) just happened to be in the gorgeous country of Sweden at the Restenäs base. Restenäs looks like what it used to be before YWAM made the place into a base; a picturesque farming village complete with cows. The picture below shows only the dinning hall, dinning tent, and office building. Restenäs is too large for one picture, but just right for a meeting of over seven hundred YWAMers.
To celebrate fifty years of YWAM, we, YWAM of Northern Europe, attended meetings for the better part of four days in the foremost building you see in the picture below. A lot of different leaders and visionaries spoke during these meetings and we got to hear stories of how God is using young people all around the world. While hearing the stories was good, some of the best times in the meetings were when we worshiped. Nothing can compare to the sight of all generations worshiping God together in freedom.
The cowfield: what a wonderful view to wake up to.
An inside view of the meeting hall. It reached incredible temperatures in this room, considering the cold weather outside of the building.
It is very difficult to celebrate an organization or a movement without honoring its founder. Yes, we honored God without whom nothing, including YWAM would exist, but we also honored the man who obeyed God's call to mobilize young people for the kingdom of God and his wife who is much more than just a help meet to him. The man and his wife are called Loren and Darlene Cunningham and they came to Restenäs to celebrate along side of us the organization they founded. It was a great privilege to hear Loren and Darlene tell of how YWAM began and of their visions for its future.
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| Loren Cunningham (right) and translator |
When we were not being Youth With A Meeting, it was good to take advantage of the fact that Restenäs is located near a large body of water. Many people went swimming, but swimming looked more like walking on water for some people because the water temperature did not reflect bath water in the least. And also....
... there were jellyfish!
So what came out of this trip to Sweden? One: I learned that YWAM is a much larger organization than I had first thought and that it has impacted every corner of the globe. Two: I saw that people in Northern Europe are very passionate about seeing revival break out in their countries. Three: I realized that a large bottle of hand sanitizer would be prudent in the future for large gatherings of over ten people. Yes, seriously. Over half of the people at this base came back with some kind of sickness from Restenäs including yours truly, which is part of the reason why its taken me so long to post this. The good news is that everyone is starting to feel better. The bad news is that it is supposed to rain the majority of this coming week.
