By Christian Winter
I hope you enjoyed hearing about the Philippines the past 3 days! It's a very special place to me as I've been able to go twice with YWAM (2015 for my DTS and now for staffing a DTS). I'm even more excited to share one thing my heart really burns for, global missions. I've been in missions full time for almost 4 years and it has been worth every second of my time. The hardest part for me isn't serving, but it's that I don't usually find people wanting to do missions (locally or globally). Which is why The Send was so incredible for me to attend.
You're probably saying to yourself, The What? The Send is a collaborative missions movement whose main goal is to send laborers into the harvest. YWAM is one of the advocates for The Send so one month of our outreach was spent in Orlando serving The Send and also following up by pouring into Orlando, Florida (where The Send was held) for three weeks afterward.
On February 23 over 40,000 people from across the world gathering in Camping World Stadium (Citrus Bowl) with a hunger to see the Great Commission fulfilled. The three weeks that followed were almost like a test run to see what it looks like for 300 missionaries to flood a city. We knew Jesus wasn't lying when he said, "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." It was hard at times, but Jesus wasn't lying. People in America want Jesus!
From The Send, 18,196 people committed to fast for a Jesus movement in America, 531 people were saved/rededicated their lives, 2,467 committed to reaching high schools, 2,197 committed to reaching universities, 5,064 committed to adopting their neighborhoods, and 5,423 committed to reaching the nations!
Those three weeks were worth it not only for every person that gave their life to Jesus, but even for those who had a seed planted and will one day declare Jesus as their Lord. I was pretty exhausted from multiple weeks of sickness and felt like a failure in some aspects. Quiet times were dry and I wasn't asking for God's perspective over my life. Bad move.
Yet, He was so faithful. When I called on His name he would still come and I was able to pour into so many people. I loved Orlando so much, but ministry started to get boring. I tried doing it in my own strength and wondered why it wasn't working. I continued to not see breakthrough and became frustrated.
Going through this time I still loved Jesus, but sometimes things pile up and go undealt with. This time pushed me more and more into the reality of the importance of spending one on one time with Jesus. Unfortunately for me the breakthrough wouldn't come until later. Which you'll read about on Monday!
Thanks so much reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
Blessings,
Christian Winter
You may be asking yourself, how can I become a missionary? Well that’s easy! There’s lost people everywhere. I’m sure two or three people came to mind even as I said that. Invite them over for dinner, love them, and get to know their story! You have a door into their life that almost nobody else has.
P.S. For those of you curious about The Send click the links below for more info:
Website
News Article
P.P.S I wanna give you a resource that has some awesome information ranging from going deep with Jesus to becoming a messenger. Click here to check it out!