Praise for YWAM

Ever heard of YWAM (Youth with a Mission)?  Here, they're called JOCUM, and they are pretty much really awesome.  Prep yourself for my mini-infomercial before I tell you what this has to do with our lives.

From their website: Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known.


They are involved not only in cross-cultural missions, but in training people for service and sending them back to their local communities to impact their world.  Those who participate in outreaches or what we'd consider "mission trips" have a prerequisite of attending Discipleship Training School, which is--well, I'll let them tell you again in their own www words:  

The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is designed to help you understand God more deeply, live more like Jesus and identify your unique gifts and purpose to use in missions.  DTS is a full-time, residential training course which begins with an 11 or 12 week classroom phase, followed by an 8-12 week outreach time. The DTS emphasizes cross-cultural exposure and global awareness, preparing students to answer the call to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19.

So a group of 12 young adults (ages 19-35) finished their DTS at a base in neighboring Brazil, then came to Hogar Ganar for a two-week "put it into practice" trip.  Two of that group are Paraguayans, and the others hail from various locations all over the giant country of Brazil.  The focus of this particular group is ministry through arts, so they used various cool talents for evangelism and discipleship methods.  We got to see juggling, unicycling, dancing, acting, even FIRE-BREATHING!  And we got to see these young folks impact this community big time.

Here are a few shots of our time with our new Brazilian friends.