In May I (Bill) went straight from Jackson County, KS to Southern Johnson County, KS and began leading volunteer launches for building all the different logistics teams.
With a major effort up ahead, it proved to be an incredible challenge because I had less than 5 months to get all of this together taking up an average of 80 to 100 hours per week in preparation. And on top of that we were scheduled to run simultaneous events each weekend of the tour phase. The Olathe, KS school districts would have evangelistic performances on the same weekends as the Blue Valley, KS school districts.
Plus, the need to build local logistic teams for each of the three satellite towns that came on board and a couple more church based outreaches. Plus I created a local team to build skate ramps. The total events I was involved in was 23 in a three week period running from Sept. 29th to Oct. 18th.
God is Good and I was blessed with great leaders in every single area for every event in every town! And that was truly a miracle in itself. A great time blending together 20 different churches with each other and all the teams; Impact World, , Team Xtreme, Island Breeze and GX International to impact one of the wealthiest counties of America.
At the end of it all we were privileged to share the Gospel to a total of 10,070 people as 1,363 of them surrendered their lives to Christ! That made all our preparation feel real good. Especially for the 1,200 locals who were trained to share their faith and the 250 plus small groups that were created to help with follow-up.
2016 will be an even busier year for evangelism as we’re seeing God show Himself more and more everyday in a world that seems to be falling apart. First stop will be in February for GX International at the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbeans. I will be staying state side for that one and head to Delaware instead and prepare for the team to return there for a tour in early March. From there it’s straight to Acuna, Mexico a border town across from Del Rio, TX where GX is expected to do many school assemblies and headline a two night city festival.
With Delaware and Mexico I will be key point for logistics. This means creating documents for volunteers and working towards translations to Spanish (I don't know Spanish). A strong prayer emphasis is needed on the latter for all communications. In Acts chapter 2 when they where filled with the Holy Spirit, each one heard their own language spoke!
Well, I put a ton of hard work and time into the Kansas Campaigns so by the end of all that I was looking forward to spending more time with Genesis 1-1Art. Very refreshing and God really spoke to me. It seems I had been doing much work so my fellow brothers and sisters would see me and how well I could do stuff. Jesus points these things out in the Gospel of Luke 10:38-42
"A woman named Martha opened her home to HIM.She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made." It can be easy to get busy doing things that are good to God but we need to be doing exactly what HE has asked of us. Julia and I have a new perspective for 2016 as she and I look forward to Gods hand in Genesis 1-1Art and doing more local evangelistic outreaches. Julia has a great deal of information to share so a second News Letter, Part 2, will be sent out next Tuesday. You will not want to miss it!
The ministries we are a part of are YWAM (Youth With a Mission) Ministries. Every YWAM worker, including the founder, Loren Cunningham, raises their own support to meet their financial needs. No one receives a salary from the organization. For most people in YWAM, these funds come from friends, family and churches who contribute financially. If you would like partner with us financially you can do so online at L3International, All donations are tax deductible.