Lynn Green

Category: Current Events

  • Dutch Girl

    Dutch Girl

    ©Photo by Rahul from Pexels

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

     

    Earlier this week a very dear friend of ours spoke to our community about how much God loves us and how his love transformed her.  She spoke transparently about being repeatedly raped by a family member when she was just a young girl.  Her infectious joy and love for everyone touched each of us; what she said and how she said it inspired us all to love God more and to love one another through thick and thin.

    The next morning, the newspapers reported that a 17-year old rape victim had been euthanized in Holland, at her request.  Our friend’s heartbroken response to that news was, “Oh, how I wish I had just had a day with her!”

    When a secular state is faced with a depressed teenager who doesn’t want to live, utilitarian materialism goes into action.  The reasoning is quite clear and understandable: This girl is hopeless and does not want to live, so we see no reason to hope for her.  She will almost certainly be dependent on the state if she continues to live; she is an autonomous individual who wants to die, so we will help her kill herself.

    The next day the authorities in Holland put out a statement to clarify that they had not actually killed her; they had just helped her to starve and dehydrate herself to death.  I don’t think that makes much difference.  The authorities just agreed with her that there was no hope for her future.

    When our friend (now late 60’s) was speaking the night before, she was full of humour and joy and had everyone laughing uproariously,  but her message was deep and life-changing.  When she spoke of her pain as a child and young woman and her desire to die, she said, “Little did I know that God would fashion my pain into an instrument to set others free.”  She has now worked with victims of incest and rape in people groups where it is almost the norm for young women. Through her,  many have experienced the power of what the scriptures teach, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

    As far as I know, this is the first case of a person that young being granted governmental help to commit suicide; but it won’t be the last.  Now that it has been done, the numbers will increase; that’s just the way our secular drift goes.  It will become more and more deadly in this hurting generation of young people.  Who will give them hope?

    May the Lord call many young evangelists—people who are full of hope and the power of the Holy Spirit to heal people inside and out!  As Jesus exhorted us, “So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” 

    Dutch girl, 17, who was sexually abused at 11 and raped as a 14-year-old is legally euthanised at her home by ‘end-of-life’ clinic because she felt her life was unbearable due to depression

    • Noa Pothoven from Arnhem died last Sunday in a hospital bed in her living room
    • She had suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia
    • In a final Instagram post the teenager wrote ‘Love is letting go, in this case,’ and asked her followers not to try and change her mind
    • Euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands under strict conditions since 2002 

    By MIRANDA ALDERSLEY FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 12:35, 4 June 2019 | UPDATED: 17:57, 4 June 2019

  • When Your Leaders Move On

    When Your Leaders Move On

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

  • Stopping the Illegal Cannabis Trade

    Stopping the Illegal Cannabis Trade

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

     

    I mentioned in a blog last year that I was watching the consequences of legalizing pot in my home state of Colorado.  So I was back there last week with a chance to see how it is working out.

    There was a strong argument that changing the law to allow cannabis to be sold openly would stop the illegal trade.  That would make everyone safer because the strength and purity of pot could be openly verified.

    While I was there, the local paper ran a headline that the police had raided 247 properties where illegal marijuana was being grown. WHY?  I thought legalizing would put an end to all that!  At least that was the argument.

    I stopped to imagine that I had been growing and selling marijuana products illegally before the state made it legal.  Would I be happy to register, submit to the regulators and pay taxes on my products?  If I had been making a good profit, what would convince me to go to the authorities, register as a grower, welcome the inspectors and pay a good portion of my profits to the state?  Would the change of law transform me into a law-abiding citizen? Not likely!

    If the police are still busy trying to stop the illegal and unregistered trade in cannabis, what has changed?  Well, a lot of pot is being sold legally too and that produces revenue for the State of Colorado.

    So, what is the argument for making it legal to sell and use cannabis?  Money.

    There’s nothing new under the sun.

    Lynn Green.

  • The Importance of Telling Stories

    The Importance of Telling Stories

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

     

    I was about to leave a gathering of about 50 leaders of YWAM in Africa and they asked me to come stand at the front while they told me what impact my being there and my teaching  had made.  It was a very encouraging few minutes!  They were grateful that I had just bothered to come without a specific invitation to teach, that I just wanted to be with them.  They often struggle with a sense of isolation.  Most of all, they said they loved the stories I told and would always remember them.

    In recent months I have had similar comments from younger YWAM leaders in Cambodia (over 150 of them from scores of nations) and Thailand (about 250 for an afternoon) and Malaysia (around 100, I think, from many nations; again younger ones).  These events seemed to be among the most appreciated and fruitful activities I have ever done.  So, on the plane home from Ethiopia, I was thanking God and reflecting on why these sessions have gone so well.

    On the trip, I was reading a book by the former Chief Rabbi of Britain entitled, The Home We Build Together and a sentence stood out:

    “Identities are built on values, but they need narratives to make them come alive.”

    Aha!  That describes exactly what I have been doing.  These talks are so very meaningful to people because I am helping them build secure identities as career missionaries, as YWAMers.  I don’t just teach ideas or values.  Rather, I emphasize a value and then tell stories that illustrate them.  For example:

    I told them about how Loren Cunningham gave me and my fellow students, in the first Lausanne School of Evangelism (SOE), the opportunity to pray about going to Afghanistan in 1971. Even though I was the only one who felt God was saying go, he took me seriously.  I didn’t know where Afghanistan was, had no way of getting there, still owed money on my school fees and had been a Christian less than a year, but when we had talked and prayed together, he agreed that I should go. 

    Yes, in YWAM we “champion young people”.

    I then went on to recount how a team came together in time for the trip, but that it was a fruitless and miserable summer in Afghanistan because the team had a rebel on it who caused division and discontent.  I was that rebel—who subsequently had to repent and confess publicly to the other SOE students.  Failure is a great teacher!

    Another of the stories I tell was a time when I took offence towards Loren Cunningham and held onto that offence for two years.  That was a time of serious disobedience to God’s ways and Word and I reaped the consequences for years afterwards. 

    Every group loves those stories that demonstrate how I have messed up.  They give hope and they also teach values in unforgettable ways.

    In spite of the fact that Marti and I still feel young and energetic (most of the time), we are actually some of the longest serving YWAMers—102 years between us!  We have to remind ourselves that our presence means a lot, particularly when we find the time and resources to travel to far-flung places just to be with groups who are more isolated, or those who are young and just beginning to get used to the weight of leading others.

    Our stories and the values we teach with them strengthen the awareness of what a privilege it is to serve in this part of the Body of Christ.  I always aim to strengthen the awareness of that privilege, but without tempting anyone to pride or comparison within the Body.  After all, even though YWAM has grown way beyond my expectations, it is still a very small fraction of the Body of Christ.

    The New Living Translation of John 10:10 quotes Jesus saying:

    “My purpose is to give [you] a rich and satisfying life.”

     I would never have expected it, but at this stage of my life, I find myself strengthening identity in the lives of hundreds of volunteer missionaries in one of the largest missionary movements in history.  It is completely “rich and satisfying”!  I thank God for His goodness.

    Lynn Green.