**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
Some years ago I experienced a couple of events that left a lasting mark on me. I had just accepted the request of the Global Leadership Team to become the International Chairman of YWAM and I had been thinking and praying about the new role with its responsibilities. We were meeting in a Christian hostel in Singapore at the time and, as I opened the door to leave my room, Loren Cunningham emerged from his room on the opposite side of the corridor. Instead of the usual greeting, he just said; “You know this is about your dream, don’t you?” His words stated exactly what I had been praying and thinking about.
The dream had occurred about ten years earlier. In it, I was with my family and we were guests at opening celebrations of the new headquarters of a Christian ministry. The buildings and their grounds were larger and grander than any I had ever seen. It seemed like all my friends, including YWAMers from all over the world, were there with their families.
The center-piece of this magnificent campus was a set of three very large buildings. The middle one was the tallest, at about 40 or 50 stories, and was flanked by buildings of about 15 stories on either side. They were due to open at dusk, with the main celebrations being held at the top of the tallest building that evening.
Throughout the day, my family and I strolled around the beautiful grounds, greeting friends, taking in concerts from Christian artists, and visiting exhibitions. At one point, as we walked alongside the buildings, a small piece of masonry, about the size of a postage stamp, fell on my shoulder. At that very moment in my dream I felt God spoke to me. That still, small voice seemed to be saying; “The buildings are not safe.”
I was immediately plunged into turmoil. What should I do about this “word from God”? Was it really the Lord, or just my imagination? If I went to the leaders of the organization they would think I was crazy. What weight would my words have compared to the architects and engineers who had designed and built the facilities?
On the other hand, if I began to shout warnings to the crowd, I would appear to be an idiot. And…if I did warn others so they did not go up then the building would probably stand up to the smaller load of people. That would make me a false prophet in everybody’s eyes.
In the end, I did the cowardly thing and kept quiet. When dusk came and people began to take the large, express elevators to the top, I told my wife and children that I did not think it was safe so we would watch from a distance. We walked a couple of hundred meters away and watched.
As the last load of people were lifted to the top of the tallest building, it appeared to shudder, crack and then it collapsed in exactly the same way we all watched the towers of the World Trade Center implode nearly a decade later. It was obvious that everyone had died. Then I woke up. It was so real that it took me several minutes to grasp that it was just a dream and that I was not responsible for the deaths of so many people, including many of my friends.
Within moments, I knew exactly what the dream meant: in all that we do, including Christian ministry, we tend to want to look good. The campus in my dream was supremely impressive, but the builders had scrimped on the steel in the buildings.
Through the dream God was making a powerful imperative that I should concentrate on the hidden things that will make us strong. God will take care of what people think of us. We should build for strength and Godliness. He will be in charge of our reputation.
In YWAM our plumb-line, and the steel in what we build, is the Word of the Lord to us. We are called to be sacrificial followers of Jesus. The command to be holy as He is holy is not an option for any Christian, much less for us because the call to Christ-like living was a stone that was firmly laid in our foundation.
Let’s make this a plea to every YWAMer who reads it: BUILD THE STEEL! Let us remember the command to be holy, let’s ask for more of the fear of God—which is to hate sin. Let us stand when the shakings come.
Lynn Green.
**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
Marti and I have a friend whom we love dearly; she lives in a majority-Muslim nation and regularly sends us stories about what the Holy Spirit is doing. Most of us read the disturbing stories about terrorism, tyranny and corruption in that part of the world, but there is a lot of very good news. Here is some:
This month, I had the privilege of traveling to Djibouti, a 99% Muslim nation in the Horn of Africa. I went to teach on a Discipleship Training School, the students were all Muslim Background Believers. One of the students was Sayeed from Somalia. He was born and raised in a very strict form of Islam. He was sent to Quranic schools and had the whole Quran memorized by the time he was 8 years old. Around that time, his family moved to Kenya as Somali Refugees.
He continued his schooling in Kenya and one day, in his early twenties, he was on his way home from his studies when he heard a debate on the streets of Nairobi. The debate was between a pastor and a Muslim Leader. As he was passing, he heard one phrase;
“Muhammad is dead but Jesus is alive – which prophet would you follow?”
This question hit his heart like an arrow. He stopped and listened to the debate for about 30 minutes. When he got home that night, he spent hours researching Jesus on youtube and became convinced that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life. He decided to follow Him that very day. He didn’t know who to talk to about his new faith so he chose to go to a fellow Somali Quranic teacher and share with him. He said to the teacher; “I have a very important secret, if I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone? ” The Quranic teacher said yes, I will keep your secret. Sayeed told him that he had become a follower of Jesus and to his amazement the Quranic teacher said;
“I have been wanting to follow him also for about three years!!!” They committed that day to pursue Jesus together.
Through a long series of events, their families back home found out and the leaders of their Somali clan found out about their faith and came to find them to either bring them back to Islam or to kill them. Sayeed was captured and tortured several times and each time was able to escape his captors. In the meantime, they persecuted his siblings and even killed his mother because he had brought shame on the clan by following Christ. Sayeed’s latest escape brought him safely to Djibouti and into the arms of the DTS where I was teaching. We spent the week together, sharing stories, crying together, praying for one another and putting our trust in the Father for Sayeed’s future. He wants to eventually be a pastor to his own people back in Somalia. Wow.
Please pray for Sayeed, his protection, his journey with Jesus and his eventual returning home to bring others to know Christ. He is only 27 years old and has already lived several lifetimes. He is our brother – lets lift him up to the Lord and believe that God will use him mightily for the future of his nation.
with you for the Kingdom in the Muslim World,
Martha.
**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
Lynn Green with Lis Cochrane about eldership in YWAM
Lynn Green 