Week Two -- Community

Wow, this past week was a full one!

We began our lectures with our teacher David Clark from YWAM Minneapolis. The topic he covered was Worldview, and his focus was on “the quest for community.” He covered a lot of church history, but his main point was that because God is a communion (the Trinity) and we are made in His image, we were designed to have community with other believers. And this is something that is really lacking in the church today, because we as a society lean toward individualism, rather than the happy medium between individualism and collectivism. The pendulum always swings from one extreme to the other! We talked about different things that have influenced our individualism, and what we can do as followers of Jesus to show people genuine community. I really believe that community is one of YWAM's not-so-secret successes, because people get here and feel like they were created for this kind of living; where people are real with each other and love each other where they're at. It's a beautiful thing.

David Clark teaching my class

Friday night I had the opportunity to go to Kingdom Night, which is a night of local outreach that YWAM Denver does weekly. I went two times during DTS, and they were really cool. But this time just took it to a whole other level. About 50 of us drove to downtown Denver, and we always start the night with some worship and prayer at a church.  From there we split up into smaller groups. My group had 6 people total, 3 of them I just met. The plan was to meet back at the church at 10 pm. So we headed down to 16th Street Mall, each team going to whatever spot God led them to. We started out playing some worship songs, which was good. But I think we were all kind of bummed that we weren't having some insane experience. Little did we know what was about to happen ;)

In about the middle of our time singing, a group of adults walks by us. The guy sitting next to me, Anthony, saw them and says to us, "I think I know that guy." But he's from Oregon and didn't think it could possibly be him. Well, at almost 10 o'clock right as we are about to get up to leave, the group walks right next to us, and sure enough, Anthony realizes it really is this guy he knows from Oregon! The guy finds out we are YWAMers and says, "YWAM and I go way back." I didn't know what he meant by that at the time. So all of this group leaves except one guy, by the name of Chris, who sits down and starts asking us all kinds of questions (with a lot of casual swearing). :)

"So, what are you guys doing here?"

"You just come out here to talk to people?"

"No, really, why are you here?"

"You have no agenda?"

He then found out we love Jesus, and you could feel some tension. But he was curious why Jesus would have anything to do with why we were there. So this girl Kimberly in my group starts sharing her testimony about how she shouldn't even be here since she tried to commit suicide earlier this year. Jesus totally saved her life, and the doctors told her that half the pills she took should have killed her. But Jesus saved her! And so she was led to YWAM, and she is just sold out for God and telling people about how they can have a relationship with Him.

Chris was visibly moved at the several testimonies shared by my group. And he said, "You guys know what. While she was speaking, I looked around this group, at each of you, and looked into your eyes. And you guys....you are real. You really believe it." Turns out he's the CEO of a brewery in Oregon, and he was so astounded that our faith was genuine! We didn't just come out there to bash people over the head with a Bible. We came out to give people some hope and just love on them in whatever way we could.

He thought it was the coolest thing that YWAM is all over the world and we just swarm the nations to serve people however we can. He just kept asking questions and kept reaching up to his head like he was mind blown. He said he felt like he was in a movie. Haha!

We talked to him for about half an hour, and then he said,

"Listen. You guys keep doing this. This makes a difference."

He gave each of us his card with his email address. So Chris leaves, and Anthony starts to tell us about how the guy he knew in the group, is actually a YWAM kid. They're families are really close. Apparently this guy's parents were some of the first YWAMers to go to China, but he has really fallen away from God. So that night he was reminded of YWAM and how God still loves him like crazy!

AWESOME.

So, we just happened to go to Kingdom Night.
Anthony almost didn't go because he had homework.
We could have chosen any spot along a long strip mall.
And these guys who are from Oregon just happened to be in Downtown Denver at the exact same time.
None of this was a coincidence.
Talk about a Divine Appointment.