Thank you to our family and friends: Josh and Amy Update
Dear friends,
We want to take this opportunity to say Thank you for all your encouragement, support and prayers during our time in Budapest, Albania and Armenia. Last week we graduated our YWAM Discipleship Training School which we have been part of for the past 6 months!
This week we have returned to England and received a very warm welcome home from our family, friends and home church! Two days ago we fully unpacked, sat down and took a deep breath…
….WOW! What an amazing six months it has been! So much learnt and experienced.
During the first 3 months YWAM focused on ‘Knowing God’. The classes were a powerful time of growing in our faith and relationship with God. The lecturers shared Biblical knowledge and their personal experiences and we were very encouraged!
The next three months we went on outreach and were able to travel to Albania and Armenia which was a life changing experience. You can go to the YWAM DTS section of this website and read some of our stories from outreach including, Street puppy Miracle, The village children, and Hope for the homeless of Budapest. I found it quite hard at times on outreach with winter colds and Syringomyelia flaring up a lot! Hoping to get a lumbar puncture soon and taking further tests with the doctor. This is something which we are in continual prayer for healing, especially having seen people healed on outreach! Personally, everyone in the team was stretched to the max in every way, and we learned so much more about grace and loving one another during this time!
If you want to grow in your faith and be sharpened in every way for ministry, I would recommend doing a DTS! It’s amazing how we went on outreach to transform the nations, but in the process what God actually did was transform us too!
During lecture phase we met an amazing couple Tanie and Jacqueline who teach, and support missionaries particularly in Ukraine and parts of Eastern Europe with their ministry Forget-me-not. We were able to spend some time with them whilst they were with our DTS and we really connected! Whilst on outreach we realised that many people serving in full time ministry, really could use the support and practical help from time to time to lighten the burden! This is something that we fell into naturally on outreach such as, babysitting for a busy married couple to release them for the day, creating websites for ministries who needed it, and leading workshops in worship and music. We also found during a quiz in lecture phase that our spiritual gifts came out as teaching, evangelism & acts of mercy, & our practical gifts are music and I.T. We have started to get a sense of how God is wanting to use us in the future for His Kingdom and we’re very excited. We Skyped with Tanie and Jacqueline recently and were so excited when they invited us to Washington DC for 3 months to spend time with them and see the ministries that they do. We are looking to fly out in May and return in July in time for SOZO festival in Hungary, followed by our friends wedding in London!
We want to say a big thank you to all those who have encouraged us, sponsored us, followed our updates and prayed for us! There was a point before outreach when we had to return to England upon receiving sad news. We were not sure if we would be able to go back out and complete our DTS but God is faithful and we believe He really spoke to us and provided for us through your encouragements and support!
The greatest lesson we have learned in YWAM is about the Kingdom! How much God cares about every detail of our lives and wants to redeem everything to Himself. We all have a role to play in His Kingdom here and now, to transform our world! Thank you for playing your part in the Kingdom to bring about the glory of God to earth! Whether you are a mother, husband, shop keeper, nurse, mechanic, pastor, preacher, musician…. You have a part to play in God’s Kingdom and every role is important!
Remember today that you are valuable to God and He loves you! Jesus came to set us free and give us life in abundance! Be encouraged to step out in faith in those areas where you can hear the whisper and prompting of God’s Holy Spirit.
Bless you
Josh and Amy
