OUR Adventures in Missions!: May 2012

Last Sunday, we had a work party here - so we all had church around the firepit.

I could not stop crying!

The scripture God gave me for my life is Psalm 71. The whole chapter is extremely relevant to me (you would understand that) but verse 18 really applies:

"Now also when I am old and grayheaded,

O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation,

Your power to everyone who is to come".

I remembered my salvation, baptism in the Sound, the 70's,the'Jesus People', living in a commune, preaching at the Tacoma Mall and gathering food everyday for that very days meals.

O GOD!!!!

Let me be a support for the enthusiasm of young people. Before they become jaded and traditional, God help me to free them to use that 'zealful' time of their life for Jesus.

That is my heart.

This is our heart.

Amen.

I want to tell you something about this base. It is a young base, about nine years old. Yet they have a Discipleship Training School (DTS), a backpackers DTS,a Bible School for the Nations (a 4 month chronological study of the Bible, geared specifically for teaching people the Bible to unreached peoples) A SOAP school (started here, it is a School of Apostolic Pioneering), Mission Adventures (A ministry to youth where they receive mission training and actually have an outreach to India - It is to give them an appetite for further missions). They have started many new ministries and two new YWAM bases in India. They offer pastors retreats and family retreats.The base is different in that they do not have everyone living together. They meet in several rented buildings in the city of Cascade and everyone on staff has to rent their own place to live. I have never seen such maturity in a very young leadership.

Warm Lake Camp

They purchased the camp 6 years ago. The camp itself is owned but the land is leased for $400. for 30 years from the forest service. It is in the middle of the Boise National Forest. We are surrounded by thousands of acres of forest! From the camp we can hear the creek running through it and waterfalls on the mountain. It is incredibly beautiful here!

Several years ago ( four I think) there was a huge forest fire in this area. It burned for months and several firefighters were killed. The firefighters set up camp here (couldnt have anyone else in here) - thinking it was safe. One day, to their horror) the fire did this flash over thing here and came roaring over the ridge at the side of the camp. Thinking they would be killed, the firefighters got in their vehicles, rolled up their windows (because of the intense heat) and roared out of here. The government spent a million dollars in fire retardant, dumping it on their vehicles once they got on the main road. By that time, they were surrounded by fire. When they came back later, they discovered NOT A SINGLE TREE ON THE CAMP PROPERTY HAD BEEN EVEN SINGED! It is amazing to see. Every tree around us is black, but it stops exactly on the property line! It is an oasis of green in the midst of destruction.

The miracle continues. Because they were not able to have camp here all summer, they lost quite a bit of money. The insurance wouldn't pay because there had been no fire on their property. Finally, they said that if YWAM could find ANY damage from the fire, they would pay. YWAM looked. They finally found one cabin that had a tree (that was outside the property line) fall and brush the corner. There was about a 2 inch scratch. And there was some blistered paint in that same corner. That was enough to satisfy the insurance. They received a settlement that was large enough to pay off the camp completely!

God is AMAZING!

Some of the wood Wally donated

Thank you WORLD VISION for the insulation

The GOLD TEAM (some jr hi boys) made this fence!

Since we have been here, we prayed for wood. $10,000 of pressure treated wood was donated. Yesterday a semi pulled up with a semi full of free insulation!Backhoe use, gravel, plumbing parts....the list goes on and on. They want to make the lower bathhouse into a mini-retreat center. They are trying to move all the plumbing down to six feet and make it so that the camp can be used for training all year long. They want to make a cabin that we can stay in all year long...

I just listened to a CD by the base director about starting this place. So good. He had no desire to do this before God put it on his heart. Many people thought he was crazy for dreaming so big. It cost him dearly to start this base - both financially (that was actually the smallest) and with his friends and supporters. He also said to expect a cost, dream big and

'EMBRACE DIVINE INITIATIVE'.

Excellent!