MEXICO CITY get ready.

Yes. We are heading to Mexico City.

Right now we, Youth With A Mission, Perth, are in the middle of a HUGE campaign in Mexico city and our teams that are there have seen an enormous amount of response. The ministry heading up this campaign is called Megacities. -Megacities draws the diversity of the body of Christ together to meet the diverse needs of the city. Focusing on one city of over one million people for twelve months. We organise international teams into the city and strategically unite them with the local body of Christ. Our target is the all. All churches, all denominations, all kinds of teams partnering together to reach all city regions, all areas of society, all people; the whole city.(from their website: Megacities.org.au)

Many YWAM teams and NGO's from around the world have joined with Megacities in Mexico City. Last thing I heard in staff meeting was that there were so many teams from nations around the world joining us; Porto-Rico, Canada, South America, a few in the States and even some YWAMers from Pittsburgh. In the last several months they have seen heaps of change in the city.

There are teams there working one on one the homeless, and with prostitutes. There are teams working with Aztecs and witchdoctors in the city, teams working face to face with pivotal gang members in the city. There are teams teaching community ministry and evangelism seminars. 100's of pastors are showing up, being blessed and strengthened in God sized vision for their churches and communities.

Beyond the statistics, there has been soo much positive change happening in Mexico City that the President of Mexico sought out one of our leaders of Megacities and thanked them for the difference that was being made in the city.

 

THE DIFFERENT REGIONS OF MEXICO CITY: Matts team will be in right in the center of the city, region. On the days that I am not with Matt it is not definate where I will be. The Art team is still networking with events and people in the city.

PRAY:

GETTING THERE: We are still trusting God for 7,971.06 (US currency). I will try to keep this post up to date as we go.

Matts Team: Matt and I will be leaving to be stationed in the city center from June 28th to Sept 10th. Will be working on the streets and with churches to see the body raised up and mobilized for revival. Much like our outreach in South Africa, depending on the needs of the community and current ministries already functioning each day will look different but it is assumed that the schedule will be packed. Pray that the team would hit the ground running, would be unified, and focused.

Stephs Team: Team "Art Reach". The team will be  in the city offically from July 11-31. The rest of the time I will be with Matt until August 18th. Using art to minister to the homeless, and street people. We may end up doing art shows and ministering to artists also. I really dont know what to expect but I cant wait!!

For the GLOBAL YOUTH OUTREACH (GYO):

This is a youth conference that not only seeks to deepen the walk of the young adults age 13- mid 20's but to go out and make a difference in their communities- aka Gods Kingdom Coming on earth 'as it is in Heaven'. This is a YWAM ministry that works under Megacities out of YWAM Perth. We will be staffing every part of it and promoting it all over the city. The dates of the conference are July 26-31. We are hoping to see 4,000+ youth show up and be mobilized! Check out the Promotional video below:

Pictures I have gathered of Mexico City:

(sorry there isnt a featured artist this time around. I had to do this really late due to our schedule)

Sketchbook and Notes

Staff Meeting: Every Wednesday. A little under 100 people gather to worship, study, and share over all that God is doing throughout the globe through the teams out of YWAM Perth.

USE SOMEBODY -by the band Kings of Leon (non-Christian)

Reminds me of God singing to me .. and most of the lyrics apply. And the scripture Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

The Amazing sunset on the last night we were in Mirrabooka last month.

It spanned the sky and I couldn't ever capture it with a painting- but I didn't want to

 forget the confromation/memory of it. "I go before you and behind you."-the Jesus

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Featured Christian Artist: Narelle Tout ... with a clear heart for cultures and deep conviction for truth in those cultures. She loves to highlight their God given beauty using a variety of mediums. I will be working with her soon, on the streets of Mexico City much like she and her team did in Jakarta (below).

"Jakarta was an amazing experience, working with families and children in three different slums in the north of the city. The kids were so full of life! We drew portraits, talked, listened, wrote and illustrated a book to leave behind for one slum, taught 60 kids how to draw butterflies, counselled, prayed for some, taught Sunday School teachers easy art to help them teach, and others how to draw simple portraits. We challenged a group of youth to dedicate their creative giftings to God, and around 50 did just that! If you want to find out more, feel free to email me on narelleartist@yahoo.com." -from her blog

(why I am committing to feature just "Christian artists" at the bottom of every blog, more information here)

Media. Reaching the Nations.

On a usual week in the Media office (where I volunteer full time on the base) we ask God for inspiration, wisdom, and ability to do what we are meant to do that given week. This past week -and lucky for me- we are going over our core principles, vision, and future plans that are needing to be evaluated based on those core principles. Especially because as a base we have vision to have 500 staff and 500 students in the near future. So if you feel called to work in Media, or know anyone... we are looking for Designers-print-web-video, Researcher--tech-y--inspiration-worldview, Journalists --awareness-advocacy-, Public Relations,  Sound Engineer, Business Marketing, IT, Animators, Administrative, Tract-Designers. . . .


This is a few print examples of JUST what I have seen produced since I started about a month ago with the 5 people we currently have:


POSTCARDS. One of the Cheapest forms of mail going out of Australia, so we use these to reach people that may not see our other forms of advertisement. On the back of each of these is a list of all the DTS's (Discipleship Training School the prerequisite training for long term involvement); brief challenge and contact information, like our website and such. BELOW: A series of postcards we are praying will make their way, and catch the eye of those that receive them. All of the pictures were taken by people on the base recently (see artist at bottom of post). I particularly like the "we know because we go" tag line.

The WESTCOAST (more information Below)

This is a postcard to promote "Mission Builders", a ministry of volunteers that donate their time doing almost any trade on the base, and are not required to have any previous YWAM training. Right now we are in a great need of carpenters to help with renovations with the new building.

AND a Marvelous video created to share what God is already doing in Mexico City with our teams since.

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*The purpose of "Media" as a ministry on the Youth With A Mission Base  http://www.ywamperth.org.au/media/

CURRENT projects/responsibilities:

Print

THE WESTCOAST -quarterly publication. Produced to share with people outside the walls of YWAM Perth. An summarized explanation on how God is moving over longer periods of time through YWAM Perth. (Currently 2x a year,.. pushing for 4 I think)

THE CHAPTER -YWAM Perth Training Recap Mag. Produced for people within the walls of YWAM Perth. Sharing the testimonies and pictures of "what God has done" among your teams during trainings and outreach. (every 3 months)
CURRENTLY MY BIGGEST PROJECT.

ADVERTISEMENTS- "The harvest is plenty but the workers are few". Within different International/ Local YWAM publications, and international Christian resources we produce advertisements for specific training and ministries we have available here. That's how I found out about the Art Evangelists School back in the day.

Web

Ywam Perth Website - http://www.ywamperth.org.au/  

This is our 'front door' to those that want to join, or are thinking about joining YWAM Perth. It is amazing the amount of people that look at it daily from all around the world... Professional grade website built by missionaries. I know the website is how I learned and how 99% of the other people here learned about YWAM Perth... GOD can use technology and a handful of nerds to bring people to minister to the nations.

Megacities Website - a Ministry of YWAM Perth that heads up and coordinates a great number of our City Outreaches.  http://www.megacities.org.au/ 

GENESIS - a linking video-conferencing tool for student training and international YWAM leadership meeting purposes. This system was pioneered by YWAM before Skype. Ive had the privilege to see this being used.

Video

On the website there are dozens of videos available about different training and ministries.


Weekly capturing our friday night meeting. Much like we do on Sunday morning with  my church at home. The difference is there is more of an international flair, and most come from a missions perspective. We are currently looking to pod-cast these across the Internet.


Also we do promotional videos to share with people what God is doing in the nations. (video above)

IT development
....is what it is. We have about 5 servers working at all times.
Our fabulous IT guy we call "mighty mouse" because every 5 minutes someone comes in....
"my email isnt working.."
"is the server slow cause my computer's not working.."
"the website is down.. "
"Hey this thing came up on my screen, saying I had a virus,.... but I just did a scan...What do I do?"

THANKS FOR TUNING IN AND HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT WEEK!________________________________


Featured Christian Artist:  Sidra Zimmerman. The name should say it all, but Ill let her photography speak for itself. If you want to see more of her stuff she is just starting out but she shares sometimes on her blog...http://apaintedskin.blogspot.com/  (why I am committing to feature just "Christian artists" at the bottom of every blog, more information here)

By the way that's my Leader/Boss. . . Richard Blake

Very cool guy to work for.... insightful and passionate...

and if you cant tell -just a lil edgy.

His wife Emma is an artist.. who now leads the Art Evangelists School,

 also a rockn' lady in her own wright.