You can check out photos from our recent outreach to South Africa here.

We’ve also added some thumbnail links to other videos we’ve created in the video section.

‘Redemption & Reconciliation: Heart of Christian Worldview’ Peter Adams from YWAM Ireland on Vimeo.

We were about twenty five people that week, meeting in a couple different locations on the Shankill in Belfast. Usually, this annual conference is held in the summer, so our group was perhaps not as diverse as normal, since most people would be busy during the weekdays in November. However, we were a nice combination of YWAM Belfast staff and volunteers, YWAM Harpenden School of Humanities, and Sword of the Sprit gap-year volunteers. In all, we represented the nations of England, New Zealand, USA, Rwanda, Cameroon, Turkmenistan, Norway, Central African Republic, Lebanon, the Netherlands, and Ireland. A good mix, anyways.

Jonny Clark (Director, YWAM Ireland & YWAM Belfast) led us through a brief but meaningful examination of Irish history to set a practical context for our surroundings and the teaching we would have. Our primary guest speaker was Peter Adams (http://www.reconciliationtalk.com), who is involved in reconciliation work in England and overseas. He spoke at length about peacemaking as part of the Christian mission, as well as God’s plan for the reconciliation of all things, and how we participate in that – in relating to people and in speaking about Jesus. He used many stories about his work in Luton (England) with the Muslim community and his work in places like China and the Middle East.

In the afternoons, there were field-trips to community projects around Belfast to see how various groups engaged with the needs of this city. The purpose of these outings were to inspire and spark ideas, as well as connect the teaching with practical application.

[The video at the top was taken at the conference, and I pieced it together from a 75-min talk Peter Adams presented on God's plan of ultimate redemption for all of creation and our call to participate in it (Vimeo - about 30 min.).]

Peter’s blog: reconciliationtalk.com

Creideamh (pronounced something like kray-jiff, the Irish word for faith) was dubbed the Festival of Faith and hosted a couple hundred people from around Ireland and the world for an outreach in Galway for fifteen days this July. We came along with several other people representing YWAM Ireland to help with the facilitation of the festival and its events – our members doing everything from planning and administration, to electrical work for setting up the festival gazebo on Eyre square, to hosting the various artists who came to perform for the festival.

Renee and I primarily took over the management of festival operations at a local restaurant after its normal closing time, feeding all the festival teams each evening and helping run the festival’s public entertainment venue there, where we hosted musicians, magicians, mimes, and testimony-tellers every night.

Creideamh seemed to have largely been a success. The volunteers got on well and feedback from the community was positive. Teams met in the morning for services, followed by lunch and training, and then would spread out across Galway according to their ministry – ranging from engaging people in discussions about faith to kid’s ministry in local parishes. The artists would perform around town, sometimes on the street, and sometimes in a handful of festival venues.

Well, I could go on, but I suggest you just check out the photos I’ve uploaded to this site (which were also put on the YWAM Ireland Facebook Page, I think), as well as the YouTube video of a member of YWAM England escaping from a straight jacket during Creideamh.

Also check out some of the artists who worked the festival:

• L’Angelus – cajun roots band from Louisiana
• Flip Francis and Sammy Blaze – hip-hop artists from Dallas, TX.
• Crossing the Jordan (CTJ) – band of musicians from four continents, based with YWAM in Harpenden, England.
• Yan Nicholls (E-team) – magician, escape artist, and evangelist based with YWAM in England.
• Collin and Halie (E-team) – acoustic music duo based with YWAM in England.
• Steve Murray – mime artist.

More info at Creideamh website.

Anyways, check it out:

YWAM Ireland now has it’s own YouTube channel. Check it out.

First of all, the Christian Magna Carta (CMC) says this:

“We affirm the Christian Magna Carta which describes the following basic rights as implicit in the gospel. Everyone on earth has the right to:
• Hear and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Have a Bible available in their own language.
• Have a Christian fellowship available nearby, to be able to meet for fellowship regularly each week, and to have Biblical teaching and worship with others in the Body of Christ.
• Have a Christian education available for their children.
• Have the basic necessities of life: food, water, clothing, shelter and health care.
• Lead a productive life of fulfillment spiritually, mentally, socially, emotionally, and physically.

We commit ourselves, by God’s grace, to fulfill this covenant and to live for His glory.” [1]

So the focus for this month was to reexamine what this means for YWAM. Nearly three decades since its formation, can another look at the Christian Magna Carta help YWAM have unified goals internationally and be more strategic locally?

Kevin Sutter had this to say:

(More on all of that at the Prayer Day website).

With prayer and discussion, we noted a few things for ourselves, for YWAM, for missions, and for our ministry in Ireland:

• To hold the goals of the CMC lightly as starting points and basic principles, so we’re careful not to implement localized or familiar expressions in inappropriate contexts. For example, we all agreed that children have a right to spiritual nourishment, but we would be concerned if our goal then became to build Christian schools all over the world or Western-style multi-million dollar Children’s Ministry complexes. In other words, don’t look to our own culture or experience for expressions of these goals, but be creative in building relevant expressions in the contexts in which we’re serving.
• The CMC is a picture of God’s heart, and we’re not expected individually to be able to work fully in all six areas or feel equally passionate for them. That’s why we’re part of teams. We are to be obedient in the areas the Lord has given us. Furthermore, we need to pray that we have a diversity of gifts and skills and personalities amongst us. For YWAM in Ireland, let’s pray the right staff come.
• Often we’re not building towards these goals from scratch. We are to restore and renew. One of the most damaging ways of ministering can be to neglect what’s already there. We’ve seen church planting teams do this sometimes, completely ignoring other church communities because they deem them “broken” or “dead,” or they’re just ignorant of their presence. I reluctantly suppose that there may be a time and place for this, but Northern Ireland is especially a country with too many religious and social divides, and the last thing we need are more groups of Christians, especially foreign Christian workers, just doing their own thing. We felt a confirmation that YWAMers should be helping to renew and restore the church, not countermand it.
• …and quite a lot of other things, actually, that I won’t write for sake of length, mostly.

  References:

  1. Official YWAM statements: Christian Magna Carta from the YWAM Int’l website (http://www.ywam.org/contents/abo_doc_christian.htm)
  ]]> http://nakedicame.com/2008/08/prayerday_aug08_cmc/feed/ 0 http://nakedicame.com/2008/07/summer-madness-2008/ http://nakedicame.com/2008/07/summer-madness-2008/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:28:52 +0000 Mikael http://nakedicame.com/?p=55 Summer Madness is Ireland’s biggest Christian festival, hosted in Belfast at the Kings Hall with a variety speakers, seminars, concerts, games and worship sessions over three and a half days (some of you may recall that Renee and I worked as crew with students from the previous January DTS at the festival in 2007). A few charities will also host venues with special focuses on the grounds, and this year YWAM was invited to have our own venue.

  The theme of the YWAM venue was entitled “The Sacred and the Secular” and meant to address this idea that we consider some activities holier than others, though we are really meant to engage with God in any activity we pursue. So our space was set up for prayer and for fun – with a prayer tent for the nations, stations of the Cross, art gallery and space and paints for artistic expression, as well as table football (fooseball), pool tables, table tennis, video games and a lounge area.

  About 5,000 visitors come each year to the festival, most of the young people, either on their own or with a group, at a variety of stages in their faith walk.

  The goals of our venue, in this light, were:
  • To promote YWAM and information about our organization internationally. As young people ourselves, we want to illustrate to possibilities for youth in missions.
  • Along with that, to promote short-term missions opportunities to young people or church groups, specifically in regards to a trip we’re taking for two weeks to Israel and Palestine this fall, and especially a series of short-term missions trips we want to bring Northern Irish on in 2010 to South Africa when that country hosts the football World Cup. We feel short-term missions opportunities can be a key element to encouraging young people into missional futures.
  • To be a safe place for young people at the festival to explore their faith. We realize that many youth come with a group or with friends and may not have much of a faith of their own. Conversely, some come alone or are not natural parts of their group, and the festive atmosphere actually serves to alienate them. We sent out prayer pairs to engage these kids and offer them a safe place for conversation and prayer and sharing amongst us.

  Two nights, we also showcased a programme called “Around the World in 80 Minutes” with stories and acts from around the globe (most from YWAM staff and students, but also from other groups). The aim was to engage the above goals, as well as give a message to the youth to not be afraid to use their gifts and passions to impact the world and to serve God.

  Anyways, check out our Summer Madness 2008 playlist on YouTube, or just check out the embeded player below. The video includes clips of Irish dance and drum, a staff member and his hip-hop, capoeira, hip-hop dancing, and more. Also, some Summer Madness 2008 pictures are posted in the gallery.

  Related links
  -Summer Madness website
  -Info on the YWAM Ireland trip to Israel and Palestine

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