Did You Know?

6 Stories Around Europe

UPE May 2015
Armenia: Serving the Kurds
By Andrey Derkatch, YWAM Armenia (Eastern Europe)
The world discovered the Yazidis when they became victims of ISIS massacre in
2014. They are a big non-Muslim Kurdish people group. It is believed that this
ISIS attack is 74th act of genocide towards them. We, in YWAM Armenia, are
grateful to God that our staff who reach out to Kurds come from this people
group. These Yazidis are becoming a means for Gods healing and blessing for
their Kurdish brothers and sisters.
Mustafa is one of the survivors. Eight of his relatives were killed, including his
brother and his brothers family. Two of his family members were taken into
slavery and his nieces were sold to slavery for $45 apiece. We were worried
about how a man who had experienced such things will react to a message about
a loving God. But he shocked us when he said, In these time of troubles we can
only trust God and worship Him.
Mustafa didnt know about Jesus. His knowledge about God was limited, but the
words he spoke came from his humility and faithfulness. He was very open to
the message of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. We spoke for about an hour, and it
was the first time that somebody had told him about Jesus. Please remember
Mustafa and refugees like him in your prayers.
In 2014 we launched the very first Kurdish DTS in history. The practical part was
held in Turkey and Georgia. On outreach we did two mission trips to Kurdish
refugee camps in southeast Turkey. There we preached the Gospel and helped
practically by getting heaters and other useful things for the refugee camp.

Georgia: Spiritual Breakthroughs In An Unreached Region

By Dennis Holt, YWAM Georgia (Eastern Europe)
The last couple years have been very exciting here in Georgia.
For many years we had been praying for a certain unreached region of Georgia
that is around 90% Muslim. (For security reasons, we are not naming this area.)
During our many outreaches and intercession times there, I did not meet one
person whom I could call a born-again believer. There may have been some,
but we did not meet them. Also there were no missionaries (known to us)
working there and no evangelical churches of any kind.
We shared the vision with several churches in the capital Tbilisi, but got little
response about doing outreach to this particular region. We were quite
discouraged, but kept being drawn there.
After much intercession and prayer, we felt we were to buy a home in the main
city of this area. After nearly a year of research and prayer, we finally found a
suitable and available house. What we felt the Lord say was "get a foothold in
this region and I will supply the people".

Did You Know? 6 Stories Around Europe

UPE May 2015
Just a few weeks after we were able to buy the house, two YWAM families from a
neighbouring Muslim nation contacted us. They heard from the Lord to "go to
Georgia". Then very soon after, a young American couple heard the same call!
3 years later there are now around 14 full time missionaries working in this
untargeted area, both with YWAM and with other organisations.
Over the last 3 years, many have come to Christ through personal evangelism,
home groups, sports ministry, youth and children's outreaches, amongst other
ministries. This is just the beginning. Muslims are very open to the Gospel; they
have a great respect for the "Ingil" (New Testament) and for talking about God
and all things related. The Lord is really on the move in this forgotten region of
over 400,000 people!

England: From Drugs and Alcohol to Jesus

By Yan Nicholls, YWAM Harpenden, UK (Western Europe)
She showed up on the doorstep of our church. She was on drugs and drunk.
Wendy was desperate. Can you help me? she said. I can't cope anymore! For
the next few months, the pastor and I began to meet and pray with her on a
regular basis. She had often seen things in the spirit and people thought she
was a little crazy. She came along to the Alpha course and I explained to her the
Gospel message. She had been looking for this good news her whole life.
As we prayed for her, she gave her life to Jesus. We then prayed for the infilling
of the Holy Spirit. Her life turned upside down. God had met her in her hour of
need and He even took away her desire for drugs and alcohol. She started to
grow in her relationship with God. She was so hungry, reading every book
people gave her. Within one year of her meeting Jesus, she was completely
sober, free from drugs and going through a DTS. God has got her in the palm of
his hand.

Copenhagen: Please Invite Me

By Britt Solveig Oleivsgard, YWAM Skien, Norway (Northern Europe)
This is one story from the YWAM team sent from Mission: Europe (www.missioneurope.net) to Denmark:
Gina had been involved in church as a teenager. But at the end of her teenage
years she got hurt by church leadership and went down another path. After
some years she moved to Denmark and met her boyfriend at a festival. They
moved in together and lived in an apartment in Copenhagen.
When an old friend (who was doing her outreach in the city) invited Gina to a
house church, she was sceptical at first, but she still joined some parties and
gatherings. She gradually grew closer to God over the next year, but she was
not ready to make a decision for Christ.

Did You Know? 6 Stories Around Europe

UPE May 2015
One day, the team leader asked Gina, Do you want us to invite you and talk to
you about God, or do you think we are just nagging on you?
She answered, Please invite me!
As Gina walked home that evening, she experienced an immense battle about
her life and her faith. She texted the church team and they gathered in prayer
for her. The next morning, she told them that Jesus had won the battle in her
life!
Gina really started to follow Jesus then. She decided to move out from her
boyfriend and eventually broke up with him. She is growing in maturity and is
now an important part of the church plant in Copenhagen. She demonstrates
that becoming a Christian is about making Jesus Lord in every area of ones life.

Constanta: Chinese Student Comes to Christ in YWAM Cafe

By Hazel Short, YWAM Constanta, Romania (Central Europe)
It all started in the spring of 2012. I met Cheng, a student from China, on a mini
bus and befriended him. He started to come to the International Cafe, the
ministry that serves local and international students in Constanta, Romania.
The people he met at the Cafe became his family. He would come whenever we
were open; he sang at our Open Mic events and he participated in our
discussions. Cheng used to claim that Jesus was not for him. Whenever we
talked about faith and God, he would say that religion was about power and
control and that he had his doubts about Christianity.
For over a year, we prayed for him and simply shared life with him. We invited
him for dinners and played games together. He would join our YWAM community
worship sometimes, go for picnics with all of us and even come to Sunday church
service with us. He loved singing, and when he came to worship time, he would
sing passionately. We believed that the Lord was working in his spirit as he
worshipped, even though his mind could not fully understand it.
Chengs attitude began to change. He knew that he was in an Orthodox country
and most people around him were Christian. But he recognized that there were
people who really had relationship with God. One evening, Cheng came to a
home group at the Caf and we read something from the Bible. He was
fascinated to see my Chinese-English bilingual Bible and His face showed
excitement and curiosity. I let him take the Bible home with him, so he could
read it whenever he wanted.
In the summer of 2013, he met a Christian girl and started to have more
questions about Jesus. God laid it on our hearts to challenge him to read the
Bible with us. We read through the books of John and Matthew and did our best
to answer his many questions. We learned a lot about Jesus through his curiosity.
Each week, we saw how God was speaking to and pursuing Cheng. It was
encouraging to see the transformation take place in his life through the Holy
Spirit.

Did You Know? 6 Stories Around Europe

UPE May 2015
Our conversations started to changed. Every time we met, he told us how he
talked about God with his schoolmates. We asked him if he considered himself to
have a relationship with Jesus and he answered, Yes, of course! On that day,
we threw him a party to celebrate his new life in Christ.
In Spring 2014, Cheng was baptized and he thanked us for bringing Jesus in his
life. He also shared that when he first started to read the Bible, he tried to find
mistakes to disproof it. But week after week, he realized there is power in the
Word. God had revealed Himself to this young man!
In our community prayer time long before this, God had spoken to one of our
staff about how Cheng would be used for the multiplication of His work. Henry,
who was Chengs friend and a regular at our caf, was amazed that Cheng had
decided to follow Jesus. He asked too if he could join us in reading the Bible
together! Cheng also ended up sharing Jesus with his parents and old friends
when he went back to his hometown for a visit! God is moving. Multiplication is
happening indeed. And everything started with a small conversation on a mini
bus.