Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about Refugees.

It has been almost three years since the “refugee crisis” was brought to the attention of the world. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, came like a flood from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe, fleeing war, drought, terrorism and pain. Many Christians responded compassionately, with thousands of people volunteering across Europe to serve the refugees that had left everything behind. Many YWAM workers got involved through serving on the shores of Europe, along the migration route and in destination nations like Germany and Sweden. On the island of Lesvos alone, more than 1,000 YWAMers served in the camp with a combined effort of approximately 20,000 days of work!

While the number of volunteers has decreased, displaced people are still coming and volunteers are still needed to meet practical needs and build relationships with the people in the camps. In most locations, however, refugees no longer live in camps and host nations are faced with the challenge of integrating thousands into their society. Additionally, the media attention has decreased but this does not mean that there are no more refugees or that less people are fleeing. Syria is in its eighth year of conflict. Iraq is struggling for clarity and unity. Afghanistan is still unstable. Meanwhile, refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey, Greece and other nations keep receiving new arrivals. The numbers are not insignificant and there are countless stories to be told.

While the attention has shifted away from this situation, it is wonderful to know that our God never forgets His creation and His promises. In the midst of this turmoil there are countless stories about how He is reaching out to His lost children:

* In Northern Iraq entire families of displaced people became followers of Jesus Christ, as they encountered His all sufficient grace in the midst of loss.

* In Germany, Muslims asked for Bibles in search of the Truth.

* In Sweden the displaced gather in Bible study groups.

* Across Europe, thousands are being baptized.

God is meeting these people in dreams and visions, through the love and compassion of Christians and through His Word. And He is inviting us to partner with Him in this opportunity to reach men, women and children from “closed nations” with the gospel! Let us not miss out on seeing His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Deuteronomy 10:17 - 19 - “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of May to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, May the 10th. If you only have a few moments to pray, position yourself in hopeful anticipation and pray that refugees will come to know the heart of God.

Additionally, we invite you to join in the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World May 15 – June 14. Download a prayer guide from www.pray30days.org, tell your friends and help your church, your small group and your family participate in this movement.

Prepare to Pray:

Consider taking into the prayer time a bag with a few roughly packed items, a sleeping bag, or perhaps a blanket.

Read aloud from Ezekiel 12,4-6 that says, “During the daytime, while they watch,

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God for YWAM Foundations Values 4, 5, and 6.

He is inviting you!

During the month of April we invite you to join YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, as we focus on three of YWAM’s Foundational Values:

* Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer (value 4)

* Be Visionary (value 5)

* Champion Young People (value 6).

In values 4 – 6 we see the very core of YWAM: without youth, there is no Youth With A Mission and without worship and intercessory prayer we don’t hear God and we don’t receive His vision for our lives.

According to the late Iain Muir, formerly YWAM’s International Director “From the very beginning, we learned that as worship brought us into His presence, we could hear His voice and experience His heart, leading us into intercession. All that we did came out of guidance we received during intercession and worship.” Please see below for a testimony of how the value of worship and intercession continues to shape a YWAMer from India.

A YWAM leader and author, John Dawson  recalls the ancient Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision” when thinking about being visionary and says “To be visionary is to see Him. To be visionary is to see His nature, His character. It is in seeing Jesus, in the ’call to intimacy‘ with God and with each other, that we receive the grace of His presence, the revelation of the government of Jesus, and the birth of new vision and purposes of God for our lives, our families, our nations and even for civilizations.”

And lastly, regarding youth, another YWAM leader, Danny Lehmann, says “Championing the young among us is essential for our very life as a mission. They bring new life and fresh vision which helps us avoid slipping into the comfortable rut of doing what we’ve always done. Young people are not YWAM’s future, they are YWAM!”

As you pray and contemplate these foundational values, we would love to receive stories from you regarding how these values have shaped your ministry or your life ([email protected]).

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of April to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, April 12. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for YWAMers to grow in worship, intercession, understanding of God’s vision for us, and inclusion of youth.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray, consider this scripture from Psalm 40: “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted … May those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the Lord.’”

Begin by taking time individually to write down those blessings you have experienced in the past month. How have you experienced God’s goodness in your life during the past few weeks? Make a short note of each experience of goodness and blessing in your life during this timeframe that you can recall.

Who has made a note of 5 things? Who has ten? Who could remember the highest number of blessings in their life from this time? After 5-10 minutes you might want to take a moment for people to speak out their thanks to God for these very real experiences of His goodness.

Next encourage people to reflect on their list of blessings. What was God revealing to you about His character through these experiences? Challenge yourself to write something different for each blessing. Were you learning that God is faithful? That He is generous? That He is detailed and intentional? Write those things down. Then get into groups of two or three. Allow time for each person to share one or more of their blessings and what they lear...

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for The Entertainment Industry and Arts and Sports Celebration Sphere.

The arena of arts and entertainment has long set a precedent for culture. And where culture goes, so society goes. Art and entertainment have power to influence and shape not only people’s perspectives, but a nation’s worldview.

Around the world we can clearly see an attack of the enemy on the sphere of celebration (arts, entertainment and sports). The media and entertainment all around us display violence, false pleasures, selfishness, and lies about who we are and who God is. The enemy’s agenda is fully displayed through videos, movies, music, and art and many lives are being deceived through this.

Art has tremendous power to shape culture and touch the human heart. Its artifacts embody the ideas and desires of the coming generation. This means that what is happening in the arts today is prophetic of what will happen in our culture tomorrow. It also means that when Christians abandon the artistic community, we lose a significant opportunity to communicate Christ to our culture.

Philip Graham Ryken

Yet, God is not silent and He has raised up His people around the globe to make a holy stand for this sphere! There are Christians around the world and within YWAM that have taken their calling as artists who will display God’s character and values to the world through the work they create and their platform in art, entertainment and sports.

YWAM has 106 locations in 49 different countries around the world with ministries and schools that focus on training up artists, musicians, and athletes to influence this sphere. These YWAM workers include dancers, filmmakers, fashion designers, actors, culinary artists, fine artists, street artists, musicians, and athletes from multiple sports.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of March to pray for God’s movement in the entertainment industry and the sphere of celebration. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, March 8. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to pray for artists and entertainers to reflect the character of God and for YWAM workers to have more open doors to share God’s message.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray about God’s purposes for the arts, entertainment and sports, consider the following exercise as a way to help you and your group enter into prayer. The imagery uses an artistic and creative approach to provide a way for God to lead.

If you are praying in a group, you may choose to project this image so that everyone can see it.

Take a few moments to gaze at the image. Quietly, as individuals, consider the beauty of the waterfall, the power of the water, the precipitous rocks. Now ask yourself these questions, taking more time with whichever ones resonate most with you:

Consider the life of God as this flowing and powerful water, and your life with Him.

As you reflect on your life currently, where do you see yourself in this image?

* in what way are you paused at the top of the falls, fearful of plunging into the unknown?

* in what way are you carried with the force of the water? To what extent does this feel exuberant and full of energy? To what extent do you feel battered by the rocks along the way?

* in what ways have you, like the rock, been formed and shaped by the life of God, even in those places in your life that were hard and apparently unyielding?

* in what way might you see yourself off to the side, observing the power of the water but not actually touched by it?

* in what ways do you experience yourself as being in the pool beneath the falls, enjoying the rush of the waters, yet with a sense of safety and well-being?

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for Community Development.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Thank you for joining us this month as we pray about God’s intentions for communities around the world, both poor ones and rich ones. We will pray about community development, which YWAM worker Keri Fishlock describes as “helping communities discover their true identity and helping them step toward God’s intentions.”

Framed within a biblical worldview, Keri believes community development addresses one of the biggest topics of all:

* It’s about the Kingdom of God overcoming the kingdom of darkness;

* It’s about Jesus bringing life to the full, undoing the work of the thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy;

* It’s about Truth replacing the lies of the enemy;

* It’s about seeing more of the Kingdom of God expressed in our families, communities and nations;

* It’s about men and women developing right relationships with God, other people and the physical world.

Within this context, community development is the need of every community and the responsibility of every believer. It’s about discipling individuals, families, communities and nations. Coupled with a biblical understanding of poverty, community development is not only about physical things such as building water tanks and hospitals, but happens when communities step away from lies and into truth, from pride to humility, from corruption and greed to living the way God intended, and when broken relationships are replaced by healthy relationships where healing and fullness can be experienced.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of February to pray with us about God’s intentions for communities around the world. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, February 8.

If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to pray for the communities in which you minister, that the communities would break away from Satan’s grip and into the truth and direction God has for them.

Pray for Community Development

* Pray 2 Chronicles 7:14, specifically that God’s people would humble themselves and that he would heal our land. Thank God for being the one who transforms. Pray that YWAMers would repent for the times we have taken on the role of “savior” rather than pointing to Him.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

* Pray for YWAM ministries that are intentionally involved in community development, that students and workers would lead transformation from a solid biblical perspective.

* Acknowledge your own brokenness and ask for His healing and restoration within your relationships with God, man, others and the physical world.

* Pray that the church would take up its role in discipling communities and equipping people for works of service.

* Pray for YWAM’s University of the Nations Community Development and Justice Centre to continue to grow in relational networks and to help equip people to walk out a biblical worldview very practically in every sphere of society.

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for and about the first three of the YWAM Foundational Values:

* Know God

* Make God Known

* Hear God’s Voice

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

The identification of YWAM foundational values began in 1985 with YWAM cofounder Darlene Cunningham asking, “What are the basic things that God has called YWAM to live and model to others?” The first official YWAM foundational values document was released in 1992 and was revised in 2004. YWAM foundational values now play such an integral part of YWAM that they are taught in every Discipleship Training School (DTS) and they are regularly shared at YWAM conferences all over the world.

Said one DTS student in Wollongong, Australia, “As I listened to our leader list YWAM’s 18 foundational values, I felt inspired. It was a picture of common purpose, people gathering to hear from God and being unified in mission. I want to be part of this, I thought.”

Over the next 18 months The Invitation will focus on these Foundational Values, asking YWAMers everywhere to pray for three values each quarter, or one value each month. Therefore, in January we invite you to pray about the first three foundational values:

* Know God. YWAM is committed to know God, His nature, His character and His ways. We seek to reflect who He is in every aspect of our lives and ministry. The automatic overflow of knowing and enjoying fellowship with God is a desire to share Him with others.

* Make God known.
YWAM is called to make God known throughout the whole world, and into every arena of society through evangelism, training and mercy ministries. We believe that salvation of souls should result in transformation of societies, thus obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations.

* Hear God’s voice. YWAM is committed to creating with God through listening to Him, praying His prayers and obeying His commands in matters great and small. We are dependent upon hearing His voice as individuals, together in team contexts and in larger corporate gatherings as an integral part of our process for decision making.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of January to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, January 11.

If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for yourself and others in the YWAM family to uphold and practice these values in all that we do.

Prepare to Pray:

Before praying, consider doing the following exercise. It could help you and your group reflect on the significance of the values we are praying about this month.

READ: Read from Acts 15:1-30.

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and eldersabout this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoeniciaand Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for Pyongyang, North Korea.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

As hard as it is to imagine today, Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, used to be a center for Christian mission work throughout the Eastern world. According to the Voice of the Martyrs Canada website in 1907, a revival spread from Pyongyang across the Korean Peninsula and Pyongyang was called The Jerusalem of the East. As late as the 1920s, 90 percent of the Christians in Korea (North and South) lived in Pyongyang.

Today, the environment of Pyongyang’s 2.7 million citizens (Operation World) is very different. They live in the nation that has been described by Open Doors as being the worst in the world for Christian persecution. It is also estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, including up to 100,000 Christians (Operation World), are being imprisoned in North Korea’s labor and concentration camps where conditions are so poor that as many as 75 percent of the prisoners do not survive (Fox News).

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of December to pray for Pyongyang. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, December 14.

If you have only a few minutes to pray, please note the eight minute video below and pray that the people of Pyongyang would experience the love and grace of Christ in the near term. If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray, take a few minutes to watch this short video. It is the moving testimony of Gyeong Ju Son, a young Christian whose father is one of thousands of believers imprisoned or killed for their faith. In listening to Gyeong Ju Son, consider her grief and loss. Take a few moments of silence as the video closes, and reflect on what could compel a young Christian orphan to dream of someday returning to North Korea, where persecution is all but certain. Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to enter into this deep longing for her fellow North Koreans to know the love of Christ, which is stronger than fear, deeper than sorrow, and more precious than life itself.

As God draws your heart to feel something of His deep compassion for this nation, go ahead and pray using the points below to guide you.

Pray for Pyongyang:

* Pray that the gospel will spread throughout North Korea and that they will experience revival again as they did in 1907.

* Pray for those in leadership within the government. Pray that God will open their eyes to the truth of the gospel. Pray for leaders to obey the will of God for their nation.

* Pray for guidance for Christians in North Korea. Pray that they would not lose their faith despite oppression and the threat of death in concentration camps. Possessing a Bible, saying God or Jesus, and meeting as believers are all punishable by death. Pray that they would be bold in the midst of persecution.

* Pray for spiritual, mental, and physical restoration of North Korean refugees. Many North Korean refugees go through torture, intense stress and anxiety during their escapes.

* Pray for the people who are suffering in prison camps and for those who struggle to have daily needs met due to the isolation of North Korea.

* Pray for the gospel radio programs of TWR and FEBC as they beam deep into North Korea.

* Pray for Korean Christian businessmen from China who have easier access into North Korea.

* Pray for those who labor among North Koreans around the world to preach...

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for our Partner Churches.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

God has commissioned the local church to go into all the nations and preach the gospel. As YWAMers, we could not do what we do without our partner churches. These partnering churches send us, pray for us, support us and are alongside us for training, church planting, mercy ministry and other gospel-related activities. The relationship between the church and those who are sent is a beautiful partnership, one that God has chosen to change the entire world!

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

Acts 16:5 (NKJV)

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, this month to pray for our partner churches on November 9. We ask you to celebrate this partnership on a local level by praying for your partner churches, and if you sense God’s leading, by taking action to strengthen those relationships. If you have only a few minutes to pray this month, please pray for the health of your partner churches and that God would bring blessings to them. If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

Take a moment to bring to mind the congregation of your partner church, whether at home or in your present location. And then consider the lead pastor of this congregation.

What are all the things the pastor of a congregation such as this would have to think about, take responsibility for, or take care of? As a group, use a whiteboard or large sheet of paper to brainstorm all the ideas that come to mind in response to this question. Make note of as many things as you can.

Next, take some time to reflect on how such a pastor might feel about all these responsibilities, concerns, and opportunities. Enter into those feelings as much as you can.

Finally, as you hold before God these possible feelings and needs, ask Him how He might like to love, encourage, and strengthen this church leader through you. What comes to mind as a response, whether in prayer or in action? Share these ideas with one another and make a note, so that you can follow through on Holy Spirit’s prompting.

Mark Nebauer said, “YWAM goals are realized while churches go forward. A true win-win situation.”.

Pray for Our Partner Churches:

* Praise God for successful partnerships that YWAM has had and is having around the world with local churches and sending churches.

* Praise God for your partner churches.

* Pray for the health of your partner churches and ask the Lord to bless them.

* Pray for unity and healthy and equitable partnerships between YWAM locations and partner churches.

* Pray for solid relationships between YWAMers and the people of the local church. Pray for YWAMers to make consistent commitments to the local church.

“The healthy cooperation of the local church and global mission is a major threat to the kingdom of darkness.”

Lynn Green, a YWAM leader

* YWAM provides opportunities for churches to engage in mission through outreaches for church youth groups, serving opportunities for adults through Mission Builders, mission awareness programs, seminars for families, and more. Pray for long-lasting results.

* Pray for the church to send more workers to the field where the needs are the greatest in less-saturated nations.

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray for The Hindu World.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Photo credits: Friends Network

YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, will be a bit different this month. Instead of asking you to pray on the second Thursday of the month (or whatever works best for you) we are asking you to pray with us daily from October 8 to October 22 for 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World.

15 Days is an annual prayer movement that calls Christians and churches worldwide to take these 15 days to learn about and pray for our world’s one billion Hindus. This period encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Lights called Diwali (or Deepawali). During this prayer focus, we invite you to take a posture of blessing toward Hindu peoples worldwide.

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of October to pray for the Hindu world, from October 8 – 22. Informative prayer guide booklets are available on the 15 Days website (www.pray15days.org). To join the YWAM family in prayer in October, take a moment to download or order a booklet. Also, go to the 15 Days Facebook page (via pray15days.org) and like it. The purpose of 15 Days is to call Christians to make an intentional and respectful effort during this period to learn about, pray for and reach out to the Hindu community.

If you are not able to pray every day we invite you to pray during our prayer day, Thursday, October 12.

This is the second anniversary issue of The Invitation and we would like to take a moment to thank the people that have made this possible:

* Translation: Yohan An, Seungjun Bahng, Kyoungmi Ko, Eunice Jo, Micaela Oliveira, Jessica Milanez Salve, Adelaide Santos, Isabela Ribeiro, Sharen Song, Renato Wong, French-language translator (name withheld for security reasons), and Yira Patricia Ibarra.

* Spiritual Formation/Prepare to Pray: Miranda Heathcote, Tanya Lyons

* Social Media: Daniel Norris, Mandy Stephenson, Jeremy Randall

* Logistics and Podcast: Bill Hutchison

* Manager and Writer: Laura Parli

* Ideas: Lynn Green, Lynn Yee

* Leadership: Bryan Bishop

* Thanks also to YWAM leaders, prayer coordinators and others who have organized The Invitation at their location.

If you have only a few minutes to pray this month, please pray that Hindu people everywhere would be blessed through the Gospel and that God would move them towards Himself.

If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

Speaking blessings over people and situations, and doing so in our authority as God’s children, is a powerful way of agreeing with His good purposes. Blessing prayer helps us to align our hearts with God’s good intentions and, as we see in scripture, blessings given by God and His people are powerful and effective.

As your group prepares to pray, stand together in a circle. You can divide into smaller groups if you are praying as a large community, or you can pray individually if you are alone. Take a moment to consider the Hindu World and God’s eternal purpose to reveal His love as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to draw people into relationship with Himself.

When you are ready, go ahead and open in prayer: “Almighty God, as we stand in agreement with your loving purpose...

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray about disciple making and the Youth With A Mission Discipleship Training School.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

YWAM founder Loren Cunningham says that “The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is the foundational building block in Youth With A Mission, the cornerstone of the mission”. Not only is our DTS foundational for YWAM, according to Elena Ciobo, a DTS coordinator, “It is the one part of our YWAM family that holds us together in unity amongst our great diversity.” Unique to YWAM is not only the diversity of our staff and students, but diversity of DTS programs focused on anything from motorcycles to surfers, starting in any month of the year, in locations from Alberta to Zimbabwe with over 65 different languages spoken. This is YWAM’s model for disciple-making.

Luke 9:23 (ESV) – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. . . “

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of September to pray for our DTS programs and the process of disciple-making. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, Thursday, September 14.

If you have only a few minutes to pray, please pray for our current DTS students that they would be discipled well to be effective witnesses for Christ.

If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, then here is our complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

Before your prayer time, you are invited to participate in a reflection process using clay or play dough. The purpose of this time is to be reminded that our formation process does not end after DTS! All of us, including those staffing and supporting the DTS, continue to be in a process of becoming more like Jesus. This meditation – which might take about 20-30 minutes, including the time of feedback – can help us to posture ourselves as fellow learners, part of a discipling community whose teacher is God.

In order for everyone to take part, you will need to provide everyone with a small quantity of clay or play dough that is readily available from craft or toy stores, or easy to make using a recipe you can find online.

Take some time for everyone to begin working with the clay. Become familiar with its feel in your hands. Notice its texture and the way it both resists and yields to your touch.

You can then use the script included in the letter at ywam.org to lead the group, or you can also play back this podcast and pause it between the sections that I’ll mention:

So to begin …

“Call to mind the creation story, where God shapes the human from clay, gently molding and shaping each fold and indentation. Take a few minutes to experience yourself as being molded by God.”

[Pause for a few minutes]

“Hold this image in your heart as you continue to mold the clay. Notice how it feels in your hands. Notice the feelings and/or images that emerge for you. As you handle the clay, feel free to form it into a particular shape if one comes to mind.”

[Pause for a few minutes]

“Reflect on how you experience God shaping and forming you. Where are the places in your life that feel resistant and where are you malleable? Work with the clay for a while, engage in the process and pay attention to what comes to you, without censoring yourself.”

[Pause for a few minutes]

“Continue to hold the questions in your heart of how God is shaping and forming you. When you have come to a sense of rest with the clay process,

Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray about Families, Singles, and Married Couples serving in Youth With A Mission.

On the second Thursday of every month YWAM locations, staff, students, and supporters join together in prayer for the mission and for what God is doing in the nations. Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

God speaks to all of us through the Bible and other means in all stages of life and gives instructions for how to live in different stages: as singles, as married couples, as part of a family. God gives each of us, no matter our status, a holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9). The Bible is full of stories about people who are single, married spouses, and families and how He used them for His good purpose.

But how does this fit in with our work on the mission field? How do YWAMers in different stages and statuses of life, with different needs, come together to fulfill God’s purposes? How do we minister to non-believers who are in a different stage than we are?

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. . .

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of August to pray for family, singles and marriages. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, August 10.

If you have only a few minutes to pray, please lift up all YWAMers regarding their stage in life. Pray for contentment regarding stage of life; unity regarding differences; wisdom and provision. Pray for God to strengthen YWAM ministries through a greater understanding of the needs of people in different stages of life.

If you are praying with a group or if you have more time to pray, please see below for the complete list of prayer suggestions.

Prepare to Pray:

If you are praying with others, consider taking some time to discuss these questions before you pray. If you are praying alone, you could journal your own responses to the questions:

* What are some things that make you personally grateful to be single, or married, or a family in mission?

* What are some of the challenges of being single, or married, or a family in mission?

* What have you learned as you have related to those who are single, if you are married; or married, if you are single; or from those who have kids if you don’t? Feel free to be specific with the people in your prayer group.

* In what ways do you experience the diversity of people in your teams (singles, couples, families) as something that strengthens the ways you can reach out to others? Give thanks for that diversity.

Pray for Family, Singles and Marriages:

* Praise God for this stage of your life (family, single, married) and reflect on the ways that your ministry is enhanced due to your current status.

* Pray for those at your location who have a different status than you currently do. Reflect on what their challenges might be.

* Pray for guidance on how to include and take care of everyone – couples, singes, young people, old people, and children in a way that lives out the Gospel.

* Pray for wisdom, resources and adequate training for those within YWAM who provide member care to others.

* Pray for recognition by YWAM leaders of the needs and challenges facing each group of YWAMers and for recognition of differences from area to area. Pray for fairness and equity for housing, leadership positions, ministry opportunities among all regardless of current status.

Singles

* Pray for singles in YWAM and that they would stand firm against Satan regarding purity.

* Pray for balance between ministry and social life. Pray for staff and leaders to not make decisions just because someone is single. (For example,