from California to Vegas to Thailand!

I just got back from a long 7 day road trip with our Discipleship Training School from Saturday November 5th to Friday November 11th. We went through California promoting YWAM Vegas and sharing about the great and wonderful things He has been doing through and in our lives in this last season. We met so many cool people and experienced so much hospitality; a pastor at one of the churches we stayed at even bought all 18 of us coffee at Starbucks, God is so good!

I also wanted to add that we leave for Thailand next Monday but we still need about $2,500 for the trip, The money is really supposed to be in today, but as long as it is in before we leave we can still go.

who's problem is it?

I had a very frustrating discussion with a homeless man from Cambodia this morning in the alley way behind the YWAM building. He was asking about what we do so I was telling him about our different programs for the neighborhood and the different missions trips that we do and that Iw as going to Thailand soon. Then we went on to say ooh "I love Bankok, they have 100 girls lined up and I pick one and do 'boom boom' with her. He said is so causally and I say...but that is wrong and he didn't think so. He said it was ok because he paid for her. I went on to say that she was most likely not doing it because she wanted to but because she was forced and he said that it was their problem not his. then I went on to say that it is all of our problem, Jesus loves that girl soo soo much and died for her so she could have freedom, not so that she could be made to have sex with whatever man comes along and pays for her. I kept as calm as I could and ended it and walked away very frustrated and angry that someone could see that as ok. I then had to my friend pray for my anger and just give it to God. This was a good start,however, to start learning how to love these men that don't even think what they're doing is wrong. "Well I paid for her so it's Ok." Well Someone has already paid for her and His name is Jesus!...

July 31 update

It has been a wild summer for Mission Adventures. We had a really great staff for the summer with lots of passion, energy and faith; which really helps to have a good summer, it just makes everything run smoother. We had about 9 teams come through and 101 students; teams from Colorado, California, Washington and Nevada.

One of the verses on my heart this summer has been Matthew 7:7 which says: seek and you will find, ask and you will receive, knock and the door will be open to you. As this was my fifth season doing Mission Adventures I had to really make sure I wasn't just skating along.

We have been writing the names of the people that have accepted Christ this summer on a chalk board in our building. In just a few short weeks, there are about 25 names on that board, praise God! We have seen so many people repentant of the lives they have been living and wanting so much for Jesus to come into their hearts and bring them true life and true meaning. We met a guy on the streets that was in a drug rehabilitation program, he had left a few days before. One of the staff got a word for him that he was running away from God and he broke down and gave his life to Christ right there on the strip. Another guy we met was struggling with alcoholism, after talking to some students he repented to God, accepted Jesus into his heart and called his mom to Apologize for the way he has treated her. God is moving!

I prayed at the beginning of the summer that God would open my eyes and use this summer in ways he hasn't before. I prayed that God would lead me to someone that was ready to accept Him into their heart and use me to bring them to Him. I have seen people come to Christ all around me, and God has used me to bring people to know Him, but I have never asked someone " do you want Jesus today and they said yes."

So...a few days ago I was in a mall doing evangelism with some students and I started talking to a 17 year old boy named Harlen who was with his mom' the conversation started because he was wearing a t-shirt of a painter that I like. I asked his mom if they had went to church and she said not really but she wanted them to go more. Then I asked Harlen what he thought of Jesus and the bible. He said he knew that Jesus died for him, he really liked him, but he didn't know much more. He told me that he had been going to a Christian ministry that has an indoor skate park that they let the kids skate in for free for an hour after an hour of bible study each Wednesday. So he said he has been going for the free skating, not really to learn about God. I felt God really press on my heart to ask Him if he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart today and he said yes! Praise God! He said the prayer with me to accept Jesus into his heart, then he let me tell him some more about Jesus and give him some bible verses to look up. We exchanged phone numbers and have kept in contact the last few days. I told him to find someone who he respects as a Christian leader to become a mentor in his life to help him grow in his relationship with God.

I tell you these stories to to gloat about myself or Youth With A Mission, but to brag on God. God is so so faithful, His power is limitless but the biggest thing that stands in the way of God doing great things through us is actually ourselves; our doubt our fear and our unbelief. I just wanted to encourage you all that God will answer your prayers, no matter what they are as long as it is on God's hear to happen.

God wants to move and do great things in your life, so the question is...will you let Him?

As of Tomorrow...Monday...I will be DTS staff. We will do staff training all week, then the students will start arriving on Saturday, please pray for the students to come that God wants to come and that they all arrive safely!


Thank you all for reading and God bless you all!!

Brett

July update

I just wanted to update you on what has been happening in Vegas this summer. We have had three weeks so far of mission teams with Mission Adventures...about 70 students so far. This next week we were supposed to have a team, but they dropped out so we will be doing some team building and some ministry ( at a smaller scale) in the city.

We have seen about 20 people come to know Jesus in these three weeks!!! Praise God! Which I always love to see...there is something amazing about seeing someone accept Jesus as their Lord and savior for the first time. We have also seen lots of young people come alive with passion for serving Jesus and becoming world changers.


One guy we met on the streets last week said that he was an alcoholic but he wanted to change because he was hurting his family. After talking to a few of our students, he accepted Jesus into his life and decided he wasn't going to drink anymore, he left to go call his mom and told her that he was sorry for the way he has acted and that we was going to enroll himself in a rehab program.

We have also seen so many of these students break through so many obstacles in their lives. At the end of the week we challenge them to look at themselves and see if there are any idols in their lives that are more important than Jesus..God reveals to so many students that there are more stuff in their lives that they need to give him. The very last thing they do in the week is the commitment service, where we have a couple hours of wosrhip and prayer and a little message about going to the next step with Jesus. This Thursday I was praying with a student and she started crying. There had been a lot of anger against God in her and in her family for the last 7 years...she felt God leading her to ask for forgiveness. And she did right there, she said she was sorry she has been blaming Him for the death, it's not God's fault. It was really cool seeing her overcome that and give it up to God.

A verse that God has led me to recently is Isaiah 49:4 which talks about how hard it is for us that we don't see much results from our work for the Lord...it's cool when we see the fruits from our labor but really 95 percent of the time we never see the fruits, hopefully we will find out in heaven, but really that shouldn't be important. What is important is that we stay faithful to what God is calling us to do and that we keep on trying and not giving up no matter what stands in our way and always having a joyful attitude Philippians 4:4

So our last mission team will be coming on July 23rd - July 29th. Then I will be switching over to the Discipleship Training school staff. I will do a week of training with the DTS then the school will start August 8 and will end in mid January. I will update you more on that later!

check out the abolitionist DTS promo!

http://theabolitionistdts.org/video/

check out the new Las Vegas Mission Adventures promo video on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl85ltEavOo

2011 prayer cards

one small step...

Martin is a staff member here on YWAM Las Vegas and he wrote this about his efforts to solve some of the needs of our city:

Victims of Las Vegas

September 14, 2010 by Martin

Las Vegas is a hub of sex workers and the human trafficking that goes with it. Many of these workers are international victims of human trafficking who were deceived, threatened, kidnapped, blackmailed, or trapped in some other way. Mostly women and girls, they come to the USA thinking that they will get an opportunity to make a better life for themselves or their children but find themselves held under physical and psychological bondage. They can’t leave if they wanted to. They have nowhere to go and many can’t even speak the language.

When the Las Vegas Metro Police liberates these international victims, they get sent to a safe house managed by the Salvation Army of Las Vegas. They are just beginning to be treated as victims instead of criminals. They are able to get a new T visa which allows them to live and work in the US rather than suffer the shame of returning to their homelands. Recently I met with the coordinators of this safe house and found that these victims, after having been put in the safe house, have to wait months in order to receive services or help in order to integrate into the community. We started free English as a Second Language classes out of the Pier Community Resource Center in the poorest neighborhood of Las Vegas and we are now going to start teaching ESL to these international victims of human trafficking. Later we hope to work with them with other life skills such as budgeting, setting goals, and job readiness training. We can also share about the amazing love of Jesus and the redemptive and transformational account of Mary Magdalene. Hopefully we can help them to do what they came to the US for: to make a better life for themselves and their children.

students from Texas offering free prayer on Fremont Street

August 2010 newsletter

Summer 2010 update

This summer we saw God do some cool stuff: many people came to know the Lord (we figure over 20), we saw God heal people’s physical and emotional wounds, we even saw some of the students give their lives to Christ! We also saw God grow and stretch and amaze about 120 youth. It was a great summer, we saw a lot of fruit from our work for the Lord and I know there is a lot of fruit that we will never see.
I learned a lot about obedience this summer. The only right reason to do anything is to do it for the glory of the Lord. I’ve been reading a lot of the gospel of John this summer. In chapter 14 it talks about how we have authority in the name of Jesus Christ to do the same miraculous things that Christ did while he was on earth. Then it says that if we love God, we will obey Him, and to do this, we can’t rely on our own human strength, we rely on the Holy Spirit working in and through us.
This summer really challenged me. It made me think about why I serve God, it’s not because it is easy or because I get any glory out of it, it is because living my life for God pleases and blesses Him and it brings Him glory and He is completely worthy of it! I faced some challenges this summer. I had some stuff going on in my personal life that made it really hard to concentrate, but by depending on God, I made it through and God still used me to do His work here in Vegas, mentoring youth and teaching them that God can do amazing things through them if they would just let Him.
Even though at some points I wanted to just give up, I didn’t because God is stronger than anything in my life or anything the enemy can throw at me. My theme verse for the summer was 2 Corinthians 12:8 “my grace is sufficient for you; my strength is perfected in your weakness.” This summer I grew so much in my character and in being fully dependent on God. I can’t wait to see what God shows me in this next season.


Student Testimonies...

“I liked the trip a lot. It helped me learn to witness to people. The trip helped me get out of my comfort zone because I usually don't talk to strangers as much. I felt like the trip changed me and helped me get closer to God. Overall it was a very nice experience and I hope to go on another mission trip soon.”
“I think the biggest lesson that I learned was just how much God loves us. I’ve always read about it and listened to sermons about it, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it as blatantly as I did during this trip with YWAM. This trip was such an amazing experience and I’ll always remember it.”
“When I went down to Las Vegas my life was changed forever I realized that my life was actually really good and I could make a difference in other people’s lives. I realized that I was actually living the good life compared to most. My experience in Vegas this summer helped me realize that not only other countries but our own needs help. God has put it in my life to talk to people I know and also those that I don’t know to help people as much as I can and bring as many to the lord as possible. I have been called to the Indonesian islands in the future and I believe that we are all called to missions where we live and we should never let anyone tells us not to do what God puts on us to do and this summer God has put more things on my heart than ever before and my life has changed drastically towards the strengthening of His kingdom here on earth.”

YWAM Las Vegas in the news!!!

http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-council-to-consider-new-ordinance-for-fremont-street-99882139.html

look for me in the red hand band and the purple shirt by the prayer sign...

Jesus

Jesus!

water, hamburgers and sun burns

So yesterday was really fun as well. William,this boy that lives next door...went to church with me. This is his second time, he seems to like it. Then we stopped by Taco Bell and we talked about the sermon. The sermon was about Grace and he really seemed to understand it...really smart kid. So then he came over to do some watercolor and play some pool and stuff, he liked that, we usually play basketball but it was just wayy to hot to be outside without water. SO then William and his 3 sisters Carmen, Vanessa, and Angie came with us staff to our BBQ that we had over at Sam's apartment. We did some swimming in the pool.That was lots of fun. I threw William quite a bit in the pool and showed off my strength.. After a couple of housrs of swimming we got out and ate some hamburgers and hot dogs. William and his sister Vanessa and Katie, Rich's daughter...really really wanted to go back to the pool. So I said..fiiine..really didn't want to, especially didn't want to get wet, but I went anyways because no one else would. SO they got in the pool and I stayed back and they kept trying to splash me and they kept trying to push me in the pool. Each of them kept getting out of the pool. Then all of a sudden..after like 30 minutes of them trying to do this, somehow they all got out of the pool at the same time and totally pushed me in the pool shirt and all!...Those kids, I wasn't really mad, I was pretty impressed, I really didn't think they'd get me in. It was a really good time. It was cool to have Carmen and Angie and Vanessa around other girls and mingle and stuff. We played 20 questions which apparently I play it wrong...I play it where you pick something and they got 20 questions to get it. The way they play I guess is you just ask someone 20 questions about themselves as a kinda get to know you game thing...I like my game better. I really love being a part of their family and I feel that party was a really important ingredient of ministering to their family. I have been hanging out with William a lot, and Carmen has been around our building volunteering for different things, but it was cool to have the whole family out, hopefully, God willing they will all come to church and youth group with me. The staff really liked how I am with the kids...I was like...well they are just really good kids and I love them. God has definitely given me a father heart. I have been the replacement for many young boys' life's..its one of the things I love to do and am really excited that my friendship with William is starting to have fruit. His dad is gone, in Central America..not sure if he is coming back, its a chance...but while he's gone I'm here. It is really cool that he is right next door. Literally he is like 5 feet from the base. It is really handy like now when I am really busy he can just pop in and say hi or I can find him outside playing basketball and bug him for a few minutes. I would hate to not be in his life everyday which I pretty much am. Thank God for the callings He puts on us. You give good gifts God!

first outreach of the summer!

So this weekend was really crazy and full, but wayy awesome! Sam and Beth and I prepared an amazing spread for brunch including waffles, fruit, muffins and awesomeness...then we packed up and headed to red rocks for some intense sweaty hiking. I didn't really feel like goin to Church after a long day of hiking in the heat, but I felt it was right to go anyways and I 'm really glad I did. Pastor Johnathan talked about how God is way more concerned with our hearts than with our works. He gave the analogy of the pomegranate tree; how it takes them 4 years to produce any fruit. sometimes it is like that, we have so much growing to do that we don't have much to show for it for may years...what is more important is cleaning the inside of the cup than the outside.Anyways after that was evangelism which I kinda had a bad attitude about, but that went away quickly. Man that was an awesome time...Paul and I prayed for three people. I believe them to be exactly who we were supposed to talk to. The first guy was this guy named Mike, I have seen him before; he is a street preacher. He was holding a sign that said Hell is a bad place..something like that. Immediately I get a bad taste in my mouth about those guys because the seem self righteous, and sometimes are...but I really felt like I should just go pray for him. I was sooo good, I just told him what I do in the city and told him I was thankful for what he is doing and that I just wanted to bless his work here in the city and he prayed for me and Paul too. Paul then really wanted to go inside the casino at Bilaggio, so we walked around the gaming area for a bit. Paul found this guy who ended up being from Chile. I can't remember his name......anyways, he was really cool, a real pleasant guy, kinda weirded out that we would talk to him, he said people were so much nicer and respectful in America than his country...I was like....um.........ok...not sure if I would agree, but thanks..He told us he was Catholic and that He is mainly Catholic because his family is..but also because God is good. I think he really enjoyed talking to us, he kept thanking us for what we were doing and kept saying that there needs to be more people in Las Vegas like us, he was very edifying! Then we went off walking, walked to the other end of the Billagio past the atrium. It was really cool, because Paul saw this guy sitting by himself and he leaned over to me and said Brett I really think you are supposed to talk to that guy and I will pray for ya. There was one chair open to him and it might be a bit intimidating if two guys come up to him at once..anyways, I started a nice conversation up with him right away. Turns out he's from Kansas City, so we talked about Kansas for a while. Then he asked about what I do so I talked about YWAM and India which he struck interest in and had me write down our website and my email address. I talked about missions and things for like 10 minutes and then I asked him if he was a christian; which made the conversation turn really weird. He said he was a christian, but when I asked him what church he went to, he said he didn't belong to a church because he doesn't believe in it. He said he has seen too many preachers possessed by demons that he doesn't trust that the church. I tried to tell him what I thought about church and that for me church is for the edification of the believers. Everyone, including him, has something to offer to encourage and help others in their journey with Christ. He was talking about some Mormons and Muslims that were both good and bad. He said yes there are some that are possessed by demons, but there are some that are really devout and because they have never known anything else...they will go to heaven because of their dedication...even if they have never heard the good new, which really isn't what the bible says..but we got off that and I tried to encourage him to think about joining a church. He then started saying well maybe I should just start my own church. It could be that he was being sarcastic, but I wouldn't know because I don't understand sarcasm..I was like yeah sure, and he was like maybe you should be my assistant pastor, I was like...well I don't have the pastoral gifting, at least not right now. Then he was like well maybe we can have a bar and slot machines in this church, and I was like..well sure if that's what God is doing sure.. Then he pulled out some verse from 2 Timothy..he asked me if i knew it, I said I had read it which is true because I have read the whole new testament many times. h was like..oh I'm testing your biblical knowledge...which is funny because I looked the verse up later and there is no chapter 5 in 2 Timothy..ha..jokes on him!!! It is 1 Timothy 5:23 which says " no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequencies infirmities..basically his point was that if you just focus on that verse, they you can do whatever..but that's not really the point of the verse because it is for their physical health, not to get drunk and whatever..but I did agree with him that if you focus on any one verse or part of the bible and hold it over any other parts, it becomes religious which more man made than God made..which isn't really what God wants. Anyways, it ended OK and he thanked me before he left, didn't let me pray for him, but I think he enjoyed the conversation and I did too. Usually when I get into more of a debate rather than just a chill conversation, I get a bit flustered. This time, I was really consumed by God's peace and didn't let frustrations get the best of me. I hope Ed emails me and I get to pour truth into him more. The coolest part of this outreach was that me and Paul were used equally. I picked out the first guy and we both prayed for him. He picked out the second guy and we both talked to him and prayed for him. Then He picked out Ed and I talked to him. I love the tag-team aspect of it...me and Paul were a great team, that doesn't always happen, but it's so good when it does. Then to top it all off I saw my friend Ronoldo in the bathroom at the Billagio, he is the bathroom attendant. I always talk to him and give him whatever cash I have, which isn't ever much, but he is really appreciative. I always ask him how he is doing and he always says ..no good..not very much tips...so I like to bless him..good guy, he's from the Philippines...really nice guy!

summer...........!!! I love Jesus

its soo hot..but thank God for good clean water!!! So the summer staff has arrived and are amazing. I am really looking forward to what God does through us all. Today is our team building day, we spent a couple hours at the park being blindfolded and trying to recite one through ten in alphabetical order. It was much fun, many laughs shared and also some serious bonding. I am hoping to grow in my confidence in the Authority I have in Jesus in all areas...not just with the students and on the strip but around the staff and to my friends and family. I know that by dying to myself, Christ lives in me, giving me the power and Authority of Christ. Sometimes I let my self doubts or my anxiety take control and I don't end up doing anything. I'm sick of taking baby steps back and forth. I am ready to do some serious growing in the lord this summer. Pleas pray for me as I struggle through this journey.

tacos and revelations

So I was walking around the neighborhood with our college group that is here this week, doing community outreach where we just bless the neighborhood in whatever way whether that be by pulling out neighbor's weeks, praying for people or just praying for churches. We talked to Bishop Macintosh in his little store that sells odds and ends groceries like cereal, crackers and soda. I met him last week but got a weird vibe...I kinda looped him in with the other christians in the neighborhood that have church once a week in our neighborhood to feel good about themselves and then go home to their comfortable homes. He was telling our group how he grew up just a few blocks down and how God saved him from drugs so now he is a bishop at a church and he has this not for profit store that he serves the community with. He owns 6 houses that he turned into drug rehab houses, they can stay as long as they want..one guy has been there for 9 years. He is a super cool guy and it really imacted my group. They saw how devistated our neighborhood is and were questioning, as do I, what are all of these 37 churches doing here...there should be peace and love sweeping through the streets instead of despair, greed and lust. So I prayed for forgiveness that I had judged him, its cool to see people really loving on and serving our community. I want to go there every week and buy a taco there and build relationship with him, and maybe YWAM will be able to partner with him and his church to serve our community together. Everything he quoted was strait from the bible..super legit which astounded me to find in this neighborhood. I told him that I will bring by all of our groups by to meet him. When I got home I read 1st corinthians 4:5 which allined with my feelings,it says: so be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether or not someone is faithful. Forgive me god for judging this honest loving man of being selfish and lazy.

craziness gospel and trams

God is good. I don’t even really know what happened today, but that God moved in amazing ways that I’m not sure anyone can describe. So we had our full day of 3 outreaches today. After the second one we had supper and then debriefed after supper. It was a great debrief; there was a female student., Mary that really made some emotional leaps and bounds. She was able to bring to the group personal issues that were holding her back this afternoon. After many tears and like 25 minutes, we got through it as a team. I have never seen such a tight nit group so willing to carry each other’s burdens and help each other through whatever they are dealing with. The last outreach was just normal 2x 2’s where you just go out with a partner and go show them Jesus. I went with Meg and Val. Val really wanted to give some socks to a friend that she had made earlier in the week, chris who was homeless. We got there and after seeing he wasn’t there, we prayed right in the spot that we met him in earlier that week. While I was praying that God would show us who we were supposed to minister to…Val slugged me on the shoulder and there was Chris. We were able to give him socks and pray for him, he’s a super cool guy. He is a Christian who has been down on his luck the last few years after he lost his job and wife at the same time. Then we rode up and down the tram between casinos for a while, met some nice people, at one point got stuck on a tram and just got to know everybody, it was a cool experience. What put a capstone on the night for me was meeting our hitchhiking friends Tim and Cory from Reno. They had traveled all the way to Texas and were on their way back to Reno. We had similar taste in music so we talked about that for a while, then I prayed for them. I didn’t feel like I should go yet even though we were running out of time. I asked them what they thought of religion and they said the didn’t really know what they believed. So I layed out the gospel, who was Jesus and why He had to die. He was so receptive. I felt really blessed that I got to share that with them. I have had kinda a rough week of evangelism just because leading weeks its kinda hard for me to talk to people on my own because I am busy ministering to the kids. But this week I had less responsibility being less students, but I feel like I haven’t really taken advantage of that all week. Anyhow, we got back to debrief, by this time it is like midnight. We talk about our experiences, all of a sudden, one of the leaders, Holly, starts laughing hysterically, then laughing right after. She expressed that she didn’t talk to anybody the whole time because she was having a rough time emotionally. She wanted to feel God in a deeper way. She felt like she had been sharing that God was a certain way all week, but hadn’t actually felt Him in that way. We all really admired her courage and vulnerability as a leader to express this doubt that she experienced…not many leaders would do that. Woww….what a great night!!