Investing in the Future

The past few weeks have been all about investing in the next generations. I am not old by a long shot, but God has been speaking to me about how I pour into the generation coming after me - Generation Z and the unnamed generation below them - as I grow and step into new roles. This summer I attended four Christian festivals, three of which were aimed at youth and young people. I heard what God has been speaking over these generations: they care deeply about justice. They are prone to suffering from poor mental health. They value authenticity and have open minds, but at the same time, they struggle massively with forgiveness when those who they look up to fail them. 

Yvonne, Renee and I - YWAM York!

This summer and autumn, I have also stepped back into youth work. It started last year, when I began praying for good leaders to take over youth work for my church, York Community Church. I believe that you have to be willing to be the answer to your own prayers, so when I was asked to consider co-leading the older girls’ group, I already knew that the answer was yes. So now my friends Eliza and Lucy and I meet together weekly with the 14-17 year old girls that are attached to YCC’s youth work. We eat tea together (dinner for you Americans!), worship, pray for each other and study 1 John. Some of the conclusions the girls have drawn from 1 John have surprised me! They are good at pulling out over-arching themes and applying it to other stories that they know from the Bible.

Baking with uni students

As a team, we have also been opening our house to university students on Wednesday nights. After speaking with several of them at Sixty One, the young adult festival run by Fusion and New Wine, I realised that they need a safe place to come where they know that they can ask questions and find support. So we open our house, and sometimes they come just to drink tea, or to bake, or to listen to records, or to just be. It’s been a slow start, but it is a privilege to be a safe place for them!

Yvonne and Renee in character at half term club!

We also just finished our first half term club of the school year! England has a week-long break off of school for every six weeks of term, which means that there are three half term breaks a year. We have held a club for every half term that we’ve been here (barring the ones during strict lockdowns), and while it was a slow start, we now have waiting lists and families who sign up for every club. Many of these children also come to our weekly kids’ club, so we’ve built strong relationships with them. This half term club, we had a safari theme, and Yvonne and Renee decorated The Barnabas Centre vacation Bible school-style and created characters who walked us through the week. The kids loved it, and we got to teach them about David and Goliath, the Good Samaritan, Moses, Aaron and Hur and manna from Heaven. The more that the kids come, the stronger a culture we can create, and this club, we saw them choosing to be generous and to prefer each other. It was beautiful!

Teaching at Holmsted Manor

If you know me, you know that children’s work is not my passion. I prefer working with young adults, which is why last week was one of my favourite weeks of the autumn. I was asked to speak on the DTS at Holmsted Manor, the YWAM base in the south of England. I went down for four days and taught on worship and intercession. We also had a worship night whilst I was there, and it was amazing to hear afterwards about the different things that God was doing across the room. Worship is an area God has worked on a lot in my life since coming to York, and it was a privilege to get to pass on everything that I have been learning. A phrase that I have been holding for a while is that of being a glorious footstool - allowing God to use me as a stepping stone for those who come after me. Passing on what He has given me is a good way to do that! 

Next month, we will take part in Big Green Heart training. Big Green Heart is a tool that takes forgiveness and healing teaching into schools. It has been developed by a friend of ours, and we are excited to be able to put it in our toolbox. I was also trained as a parenting course facilitator with Family Matters (a local Christian charity) this summer, and in early 2023, we hope to be able to put on a course that helps parents manage anger in their teens. Please pray for us as we equip ourselves to serve local youth and our community as best as we can!

This coming Friday, 4th of November, is Hope for the City, a city-wide prayer event with One Voice York, the church unity movement with which I am involved. We are meeting together as the greater York church to pray for the social action projects that the churches of York have come together to create. We will also be praying into city-wide Gospel sharing - an area that Renee and I have been meeting with other pastors and church workers to pray about for several months now! We will be introducing city-wide Alpha, which I get to head up with one of my friends who pastors a local church!

The Barnabas Centre, our community centre!

God is doing a lot here in York. We are very thankful to see Him open doors and direct us where to go. We had a difficult time with housing this autumn, and that means that we are staying in the same house we’ve been in. We are working on sorting out our governance and some other loose ends with the charity as well, and I would appreciate prayers in that area. I am seeking advice and help, but these are still areas that I am no expert in. I do feel the weight of them. And please also pray for God’s protection over all of me: mind, body, emotions, spirit, as we walk through these difficult things! I love that God has called me to this life of missions, but it does have a cost! There have been some rough aspects to this transition to York (which I am happy to discuss over email), but I am very thankful for the family of believers that God has put around me here to support me through it. And I am very thankful for all of your prayers that come so faithfully.

To end on a happy note: thank you to everybody who contributed to my new computer. My old one died abruptly earlier this week (and would have cost several hundred pounds to repair), but thanks to all of your generosity, I was able to buy a new one. Now I can carry on with preparing for the Hope for the City event and all of the other admin/communications work that I didn’t realise came with running a charity!

Thank you for your prayers and your constant support. It is a privilege to be able to see God’s kingdom come in York!

Follow Up

 Hello!

Sorry for the long gap between updates!

The last few months have been full of challenges and growth for both me and for YWAM York. We have established local ministry more solidly in our community through weekly kids club and youth nights, as well as through Easter activities and a holiday club. Our relationships in our neighbourhood are going deeper, and we love getting to know our community better. We especially love our deepening relationships with our youth, who have started to let us into their lives more. In our most recent holiday club, we talked about heroes in the Bible, and several of the children initiated conversations about Jesus and God. It is amazing to get to be a part of those moments of discovery with them! 

We also saw somebody come to Christ on a recent evangelism that we did with a Brazilian DTS team that was visiting York, and a time of Easter evangelism, a Chinese man met Christ! In our unchurched nation, these are victories that we celebrate! 

However, there are also internal challenges that we are facing. Our team has gone down to three members now - Raya left at the end of June after praying and feeling that it was time for her to return to the States. Her departure was not due to anything in YWAM York or in our relationship with her, and we miss her! We are learning to do life as a three and not a four. We are also now splitting our rent and other costs between three instead of four, so we are trusting even more for God to show up every month!

The first weekend of July, we hosted a retreat for all of the bases of YWAM North England. Before you get too impressed, I should say that there are only four bases, and that each team has around 3 members on it (give or take a few for children!). We came together to pray, share vision and to get to know each other. We are already planning activities that we can do together, which are much easier to run with 12 people than with three! It's also nice to have nearby support from our YWAM family. During the retreat, somebody prayed that we would receive money from an anonymous businessman to help with the upkeep of our community centre. I decided that I would really trust God to come through in this way, instead of just agreeing with the prayer and keeping going. This prayer was prayed on 2 July. Three days later, we received a thin envelope through the post at the base. I opened it, and there was a cheque to YWAM York for £1,000 from an anonymous person, dated 2 July! To be honest, I was not surprised; when I saw the envelope, I knew there was a cheque. But it was tangible confirmation from God that He will provide for us in these next months! He is already providing for our building in the face of increased energy costs and maintenance issues!

We are also taking part in several festivals this summer. English people love a festival - the not terrible weather really encourages them to get out their tents and brave the rain in order to be all together. I will be at a total of four festivals this summer - three of them camping! This past weekend, Renee and I were at Cedarwood, a festival for northeastern churches. We represented YWAM England, and we even got to pray with some of the children and the youth who came to visit our YWAM England stand! 

In a few weeks' time, I head to SixtyOne, which is a festival for Christian young people. I have the privilege of creating the artwork for the venue (a massive shed that fits 1,000 people). This intersection of two of my passions - art and students - has me very excited! Some of the students that I know will also be at the event. I can't wait to see students from across the UK awakened for Jesus! 

A few days after arriving home from SixtyOne, I will head back to the same location for Satellites, a youth festival. I will both be representing YWAM England at the YWAM England stand and helping out with the youth from my church! I am so excited to be able to be there as they encounter God in a festival setting - something that hasn't been possible since 2019. 

Festivals are the time youth and young people generally make big decisions for God, decisions which we then get to walk out with them throughout the year. Could you pray for our youth and young people to feel encouraged to take those steps at the festivals this summer, and for us to be able to support them, not just in the coming weeks, but throughout the year? It takes enormous courage to be a Christian young person in England - there aren't so many of them, so just being Christian is a bold move. But they are also the ones who will reach their generation - it is a privilege to be able to walk with them as they influence their generation!

Could you also pray for YWAM York? Renee, Yvonne and I are doing well, and we want to grow in our communication and to create a healthy, good culture for anybody else who decides to come with us. We are spending time over the next few weeks to ask God how He wants us to move ahead in different areas of both our ministry and our community, and we are re-structuring accordingly. We want to be a YWAM base that moves in God's best way for us, that loves God and loves people well!

If you'd like to receive our team newsletter, which will be going out soon, send me an email at deborahestevenson@gmail.com, and I will sign you up for it!

A Quick Visit

 Hello, and happy spring! 

I am travelling to the States this next week, and I can't wait to see some of you and to share with you what has been happening in the past few years since I was last with you!

I will be at two locations whilst in the States: at Calvary Baptist Temple in Savannah, Georgia on Sunday, 27 March (sharing in the combined adult Sunday School) and in Laurens, South Carolina on Wednesday, 30 March. You may email me at deborahestevenson@gmail.com for more details if you would like to come along!

I also have a new prayer card, which I thought I would unveil here. I will be happy to give you one in person next week, but equally, please email me if you'd like one posted to you! 

I have also realised that it's been a while since I shared how to support me financially. I am a completely self-supported missionary, which means that I raise my own funding; YWAM does not pay me (or anyone else, for that matter. We all get to live by faith!). So here is how you can join me in missions in York by supporting me financially:

1. Send money using Paypal.com to deborahestevenson@gmail.com (it goes directly to my personal bank account - there is no tax receipt for this.)

1. If you are in the States, you may also contact susancookstevenson@gmail.com, since my mother is a co-signer on my bank account and helps me conduct my finances State-side.She can help you use the apps Xoom (a Paypal method of sending money to my bank account) or Zelle to transfer money to my Bank of America account. She can also tell you how to support me via YWAM Tyler in Texas, from whom you may receive a tax receipt. 

1. If you are in the States, you can also give cash or a check to my parents or grandparents 

1. Mail a check made out to Deborah Stevenson to: 

Susan Stevenson

49 Belle Gate Court

Pooler, GA 31322

And if you would support me in prayer, I would also be very grateful. If you sense that God is telling you anything, or if you'd like to share Scripture, songs, images, etc with me, please do email me at deborahestevenson@gmail.com. We all hear from God, and I would love to hear what He is sharing with you about York and my ministry here!

I can't wait to see some of you this next week!

Receive to Give

Last year, when we were praying together about what God had for our base, we felt that we were going to be a base of hospitality and generosity. Those are big concepts for a small team, but we know that York is the third most touristic city in the UK and that we are equipped with an amazing building and a beautiful home, so we have the resources that we need to live those two words out. But it can be challenging to live that out when financial resources are running low, or when you are hosting an outreach team of 12 and three of your four team members are still having to self-isolate after coming back from the States. 

That was the specific circumstance that I found myself in last week (if you couldn’t tell already). But whilst praying for the YWAM Urban Key London (the base where I did my training a decade ago!) outreach team, I felt like God really wanted to pour into them as they poured into our city. As the York team, we had also been asking God to show us new ways to be generous and hospitable this year. So the girls held down the fort with doing our mountains of admin work at home, and I got to be with the London outreach team and show them our city. 

The London outreach team came with a heart to serve. From the first day that they were in York, they prayed for ways to bless the city. They joined in our day of evangelism with The Belfrey church, even though it was a balmy 0 degrees outside. They helped us host our youth nights (vital since we were down 3 people), joined our weekly evangelism, and prayer walked the city with us. And in between our activities, they also served a local church and did prayer walks and practical work of their own. It is so beautiful to see people come with a heart to bless your city, and I think that we were all amazed by their willingness to serve York.

But for me, the most beautiful part was the way that the church of York reached out to the team. I have been a YWAMer for a decade; I know that it is our heart as YWAM to serve and to bless the nations, so I expected that of the team. But what we do not often see is the local church pouring back into a team. And this week, without me even asking or orchestrating it, that happened. Our local church, York Community Church, welcomed the team to various activities and took time to pray for them and to give them lifts home. Our friend Vanessa organised a worship night for the team, and the House of Prayer brought their team over to join in and to minister to and with the outreach team. Our pastor, Simon, prayed for the team at numerous activities and got to know them. Our neighbours, Ruth and David, showed up to the base many times with blankets, heaters and more to make sure that the team was taken care of and helped lead the first prayer walk. Our worship night carried on even after it had officially ended, because the outreach team and the Yorkies were praying and talking to each other, and they were enjoying being together too much to go home, even though it was late. 

I think what amazes me the most about this is the way that God orchestrated it all without us. We had a lack of manpower, but we still had the heart to host the team well. What we couldn’t do ourselves, God did. He brought together a team that had a heart to serve the city and the people of the city who were so grateful to receive a team. It was bigger than us as YWAM York - it was the body of Christ mutually loving each other and pouring into a place together. I’ve been reading a lot about that mutual love and how it will show people Christ (John 15). And over the past two weeks, God has been teaching me about it by letting me see it in practice. Now we will go back to being a team of four, but the way God has moved will continue to affect this city for time to come. He is so good.