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.
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