More Than Anything

I was sitting here this morning, trying to think of what to write, asking myself what was on God's heart for today. I was staring out the front windows of the office, admiring the beauty of the view.

There was this tugging on my heart, and I felt like God was asking me, but what do you think I see? So I asked Him what He saw when He saw the Cook Islands. Pictures of faces flashed across my mind and then this old Point of Grace song popped into my head:
God loves people more than anything
God loves people more than anything
More than anything He wants them  to know
He'd rather die than let them go
Cause God loves people more than anything

God loves the weary then they're too weak to try
He feels their pain, He knows their shame
He cries with those who cry
He won't give up or walk away
When other people do
Because God loves people more than anything

God loves the wounded who stumbled into sin
He reaches down and pulls them out
And cleans them up again
And He will heal the broken heart
Who's given up on love
Cause God loves people more than anything

More than anything
He wants us to go 
And show the world
So they will know
That God loves people 
More than anything

And I realized something, God doesn't see the sandy beaches and palm trees and blue lagoon, well it's not that He doesn't see them, it's just that what is far dearer to His heart is the people. His heart longs to see the faces of the Cook Islands looking up to Him in worship, drawing near to Him in spirit and in truth. Because God loves people more than anything...
And that's why we're here.

Through the Looking Glass...

 Kia Orana all!

You might be wondering why the title for a YWAM blog...but if you'll bear with me, I'll explain shortly.

YWAM or Youth With A Mission is an international missions organization whose goal is to know God and to make Him known in all spheres of society. YWAM volunteers came from all nations and all generations and serve God world-wide, going where God sends them, no matter what the cost or how impossible the circumstance.

People wonder at us sometimes, they ask why we go to the places we do or why we try to accomplish things that look impossible. Sometimes we don't know what to say.

See for us, we've felt the call of God on our lives, we've heard His voice, felt His heartbeat, looked through His eyes and learned, or are in the process of learning, to see the world, to see people, through His eyes, His looking glass so to speak.

And the view is beautiful. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." When we come to understand that God does all things because of His great love, we can look at the face of difficulty or impossibility and push forward to accomplish things for God. When we come to understand His love, we can look at what the world calls ugly, and realize that God has created it beautiful. But it's through His looking glass.

Hi, my name is Darla, I've lived and served at YWAM Cook Islands for almost 3 years now. Over the next weeks and months and years, you'll have the chance to hear from a lot of different people, as we serve the Cook Islands and experience what God is doing and teaching us every day. None of us are perfect, and there are many of us who come and go, and make dreadful mistakes along the way, but we push on, because of His love and His heart towards us.

I want to invite you to join with us, share in our joys and trials, laugh with us and cry with us, but most importantly, I want to invite you to pray with us as we seek to see God's kingdom established to the far corners of the earth...