New Things

So on Monday, we're starting our very first mini-DTS.

YWAM around the world offers a Discipleship Training School (DTS), which is a 5-6 month course, which offers 12 weeks of classroom training and 8-12 weeks of practical outreach in countries around the world. Many of the local community are busy with work and family and are unable to commit to a course this long, so we’ve developed a Mini-DTS that suits the Cook Island way of life. The Mini-DTS is a 3 week evening course that will cover topics such as Hearing God’s Voice, Worship, Intercession, Identity in Christ, and the Father Heart of God.

We want to encourage members of the community to a deeper relationship with God, provide teaching on the heart of God and our response to His heart. 

A further aim of mini-DTS is to help equip individuals in their everyday interactions and allow them to gain a larger heart for serving their local churches and for impacting the community around them for Christ.

We're so excited with what God is going to do in the local community through this course. So many people in the past have asked how they can be involved with YWAM, how they can be trained, and have been unable to commit due to family and work commitments. So this seems like the perfect opportunity.

There is also a growing hunger for God in the Cook Islands and we've seen Him open so many doors in the past few months. 

But with all things new and with every open door there is an upheaval in the spiritual, a resistance to what God is accomplishing around us. 

We just want to ask for a covering of prayer over each of us and each of these students over the next 3 weeks. We want to see God's purposes accomplished as He intends and we want to stand strong in all that He is doing and in His will.

Kia Manuia

Peeks & Snippets

Apologies for not having a post for the end of last week.
We ended up with a bit of a crazy weekend. All good things, but busy, and the blog, sadly, got left a little behind.
I just want to post a few of the things that have been happening around the base in the past few weeks, and what we're looking at doing in the weeks to come.

We've seen God open up so many doors for us since the beginning of this year, and we are so excited for what God wants to do in and through us in 2014.

Last week the guys went to the Prison and were joined by a group of men from the Lighthouse AOG. They'll be heading out to do Prison Ministry once a month for the rest of the year.

We had an awesome ladies night on Friday, February 14. We really want to keep holding Ladies nights once a month, to build fellowship and support with women in the community.

This morning, we had our first devotion at Imanuela Akatemia. We'll continue doing this monthly throughout the school year, and would like to expand into other schools as time & staff permit.

Every Thursday night we hold an Open Meeting at the base. Everyone is welcome to come and we have a time of worship, teaching & fellowship.

Sunday mornings we head out to the Arorangi AOG and run the Sunday School.

Also, we're having our first youth night for the year this coming Friday. It's a night of sports and games, with a simple message, open to all the youth on the island. Please pray with us that we'll have a good turn-out.

So these are just a few peeks & snippets of what is happening around the base and some of the ministries that we're running. Please continue to pray with us, that God will expand our ministry in the community around us and that we'll see many commitments for Christ this year.

Also, if you're interested in any of our ministries and would like to lend a hand or feel that God is leading you to get involved in any way, please don't hesitate to contact us! seeyou@ywamcooks.com

Blessings!

For I know the thoughts and plans I have for you. 

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. 

Plans to give you a future and a hope.

Why Evangelize Children??

Hey everyone, so I am in New Zealand at the moment attending a couple of days training at YWAM Crystal Springs on Children’s Ministry with CBM(Christian Bible Ministries). It has been awesome and I have learnt so much!!

One of the main thoughts that has come out of this that I want to share with you is “Why do we need to Evangelize Children?” So here is some of the teaching I have received on this.

1.    Because the Bible tells us to: In Matthew 18:14 Jesus tells His disciples, that it is not the will of the Father which is heaven that one of the little ones should perish. Jesus always made time for the children and blessed them, we can read this in many passages in Matthew and Luke.
2. There is a worldwide need: If you look at statistics at the moment almost one third of the world is under the age of 15. I am pretty sure that the Bible doesn’t say “go only to the two thirds of the world over 15 and preach the gospel”. No it says go into all the world.
3. Children are at the ideal age: They have a simple trust and a simple faith. We see Jesus telling His disciples to have childlike faith and to become like a child to enter the kingdom, so it makes logical sense that children are already in the perfect state to enter the kingdom.
4. If we don’t evangelize our children, someone else will: Most other religions, sects and cults all try to get our children. They understand that if you can reach a child you can reach the whole family.

I have so many other thoughts rolling around in my head but I am sure this is enough for now. Maybe if I get another chance to blog I will add some more on topics such as: what lies the enemy has put in our head about why children don’t need to be evangelized.

All in all it has been great training and I look forward to using this in future ministry.

How can you reach the children in your life today?

Kate Moala

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used to make these amazing chocolate chip cookies, if I do say so myself. They had the perfect blend of white chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate chips. Occasionally, I'd throw in a few different types of chopped nuts, or some dried fruit, not raisins/sultanas but nice fruits like apricots. I'd mix it up with this perfect cookie dough recipe, and in just a bit there would be warm, tasty cookies being pulled out of the oven, ready to bite into.

I find that often the church is like one big cookie. There's lots of different chocolate bits, some nutty bits, some fruity bits, all very different, with different gifts and callings, but when held together with God, it makes something beautifully tasty and wonderful, something that draws in others of all kinds.

I think something for us to remember as we work and fellowship with others who are different than us is that all the bits are necessary, and if any of the bits are missing, we lose something vital to the taste of the church. God has created each individual with something to contribute to the whole.

So love on others today, even if you don't seem to agree with or understand them.

Kia Orana Kotou

Kia Orana, as we say in the Cook Islands, means, "May you live on." And since it's my first time writing on YWAM Cook Islands's blog (thanks to Darla Unrau for setting it up), may I greet you by saying, "May you live on."
As the year 2014 has already begun, most of us have plans and dreams about what we'd like the year to be like. With all the wonder and excitement that follows, unfortunately some plans don't always turn out exactly the way we want.
So friends, whatever the year has in store for you, "May you live on." With all the joy, fun, surprises, stress, sadness, or as they say, "the good, the bad, and the ugly," May you live on! And let the Lord of Hosts, our Lord Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counsellor, help us through. May we see ourselves, our dreams, and our plans for this year through the looking glass, as God sees it.

Kia Orana e Kia Manuia

Paula Moala