Base Update March 2014

Kia Orana everyone, Just a short update of what’s been happening here at YWAM Cooks since the New Year and what we’re looking forward to for the rest of the year…

We started off January with 3 weeks of prayer and fasting. Since that time God has opened many doors for us into the community and we’re really excited to see what other promises will unfold the months to come!

Ministries

We’ve continued on with our devotions at Imanuela and are about to do our second devotion for the year this month.  We’ve continued running the Sunday School program at the Arorangi AOG and we’re really enjoying it. The theme for this term is Who Is God? and we’ve been selecting different stories to share with the kids some of the different attributes of God. The guys are continuing to go to the prison once a month.

Paula has started a new ministry, a sports youth night. We plan on hosting it once a month, hold sports competitions and just hang out with the different youth on the island. It’s open to all youth and each night he will share a short message with them. We’re hoping to really reach out to the youth of the Cook Islands through these evenings.

We had a Ladies Night out on February 14, and invited different ladies from the community to join us. We’d like to hold a monthly ladies night, just to build connections and relationships with different women in the community.

We’re planning on running another Kids Camp in April around the Easter holidays. We’re open to having a team come and help out or to have mission builders on hand for that time. Please contact us for more details.

Schools

We had to cancel our Island Explorer DTS due to lack of students, but we see God’s hand in that, as the next few months are going to be extremely busy.

We ran our first Mini-DTS. We had 9 students from the local community complete the course and are in our first week of teaching. The course ran for 3 weeks, and the students learned about topics such as Hearing God’s Voice, Worship, Intercession, the Father Heart of God and Identity in Christ. We hope to run another one in September.

The Bible School for the Nations (BSN) will run here from 7^th of July-19^th December. (Two months of that is outreach where the school will go to other islands in the Pacific). The BSN studies through the Bible chronologically, and the students are taught to relate the information they learn to others in cross-cultural settings. We are still open to applications if you’re interested and have already done a DTS.

For more information on any of our schools, please check out our website at www.ywamcooks.com or email us at seeyou@ywamcooks.com

Mission Builders

Kimberlee Collins and her daughter Chelsea have been serving with us since the end of January. Kimberlee was originally going to do her DTS with us, but as the school has been cancelled, she will stay on with us mission-building until she receives further direction.

Helen Wilson is serving with us for a month. Helen has served with YWAM for a long time. She will be speaking on the final week of the Mini-DTS, and is helping out with many things around the base. The Kreis family, Sandy, Natasha & Jesse, will be staying with us for a few weeks. They’ve spent time with us before, and we’re so happy to have them with us again!

The Café

Mike & Rebecca are continuing to run the café from the front of the office. They’re slowly finding their feet, but having brilliant ideas, doing all that they can to fundraise for a proper café to be built on our property. If you’re interested in more particulars or in how you could help out, please contact the base.

The Ark

Toke & Nicky Jim, long-time friends and supporters of YWAM Cook Islands, are currently working on opening an Op Shop (Second-hand store) for the base. It will also be run out of the front of the office for the time being. Proceeds will be used as a fundraiser for base development.

Women’s Conference

In May, we are hosting a South Pacific Women’s Association Conference here at the base. The keynote speaker is HRH Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili from the Kingdom of Tonga. The vision of the conference is to encourage, empower & equip women to realize their God-given potential, exercise their leadership mandate, fulfil their life purpose, and advance the kingdom of God in every sphere of society.

Staff

At the end of March we will be saying good-bye to Darla Unrau, who’s served with us since the completion of her DTS in July 2011. She’ll be moving back home until she receives clear direction as to where God wants her next.

Please pray with us as we really need some more long-term staff. God is opening up so many doors for us, and we really need more people to come with a heart & vision for the Cook Islands.

Prayer Needs (other than what’s already been mentioned…)

A base vehicle (a truck and/or a van)
Finance to finish some of the rooms on the building for the busy times that are heading our way

Thank you for all your prayers and support for us as a base and we pray that God will bless you in the rest of this year.

Love from all of us at YWAM Cooks