One day on our Newcastle outreach, four trainees were taken into Newcastle on a 'faith day' -- they had no idea about it until they got into town. It was there, in city centre, that they learned for the next 12 hours, they were to trust and rely on God to provide not only food and/or shelter, but ministry opportunities and chances to step out in faith. With this in mind, I'm honoured to introduce Amir to you -- one of our team members from Egypt who has blessed England with his obedience and passion for all things involving God, love and football.
Amir began: "My experience in Newcastle was so good! I wish we could've spent more time there. My main highlight was the faith day... the staff didn't tell us about the faith day, we were just told about it that morning. It was cold, but good. It's a day that you don't have money or food for 12 hours - you just trust that God will provide. But the day is not about finding food or a place to sleep, it's about listening to God and blessing people. My group prayed and went over the river and while praying, I felt like God was asking me to go talk to the manager of the Hilton hotel. So I did. We were all so encouraged by our conversation there and they were encouraged as well. I explained all about our faith and YWAM -- talked about how we were people who simply heard the word of God and wanted to obey! The manager loved that it was about our obedience to God and understood we weren't simply searching for food -- we were offered tea and coffee!"
We spread out later in the town to have certain conversations. I sat on a bench with a guy and talked about God and church with him -- he asked me what I was doing in Newcastle and I explained to him my faith and he was so impressed by what we were doing and how serious we were about our faith. In the end, he asked if he could give us money at the end of the conversation but he was so encouraged and was interested in visiting church. Our main conclusion was that when we tried to find food, we could not, but when we focused on what God wanted us to do, God provided for us. We were reminded that our main goal was not about providing for ourselves, our focus was to bless and listen to God in all circumstances."
In the evening, we had a city-centre wide prayer walk and Mitch ended up in the Grainger market while we were watching a football match in town centre. In the market, Mitch had some conversations and got to talk about his faith to some of the vendors there -- Mitch came out of the market with £4 worth of curry out to feed the team for dinner. We thought it was incredible, so we decided to go back and thank the man in the market for the food but when we did, the man said, 'Wait, wait - let me give you more, let me give you more!' We got three more boxes of curry! It was so good! God provided all day and we were so blessed by taking steps of faith. We're here for more than food and water - we're here to bless. Jesus focused on his ministry and on God in all situations... so yeah, I think it was
such a good day. It stretched my faith."
The last question Amir was asked was about how outreach has impacted him greatest. He was quick to reply: "I think I learned a lot about stepping out and having initiative to go out and speak to people. I'm introverted and aren't used to a Western, closed society but I've learnt well how to hear God speak. When he says, "Go and talk to this person" I need just to obey - this is my role. God cares about these people. This is the one thing that I have been challenged most in. I don't have to care about my image, I just have to talk about God and why I do care and why I do love as well."
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