(kids first 14-hour drive to Townsville (northern Australia), they did exceptional!)
“Giving is one of the most concrete forms of love. Generosity becomes a natural impulse when you love.” (David Hamilton)
This past few weeks, we traveled 14-hours north to attend an unforgettable life-changing conference. We were able to meet and network with leaders and missionaries from all over the globe. We are just shy of a year being missionaries so we have so much to learn as we are babies still drinking milk! It was a pretty full on conference, 2 weeks and 3 sessions per day. It was perfect for families though because YWAM Tasmania did a full Kings Kids program so the kids learned the same things that we did while we were in session! We had such an incredible time and listened to dozens of powerful messages, but I want to highlight this one because it just hit my soul so profoundly, the topic of generosity.
(as a child I had an obsession of looking at the world map, I now know why!!)
Before we were missionaries we gave of course, but I will be the first to admit that sometimes it was out of a religious heart or compulsion. This is contradictory to “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” ( 2 Cor. 9:7). Here are some highlights that I learned from this beautiful message that David Hamilton shared with us:
-to give (verb)/topic of generosity is written about 1000 times in the Old Testament, and about 1200 times in the New Testament
-“if you don’t know His generosity you don’t know God”
-If you receive an exact amount of money you need, don’t assume it’s yours to keep, pray to see if God wants you to give it away
-It’s like the Dead Sea, if you want to be dead, focus on receiving, if you want to be alive, be a giver (The Dead Sea lies in the low part of the earth and the rivers run into it, it always receives, but never gives it away)
-The bible says not to test God, but there is one time in Malachi 3 where the Lord says to “test Me in this” and it’s talking about generosity and basically if you aren’t being generous you won’t experience blessing
Here are three amazing testimonies that David shared from pioneering several YWAM bases in Chile:
- He didn’t have money for toothpaste so he prayed, received just enough for toothpaste and rushed to the store to buy it, but then remembered himself teaching to ask God if He wants him to give it away, the Lord said give it away. A few days later he was in a meeting with fellow missionaries and they were sharing testimonies of how they received the same amount and God asked them to give it away, so basically the same money was given 7 times around the room (which also happens to be the number of completion). So basically 7 missionaries received the money, but then were obedient to pass it along, and the 7th person felt the Lord say to keep it!
- David was starting a YWAM base with a handful of people in Chile and they had run out of food (about 30 people). They prayed and asked the Lord to provide. All of a sudden for breakfast, a knock on the door and a woman comes with bread and meat. They ate and praised God. An hour before lunchtime, another woman came with a huge pot of soup. They ate and praised God. Dinnertime, a different woman came with sandwiches. They ate and praised God. These woman also traveled far on buses to bring these meals, again they all didn’t know each other and were from different churches. The team didn’t make any calls, and back in this time social media was non-existent. They prayed, and God miraculously brought people with meals for the next 21 days!
- The team decided to plant some potatoes in their small field so that they would harvest more food. A Brazilian on the team said it’s the season to plant them, but the YWAM teams next door neighbor (Chilean) called them stupid for planting them at the time they were because it was the wrong time. So after they did all the work and planted them, they gave up and turned their work into a soccer field. They left on outreach and forgot about the potatoes. When they came back a girl saw something sticking out of the ground and started screaming. They were harvesting massive amounts of potatoes when a) they were planted in the wrong season b) left un-watered c) left un-cared for. The neighbor looked on to see all the commotion and David simply told him that they were excited for their potato crop! The neighbor gave his life to Jesus on the spot!
We did a beautiful time of giving the last night of the conference. It was about 45 minutes of giving to one another, praying over each other, and also giving items to each other. Timothy received this beautiful soccer jersey from a fellow Brazilian missionary:
The few hundred missionaries in the room also gave roughly $20,000 towards the next DNA conference in Chile later this year. This reminded me of the time where our YWAM based raised over $52,000 for Pakistan:
Did I forget to remind everyone that an anonymous missionary donated to us $20,000 (our outreach fees for Africa in 2016) 5 days before our flight? If all this generosity doesn’t make you want to give, then friend, ask God to change you. In our lives time and time again the scripture always reigns true: “the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35)
Here is a picture of some beautiful Papa New Guineans’, Darlene Cunningham (co-founder of YWAM), and David Hamilton
Here is a picture of us and the amazing founder of YWAM (the largest missions organizations in the world), Loren Cunningham!