Youth With A Mission Ireland

Summer Madness is a Christian festival held in Belfast each summer.  This year, it runs 3-7 July, and YWAM will be hosting a venue.  Check out the Summer Madness website.

The Yak-Shak

‘They tried to make me go to re:hab, I said, “No, no, no”. ‘

YWAM Ireland presents The Yak Shak. This is the place for chillout, for
hanging out with each other, and experiencing God and the world in a
low-key environment.  You’ll find sofas, art, hot drinks, pool, table
tennis, and a special pampering area for the girls – even spectacular
Summer Madness haircuts for everyone!

The “Yak -Shak” afternoon workshops are a multi-sensory extravaganza,
filled with magic, escapology and energetic hi-jinx from Yan Nicholls of
YWAM England and his YWAM Ireland volunteers.  Don’t miss it — or
you’ll miss out!

Saturday (4th)
2.30-3.30 “Yak-Shak hour”
4-5 “Yak-Shak presents” – Donking Rongavilla and the Passion
Freestylers
10-11.30 “Yak-Shak re:creates”

Sunday (5th)
2.30-3.30 “Yak-Shak hour”
4-5 “Yak-Shak presents” – Donking Rongavilla and the Passion
Freestylers
10-11.30 “Yak-Shak re:creates”

Monday (6th)
2.30-3.30 “Yak-Shak hour”
4-5 “Yak-Shak presents” – Norn Irish singer songwriters unplugged
10-11.30 “Yak-Shak re:creates”

“Yak-Shak re:creates” is an evening in two parts. Music from our
resident house band made up of SM campers (that’s you!), magic
mayhem, laughter, culminating in an alt. worship experience for the more
contemplative Summer Madness participant. Mixing words, silence, and
ambient tunes to bring us on a journey of encounter with faith, poverty,
the Kingdom, and the prodigal Father.

Yak-Shak hour: An extravaganza filled with magic, escapology and
energetic hi-jinx.

Yak-Shak presents: Donking Rongavilla and the Passion Freestylers.
Check out their hip hop dance style and learn some yourself!

re:creates – the journey begins with a house band and ends with
contemplation.

Join the Facebook event for more info and automatic reminders!

The time we have spent in India so far has been an intense time of growth and of ‘experiencing’. I had said I was sick of knowing and wanted to DO, and this trip has been the perfect opportunity for that. I have loved learning the Indian culture; wearing the kurtas, trying all the food, and picking up on bits of the language. But even moreso I love the relationships that have been formed.

We have been keeping busy switching between different ministries, and have had the chance to work alongside a few different organizations as well as YWAM. The first two weeks we started out with Mercy Ministries in two different slums – teaching in the preschools and helping with the clinic. The second two weeks in Delhi we were doing university evangelism in the afternoons and helping in a ‘daycare’ for street kids called King’s Kids School in the mornings. Those same kids we have gotten to know really well during our time here in Delhi as we also help with a Street Kid’s Ministry on Saturdays. It fast became our favorite activity, and we spend any of our free time with these kids in their local hangout/place of ‘work’ – the community centre. It’s where we eat lunch and where we build relationships. These children, for most of us, are the reason we are here, and the reason we want to come back! The relationships we have built are so filled with life and beauty. We give the children the love and attention they are starved for, and in return they give us their trust – and their help whenever they can! It gives me so much joy to see a kid helping us negotiate the price of a rickshaw in Hindi, or when they take us by the hand to their parents to pray over them. These are small steps towards a much larger dream, and it is inspiring to be able to be apart of it.

In the middle of our outreach, we took a couple weeks out to go join up with another team from Northern Ireland in Pune, India. There we helped run a Christian youth camp with SOS communities, and joined again with YWAM to visit a number of different orphanages and homes for children over the period of a week. From there we made a short trip to Mumbai to spend time with one of the SOS communities there, and then it was back to Delhi for another couple weeks with the same ministries. It was a good break from the hard work we had been doing in the slums and on the streets of Delhi, and it gave us a more rounded view of this country.

It is encouraging to see God’s hand at work in so many places and through so many of His willing servants. All of our group has been impacted in a powerful way because of this experience, and we are all looking for different ways to stay connected and apart of what is going on in India. In many ways, this trip to India is just the beginning…

Jennifer Volkman
R-DTS Student

Outreach in India has been life changing. It has been an opportunity to go to a place that needs God desperately and serve as the hands and feet of the Lord. It has been a time of great cultural learning and more importantly, growing closer to the Lord.

In India I have had the chance to see God at work in the lives of people so different than me and 1000s of miles from my home. I have learned from them and been inspired to dream bigger while at the same time helping serve them and their ministries. Outreach in India has meant being face to face with poverty, child abuse, and suffering. But, it has also meant experiencing the power of the Lord as he leads his people to action. I return to Belfast with a personal connection to India, and names and faces to pray for and seek the Lord about.

Carolyn Betts
R-DTS Student

Thank you to everyone who supported our 5 runners in the Belfast City Marathon! The team had a great day in the relay race and plans to enter the race again next year with a larger team!