Stories of Encounter and Transformation

You may have heard stories, or you may have observed it yourself, but God is stirring something in the hearts of this generation! There is a spiritual hunger evident among many Gen Z – and God is meeting them in their spiritual openness.

Micah, one of our YWAM Perth staff, shares these recent examples:

I shared the gospel one evening with two young guys. One of them teared up while I shared and was immediately ready to accept Jesus. His friend then told me about how the previous day, while grieving his grandpa's recent passing, "Out of nowhere, I felt this spiritual presence around me that I can't explain, but after having fear all my life, especially of the dark, in an instant all my fear was gone and it didn't come back. How does this relate to the story you've just shared?" After explaining to him that the "spiritual encounter" was Jesus, he accepted Christ. They swung by the next night showing off the Bibles they'd just bought.

Then recently in the city I talked to two 19-year-old boys. Neither had heard the gospel or knew Jesus but one of them had recently started trying to pray, "Because there must be something out there." Both of them, after hearing the gospel and encountering the Holy Spirit through prayer, accepted Jesus. We've seen about 20 commitments to Christ in the city in the last 3 weeks as we've gone out.

The challenge, Micah shares, is follow up:

We're still working on how to get people quickly connected into community and discpleship.  Often the Gen Z people making commitments can be lacking in follow up, meaning it's been hard to see initial commitments turning into long-term discipleship. We're still praying and discerning how we make sure the seeds of commitment fall onto the Matthew 13 "good soil."

Would you join us in prayer for this?

As God is stirring spiritual hunger among those who don’t yet know Him, He also continues to use young people powerfully in the nations as they step out in obedience. Lily, who is currently staffing our Primary Healthcare School (PHC), shares this recent story from the PHC’s time in Cambodia.

My team and I met a man who had an issue with his head and eyesight. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury two years ago and had been having headaches and migraines along with dizziness and blurred vision. We noticed quickly after examining his eyes that they were very sensitive to the light, as he avoided looking at it. He had what we guessed to be a retinal tear on his left eye. So we prayed for healing and afterwards we couldn’t see the retinal tear in his eye as it was completely healed and he could look at our examination light.

Jo, who leads the PHC, shared this experience from joining local believers for baptisms on the same outreach.

There was an elderly woman who was assisted into the water for baptism. She could not walk. She called us over and kept asking for prayer, so we prayed over her. After prayer, she was able to stand up and walk without assistance— something she wasn’t able to do just a few minutes before!

Isn't God amazing? He continues to do miracles as ordinary believers step out in simple faith. His miracles can happen anywhere! In our cities, homes, workplaces, or in nations we travel far to reach. We deeply appreciate your partnership in knowing God and making Him known and would love to hear how you’re seeing God move where you are as well.

Blessings,

Caleb, Ari and Mariecia

Directors of YWAM Perth

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