Provision for Global Youth Workers

God’s promise of providing exactly what we need is seen all throughout His word.

Sometimes I forget how miraculous God’s provision really is. He has been faithful from the gift of mah-na in the desert (Exodus 16:9-16) to our greatest need Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 16:25). Time and time again he shows how he will provide for the needs of those who trust in the Word. Recently, I have been reminded of this truth through God’s miraculous provision for YouthHOPE’s global youth workers, Ryan and Mary, in the country of Myanmar. Their Entrepreneurship School is in the midst of developing a school curriculum and they are finally seeing fruit from the research and planning. Your prayers have been greatly appreciated and God has been faithful in providing for a need of computers through a friend of Mary’s. In fact, the computer company was so generous and offered to put in the internet and provide a one year warranty as well as lifetime maintenance on the products themselves. Please continue to pray for upcoming planning and conversation about fund raising and hiring of staff.

In the midst of planning for the new Entrepreneurship School, youth workers in Myanmar have also been working on raising support for the National Youth Ministry Conference.  Sometimes fund raising can seem overwhelming. However, here are two inspiring stories from the team as they were working to raise funds.

The first involves coffee, and honestly who doesn’t like coffee? It’s not about the taste because anyone can add as much cream or sugar to make it just their liking. It is so much more than that! Coffee is a simple and noninvasive way of making them feel relaxed and comfortable. But coffee has it expenses. When Ryan and Mary visited Premier Coffee Company in hopes of them providing coffee in the morning at the conference, the owner was interested in sponsoring all the morning coffee times! An unexpected blessing that would not only save money on coffee buying, but also gives the coffee company a chance to test their products on about 300 coffee lovers.

Another unexpected blessing happened as Ryan ran into a Christian entrepreneurial business man who sells Fiji noodles. His products are in many of the stores throughout the region and his business is only in its first year. Due to its new start, Fiji Noodles were not yet profitable, so the business man was looking for ways to promote his new product. In conversation, Ryan had the opportunity to talk about what his family was doing there in Myanmar and their hope for the Youth Ministry Conference. Since the man was in a place where he could not donate money, Ryan asked him if he would like to help feed everyone at the conference with his Fiji Noodles for a lunch and then do a small presentation on his product. The business man was so thankful for the opportunity to get people to advertise and get people to try his product while helping out with the conference. But the excitement doesn’t stop there. Then the business man even offered to use his experience as a businessman in the new Entrepreneurship School. What better than to have a Christian business man, with experience in starting up a new business, teach at the Entrepreneurship School? Wow!

Sometimes we can get so caught up in the money needed that we can forget that asking for sponsorship can be a simpler and more effective route than the money itself. The blessings God rains down are two fold!! Ryan and Mary have been blessed in saving over $700 in expenses through partnership with a local coffee company and noodle company and in return they could bless the companies by giving them a place to advertise their product. Praise God!  He sees the whole picture and I pray he continues to show me his goodness in ways I would never dream of on my own.