City Scape

YWAM Chicago

PO Box 268408Chicago, IL 60626ywamchicago@yahoo.comwww.ywamchicago.orgDirector: Brad Stanley

Youth With A MissionStatement of Purpose

YWAM is an internationalmovement of Christians frommany denominations dedi-cated to presenting JesusChrist personally to this gen-eration, to mobilizing as manypeople as possible to help inthis task, and to the trainingand equipping of believers

for their part in fulﬁlling the

Great Commission. As citizensof God’s Kingdom we arecalled to love, worship andobey our Lord, to love andserve His body, the church,and to present the WholeGospel for the whole personthroughout the whole world.

YWAM ChicagoStatement of Purpose

YWAM Chicago is commit-ted to city-wide ministry andto the redemption of God’sdesign for the modern urbancommunity. We endeavor topresent the Gospel to the so-cially and culturally isolated,to embrace and train the im-migrant populations of our city, and to seek to bring thewhole gospel to the whole citythrough long-term communitydevelopment and short-termoutreaches.

Living in the city for 18 years, I have become overwhelmingly convinced thatGod lives in the city, that He loves the city, and that His presence can be seenand felt in the city. Its one of the reasons why we have put this page in our news-letters, in hope that it might bring some perspective on how God feels aboutthe city and what He may be doing in the urbanization of the earth. However, itwould be inaccurate to say that this rural East Texas boy came to that realiza-tion easily.

The ﬁrst several months in the big city was hard. My wife Sherry and I were lead

-ing a pioneer team of 11, trying to establish YWAM in Chicago. It wasn

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t hardto see that God wanted to reach the masses of people, but I began to strugglewith hearing God

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s voice and experiencing His presence in all the distraction.I missed those quiet meditative times of solitude that I had enjoyed with the

Lord over the years. You just simply could not ﬁnd it in the busyness of the city.

Outside the window of our studio the “el” train rumbled by every 3-5 minutes 24

hours a day. There was noise and domestic ﬁghts in our 50 unit apartment build

-ing through most nights. Street lights were always on. Police and emergencysirens could be heard constantly. On top of that we had drug dealers and pros-titutes outside our window calling to people all the time. How was I supposed tohave a “quiet time” with the Lord!?I was drying up inside. I couldn

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t seem to refuel in the Lord as I had done be-fore. One day I got really frustrated with God. I simply told Him that He had toprovide some quiet isolated environment for me on a daily basis so that I couldmeet with Him. I remember Him directing me to go and have my “quiet time” forthe next several days on Devon street near our apartment. This street happensto be the busiest street in our neighborhood in the middle of the Asian Indian

district. It was definitely not what I was asking for. But, out of obedience I wentwith my Bible and sat on a park bench for several days trying to seek the Lord.It was really hard at first. All the noises, smells, and presence of people walkingall around me made it very difficult to focus on God. Before long I began to real

ize two things. First, how to ﬁlter out the world and noise around me. Secondly,

and even more surprisingly, how to hear and see God in the faces of the peopleand noises of the world around me. I found that even in the busiest place I couldexperience God

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s presence and hear His voice. My “quiet times” became dy-namic. I felt as if God was sitting there with me in the middle of all that activity. AsI read the scriptures, God

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s word had instant application in the faces and actionsof the people around me.I believe this Urban generation is longing to discover God in this way. Many willnever be able to retreat from busy, noisy environments to be with God. And forthose that do get that rare chance, and discover God in isolated environments,how will they hear Him when they return to city life? They want to know if God

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presence can be felt in the busy world of the city. We must deﬁne the art of being

“alone with God“, “spending time with God” and “sharing intimately with God” as

internal realities and not merely External realities. 90% of the world

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s population

will be living in cities by the end of the century. If we do not disciple them in thisinternal, vibrant walk with God despite of their environment; they will be doomedto live in a shallow and barren relationship with their God. The dwelling place ofGod is with men. Let

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s learn how to hang out in His living room.

- Brad Stanley, Director YWAM Chicago

Chicago News

arts with a mission camp

He interceded for the Hebrews that God might not destroy them. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it didn’t rain for three and a half years. He pleaded he would not die and

God gave him ﬁfteen more years. He slipped away often to pray in the morning. They devoted

themselves to ... prayer. And he admonishes us in Ephesians six after teaching on armor that we must be

“...praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end

keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints”. Proverbs 29:18 says, “where there is no vision the people perish” which we agree is true. Inour ministry we’re not suffering for lack of vision, but for the abundance of it! We need peopleto pray with us to see the vision birthed. Starting in May we will send out monthly prayer

updates (and post on the web) with some prayer speciﬁcs. William Temple said, “When I pray,

coincidences happen, and when I don’t pray, they don’t.” We want to see things happen! If you would like to receive this prayer update via email, please send an email toywamchicago@yahoo.com.

monthly prayer updates

Family Night

Join us on Sunday evenings at 5:30 at the base

for a pot-luck meal and fellowship time.

Questions? Contact Ruth @ 773.807.0972.

This is a great way to get to know YWAM alumni,staff, volunteers and friends of YWAM.

J u n e 2 8 - J u l y 2

Monday, Aug 2 - Friday, Aug 6, 2010

Participants: 10 - 18 yrsLocation & Cost: TBAContact: 847-680-1581 or

grasswaters@gmail.com

YWAM ChicagoKA Youth Summer Retreat

a week long day camp

ages 6 - 18

(Kindergarten is a prerequisite)

$130 camp fee per participantRegistration fee:$15 per family/($25 after June 1)Location: First Evangelical Free Church5255 N Ashland Ave.SPACE LIMITED: register early!!www.ywamchicago.org773.807.097

new website

www.ywamchicago.org