The ALLC recently interviewed a number of people who are leading a variety of YWAM ministries and schools in Asia. We specifically asked them about their personal journey related to identifying and defining their vision and purpose. Our hope is that in sharing their stories with the ALLC, we can all benefit from their collective wisdom and experience on our own journeys to discovering God’s unique vision and purpose for our lives and ministries. Enjoy!
What is the vision and purpose of your ministry?
“Sexually exploited individuals, families and communities, fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives – aware, restored, empowered and free.” – an anti-trafficking and awareness ministry in Southeast Asia
“A Bible for every home, a Bible for every student and a set of 4 Bibles for every temple.” – Share Bibles (www.sharebibles.com)
“One Nation One Generation: Equipping and Empowering to bring the Kingdom of God to Communities in Cambodia, Southeast and to the Ends of the Earth. We are called to be a training hub for the region to raise up missionaries to be sent out to pioneer new ministries in the unreached.” – UofN/YWAM Battambang, Cambodia
“To share the gospel to the Shan People of South East Asia. We want to see a Shan living fellowship among them. Shan believers grow in faith and in their walk with God and able to live and share the gospel to their own people and to other unreached people groups. We want to see a local Shan leaders raised up and live out their destiny in the kingdom.” – Shan Outreach Center Asia
How did you know you were called to this ministry?
“My story for His glory. God chose to use my past story of slavery and freedom to help others who are needing to be set free in body, soul and spirit. Months of prayer, research and education led to open doors that we walked through.” – Jennifer G
“God deposited it into my heart. It aligns with my passions and giftings.” – ShareBibles.com
“Being called to this ministry required first Jesus getting me to the point of being fully surrendered. At that point in 2003 God brought me to Cambodia and started to speak to me through Genesis 50:20 that God wanted to redeem what the enemy had meant for evil through the Khmer Rouge and that God wants to turn it to good. At that time I led four short-term outreach teams to Cambodia over 2 years and God continued to speak to me about His heart for this nation. Then I felt God challenge me through Isaiah 52:7 to be some of the feet to come and serve in Cambodia and see the younger generation (75% under 30 and 42% under 15 years old) be transformed by the Gospel and then bring transformation to their nation and the nations. In 2005 God spoke to bring a DTS team for 6 months to pioneer a YWAM location here in Battambang, Cambodia and since then, the ministry has grown to 90 full-time staff with many training schools, mercy ministries and evangelism ministries.” – Garth Gustafson
“After hearing some challenging message on God’s heart for the unreached people, my wife and I met a couple and shared to us about the Shan. They told us the Shan are one of the unreached people in South East Asia, then we knew that God’s heart cries out to them and that is where we should go.” – Mario Lao
How did you go about defining your ministry’s vision and purpose?
“We had an external coach/consultant walk us through the process of defining our vision, purpose and strategy. It was a long and tedious process, and something that would have been difficult to do on our own. Having a coach outside of our team who could ask us good questions and encourage our creative thinking was invaluable!” – Jennifer G
“I used the vision of similar ministries around the world as examples and then contextualized them to my location based on the needs I saw.” – ShareBibles.com
“Over the years we have really sought the Lord and God continued to clarify the vision and purpose. After the DTS team finished in 2006 we started with a core staff team of 5 and during that time in April 2006 we spent a number of days seeking God’s heart for YWAM Battambang. During those days God spoke to us many foundational words for the ministry and He has continued to clarify those over the years.” – Garth Gustafson
“The vision and purpose of the SOC ministry came about by constant prayer, research, gathering fact and info, listening from other missionaries who worked among the Shan, identifying the felt needs of the Shan, and aligning them into God’s heart for the Shan people.” – Mario Lao
*For more ALLC resources related to developing your vision and purpose, see: http://allc.asia/skills/vision-and-purpose/