Greetings from YWAM – UofN Bali! We hope you and your family are healthy and safe as we come to the end of this crazy year of 2020. At the beginning of the year, we had many plans for ministry and training. However, almost all of those plans were cancelled this year due to the pandemic.
Distributing food to the poor.
But even though those plans were cancelled, we have continued to see God move through the ministry here at UofN Bali. Many of our staff have been distributing basic food necessities to families in need here in Bali. The economy here in Bali is heavily dependent on tourism, which has been severely impacted due to the pandemic. Through this ministry, we have managed to impact many families with the love of Jesus and see a number of people respond to the gospel.
We have been able to carry out this ministry due to the generosity of people from both here in Indonesia and from around the world. Last month, our guys were putting together the last food packets because the funds had run out. One of our staff got a phone call from an Australian lady that lives in Bali and he went to visit her.
This lady has a son in Australia who drives trucks. One day he was working and he felt God speak to him, “You need to give some money to YWAM in Bali, they will know what it is for.” He didn’t know much about YWAM, so he contacted his mother. The lady then proceeded to give our staff 2000 Australian dollars. It has been amazing to see God’s care and provision during this time of pandemic.
DTS is running!
In September, we were able to run our Discipleship Training School (DTS). We had to cancel our June school, but were given permission by the local government to start again in time for September. Unfortunately, the borders in Indonesia are still closed, so we were unable to bring in foreign students. We have 10 students from various parts of Indonesia. They started the school with a 2-week quarantine. It has been amazing seeing what God is doing in their lives, transforming them and giving them a greater understanding of who He is and the role they have to play in building God’s Kingdom. They are now almost finished their lectures and will be going on outreach to various locations here in Bali and eastern Indonesia.
Our next DTS will start 24 January 2021. We are hoping that the Indonesian government will start issuing visas before then so we can bring in international students. We already have a number interested in coming, however we have not yet had confirmation from the Indonesian government. We will also be running a School of Worship at the same time, for students to learn more about using worship, intercession and spiritual warfare to transform nations for God’s Kingdom. We would appreciate your prayers for these 2 schools.
Miracles in the midst of struggles.
At the beginning of the year when the pandemic really started to impact us, it looked like we were going to experience some severe financial struggles this year. Much of the income for our ministry here comes from the student fees and from visiting outreach teams. Within a month, all of that came to a halt. We even had to send students home early from our January DTS with many of them finishing online. We challenged the staff to do the possible in cutting costs and saving money.
Now that we are almost done 2020, we are amazed at God’s provision for us. We have managed to cover our costs and keep the ministries going. Amazingly, we have also seen a number of donations come in for our campus development project here. Back in February, we thought there would be zero funds coming in this year to continue building. However, since February, we have actually seen many gifts come in for the project totaling over 19,000 USD! In a year of scarcity and difficulty, we have been amazed by God’s abundant provision!
The next step.
With those funds we are starting the construction for our futsal/soccer court. As many know, we have a very large soccer ministry that has impacted and transformed the lives of many in our area. We currently have enough funds to start with the foundation. This means we will be able to upgrade from doing our soccer practice on the sand to doing it on cement.
The next phase of the futsal court construction is installing the roof, which requires installing 14 steel pillars 6 meters tall along with all the beams and supports. To get this phase done, we need about another 28,000 USD. Even after that is completed, we still need to install the professional playing surface, lighting and netting. If you are interested in helping us with this need and investing in what God is doing through our soccer ministry, you can contact us at info@uofnbali.org . We are looking forward to increasing our influence and impact among the kids and families here in Bali for God’s Kingdom.