From the Field

Homeless man encounters God

"A group of us were walking on the boardwalk and one of the girls felt like giving her sweatshirt to a homeless man because it was cold out. It opened up the door for us to talk to him and he shared that he believed in God but didn't follow him.

We asked if we could pray for him and when we laid hands on him he started sobbing and repenting before the Lord. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and we continued praying for him. He ended up giving his life to Christ!"

Lauren P.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

Nicaragua's first Homes of Hope

"We were on outreach in Nicaragua and we were doing evangelism at the rock quarry where people work breaking rocks into gravel. There they earn about $10 a week. We had an intercession team with us and while they were praying a boy came up and said the rain had washed away his house. He shared that his house had been made with plastic and sticks. Immediately we felt that we were supposed to help build a new house for his family.

We talked with Homes of Hope and asked them to consider helping with the first Homes of Hope in Nicaragua. With their support and with the help of a woman from the boys' school, we were able to fundraise for the materials we needed to build the house. We ended up building the house with wood that we had to carry 1/2 a mile, saws, hammers, and nails. We even got to paint it, which is uncommon because only rich people can afford paint in that area.

It took us a total of 5 days to finish the house for the boy and his family, and pioneer Homes of Hope at the YWAM base there."

Josh M.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

Blind woman healed to read her new Bible

"In a time of ministry on our DTS Outreach in Durango Mexico, we went to a poor community to hand out Bibles and then invited everyone in the community to gather and have a time of worship and a message.⁠⁠⁠⁠

After that time, a lady came up to us and said she couldn't read her Bible because of her eyesight. We prayed for her a few times, the pain in her eyes was gone and one of her eyes was completely healed! It was amazing to see the before and after of what God did, as now she was able to read her new Bible!"

Gabrihel
Burning Hearts DTS

Man healed of crippling back pain

"During Carnaval outreach, I was serving coffee at the cafe ministry we were doing on Silvino's field. I saw a man walk in completely hunched over, standing at almost a 90-degree angle. My first thought was that we needed to pray for him for healing. I continued serving coffee while my friends began praying over him.

After a few minutes, I heard him shouting for joy and saw him running back and forth, standing straight up! He was overwhelmed and teary-eyed while saying over and over 'This is too much! This is too much, what God has just given me!'

He said the pain had lessened and he was walking normally for the first time in years. The joy of the Lord he was carrying was contagious for everyone there!"

Sara R.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

Middle Eastern man encounters the love of God

"We are on outreach in the Middle East and one day we met 2 guys and wanted to talk more with them. The culture there is pretty hard, so starting a conversation was pretty difficult. We kept insisting and trying to get these two particular guys to meet with us. After a few times trying one of the guys, named Johan asked us about some of the stories of our experience with God. After we told them some of our stories, he said he wanted to experience for himself who God is. Our stories didn’t seem logical to him, so he wanted his own experience.

One of our team prayed for him to feel the Holy Spirit, and at first, he felt nothing. This guy had already gone through many hard moments in his life and with his family. Many moments where his father never told him he loved him, many cultural wounds.

They prayed and spent a few hours together, and Johan shared that it is hard for the men of his country to feel affection toward one another or even for their own mothers. When we were about to head back to our hotel, he began hugging us and told us, "I don’t know what just happened, but I feel deeply in me that I love you a lot and I don’t know why. I feel like I love you so much and you’re my friends. I want to know what the truth is." He had tried various regions but he wanted to try to follow Jesus. We prayed with him and put him in contact with the local contacts we had doing ministry."

Magaly C.
Burning Hearts DTS

Young skater girl meets Jesus

"There was a girl from our Remnant ministry that I have been getting to know. A few weeks ago we were talking and she was telling me about all of the sins she was dealing with in her life and asking me what I thought about it.

The next week she told me that she saw many bad things being taken out of her life and she could see that God was chasing her. I shared the gospel with her and she was crying. She said she could feel it and that she wants to see God and know God.

Now she's going to start reading the Bible with me and she wants to do a Discipleship Training School!"

Shannon C.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

The wildest day of ministry I have ever been a part of!

"I was hosting a visiting team and we were doing Bible distribution. I talked a lot with our taxi driver and he was interested in the ministry. He really wanted us to go distribute Bibles in his neighborhood. We had been distributing in one area for a while and when I checked the map, his neighborhood was the one remaining section we needed to cover.

So we went to his neighborhood and split up into groups to start handing out Bibles. The driver asked my group if we could first pray for his wife who had been having back pain for 2 months. We went to their home, prayed for her back, and it was completely healed. After the miracle, she wanted to get baptized!

We began to have a time of worship in their home. Her daughter came in and heard the testimony of her mother's healing. She was so amazed by God that she wanted to be baptized as well!

At this time, the other groups started coming back with testimonies. Someone's hand was healed, a cartel member accepted Jesus, someone's hip was healed, and more! It was the wildest day of ministry I have ever been a part of!"

Brennan K.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

Woman's knee is healed instantly

"We were going around a very long line with people waiting to get the vaccine. We kept asking if anyone had pain in their body and if they needed prayer, but not many people responded. Then we stopped to talk to a lady nearby the line selling tacos, and she said she had pain in her right knee.

We prayed for her knee in Jesus' name, and the lady said the pain lessened. Then we prayed one more time and the lady said it was totally better - no more pain! One of the students, who had her hand on the knee, said she felt a "pop" when we prayed. The lady said she could now walk without pain.

We got to see firsthand that our God is a healer right then and there. And the lady got to experience Jesus Christ as her healer."

Brennan K.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

13-year-old inspired to become a missionary

"Last year, our Mexico outreach team served at a Christian elementary school for a week where we taught English, Bible stories, and shared about being missionaries. About a year later, I received a message from one of the kids, a 13-year-old boy.

He shared about how impacted he was by our week at his school and that he had decided to pursue missions! He said that without the encouragement from our team, he would have never made that decision.

It is amazing how God used us to encourage another young person to follow God's call on his life. Who knows how many he will impact!"

Sophie B.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

Woman touched by the gift of God's word

"We were distributing Bibles and were greeted by 2 children at the door of a house. After we gave the free Bible, the grandmother came out and expressed how grateful she was. We asked if we could pray for her and she welcomed us into her home.

She asked for prayer for her son who was a drug addict. After praying she was so touched by the Lord and with tears in her eyes she said, "At first when you came I didn’t want to come out, but I knew I had to when I saw you had the word of God. Thank you so much." She was so encouraged by this gift.

It was a beautiful testimony of God’s provision of his word."

Livia A.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan

A dream come true

"We were in the Dominican Republic and one morning I prayed something that I had never prayed before: that we would meet people who had known and dreamed of God before.

That day we were doing evangelism on the beach. We arrived and the second person we spoke to was a woman named Ariana. She was Haitian, and one of the first things she said to us was, "I want to accept Jesus, but first I have to fix some things!" We talked and during the conversation, she told us that a few weeks ago she had a dream where she was working on the beach and she saw different people come to this square to talk to her about Jesus and she accepted Jesus.

At that moment she was understanding that the people in the dream were us, and so it was with that realization that she ended up accepting Jesus and choosing to live for him now!"

Ary W.
Student | Engage and Impact DTS

God shares his love with a prostitute

"During a time of intercession in Mazatlan, God gave me a specific vision about a woman and showed me her face and her features. Then here on outreach in Colombia, we went into the red light prostitution zone. We gave roses and flowers to the women and prayed for them. When speaking with the last woman, she smiled, and I remembered that it was the same woman from the vision that God had shown me before!

I began to give her words that God had given me for her, and we prayed for her. God wanted a meeting with her on that day and it was incredible to see how God touched her and the love that God had for his daughter."

Francilene A.
Student | Burning Hearts DTS

Six-year-olds pray for healing

"We were doing evangelism in a local neighborhood and we went to visit a woman's home. Two six-year-old girls from our Racham children's ministry came with us.

This woman has been bedridden for 8 years and has a lot of health issues. When we asked her how she was doing she shared with us that she has fallen out of bed and her arm was broken. We started to pray and the two little girls wanted to pray for her too.

After they prayed we asked the woman how she was feeling and she said some of the pain had gone away. The girls wanted to pray again. Every time they prayed, the woman's arm felt a little bit better. Eventually, she could move her arm without any pain.

Her husband also had leg pain, so the girls prayed over him too and he was shocked. He said, "Wow! They are so young but they are more mature than me in their faith!"

Malena F.
Staff | YWAM Mazatlan