Hello everyone,

Before you start reading about my experience as a Discovery Intern in YWAM Harpenden, I would like to express my gratefulness to be able to share my experience here, which was a dream come true through God.

My name is Igor, I am 21 years old. I am a young Brazilian who first heard about YWAM 5 years ago, through a speaker at a church I went to. She shared about her experience with the base and explained about the volunteer work she did. Little did she know that all she was saying really caught my attention. After all, my dream was to have an experience outside of my country in order to work on my English while serving the Lord. At the time, I did not have any of the resources I needed to go, but God being perfect in all He does, allowed me to come in January 2017 with enough money to cover the plane ticket and the visa!

My stay at the base was a total of 6 months of pure learning and opportunities to serve. I am grateful to God because I was able to serve in a practical way in almost all of the serving areas the base offers; such as the Oval café, hospitality, grounds, kitchen, maintenance, and whatever other way I could help. I even was a part of one of the Oval Chapel worship teams and participated in a few performances. It is wonderful to be where you feel useful to serve people. After all, God teaches us so much through serving, and obeying God never brings us harm but takes us to new things in life. Believe me! I am living proof of this.

Living on the base allowed me to make new friendships that have formed wonderful things in my life. Moments I will take with me forever. I never imagined being in one place where I would make so many friends from around the world. I was able to share incredible experiences where I learnt to respect different cultures and different people. To this day I keep in touch with some of these amazing people!

I did not do a DTS but was able to participate in a certain way by forming friendships with the trainees that were part of the school and by hearing about their experience. One of the things that I was able to focus on during my time in YWAM was being more aware of what God is saying. And this, my friends, is a beautiful thing. These are experiences that help us not to make decisions on our own knowledge but decisions based on what God is saying.

Before arriving at the base and having my dream come true, I had to learn how to wait.  To learn how to understand that everything has its time and that when our dreams and anxieties are handed over to God, they will come to pass because He is faithful.  He accomplishes things so great that as long as you live you will remember and know that there is a God who lifts us up, and even when we don’t deserve it, He will bless us.

Friends, it was short but this a small portion of my experience at YWAM Harpenden. However, what I would like to emphasize is that if you would like to be more than just a reader of what is happening in my life and in the lives of others… Never stop dreaming, always persevere in trusting, because when your dreams begin to be the dreams God has for you, you can be sure that they will happen! Thank you YWAM Harpenden! See you soon.

Igor.