..Meanwhile, in San Francisco

Hello, all you people, wonderful and great.  I hope as you read this your day is bright.  It's been an electric season at YWAM San Francisco, and my time here in the new year has been edifying and progressive.  Recently, I've been really encouraged to get to some projects that were on my heart when I first started staffing at YWAMSF.

One of my desires as part of our ministry here is to see people able to work together better, bare one another in each other's burdens, and to see YWAMSF have an even more whole realization of our work together in the city of San Francisco.  Here at YWAMSF, there're a lot of different ministries going on at the same time.  It can be easy to lose track of each other in the flow of our own streams.  That's why I'm glad I've been able to focus more on getting a top-down look at YWAMSF's activities throughout the year.  As I look at all the stuff we're doing, and all ahead of us, I'm really excited about what's to come.  So, for those who are behind me in all I'm doing, here's a little look into what all we're doing.




DTS

Our January DTS started up a few weeks back.  Nine students from all around the world have gathered together to grow closer to God and learn how to spread His Kingdom.  They'll be spending close to three months receiving lecture about different aspects of the Kingdom, Hearing God's Voice, Character and Nature of God, Spiritual Warfare, and The Bible, just to name a few.  Afterwards, they'll be setting out overseas to put to practice the things they've learned.  One of the things I love about DTS at YWAMSF, however, is their ministry doesn't start after three months.  Throughout the week, the partner with our ministries here to show Christ's love in the midsts of their studying.

This time around, I'm the Work Duties Coordinator for the school.  I'm responsible for making sure everyone's able to get their work duties done around the base.  Part of living in community, you can't let the rafters sag!

I'm really excited to see this school grow along the way, and to encourage them in their growth.  I always love DTS season!

Learn more about DTS at YWAMSF here.


Summer of Service

Even though it's still winter, things are starting to gear up for our Summer of Service.  Applications are coming in, call backs, planning, activity arrangement.  I've actually gotten really excited about it!  Summer of Service is basically an opportunity for – usually youth, but really people of all ages – to work short term in a missions environment.  For a three month season, SOSers come to work along side teams coming to work in the city.  SOS will lead youth to minister to all of San Francisco, growing and learning about God all along the way.  I love when SOS is here, and I love trying to get as many people as possible to apply!  That's been kinda my handle this last bit, as 'Communications Dude', processing all our past data and building hype on Facebook to try to get as many people to see SOS and get in on this amazing opportunity to minister to the city of San Francisco.

Learn more about SOS on our website.

Ellis Room

One of our ministry constants here at YWAMSF is our Ellis Room.  Every day, throughout the week, we open our doors up and welcome in people from off the streets to have a place to be outside the rough street lifestyle.  Our neighborhood, the Tenderloin, has the second highest population of homeless people in all of America, and there aren't many places like ours for people to enjoy.  We're one of the only organizations in the neighborhood that has bathroom facilities for people to use, we have open pool tables, and just try to generate an atmosphere of peace appart from the chaos and uncertainty of street life.  The Ellis Room is a constant presence at YWAMSF.  I love the fact that we're able to open our doors to the homeless community.

Find out more about our homeless ministry here.

Communications - Me!

Communications is gearing up for a lot of new things this year.  I've been trying to integrate more social networking into our spread, using Twitter and Facebook to let everyone know what's going on.  My heart for my ministry at YWAMSF is to see people find what we do, become a part of it, be changed, and change the city of San Francisco.  I'm trying to get the awareness out in as many venues as I can.  Into this year, figuring out what marketing tools we can use, finding the best way to let people know what we're doing, tons of stuff!  There's also always the minutia of Communications, making signs, processing data.  Fun!  Well, not always, but in the end, important.  It's been such a pleasure working with YWAMSF to help them with this stuff.


Well!  That was a little longer than I thought it'd be.  I hope this gives a good glimpse into the inner workings of YWAM San Francisco.  This is our ministry, this is out passion.