- Kayla Shenk
- Apr 18, 2021
- 4 min read
God is moving in Lancaster county! I am hearing testimonies of people encountering God and giving their lives to Jesus almost every single day now! The move has begun and will grow and grow into a raging wildfire of Revival! Come Lord Jesus, Come!
Josiah and I graduated our Discipleship Training School (DTS) on March 11 and enjoyed a short break reconnecting with family, friends, ministry partners, and lots of playdates! Josiah was able to work for his Dad during the 3 week break, which was such a huge blessing financially since we are not yet fully funded for the school we are currently in.
During our break, we continued walking in ministry opportunities! What a privilege and blessing to not have to transition into coming back home after completing our DTS because ministry has become part of our daily lives in Lancaster even outside of the time we spend at YWAM!
I had the opportunity to share at Mom's Alive in Ephrata to approx. 100 mommas with young kiddos about connecting with our kid's hearts and how to begin co-parenting with the Holy Spirit to heal childhood owies in childhood! The testimonies that are coming out of this meeting are incredible:: Mommas feeling more empowered to connect to their kids' hearts and lead them to Jesus and heart healing! Glory be to God!
ENCOUNTER GROUP::
We have been continuing to minister with the ex-Amish Encounter group almost every weekend since the retreat in January! God is doing so much in this group and is bringing salvations, healings, inner healings, and filling them with His Holy Spirit! The group is multiplying and bringing many other young adults and teenagers in the Kingdom that are in or have recently come out of the Amish church.
Our family had the privilege of ministering at cabin weekend with the Encounter Group in March over our break! God was doing a lot of inner healing that weekend and Josiah and I led one young man through inner healing with Father wounds and he found so much Freedom!
My favorite testimony from the weekend was on Saturday eve during worship and ministry time, I felt the Holy Spirit give me a word of knowledge for one of the teenaged guys there about a "fearless boy riding a red bike". I was nervous to share it because I didn't think Amish could have bikes, but I asked one of the other guy leaders to come with me and I shared the picture I saw. The young man was very touched and said that he had a red bike when he was a boy! Through that picture, he knew God saw him and cared about him because only God would've known that about him! I began to prophesy over him his destiny and the love of the Father and led him through an exercise in hearing God's voice and he heard God tell him that he was a courageous leader! Then I felt led to ask him if he wanted to fully surrender his life to Jesus and live for him, and he said yes! He surrendered his addiction to alcohol and gave his life to Jesus! Then we prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and he felt so much joy and life and peace and felt tingles in his hands.
He shared his testimony with the group of what God did and in his own words he said, "God kicked the darkness out of me!"
That evening FOUR young ex-amish guys surrendered their lives to JESUS!!
GLORY BE TO GOD!
I want to do this the rest of my life! The joy and excitement I get from leading people into encounters with their heavenly father is the ABSOLUTE BEST!
Please pray for this group and each of the leaders and young men and women who are growing in God and fearlessly living out their faith. Please pray especially for the ones who are facing difficulties and backlash at home because of their new faith in Jesus and desire to leave the Amish. Please pray that they will be strengthened with might in their inner man and be so grounded in the love of Jesus that they will be able to show honor their parents in the midst of the difficulties and that their families will come to know the truth.
SCHOOL OF MINISTRY DEVELOPMENT
We started the next leadership school with YWAM Lancaster two weeks ago in the beginning of April and it has been SO GOOD! It is called School of Ministry Development (SOMD) and it's the next step in our journey to join staff at YWAM Lancaster.
We are growing in so many ways already and I am so grateful we are sitting under such wonderful teachers that can help us grow in leadership!
There are 25 students and at least half of them are couples and families, which has been so fun to be in school with other mommas of young children who understand our current life situation and the challenges that come with it raising small children while being in school full-time.
The first week we each shared our 10 minute version of our testimony with the whole group and it was so powerful to hear each other's God stories and how God has brought them to YWAM Lancaster! I am so excited to run with all these warriors the next 3 months!
JOIN US!
::Every Monday and Wednesday mornings at Gateway House of Prayer from 8-10am for worship and intercession
::Every Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the YWAM Lancaster base in Ephrata (Old twin pine) for worship from 9-10am
::Monday afternoons from 2-4pm for intercession at Gateway House of Prayer for the Amish and plain community and for the Encounter group!
::Thursday evenings at YWAM Lancaster in Ephrata for community nights at 7pm for worship and teaching and prayer!
Thank you so much for you partnership with us in prayer! Please pray for Ellie, Selah, and Eve as we adjust again to a full-time school schedule. Please pray for Gabby (Josiah's sister) as she cares for them while we are in school. Please pray for spiritual protection over them and our marriage and our family! We have been facing some spiritu
al warfare as we continue to say "yes" to God in this season and we know the Kingdom of Heaven is advancing with FORCE! ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
-The Shenk's
[If you are stirred in your heart to join our monthly partnership team, we would LOVE to meet with you and share more of our vision! You can check out more information here on our Partnership page!]
