This Christmas Season has included a lot of travel

In the midst of many trips, meetings, and speaking in churches we still have had time to decorate our home a bit and begin enjoying our first Christmas in our new home. So grateful to the Lord and His people for making this home possible.

Picking out our tree

Decorating the Tree together...one of our family traditions

In an airport on one of our trips, we take a moment to enjoy the Christmas season...

The day after Thanksgiving is the Berg Family Christmas Decorating Party!

On Friday after Christmas we have our traditional Berg Family Christmas Decorating Party. We used to have this in our home, but have long ago outgrown any home. We think that there were about 200 in attendance. We as a family lead in singing Christmas Carols, and have a Ginger Bread House making contest, and many other fun activities and of course great food.

Kristen Leading Carols in her Squire Pajamas

Leading Christmas Carols

Justin helping with Decorating the tree

Darla working on Christmas lights

Kristen and team compete in the Ginger Bread Making Contest

Thanksgiving at YWAM Orlando with about 270 people

The day consists of a wonderful meal, the telling of the first Thanksgiving in the USA, a Turkey Bowl American Football game, followed by dinner and fun!

Teaching our kids to carve a Turkey - we cooked two for the festivities 

The Winning Team of Turkey Bowl Football Game - including Justin, Kristen, & Joshua

Decorative Tables awaiting a feast

24/7 Prayer Relay for the Release of Laborers into our Schools - please join us in prayer

Our Community Night

Michael speaking at our weekly Community Night

Sending a leader (Colleen) for more training

I just finished speaking and everyone is heading for the refreshments...

Connecting with our YWAM Canada family just outside of Montreal

YWAM Dunham's 40th Anniversary

Autumn in Canada

Dedication of the last 4 cabins of our Mediterranean Village - cabins for housing on our YWAM Orlando Campus

Just this past month, we also dedicated 5 buildings: 4 dormitory cabins and a laundry facility with fully-functioning laundry machines! Of the 26 buildings already on our campus, we have renovated 23 of them, meaning we only have 3 buildings left to renovate! We are amazed at how far this campus has come, and we are so thankful for His provision of finances and laborers to make this happen!

We believe these buildings were completed just in time since, on September 26th, we will start our fall quarter of training at YWAM Orlando, which is often our busiest quarter of the year! Darla and I will lead our Basic Leadership School (BLS). Please take the next 45 seconds, and pray that God will send laborers into His harvest field in the form of a record number of students to us this quarter. These students will not only receive life-changing teaching, but they will then be launched into the world as a dynamic missions force. 

These buildings were uninhabitable 

Dedicating 4 cabins

Also Dedicating the whole village for God's purposes

Also thanked God and celebrated all that He has done to make this possible

Great to have our daughter Kristen on this journey with us

Each cabin named after a country we are praying for

Dedicating our Laundry Building

Dedicating our Laundry Building

This Laundry Facility adds quality to life at YWAM Orlando

Darla and I participated in YWAM Together, an international gathering of over 2000 YWAMers

Darla and I just returned from a very fruitful international gathering of our YWAM leaders and staff, and I had the privilege of helping to lead portions of the event. We had over 2000 YWAMers from around the world!

    

I helped to lead our breakout sessions for the Church, and one exciting outcome was that, as a group, we committed to engage 125 people groups that currently have no Bible, church, or missionaries. In addition, we discussed strategies to take the Bible to places and countries that have never had the Bible available to them. What a wonderful privilege! 

Being introduced by Darlene Cunningham at YWAM Together in KC 

Speaking Briefly at YWAM Together

Responding to Loren Cunningham's question at Kansas City Municipal Auditorium

Praying for Dr. Tim Elmore as he prepares to speak

A part of a panel discussion at YWAM Together

Responding to a panel question at YWAM Together in KC

Our annual staff training and retreat for YWAM Orlando!

This year in our staff training we had teaching on being wholehearted and we defined how God's culture of the kingdom is expressed at YWAM Orlando! As we look at continued growth we are committed to remaining true to God's vision for us, which requires a community that lives passionately for the Lord and purposely following His Biblical principles.

Staff Training at YWAM Orlando

God still heals...

This story represents many other things that happened on our Discipleship Training School outreach this summer.  What a privilege to lead a team that is bringing life transformation like this, not only in Orlando, but around the globe!  Thank you for helping to make that possible.

Refugees in Greece

We have a team working in Greece with refugees!  Here’s a story from their outreach:

Our group was invited to dinner and an evening gathering with the ministry we were staying with. They serve the homeless and addicts in the area, and there were about 15-20 people there that night. We were asked to share, sing, and possibly give a small message at the end.  We worshipped with them as they sang in Greek, and though the languages were different, Holy Spirit began to move!  Our team was introduced to the group, and then, Mariella, Rachel, and Julian (some of our students) led the room in a few worship songs.  Then, Bryce (another student) shared a testimony that ended with how much the love of Jesus had completely changed his life!  The story he shared about his experiences was honest and detailed but filled with the redeeming love of Jesus.  It was clear that Holy Spirit was present and moving in the room!  Tor (the team leader) then spoke more on Jesus’ love and the power He gives us to walk in freedom.  He asked the group if anyone felt a tug on their heart as Bryce was sharing.  Elias (the host) prayed in Greek and asked if anyone would like to accept Jesus, and FOUR stood up and were saved that night!

The love of Jesus is so transforming!  God is moving powerfully among refugees!  Please continue to pray for the team as they finish their outreach, ministering in Italy!

Completed Dormitory Cabins

This has certainly been an exciting year of progress on our campus renovations!  We have completed 3 of our 7 additional cabins and have people living in those cabins already.  The remaining 4 should be completed by the end of August, which will help us prepare for the increasing number of students coming our way during the fall quarter.  In addition, we are also working to finish the laundry facility by the end of August.

Praying at Orlando's Citrus Bowl to consider possibilities for the future...

Spent an evening at the Orlando Citrus Bowl with some amazing friends asking God about future possibilities...

Dedicated 3 new dormitory cabins!

We dedicated 2 cabins like the one you see below and 1 cabin that is triple this size. We were able to move staff into these cabins which will open up housing for more students. We are so very grateful to all of our friends who played a part of making this possible!

Creating Culture at our Annual Prayer & Planning Retreat

We just finished leading our annual prayer and planning retreat for our YWAM Orlando Base Council. This year we also had some time with our expanded leadership called our Circle Leaders. Along with reviewing our vision and values we worked to define the culture of YWAM Orlando. This proved to be very fruitful. As we processed this with our entire staff team there seemed to be an agreement that this described YWAM Orlando. Of course we were very grateful for the solid input from our staff team that helped to form our definition of culture. 

Fun with our leaders during our Leadership Prayer and Planning Retreat

YWAM DNA Conference

I had the privilege to be on a team with Loren & Darlene Cunningham and others to help facilitate this event.