On the morning of September 23rd, YWAM locations across Central Europe gathered together for a time of worship, reflection, prayer, and fellowship. In a time where we seem to ‘Zoom’ for everything it’s easy to feel ‘Zoomed out.’ 
I wasn’t super excited at the prospect of a 2.5 hour Zoom meeting. However, the time absolutely flew by and was run really well (which helps a lot – thanks organising team). Beginning with live worship together was amazing, as it’s something we don’t get to engage with often in Užice. A time to sit in His presence and worship His name was just what I needed, to stop with the busyness of being busy (3 kids under 4 = busy!), and just be. So often we are programmed to do, do, do, and go, go, go.
God has been teaching me through this month, whilst engaging with the Global Prayer Initiative, to just be in his presence. I feel like I’m learning how to do it for the first time, when in reality, it’s about the 100th time! It was a privilege and honour to hear from the founders of YWAM, Loren & Darleen Cunningham, in messages they had recorded. Loren spoke about vision – “Without vision the people perish.” He highlighted that an important aspect of vision is often born out of a fresh relationship with the LORD and with one another.
Darleen encouraged us to, “Go deeper in the Lord so we can go further.” This stuck out to me because it’s exactly what the Lord has been speaking to us in Užice recently. She encouraged us to get creative in these uncertain times, and said creativity is often birthed in times of difficulty. It was great to be reminded of the word Loren received in 2003 that 2020 would be a year of breakthrough. Seeing different faces and hearing different voices helped this Zoom be engaging and dynamic.
We also heard from Tove Poulsen, who shared about the legacy words YWAM has, which guide and shape our identity as a mission. These are the words given to Loren Cunningham over the years:
The Covenantal Vision of the Waves
The Call to Disciple Nations through the 7 Spheres of Society
The Christian Magna Carta
The Commitment to End Bible Poverty Now
Tove very clearly explained these words and how they can apply to us now, and we followed with a time of discussion and prayer in breakout rooms. The two points that have stuck with me are: Am I too narrow-minded in mission? The Christian Magna Carta is what the unbeliever can expect from us – to hear the Gospel. It’s that simple! More worship (yay!) followed and we ended our time together by celebrating 60 (yes, 60!) years of YWAM. 
God has been so faithful to us as a mission over these years, and it’s always fun to celebrate with 150 (ish) of your closest friends! (Even if, in reality, you’ve never met some of them!) This year has been unexpected, things we were ‘supposed’ to do haven’t been done, and at times it has felt like we were drowning – BUT GOD. God is faithful, God is good, God is still moving, working, speaking, motivating, and drawing His sons and daughters to Him and into a more intimate relationship with Him. Praise Him!
Lydia Vaughan
YWAM Central European Zoom Meeting – 23/09/2020
Lydia and Andrew Vaughan live in Uzice, Serbia. They are originally from Wales and Texas (USA) and they have for many years been working with YWAM Uzice. From 2019 they took over as leaders for the work and together with a great team are doing wonderful works. Andrew and Lydia have 3 wonderful children and they love people and coffee.