For your yes, Loren.

Dear Loren,

I woke up to news you got to see Jesus face to face yesterday morning.

We knew this day was coming, but I still wish I never saw it.

The last times I heard you speak in person this year were a gift. I don’t think I left one of those times with dry eyes and sometimes steady streams of tears flowed as I thanked God in my heart for your yes.

Your yes for decades.

The obedience in which you walked to believe God for more and not less is UNREAL. If there was a human on earth that I would look to for what faith manifested here on earth is…you are up there on the list.

Your yes allowed me to do a discipleship training school in 2002. Your yes allowed me to staff my first DTS in Fiji because you believed in young people being championed and Lord knows I barely had a clue of what I was doing. Your yes opened the door to go to all 50 states in two shuttle buses for a year praying at every state capitol and trusting God for finances along the way. Your yes fueled the way to do a Bible school in Switzerland and then trust God to pioneer one in Hungary. Your yes took me to the hardest and darkest place, because I trusted that I could hear God’s voice….which your yes taught me.

When I was saved in 2000, I wrote a letter to God and said “I will learn about You and tell about You all of my life.” I didn’t know what YWAM was and for sure didn’t know that was it’s motto “To know God and make Him known.” But the DNA of the movement you started with Jesus was the very call of God on my life.

It would be in 2003 when I was called to go to every nation. You are one of the few people I know with the same call that went before me.

You went before me in so many ways. I didn’t know God could speak to me until my DTS. I read your book “Is that Really You God?” and was blown away by how laid down your life was. I learned how to give sacrificially because of your example. I learned how to intercede. I learned how to be visionary. I learned how to live in community. I learned how to confess sin. I learned how to worship freely.

It was in YWAM, that I was filled with the Holy Spirit’s power and preached the word of God with all boldness. It was in YWAM that I was freed from the fear of man.

The vision God gave you of the waves is what I find myself swimming in today. It’s wild because, I just found out you left to be with Jesus this morning on October 7th. I am in Egypt pioneering a new school with YWAM called “Word by Heart on Location.” I saw a vision of this school and now our faith is being made sight as we live it out.

You saw a vision of waves and just yesterday morning, October 6th, around 4am, not knowing you would see Jesus…I wrote in my journal, “I feel like I’m in a mighty rushing current…” Now in hindsight, knowing your vision of waves and knowing you have gone to be with Jesus….maybe God was having me sense the vision will go on. I’m in the wave crashing onto new shores in new nations.

Loren, your yes changed my life. Your yes to Jesus for decades changed my decades. I started with YWAM in missions and I am here with YWAM today dreaming more than ever.

Thank you is not enough.

I am a different woman because of you. Thank you for championing women. You put a mic in countless women’s hands because of your heart for “Why Not Women?” I found my voice in YWAM.

I think this picture sums up my good bye for now, Loren. I always wanted front row when you spoke. Full attention span on a man who truly knew God and made Him known.

The vision God gave you continues in us.

May I faithfully crash onto shores until I see Jesus face to face, too.