Missionaries with Youth With A Mission
Hey, everyone! Hot off the press! We are headed to Indonesia RIGHT NOW for one week! We’re partnering with a long-term work to an unreached people group in prayer and encouragement. We’ll let you know more about it in our next update! Please pray for our travels and ministry. This is our first international outreach as a family!
Thank you again to those of you who gave towards this trip!
Much love and thanks,
Joel, Abi and Levi
Wow! The past few months have been full of blessing! We are overflowing! Here’s a peek at what you’ll read in this update:
Praise reports!
Moved into new apartment!
Thank you so much for praying for us and supporting us! God opened the doors for us to be in our own apartment, ready to welcome our sweet baby and host Abi’s mom for her visit. It is beautiful, the perfect size for us, and in the price range we were trusting God for. And one of the best parts… It’s a 2 minute walk away from Joel’s parents! We love having family nearby, and it is still close to the YWAM base.
Baby boy Levi is here!
It’s a boy! Levi John Matthias Gayton has finally arrived and we are loving being parents! He’ll be 4 weeks on Monday, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long at all. Here’s some info about his name:
Levi is named after the Levites in the Bible. This group of people were worshipers and were passionate for God’s justice and honor. We pray and believe he’ll be a just, godly and passionate man for God! He’s named after both of our fathers (John), who are very adventurous and kind men. He’s also named after Joel (Matthias is Joel’s middle name), and it means “gift of God.” We are so blessed to have this little boy.
The Flint Parents are Visiting!
Abi’s mom is here! She came two weeks before Levi was born to help with the transition into parenthood, and she’ll be here another month! This is a huge blessing for us, not only because she’s been so kind and helpful, but we hadn’t seen her since January 2017! We’re really enjoying spending quality time with her, not to mention her cooking and baby-holding skills! Abi’s dad will be joining us soon, and we’re of course really excited to spend quality time with him as well! Levi is one blessed grand baby.
We’ll be home for Christmas!
That’s right! Levi’s first Christmas will be in the USA! Hopefully we’ll see some snow! We’d love to connect with you and show off our super-cute baby haha. We’re looking forward to seeing our family and friends, it will have been 2 years since our last visit!
Prayer requests:
Thank you for reading, and we pray blessing over you and your families!
With love,
Joel, Abi, and Levi
Hello, everyone! We hope you had a pleasant June! We certainly did (our three-year anniversary was on the 5th!). Here’s what’s been happening the past month-ish or so…
As we said in our most recent update, “What’s Up With the Gaytons”, we are looking to move into a new apartment! With new baby on the way, we need to see about a $500 increase in our support monthly. We have seen a $200 increase! Thank you so much for praying for us and giving! We are still trusting God for the $300 more monthly. If you feel you could be a part of this, please shoot us an email! abiandjoelmissions@gmail.com
Baby is doing great! Abi is 29 week pregnant today!
The last day of May we had an all-day worship day as a base! Both Joel and Abi were a part of leading this, and it was a really great day! It’s always a blessing to worship God for extended times with our missions family here in YWAM!
We also just had an extended worship night for our public meeting (we usually have a meeting on Friday nights with worship and a message, but we just did all worship)! It was also a really nice time and Abi and Joel along with their friend Cheneniah led this worship time. Our friend Josh took some photos for y’all! Enjoy!
The School of Worship was commissioned about a week ago to Nepal and Indonesia! They’re currently in Nepal and will head over to Indonesia in about 4 weeks. Please pray for them as they share about God and do lots of mercy ministry! (Abi has stayed back in Perth since she is very pregnant).
Before the school left on their overseas outreach, we were able to go down to one of the communities here in Western Australia and do a lot of prayer ministry and “scouting” with a local church (creating maps, doing prayer and telling people about Jesus). It was a really great time and we’re excited to give the completed map to the local church there for them to use!
Thank you so much for reading, for praying for us, and partnering with us!
Bless you,
Abi, Joel, and baby Gayton
We thought we should send another update so you know what’s happening with us! Here’s what you’ll read in this one:
Abi and the baby are doing well! This upcoming Sunday Abi will be 6 months along. We’re nearly there! It’s all getting really exciting!
We currently live in a cute, open floor plan studio apartment. This has been great as a married couple, however, it would be a more difficult living situation as our family grows in size. We’ve been asking God if we should move into a bigger apartment (2 bedrooms), and we feel like God is saying yes and leading us that way.
In order to do this, we’d need to see an increase in our monthly support by about $500 (pay for rent and utilities, groceries, baby expenses, phone bills, etc). While praying about all this, we felt to extend the invitation; would you please pray and consider becoming a monthly supporter financially? If you are unable to give financially, but would like to make a commitment to pray for us on a regular basis, we would love that. We need that!
If you’re interested in investing in either of these ways (giving with prayer or finances, or both), please send us an email (abiandjoelmissions@gmail.com). We’d love to tell you more about it.
Thank you so much for praying and considering. We’re really blessed by you already!
As you know from previous updates, Abi leads the School of Worship. We’re about half-way through the lecture phase now, and God has been doing incredible things in the lives of these students! Through lectures and times of application I’ve (Abi) seen students grow in their love for God, love for worship, and love for missions. Not only growth in character and love for God, but skills and knowledge as well! The heart of this school is to produce “well rounded worshipers” that can invest in worship ministry in a missions context.
We’ve had lots of topics, but one of them was Song Writing and Musicianship, and Joel taught on that one! It was really cool to see God use him, and it was a lot of students’ favorite week so far! God used Joel to talk about stewarding our gifts, how to write worship songs, and music theory! The students wrote 2 new songs within the week, and some of them had never written any songs before. We went to a beautiful location south of Perth to be in nature and ponder God as the most creative Being ever!
Abi will be teaching next week on the Prophetic Role of Worship (this includes but not limited to the Biblical definition of prophetic, singing from the Bible, and spontaneous singing). Please be praying for her as she prepares and teaches!
God is sending the students to Nepal and Indonesia at the end of June, and they’ll be back 11 weeks later. Joel and Abi won’t be going with them, because Abi will be in her third trimester of pregnancy, but our prayers are with them!
Joel’s still leading the worship team, and the new speakers are up and hanging! It’s such a miracle and blessing from God! They sound great and will be a real help to our base for years to come.
We’re doing an all day worship day this week on Thursday! It starts at 8:30 and goes into dinner time (with some breaks for food and bathroom). We love these times as a YWAM base. God often speaks to us about nations on His heart that He wants us to pray for, and at times we get to see exciting results! It’s often from times of worship and prayer that God gives us instruction as a mission, sending us to nations we haven’t been to, or to plant long-term works. We’ll be sure to take some photos for you guys!
As always, thanks so much for taking time to read this and pray for us!
Bless you,
Abi and Joel (and baby!)
We just wanted to share our ultrasound photos with you!
Baby is doing just fine, and he/she is a decent size! We do not know if baby is a boy or a girl at this point.
Blessings,
The Gaytons
Hello, everyone! Here’s an update from us!
What you’ll read in this update:
In Case You Didn’t Know…
We are expecting a baby this September! Abi is 19 weeks pregnant today, and we are very excited! We’ll have an ultrasound this week, so we’ll have some updated photos of baby soon.
We did make an announcement on Abi’s Facebook and Instagram, but of course we understand if not everyone keeps up with us there.
Abi’s feeling good, and we’re keeping on with business as usual with our mission assignments. We’re blessed to be in a community that supports families and is also very excited for us! We would usually go on an outreach with School of Worship in July, however, we’ll be 7 months by then, so we’re sticking around in Perth for this year. We’re excited to see some family members when this baby comes! It’s been over a year now since we’ve been back in the States with our amazing family and friends (you guys! We miss you all!).
Worship Team and School of Worship
Joel is continuing to lead our worship team on base, and we’ve recently had something very exciting happen! We’ve been using the same house speakers for many, many years now, and we were in great need of an update. Since February, we as a worship team have been holding fundraisers, and we also took up an offering from our group. Our goal was met for the finances needed! Around $10,000 AUD, actually! What a miracle. We’ve purchased the new speakers and they will hopefully be installed in our auditorium within the next month. Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for this!
Abi is still leading the School of Worship. This is a 6-month training program, running April to September every year. The first three months are lectures in Perth, and the second three months are outreach to other nations. Its purpose is to equip people to be in worship ministry in a mission context. As mentioned above, since Abi will be 7 months pregnant by the time outreach comes around, we won’t be going with them this year. The school will be going to Nepal and Indonesia and we can’t wait to tell the stories of what God does through them!
Song-Writing
We have been writing songs together as a couple, and with some people on worship team. We’ve started introducing them to the base in our corporate worship times, and we’re really enjoying it! We’ve been challenged as a worship team, but certainly as a couple as well, to write songs that center around the Great Commission. We love other types of worship songs, too, but we can see how part of our call as a mission is to send people out. Songs can be so influential, but more than that, God loves using our creative works to call people to Himself, and in this case, the mission field!
Think about Keith Green: God used his short time as a Christian (it was only 7 years from his commitment to Christ until he passed away in an accident) to influence not only his generation, but the next as well to live closely with God and to go out into the world. He was a friend of YWAM, and his music reflected God’s heart for the church to be sent out into the nations. If you’ve never listened to his music before, go have a look on YouTube. “Old-school music”, but the lyrics never get old. He was an incredible guy!
Not to say we expect to be used in the same way as Keith Green, but he’s an inspiring story of how God can use anybody He wants to to make His message known, and a reminder that God wants to use music to not only influence those who don’t know Jesus, but also those Jesus wants to use in the nations!
Prayer Points
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support! We cannot do what we do without you! We of course would love to hear from you as well. Let us know how you’re doing!
Many blessings,
Abi, Joel, and little baby Gayton!
We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a nice time with family and friends. We are very blessed!
What you’ll read in this brief update:
As you may have read in a previous post, we have spent a significant amount of time in this city over the course of 2016 and 2017 (Abi for 5 months and Joel just under 5 months). We had the opportunity to prepare for teams coming by scouting out the entirety of the city, doing lots of prayer, and we were able to do a lot of hands-on ministry as well. It’s been a big part of our lives the past little while, so we wanted to share some exciting statistics over the course of the year!
Number of people who…
Thank you for praying for this city and for us! We thank God for everything He has done and will continue to do!
2017 was quite a big year for us. Joel began leading the YWAM Perth worship team full time, and Abi led the School of Worship on her own for the first time. We recognise that God’s called us to be worship leaders and teachers about it, so 2018 will continue to move in that same flow.
Abi will lead the School of Worship (SOW) again this year, starting in April and ending in September. For those who don’t know, the SOW is a 6-month training course for worship leadership in the context of missions (3 months of lectures, 3 months of field assignment/outreach). This school has been running for nearly 3 decades at YWAM Perth, and it’s a privilege to be a part of. She will most likely be taking a team to Nepal this year for some time.
Joel will continue to lead the YWAM Perth worship team. The worship team consists of about 40 people, all volunteering outside of their “normal ministries.” Joel is the first and only full-time staff for the worship team in the 30 years of YWAM Perth’s existence, and he brings new energy and innovation to the team (Abi’s words haha)!
Thank you for praying for us (seriously). We want it, we need it. If you ever have any questions, scriptures for us, or prayer requests of your own, please send us a message or an email!
Bless you!
Abi and Joel
We’re back online again. It’s been a very long while since our last update. The past 7 months have been hectic, amazing, busy, crazy, wonderful, stressful, rewarding, and a big time of growth and service. Abi ran the School of Worship, Joel has been running the base worship team, and both of us were in the Philippines for an extended period during the USA summer months. Here’s what you’ll find in this update:
As you all know already, Abi led the School of Worship (SOW) for 6 months, April-September. Last year Abi co-led the school with our friend Erika, but this year Abi and Erika felt she should lead it alone as Erika continued to lead the ministry of Worship for the Nations, also known as WFN (Abi, Erika, and Joel’s sister, Faith, lead WFN together).
So, Abi led the school with one amazing staff person, Nathalie (see her picture from the previous update below). We had twelve students, and only us two staff; it was a handful, but God knew it was the right amount for us to handle!
I (Abi) learned so much about hearing God consistently and quickly outside of my personal times with Him and making decisions based on what He was saying in the moment. There were many times circumstances that would suddenly change, and I wouldn’t be sure what to do. So I’d just ask God quickly in my mind, and BOOM! God would answer. He’s so smart, He always knew what to say! A HUGE thing I got better understanding on was SERVANT LEADERSHIP, and truly how selfless and humble Jesus is as a leader. I could type forever about this, but here is what He taught me, summarised:
It’s obvious, and I already knew it, but I was so blessed that God challenged me in it, let me experience it, and see His character more and more through different situations. He’s a good God and He knows how to refine us and make us look more like Him!
Philippians 2:3-8 says,
Don’t you love Jesus?! Isn’t He amazing?!
We had a very fruitful outreach, seeing many miracles and a lot of people commit their lives to the Lord. It was a good school, and many students are returning to join staff with us at YWAM Perth! It will be exciting to see them continue to grow in the place of worship, love for Jesus, and the nations!
We did the math, and since 2016 Abi has spent 5 months in Manila and Joel has spent nearly the same amount of time there. We are so blessed that we were able to invest so much in this beautiful city! It’s all thanks to GOD and to YOU ALL for praying for us, sending us there financially, and encouraging us! THANK YOU! Here are a few quick stories from our time there this year working with Megacities Manila:
Some of the SOW students were out telling people about Jesus and praying for people with some of the locals. They asked God where to go and who to look for, and they felt like they needed to find an old man sitting on a bench. After some walking, there he was! They tried asking him questions, and quickly realised he couldn’t speak. Through pantomime and asking yes or no questions, they discovered the man had been in an accident in his earlier years and hadn’t been able to speak since. They shared with him about Jesus, and his eyes beamed with joy. They asked if he wanted to follow Jesus, and he nodded yes! After praying (not out loud obviously) he was full of joy. They then asked if they could pray for him to speak again. They prayed a few times, and finally one of the SOW students, Eva from the Netherlands, felt to ask him to try speaking as an act of faith. The man’s first words in decades were, “I don’t know if I can speak!” Of course he was shocked and amazed that he actually spoke! It was an amazing story of God’s great love for the individual and taking care of his needs!
I (Abi) was out talking to people and praying for people, and I found a young man running his father’s small shop. What I thought would be a 10-15 minute conversation turned into 2 hours! I shared with Him about Jesus, and it was amazing how clearly I heard the Holy Spirit leading the conversation. At one point, the teen misunderstood my question, but his answer led to the most important part of the conversation: he had been struggling with thoughts of death and suicide. He had been asking God to kill him, because he didn’t see purpose in his life. I was able to share with him how our purpose is in Jesus Christ, and many other things God told me to say. He excitedly gave his life to Jesus, and I was able to give him a Bible in his own language. After reading a passage, he said, “This book is so beautiful.” I encouraged him to tell others about his relationship with Jesus, and to read from the Gospel of John and remember Matthew 28:19-20. It was so cool! His countenance transformed before my eyes! He was full of hope and joy!
As the School of Worship, we were able to run a worship seminar with a few churches in the area. It was really exciting! Joel, Abi, and the SOW students taught, and we were able to take people outside to sing and share about Jesus in their neighbourhoods. We had many young people with us, saying, “We’ve never gone out like this before, but we must continue after you leave! We will continue what you have taught us!” Locals saw Jesus heal people and touch broken hearts. This is what Megacities is all about, helping the local church step into their neighbourhoods and families, sharing about the love and healing Jesus has for every individual. God is good!
Joel has been hard at work on a building project for our YWAM base. It will be an accommodation building to hold new students and guests who come and speak on our schools. It’s called 142 Summers Street (that’s the address but that’s what we call it haha). We’ve seen financial miracles to see this building come up, and Joel has been a crucial member in its development. In case y’all didn’t know, Joel is skilled in carpentry and construction! Joel is still full-time leading the YWAM Perth worship team as well, but he has taken up this extra responsibility to serve what God’s spoken to our base–to have 500 staff and 500 students at any given 3 months of the year! This building will hold some of those people.
Abi is back to leading Worship for the Nations with Erika and Faith. The ministry is growing, and it seems by next year there will be over 20 of us in the ministry. It’s amazing that we started as a small group of 5 in 2015!
We are still praying about some details for the future, but we will be in Perth for Christmas this year. We know God has a lot in store for 2018!
THANK YOU for reading! Thanks for loving us and praying for us! You can check out some photos and videos from these past months in the photos and videos sections!
May God bless you, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Abi and Joel
Hello again!
I hope you all have had a fantastic month.. Joel and I have been very busy, but very happy to be doing what we do! Here’s what you’ll find in this update:
For those who don’t know, Megacities is a ministry of YWAM Perth that invites and coordinates teams from all over the world to work in one city for one year. The goal is to not just do our own work, but to partner with the local church. That way, when the Megacities year is over, ministry will continue! The city for 2017 is Manila, Philippines and a few of its surrounding regions. Joel and I were in Manila for a total of 9 weeks last year, doing preparation work for the teams. Even from just a short time, it was obvious to us (and our YWAM leaders) that Manila is full of opportunity for every type of ministry (NO JOKE!)!
The Megacities year began in January, and our first “wave” of teams have just finished 3 months of outreach. We had people from all over the world, doing all kinds of ministry (sports, art, healthcare, prison ministry, just to name a few). Worship for the Nations (my ministry) has also returned and have had a successful trip.
Here are the ministry statistics since January (and this info is a couple of weeks old! So it has probably increased by now!):
God is at work! Joel and I are so blessed to already have been a part of this amazing work this year. If you are interested in going to Manila this year and partnering with Megacities, whether that’s sending a team or joining a team by yourself, you can ask for more information by emailing info@megacities.org.au. It’s seriously a great investment of your time and resources! YOU ARE INVITED!
I (Abi) lead a school here at YWAM Perth called School of Worship, and it starts in a week! It’s been a lot of hard work getting things together, and I’m so glad it will all be happening so soon! My friend and staff, Nathalie (see picture below) arrived last week, and we’ve been going through staff training (continued education to best run the school). We have 13 students this year, and they’ll start to arrive this week. We’re hoping for a few last minute students to come – the more the merrier!
One of the scriptures God highlighted to us for the school was Psalm 1. It will be a year of growth for the School of Worship, like the tree in the Psalm. Please be praying for our school to learn, do, and be all that God has in store for us this year!
Thanks for reading! Leave us a comment or send us an email! Much love and grace to you all.
Abi and Joel
Hello, friends and family!
We’re back in Perth, and as the title says, we’re back in the swing of things! We pretty much jumped right into ministry and things are going well. Here’s what you’ll see in this update:
YWAM Perth has had a worship team since it was established in 1986, but no one has ever been a part of it full-time… until now! Joel is the official first full-time member. Those on the worship team are part of other ministries as well, so it hasn’t yet reached its full potential because its members have been committed to other areas (for instance, Abi is on worship team but she is also staff for WFN and School of Worship). Joel’s new role is to help develop the team, currently working on upgrading our stage and researching new sound systems and thinking up ways for the individuals to develop their music skills. Another dream of ours is to see songs released that will serve well in missions. Yes, great things are ahead for Joel, and definitely for YWAM Perth! Thanks to everyone who was praying for us during Joel’s transition. God has placed him perfectly for this season! God is good!
Abi is part of the leadership team of Worship for the Nations (WFN) and they just sent a team to Manila again. Abi has stayed back this time with a couple of others in the ministry holding the fort here in Perth. We were really working and trusting God for everyone’s finances, and it all came in just in time! In case you missed it on Instagram, here’s a pic of the team after a long day of car-washing. God honoured our hard work! (by the way, you can keep up with WFN by searching #worshipforthenations)
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Abigail Gayton (@abi__gayton) on
So what does WFN do when they’re not on outreach anyway? Well quite a few things actually…
Research, research, research. We are currently researching and slowly but surely mapping the city of Perth and its surrounding areas! We want to create a tool for other ministries to use so they can best reach our city! We’re also creating a research booklet of the Kimberley (the northern region of Western Australia) as a ministry tool to reach and be a part of the incredible indigenous communities that live there.
Lots of prayer! We partner with ministries on base to see breakthrough in their field. This quarter (January-March) we’re partnering with Australian Relief and Mercy Services to see their ministry of helping Perth families in crisis grow and develop. Last Friday we were privileged to be a part of the street appeal, shaking our cans in the streets to raise funds for this amazing ministry!
Abi and Joel in Perth City for ARMS Street Appeal
Song Writing. Yes, we write songs! We’ve just started, but we’ve got a few under our belt. The team in Manila just recently wrote a song for the youth of the city, and they pray God will use it to inspire them! It was sung for a group of young people just today (hot off the press, guys)! There’s many more things we do, but just wanted to name a few. Speaking of song writing…
We have written our first song TOGETHER! We feel like God’s been speaking to us to write music, and as of last week we’ve written our first worship song. Abi used it in worship on Friday night, and Joel will be using it again tomorrow at the YWAM base for Monday morning worship. We are anticipating it to be the first of many!
Thanks for reading! We put up some new photos on our photos page from the past couple of months (including Christmas with our family!) if you’d like to have a look.
God bless you and thank you for praying for us and supporting us.
Abi and Joel
P.S. We love hearing from you! Comment, or send us an email. We’d love to pray for you more specifically if you have any prayer requests!
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