Worker Profile: Adam & Elise Sauder
Service program: tranSend
Serving since: 2023
Assignment:
We serve with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. One of our local ministries is an after-school program for children in an underprivileged section of the city, where we also do some food distribution. Another local ministry is reaching out to some of the many international students that come to Myrtle Beach to work in the tourist industries during the summer. We’ve partnered with a local church in running cafe nights, and orientations to working in the city, which has been a great way of beginning relationships with these students.
We are also helping to staff the six-month discipleship schools. This is a program for young adults which includes a “classroom” phase for deepening their relationship with God and learning about God’s heart for people of every nation, which is followed by an “outreach” phase to South Asia, to put into practice what they’ve learned in a cross cultural setting.
Biggest challenge:
One of our biggest challenges is the time commitment of staffing the discipleship schools. It’s a huge privilege getting to pour into the students for these five and half months, though it can be pretty tiring with the amount of time in the week we put into it. We are really leaning on God in this season for extra grace and perseverance, and are praying that God will work powerfully through this school to bring students into a deeper relationship and give them his heart for the lost.
Biggest joy:
Our biggest joy in this season is seeing the discipleship school students growing in their relationship with God. The school this year is just beginning, but already we’ve been encouraged to see how God has been giving students new revelations of how God is a good Father and loves them unconditionally. This year we have nine students in multiple generations, and it’s amazing to see the students connecting so well with each other already. We are excited for all that God will do during the rest of our time in Myrtle Beach, and during outreach together in South Asia.
A typical day:
Our days usually look very different depending on what season we are in. Currently we begin the day with personal devotions in the morning, and then we have a time of prayer and worship together. Then we have our lectures for the students in which we have a different guest speaker every week to teach a different topic of discipleship. The rest of the day is finishing lectures, and depending on the day it would be small groups, one-on-one discipleship, practical work projects around the ministry house, or local outreach.
*Names changed for security