We are so excited to tell you about the exciting adventure God is calling us on beginning this year. We will be full time missionaries with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Coatesville, PA.  God is doing a new thing in the U.S., especially among the younger generation (children, youth and young adults) and we have an intense desire to be part of preparing, equipping and sending them out to do great things for the Lord, impacting our nation and the world in these last days through acts of mercy, justice, evangelism and the arts. We especially have a passion in the areas of teaching, counseling, worship and evangelism. We believe God is calling not just us as Bo and Teresa, but our whole family to missions. Our four children (Jonathan-11, Jeremy-9, Katie-6 and Joshua-2) are also excited and we see God stirring their hearts for the lost and giving them a deeper desire for prayer, hearing God's voice, worship and evangelism. (As a homeschooling family, we have had the privilege of being able to spend more time fostering these values in our children daily.)

We served the Lord in YWAM for 9 years from 1995-2003 before coming to northern Virginia to serve the Lord in the local church setting and to give our children a chance to build closer relationships with their grandparents and extended family. Even though we have not been YWAM staff for the past six years, our hearts have remained linked with this incredible organization. YWAM is an international, interdenominational Christian mission organization, founded in 1960. Today, YWAM has nearly 20,000 full-time volunteer missionaries in more than 150 countries at 1200 centers worldwide. It runs a broad range of ministries in the areas of evangelism, mercy ministries, and training as well as an international, degree-granting university for the training of God's people in Christian ministry to go out and serve Him in the world.  The purpose of YWAM and our family's mission as well is "To Know God and Make Him Known" by fulfilling the Great Commission in Matt. 28:19 which says to "go and make disciples of all nations... ".

We will be based in Coatesville, PA, a small city in between Lancaster and Philadelphia. There, we will be co-leading a 6 month long Discipleship Training School (DTS) in September that we are already beginning to help prepare for from here as we raise our financial and prayer support team. YWAM Coatesville is a small base that is just 6 years old and we'll be pioneering as we come alongside the base leaders and other staff to help it grow and expand its influence in this nation and across the globe.

      The DTS is a six-month discipleship and missions training program which consists of a three-month classroom phase, followed by eight to twelve weeks of outreach in a foreign country, where the students put into practice what they have learned.  Our upcoming DTS will most likely be going to locations in the Middle East and Asia.  Over the next several months we will be helping to recruit students and staff for the school from the U.S. and abroad and carrying out administrative responsibilities as needed.  Our goal is to have 20 students in September and applications are already starting to come in.  As school leaders, we will be personally involved in one on one and small group discipleship, counseling, and prayer with both students and staff.

In addition to co-leading DTS's we plan to help establish a 24-7 Prayer Room and a School of Worship and Intercession (SOWI) with a multicultural flavor, incorporating the cultural expressions or worship from people groups from around the world.  We will also be participating in a regional series of evangelistic crusades in Central PA called Impact World Tours beginning in the fall, leading worship and conducting worship training seminars for local churches and facilitating outreaches and prayer watches on Capitol Hill and Washington, D.C. as well.  Although we have a heart to see the gospel spread throughout the world, we especially have a heart to see a revival in our nation of historic proportions and desire to be used by God to do our part in seeing that come to pass.

We are believing God for some huge miracles in the next few months as we step out in faith to obey His calling on our lives! We are asking God to help us build a team of prayer and ministry partners who will faithfully stand with us and keep us in prayer, as well as partner with us financially. No one in YWAM receives a salary.  As full time staff, we are required to build a support team of family, friends, churches and businesses that believe in us and in the ministry to which God has called us in order to raise $5,000 a month to cover all our living expenses. We will be renting out our home here in Leesburg and finding another home to rent in the Coatesville area. In addition to this challenge, we are committed to paying off our financial debts of about $35,000 that we acquired over the past couple years due to the fluctuation of Bo's contracting business in the downturn of the economy. If you have or know of painting projects (residential or commercial) that can help us toward reducing our debt and getting to Coatesville quicker please call.  Our goal is to be relocated to Coatesville by August, 2010 so we have time to get settled and get going with the DTS before starting school with the kids again in the fall.  (Yes, we will continue to homeschool our children.) 

We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting us through prayer and through financial partnership as we invest in the lives of young people from around the world at YWAM Coatesville and as we share the gospel throughout the U.S. and across the world through evangelistic and mercy outreaches. We will be keeping you updated on our progress and our ministry as we go forward. 

      We will be calling you in the next week or two to see if God would be leading you to join us in the exciting adventure with God. 

Bo and Teresa Cook

(and Jonathan, Jeremy, Katie and Joshua) 

P.S. If you would like to become a monthly financial and/or prayer partner or would like to make a special donation, you can either go online to www.ywamcoatesville.com and follow the online donation tab under "Contact Us" or complete the enclosed/attached form and return it to us at 838 Balls Bluff Rd., NE,  Leesburg, VA 20176.  All donations will receive a tax-deductible receipt.

P.P.S. We have also started work on our own family website to share prayer needs and answers, pictures, ministry updates, inspirational thoughts and more. We would love for you to bookmark it and check back frequently for updates. www.ywamconnect.com/sites/cookfamily