Missionary

Josiah + Kayla Shenk

The More You Know

Hello, we are Josiah and Kayla! We have three beautiful daughters, Elisabeth, Selah, and Eve. We have a passion for families, marriages, children’s ministry, worship & intercession, and bringing light to the darkness wherever the Lord leads us, locally and to the ends of the earth. We desire to pursue the dream God has given us to one day start schools in Cambodia for kids at risk for sex-trafficking. We are currently following God’s call to serve at YWAM Lancaster as full time staff. Kayla is teaching at the Hub Learning Center (HLC) which is a YWAM K-12 grade hybrid school! Josiah is serving the community in operations as the kitchen manager. Our vision is for children to experience and walk in worship, intercession, and equip them to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and His gifts from an early age! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Josiah

It’s between Job and Psalms and Proverbs/Ecclesiates, just because they address deeper issues of the heart and the journey / process of refinement God takes us on.

Kayla

Through each season of life, the Lord has used Psalms to speak to my heart and reveal his nature and character and draw me into his deep love.

Josiah

ESV as it brings a great mix of literal/ traditional verbiage with current english verbiage which I think is effective to give to ppl.

Kayla

I prefer to use ESV for Bible memorization for my students because it is easy to understand and to hide God’s word in our hearts.

Josiah

Guatemala! primarily because it was one of my first real missions experience.

Kayla

In 2013, I heard the clear inaudible voice of God say that I will start schools for kid’s at risk for sex-trafficking. During that summer I went to Cambodia on a vision trip and felt the Lord saying one morning, “There’s a hill on a mountain. That is where you will spend a season of your life. Demons will flee because of your worship and people will come to you asking how to be saved.”

Josiah

God has been speaking to me about ministry work ever since my church had gone through a phase with a lot of excitement and passsion around the Kingdom work of Jesus.

Kayla

Since we were teenagers, Josiah and I have both been involved in local, regional, and global missions, and our hearts burn bright for missions and God’s heart to reach the lost!

Josiah

2020 at YWAM Lancaster, which really gave me insight into the missions movement and what that means, pertaining to ministry work in other countries.

Kayla

We completed our DTS in Lancaster in Fall of 2020! During our DTS, the Lord broke my heart for Lancaster county and the conservative community and leading people closer to the Lord!

The Lord also showed us that we are called to be in “family ministry”. We are passionate about marriages, healing from pain from addiction in marriages, young mommas, parents capturing their kids’ hearts, and creating healthy families!

Josiah

I actually haven’t visited many other ywam bases other than lancaster’s..

Kayla

I have visited YWAM bases in Orlando, London, and Cambodia and each experience has lead me closer to the Lord and deeper in his love. I have grown in boldness through outreaches and seeing God work through signs, miracles, and wonders on the streets and leading people into encounters with Father God.

Josiah

I think seeing the great need in other countries that don’t have the same access to the gospel or education that we do in america opened my eyes to see that there is real, basic work that can be done by anybody, not just thoroughly trained and licensed pastors or politically savvy persons. God can use anyone to do His work if they’ll let Him.

Kayla

One cold Tuesday morning in February, we were at morning worship at the YWAM base and we were corporately praying for the lost. I was praying for someone I loved and I was crying because I could feel the Father’s heart for them calling them home to him.

One of my students saw me crying and she came and climbed on my lap. I explained to her that I was crying because I was feeling the Father’s heart for my friend and that Daddy God wanted my friend to say “yes” to him and heal their heart.

I felt this nudge in my spirit to ask my student if she had ever said “yes” to Jesus and give her life to him.
She said, “No, Miss Kayla, I’ve never said yes to Jesus.”
I said, “Do you want to say Yes to Jesus and give your life to him?”
She said, “Yes, Miss Kayla, I want to say Yes to Jesus and give my life to him!”

I shared the Gospel with her again and the Holy Spirit so beautifully gave us a picture of Jesus rescuing her out of darkness and bringing her to a place of safety and light!

Then I got to lead my precious student to JESUS!! We prayed with her for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and she felt tingling in her hands and lots of JOY!

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