Sorry that i have not posted in 2 whole weeks now! We haven't been particular busy or anything, i have just been lazy. haha at least i am honest right? My past two weekends have been full of emails, looking for train/plane tickets online, studying french, and yesterday we went for a hike.
I am FINALLY feeling very comfortable and at home here. The first month was definitely the "honeymoon stage" as they call it, where everything is new and exciting. Then we all went through the "storming stage" where we all wanted to punch each other in the face...literally. I have no idea how many times i have used this metaphor, but when the going gets tough i say "iron can not sharpen iron without quite a bit of friction." yea? yea? witty huh? i wish i could claim it as my own... so i will. But finally i am really enjoying my time here, just being able to laugh and have fun with the other members of the training program.
So week 9 We had three days of cultural studies! The lady who taught us was a lady called Judy who used to work with the tribes in Burkina Faso (it's amazing how God keeps putting people in our paths who have experience in W.Africa!). It was fun to hear stories of things that are going on over there, and just the possibility of many multifaceted opportunities in Africa.
Then this last week was "Work Week!" Which was such a relief! Dont get me wrong i have loved the lectures and benefited greatly from the classes, but a man cannot be cooped up inside for 3 months or else he will punch a hole in the wall, or set something on fire or something. Therefore, you can imagine how much fun i had demolishing large wooden desks with a sludge hammer, and being in charge of the burn pile out back! Three days of total release! It was great!
That leads us to now. Tomorrow we will be getting on the train to Southall London (where over 55% of the population is India/Pakistani) and spending 6 days doing religious studies. I will be leading worship for four morning devotions so i ask for prayer for that (it is my first time preparing/leading this much worship). Also, i ask you to pray for the impact of this skit that we are producing. I am sure that you have probably seen it at some point, but it is REALLY powerful and i know God can move in people though things like this skit. So i ask if you would please pray boldly and ask for the Holy Spirit to be present and active in the hearts of those watching. And ultimately pray that they would experience the gospel message through our drama, and come to Know HIM! (here is the skit that we are replicating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA)
Please Pray! The rest of this blog is about prayer. Two quotes that i read that we should really take to hear are:
"The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it."-E.M. Bounds
"Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still." -E.M. Bounds
Those two quotes hit home for me b/c 1) If i truly was convinced of the power of prayer, why would i do anything else!? haha so i want to come to a place where i am in consistent prayer! and 2) I talk alot. i speak about God. I can get up and lead a pretty solid devotion. But i dont want to just talk about God! i want to be the one interceding and praying for others. Asking God to burden my heart with the prayers of others. So today i ask you to pray with and for me. But if you do pray, pray in faith that God will not only hear our prayers, but that HE WILL ACT!
PRAYER POINTS:
-Zack and i have an amazing opportunity to go to Chad in January for a week and speak/pray for/ and disciple a group of boys about our age. It is really exciting to hear what God is doing in Chad, and to hear how excited the leader there was when he heard that Zack and i might be coming. However, finances are an issue because traveling from Chad to Burkina (though only one country away) is VERY expensive.
-I have a LOT of logistical things to work out during the next few weeks (visas, shots, contact with the couple in Burkina, ect...)
-Please pray for my French leaning! i have put in a good number of hours and still feel like i am getting nowhere. A supernatural gift of language would be nice... haha but pray that i wouldn't get discouraged.
-Begin praying for the relationships that i will be building in Burkina. The Dutch lady i will be living with in Burkina is called Trudy, and her native husband is called Elie. And just for the different ministries Zack and i will be involved in there. (ABC school teaching english, sports programs, evangelism, local churches)
Thankk you for your prayers! I look forward to seeing you all when i return in december!! I miss everyone <3 remember to bless someone today!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Week 8)
I am not the great 'I AM' (Ex. 3:14) "but by the grace of God, i am what i am" (1 Cor. 15:10)
The UK director of world horizons taught our classes this week. The course was called: "application of biblical principles." In other words "read something from the bible and apply it to your life." I was very excited to hear where Mike would lead us because this was a very broad lecture topic, but i knew that he was a great speaker, and had plenty of wisdom to bestow upon us. The 3 main things that i took away from his lectures were:
1) Don't allow your self to be the victim! It is a personal choice. The #1 reason most missionaries leave the mission field is because they hold onto their "rights." As Christians we have no rights and therefore need to allow God to take over the situation rather than being deceived into believing that we are the victim.
2) Vulnerability. Absolutely VITAL to the growth and transformation of a Christian's life. We must ALWAYS be vulnerable to God, ALWAYS vulnerable to ones self, and sometimes vulnerable with one another. (God calls us to share one another's struggles and burdens, but we must also guard our hearts)
3) Identity in Christ! I love the quote at the beginning of my blog post. I am free to be who i am! God wants nothing less. Mike gave us a list of 20 bible references that started with "i am:" We chose the five that were most relevant to ourselves. My favorite was "i am: an enemy of the devil." (all the others are recorded in my video below.
After the 2 day session Mike had us 'apply' one thing that we had learned by making a presentation of some sort. I really liked what we learned about deriving our identities from scripture so in the hour he gave us i made a short clip about who i am in Christ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIdCSXJmHxU
Then Wednesday morning i was in charge of leading a 30min devotion for the 10 of us trainees. I wasn't in a super spiritual mood and I found myself feeling obligated to put something together, when all of a sudden i caught myself. God really convicted me that this morning devo was not my time to entertain the others, or to impress them with how great a devotional i could come up with. But rather a time for God to speak truth through me and to use me to bless the others. After talking about vulnerability, and finding my identity in Christ alone (the past few days in lectures) i decided that i would share my testimony. Not the "Yay i was born as a PK and grew up in the church, and these are all the amazing things that God has done in my life" testimony, but the testimony of brokenness. I never came to a place where i turned from God, i never lost faith. Instead, He persistently calls me back to him, each time i fail He woos me back to himself and therefore i can do nothing but fall more in love with him. I used to struggle a lot with verses like 1 John 3:9 "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God." Or another verse in 1 John 5:3 that says, "In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands." And others just like it. After much frustration God revealed some things to me.
LOVE is NOT following the commands of the Lord. LOVE is NOT having the fruit of the spirit. Those things are what love looks like when it is played out day to day. When love walks and talks, so what IS love....??? Love is PASSION! Love is DESIRE! Do you have a passion for God?! Do you long for Him?! That is how i can have assurance that i am in Him and that He is in me, even when the devil tries to deceive.
God has not only been challenging me and molding me through His word, but also through the Holy Spirit's undeniable activity! Friday i have my community placement during the day, and then street evangelism at night. I am going to try to explain my experience on Friday night, but honestly i am not sure words can do justice the presence of the Holy Spirit at work. We (Me, and two other girls on the training program) usually do street evangelism with our church, but on this particular night they canceled it. The girls and i still really wanted to go out and at least walk and pray for the city. So we left at 9pm expecting to do one big loop around the city and be back by about 10pm or so.
We prayed that God would provide opportunity for conversation with at least one person as we walked into the downtown area. It was the quietest i had ever seen the city... "well at least i will get a good night sleep" i thought. I saw a few people down one of the streets and said, "lets cross here." as we approached the group of teenagers Debs and Kristen recognized one of the boys Daniel. They had talked to him last week and he had really opened up to them. We stood there about 20 feet away praying for an opportunity to open up for us to talk to Daniel. He looked over and made eye contact with us and immediately came over to greet us! He was not nearly as drunk as he was last Friday night. we talked for about 20min and then he even allowed us to pray over him. Right there in front of his friends! We walked away from that conversation satisfied that God had used our words to challenge Daniel. The night was already a success. But He was not done with us yet!
We walked down station road (a really rough area) and as we came near a very notorious apartment complex we recognize a man at the bus stop. It was Michael (a man, about 50, who comes to the church drunk every Friday night to talk and have coffee with us) with a group of other drunk friends. Michael is a back sliden Christian. He knows scripture like a pastor, and preaches to his friends all the time. He knows God's word and wishes he could live the christian life again, but is really struggling. All that to say we approached him and he came over to me with a smile and said, "God is changing me. I have only had 2 drinks in the past 3 days." i said, "Hallelujah!" The three of us prayed for him and then began talking to different people around the bus stop.
I saw Michael was standing by himself so i went over and asked if he was alright. He looked at me and asked "please pray for my stubbornness." I WAS BLOWN AWAY. This was God's conviction of sin in his heart. I prayed. I told him to picture a heart. His heart. It had a very hard, crusty outer layer of calluses, but that i could just see God taking a hammer and smashing away that outer layer to expose the soft, sensitive, wounded heart inside that is crying out to Jesus Christ. At that picture Michael began to weep. I said, "Michael Jesus is standing right here with open arms waiting for you to come back to Him, waiting to hold you in His arms." At that i took hold of michael and he me. This was by far the most impactful part of the night for me. Because i knew that Michael was sincere.
To make a long story short we all had individual conversations for about an hour (in that time i talked to these 2guys who were about 30 and 35. After a bit of chatting he said "you know i would love to have a real conversation with you sometime when i can think properly" i said "how bout tomorrow lunch?" and he was very enthusiastic. However the next day when i showed up at noon he never came.) until they all started to leave.
One girl that Debs and Christen were talking to stayed at the bus stop. I walked up just as they were about to pray for the girl. I found out that she had had a miscarriage but really wanted to have kids. We laid hands on her and prayed for her. The devil then tried to intercede. A group of teens were walking by and all of a sudden i heard them start yelling and i saw two boys just start going at it. It was really traumatic to experience as the two boys tried to beat in one another's face literally 20ft away from us. Debs was not distracted, and she continued to pray for this girl. All of a sudden Karri looked up from the prayer and said, "do you hear that?" i thought maybe she was talking about the boys, but by this time they were long gone. Then she started breathing deeply and said, "do you feel that!?" Debs told her that God was working in her. The girl claimed that her stomach pain was gone, and that her abdomen no longer felt hard. She gave us all hugs and was filled with the joy of the Lord.
I have never been one to experience the power the Holy Spirit so blatantly, but it was obvious that what Karri was experiencing was not of this world! We asked if we could walk her home and all the way home she was beaming!
We ran into one of her friends outside a pub and she was crying. We talked to Cindy for nearly 30min hearing her story of how God had always been real to her. He healed her when she was young, and gave her children even though she was not supposed to ever have kids. However she was raped when she was 10 and now she was married to a woman. Karri said to her, "have these people pray for you, i have never felt like this before." The woman kept saying, "i want that. i want to feel like that. i want prayer. can you pray for me?"
"There is nothing that we can do" we said, "it is God who is at work." I began to pray for Cindy, and almost stopped because i felt like i wasn't saying anything of worth. I was about to let one of the girls take over but then all of a sudden the woman said, "How does he know that?" "Did you tell him that about me?" (she asked Karri). She must have been hearing from the Spirit.
As we finished praying i looked over at Karri and was surprised to see her staring blankly behind me. I was standing with my back to a wall of bushes and felt quite nervous because of the way she was staring. I asked if she was ok... no response. i touched her arm and she jumped. She quickly glanced at me and then back to the same spot in the bushes. Again i asked "are you alright? is there something there?" i looked behind me and saw nothing. Again when i touched her she jumped, but this time she ran across the street. It was midnight by this point, and we should not have been out that late on a friday night. So we said goodnight to Cindy and went to follow after Karri. As we approached we asked, "you alright?"Karri just looked at us and said, "there was something in the bushes." This is the girl who was just overflowing with joy after we prayed for her, and now she was petrified. Debs went to give her a hug and started praying protection over her, but she pushed her away and ran off down the street.
WHOA... What a night. I would not say that i am one to have many spiritual encounters, but there was no denying what we had experienced this friday night. The three of us looked at each other and were so confused as to what had just happened. I wanted to shout with joy for being used, but at the same time i was so terrified of the devil and his hold on the city of Llanelli. We prayed all the way home. That is literally all we could do! I was mentally and spiritually exhausted. I needed time to process. I needed to sleep. GOOD LUCK. haha. eventually i did fall asleep.
I really debated whether to write all of this in my blog or just to keep it as my own experience. But i really feel that through my friday night experience God can teach all of us some things.
1) Evangelism is not just a thing that missionaries do. Anyone can do it.
2) The spiritual realm is no joke. The devil and his demons are as real as God and His angles. We are called to put on our full armor of God and then to go out and share the gospel, however we still must be aware that the devil does not want us to succeed, and must constantly pray against him.
3) Also, i have never been so scared of the devil and the hold that he has on people's minds/lives. But at the same time God is SO MUCH more powerful than Satan! For the first time in my life i can say that i have a legitimate fear of the Lord for his power is far greater than anything of this world. A reverence and awe of Him! "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (prov. 1:7)
Thank You SO MUCH for reading my blogs. I hope this is encouraging. Know that He is at work here and that your prayers are what is fueling the ministry here. If you have any comments of questions please contact me :)
If you havent heard which country i am going to as my placement MUST WATCH:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBszKAxgU68
Monday, October 31, 2011
Whoa, we're half way there Whaa-O living on a prayer! (Week 6 and 7)
Feels like i have been here for a long time. I have been here a long time haha. But we are officially over half way done with the training course!
The past two weeks have gone by really fast though. What with us having to make out placement country decisions (Burkina Faso), having exciting lectures (spiritual warfare one week, and biblical basis for mission the other), and continuing to build great relationships at my community placement.
Spiritual Warfare was probably one of my favorite (if not my favorite) lecture sessions that we have had yet! We went through Ephesians 6 and talked through the armor of God. We talked about why each piece is so significant in the battle against the enemy.
Also, last Friday i participated in a football (soccer) tournament. My community placement organization (the Wallich) and 7 other charity organizations battled it out from 10 to 4 on friday afternoon! After 4 games and alot of fun, Zack's community group (Llanelli youth program) got first place and my team got second. It was a fun day! Out of all the excitement throughout the day the thing that made my day was having the opportunity to talk with Michael. He was probably about 30 years old and just a really nice guy. We just had some small talk at the beginning of the day, but then later after he found out that i was a Christian he seemed intrigued! He asked so many questions and his questions allowed others to join in conversation. It was so encouraging to see his genuine interest in what i believe, and to see the power of prayer at work. All week we had been praying for a spiritual presence to be on this large multi purpose room as we played. We prayed that there would be a revival right there in that room of addicts, convicts, and altogether hurt/broken people. Although we did not experience a crazy encounter with God that day, i am convinced that He was at work in the hearts of these guys.
Prayer:
-That i can stay in contact with these guys (Michael, Fraser) because God is definitely working in them.
-Team Life. That i can i have a good attitude in all circumstances and accept constructive criticism when it is given
-Prayer life. To daily pursue an on going prayer life.
OUR WAFRICA VIDEO (full version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBszKAxgU68
The past two weeks have gone by really fast though. What with us having to make out placement country decisions (Burkina Faso), having exciting lectures (spiritual warfare one week, and biblical basis for mission the other), and continuing to build great relationships at my community placement.
Spiritual Warfare was probably one of my favorite (if not my favorite) lecture sessions that we have had yet! We went through Ephesians 6 and talked through the armor of God. We talked about why each piece is so significant in the battle against the enemy.
Also, last Friday i participated in a football (soccer) tournament. My community placement organization (the Wallich) and 7 other charity organizations battled it out from 10 to 4 on friday afternoon! After 4 games and alot of fun, Zack's community group (Llanelli youth program) got first place and my team got second. It was a fun day! Out of all the excitement throughout the day the thing that made my day was having the opportunity to talk with Michael. He was probably about 30 years old and just a really nice guy. We just had some small talk at the beginning of the day, but then later after he found out that i was a Christian he seemed intrigued! He asked so many questions and his questions allowed others to join in conversation. It was so encouraging to see his genuine interest in what i believe, and to see the power of prayer at work. All week we had been praying for a spiritual presence to be on this large multi purpose room as we played. We prayed that there would be a revival right there in that room of addicts, convicts, and altogether hurt/broken people. Although we did not experience a crazy encounter with God that day, i am convinced that He was at work in the hearts of these guys.
Prayer:
-That i can stay in contact with these guys (Michael, Fraser) because God is definitely working in them.
-Team Life. That i can i have a good attitude in all circumstances and accept constructive criticism when it is given
-Prayer life. To daily pursue an on going prayer life.
OUR WAFRICA VIDEO (full version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBszKAxgU68
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
This Time For Africa ♫
EXCITING NEWS!
I have officially placed my decision for my placement country (where i will be doing ministry from Jan-July). With much prayer and petition i have decided to go to Burkina Faso in West Africa.
If you aren't exactly sure where Burkina is:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwaw2-PqKMC6RUp0_dQeHIKW8bymX5-PcwFb9hgSKAQXgo2NYIz8qN9wLpRZ3LkQ1cdjg3leuAiFI2cdQWJgNZYqRuI8FchM92xWmuO-ala2DXxs4A2YeXhUxWc-Ch0XFmYG9LD3Ix69d/s320/burkinamap.jpg)
Coming to Wales i had decided in my mind that:
1) i wanted to go to the deepest darkest country where the gospel had never been taken before
2) i want to work really hard to learn the language
3) i would go on my own
So at first i was thinking North Africa, but then God answered my prayers by shutting that door (they only accepted girls this year). So then the two that stood out to me the most were the opportunities in the Middle East, and West Africa. Again God opened and closed doors. After weeks of attempting to get ahold of the team in WAfrica we finally received a very exciting email. And at the same time the Middle East field leader (yay Mr. S!) decided it wouldnt be wise to send anyone to the placement i was thinking about. God decided to shatter all my expectations haha! Praise the Lord!
My gap year leader handed me the email from WAfrica and i began to read:
"Hello Debbie! We would love to receive Gappers! Some conditions however: 2 people is a lot less work than 1, as they can live together. 2 of the same sex please who are at least willing to learn French."
After reading that first two lines i put the paper down and said..."ohhhh nooo... i am going to go to west Africa with zack! Nooo!" I continued to read and EVERYTHING seemed to be falling into place. They asked for people who could coordinate sports clubs, teach english (both to elementary students, and the teachers of the elementary school), lead bible studies, teach the guitar, go on prayer/evangelical journeys, and babysit. All things that i have some type of experience in!
I took the email and prayed about it, and the next day i met with my one to one. He had alot of insightful things to say. I was worried about my attitude towards the whole situation, and he helped me realize that although i my want "my own adventure," who better to have with me than my best friend while spreading God's love!
The more i thought and the more Zack and i talked the more and more excited we got. We realize that there is a possibility that God is alining our destinies for the rest of our lives! I am SO excited to share in this adventure with Zack. We are already learning French (zack already knows alot), and reading up on the country. Turns out 35% of the country is unreached so that is really exciting, and Burkina is also one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Also, it was cool to remember the other day that i have already invested in Burkina Faso! Freshman year our bible study raised $4,000 to build a well in Burkina! Maybe i will see it when i am there :)
I have such a peace about my decision so i thank you for all who were praying that God would lead!
(Placement Video To Come)
Also, check out zack's blog at:
www.gapyearsmiley.tumblr.com
I have officially placed my decision for my placement country (where i will be doing ministry from Jan-July). With much prayer and petition i have decided to go to Burkina Faso in West Africa.
If you aren't exactly sure where Burkina is:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwaw2-PqKMC6RUp0_dQeHIKW8bymX5-PcwFb9hgSKAQXgo2NYIz8qN9wLpRZ3LkQ1cdjg3leuAiFI2cdQWJgNZYqRuI8FchM92xWmuO-ala2DXxs4A2YeXhUxWc-Ch0XFmYG9LD3Ix69d/s320/burkinamap.jpg)
Coming to Wales i had decided in my mind that:
1) i wanted to go to the deepest darkest country where the gospel had never been taken before
2) i want to work really hard to learn the language
3) i would go on my own
So at first i was thinking North Africa, but then God answered my prayers by shutting that door (they only accepted girls this year). So then the two that stood out to me the most were the opportunities in the Middle East, and West Africa. Again God opened and closed doors. After weeks of attempting to get ahold of the team in WAfrica we finally received a very exciting email. And at the same time the Middle East field leader (yay Mr. S!) decided it wouldnt be wise to send anyone to the placement i was thinking about. God decided to shatter all my expectations haha! Praise the Lord!
My gap year leader handed me the email from WAfrica and i began to read:
"Hello Debbie! We would love to receive Gappers! Some conditions however: 2 people is a lot less work than 1, as they can live together. 2 of the same sex please who are at least willing to learn French."
After reading that first two lines i put the paper down and said..."ohhhh nooo... i am going to go to west Africa with zack! Nooo!" I continued to read and EVERYTHING seemed to be falling into place. They asked for people who could coordinate sports clubs, teach english (both to elementary students, and the teachers of the elementary school), lead bible studies, teach the guitar, go on prayer/evangelical journeys, and babysit. All things that i have some type of experience in!
I took the email and prayed about it, and the next day i met with my one to one. He had alot of insightful things to say. I was worried about my attitude towards the whole situation, and he helped me realize that although i my want "my own adventure," who better to have with me than my best friend while spreading God's love!
The more i thought and the more Zack and i talked the more and more excited we got. We realize that there is a possibility that God is alining our destinies for the rest of our lives! I am SO excited to share in this adventure with Zack. We are already learning French (zack already knows alot), and reading up on the country. Turns out 35% of the country is unreached so that is really exciting, and Burkina is also one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Also, it was cool to remember the other day that i have already invested in Burkina Faso! Freshman year our bible study raised $4,000 to build a well in Burkina! Maybe i will see it when i am there :)
I have such a peace about my decision so i thank you for all who were praying that God would lead!
(Placement Video To Come)
Also, check out zack's blog at:
www.gapyearsmiley.tumblr.com
Thursday, October 20, 2011
90 Toes. DT WEEK! (week 5)
D(evelopment)T(raining) Week.
I have spent the past two days debating whether to attempt to explain everything that went on over the past week or not. After spending 2 hours talking on skype with my dad and struggling/failing to explain everything that i experienced last week, i have decided to spare myself the days of writing, and you the hours of reading by forming a summary of all the things that we did. However, do not feel cheated! Because i will be sharing in depth all of the most important things (such as: what i learned about myself, God, and working with others).
WHAT IS DT WEEK? Who? Where? Why?
DT week is put on by a professional training group. They travel around the world doing leadership development, and social interaction for major companies. Technically they are not part of world horizons, but in reality they are. So their goal is to push us (the training program) to the limits both mentally, and physically. Consequently, bringing out feelings, emotions, and reactions to situations that may not normally surface. Then, by analyzing and reviewing the positives and negatives of our actions the goal is to be better aware of how we will react in certain situations, and what our general tendencies are and such.
The simulation it's self was very intricate and confusing so i wont attempt to explain it all. But basically, we were all working together to achieve a final goal by 10am Friday morning. But in order to achieve that goal we most do many other secondary tasks. Also, everything costs "welsh pounds." For example, we were required to go to this place and have 7 people rock climb to the top of a cliff in order to receive a piece of the puzzle (which we needed to put all the pieces together at the end to finish the week successfully), but in order to go climbing we first needed to purchase all the harnesses, rope, exc.
DAILY SUMMARIES
Day 1 (Sunday)
-Turn in computers and cell phones
Day 2 (Monday)
-Orientation, purpose of course
-Learn to use equipment (caving equipment, climbing harnesses/belaying, how to use a map/compass, bearings/pacing/contour lines)
Day 3 (Tuesday)
-DT trainers choose leaders (Zack=leader, Tim=secondary leader)
-Realize how much money we need to earn to buy equipment so we start doing "voluntary tasks" which are worth different amounts.
-Submerge yourself in the sea (600)
-Make star wars outfit out of junk that you can find (370)
-Write a 10 line poem about life in Wales (300)
-Eat a whole can of cold baked beans (600)
-Leapfrog 336 meters (1000) me zack joe and meesh were sore after this one
-30 sit ups and 30 push ups in 3 min (300)
-Take a random dog for a walk (i made a friend on the beach haha)
-LICK THE TOES OF ALL YOUR TEAM MEMBERS (400)
Lets just take a second to admire this challenge for a minute. Out of all the things i did last week, this may have been the one that bonded our group the most!
So we did all of this from 11am-6pm as well as planned for a very posh dinner party for the trainers that evening. Out of the MANY years (over 20 i think) of doing DT week we were told that out dinner, decorations, entertainment, and service was the best they had ever seen. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT! however tomorrow was a BIG day and we needed to clean everything for this night, and also plan for tomorrow. total sleep= 5 hours
Day 4 (Wednesday)
This was a very stressful day for me. The group split half and half. Some went to complete the climbing mission that we had to do, while i stayed back with the others for a "difficult raft making exercise." That is all the info they gave us. So i was put in charge of the rafting exercise, and also packing to go caving. We were told that we needed to pack food and clothes for 2 nights. So, while the others were climbing i had to pack everyones backpacks which was very stressful because i had no idea if we had all the supplies we needed. But i got it all finished with 30 min to spare.
-when climbers returned, we left for the cave and wouldn't be back till Friday morning
-navigated to cave
-climbed hill in awesome caving suits!
-climbed into the cave and established "camp" in the cave
-very uncomfortable w/sharp rocks and nowhere to sleeepp ahhhhhh....
-spent 1 hour stacking rocks to try to make a semi flat spot to sleep for girls
-total sleep= maybe 3 hours?
Day 5 (Thursday)
Expedition Day!
-Wake up in cave hike down to cars, breakfast (fruit bars.. yay...)
-Break up into two groups (guys and girls)
-Given map/compass. Must reach 3 different mountain peaks by navigating using bearing points. Joe and i were in charge of nav.
-Total of 20K (14ish miles) to finally arrive at the bothy by 5pm.
-Then given a mandatory assignment to go to a specific coordinate on the map.
-After 3 more hours of hiking (this time through marsh land) we were dead and ready for food. (considering all we ate that day was a muffin for breakfast, a chicken/mayonnaise sandwich for lunch, and at least 12 fruit bars throughout the day to keep us going)
-We finally got back to the bothy at about 9pm were the girls had a hot meal for us (noodles/mince cooked over a fire)
-We had our review meeting until 11pm and then went straight to bed knowing it would be a short night because we had a lot to do by 10am the next morning.
-Total sleep: 2 hours (11:30-1:30)
Day 6 (Friday)
-Wake 1:30am
-Pack, breakfast, hike down to cars 1:30-4am
-Drive back to World horizons.
-Arrive at 5:15
-Clean cars, caving equipment, and meal supplies
-I made the final mandatory video that we had to present, and others put together the puzzle that we now had all the pieces for.
10AM!!!.... failure. haha
By ten we did succeed to be back and cleaned up with our video done, however we failed to complete the two puzzles and failed to end the exercise with a profit ($12,000 in debt), but the good news is that very few teams/i dont know if anyone has ever "had victory over DT week." But in reality, that's not what it is for, it is to learn and examine.
Evaluations
SOOOOO... With a total of 10 hours of sleep in the last 3 nights, we headed into the meeting room to have review time. Yea right... haha. I was actually surprisingly awake! so that was good. We had group evaluation where we determined that as a group we all work really well together! VERY encouraging and we all put EVERYTHING we had into this week (I mean we licked each other's toes! lol).
Then we had individual evaluations. They told us "we only get 30 min with each of you so we are going to be very straight forward, so take what we have to say with a grain of salt. Think/Pray about it. These are just the things that we saw this week." So i was quite nervous that it was going to be all bad. When i walked into the room Carol (a woman i was already quite intimidated by. Very sweet lady, but i didnt know if she liked me) was leading the meeting. We prayed, and then the first thing she said was "Blake, each night the trainers would meet up and just talk about the progress of you guys, and i want to tell you that we were all very impressed with you.".....I let out a sigh of relief!!!
We then went on the talk about what it was like to be pushed new limits that i had never been pushed to before. I told them that i came into this week with two goals:
1) learn how to let someone else lead (because i suck at that)/servants heart
2) Be cheerful/happy no matter how little sleep we got, and no matter the circumstances
I told them that i felt like i had some aspect of victory in both areas. In the previous DT exercises it was obvious that i assumed leadership/gave myself leadership haha. So to go into this week prayerfully, and aware of my tendencies was so helpful in my pursuit of being a team player. And in my pursuit to keep the overall group morale high i found it to be fairly easy because everyone was so selfless. yes we were all tired and of course i got frustrated, but i really learned that i can control the way i react to situations. It is MY decision to make the best of things or not. It was cool to hear that the trainers agreed with what i saw in myself. They ended by encouraging and blessing me by telling me that i "have endless potential." Which is exciting to hear as a short term missions worker, coming from full time missionaries.
I definitely still have a LOT to work on when it comes to working as a team, or as a leader within that team, but i am sure that that is an endless journey. So as for now i will continue to examine and re-examine my heart, motives, and goals because that is the only way we can be sure that we are in sync with His plan.
I will posting another blog on saturday (2 days from now) giving my final information about my placement country!!! So PLEASE in the meantime be praying for guidance.
Thank you for your prays and support. Sorry this update took so long to get to you. LOT to process.
He is at work.
I have spent the past two days debating whether to attempt to explain everything that went on over the past week or not. After spending 2 hours talking on skype with my dad and struggling/failing to explain everything that i experienced last week, i have decided to spare myself the days of writing, and you the hours of reading by forming a summary of all the things that we did. However, do not feel cheated! Because i will be sharing in depth all of the most important things (such as: what i learned about myself, God, and working with others).
WHAT IS DT WEEK? Who? Where? Why?
DT week is put on by a professional training group. They travel around the world doing leadership development, and social interaction for major companies. Technically they are not part of world horizons, but in reality they are. So their goal is to push us (the training program) to the limits both mentally, and physically. Consequently, bringing out feelings, emotions, and reactions to situations that may not normally surface. Then, by analyzing and reviewing the positives and negatives of our actions the goal is to be better aware of how we will react in certain situations, and what our general tendencies are and such.
The simulation it's self was very intricate and confusing so i wont attempt to explain it all. But basically, we were all working together to achieve a final goal by 10am Friday morning. But in order to achieve that goal we most do many other secondary tasks. Also, everything costs "welsh pounds." For example, we were required to go to this place and have 7 people rock climb to the top of a cliff in order to receive a piece of the puzzle (which we needed to put all the pieces together at the end to finish the week successfully), but in order to go climbing we first needed to purchase all the harnesses, rope, exc.
DAILY SUMMARIES
Day 1 (Sunday)
-Turn in computers and cell phones
Day 2 (Monday)
-Orientation, purpose of course
-Learn to use equipment (caving equipment, climbing harnesses/belaying, how to use a map/compass, bearings/pacing/contour lines)
Day 3 (Tuesday)
-DT trainers choose leaders (Zack=leader, Tim=secondary leader)
-Realize how much money we need to earn to buy equipment so we start doing "voluntary tasks" which are worth different amounts.
-Submerge yourself in the sea (600)
-Make star wars outfit out of junk that you can find (370)
-Write a 10 line poem about life in Wales (300)
-Eat a whole can of cold baked beans (600)
-Leapfrog 336 meters (1000) me zack joe and meesh were sore after this one
-30 sit ups and 30 push ups in 3 min (300)
-Take a random dog for a walk (i made a friend on the beach haha)
-LICK THE TOES OF ALL YOUR TEAM MEMBERS (400)
Lets just take a second to admire this challenge for a minute. Out of all the things i did last week, this may have been the one that bonded our group the most!
So we did all of this from 11am-6pm as well as planned for a very posh dinner party for the trainers that evening. Out of the MANY years (over 20 i think) of doing DT week we were told that out dinner, decorations, entertainment, and service was the best they had ever seen. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT! however tomorrow was a BIG day and we needed to clean everything for this night, and also plan for tomorrow. total sleep= 5 hours
Day 4 (Wednesday)
This was a very stressful day for me. The group split half and half. Some went to complete the climbing mission that we had to do, while i stayed back with the others for a "difficult raft making exercise." That is all the info they gave us. So i was put in charge of the rafting exercise, and also packing to go caving. We were told that we needed to pack food and clothes for 2 nights. So, while the others were climbing i had to pack everyones backpacks which was very stressful because i had no idea if we had all the supplies we needed. But i got it all finished with 30 min to spare.
-when climbers returned, we left for the cave and wouldn't be back till Friday morning
-navigated to cave
-climbed hill in awesome caving suits!
-climbed into the cave and established "camp" in the cave
-very uncomfortable w/sharp rocks and nowhere to sleeepp ahhhhhh....
-spent 1 hour stacking rocks to try to make a semi flat spot to sleep for girls
-total sleep= maybe 3 hours?
Day 5 (Thursday)
Expedition Day!
-Wake up in cave hike down to cars, breakfast (fruit bars.. yay...)
-Break up into two groups (guys and girls)
-Given map/compass. Must reach 3 different mountain peaks by navigating using bearing points. Joe and i were in charge of nav.
-Total of 20K (14ish miles) to finally arrive at the bothy by 5pm.
-Then given a mandatory assignment to go to a specific coordinate on the map.
-After 3 more hours of hiking (this time through marsh land) we were dead and ready for food. (considering all we ate that day was a muffin for breakfast, a chicken/mayonnaise sandwich for lunch, and at least 12 fruit bars throughout the day to keep us going)
-We finally got back to the bothy at about 9pm were the girls had a hot meal for us (noodles/mince cooked over a fire)
-We had our review meeting until 11pm and then went straight to bed knowing it would be a short night because we had a lot to do by 10am the next morning.
-Total sleep: 2 hours (11:30-1:30)
Day 6 (Friday)
-Wake 1:30am
-Pack, breakfast, hike down to cars 1:30-4am
-Drive back to World horizons.
-Arrive at 5:15
-Clean cars, caving equipment, and meal supplies
-I made the final mandatory video that we had to present, and others put together the puzzle that we now had all the pieces for.
10AM!!!.... failure. haha
By ten we did succeed to be back and cleaned up with our video done, however we failed to complete the two puzzles and failed to end the exercise with a profit ($12,000 in debt), but the good news is that very few teams/i dont know if anyone has ever "had victory over DT week." But in reality, that's not what it is for, it is to learn and examine.
Evaluations
SOOOOO... With a total of 10 hours of sleep in the last 3 nights, we headed into the meeting room to have review time. Yea right... haha. I was actually surprisingly awake! so that was good. We had group evaluation where we determined that as a group we all work really well together! VERY encouraging and we all put EVERYTHING we had into this week (I mean we licked each other's toes! lol).
Then we had individual evaluations. They told us "we only get 30 min with each of you so we are going to be very straight forward, so take what we have to say with a grain of salt. Think/Pray about it. These are just the things that we saw this week." So i was quite nervous that it was going to be all bad. When i walked into the room Carol (a woman i was already quite intimidated by. Very sweet lady, but i didnt know if she liked me) was leading the meeting. We prayed, and then the first thing she said was "Blake, each night the trainers would meet up and just talk about the progress of you guys, and i want to tell you that we were all very impressed with you.".....I let out a sigh of relief!!!
We then went on the talk about what it was like to be pushed new limits that i had never been pushed to before. I told them that i came into this week with two goals:
1) learn how to let someone else lead (because i suck at that)/servants heart
2) Be cheerful/happy no matter how little sleep we got, and no matter the circumstances
I told them that i felt like i had some aspect of victory in both areas. In the previous DT exercises it was obvious that i assumed leadership/gave myself leadership haha. So to go into this week prayerfully, and aware of my tendencies was so helpful in my pursuit of being a team player. And in my pursuit to keep the overall group morale high i found it to be fairly easy because everyone was so selfless. yes we were all tired and of course i got frustrated, but i really learned that i can control the way i react to situations. It is MY decision to make the best of things or not. It was cool to hear that the trainers agreed with what i saw in myself. They ended by encouraging and blessing me by telling me that i "have endless potential." Which is exciting to hear as a short term missions worker, coming from full time missionaries.
I definitely still have a LOT to work on when it comes to working as a team, or as a leader within that team, but i am sure that that is an endless journey. So as for now i will continue to examine and re-examine my heart, motives, and goals because that is the only way we can be sure that we are in sync with His plan.
I will posting another blog on saturday (2 days from now) giving my final information about my placement country!!! So PLEASE in the meantime be praying for guidance.
Thank you for your prays and support. Sorry this update took so long to get to you. LOT to process.
He is at work.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Hi. My Name Is George. (week 4)
Monday-Wed Schedule:
7- Wake, Shower, Breakfast, Devos
9:30- Discipleship Lecture
11:15- Tea Break
11:30- Discipleship Lecture
1- Lunch
2- Discipleship Lecture
This may sound hectic, but compared to the last two weeks this schedule has been very forgiving! We were given most evenings off which was nice. I was able to Get back into the routine of going to the prayer room before bed. So yes Monday-Wednesday was fun and i learned a lot at the discipleship course, but the most exciting things happened on Thur and Friday of last week!
Thursday
So, every Thursday morning is prayer morning where people from all over meet here at North Dock and we pray for the different projects going on within world horizons, or for different missionaries that may come and do a presentation and what not. It was a great time of fellowship. But the thing that I was looking forward to all day (not that i wasnt looking forward to prayer...) was playing football with some kids from my Community Placement (the place where i volunteer from 10-5 on Fridays). So meesh (michelle) and i walked there and met up with Nigel (you'll hear more about him in a min) and Paul (the director of Wallich-the place i volunteer). I ended up playing 5 on 5 football with a group of drug and alcohol addicts for nearly 2 hours. It was cool to earn their respect and finally feel more accepted (the past 2 weeks it has been hard to talk/connect to the kids at Wallich b/c they are very independent).
Friday
Soooo... The next day I showed up at the residents center and hung out with Nigel(who works there) for most of the day. I could tell that Nigel was a Christian by some of the things he had said the other day when i was there, so i was excited to ask him about it. When I did I was BLOWN AWAY by his testimony! (Message me on FB if you would like to hear his whole story, but i will always remember it!! dont be shy). It was a relief to have a passionate Christian brother working along side me in, what seemed like, a Godless place of fear and frustration. I had an awesome opportunity to go to lunch with one of the addict residence Mikey! He was super friendly and easy to talk to. So, for the first time (out of the 3 times i have been to Wallich) i was beginning to see God's plan for me there.
Then, FRIDAY NIGHT EVANGELISM! Again God decides to blow me out of the water. We show up at the church at 8pm to set up the room that we invite the homeless/drunk people to come and have tea/coffee and biscuits(cookies for you americans). Right when the doors open a man called Justin walks in and i pick up conversation with him. He was drunk (although it was hard for me to tell, maybe "merry" is a better word for it) but the first thing he says to me is "if the man Bryan comes tonight i am going to hurt him, he is always judging me saying i am a sinner." Bryan is one of the guys that usually comes to evangelize and for some reason i said "Is that what Jesus would do?" I dont know why i thought he would care what Jesus would do, but i said it anyway. He responded by going into sermon mode and preaching to me about Jesus. We ended up talking right through prayertime (where we pray that God would do big things during tonights evangelism) and though i was still a little scared that i was going to get socked in the face if i said anything about sin we ended up talking for the next 3 hours. Turns out he was a preacher for 10 years and then let the demon of alcohol get to him. To make a long story short we took a walk around downtown Llanelli and talked.
We got to the point where instead of him doing all the talking, i began to ask questions and sharing why i believed in certain things. And by this point i was fairly certain we were on good terms (i.e. i wasnt too worried about being attacked) so i went ahead an laid it all out there. He kept talking about being a christian and how no one can take that away from him. He preached to thousands of people and converted many people. And i challenged him by saying "you dont know you are a christian by saying 'i once accepted jesus into my heart, i once preached and converted people, i once did really good things' but you know you are a christian by choosing DAILY to pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow after Him." He understood and i asked if he was satisfied with his current life, he said no. i asked if he was satisfied back in the day when he was preaching, and he said yes. So right there i asked "do you believe God has the power to heal you of this alcohol addiction?" He said yes. So I stared praying for him right there on the street. I had only said maybe 10 words when a big black van drove slowly by and someone started yelling "HEY, stop Kissing, hey you twooo!" The devil was obviously trying to intervene. But it threw me off guard and i didnt really know what to say. The van stopped a little way down the road and just watched us. Justin said to me "Dont be intimidated" which was really powerful to me.
We walked across the street to the church and i wasnt sure if Justin still wanted to pray for the addiction, or if i missed that opportunity or what. But Justin walked in, touched Steve's (on of the elders of the church) shoulder and said "george (he obviously forgot my name because he called me george all night, i was going to tie this in better to make it much more funny... but i got too into the story) here wants to pray, can we use the prayer room?" So the three of us went into the prayer room and steve and i laid out hands on Justin and prayed. At one point Justin got down on his knees and put his hands out and was speaking in a different language. We finished and to be honest i am not sure how much Justin will remember, b/c even after we prayed he said he was ready for a few more pints, but i know that there was a reason for me to spend my friday night with that man Justin.
PRAYER:
-DT (development training) this week!!! Super intense so pray for sleep and for safety
-Placement! i have to decide FOR SURE in a little over a week. So pray that i have some CRAZY revelation this week! haha and if not that i will make a wise decision :D
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!!! PRAYERS ARE BEING ANSWERED AND LIVES ARE BEING CHANGED! sorry this post is so long :/
7- Wake, Shower, Breakfast, Devos
9:30- Discipleship Lecture
11:15- Tea Break
11:30- Discipleship Lecture
1- Lunch
2- Discipleship Lecture
4:30- Free Time
6- Dinner
7- Clean up
11- Lights out
This may sound hectic, but compared to the last two weeks this schedule has been very forgiving! We were given most evenings off which was nice. I was able to Get back into the routine of going to the prayer room before bed. So yes Monday-Wednesday was fun and i learned a lot at the discipleship course, but the most exciting things happened on Thur and Friday of last week!
Thursday
So, every Thursday morning is prayer morning where people from all over meet here at North Dock and we pray for the different projects going on within world horizons, or for different missionaries that may come and do a presentation and what not. It was a great time of fellowship. But the thing that I was looking forward to all day (not that i wasnt looking forward to prayer...) was playing football with some kids from my Community Placement (the place where i volunteer from 10-5 on Fridays). So meesh (michelle) and i walked there and met up with Nigel (you'll hear more about him in a min) and Paul (the director of Wallich-the place i volunteer). I ended up playing 5 on 5 football with a group of drug and alcohol addicts for nearly 2 hours. It was cool to earn their respect and finally feel more accepted (the past 2 weeks it has been hard to talk/connect to the kids at Wallich b/c they are very independent).
Friday
Soooo... The next day I showed up at the residents center and hung out with Nigel(who works there) for most of the day. I could tell that Nigel was a Christian by some of the things he had said the other day when i was there, so i was excited to ask him about it. When I did I was BLOWN AWAY by his testimony! (Message me on FB if you would like to hear his whole story, but i will always remember it!! dont be shy). It was a relief to have a passionate Christian brother working along side me in, what seemed like, a Godless place of fear and frustration. I had an awesome opportunity to go to lunch with one of the addict residence Mikey! He was super friendly and easy to talk to. So, for the first time (out of the 3 times i have been to Wallich) i was beginning to see God's plan for me there.
Then, FRIDAY NIGHT EVANGELISM! Again God decides to blow me out of the water. We show up at the church at 8pm to set up the room that we invite the homeless/drunk people to come and have tea/coffee and biscuits(cookies for you americans). Right when the doors open a man called Justin walks in and i pick up conversation with him. He was drunk (although it was hard for me to tell, maybe "merry" is a better word for it) but the first thing he says to me is "if the man Bryan comes tonight i am going to hurt him, he is always judging me saying i am a sinner." Bryan is one of the guys that usually comes to evangelize and for some reason i said "Is that what Jesus would do?" I dont know why i thought he would care what Jesus would do, but i said it anyway. He responded by going into sermon mode and preaching to me about Jesus. We ended up talking right through prayertime (where we pray that God would do big things during tonights evangelism) and though i was still a little scared that i was going to get socked in the face if i said anything about sin we ended up talking for the next 3 hours. Turns out he was a preacher for 10 years and then let the demon of alcohol get to him. To make a long story short we took a walk around downtown Llanelli and talked.
We got to the point where instead of him doing all the talking, i began to ask questions and sharing why i believed in certain things. And by this point i was fairly certain we were on good terms (i.e. i wasnt too worried about being attacked) so i went ahead an laid it all out there. He kept talking about being a christian and how no one can take that away from him. He preached to thousands of people and converted many people. And i challenged him by saying "you dont know you are a christian by saying 'i once accepted jesus into my heart, i once preached and converted people, i once did really good things' but you know you are a christian by choosing DAILY to pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow after Him." He understood and i asked if he was satisfied with his current life, he said no. i asked if he was satisfied back in the day when he was preaching, and he said yes. So right there i asked "do you believe God has the power to heal you of this alcohol addiction?" He said yes. So I stared praying for him right there on the street. I had only said maybe 10 words when a big black van drove slowly by and someone started yelling "HEY, stop Kissing, hey you twooo!" The devil was obviously trying to intervene. But it threw me off guard and i didnt really know what to say. The van stopped a little way down the road and just watched us. Justin said to me "Dont be intimidated" which was really powerful to me.
We walked across the street to the church and i wasnt sure if Justin still wanted to pray for the addiction, or if i missed that opportunity or what. But Justin walked in, touched Steve's (on of the elders of the church) shoulder and said "george (he obviously forgot my name because he called me george all night, i was going to tie this in better to make it much more funny... but i got too into the story) here wants to pray, can we use the prayer room?" So the three of us went into the prayer room and steve and i laid out hands on Justin and prayed. At one point Justin got down on his knees and put his hands out and was speaking in a different language. We finished and to be honest i am not sure how much Justin will remember, b/c even after we prayed he said he was ready for a few more pints, but i know that there was a reason for me to spend my friday night with that man Justin.
PRAYER:
-DT (development training) this week!!! Super intense so pray for sleep and for safety
-Placement! i have to decide FOR SURE in a little over a week. So pray that i have some CRAZY revelation this week! haha and if not that i will make a wise decision :D
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!!! PRAYERS ARE BEING ANSWERED AND LIVES ARE BEING CHANGED! sorry this post is so long :/
Monday, October 3, 2011
Using The Weak, Broken, and Reluctant to Magnify His Glory (Week 3)
Can you think of examples? Moses. David. The Israelites. Gideon. Just to name a few! God glorifies himself so much more when emphasizing that he doesn't NEED us to fulfill his plans, however through His grace He allows us to take part in His ministry. This is the topic i shared with the training team during friday morning devotions. But God decided that just sharing in the morning wasn't enough, He would make the devotion applicable to my life. Satan constantly tries to convince me that i am not ready to be used by God, or uses my sin as a way to distract me from feeling worthy to be used. Despite my misconceptions of God's grace, He did use me and the other's at Friday night street evangelism to impact lives! Please pray for:
-Jack: He was drunk when we talked to him, but we talked for nearly 40 min and he may come tomorrow night to Tue night Football with the church. pray that he does and that he will receive the Gospel message.
-Liam: Was raised a christian, but after his best friend committed suicide he went down hill fast and was addicted to heroine at the age of 16. He has cleaned up and is really searching. We talked for a little while before he said "there is a reason that i ran into the three of you guys tonight." and proceeded to shake each of our hands. He said he was ready to make a commitment to follow Jesus right then and there, but then decided that maybe he should take 24 hours and think/pray. I wanted to seal the deal right there you know? but i have realized that the Holy Spirit is at work. The best think i can do for Liam is pray and trust that God will continue to work in him.
On monday and tuesday of last week we had all-day evangelism courses which were really enjoyable and then on Wed we had a DT (development training) day. It was really fun, but also difficult. The point of DT is to bring out one's character when working towards an objective. Leadership skills, following skills, and practical skills are all needed. The challenge was to build a raft out of barrels and wood and rope in two hours and have the entire team standing on it in the middle of North Dock Lake. And if that wasn't difficult enough we had to do other tasks to buy all the materials needed for the raft. What a challenge!
I learned (and was very aware going in) that i am not a very good follower... haha i tend to he strong opinions and either state them, or just say nothing at all. So it was definitely a learning experience for me :) I am continuing to examine myself in new ways, and learn alot about serving others.
Looking forward to what is in store for this week! Thanks for all the prayers!
-Jack: He was drunk when we talked to him, but we talked for nearly 40 min and he may come tomorrow night to Tue night Football with the church. pray that he does and that he will receive the Gospel message.
-Liam: Was raised a christian, but after his best friend committed suicide he went down hill fast and was addicted to heroine at the age of 16. He has cleaned up and is really searching. We talked for a little while before he said "there is a reason that i ran into the three of you guys tonight." and proceeded to shake each of our hands. He said he was ready to make a commitment to follow Jesus right then and there, but then decided that maybe he should take 24 hours and think/pray. I wanted to seal the deal right there you know? but i have realized that the Holy Spirit is at work. The best think i can do for Liam is pray and trust that God will continue to work in him.
On monday and tuesday of last week we had all-day evangelism courses which were really enjoyable and then on Wed we had a DT (development training) day. It was really fun, but also difficult. The point of DT is to bring out one's character when working towards an objective. Leadership skills, following skills, and practical skills are all needed. The challenge was to build a raft out of barrels and wood and rope in two hours and have the entire team standing on it in the middle of North Dock Lake. And if that wasn't difficult enough we had to do other tasks to buy all the materials needed for the raft. What a challenge!
I learned (and was very aware going in) that i am not a very good follower... haha i tend to he strong opinions and either state them, or just say nothing at all. So it was definitely a learning experience for me :) I am continuing to examine myself in new ways, and learn alot about serving others.
Looking forward to what is in store for this week! Thanks for all the prayers!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
I Will Attempt To Describe... (week 2)
By far one of the best weeks of my life thus far! Bold statement to open with right?!? Well i can/will attempt to back it up.
So first let me tell you about my new favorite place. It is the prayer room here at North Dock. Despite my continual failures over the past year to set up and maintain a consistent prayer life He has not given up on me. I have spent more time in prayer in the past week than in all 3 of the previous months. This statistic is both an example of how little i normally spend praying, and also the crazy amount of praying that we have been doing lately. If you remember last week i asked people to pray for "Discipline to be in the word on my OWN despite all the time we will be in fellowship." WHAT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER! This week God has used the story of Hosea to reveal to me that i am that prostitute that God commands Hosea to marry. And even when Hosea(Jesus) saves me from my adulterous ways, i still choose to turn away. And EVEN though i fail He NEVER stops pursuing me. For some reason this came into my head the other day and it has stuck. I'm not sure if i copied this from someone, or if it is even theologically sound, but i like it: "I know i will never be perfect, but i will never let that fact stop me from trying to be like Jesus."
I have already begun to see crazy amounts of change in my heart and mind through my alone time with Him. I know i will not always have this much free time to devote to my prayer life, but God has blessed me so much this week by allowing me to see Him in a new way; a God in pursuit. So often i trick myself into thinking that i am the one who is doing all the work by pursuing God. In reality i may pursue Him during a couple hours here or there during my day, but he is always following after me with open arms.
Sorry that this update didn't really have any logistical information in it (like what i have actually been doing all day everyday), but i figured i would tell you the most important part of my week. So i did. I figure that there are plenty weeks to come where i can share that other information (like the classes i am taking, and where my community placement is and such) but for now i just wanted to encourage you all by sharing that God is at work here in Llanelli :D
PRAYER: (pray with confidence that He is answering/will answer!)
-Spiritual battles (with different distractions and temptations. The devil is trying to stop us from learning/being used)
-Maintain daily devotions and prayer life
-Pride broken so that my heart can be shaped and molded however God wills it
P.S. i will be contacting you next weekend (if you returned a support card to me, and are supporting me in prayer) with specific prayer requests and to remind you of what days you committed to pray! Thank You for your love and support!
So first let me tell you about my new favorite place. It is the prayer room here at North Dock. Despite my continual failures over the past year to set up and maintain a consistent prayer life He has not given up on me. I have spent more time in prayer in the past week than in all 3 of the previous months. This statistic is both an example of how little i normally spend praying, and also the crazy amount of praying that we have been doing lately. If you remember last week i asked people to pray for "Discipline to be in the word on my OWN despite all the time we will be in fellowship." WHAT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER! This week God has used the story of Hosea to reveal to me that i am that prostitute that God commands Hosea to marry. And even when Hosea(Jesus) saves me from my adulterous ways, i still choose to turn away. And EVEN though i fail He NEVER stops pursuing me. For some reason this came into my head the other day and it has stuck. I'm not sure if i copied this from someone, or if it is even theologically sound, but i like it: "I know i will never be perfect, but i will never let that fact stop me from trying to be like Jesus."
I have already begun to see crazy amounts of change in my heart and mind through my alone time with Him. I know i will not always have this much free time to devote to my prayer life, but God has blessed me so much this week by allowing me to see Him in a new way; a God in pursuit. So often i trick myself into thinking that i am the one who is doing all the work by pursuing God. In reality i may pursue Him during a couple hours here or there during my day, but he is always following after me with open arms.
Sorry that this update didn't really have any logistical information in it (like what i have actually been doing all day everyday), but i figured i would tell you the most important part of my week. So i did. I figure that there are plenty weeks to come where i can share that other information (like the classes i am taking, and where my community placement is and such) but for now i just wanted to encourage you all by sharing that God is at work here in Llanelli :D
PRAYER: (pray with confidence that He is answering/will answer!)
-Spiritual battles (with different distractions and temptations. The devil is trying to stop us from learning/being used)
-Maintain daily devotions and prayer life
-Pride broken so that my heart can be shaped and molded however God wills it
P.S. i will be contacting you next weekend (if you returned a support card to me, and are supporting me in prayer) with specific prayer requests and to remind you of what days you committed to pray! Thank You for your love and support!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
I have a WALE of a tale!
I can't believe that i have only been in Wales for four days! We have already done SO much, and we haven't even officially started classes yet. Thanks to all who prayed for safe travels, Michelle and i made it safe and sound. However, we did run into a few problems, our flight from San Fran was an hour late, and our flight from Calgary was 3 hours late which means we landed over 4 hours later than we had expected. Then, (after waiting an hour for our luggage to come) we realized it wasnt coming so we asked and found out the couldnt even find it with the tracker. They said they would send it to us in the next few days when they find it. Somehow we met up with Joe in London Heathrow and took a 4 hour bus right to our new home for the next 3 months. SO EXCITING.
The next few days they set aside for us to re-coop, and get acquainted with Llanelli. Four ex-gappers were here all of last week showing us how things are run, showing us around the town, and just sharing in community and fellowship with us. The people here are SO great. i love the fact that i cant be in a conversation with a person from the states, England, Wales, and Ireland at the same time. We find delight in making fun of each other's accents and weird word usages.
Cultural Differences Update:
-Cars drive on left
-Dont use napkins
-No salad dressing (possibly olive oil)
-"Pants" are not what you think they are... (underwear)
-To say "i like faggots" does not mean you are in support of the homosexual movement. But rather that you love a very Welsh dish made up of pig live and entrails. (tastes like gross meatloaf...kinda)
-Spotted Dick=delicious cake desert that one eats with tea (yes we ate spotted dick)
-Who knew? Welsh people love American accents, but English hate us... big surprise.
Tomorrow is the first Sunday we are here, and Monday will be our first REAL day of training. Sooo exciting.
PRAY: (dont forget about your prayer commitments to pray!)
-Discipline to be in the word on my OWN despite all the time we will be in fellowship with other christians. That one on one time is vital for me and i havent been prioritizing correctly yet.
-Open heart. to what ever HE will have me learn this week!
The next few days they set aside for us to re-coop, and get acquainted with Llanelli. Four ex-gappers were here all of last week showing us how things are run, showing us around the town, and just sharing in community and fellowship with us. The people here are SO great. i love the fact that i cant be in a conversation with a person from the states, England, Wales, and Ireland at the same time. We find delight in making fun of each other's accents and weird word usages.
Cultural Differences Update:
-Cars drive on left
-Dont use napkins
-No salad dressing (possibly olive oil)
-"Pants" are not what you think they are... (underwear)
-To say "i like faggots" does not mean you are in support of the homosexual movement. But rather that you love a very Welsh dish made up of pig live and entrails. (tastes like gross meatloaf...kinda)
-Spotted Dick=delicious cake desert that one eats with tea (yes we ate spotted dick)
-Who knew? Welsh people love American accents, but English hate us... big surprise.
Tomorrow is the first Sunday we are here, and Monday will be our first REAL day of training. Sooo exciting.
PRAY: (dont forget about your prayer commitments to pray!)
-Discipline to be in the word on my OWN despite all the time we will be in fellowship with other christians. That one on one time is vital for me and i havent been prioritizing correctly yet.
-Open heart. to what ever HE will have me learn this week!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Off to Wales
September 7, 2011
Just four more days and my teammates and I will be leaving for Wales! I am super stoked that the time has finally arrived. All of our hard work and preparation (visas, raising support, background checks, and endless emails to and from World Horizons) is almost over, and the adventure is at our doorstep. Praise the Lord! This is my first "test" blog and, hopefully, my next blog will be from Wales.
Prayer Requests:
- safe travels
- final goodbyes to Gapper parents may be difficult (for them!...just kidding)
- need last fourth of financial support
And that's the way the cookie crumbles,
Blake McCormick
Just four more days and my teammates and I will be leaving for Wales! I am super stoked that the time has finally arrived. All of our hard work and preparation (visas, raising support, background checks, and endless emails to and from World Horizons) is almost over, and the adventure is at our doorstep. Praise the Lord! This is my first "test" blog and, hopefully, my next blog will be from Wales.
Prayer Requests:
- safe travels
- final goodbyes to Gapper parents may be difficult (for them!...just kidding)
- need last fourth of financial support
And that's the way the cookie crumbles,
Blake McCormick
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