First Blog: An explanation of what I am doing here in NZ!!!

(picture of the view from where we live)

What am I doing this year?

The short answer is that I am staffing two Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) based in Tauranga, New Zealand.

(me with my two room mates and other DTS staff)

What is a DTS?

A DTS is a place for people from the age of 18-35 to come and spend 3 months to work on their relationship with God and to spend two months in another country/countries on outreach. It is amazing to see how students change on a DTS and how God impacts them while they are here. The first three months are composed mainly of the students receiving teaching on a different topic each week from a different guest speaker/s.  The teaching is absolutely awesome- the speakers do not just teach but share their lives with the students. Outreach is an awesome chance to share about God (share not force) and to pray for those who want prayer as we believe that his love and grace change lives, bring hope to the hopeless and redeem those who are broken and lonely. Often outreach can involve bringing humanitarian aid, working in orphanages and sharing the love of God in practical ways. For our outreach on this DTS we will be going to Indonesia, leaving on October 6th!! Marine Reach YWAM are the organisation who run the DTS and they have a special focus on bringing humanitarian aid and medical care using ships, so there is a possibility we will be joining in the work that they are doing on the second DTS I will be staffing. Outreach is an awesome part of the whole DTS and extremely eye opening.

(picture of some of the DTS who got up at 5.15am to watch sunrise)

What is my role?

I am part of the team of 12 staff who organises and runs everything. During the lecture phase as staff our main job is to love and support and the 33 students who are on our school. I mentor 4 of the students (one Dutch, two Swiss, and one American from Virginia) which is one of my favourite parts of being staff!! As staff we initiate a lot of activities for the students such as playing games, praying together, worshipping, playing ultimate frisbee (which we play at least twice a week after our session of organised physical exercise of some sort), building forts, going on fun adventures, (just generally  encouraging community and fun filled fellowship). We meet at least two times with our outreach teams and equip our teams for outreach in various ways. We also organise all that is going on at the YWAM base where we live to make everything run smoothly. I am in charge of hospitality and am also the kitchen liaison, which basically means I bake a lot for different events and for birthdays, make sure people are welcome, and make sure people are getting fed amongst other random jobs. Basically it’s pretty much really tricky to sum up what we do so sorry about that!

(playing ultimate frisbee)

(Our maori welcome to the land which the YWAM base is on- interesting kind of a welcome)

Why am I doing this?

Because I love being able to be a part of all that goes on a DTS- seeing people grow in intimacy with God, equipping young people for their future lives, getting to be a part of a community of people from all around the world, amongst other things. It is a bizarre situation to be in and so not like anything in the normal world, but I really think it is a beautiful time to step outside of normal life and realise what is important, really take time to dream big about ones future, learn heaps about life from living with a bunch of cool people and just to fall more in love with this wonderful guy called Jesus.

(a shot of the scenery around where we live)

How am I doing?

Just grand. I am in a beautiful location with really nice people. I have two wonderful roommates- one crazy Australian (we laugh a lot together especially when attempting to do a west country farmers accent) and an Iowan (who used to have dreadlocks and who I love to have long and thought provoking discussions with). Funnily enough my accent is usually this blend of British and American (though I did try hard not to go American there are too many Americans around), but it is often all over the place.

So I will be honest that I was worried about being stuck in a bit of YWAM Christian bubble, but I have found that people are so genuine here, there is no nonsense and there is just a whole lot of love. People just love each other (sorry it sounds a bit cheesy) here in really cool ways and it’s an awesome place to be (for example just the other day one of the students gave me a whole container of homemade chocolate fudge which his grandma had sent him all the way from America- boy oh boy was that a blessing). Was perhaps a bit silly of me as I have already been in the YWAM world before but I was worried that I would feel like I would be surrounded by Christians who were all a bit ‘brain washed’ or something and didn’t question what they were doing and why they were doing it and were always happy and always in a place of having a perfect relationship with God and I would be there questioning everything and uncomfortable with what was going on. Instead I have met a group of people who are just so real, who love to question and who tell God that they are angry at him if they are angry and who chat with him and laugh with him and I am learning so much from the people I am around and not feeling uncomfortable or inadequate as I was worried I might be. And for that I am so thankful to God.

Prayer Requests

If you were wondering what some specific things you could be praying for me if you were wanting to, I would love prayer as our team prepare for outreach in Indonesia. I don't want the 2 months that we are there to be just another missions trip. We would love to be a part of God's plan to pour out his love on this hurting world and want to be open to whatever way God wants to do that. So please pray BIG, if you want to pray! And wisdom in my leadership would also be much appreciated. =)

Awesome answer to prayer

I was asking God if He would help provide a cello for me while in New Zealand, though thinking it would be incredibly unlikely, and He has in an amazingly miraculous way. A lady who lives near the base and often helps out with the DTS has always wanted to learn the cello for many years now and just happened to finally decide to rent a cello for the year so she can start learning to play the cello. So when she found out that I played cello she has said I can come and play it whenever I want!!! I have been playing it quite a bit during worship. So thankful to God!

(...For those of you my dear friends who find what I am doing a bit odd because its not something you believe in yourself, I apologise for the things in my blog that may be odd to you. I know that you guys all accept what I believe in though, so I have been honest about my faith and what I have been up to this last month and a half, hoping that you may find it interesting.)