Today is my one month anniversary of being a YWAM-er! What a month it has been. I haven't written much because every time I think about writing the thought of trying to articulate all that God has done is extremely daunting. Our first week of lectures was on the power of forgiveness and repentance through the cross. The week was intense and exhausting. There was so much personal application, we were all so blown away by the depth the teaching, it was impossible to stop the teaching from penetrating our hearts. This of course, is a good thing – however, we were all reassured that not every week of our DTS would be so intense...so far it has. It's been amazing to see what God is doing. Week two was on the character and nature of God. It was so beautiful to see wrong ideas about God crumble next to the truth of who He is, and what He wants for us. Last week we received teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Our teacher was an amazing woman of God who is so down to earth and...normal. It was a relief because I think it's safe to say that some of us were afraid our Holy Spirit week would be taught by a kind of airy, flighty, totally emotionally controlled person. I guess that might point to some of my wrong ideas about who the Holy Spirit is. Anyway, last week was awesome. It was really amazing to see how biblically founded the teaching was. Every concept had loads of verses to back it up, and the controversial stuff wasn't really a focus until the last day, where it was handled very well and gently.
God is really blowing my mind with all that He is doing here. Our class is absolutely amazing as well. It's amazing to see how faithful God is. One of my prayers before I came was that God would show me what a really healthy community that was completely based on Him would look like. That is this community. I have never been a part of something like this before – and I have been a part of some really amazing communities. Everyone in our entire class is so unified and connected. I have not once heard anyone gossip about another person. There is no competition for social standing, no romantic weirdness between anyone, we are all here to seek God's face together, we have come with all of our issues, and been totally honest with each other with where we're at, we are unified in purpose, and God given affection for each other. Every term the current DTS puts on an event called “cafe night” and ours was on saturday night. We pick a theme, decorate, cook, and make a cafe atmosphere for a sort of glorified talent show. Our cafe night was awesome. I was on the decorating team, the serving team (we ran it restaurant style, with servers), and the baking team. We made Swedish Carrot cake (one of our classmates is Swedish, she's wonderful), fruit kebobs, and brownies with ice cream. There were so many acts that cafe night ran for 2 hours. The whole base and some visitors (including David Hamilton, author of Why Not Women!!) were there, so in all we had about 120 people. I was so overwhelmed with how much I love these people that I actually started tearing up during one of the dances the Korean girls were doing. It felt like preparing a dance for your family and then celebrating each other and laughing together. The DTS girls also prepared a song and dance. It was pretty embarrassing, but it also just had that family feel, and it made me so grateful to be here.
We also found out where we are going on outreach last week! Our options are Cairo, Mexico City, and Togo, West Africa. I was the second to last person in the class to figure out which location I should go to, but I have decided on Togo. I'm so excited to go. I can already see that God is blessing my team hugely, and that we were put together with a purpose. Togo is a small country in between Benin and Ghana. We will be spending half of our time at the in the capital city, Lome, and half of our time in a more undeveloped area in the country. While in the capital city we will be helping to run a computer training center to teach locals how to use simple programs such as word, and how to create an email account. Mercy Ships will also be arriving in Togo while we are there, so we will hopefully be able to help out there. When we are in the more rural areas, we will be going to completely unreached people groups in villages. We will be in Africa for just under two months, then returning to Switzerland for one week of debrief and re-entry lectures, then I'll be coming home. : ( I can't believe we will have to leave each other. It will be so hard to leave this community. I am trusting God to provide the money for this Togo. The trip will cost about 3,500 dollars, and I am definitely still lacking most of that. Please be praying for provision, and if you would like to contribute please send money to my parents at 2905 Goodman Dr NW Gig Harbor, WA. Love you all!
