World Changers and Kingdom Shapers

Hello fellow World Changers and Kingdom Shapers!

The Multi-Cultural Discipleship Training School
(Chile team & ATW team)

The first morning we were all here was Tuesday morning (April 5th). It was a good day. I spent time getting settled in and organizing in my dorm area. The staff served us breakfast which was wonderful. Because there are so many Koreans here for the Spring Multi-Cultural DTS we had sushi served in a way that was much like California Rolls only with sushi. We also had tofu. I committed to not only coming but my prayer is that God would push me and challenge me in areas I’ve never been before (even the little things) so I tried the tofu with a Korean sauce (the sauce was much like a saltier soy sauce) and I had two sushi California rolls. It was better than I expected I must say. I wouldn’t eat tofu for fun but it was good to try it. I have yet to explain to you what groups are here. There's the around the world team and the spring team that will be doing their outreach in Chile, both teams make up the Multi-Cultural DTS, and there is a Phase II (School of Ministry Development) going on. Phase II is a secondary school you can go through after graduating from DTS. After completing Phase II you can come go on staff at any of the 1,100 YWAM bases all over the world. So we have a variety of people and cultures represented here. The Multi-Cultural DTS in mostly made up of Korean students, so all of our sessions and announcements are translated in Korean which is really neat. There are about a hundred people here with the three groups and YWAM Denver staff.

Life here throughout the week is very good yet busy with community living (getting to know everyone better), sessions, homework, intersession, worship, outreach preparation, small groups, meals, work duties (kitchen clean-up and house-keeping for me), and community outreach. The meals here are absolutely amazing I must say! Something else exciting which is also part of our homework, we are all reading a book titled Is That Really You, God? The author is the founder of YWAM, Loren Cunningham. It is an amazing book that has challenged me to listen to the voice of God and be ready for Him to speak and reveal Himself and His plan more and more.

The weekends are a very nice time of rest. Sunday (April 11th) we went to Faith Bible Chapel which is the church that is close by the base. There are 22 churches that have come together in the Arvada area and decided that they are all going to unite and teach a three week series on How to Love Your Neighbor and FBC is one of those churches. It was a very convicting message. We were challenged to take Luke 10:27 seriously (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’”). After church a few of us came together and discussed how we felt convicted about truly loving our neighbors so we decided that because the YWAM base is our home for right now we would go to some houses in the neighborhood next to us and just simply say “hello” and introduce ourselves. So there was about 10 of us that circled up on the YWAM base lawn and briefly discussed a plan as to what houses each group would go to (we split into 2 groups). I was with Darren, Ben, Michael T., and Ashton (who celebrated his 19th birthday on Sunday, April 11th, Happy Birthday Ashton!). We walked down the first street and before going to the first house we circled up and prayed that God would bless our time and efforts to meet our neighbors. There were many encouraging people who willingly spoke with us for a brief time as we introduced ourselves explaining that we were from YWAM and we just wanted to meet our neighbors and say hello. Our group changed a little when some had to go back to base and some of us wanted to go on so in the end I walked back to base with Michael T., Michael B., Darren, and Ashton. All in all we made it to about 25 houses. What a sweet afternoon!! So, loving my neighbors is something that will be close to my heart after this beautiful experience. May I pass the challenge to you; there is a mission field right outside your front door (even if you aren’t home).

While out meeting our neighbors Sunday I am so thankful that we met an older couple whose adult children were involved with YWAM, so YWAM was near and dear to their hearts. The wife’s name was Evelyn, her and I decided to go for coffee sometime and she also told me about an elderly widow who lives next door to her and so I think Evelyn and I are going to visit her too. We also met Harold, around 85 years old that visited with our group for a while and was thankful we came by; he shared many wonderful stories about his life with us and also that he likes peanut butter cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies. So, Wednesday Michael T., Michael B., Darren, Ashton, and I took cookies to Harold’s house and spent about 2 hours with him. Harold told us all kinds of neat stories about World War II and back when Arvada, CO was pasture and dairies. He also showed us many pictures of the horses that he trained to compete in horse races! He had the privilege of training absolutely beautiful horses!

Outreach Monday evening. I went with about 10 other students and staff to The Beacon House which is in Denver. Beacon House is a halfway house and every Monday they play an intense and fun game of Bingo to win prizes ranging from shampoo to laundry detergent. It was a great experience and a wonderful time of getting to know each person there (and getting to see their skill and joy for Bingo!).

This whole week our guest speaker is Blake Mattocks. His topic is Character of God. It’s amazing, it’s Biblical and in depth teaching that is challenging but healthy. Meat is being taught here… example… “The goal of Christianity is transformation,” “Courage is the willingness to act out of conviction rather than feeling,” “Courage is choosing conviction over compromise,” "Forgiveness is to bestow a favor unconditionally or to pardon," "Forgiveness brings freedom," "Obedience is mandatory not optional," "God accomplishes His will through your obedience," "Contentment is to be sufficient or adequate, a satisfaction with what one has and where God has you," "Contentment is a learned behavior,"Monsters in the dark are created through imagination, through life and exposure and openness of sin," "Trying is not Biblical, training is Biblical," "Learned truth has to become living truth," …. these are just a few quotes Blake had for us to begin our week with his profound teaching. He is a man of God. I had the honor of having lunch with him, Stacy, and Cat on Monday, he has an awesome perspective of life and it was refreshing to soak that up. Thank you Blake for a God-led week!


Prayer requests:
-For our neighbors that we met.
-That we will all become more unified as the Body of Christ as our school continues.
-Pray I will not be anxious for anything and that I will diligently TRAIN for what God has for me in this moment, for this hour, and for this day.

Thank you all for your prayer and financial support! If it wasn’t for you allowing God to use you to equip disciples to go to all nations then I would not be here witnessing His hand at work in my life and in everyone at YWAM Denver’s lives. This is exactly where God wants me and I am overflowing with joy because of it. I thank you with all my heart.

God gave this verse to me during our Monday morning worship session and I felt lead to share it with everyone. Just as it brought me encouragement, I hope it brings you encouragement,

“Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

Romans 5:2

Itinerary

Wow! Here I am in my hotel room about to go down and eat breakfast before driving to YWAM’s Denver Base where I will sign in alongside my around the world team members to begin our DTS.

First I want to update everyone: When I sent out my YWAM newsletters and I thought that the itinerary that I included was correct but that was for YWAM ATW 2009. Our itinerary is quite different but just as wonderful. I am so excited about it!

Denver (2 months)
San Francisco, CA
Seoul, South Korea
Durban, South Africa (during the World Cup)
Jinja, Uganda
Cevennes, France
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Mexico City, Mexico

So that is what the itinerary for YWAM ATW 2010 looks like. I will keep this blogspot updated as much as our travel and time will allow. My goal is to blog at least once a month and hopefully twice a month.

I have been reading Acts to prepare for this trip and training in Denver, CO. God laid it on my heart that our team will be the body of Christ to many people who have not witnessed the love and kindness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

God is going to do amazing things while we are at YWAM Denver base where we will all be in training the next couple of months. And because God will be moving and working in many ways, the enemy would like nothing more than to kill, steal, and destroy our unity and the joy that we have in Christ. Please continue to lift YWAM Denver Base up in prayer.

I am very excited because next time I write you, I will have met each member of the YWAM ATW DTS 2010 team!!