A New Intake :)

The Impact UK DTS (Discipleship training school) has gotten off to an amazing start, with 22 trainees from 10 nations, we have a really diverse mix of people.

We are now two weeks into the school, and it has been a real pleasure to be a part of it. The trainees are all very willing and eager to get involved with the teaching, and it has been so much fun to be able to spend time with them in the evenings, and over meals as well. I love the live learn environment that a DTS creates, sharing more than just class time with the people you are discipling. I always enjoy being apart of the schools, seeing what God is doing in peoples lives, and helping them to step more int who they are, and their relationship with God. It is always such an amazing experience, one that continues to challenge me, and how I live.

I am really looking forward to what these next months will bring.

Blows my mind....

On Tuesday evenings we get together as a community to spend time worshiping God and to hear teaching. It is a really good way to see each other and connect and also spend time with God corporately, as a body.

Last Tuesday (10/01/2012) was the first one of the year after our Christmas break. We felt very much as a campus that we are entering a new season with God and that we should mark it with an offering for those people who have debt in the community. It was one of those evenings that really challenges your world view and how you see God. So what we did was write those peoples names up on a board with the amount of their debt. Then we each asked God how much we should give. Close to £4,500 was given and most of the debt was wiped out.

What really impacted me about this was the level of faith that was displayed. How many churches have you ever been in where all the members debt is shown and then the rest of us give what we can to help those who are in need. It is quite a radical thing, but was how the early church lived and operated. The generosity of the evening was inspiring, and the way it touched those who were in need was very special to be apart of. It was also a very challenging evening, as here in YWAM no one actual gets paid, we all live by the generosity of churches and individuals who support the work we do, so to see the amount that was given is actual quite incredible. I love living and being a part of something like this.

Cover to cover

We started the year as a community by reading the bible from cover to cover out loud. As this year is such a significant year for this nation (England) as well as the wider UK we felt we should start by declaring the truth of who God is and what he has done and is doing. When we were praying about this God gave us the verse from Isaiah 55v10-11 “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” So we figured that we should speak out the word of God over this coming year.

It took us about three and a half days to do, without a break. People came and did an hour at a time, and everyone said how much they enjoyed it, even those who were reading lists of names! It was such a great excuses to be able to sit and read the bible for an hour without being interrupted, and know that you could do that. It was so well attended that we are looking at doing this more often over this coming year.

I myself got to read all of Mark’s gospel, as well as Hebrews, James and 1 Peter. It was really good to be able to read an account of the life of Jesus in one go, out loud, such a blessing.