Here goes round two from New Zealand! For those of you reading this who don't know much about what is going on in my life, let me fill you in. I'm currently serving with Youth With a Mission; YWAM is an international, inter-denominational, non-profit Christian missions organization that has operating locations in 180 nations and trains 25,000 short-term missions volunteers annually. I'll be acting as a staff member for the Around the World in 80 Days Discipleship Training Schoo (DTS) that is run out of Oxford, New Zealand. (www.ywamoxford.org) The focus of YWAM is to know God and make Him known, therefore students come to a three month DTS to know God on a more intimate level and then make Him known by heading out into the nations to serve. The specific focus of our Around the World in 80 Days (AW80) school is to send teams to multiple countries all over the globe to work along side long term missionaries. Our hope is that by working with these long-termers we can get a feel for how to live, serve and show the love of Christ so we can ultimately do the same wherever we're called. So now that you have a bit of a background I'll bring you up to speed on what's currently happening in my life.
In the past month we, as a staff team have been meeting each day of the week to train and prepare for the upcoming DTS. One particular day we were discussing how important it is to communicate with supporters back home. A key theme of this discussion revolved around a particular piece of scripture from 1 Samuel 14. In this chapter the Israelites are at war with the Philistines. Jonathan, the son of the king and his armor bearer sneak to the Philistine outpost. Jonathan explains the plan of attack to his armor bearer and in verse seven the bearer replies,
7 “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
The two of them go on to attack the enemy and many fall at the sword of the armor bearer. The point of all this is to highlight the importance all of you have on my plan of attack. The plan is to defeat the work of the enemy in both young peoples lives and the lives of those unreached people all over the world. The number of those in this world who are trapped in the devil's many snares infuriates me! People trapped in addiction, sex-slavery, low self-esteem, unforgiveness, unbelief and the list goes on and on. Just like Jonathan was confident that the Lord's will would be done with his enemies in 1 Samuel 14, I'm confident God's will shall be done on this earth! I guarantee that this battle is fought so much more effectively with the continual encouragement and support throughout this body of believers so I THANK YOU so much for the prayers you are pouring into the mission of my life to know God and make Him known! I would specifically love it if you would pray against a spirit of poverty, sickness, and discouragement for our staff as a whole and our students who have started to arrive! Here we go!! Much Love and Blessings sent to you from New Zealand!
In the past month we, as a staff team have been meeting each day of the week to train and prepare for the upcoming DTS. One particular day we were discussing how important it is to communicate with supporters back home. A key theme of this discussion revolved around a particular piece of scripture from 1 Samuel 14. In this chapter the Israelites are at war with the Philistines. Jonathan, the son of the king and his armor bearer sneak to the Philistine outpost. Jonathan explains the plan of attack to his armor bearer and in verse seven the bearer replies,
7 “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
The two of them go on to attack the enemy and many fall at the sword of the armor bearer. The point of all this is to highlight the importance all of you have on my plan of attack. The plan is to defeat the work of the enemy in both young peoples lives and the lives of those unreached people all over the world. The number of those in this world who are trapped in the devil's many snares infuriates me! People trapped in addiction, sex-slavery, low self-esteem, unforgiveness, unbelief and the list goes on and on. Just like Jonathan was confident that the Lord's will would be done with his enemies in 1 Samuel 14, I'm confident God's will shall be done on this earth! I guarantee that this battle is fought so much more effectively with the continual encouragement and support throughout this body of believers so I THANK YOU so much for the prayers you are pouring into the mission of my life to know God and make Him known! I would specifically love it if you would pray against a spirit of poverty, sickness, and discouragement for our staff as a whole and our students who have started to arrive! Here we go!! Much Love and Blessings sent to you from New Zealand!
