discipleship training SCHOOL

Hello! Things are going well here. :)

In a week, I will be leaving for the Czech Republic for mini outreach. I am so excited!

So this YWAM thing that I am doing is called a Discipleship Training School. We have lectures during the week and read books and sometimes have presentations. Here’s a little bit about what’s up with my school: 

• Individually, we are reading the book of John once each week for the first six weeks. Then for the second six weeks of lecture, we will be reading the book of Acts once each week for a total of six weeks.
• There is a new speaker each week that gives lectures about a topic or two. Sometimes our lecturers are from the YWAM base, and sometimes they are from other YWAM bases. Our speaker this week was Mark Erickson from YWAM Finland. He spoke about intimacy with the Lord and intercession and used a story format. He is involved with YWAM’s mercy ministry, so he incorporated bits of justice as well. 
• For the justice lectures, the resources are the Bible as well as other media and books. There is a couple that is helping to staff my DTS (there are 5 staff people total), and they lead the justice portion. Right now we are reading Generous Justice by Timothy Keller. A friend of mine who is also doing the Justice DTS will be blogging about the content as we read it. You can check out her blog here: http://whereintheworldisapril.com/. She's pretty awesome!
• Throughout the lecture phase, each of us will be presenting at least one fifteen minute sermon. I did mine this week on community as it’s described in Acts. I definitely thought about emailing my pastor and asking for a few pointers!

Have a great week, friends!

mini outreach & outreach!

On Monday, a sign caught my attention in the bathroom at the castle. It had been there for a couple of weeks, but I hadn’t thought much of it until Monday. It was an informational piece about the Cheb (pronounced “yheb”) YWAM base and it was encouraging people to join in helping with the first DTS in February. I looked it up online and thought that I might want to visit it in the coming weeks, to see if it would be someplace that I would be interested in helping with. The region between Czech and Germany is the window of human trafficking from east and west Europe, so Cheb is located in an ideal place for working with human trafficking victims. I’m not sure what their plans are related to this, though. And then on Tuesday, I found out that my DTS will actually be going to the Cheb base for the mini outreach beginning in two weeks, for two weeks. !!! I’m really excited to learn more about what they are hoping to do!

This past week we studied the nature and character of God. I was reminded of how incredibly exciting and amazing God is all the time, and of how infinite all of his characteristics are. I am so lucky to be able to be in relationship with Him. My God is amazing. Seriously!!! :)

There will be two teams for the three month outreach that takes place after the lecture phase (I think we’ll be leaving sometime in November). One team will go to South Africa, and the other will go to Eastern Europe. We were asked to pray about it, and the team leadership will organize the teams based on their prayers and what we communicated about our prayers. There have been a few things in the past couple of weeks that have drawn my heart toward Eastern Europe, and I feel that that is where I’m supposed to be. God is doing amazing things in Eastern Europe, and I was able to hear about some of them from another DTS that returned from their outreach last week. Sex trafficking is big in Eastern Europe, which is the area of justice that my hearts breaks for the most. We’ll see what team I end up on! Your prayers for cohesive teams and outreach would be so much appreciated.

Love & prayers!

culture here at ywam herrnhut!

There is so much happening that it’s hard for me to pick one thing to focus on and write about. I’m in my third week of DTS. I absolutely love it. Maybe I’ll spend this post trying to describe the culture of my base.

Community – the structure is based around communities, and communities within communities. I’m a part of the town, the YWAM base, my DTS, my small group, the Justice House (where I live) and my church group. Right now I’m transitioning from trying out a church in town called Jesus Haus to a house church being held at the Justice House where I live.

Earlier today, I went to my next-door neighbor to ask her to help me open a can of soup because the house I bought a can without having a can opener. In case you don’t know, I don’t speak German. So I memorized “Haben Sie” (Do you have) and then brought my German-English dictionary opened to the page with the German word for can opener (too long to memorize when I have a headcold) and rang the bell. She knew what I needed as soon as she saw me holding my can and dictionary (ha). I found myself wishing I would’ve memorized the phrase “How are you?” instead. There were a lot of thank you’s coming out of my mouth and I tried to communicate with body language. I think she said I could come over for any reason, but I can’t be sure!

Bilingual – the base is completely bilingual with German and English. Because of this, and because all the Germans know at least a little English, I have been able to get by extremely easily with just English. Since there is so much going on, I haven’t dedicated much time to learning German. Sometimes I feel guilty about it, and it’s in those times I remind myself that my primary reason for coming to here is to learn about the Lord and how he sees justice and not to learn German. But as someone who loves languages and cultures, I hate to see this opportunity fly by without even learning the foundation of German!

Discipleship – we have one-on-one meetings with group staff. There are five staff leading the thirteen students in my DTS. My one-on-one is Mona, and she is incredible! She is the one who is leading our group. She is an amazing artist and a wonderful leader. I am excited to be able to process things alongside her.

Many Schools Simultaneously – this YWAM base is hopping! I went on a tour of the town and the tour guide told me that the Herrnhut YWAM base was the biggest in Europe. I haven’t really checked into that fact, but I’ll go with it! :) I am in the Justice DTS, but there are three other DTS groups on the base currently (Fire & Fragrance, Mobile & Marriage of the Arts). When I arrived, there were two secondary schools finishing up. Secondary schools are more focused schools that can be taken after completing a DTS. The MOTA (Marriage of the Arts) school is by far the biggest! They have 120 students and started a week after I did. I love that the average person here is artistic!! Most of our lectures are separate from each other, but sometimes we are together. For example, this week we have a visiting speaker who is teaching on Intimacy and Fear of God, and he is speaking to both my school and the Mobile DTS. As far as lectures go – we officially have two a day but usually there is at least one more event that is as wonderful and insightful as a lecture for a total of three!

Feel free to ask questions! I only bring my computer to the castle about once a week, so my responses might be a bit delayed, but I will answer. :)

first week of DTS!

So I’ve been here at the YWAM base in Herrnhut, Germany for a little over a week. It feels like home already, like I’ve been here for longer than just 9ish days.

Here are some bullet points that will help draw a picture of my life right now for you:

• I live in a house in town with 7 other girls as well as a couple, and all of us are doing the Justice DTS (Discipleship Training School). The boys live in a different house closer to the Water Castle.
• It’s about a 25 minute walk to the Water Castle from the Justice House (where I live). We have meals and class in the Water Castle. The walk is pretty—I go through town, down (or up, depending on which way I’m going) a hill called Slow Death and then through the forest. It feels like a fairy tale!
• There is a café in the water castle!!
• I had a few classes this week! We have had lectures about definitions of justice, prayer and God’s calling in our lives as made evident by talents, passions and interests.
• I’m in far eastern Germany, and it’s beautiful. I can see hills of the Czech Republic and Poland in the distance when I am walking down Slow Death (the hill).
• I pass a lot of huge slugs on my walks.
• It’s not humid here, which is a wonderful and welcomed change from Indiana.
• My weekday schedule: I wake up at 6, have lectures in the morning, do my work duty in the afternoon (mine is cleaning the Justice House) and then do whatever activity is planned for the evening (movie night, community dinner, worship service, etc.)
• My weekend schedule: I wake up a bit later, go to the Castle for brunch (brunch here means that you eat breakfast and then pack a lunch from the breakfast that is set out) and participate in different activities. Last night we had a BBQ to welcome new students. Yum!

It’s so neat to be in a community with people from different countries and with different Christian church backgrounds. Like I said earlier, I already feel at home. I am so excited for everything that the Lord is going to be doing throughout my time here!

Hugs!

Meghan