highlights from week 10

My 10^th week of DTS is coming to a close. This time has been so full; it baffles me that everything that’s happened has fit into ten weeks! This week was particularly rich and inspiring for me. I would love to share a few highlights with you!

• Last night, I had the opportunity to meet an inspiring Canadian couple (Jay & Michelle Brock) that makes up the organization Hope for the Sold. They visited Herrnhut for about 24 hours and shared with my DTS about their calling to create documentaries about sex trafficking. I am so inspired by these modern-day abolitionists: they lead “normal” lives and do this in their free time. They aren’t filmmakers (read: no special training), but they make documentaries. Their first one has been used all over Canada for things like raising awareness about sex trafficking in high schools and for training for border patrol. You can watch it here. Also, Michelle’s blog about sex trafficking is totally worth checking out! (Sidenote: I love that this couple has the calling to do this together. They are a testament to how powerfully God can use a marriage to fulfill his purposes!)
  

• In this week’s lectures about justice, we discussed Sabbath economics: a holistic look at our lives and how we spend our resources—time, money, everything. The following bit may be overwhelming. If it is, I encourage you to ask "What is the next right step?" (I snagged that helpful question from Jay & Michelle's talk last night!). I have tried to include questions to get you thinking and helpful links. In our lectures, we discussed seven areas of life:

A picture of my notes to make all the words below a little less overwhelming :)

• Surplus capital – This is the money you have in your bank, in your pocket, etc. How is your money being used? Is the bank and are the stocks you have money in investing in and profiting in an ethically sound things? 
• Negative capital – Debt. We talked about cash advance companies and their exploitive nature... I thought of 38^th Street. Did you know that a lot of banks we use own a lot of these? I didn’t. After I post this blog, I plan to look up where my bank uses its clients’ money. It's next on my "To Do When I Have Access to the Internet" list. :)
• Giving – We discussed giving as a lifestyle and an art. When I stop to think about it, I can think of specific people who are creative givers. Who comes to mind for you? I would love to grow more in the area of artful, creative giving!
• Environment and green living – We were given stewardship over this earth. How are we taking care of the earth that God created? You can find out your environmental impact on myfootprint.org 
• Consumption – Looking at products for spiritual satisfaction is idolatry. We have the opportunity to develop an alternative mindset and, in this age of infinite information on the internet, to be conscious of where our products come from. You can learn more about consumption by watching The Story of Stuff and by taking a fun and interactive survey at slaveryfootprint.org. As someone who sometimes goes to Target with no intention other than to see if there’s anything to buy (I can't believe I'm admitting this in online), this topic challenged me. I also have had a hard time going to thrift stores and Goodwill for clothing in the past. This week is making me think twice about my aversion to pre-owned clothing.

If this is an area you would like to explore in your own life, here are some questions to think about before buying things:

• Can I borrow this item from a friend or neighbor?
• Is there anything I already own that I could use or repurpose instead?
• Were those who labored for this product paid a fair wage?
• Were their working conditions fair and just?
• How was the environment impacted by the production, transportation and packaging of this?
• Are the resources that went into this renewable?

• Solidarity – Standing as one with poor, oppressed and marginalized people. This means aligning your location (or maybe vocation? I kept hearing both), life, vision and hope with them. Where would Jesus spend his time where you live?
• Work and Sabbath – There is a time for work and a time for rest. We explored the Biblical idea of the Sabbath: setting a day aside and intentionally doing things and intentionally not doing other things in order to rest and spend time with the Lord. What do you intentionally DO on your Sabbath day? What do you intentionally NOT do on your Sabbath day? Being intentional about this is new for me!

• This week in our DTS lectures, we learned about worship. I thought of all of my creative friends and the worship team at itown... you guys would love this! This YWAM base is particularly creative... the other Discipleship Training School going on right now is called Marriage of the Arts and the people in it focus on different things: writing, music, art, photography, dance. To all my creative friends: you would love it here. ;)
  

In short, it was a wonderful week!

my community :)

Hello! Here's a picture of my wonderful community in Herrnhut:

I definitely encourage you to watch the flash mob with live music the other Discipleship Training School (Marriage of the Arts) did on their mini-outreach here. It's seriously so awesome that I almost cried when I saw it! For a comprehensive update of all the different things going on related to the base, check out the base blog here: http://www.ywamherrnhutblog.com/.

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I have learned so much about community and seen the great value of living in community these past two months. We are called to live like Christ, and the chapters of the Gospel have the context of community. Jesus lived in community with his small group and with those who no one else loved. We are given a model of how the first Christians lived in community in Acts 2:42-47 & Acts 4:32-35... pretty cool, yeah?

A group of us have house church at the Justice House on Sundays--worship, a delicious homemade lunch and listening to a message from a podcast. As a group, we are pretty pumped about the topic of community, so today's podcast was about community. It emphasized that we are called to live in and invest in community, and it reminded us that we are also called to go out: the Great Commission calls us out into the world, meaning not always staying in the comfort of community. And this phrase really stuck out to me: godly people hold each other with open hands.

It got me wondering: Do I hold people with open hands? And then beyond that: What do I hold with open hands? What do I not hold with open hands? This can apply to so many things! Time, finances, life direction, people, so many things. I'm going to be chewing on this idea for awhile, I'm sure.

And I got this picture: our lives are like vessels. And we can decide which kind of vessel to make our life, ranging from a milk jug that is opened occasionally but mostly kept safe in the fridge to a beautiful fountain. And of course we can't keep giving if we aren't receiving... we can't and we don't have to, since God provides and it's only by God's power that we can give and love so much. Here's a good one by Mother Theresa: "I have found a paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. - Jesus, in Matthew 16:25
 

cheb

Ahoj! Ahoj is Czech for an informal hello and is pronounced "ahoy," as in "Ahoy, mateys!"

On Friday night I returned from two weeks in Cheb ("Hyeb"), Czech Republic--my mini outreach! There is a YWAM base in Cheb that will have its first Discipleship Training School beginning in February, and we were able to meet the staff and a few of the students who may be in the school. Cheb is an amazing city. The architecture is amazing, and the people that I met are great.

That isn't to say that it's perfect--in fact, as a border town it is an area for prostitution and sex trafficking. Brothels are in plain view. They are called "night clubs," but function the same way. German men cross over the border, since sex is cheaper in Czech.

Twice our team did red light district outreach, meaning a few teams went out and spoke with prostitutes--offering prayer and warm tea in the evenings. Part of our team would stay back and pray over the outreach.

In fact, prayer spotted our entire time in Cheb. We did a mix of prayer and worship most mornings. I learned what a prayer walk is--walking through the city, asking the Holy Spirit to lead, and praying over the city. Sam Hofmann, our speaker for last week, led us in prayer in front of two brothels during the day. We also spent a morning in prayer over the city on a hill. God is so good.

We also had the opportunity to teach English classes in one of the local high schools. The students were awesome! We kept meeting up with them throughout our time in Cheb. I loved having friends to meet in cafés! One new friend invited a group of us to visit her town, which was just outside of Cheb :)

We got to talk about all kinds of things--boys, the sex industry in Cheb, how kids grow up too early there (sounds a little like the US, yeah?). Athiesm is super common in Cheb, so we had some cool conversations about God too.

Now I'm back in Herrnhut for the next four weeks or so! :)

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