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Week 3

This past week has been the most challenging but also the best week so far. Shirley Brownhill spoke on repentance and forgiveness and almost my whole thought life this week was about repentance and forgiveness.

Some of the lecture highlights for me were:

The 3 steps to repentance are:

1.   Change of mind

2.   Change of heart

3.   Change of life towards sin

4.   Everything I do that is against the nature and character of God is sin. Sin opposes God and without repentance there is no restoration with Him.

5.   Pride is our greatest enemy and humility our greatest need in repentance.

6.   I must take personal responsibility for all of my actions and have to fear the Lord more than men.

7.   It’s possible to live a holy life here on earth already. Of course we’ll still sin, but we’ll be so alert that we’ll do everything possible to make things right with God and men as soon as possible because sin means separation from God.

8.   Jesus can’t be my salvation if He doesn’t have my will and my heart.

9.   Forgiveness is a choice not a feeling. We have to be forgive others just as Christ forgave us.

10.       I’m not doing God a favor when I repent, but I’m doing myself a favor.

11.       Jesus came on earth to restore our relationship with God.

I got more and more burdened this week as I realized all of the areas of sin in my life and really started hating sin more than anything. On Thursday we listed all of the sins the bible mentions (there are a whole bunch!) and then wrote a letter to God where we apologized for all of the sins He convicted us of and on the back we had a list with people we had to forgive and why we had to forgive them.

The next day we had our repentance and forgiveness day. We started out in the morning with worship and we prayed for a deep revelation of the cross. Someone had a vision of her nailing Jesus to the cross and that was when I understood the meaning of the cross. I was the one who nailed Jesus on the cross, my selfishness and my sin brought Jesus on the cross!

 At 9:30am the first person started reading their prayer to God out loud in front of the whole class while the leaders were praying for the person. It was a very, very emotional and, for me, emotional exhausting time. With every student that went up front to repent and forgive, the pressure on my heart got greater and greater. I could sense some of the pain the people felt while reading their letter and I felt God tell me that what I was feeling at that moment was just a little glimpse of what Jesus felt when He was hanging on the cross.

When it was my turn to repent I decided to confess every single thing I had ever done no matter what other people might thing because it was all about me and God and I didn’t want the enemy to have any stronghold in my life whatsoever again.

As I was reading my confessions to God I realized again how bad sin is, how much I have hurt God and it was good to let it all out. My leaders prayed for me and I felt free. When I nailed my letter to the cross I knew that everything was part of my story and no longer part of who I am. The last student repented at 1:30am the next day (we were glad that we were finished ‘that early’ the DTS last quarter took till 6am the next day!).  Friday definitely drew us closer together and I love everybody even more than before!

On Saturday I had such a great quiet time because I knew that there was absolutely nothing between God and me anymore!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please keep praying for God’s protection on all of us and that we will cling to the truth now matter what. The enemy is already trying to bombard us with lies and some are feeling badly attacked right now.

Thursday night evangelism was great as well. We started with knocking at some doors and as we were on our way to the next house we saw a drunk man stumbling down the street and went up to him. We asked him how he was and to our shock he said that he felt like committing suicide. As we continued talking to him he shared how he was in the army and how he had killed loads of people in Bosnia and the Congo and saw his best friends die. He never got over his horrible experiences and tried to forget them by drinking, doing drugs and cutting himself up. Three years ago he gave his life to God, got baptized but fell back into sin shortly after because his past was still haunting him. He can’t believe that God would ever forgive him and he simply cannot forgive himself. We prayed for him and I was able to share with him about God’s grace and that for God sin is sin. To God lying is just as great of a sin as murder. After that he started to cry and prayed for himself. He asked for God’s forgiveness and told us afterwards how glad he was that he met us.

Other than that I’ve been busy with book reports, journaling and base life. I’m really looking forward to next week’s teaching on Worship and Intercession.

 

 

Week 2 in Perth

This week Peter Brownhill (our base founder) talked to us about ‘The Nature and Character of God’. My prayer for this week was to get to know God more and I did. Some of the key points from this weeks teaching for me were:

1) The most important thing is not what I may say or do, but what I in my heart believe God to be like. It is of immense importance that my idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God.

2) My view of God affects every area of my life. The evidence of what I believe is displayed by how I live.

3) The foundation of knowing God believes in Jesus and repentance to God.

4) Grace and peace come into our lives through the knowledge of God. 

"You then, my child, be strong by the grace that is in Christ Jesus." 2 Timothy 2:1

5) We are transformed from our distorted views of God as we see Him for who He is or as we know Him more. We need a renewing of mind and it starts a thought at a time. 

Thought-> choice-> habit-> character-> DESTINY

6) God is an invisible, personal, everlasting, infinite trinity of loving beings.

Pete also gave great definitions of God’s characteristics. I have read about God’s righteousness, mercy, faithfulness,… many times but now I have finally understood what these characteristics really mean.

God has also shown me this week how personal he is. As we were sharing our testimonies in my small group this week I was amazed how God speaks to every one of us in very different ways and how we experience God’s love in different ways. God is all-powerful and so great and yet he longs to have a personal relationship with us!

This week we started with morning exercises and it was such a challenge at first. The only reason I would ever voluntarily get up at 5:40 for a run is because I’m doing it for God! Morning exercise proves to be a great way of starting the day with God though. I’ve had some great prayer times during morning exercise and you’re awake for your quiet time afterwards!

As I mentioned in my last blog entry we go out to evangelize every Thursday. I’m in the Lockridge (a suburb of Perth) door knocking evangelizing team. At first I felt really uncomfortable with the thought of knocking on people’s doors and invading their personal space to share the gospel. I felt like a Mormon or Jehova’s witness and really wasn’t looking forward to Thursday night. And I knew that I personally would never open up to strangers and that door knocking would never work in Austria.

Then Thursday came and we got lost on our way to the neighborhood we wanted to go to and decided to just stop and evangelize in the neighborhood we were. Our leaders told us a little more about door knocking evangelism and I suddenly realized that I had a completely wrong attitude that night. So I asked God for forgiveness and prayed that he would lead us to the right houses.

Feeling kind of awkward I knocked at our first house. A woman opened up and was scared at first because she wasn’t expecting strangers to knock at her door at night. We asked her if she had a Bible, she said yes and as we were ready to leave Ben asked if she had anything we could pray for. She said yes and told us that her partner had committed suicide 6 weeks ago and left her alone with her three young daughters (Jaz 6, Elizabeth 2 and Charlotte 0). Carrie-Ann invited us in her house and let us pray for her and her daughters. She wept and then told us a little more about her situation. She said that they moved to Lockridge 7 weeks ago. When she found out they’d move to Lockridge she cried because she had lived there when she was a young girl and had terrible memories of that neighbourhood. Anyway, just a week after they moved to Lockridge her partner committed suicide out of the blue and left her alone with a new house, 3 young daughters and 2 businesses. If that wouldn’t have been enough, her cat was run over and her car broke after that.

Carrie-Ann is such a sweet woman and a great mother to her daughters. She was open with us about her doubts that God is real and that he cares, because she has just experienced too many bad things in her life. But she did say that she is thankful we came and that we came at just the right time. She gave us her mobile phone number and name so we can keep in touch. I am convinced that she’ll pick up her Bible again! The kids were so well behaved and full of joy. I talked a little bit with her oldest daughter and she told me how much she takes care of her sisters. She brings them to bed, changes their diapers, bathes them and helps her mother a lot. What a responsible little girl!

I am so grateful that God led us to this woman. How great is our God! If we wouldn’t’ have gotten lost we would have never met her! And I learned so much that evening, I learned that God is a very personal God and that he grieves when we grieve. I could really feel God’s brokenness and grief over this woman. He was crying with her. And I learned to step out of my comfort zone and to do things I would never normally do. God is faithful, he gives us grace and courage when we need it and I am so glad that I had a great first experience with door knocking evangelism. Now I’m looking forward to next Thursday! Please pray for Carrie-Ann and her family. Please pray with me that she’ll start seeking God and find comfort in Him.

Please also pray for me next week as we learn about repentance and forgiveness. From what I’ve heard next week is going to be one of the toughest but best weeks in our DTS. We are expecting great breakthroughs in our lives! Please pray that God will show me what’s in my heart. That he'll show me areas of sin and things where I have to forgive others. I know it’s going to be challenging but I am looking forward to the freedom I’ll have after next week. 

Pictures of my first week in Perth

      

First week in Perth

DTS started this week and after a few days of orientation I had my first lectures. Shirley Brownhill, our base director, spoke on Hearing God’s Voice and Quiet Times. Shirley is a great speaker and talks in a way that is easy to understand. She told us about ways God speaks to us, reasons why we are deaf to God’s voice and that God hearing God’s voice is essential for an intimate relationship with Him. If we are willing to listen and obey He will talk to us.

This week was challenging and great. I was convicted of things that weren’t right in my heart. An important thing I learned this week is that we can be completely honest with God. He loves when we humble ourselves before him and tell him where we are at and share our struggles with Him. The great thing is that He knows our hearts and loves us the same. 

I understood the meaning of this verse this week:

  “But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” 

~ Nehemiah 9:17

As you can see God has been doing so much in me this first week already. I can't imagine all the things he's still going to do in the next months!

Here is what a normal day in the life of a DTS student looks like:

6:00 morning exercise

6:20 breakfast and quiet time

8:00 family chores (cleaning the base)

8:30 intercession, base worship, or school worship

9:40 break

10:00 lectures

12:30 lunch and break

3:00-5:00 work duty

5:30 dinner

7:30 small groups/study night/outreach/Friday night meeting

A discipleship is a vocational training, which means that we not only sit in a classroom but also apply what we learn and give glory to God in every work we do. It doesn’t matter if we pray or clean a toilet; we do everything for the glory of His name. Part of this vocational training is our daily work duties. I work at the reception as my work duty. I am basically in charge of the phone and welcoming people. I had my first day of work this week and I never knew that so many people mumble on the phone! I am, in any case, still looking forward to a fun and challenging time as a receptionist.

The Perth base has a strong emphasis on family. This means that we as a base are a family, function as a family and do a lot together as a family. Some of our family activities include barbecues, movie nights, or we had a swing dance one night. Yesterday we went to the beach and then walked through the Australian desert to go sandboarding. We took boogie boards with us and then boarded down a sand hill right into the river. I unfortunately forgot my camera yesterday but will definitely try to get some pictures up here from our great day yesterday.
The Australian beaches are amazing! White sand, turquoise water, blue sky, loads of sunshine and no people!

Our DTS group is bonding more and more. I am amazed at how honest and open we are with each other. I’ve had such great talks, heard so many wonderful testimonies and have found great friends already.

If you’d like to pray for me, please pray that God continues His work in me. Pray that I’ll be able to handle the tight daily schedule, get used to base life and really find time to spend time with God alone. Please also pray that I will continue to grow in my relationship with God and get to know Him more.

 

 

Thailand

My time in Thailand was fabulous! Lea, the girl I travelled with and I connected immediately. Before I flew I was a little nervous, because we had never met before but after a few hours it was as if we had known each other for ever.
We stayed at the YWAM outreach center in Bangkok. The base has loads of contacts with various ministries and outreach teams from all over the world stay there, so we were able to meet and have great talks with people from all over the world.

On our first day we met Ek and Becky, the leaders of King’s Kids Thailand and were able to spend time with them. They started a ministry in the slums of Bangkok. They go there a few times a week to offer the children primary health care and to teach the 6 to 9 year olds English, Bible, play with them and to give them milk and a healthy snack. Once a week they also have a Bible study for the children’s parents and teach them English.
The YWAMers are the only outsiders the gangs allow to enter the slums, because they have a great fear of kidnappers.
On Saturday Lea and I had the opportunity to go to the slums with them and help at one of their Kid’s Clubs. It was heartbreaking to see the situation these kids have to grow up in. I have never seen such poverty in my life and the shocking things was that the slum we were in was one of the ‘richer’ ones. Many of the 7-9 years olds have already been involved with alcohol, drugs, pornography etc and all of the kids are neglected by their parents and don't really know what it means to be loved. It was great to be able to spend time with them though. Many of the boys play quite hard so I had five little guys kicking and punching me while laughing their heads off haha but they do respect you and leave you alone when you tell them to stop. Other kids just wanted to be hugged and touched..

Lea and were also able to have a great talk with the leader of ‘At Risk Kids’, which is a ministry based out of YWAM Perth that reaches out to children that have been abused and offers counselling to those children. He told us everything about their ministry, the situation and problems in Thailand.

Did you know that prostitution is illegal in Thailand and that the bar owners don’t own the girls? In Thai culture it is the woman’s responsibility to provide for her family. That’s the reason why many girls leave their village to move to the city and earn money for their families as a hostess or waitress. If their family writes them and tells them that they need money to buy a car the girls feel obligated to earn this money. This is one of the main reasons why the girls sell themselves. It is not unusual for a sex-tourist to rent a girl for 1 or 2 whole weeks.

It was really fun getting to know the Thai culture. Thailand is such an interesting country. The Thai culture doesn’t allow you to show emotions, which means that you smile no matter what. It is also considered impolite if you point at things or people with your finger. I had no idea how difficult it is not to point at things (especially while trying to give directions!).
Thais also cover their mouths when they’re on the phone, they’re never noisy and they love food! I can assure you that you won’t starve in Thailand!

We had a blast trying out new dishes, doing some sight-seeing, enjoying Thai massages, experiencing the Thai means of transportation and getting to know new people. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to go there before DTS and I’m positive I’ll go there again.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We didn’t get sick, had a great time, were able to serve a bit and didn’t notice anything of the political problems. It was so quiet and peaceful in Bangkok that I completely forgot about all the political problems the country experienced just a few weeks before we came.