The 1st Two Week of Our DTS

Ello,

It’s been 2 weeks now since the beginning of our DTS portion of YWAM. To tell you the truth it has been difficult. Erich shared with me one of his favorite bible verses that has really helped me when thing get difficult. I would like to share part of it with you: Isaiah 41 v 10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

I would like to give you an idea of what are day is like as a DTS student. Our day starts out with breakfast at 6:30am. Once in a while some of the students and I will get up at 4:45 am to go for a run in the mornings. Breakfast is till 7am then it is quiet time for one hour. During quiet time you can pray, read the bible, journal, or do devotional time. Then we meet at 8am for base clean up, base worship, accountability groups, intercession or base prayer. Then we have lectures from 9:30am to 1pm. We get about 2-3 bathroom breaks in between. Lunch is at 1pm. Work duties around the base including clean up and garden duties start at 2pm. We work for about 1 ½ hrs then head over to different ministries to help out in the community till 4pm. Ministries can involve interacting and playing with disadvantaged children, assisting with the Aids health and awareness outreach program, or many of the other ministry programs in the community. Most of the time we have a break from 4pm to 5:30pm if you are not on dinner preparation or if there is not base sports time. Then dinner is at 5:30pm. At 7pm we have lectures, small groups, community meetings, prayer time, and sometimes free time. Everyone is responsible for meal preparations and clean up at different times. We also have a journal we must write in for home work as well as two book reports on provided reading materials. So you can see how full our schedule is. Weekends are less packed but still consist with prayer time, worship and meal preparations. On our free time last weekend a group of the students went down to the beach and I surfed for the first time. The beach is beautiful and the dolphins come so close to the shore line you feel like you could reach out and touch them. There were a lot of things I did not expect when I arrived. I was a little worried because of the difficulty with communication prior to my arrival. Upon being greeted at the airport by some really friendly faces I became more at ease. I now realize that most of the miss communication is cultural misunderstanding. Such as when I say see you at noon I might mean 12pm but the person I am speaking to might show up at 2pm. So miscommunication has been a big struggle for me here. I do know that we are all working hard on being better communicators. I also was not prepared for many other things. I did not realize I would be washing my clothes by hand with the chance someone might steal my clothes off the clothesline. The internet is very expensive to use here and is not ready available. Most stores close before we have free time and leaving the base alone is not aloud. There is never really alone time which is also very hard for me. Due to low funds and high living coast for the base the food we eat is mostly starch, such as, bread and peanut butter. On occasion we do have some really nice meals. I got to experience what South Africans call a “Braai” which is really like a BBQ but don’t tell them that.  There are many dynamics as a group we are struggling with as far as missing family, friend, boyfriends, the comforts of our culture, and what we think is right or wrong. I feel there has been a lot of spiritual warfare and many individual have been faced with hard times of sickness or injuries already. Everyone is holding in a praying for God’s guidance, protection, and to help us grow in our relationship with him as well as walking the path he has planned for us. In these past weeks our lecture focus has been about strengthening our relationship with God through prayer and hearing the voice of God. Every Wednesday we fast from the end of breakfast till dinner to save money to feed those that are going hungry on the streets. On Jan 22nd we all participated in a 24hr prayer to pray for those in need such as the crisis in Haiti, schools that need support, people that have prayer request, and just listening to anything God has to tell us. Everyone helps out by signing up for one hour to pray. It was a very “awesome” spiritual experience. These last few weeks have been very humbling. One of the verses that reminded me of why I am here and has helped me come to peace with many of my struggles in the program is the verse Philippians 1 v 5-8. I know I am here because God called me here. Keep us all in your prayers. Pray for us to have protection, strength, focus, and the ability to hear God’s voice. Thanks you guys. We find out about where we will be going for outreach next week. I will try to keep you posted.

Love,

“B”