1 Month To Go! That’s right, this time next month, I’ll have arrived in Los Angeles and shall be starting my Compassion Discipleship Training School.
Whilst I was at University, I spent over a year seeking his direction for my life in the future following my studies, and since then, he has blessed me with so much. From giving me opportunities to do mission all over the world, to constantly strengthening my passion for the Bible and giftings for sharing it with everyone, Jesus really has been at work in my life.
As you know, part of the guidance that God has taken me on was putting on my heart, the opportunity and mission of YWAM. At the start of this year I was accepted to a Compassion Discipleship Training School (DTS) at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Los Angeles. The mission of this school is to train and equip young people to respond to a hurting world by ministering out of the compassionate heart of the Father.
Preparation is going well and with my Visa and Immunisations sorted, I am now more ready than ever for this next stage of my journey. Though my involvement in outreach events locally is still a lot, I look forward to being able to immerse myself in the school once I arrive. As part of our preparation, it has been useful to ready myself physically, mentally and spiritually. Part of my spiritual preparation has involved reading the book Is That Really You God?: Hearing the Voice of God, an absolute classic by Loren Cunningham for YWAMers.
As a reminder if you’ve forgotten, the course shall start on January 6th, 2018 and I’ll arrive back home around the end of June 2018 where the first 12 weeks of the DTS will be the lecture phase spent on the YWAM Los Angeles campus, living, studying, worshipping, praying and joining together in community focussing on different areas of discipleship from the Nature and Character of God to Effective Evangelism.
Over this time, I am hoping to be developing the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given me and am eager to see how God uses me and grows me throughout this time.
The second part of the Discipleship Training School will include about 3 months ofinternational outreach journeying into different areas of the world being a shining light in all nations in areas like Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, India, Nepal, Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica. I love the idea of being able to do this especially since, as well as my personal excitement about travelling and experiencing new cultures, as Christians, we are all called to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has taught us as in Matthew 28 in the great commission.
Ongoing points for prayer recently have been that I am able to fully prepare myself for the trip, that I would be able to focus my thoughts on God both up until then and during, and also that God would provide the rest of the finances need for my trip.
As I’m sure you’re aware, this 6 Month Discipleship Training School isn’t free and I shall be relying on God’s provision and the support of others to raise the amount as much as I can.
The lecture phase costs approximately £2600 as well as with travel, visa and insurance, and the outreach phase shall cost between £2500 to £3200 also with travel and insurance costs.
Raising money up to a figure like £6000 has been a struggle but has only required me to rely on God even more.
Recently we have been studying a series on miracles and last week we were looking at the story of Joshua in chapter 10, when he is at war with five other armies and he needs God to intervene if they are ever going to be able to defeat all of them.
I could go on about how God’s provision got them through so many situations up until this point, but one of the most astounding parts of the story is in verse 12 when Joshua prays to God:
On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
What an outrageous prayer right? How often do we lack belief in the things we pray about, or only pray vague prayers not expecting an answer? Well here, Joshua is literally asking God to make the Sun stop!
What’s even more amazing is the next verse:
So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.
Similarly, recently in my life I have been praying for God to provide a very specific amount of money left needed for my fundraising of YWAM. That following Saturday, to my disbelieve, a good friend and mentor from Southampton felt that God was telling them to speak to me on that very day and give me that exact value of money!
God answered my prayer even though it was very specific and I had little faith that he would actually answer my prayer in quite such a direct way as this. It was such a generous value that I am now exactly at the right figure in my fundraising for what I shall need at this time.
Prayer is one of the most important things that I would appreciate at this stage, my time away will be a lot of new experiences and it won’t come without it’s challenges and so I’ll be needing to be constantly at a state of overflowing with the Holy spirit and under the provision of the Father.
However you are able support me whether through prayer, or through a donation which can be done here, I’d love for you to stay updated with how God is working in my life and what I’m getting up to when I’m over there. If you have an email address, you can sign up for my newsletter on this website on the right hand side and I can send you my email updates directly.
With exactly a month until I head off, I can’t believe what a year it’s been, and what this coming year will be like, but one thing we all know..
..in Him we have the victory!