Week 2- Outreaaaaach and the beginning of lecture

Halright. Here we go. Totally forgot to put the whole outreach thing in my previous post, sooooo here it is. In case I didn't put this earlier, I am spending the first three months of my DTS in Maui, Hawaii, and the next three months will be spent out on outreach, echoing the saying of YWAM- To know God, and make Him known. After Exodus, we had a beach day. (Actually, thinking back, I have no idea about the course of events, and it's all really jumbled up. Sorry about that.) We didn't stay around our base where there are a bunch of beaches with huge (meaning 3-5 feet high), vicious waves. We traveled to the other side of the island (the side that is much more touristy), where there were beaches that had finer sand on the beach, clearer waters, and much smaller waves. We spent the whole day there, but as the sun started to set, Matt Laskey (the DTS school leader) gathered everyone together. After a couple of delays, he started calling
people's names, and grouping them together.

Quick (er, rather not so quick) note, about a week before this (or maybe longer, I just plainly don't remember when this happened. BUT IT DID. and it doesn't really matter the order of these events in relation to the lecture weeks. MOVING ON. But I really am sorry for not remembering. Probably why I should have done this quicker. alright, alright, we're actually going to move on now) we were given very brief descriptions about the outreach locations: Ch!n@ (I'll explain later), Bangladesh, Nepal, and Indonesia (reserved for the Surfer's For Missions International (SFMI, basically DTS, but surfers)). We were then given 10 minutes to ask God about which place he was calling us to, and then write it down. Seriously? Ten minutes? I'm not too good (or is it well here?) at hearing from God on top of that. So I started just praying to God, "Hey, I reaaaaaaaally want to go to Nepal. So you're calling me there, right?" But even before I started praying, I felt my attention getting sucked to Ch!n@. But... but... I want to go to Nepal, before I came to DTS, I wanted to go to Nepal. sooooooo... fine. We were to rank our top three locations, so I put Ch!n@, then Nepal, then Bangladesh.

Soooooo, from that point (being the one from the paragraph before the previous one, sorry for the tangent), Matt started to call out the places that each group was going, and listing their leaders. I was/am going to Ch!n@!

Going to Ch!n@!!!

Better photo of us

In the picture above (from left to right, the way it should always be) the members of Family Ch!n@ are Caleigh (leader/Mom), Megan, Ellen, Faith, Tim (leader/Dad), Lindy, Christy, Tim Song (Me!), and Molly. I've linked the blogs that I'm aware of. They should each be more updated than this blog (I mean, they better be, I've yet to talk about lecture), and they are also probably a lot more concise than my writing. So please go and support them. Pretty please.

So, after finding out our awesome, awesome, awesome team, we went and got Krispy Kreme (just a small sign of how awesome our team is. Did I mention that our team was awesome?). And as time went on, I felt/feel God continuously grow a heart for Ch!n@ in me, so I'm pretty fricking excited to go to there now. So, where are we going and what will be doing (man this is going to be one long post)? We will be going to a city called Gu@nzh0u, which is on the southeast coast of Ch!n@, right next to H0ng K0ng. So, by now you're probably wondering, or already think you know (in which case you probably do know) why I'm misspelling everything that has to do with Ch!n@. Is it because I believe that Ch!n@doesn't deserve all letters? Or maybe it's the other way around and I think that they are too good for letters. Well, its neither. The Ch@ineez government tracks anyone using certain code words (one of which being the name of said country). And this government isn't too fond of Christianity. Yes, they are starting to open up, but they don't appreciate missionaries. Like really don't. One might say that they hate us. might. So if you could refrain from utilizing the correctly spelled name of the country in any sort of communication with me, I'd appreciate it.

So, what will we be doing in said country (so many tangents, starting to throw myself off)? We will be working with underground churches, and trying to make friends, whom we can try to share the gospel with. Yeah, that's about the extent of what I know. There are some more details, but I'll get back to y'all when I know more.

FINALLY. I can get to what a normal week is like. Here's the schedule:

Sorry if it's hard to read

So, I guess I'll quickly (every time I say quickly or something similar, I go on for a couple of paragraphs, so completely disregard this adverb, or any synonyms in the future) touch on some of the terms here. Jesus time is also known as quiet time, and it's basically where you spend time with God, talking to him, reading the Bible, or taking a walk with him. For base worship, we go to a local church, and just have an hour of worship. These are the times where I feel really close to God, and it's just an all-around good time. Town run is where if we want to, we can head to Kahalui to get necessities, or food, or other stuff. Base intercession and DTS intercession are times where either as a base or just DTS and pray about a specific topic together, such as North Korea, or human trafficking, or the base in general. Book study is pretty self-explanatory, we've read "Is that Really You God?", "Making Jesus Lord" (both by Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM), and are currently reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. Chapel Talk is where three students a week teach about something that he/she feels like God is laying on his/her heart. Work blessings are where we... work. I've been assigned to maintenance, so I mostly am raking leaves, or cutting the grass with a couple other guys.

Team time, outreach prep, and growth group are all done with your team (with the exception of outreach prep, which can be done with the entire DTS). These are times to learn about your outreach location, get closer as a team, have fun, and whatnot. For example, for team time last week we did a bunch of paint-related games, and had a lot of fun.

Games included messy twister, egg drop, and a water balloon fight

Another example, for outreach prep, all of the teams learned the Everything skit by Lifehouse. If you don't know what it is, here's a video of more or less of what we did. The whole skit is really powerful, but the end, when Jesus puts himself in between the things of this world, and us is especially powerful.

Team Nepal performing the Everything skit

So then, lecture. Our first week of lecture was on Basic Christianity, taught by the Base director Tom Osterhus. I wasn't really sure how to feel about lecture, I've never really been taught any kind of Christianity in a classroom setting. The things I learned during that time were mind-blowing, and made me excited for lecture. He talked about the Bible, and discussed the historical legitimacy of the Bible as a text. He discussed the things in this video, and went into more detail. I know that I had some doubt as to the legitimacy of the Bible, but after learning that manuscripts of the Old Testament date to about 1000 years before traces of the New Testament (scraps of John found date back to 125 AD) even existed. We also learned more about what the Bible has to say about the qualities of God, and took a look at Jesus, the Trinity, sin, and salvation. 

Wow, I can't really think of much else to put in this post. Eh, I probably forgot a bunch of stuff that I'll put in the next post. I'll leave you with a couple of things to ponder on/check out. First, here's a great song that kind of defines our DTS (As we're on an island, in the middle of the ocean). And here's a verse that puts life in perspective, and forces you to put God above all else. 

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'" -James 4:13-15