Our King is Alive

Well, it's been a great and interesting week here in Cambodia. The first part of the week (Monday-Wednesday) was a big Buddhist holiday here, so a lot of people left Phnom Penh to visit their home villages. Most things were closed, and the ministry we have been working with, Children at Risk, also took the holiday off. So we were left to figure out what Jesus wanted us to do for those three days. We ended up spending most mornings at the hotel doing devotions, worshipping, praying, and reading Scripture. In the afternoons we prayed over the city a lot and did a little street evangelism on Wednesday.

On Monday, we prayer walked at Independence Monument, praying over Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the next generation of Cambodians. On Tuesday we did a Jericho walk around the neighborhood that lies between the place where we're staying and YWAM base. That means we walked around it 7 times, praying, singing, or reading Scripture, and generally inviting God in and breaking down any strongholds of the enemy that have been built up there. On Wednesday we had a real outreach adventure as we went out to pray and do street evangelism on the waterfront. As we were leaving, we heard that a lot of roads were blocked off in that part of town, so we would have to be dropped of at Independence Monument which is a ways away from the waterfront. As we approached the monument, we started seeing heaps of people, all wearing white shirts and wearing small black ribbons. We assumed it had something to do with Buddhist holiday that was going on, although we heard something about the King, too. Only later did we finally realize that the king had died, and that evening was his funeral. In the meantime, we walked to the waterfront to street evangelize. Seth, Melanie, and I ended up spending most of our time talking to the child street vendors, who know english pretty well so we can communicate pretty easily. We tried our best just to show them the love of Christ, and told them a little about Jesus. Afterward, as we were walking back to the monument to get picked up, we realized there were even more people and it was really hard to cross the roads. We ended up getting hemmed in and stuck waiting for the funeral procession to come by. We didn't complain though, because it was a really interesting cultural experience - how many people can say they've been to a king's funeral?

On Thursday, we were back with Children at Risk, helping with the adult cell group before the guys went off to play soccer and the girls stayed and taught the children a dance. We have so much fun with those kids!

On Friday, we worshipped up on the roof of the hotel and again prayed over the city. In the afternoon we had drama class - we wrote a skit about being a good student (for Children at Risk on Monday) and learned a skit about David and Goliath for Sunday.

Last night we also learned a bit about what we will be doing for the rest of our time here! Next weekend some time we will actually be leaving Phnom Penh to go to Svay Rieng, which is southeast of here really close to the Vietnam border. We're not sure exactly what the ministry does that we will be working with, but it will be an awesome adventure, I'm sure! Then we will come back to Phnom Penh and work with Children at Risk again for our last couple of weeks. Then it's off to New Zealand again. I'm sure the time will fly by.

Anyway, that's a really quick rundown of the past week! I hope you are all wonderful!

Our God is greater,
Dan

Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia!

Well, I don't have much time at all, but I thought I'd let you all know that we're still alive and going strong. We made it to Cambodia without a hitch, and immediately starting adjusting to all the differences that we've seen here. For one, it's pretty much always hot (which is the opposite of the New Zealand winter that we left), but Jesus has really blessed our team by allowing us to stay in a place with air conditioning for a couple weeks because the nearby YWAM base is full of students! I think maybe He knew our Canadians would need a little time to adjust to the constant heat and humidity. For us Southerners, though, it's not so bad - and at least we're not here in April or May (when it gets up to 90s or 100 Fahrenheit + humidity).

The city of Phnom Penh is full of people, with lots and lots of traffic (especially motorcycles), street vendors, stores, restaurants, and people. There is a lot of Western influence to be seen, especially in the stores. Just a couple blocks away is the City Mall, which has an essentially Western supermarket, coffee shop, and fast food restaurants. It is really a city of contrasts, with rich right next to poor, developed with developing, Western with Eastern. You see Lexuses on the road (lots of them) right next to motorcycles and bicycles. Our team gets around using tuk tuks, which are motorcycles pulling little covered "wagons" with seats. They're essentially open-air taxis, and they're really fun to ride on.

We've been learning about the culture and religious beliefs here and have been so struck by the lack of hope in the Buddhism/Animism/Ancestor Worship that most people practice out of family tradition. This is a place that desperately needs Jesus, and a place that is thirsty for Him. So far our ministry has involved a lot of prayer, either in the place where we're staying or walking around the city, coming up against the strongholds and darkness that have covered this place by inviting in the Holy Spirit. We have also begun working with Children at Risk, which is a YWAM-affiliated ministry which seeks to invest in children and families around their community center outside the city. We will be singing songs, giving testimonies and lessons, doing skits, playing games, and generally showing the children (and adults) that they have value with us and especially with God. It's a really amazing ministry.

On Monday, we went to S-21 and the Killing Fields, which are a couple of the places where the Khmer Rouge carried out the genocide of many Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. S-21 was a prison and interrogation facility, while the Choeung Ek killing fields were where many executions took place. During the Khmer Rouge regime, the leaders (such as Pol Pot) wanted to immediately turn the country back to an agrarian communist society without any modern technology, currency, education, private property, etc. When they took power, they immediately moved everyone out of the cities and put people to work on farms with long hours and very little food. All political opponents and all educated teachers, doctors, lawyers, and professionals they also killed. Over the 4 years before the Vietnamese came and took control, more than 2 million people were killed or died of starvation (almost 30% of the country's population). It was an atrocity on the scale of the Holocaust, yet almost no one - at least in the US - knows about it. Maybe that's because the US bombing of parts of Cambodia during the Vietnam War may have partly led up to it. I didn't really know anything about it before I came to New Zealand. It's something that people all over the world need to remember, and something Christians need to pray for - there is still so much healing that needs to happen. At the S-21 site, several of us signed a guest book and were disheartened by the absence of Christianity in the comments. This is where we need to be because we bring hope and just our presence and prayers let the Holy Spirit into a place. Pray that Christians will invade places like this all over the world, bringing the hope of Christ!

So of course that was really sobering, and God apparently knew that we could use some encouragement. So on Wednesday we went to visit the Daughters of Cambodia store, cafe, and spa in the city here, and wow, were we encouraged! All of us felt the Holy Spirit in that place, and the saw the genuine joy in the faces of the women working there. As I mentioned before, Daughters is a ministry which gives women a way out of the sex industry by providing high-level vocational training, jobs, and support to women who want to leave prostitution. Of all the women who come to Daughters, 98% never go back into prostitution! Their approach really does work, and I'm pretty convinced that much of their success is due to the inclusion of Jesus in the ministry. The food at the cafe was wonderful, and everything in the shop was beautiful and well made. I went a little crazy buying gifts for people at home because it was all so nice, and for such a good cause. Our time there encouraged all of us so much!

Anyway, I'm running out of time, but as you can see we're all doing pretty well here. No one has really gotten sick yet, which is definitely by God's blessing! I'm sure we have many more adventures in store, which we'll tell you about when we have a chance. Thank you for your prayers!

Love,
Dan

Without Any Pocket Handkerchiefs

Well, here we are. We've had 12 weeks of awesomeness here on the New Zealand countryside, learning new things, visiting new places, meeting new challenges, confronting new problems, and understanding all kinds of new things about God. Not that it was always easy. We were constantly given the opportunity and encouraged to step out in faith, surrender ourselves to God, and let Him perform the open heart surgery that we really needed. Stepping out, surrendering, and getting heart surgery are not easy things to do, but once you do them, the end result is so good. Hmmm...what an apt name for this place: the Land of New Zeal. I think all of us are full of a renewed vigor and zeal after our time here. And now we're so ready to go to Cambodia!!

In a few hours at 7:30pm, we'll be leaving our base in Tauranga to drive the airport in Auckland which is about 3 hours away. Then we'll get on a plane at 1:15am and fly 11 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a short layover, we'll have a 2 hour flight over to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. If all goes well, we'll arrive in Cambodia at 10:20 on Friday morning local time (11:20pm Thursday in the Eastern US). When we get there, we will spend a day in orientation learning about Cambodian history, culture, and religion. Over the next few days, we will be going to church, spending time doing prayer and intercession, and visiting places associated with the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s. We also get to visit Daughters of Cambodia (click for more info), an organization which rescues women from prostitution by giving them fair and honest jobs. Then, on Wednesday, we will start work with Children-at-risk Ministries. Children-at-Risk does all kinds of things to help children and families who are struggling just to have enough to live. They help children get education, food, and health care, they help parents get vocational training and start small businesses so they can be self-sufficient, and they tell everyone about Jesus. We'll be working with Children-at-Risk for four days a week for three weeks - I'm not sure what all we will be doing, but I'm sure it will be great. Besides that, we don't know what else we'll be doing, but we'll try our best to update you as we find out, in spite of our limited access to the internet.

Before we go, I want to throw out a few thank-you shout outs. First, thank you to all who have prayed for us - your prayers worked! Thank you to everyone who gave money to help us get here! Thank you to the Vine of the Mountains church for your amazing generosity in helping to provide our friend Melanie's outreach fees! Thank you to the Snyder, Blanton, and Grady families for sending us mail!! And last but definitely not least, a huge thank you to Joe and Martha Blanton for the RIDICULOUS amount of goodies that they sent over the course of our time here!!!

As I got ready to leave, I thought of Bilbo Baggins, who was swept off on a sudden and unexpected adventure which he was only partly willing to go on and hardly prepared for. In fact, he was so unprepared that he ran out of his hobbit hole without most of what he needed, including his cloak and his pocket handkerchiefs. Fortunately, I knew this adventure was coming and have spent these twelve weeks preparing for it, although when I looked for handkerchiefs (aka bandanas) this morning at the store I couldn't find any. Still, even though I am leaving without any pocket handkerchiefs, I am not leaving unprepared. Indeed, I can be swept off at a moment's notice without any chance of leaving behind what I need the most, because the Holy Spirit is in me and God is everywhere. If I have no resources with which to do ministry, I still have words that I can pray to spread love and truth and make great things happen. Plus, our God is One who provides. So with or without pocket handkerchiefs, I'm ready to go.

There goes Bilbo...

~Dan

Quite ready for another adventure

Well, here we are, at the end of the beginning. The lecture phase is complete, and our Justice team is leaving the base in approximately 6 hours. We'll drive 3ish hours to Auckland, then catch our flight to Cambodia (with a layover in Malaysia). It is hard to describe the emotions that we are all feeling at this point. We are excited for the next step, the next chapter in our story, but we are also feeling the pang of closing a very joyful chapter. Leaving behind friends is always hard, and grieving the loss of a exciting time in life is not bad. Sometimes grieving is good.

But enough about sadness! Our team is SO excited to go to Cambodia! After so much talk and preparation, we are all ready to simply be there. As Micah 6.8 says, we are ready to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.  We are ready to start bringing the kingdom to earth in Cambodia.

As you may expect, Dan and I will have very limited interweb access while in Camboadia. Unfortunately, blog post may be infrequent or nonexest. However, what this means is that in  7 weeks when we return, there will be a influx of  long posts about our time in Camobia. In other words, brace yourselves.

At this point, I just want to thank everyone who helped get us here. It is so incredibly humbling to see how blessed I am. I feel honoured to be in the position I am, and I can't express my gratefulness enough. Thanks for being Jesus to me.

Fare Thee Well!
Seth

Not all those who wander are lost

Hello friends!

 I’m here to give ya’ll a little update on our weekend (last weekend, yes I’m a week behind. But last weekend was especially epic, so you won’t want to miss out).

On Friday we had lectures as normal.  Come Friday night however, we had a good old-fashioned worship night down in the Valley. The worship guys hauled a generator and all the equipment down to a platform in Gideon’s Valley. They’re hard work was rewarded with a fantastic night of worship. Even thought the weather was chilly, everyone got warmed up after dancing and singing for a couple hours.

The next morning everyone woke up early, ready for the day trip to Cathedral Cove. Only a couple hours away, Cathedral Cove lies to the north of Tauranga, up the Coromandel Peninsula. Besides being a ridiculously beautiful stretch of beach, scenes from the second Narnia film, “Prince Caspian” were filmed here. The beach is incredible, and rock formations and caves abound. Several brave souls even went for a swim and body surf in frigid water (okay, I was one of them. How many chances do you get to swim in Narnian water?) The weather was perfect when we arrived, and only turned foul as we left, sprinkling us with a bit of rain.

Trees!

 After returning back to the base sandy, salty and perfectly content, we enjoyed a hot diner and a bit of rest. Our night was far from over, as this weekend we held a 24/2-prayer session. Essentially, all day/night on Saturday and Sunday someone was praying in our lovely prayer chapel here at the base. It was a fantastic idea, and everyone who participated was blessed heaps. Dan and I had already signed up for a slot on Sunday morning, be we both wanted to pray it up for a bit on Saturday night. So Dan and I, along with several others, went and talked with Jesus for bit. The Holy Spirit totally showed up, and helped guide our prayers and thoughts. It was a huge blessing to be apart of what was happening.

And because our day had not been awesome enough, we finished it by watching “Back To The Future”.  Days like this just make me love my life.

Sunday dawned bright and early for Dan and I, as we did our slot in the chapel. To be honest, even though our time in the prayer chapel the night before had been sweet, I really didn’t want to get up. It took me a bit to actually wake up but once I did, prayer started to flow. Its amazing how quickly time passes when you are actively praying.

After praying, Dan and I went to church at Mosaic for the last time. It was sad to realize that I wouldn’t be coming back to this church again, but I am so thankful for all that church has offered me. They have really blessed us with the messages that they have spoken, and the community and hospitality they have shown us.

 Now we come to perhaps the most interesting part of this weekend. Several weeks back we we’re given the opportunity to participate in a flash mob in Tauranga. The city has done a lot of work along the waterfront, and they we’re holding a festival to celebrate the completion of the work. The group “Do Something Tauranga” planned a flash mob for this event, to draw attention to their organization, in a effort to get people involved in the city. Somehow Marine Reach was contacted, and the rest is history. A local dance group taught us the moves to the Korean pop song “Gangnam Style”. Everyone had a blast, even my rhythmically challenged self!

Here we are! You can see Dan toward the front of the group, and I jump in the back for the second chorus!

Needless to say, I was wiped out after this weekend. But I can check two items of my bucket list: visit Narnia, and participate in a flash mob.

At this point, I also want to fill you all in on what God is speaking to me about my life after DTS.  Several weeks back, I was asked about coming back in January to staff the next DTS. Up until that point, I hadn’t put much thought into staying. My plans had always been to come back home. Thus started a long train of thought that has culminated only recently. As MUCH as I want to come back in January to staff, I feel Jesus is guiding me back to the United States. I feel like He wants me to go home. This was a ridiculously tough pill to swallow. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE home. I love my family, my friends, and my church. And I really love those Blue Ridge Mountains. But after living a exciting Holy Spirit filled, Jesus following life halfway around the world with friends who are now as close as family, going back home to work or college seemed…well, rather unexciting. My eyes have been opened to just how BIG this word is, but in the same way, I also realize that literally anything can happen when you trust Jesus. It is precisely because I know that ANYTHING is possible, that simply going home is difficult.

Being a silly guy, I even tried to get myself psyched up about staffing; essentially trying to trick myself into believe Jesus wanted me to stay. But when I finally got brutally honest with myself, the decision was clear. When I looked at the reasons I wanted to stay, they were pretty selfish. I love the people here, the community. I love the place itself, the base, the Valley, and New Zealand as a whole. And finally, I just really love this lifestyle. It seems a bit more an extrovert than I though, and I feed off of the lifestyle here at the base. I found that all of these things where the main draw to coming back. Not that Jesus doesn’t want me to enjoy my life; I know He does. But when I make an idol of things, and place them above Jesus himself, I have taken a dramatic step away from community with God.

So, all that to say, as of now, I’m coming back home for good in December. As to what I could be doing at home, I don't have the slightest idea. God has given me a peace about going home, which is totally a supernatural thing. I feel good about it, even though its not what I wanted to do. That doesn’t make sense in the natural world, but I know that God provides the peace which  passes beyond comprehension.

 Having said all that, I am well aware that we have 2 months of outreach left to go. No telling what in the world Jesus could tell me in that time. There is always the possibility of coming back to staff later (if I was sure my priorities were straight), as they run a Justice school in July of 2013. If God puts it on your heart to pray for me, I would appreciate clarity and confirmation on my decisions about the future.

Being a Tolkien geek, I of course relate everything back to LotR. In this situation however, the quote I think of really does fit, and actually encourages and comforts me:

All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by frost.

 Not all those who wander are lost. This applies pretty darn well to where I'm at. I may be wandering, but I'm sure as goodness not lost.

For the Delight of Small Children

Last week, our DTS lectures focused on the revelation of who Jesus is and who we are in Him. Our study was led by an incredibly passionate and capable teacher, Matthew Jeffares, who despite being an (older) student in the recent Couples DTS knows more about the Word of God as a whole than most anyone I have ever met. He has actually spent the past five years or so not working full time so that he could devote most of his time to the in-depth study of Scripture. Right now, I won’t share much about what he did with us except to say that his teaching and ministry time most certainly did bring revelation of Jesus’ character to many of us. I learned so much from him, but before anything else I wanted to share this specific revelation of Jesus’ glory that I received from God in my own time outside of lecture. It wasn’t anything particularly complicated or profound; it was simply head knowledge moving into my heart and bringing a greater understanding of Jesus in my innermost being.

The revelation started with Scripture. In fact, three specific passages came together with the stirring of the Spirit to make it happen. The first passage was one I had studied a couple weeks ago as I began working through the book of John. In it John expounds on Jesus as the Word of God, through whom all things were made:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.– John 1:1-5 ESV

Then on Tuesday morning during worship I was particularly struck by the fact that Jesus is the one who sustains all things. The following few verses particularly came to mind:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.– Colossians 1:15-17 ESV

Later that same morning in lecture, Matthew mentioned another passage in passing. He specifically pointed out Proverbs 8, verse 31 (which is about how God delights in his children), but then told us to take a look at the whole section beginning in verse 22. I took that to heart and spent some time looking at it that night, which was when God really spoke to me.

 “The LORD possessed me [Wisdom] at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
– Proverbs 8:22-31 ESV

This was where the revelation really began. I was reading here in three very different parts of the Bible about the divine Person of God through whom the world was created and is sustained. I was reading about the Word that God used to create everything, and the Wisdom that was beside Him at the beginning like a master workman as He made it all. I recalled that in John 1 “the Word” in the original Greek is “logos” which refers not only to spoken words, but also the “Reason” of God – his thoughts and motives in speaking. This Reason (Word) then is directly related to the Wisdom of God which is described in Proverbs. Logos also has a connotation which suggests purpose, as in the reason for the existence of something; thus “The Word” in this passage just might indicate the purpose for which everything was created (“through him and for him”).

This is the Jesus that we worship – the Word, the Wisdom of God, the master workman, the Sustainer of all things, and the Reason for existence, who existed before anything else. In fact, it was Jesus – the Wisdom of God – who thought up the entire concept of Creation in all of its mind-blowingly, incomprehensibly intricate complexity. He thought up the very idea of material things, and how they would be different from spiritual things. He came up with things like gravity and the laws of physics which are why we have night and day, seasons, an atmosphere to breathe in, and basically everything else we know of. He thought up water, which happens to be the perfect substance for allowing life to happen anywhere, and He even mapped out its three phases and their points of conversion perfectly so as to make everything on earth work just beautifully. Then He placed the earth in just the right place in the universe for life to happen, and He conceived the idea of weather and climate, and how these things sustain life on earth and create rhythm and pattern within the continuous change. Nothing remains the same, yet everything follows the laws and guidelines set up by the word of the Creator, unless His Spirit exercises authority over it to change something.

Down to every microscopic detail, Jesus knows His universe and delights in it. He delights in the fact that it is still growing, still being created. He delights in the fact that atoms are fusing together inside the Sun, giving off massive amounts of heat which are warming a planet just far enough away to be the perfect temperature for all manner of creatures (millions of different kinds of them) to live just as they were made. And He is really stoked about how the Sun is so big that other massive objects keep circling around it due to a force called gravity that He made up (and we have yet to understand fully). He is amused to no end that He decided to tilt the Earth on its side a little bit, the simple fact of which would make it really cold part of the year in different areas of the world. And He is so entertained that it gets just cold enough for water in the sky to freeze into tiny ice crystals and fall to the ground so that small children might be delighted by the wonder and fun of snow, and that all of us might be reminded of the pure whiteness that remains when Christ’s blood has washed over our lives.

That is the Wisdom of God, who is Christ our Savior. Human wisdom cannot begin to unravel such a beautifully intricate system. Even today as we pool all of our knowledge together and augment it with computers, we still have barely scratched the surface of what’s happening in our tiny corner of Creation. In fact, if there is one thing I understand after four years of science-based university education, it is that there is an abundance of questions left to be answered, and finding answers usually means uncovering more questions as well. Jesus, however, knows every hair on every head and every amoeba in every drop of water, and He knows how every bit of his Creation works in harmony as He holds it together. Now that is Wisdom, and it’s only a part of the glory of the Son of God.

When you understand this, you begin to see just how much Jesus gave up when he emptied himself and became a servant (Phil. 2:7), basically putting away all of this God-power to live as a normal human being. You begin to see just how ridiculous it is that He loved us enough to be crushed and broken for our sins. Seriously, the wondrous, rejoicing Creator I just told you about is also this man:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.– Isaiah 53:4-5 ESV 

Jesus, the Lion of Judah, was also the lamb who was quietly led to slaughter for our sakes. Can you believe that? I can’t, except that the Spirit of Truth revealed it to me. And now I see just how much greater His glory is for having become a perfect lamb and not just a lion.    

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
– Philippians 2:9-11 ESV

And so I can look on Creation with wonder at its complexity, revering the Wisdom that alone could have made it so well. And I look on the Wisdom that came up with a redemption plan so wise and absolutely perfect that it looks like utter foolishness to all who aren’t born of the Spirit. Yep, that’s our God.

“Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have. So let us leave behind all these boys' philosophies--these over simple answers. The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either.” – C.S. Lewis

How He loves us,
-DJS

It's Really Good News

We had always heard that DTSs got really busy as they went on, but I don’t think I really believed it at first. I mean, we didn’t have to worry much about school work or most of the other activities that had always monopolized my time in college. We didn’t have much to do in the evenings but hang out, we could play ultimate frisbee most afternoons, and life was grand. Now, while life is still grand, it seems like there are a thousand things that I could be doing all the time, and all of them are good. There is scripture to read and walks to take and people to build relationships with and music to play and prayers to pray and books to read and so much more. And we have to get ready to go on outreach, which is coming up frighteningly fast (we’ll be in Cambodia in two weeks!!). So as you could imagine, writing blog posts can easily fall through the cracks every once in a while, especially if you’re Seth and you really can’t resist talking to people and playing guitar late into the night. As for me, for a week I was trying to shake a respiratory illness that just didn’t seem to want to go away. It turned out that I had gotten sick and then gotten shots a couple days later when my immune system was still recovering, so I had a bit of a reaction to the shots. Once I knew that was the problem, though, I made sure to get plenty of rest and eat well, and I quickly got better. Yay!

So now we have two weeks of busy DTS life to cover without taking a ridiculous amount of time. I’ll start off on the Monday before last, when we were beginning our week on Evangelism with Matt Dawson, a superb (and funny) teacher we had already heard from way back when we studied worship. Evangelism, at least YWAM-style street evangelism, is a topic that isn’t talked about too much in the church background I come from. Certainly, I’ve heard quite a bit about telling people about Jesus (because that is central to what Jesus told us to do), but we usually avoid talking to complete strangers, preferring to build relationships and establish loving intentions before bringing up the gospel. I still don’t think anything is wrong with that perspective (unless you hide behind it as a way to do no evangelism at all), but this week Matt used his wisdom, passion, and humor to give the perspective that evangelism – even to absolute strangers – should be a lifestyle. Indeed, if we have personally experienced Jesus’ love, mercy, and goodness as He gives them so freely, shouldn’t we want to make sure that just about everyone we come near at least gets an invitation to know who Jesus is? We don’t have to force the gospel down people’s throats, just invite them to listen to what we have experienced and what we know about Jesus. If they say no, we just won’t tell them. But mightn’t we just ask (as difficult as that is sometimes)?

Here are a few others of Matt’s main points during the week for you to think on:

• We have to be utterly convinced that the gospel is totally good news, or it will be nearly impossible to share. If we know it’s good, it will come much more naturally.
• Jesus is the model we look to in evangelism, as with anything. Note that Jesus did talk to complete strangers, even breaking all kinds of cultural norms to do so – read John 4, Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. And don’t say, “Well, that was Jesus; I’m just a ‘normal person,’” because Jesus said "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father” (John 14:12).
• In sharing the gospel, we are telling a story. Essentially, evangelism means showing people that they are not living in the reality they think they are and sharing the true (and much better) reality. [So, it’s pretty much like The Matrix…] Jesus is willing to save and restore everyone and give them a purpose in life; they just have to realize that and receive it.
• The Gospel is all around us; in fact, every great story in literature or film has bits of the gospel story in it. Realizing this will help us hear from God in different ways and tell people about the good news in ways they can easily understand.
• A few things that we don’t want to leave out when telling people the story of the gospel: 1) God’s original intention (the Garden), 2) Breakdown of that intention (Fall), 3) Redemption/Reestablishment of God’s intention, 4) The Choice (to repent and have faith in Jesus), 5) The Promise (Jesus coming back, heaven/hell).
• We need to share the things we are absolutely sure of and have a depth of conviction about. If asked about something you’re not sure of, it’s OK to admit you don’t know. We’re all on a journey, and you’re just sharing yours with people.
• The indwelling of the Spirit is an essential marker of salvation.
• All we want to share is love and truth. If that is all we offer and people still reject it, it’s totally in God’s hands to change their hearts. And how could we push people further from God if we are only conveying love and truth?

There were a few other notable things that happened last week. One was our justice class on Wednesday, where we continued the topic of sex trafficking, specifically in Cambodia, where we will be going on outreach. Sex trafficking is a huge issue in Southeast Asia, and hopefully we will find some ways to help out a little in the fight against it.

Last Thursday was a really great day. That morning, Matt had another commitment, so instead of lecture we went out into the city of Tauranga and did street evangelism. A lot of students came back with really cool stories about how they were able to love and connect with people and tell some of them about Jesus. It became obvious that followers of Jesus can certainly be the light in a city even to complete strangers. For me, it was about the second time I had ever gone street evangelizing, so it was a bit nerve racking, but nothing at all bad happened beyond a few moments of awkwardness. My partner Nate and I didn’t really come back with any good stories, but I’m convinced that God was still proud of our obedience in trying, and I learned a lot from the experience so I can be more effective in the future.

After lunch, all of the guys headed out to the beach at the Mount for our BSS (exercise) time, which consisted of a long and epic game of ultimate frisbee. At the same time, the girls had a separate BSS at the base then proceeded to prepare a ridiculously awesome surprise dinner for the guys. Most of us didn’t realize that a dinner was coming, and I’m pretty sure none of us had any idea just how great it would be. They really didn’t overlook a single detail. They reset the lecture room as a restaurant, provided appetizers, served each course (one of which included sausages wrapped in bacon), made a music playlist just for us, and gave each of us a card with notes on it from every one of them. Then, after we were ridiculously stuffed, they reset the lecture room again for a poker/game night for everyone (girls and guys). And after that we had a dance party. It definitely was heaps more than we did for them when we made breakfast a couple times… And I think they genuinely enjoyed doing all of it for us. We have a lot of wonderful ladies here!

Seth in a food coma following the wonderful food the ladies made.

Our Justice outreach team! We'll be in Cambodia in 2 weeks!

All the guys being our normal selves.

All the wonderful ladies looking fabulous.

Alright, just a couple more highlights from last week. On Saturday night, we got to participate in the international pastime of watching large men flatten one another in order to get a small, air-filled object across a line.  At home, that means watching football. In this part of the world, it’s rugby. Besides still not understanding a few of the rules, it turned out to be really fun to watch. Rugby is really fast-paced and quite exciting, but I think the best part is that there are no commercials during the game except at halftime. If for no other reason, that might make it nicer to watch than football.

On Sunday night we had a murder mystery party, set up by our good friend Hannah. If you’ve never been a part of something like this, essentially what happens is that everyone is assigned to be a certain character, so they dress up and act that part for the evening. Then it’s set up so that one character gets murdered, and in the subsequent investigation, evidence comes to light which should point to who the murderer was, and everyone has to try and figure it out. In our case, the setting was a 1920’s speakeasy. This meant most of the girls got to have a good time dressing up like flappers and other fashionable ‘20s ladies, while the guys got to play mobsters, politicians, or in my case, a private investigator. Over the course of the evening, the Northside Mob Boss (our Canadian friend Mitch) was shot while proposing to his girlfriend (our one kiwi student, Larissa). In the end, we found out that the corrupt chief of police (our British staffer Claire) was actually the culprit (though most of us didn't actually figure it our). Anyway, it made for quite a fun night dressing up and attempting (mostly ineptly) to impersonate ‘20s personalities.

Northside Mobsters

That's us.

And that was last week – full, but good.

Thanks for reading!

Dan’l

DTS Outreach Needs - Video!

Hey everyone!

I mentioned a little while ago how we had quite a few students here on our DTS who didn't have all the money they needed to go on their outreach trips to Cambodia, Indonesia, Vanuatu, or the Philippines. Well, since then we've seen God provide in all kinds of crazy ways (including envelopes of money just appearing on our accountant's desk), but there are still needs that we are believing in God to provide for. In order to get the word out across social media and in the churches of those who are still raising money, we made this short video. Take a look!



If God leads you give, follow these instructions to donate online:

1. Go to  http://mrmdts.org/online-payments/.
2. In the dropdown menu, choose "Donate to a Student/Staff."
3. Fill out the form. Put the name of whichever student you would like to give to in the "Recipient name" boxes.
4. Complete the payment process (you can pay using a credit/debit card)

We're not trying to pressure you into anything, we just want to make everyone aware of the need. No matter what, we know that our God is Jehovah Jireh - "God who provides" - and these outreach needs will be taken care of. Praise Him!

So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
        (Isaiah 55:11 ESV)

Thanks everyone!
Dan 

Don’t Be Hasty – You’re Listening for Still and Small

Since the beginning of the DTS, I knew this would be an important week. I knew this partly because the subject for this week was “Hearing God’s Voice,” and that was something I had wanted desperately to learn how to do as I came on DTS. However, this week was also important because this Friday, September 7^th, was the deadline for submitting an application for an internship with Engineering Ministries International (EMI). EMI is a global organization which partners with Christian organizations and them with provides free engineering design services. For example, EMI does architectural and civil engineering work to design schools, orphanages, hospitals, and other buildings free of charge for organizations that would otherwise have to pay an engineering firm to acquire good quality designs (or go without). I knew that an internship with EMI in their Costa Rica field office would be a great opportunity to work internationally on technical projects in development, and as such it was one of my primary options for work after DTS. After all, I do have an engineering degree to put to use.

Figuring out what I’m going to do with my future is always a big deal for me, so of course this had been in my mind leading up to this week. When I approached God with the decision of whether or not to apply, though, I felt like He kept telling me just to trust Him. As I have shared before, God has been continually reassuring me of who He is and reaffirming my identity as his Son with whom He is well pleased. He has told me in several different ways that He has an awesome adventure planned for the rest of my life, but that I must trust Him completely before it can truly begin. So I trusted that He was good (which He is) and would tell me when it was the best time, even if that was the day the application was due, or after.

Of course, it was no coincidence that this week’s focus was hearing God’s voice, or that our speaker was the incredibly wise Mandy Hudson. God had all kinds of wonderful things to show and tell me this week, just in time for me to lean on Him for this decision. Mandy began teaching on Monday, and I immediately loved the way she taught. Before she up and left her home in the UK to come to New Zealand, Mandy worked in information technology (IT), and her tech savvy really comes through in her teaching. She uses visual aids in just the right ways and has a wonderful method of always interspersing times of response and interaction into her lectures, making sure that we really meet Jesus rather than just hear her words. And she is full of a wisdom borne out of years of rich personal intimacy with God, a wisdom which she loves to share in absolute humility. She is probably one of the easiest people to talk to that I have ever met. I met with her on Wednesday evening to discuss my plans, and, quickly understanding my personality, she began to draw a diagram of my options and the reasons for doing each. She explained that being analytical in these ways is by no means wrong; in fact, it gives focus to what we bring before God as we ask for guidance. Being led by God does not mean forsaking the mind, but rather submitting the mind to the Spirit so it can be renewed!

Now I won’t even attempt to summarize everything Mandy taught us over the course of the week, even though so much of it was so good. Instead, I’ll focus on what most spoke to me in my situation this week. And that had everything to do with intimacy with God.

This theme of friendship and intimacy with God was woven all through Mandy’s teaching on hearing God’s voice, even though she didn’t specifically talk about it until Tuesday. Certainly, God was revealing His desire for intimacy with me before she even talked about it. On Monday and Tuesday as I spent time with God, He showed me that I shouldn’t have my own agenda every time I come to God. I’m not trying to get something out of God; I’m trying to be in a relationship with Him. He showed me that I should come to Him often with no other desire than to spend time with Him, and He will set the agenda. Again, it’s about trusting Him – He knows what you need, and He knows you have deadlines.

So I tried it. I went to the valley on Tuesday night wanting only to spend time with Jesus. And it was one of the most joyful times I have ever experienced. I had so much fun. Even there in the dark valley, God met me. As He prompted, I talked with Him, I listened for His still, small voice, I read His word, I prayed for people, I sang songs that came to mind, I received prophetic words for someone, and just really enjoyed his company. Mandy had told us about different ways of approaching God and letting Him speak to us, one of which was lectio divina (sacred reading). This is one that I had heard of before at my church at home (shout out to Owen!), but now I was really in a place to put it to use. God really used it speak to me out of Scripture in a way that I really wasn’t getting before. It’s so exciting to hear from God so much, and He wants to speak intimately with each of the 7 billion people on this planet!

Mainly what I want to convey here is that intimacy with God is actually about the most fun and exciting thing you can do – it’s something to look forward to! Seriously, you’re talking face to face with the Creator of the Universe, who also happens to be your Loving Father, your all-sufficient Savior, and the Spirit of Truth. That is good stuff! And if you don’t have His word in front of you at the moment, you just have to realize that He put His “second word” all around you – his creation which constantly proclaims his glory! He has shared with me some delightful revelations about Himself through his creation this week. For example, every little creature, every plant that God made delights Him! He is delighted by the fact that fish swim and birds fly and green plants can grow out of the remains of old dead plants. He takes such delight in life! He knows and loves every detail of his creation, and enjoys its intricacy and complexity. He loves the fact that it is constantly changing, but in predictably rhythmic patterns (like the seasons). But God delights in nothing more than He delights in His kids. He loves that what He created can also create, and He enjoys seeing what we make. He loves how He made each of us just right.

And so God continued teaching about how good it is to be intimate with Him, and how hearing his voice is about much, much more than guidance in life. In fact, He continued teaching me this even into Thursday, as the application deadline became dangerously close. Yet I wasn’t worried; I really trusted that God would let me know when He wanted to tell me something about it. On Thursday morning instead of lecture we all went into the valley to spend quiet time hearing from God. As you might expect, I thought it might be about time for God to tell me what to do. But no, again He told me that intimacy must always come first. I had a wonderful time in the valley, meditating on creation and on God’s word until I ran out of time. No decision yet.

Finally, though, I felt it was time to bring the decision before God that afternoon. An hour before dinner, I headed back to the valley to meet God. At first I didn’t seem to hear much, but I had invited God to be there and He will never pass up an invitation like that. So I presented the options before God as I had discussed them with Mandy and began reading in the book of James:

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.”
(James 3:17-18 NLT)

God’s wisdom then gradually began to hit me. The word “foundation” kept coming up, and I thought about how a strong house really needs a good, solid foundation. This brought up two passages that Frank Naea had use the past week about God’s Father Heart:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”(Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)

“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”(Psalm 127:1 ESV)

Always when reading the Matthew passage in the past, I thought that I was supposed to be the wise man. But it turns out that God is the wise man – I’m just the house! God wants us to let Him build our lives on Christ rather than us trying to do it ourselves. If we try to do it ourselves, we will be without a firm foundation and will wash away when the storm comes.

I think God was telling me that He wants to keep strengthening my spiritual foundations – prayer, intimacy with Him (hearing His voice), service, humility, and living in the Spirit before I move on to what I believe is my specific calling, which is to work on the technical problems of providing people with food and clean water around the world while spreading the love of Christ. This focus on foundations really pointed me toward my primary alternative to the EMI internship, which was to staff the upcoming DTS here at YWAM Marine Reach in January. Since I had begun considering staff as an option following the end of DTS, I had regarded it as a way to serve others while solidifying my own foundations as a follower of Christ. Staffing will also give me opportunities to step out in leadership and service, receive more teaching and mentoring, and remain surrounded by edifying Christian community. It will also mean more international experience, as it should involve helping lead an outreach to another country in the Pacific or Southeast Asia.

So here’s the result of all of this:

I decided not to pursue the EMI internship for the spring and instead go after staffing the next DTS here!

I’ll tell you more about what that means in the coming weeks...

So that was the big thing that happened last week. Here are all the little things, rapid fire. On Monday, we all dressed up for Invited Speaker Night and Jim Hern (most awesome old guy ever) came to speak to us. On Wednesday night we had outreach prep class, and learned that we can’t bring any computers or other internet accessible devices on outreach. We’ll still be in contact every once in a while, but weekly blog posts and lots of pictures on Facebook will probably be out of the question. On Thursday night, we had a bonfire which involved the staff telling stories and everyone roasting marshmallows! On Friday afternoon, I got really wrapped up in planning Seth and my post-DTS New Zealand exploration, which is going to be awesome! On Saturday morning, some guys preparing another incredible breakfast for everyone. Then on Saturday night we watched Nefarious, which I talked about in the last post. Anyway, it was a good, full week!

Thanks to all of you who are keeping up with us! I hope you learn a little something in these blogs, and realize that experiencing God is not relegated to DTSs or to New Zealand. He’s happy to meet you wherever you are – just ask Him!

Love,

Dan

NEFARIOUS - Watch this Film

This week in justice stream, we began focusing on the topic of sex trafficking. This is a topic which is out of sight, out of mind for most people who are not involved in it, but it is one of the biggest and most brutal problems that exists around the world today. So that you know what exactly what I’m talking about when I say “sex trafficking,” here is the definition given by the United States Government:

Sex trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.

There are all kinds of statistics that I could spout – for example, that there are 27 million slaves in the world today – but that does little more than alert you of the scope of the problem, and that is a thought which is easily overwhelming. I don’t want to overwhelm you, but rather make you aware of the issue and direct you to a resource that can tell the story much better than I can: a documentary called Nefarious: Merchant of Souls. It is an incredibly eye opening and life changing film which does a very thorough job of looking at the issue of sex trafficking around the world in its many forms, while also examining its causes and effects. What makes it really amazing, though, is that it does not simply present a massive problem; it also presents the hope and restoration Jesus is already bringing and will continue to bring.

Take a look at the trailer for Nefarious:

(if it's loading slowly, make sure the "HD" sign is turned off)

Now, just to give you a few ideas to chew on before you watch the film for yourself, here are a few of the things that really stood out to me:

• To stop sex trafficking, you have to end prostitution.
• All prostitutes are slaves of some sort, even those in developed countries that choose the lifestyle for the glamour, money, etc. Almost always, women who reach the point of voluntarily choosing to sell their bodies in prostitution have been sexually abused or exploited earlier in life. And no one enjoys prostituting herself after a little while, yet they become trapped by pimps or by their own psychological state (“This is who I am; I’m not good for anything else now. I’m worthless and could never have a different or better life…” and much more complex things).
• A solution in Sweden which has worked very well  was to prohibit the buying of sexual services. When that is the case, it becomes the fault of the man seeking to buy a prostitute, not the fault of the prostitute herself. It is a system which acknowledges that the girls are rarely or never in control of their situation, and are kept there by the pimps and johns (clients).
• Even where poverty is a cause of prostitution (everywhere, but especially Southeast Asia), development and release from physical and economic poverty will not by itself end trafficking. Consider: has development and education solved evil in the developed world? This is a moral and spiritual issue – it can only be truly solved by the restoration that Jesus brings. I’ve included it because it is especially important for me as someone who will probably be working in development, not specifically anti-trafficking ministry. We must realize that without spreading the gospel and love of Jesus, development is useless in heaps of ways.

After the movie ended, no one wanted to say much, so our justice leader Brittany prayed. But then something, some heaviness of spirit, kept everyone right where we were. No one said anything, but no one moved either. I particularly felt like it can’t be right to just get up and put on a smile after that film without having done something first. Finally, someone suggested we intercede on this issue and someone else pointed out that we needed to praise God. So Matt got his guitar and for almost an hour we sang to God, or cried out to Him with whatever was on our hearts. In my case it was for men to stand against trafficking, pornography, prostitution, and the wrong view of sex and women that pervades our society today. I also felt to pray for a renewing of sight in men – to see women in the way that God does, as worthy daughters of the King, never as objects to be used, no matter what they have done or how they look. There were also some of our fellow students who began weeping, having particularly identified with the broken state of the prostitutes and trafficking victims – they truly had felt their hearts break for what breaks the heart of God. We came around these people and spoke truth, healing, and restoration into their lives. It was a really good time of heartfelt response to an issue that would be overwhelming but for the power and love of Jesus.

As far as my response in the future goes, I know that there is a reason why God has me on this justice school, why I saw this movie, and why I was so affected by it. I don’t think that reason is for me to throw out all that I have already heard from God and go into anti-trafficking ministry, but I do think God has something for me to do in this fight. Whether it is continual prayer, or financial support, or simply treating every woman I see with care and respect, God is going to use me to go against this. My role may also be to raise up other men who will stand against these things, have strong families, and show respect to the daughters of God. And it certainly will include showing and telling others about Jesus. Regardless of my career path, this issue will always be with me.

So find a way to watch this film, and do something!

Our God is Good,

Dan