Not quite dead yet

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead. I do apologize for the lateness of this post. It's just so darn hard to find time. But enough of the excuses!

 This week our speaker was Frank Naea, speaking on the “Father Heart of God”. The excitement was tangible amongst the students, as we have all heard rumors of how awesome Frank is. Of course, at this point we know enough to know that ALL of our speakers will be amazing. But Frank seemed to be especially well thought of among the staff. We had all heard tell of his fabled hugs and general warm snuggleyness. We were not disappointed. Frank spent the first two sessions essentially making us laugh whilst cleverly sneaking a message in when we least expected it. Such is the art of good story telling. On Tuesday we had more lectures with Frank, a continuation of what he had been teaching us. Frank also taught us a traditional Samoan dance. 

Frank!

On Tuesday we had our BSS as per usual. However, today was a day of special magnificence. We went off base to go do a boxing workout! It was such a incredible workout, I definitely felt all the upper cuts, cross-jabs, and hooks the next day. Tuesday night involved some free time to relax/play games/read/spend time with Jesus. There is ALWAYS something awesome going on here; whether it’s a game of frisbee, a special worship session or a prayer meeting. It’s a bit overwhelming at times, to be honest. But the cool thing is, I can just ask Jesus to show me the important stuff, and he will. So that’s what I’m working on at this point.

As you all probably know by now, Wednesday is our intercession day, in which we intercede in prayer for various issues brought to our attention by the staff. It has become one of my favorite things, which is a bit unusual for me. Obviously prayer has been a part of my life as a Christian, but taking a dedicated time each week to intercede for others was a whole new idea for me. It’s always interesting to see how God moves in the particular group you are praying with. Last week, the group I was in prayed pretty vaguely for China for the first 15 minutes. Then out of nowhere, a woman got a specific Chinese name, Hi Jin. We continued to pray into that name, trying to figure out what God was telling us. By the end of our prayer time, we had deciphered that Hin Jin was either being persecuted or was getting ready to be persecuted, that he had a family, and that God was going to use this to make himself known to more people in China. It was such a amazing experience to get that type of information from God, and then to be able to intercede in that situation. On the other end of the spectrum, this week my group ended up praising God and basking in His love for most of the time. It always flows so naturally when we listen and obey God. So, we did that in the morning. Frank did more of his wonderful teaching during our lecture time. Today, though, was a very important day (at least in the minds of most of the guys) because Frank taught us the haka! The haka is a traditional Maori dance, often thought to be aggressive or scary. Frank taught us the true nature of the haka, that it is actually a declaration of authority over something. I can honestly say that it was exhilarating! With 40 odd people in the room all yelling and following Frank’s instructions, my heart was thumping and my adrenaline was flowing.

 Wednesday night was our first “outreach prep”. As the name says, outreach prep nights are for preparing us for the outreach phase of the DTS. Heading up outreach prep is Patty Carlson. Patty is the founder of Justice Reach, a separate organization from YWAM. Patty has staffed DTS’s in the past, and continues to participate in life at the base. Outreach prep was pretty short and to the point this time - we went over basic information and etiquette. In the coming weeks our outreach prep will get more specific and tailored to our particular destinations.

 On Thursday we continued lectures with Frank. Lectures with Frank were so ridiculously cool. He is a master storyteller, and he essentially told us stories the whole time, stories that had truths about God woven into them. As I said earlier, Frank was teaching on the Father Heart of God. He showed us how after the Fall, we became orphans. Adam and Eve were cut off from the Creator, the God who they found their identity in. In a sense, man grew up without (by his own doing) the “daddy” he was meant to have.  But the story doesn’t end with us being forever doomed to live fatherless lives. In terrible poignancy, Frank described the crucifixion, and it’s entire purpose. Which is, quite simply, to buy us back. The beating, the whipping, the crown of thorns, the nails through hands and feet, and the spear in the side. It was all part of buying us back, paying for every type of sin that had been brought into the world. God is so good that he sent his son to buy us back from something we had sold ourselves into. The cross had to be incredibly brutal, because the stuff we had sold ourselves into was brutal. After talking about Christ’s body being broken and his blood spilt, it was only fitting that we take communion. Everyone was in a bit of a somber mood at this point; we had after all had a very serious morning. Maybe Frank planned his next session to accommodate for that, because it sure seemed like what everyone needed. We all gathered around and listened as he told that there was a river flowing at our feet. Right through our lecture room, a clean and deep river. A river of Gods love. Frank then told us that whoever wanted to could be baptized in the Fathers love right then and there. Frank had several of the big guys ease us over backwards, just as in a water baptism. Cheyne was standing by to pray, and to deliver any prophetic words. After Cheyne did his thing, the newly baptized person was ushered into a warm, long, and loving hug delivered by Frank. And when I say long, I mean long. Minutes passed, but once you where snuggled up in Franks arms, you just didn’t want to let go. If hugging is a spiritual gift, Frank has it. After a nice long Frank hug, we were swamped by our fellow DTS students who had been eagerly waiting. We were showered with towels (it was a baptism after all), hugs, prayers, encouragement, words form the Lord, and prophecies. It was a truly incredible experience. To experience the love of the Father in the baptism, and then the love of our brothers and sister, was overwhelming. The next couple of hours were spent in a complete and utter joy! Everyone came out of that session grinning from ear to ear. Frank informed us that anyone who didn’t get to go today would get a chance tomorrow, and everyone was more than happy with that.

 On Thursday night Dan and I had small group with our Justice team. Justice small group is always something we look forward to, mainly because our awesome leader Brittany always makes us AMAZINGLY tasty sweets. I mean, the fellowship and community are nice too, but let's get our priorities straight.

Friday morning dawned early for Dan and I as we went with a group to Mount Maunganui to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful, and well worth the lack of sleep. If I can manage to drag myself out of bed early, I actually enjoy getting up. It definitely makes me feel more productive to get to early. But the siren call of sleep is oh so sweet. As I mentioned, we did move baptizing in the Fathers love today. Because I had gone on Thursday, I had the opportunity to be a “towel person”, and to shower others with love and encouragement. It was just as meaningful to give the love of the Father, as it was to receive it. By the time everyone had gone, our lecture time had run out. We were all sad to see Frank leave, and I for one made sure to grab a good-bye hug. 

On Friday night I went into town with several friends and fellow student from the base, while Dan stayed back. It’s so nice to be in near constant fellowship with everyone here. I bordered dangerously close to being a extrovert, but after some introspection discovered that I’m still happily a introvert. Nevertheless, I enjoyed an evening with my friends. 

Saturday morning dawned early for everyone; it was one of the student’s birthdays! And to celebrate Tahnee’s birthday we went for another sunrise climb up the Mount. After a climb up the Mount, we splurged on a breakfast by the beach. To further celebrate Tahnee’s birthday, we played a game of frisbee back at the base. Of course, birthday cake was incorporated in at some point as well. After dinner, Dan and several others headed over to Mosaic church for a special worship night. I know Dan really enjoyed his time at Mosaic, and he might give a more detailed description of what went down a bit later. I hung back, and had a relaxing evening that included watching The Avengers with a bunch of other students. 

Sunday was Fathers Day here in New Zealand, and so Mosaic had a special celebration to honour the dads in the church. Our group stayed and fellowshipped with the church after the service, and several guys and myself took the opportunity to play some games that had been set up for men from the church. We had a blast trying to do a horizontal bungee, as well as a foam padded gladiator style fight!  Mosaic has blessed Dan and I so much over our short time here. I feel at home in this church, and am so excited to see where God takes them in the future. 

This week was a whirlwind, as is becoming the norm. Days and weeks are flying by so quickly, its hard to comprehend that in several weeks we will be in Cambodia on outreach!  Incomprehensible, but in a good way. In fact, that kind of sums up DTS nicely - incomprehensible, but in a good way.

-Seth