Philippines Outreach Overview

I've been home for about a month now (and I'm about to go back to NZ on Thursday), but I just finished making a video/slideshow telling about our outreach in the Philippines. We had an awesome time, and God provided us with just the right opportunities for our team. We went into some very challenging and unexpected places, but God never left us. In fact, He worked powerfully and showed us that He wants his followers to bring more of his presence even into the places we are least likely to go. It turns out that the places we avoid are sometime where we're needed the most...

 

Today's Big News

This is a newsletter kind of thing that I wrote for anyone who has been following and/or supporting my adventures with YWAM. It should give you a pretty good idea of what I've been up to and where I'm going for the foreseeable future!

Dear Brother or Sister in Christ,

You know, that greeting sounds so generic and doesn’t communicate half of what it should. What I really mean when I say “Brother or Sister in Christ” is that you’re family, and I love you whether or not I even know you well. I mean that we’re part of something bigger, something global (cosmic even!): collectively we are God’s chosen instrument for bringing the things of his kingdom to earth. Through our prayers, our words, our actions, our thoughts, and even the seemingly insignificant decisions we make every day we are charged with bringing reconciliation, restoration, and refreshment to this conflicted, fallen, and exhausted world of ours. So when I call you my brother or sister in Christ, what I mean is that we’re in this together, and it’s far bigger than you or me – but it’s what we were made for.

As my family member in Christ and as someone who has supported me in the past (even if in the smallest of ways), I want to begin by saying thank you. The honest truth is that there is literally no way I would be where I am without your financial and moral support.  Your initial and sustained blessings of prayer, friendship, and finances have perfectly placed me to receive even more from God and pour out blessings on others as a Discipleship Training School (DTS) staff member with YWAM in New Zealand. Your support has a ripple effect; it doesn’t stay in one place but continues outward from where it began. So thank you for your generosity and obedience to God!

Right now, we have come to the end of the 12-week lecture phase of this DTS and are just beginning our outreach trip in the Philippines. So much has happened during this first 12-week period that it’s hard to describe, but what I do know is that students arrived with all sorts of questions, doubts, struggles, and fears, and now they are totally different. Some even arrived feeling quite unsure of what they thought about God, but now they are sold-out and on fire for Him. Now how exactly this happened is the hard part to explain. I gave my best attempt to sum up the process in a recent blog post: “I’d say this has been a journey of claiming truth and freedom step by step. Often, this has meant inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives, stepping out in faith, and obeying God in a way that pushes us outside our comfort zones. He challenges us to be more vulnerable, open, and free in worship, prayer, and speaking, responding to God only and not fearing what the people around us might think.” As we do this (and generally spend lots of time seeking intimacy with God), we find that we fall in love with Jesus more and more and become free and confident to serve him in radical ways. We bring a willing spirit, and He does the hard work in our hearts.

My amazing justice team! From left: Danny (staff), Nicole, Kyle, Mishelle, Edgar, Lindsay, Christie, Amber, Paul, Me, Joshua, and Jules.

What we're really like :)

As a staff member, though, there is some other hard work to do as well. It is our job to create an entire culture and environment for the DTS which will help students press in to God, honor each other, and get all they can out of this special time. It is also no easy task to disciple the students through struggles with sin, old ways of thinking, and issues of living in community. Again, my best stab at expressing what this feels like comes from a blog post: “To put it concisely, the past six weeks have been challenging, stretching, and blessed: challenging, because being responsible for the rapidly-changing spiritual lives of a bunch of young people (in addition to my own) is just plain hard; stretching, because I’m constantly confronting situations I’ve never before confronted; and blessed, because God is far better than we can imagine, because our efforts are bearing fruit in the form of transformed lives, and because there’s so much joy to be had in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.”

Now, however, the time in beautiful New Zealand has come to an end, and we have embarked on a 7-week outreach trip. I am now in the Philippines along with my justice team of 12, the medical team of 18, and the worship team of 5. Another 20 students and staff are traveling to another group of islands, the nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. In Manila (the sprawling capital of the Philippines), the three teams have now come aboard the M/V Pacific Hope, a ship which our branch of YWAM, Marine Reach Ministries, has just bought. We will be working on the ship for two weeks, helping to spruce it up and get it ready for the ministry it will soon be involved in. After about two weeks, we will sail down to Mindoro Island and offload the medical and worship teams, who will be doing a medical outreach on the island. The justice team will return to Manila and continue living on the ship while we do ministry with the poor and oppressed (especially exploited or at-risk women and children) in and around the city. Near the end of May, we will return to New Zealand for a week for the DTS graduation before the students return home.

The M/V Pacific Hope in Manila Harbor

Up to that point – the end of this DTS – my life is nicely planned out for me; the question for me was always what would happen after this DTS finished. Well, here’s the big news: I’m planning to return and staff one more DTS with YWAM Marine Reach before moving on to other things. I feel certain that God has more for me here – there is SO much to learn from leading DTSs, especially on the spiritual and relational (“people skills”) side of things. This is an opportunity for me to round out the technical training I’ve had with further development in these other areas which are, to be honest, even more important. The incredible thing about DTS staffing is that it’s essentially on-the-job training. Even as I develop and build my own foundations I am helping transform people’s lives and equipping them to serve others and change the world. It’s better than going to school because the effects reach far beyond my own skills and intellect. Finally, if those reasons aren’t good enough for you there is the practical fact that we really need male staff members for July School, and I am positioned to be an even more effective leader next time, having gotten the hang of things a little bit the first time around.

Now I know what some of you are thinking: Dan’s probably just having a great time in New Zealand and doesn’t want to leave and get a real job. When’s he going to grow up and be responsible? Well, to be perfectly honest, I’ve considered the same question myself, and yet I still believe that staying on as staff is a responsible thing to do; in fact, I believe it’s what God has asked me to do. But believe me, I didn’t make the decision lightly to live another five months by faith, depending on God’s provision through others’ generosity. I mean, aren’t I pushing my luck a little to do this again? Well, no actually, because contrary to the wisdom of the world comes the old YWAM adage which has proved true time and again for decades: “Where God guides, He provides.” God doesn’t need you or anyone else to give me money (He can and has provided miraculously); however, He takes delight in loving relationships, supportive communities, and generous hearts, and He loves to use people to carry out his plans. So I do ask that you pray and consider whether God would have you give financially. And again, thank you to all who have already contributed in that way.

The entire Philippines outreach team on the Pacific Hope!

As I said, maintaining relationships is one of my highest priorities, although that is difficult to do from halfway

around the world (even with all of today’s technology). I will, however, be back in the United States from June 3rd to July 4th, and during that time I’d be happy to meet with you or chat on the phone to catch up and tell stories. In the meantime, you can always shoot me an email and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can (it may take a while in the Philippines). I am so, so thankful that I have such a loving community of people supporting me on this crazy adventure that God is taking me on. He is greater than we could ever comprehend, and I pray the blessing of our great God on you as you follow and seek after him.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14)!

Dan

Online Giving: http://mrmdts.org/online-payments (select “Donate to a Student/Staff”)

Redirecting...

Since I'm currently on outreach in the Philippines I probably won't be posting much on here. But...there is hope!! My justice team is doing a team blog that you can read! You can find it here. It's already pretty awesome.

A Justice Team with Personality.

Hey, here's a great video introducing our the Justice Team that I'll be co-leading on outreach in less than two weeks! Kudos to Pacific Challenge DTS student Sky Shurr for editing and creating the video! Take a look, pray for us, and consider giving to the students that still need money for outreach! Go to mrmdts.org for more info or to give financially (every little bit helps). Thank you for your support!

Amazingly Awesomely Audacious Attitudes

First of all, the title of this post may or may not have anything to do with its contents. It may or may not have just been fun to write.

The last post was pretty much all about the main spiritual and educational component of our DTS which is the morning lecture times. However, so much more happens on a DTS, so I wanted to share a bit of that as well. Hopefully it will be a bit more exciting just because it involves pictures and a video or two!

First, I’ll quickly let you in on a few of the things that I have been doing as a staff member here. One of staff’s main roles on DTS is to do what are called “one-on-ones.” One-on-ones are pretty much what they sound like – each student meets with the a staff member one on one each week for a little while to talk about how the past week has gone (lectures, relationship with God, living in community, etc.). This gives the students someone to come to when they are having problems, and we as staff then can offer a listening ear or a little wise counsel, or we can point them in the direction of someone better equipped to help them with their issue. This is central to the role of DTS staff as mentors for the students. I have two guys in my Justice school that I meet with. One is from Switzerland and the other is from Brazil. The Brazilian’s wife is from Chile and he speaks Spanish, which is cool because sometimes I can talk to him in a language he’s more comfortable with than English.

Another thing we do each week is have a small group time when each of the streams (Justice, Medical, Pacific Challenge, etc.) hangs out as a group. This allows us to get to know each other, discuss the week, go off base together, and generally have a good time in a smaller group (e.g. 12 instead of 57). We’ve done things like have a campfire in the valley, play games, go see a movie, go have ice cream, and that kind of thing.

Campfire in the valley!

Ice cream at the Mount!

Justice team on the beach!

A really big part of my job as staff the last several weeks has been to plan and prepare for our outreach trip to the Philippines, which is coming up in just a couple weeks! Since I last posted, a lot has happened in the world of outreach, not least of which is the fact that Marine Reach Ministries just bought a new ship!!!! For the last 3 years since they simply gave away their ship, the Pacific Link, to YWAM Australia in obedience to God, Marine Reach has been a ship ministry without a ship. That did give them a chance to focus on the training aspect of their ministry and develop the incredible DTS program that I’m currently a part of, but now they are ready to start ship ministry again! Below is the ship coming into dry dock and after it had been repainted. Soon it will be known as the M/V Pacific Hope!!

As this new ship gets underway, our DTS is getting behind it during outreach to help get the new ship ministry off the ground. The Justice, Medical, and Worship schools are all going to the Philippines on outreach and will spend the first two weeks of the trip in Manila cleaning, painting, and generally sprucing up the ship. Later, we will sail down to Calapan City and drop of the Medical and Worship teams for a two week medical outreach on Mindoro Island. My justice team will return to Manila, however, and do the majority of our justice mission work there.

Another important aspect of DTS is the times of prayer and intercession that we have twice each week. During these times we generally break into small groups and pray for a certain topic (although it may be very broad). We have prayed for things like the indigenous peoples of various regions (such as Maori, Native Americans, or indigenous South Americans), blessing and protection for the land the base is on, each of the different continents, individual countries, the new Pope and the Catholic church, and quite a lot more. It’s always a really good time of hearing from God because He helps us know what is on His heart for different places and people groups even if we don’t know much about them. He also gives us passages of Scripture and prophetic words or pictures for different people or places.

Twice a week we also have our Body, Soul, Spirit (BSS) time which involves some form exercise – the leaders fortunately try and make it as fun as possible. We’ve gone boxing, done scavengers hunts all over the property (which is pretty big), played sports, and one day we even had a huge game of capture the flag (rubber chicken, actually) followed by fun with a big slip ‘N slide down the hill! Check out the video below to see how much fun we had.

The video may not play on the blog, so follow the link to YouTube if necessary.

And here are some other exciting things that have happened during this school:

We were able to buy a really nice upright piano for the base! We found it for only 350 NZD – an amazing deal for such a good quality piano! It has been really fun to play on.

Several weeks ago we had a hui – a big gathering of all the YWAMers in Tauranga. We got to have the meeting outside next to the chapel, so we had plenty of space to worship and dance even with all the students and staff from the other base in town (90 of them!). It was a particularly special meeting because John Dawson, the president of YWAM, was here to speak. We also took up an offering to raise money to buy fuel for the new ship, and God raised $10,000 in one go!

Worship dancing!

From left: Josh Cole, David Cowie, and John Dawson (some YWAM greats!)

The same week as the Hui was Valentine’s day, which meant that we as guys on the base had the opportunity to bless and honor the women here they way God honors them. To do that, the guy students planned a very nice dinner for all the girls on the evening of Valentine’s Day. All the guys dressed up and turned the lecture room into a fancy restaurant, then served the girls a five course meal. Many of the ladies had never been treated so well by men before (a deplorable fact), so it was a meaningful time for many of them. It was also an opportunity for the some of the guys to practice serving women the way they should be served and bless them without expected anything in return.

As the students were planning their dinner, we staff guys were hatching our own plans for a dinner the night before for the ladies we serve with on staff. We also came up with a very nice dinner (complete with entertainment) which was made even better by the fact that they were all totally surprised by it. They had known about the students’ dinner but were kept completely in the dark on their own dinner until they walked into the room where it was being held. I can truly say that it was a huge blessing to both the givers and the receivers!

Mmmmm... 

Lovely ladies totally worth putting on a nice dinner for!

I was also hugely blessed by my parents getting to come see me in New Zealand. I got to show them around the place where my life has been changed so much and introduce them to some of the people that have been an important part of my life here. I also got to drive up to the Coramandel Peninsula and see some beautiful parts of New Zealand with them!

Cathedral Cove, aka Narnia

Finally, I celebrated my birthday here. And it wasn't just my birthday, it was also my friend Camille's, who is from Switzerland. The other students and staff put on a great birthday for us, putting up decorations, making cake, and giving me the opportunity to say Bilbo's "111th birthday" party speech (they shouted back at all the right moments... Proudfeet!). The staff even made an amazing video for me and threw a party up at our guys' flat. It was really an excellent birthday.

Down in the valley the morning of my birthday

Then last weekend we went on an excellent day trip to some cool places in the area. Check out pictures here!

So, as you can see this has been a very fun and eventful DTS so far (and I haven't included nearly everything exciting that we've done). We've had lots of great opportunities to bless and be blessed, and we have seen God come through in incredible ways. Now I'm looking forward and expecting even more on outreach - I'm beginning to realize it's impossible to expect too much from God if you truly understand his nature and character.

He's great,

Dan

Click to enlarge