DTS Gathering

I realize that it's been awhile since you last heard from me and I just want to say that life here has been a little crazy. I've still been attending lectures and learning tons about the Father Heart of God this past week. We had a lecturer from Scotland this past week, Richard Mayers, who spoke on God as a Father. We delved into mostly matters of the heart and where we've had past hurts, sins, defining moments that have shaped the way that we respond to God. We had some very broken people who were really able to just sit in the presence of God and relax in Him. I think that it's been a time of my heart growing with God and really seeing that I have a heart of compassion for people who are lost, broken-hearted, and in need of healing.

The week before, from October 29th- November 4th, we were at a DTS gathering in Harpenden, England. All of the current DTS students from England and Ireland gathered at the YWAM base in Harpenden for a week of teaching and learning how to better evangelize. We had a great time and definitely had fun getting to know people from different DTS'. We were all happy though to return back to Carlisle. We had some amazing speakers, Daniel Shannon from Kona, Hawaii; Stuart Lees from London; and Lynn Green, who's part of the national committee for YWAM. Daniel Shannon is only about 24 and God is doing amazing things in his life and he shared about doing evangelism. It was so exciting to hear what God is doing when people make themselves available to God. When we have an air of expectancy that God is going to move and do work, then we are so much more available to him actually working. We went into Luton, Bury Park, which is the predominately Muslim area of town to do evangelism on Thursday. It was incredibly difficult because we hadn't established relationships with the people there. Suzie and I talked to a woman from Bangladesh, Shepa, in a store and just got to really show that we cared about her. We didn't evangelize directly, but I think that we were able to minister to her heart. Bury Park is in such a state of spiritual bondage, so we spent the remaining two hours walking around and praying for the area. It was crazy.

I think that at this point in time, God is really calling me to draw closer to Him. That He's really been saying that in the future it's just going to be me and Him together, so I really need to put my trust in Him completely. I really feel that He's calling me to work with unreached people and that I just need to be in complete obedience to Him. After listening to Gina Fadley, one of the speakers this week, talk on the School of Foreign Missions with YWAM, I'm not sure about the next step, but it'll probably involve much more time overseas. Obviously I'll be praying about it and waiting on God, but it's basically 3 months of training and 2 years doing outreach. They do church planting in China and missions all over the place.

I'm also reading Loren Cunningham's book on faith and finances. It's been so eye-opening and has really convicted me on trusting God with everything.