Week 1:June 16th we started our introduction week. These first three days we did team building games and get to know you games to help build community and familiarity among our group and the staff. We also had times about sharing what brought us to the DTS and where we were in our relationship with God. All of it together really helped bring the group into a pretty good level of comfort. As far as students, there are four single guys, 5 single girls, and one married couple with their daughter. Even better is that one other guy and I are the only native English speakers among the students. The staff is also more balanced towards SEAsian people, with only 2 whiteys in it. So that is even more awesome.
Week 2:
Orientation. About as exciting as it sounds, but necessary. Also had fun going out on the Thursday to see different ministries around the Area.
Week 3:
First week of actual stuff. The week's focus was the Father Heart of God. A man from New Zealand came and spoke. His name is Kieth Wagener. It was a great week, and God really moved in all of our lives. Basically it was a study of how God loves us, and what it means when we say God is our father.
Out side of the Lecture part, each day Mon - Fri we wake up at 6:00 and do exercises at 6:15. Lecture is basically 10-1, and then we do various other things to finish up around 8:30 pm most nights, sometimes later. On Friday we finish at 6pm, after we eat dinner. Through the week we do different things like, sports, outreach, book reports, worship, intercession, preparation for our big outreach (which right now means learning a dance), learn about YWAM's foundational values, Journal, Memory verses, quiet times, bible study techniques, small groups, and church. That's most of what we do each week.
Week 4:All the other stuff, lecture time this week was about the Authority of the Bible. The speaker was Eleen Hartzler who is originally from Canada, but now lives in the Northern part of the Chiang Rai Provence. She taught on what the bible is here for, the scope of years that it covers. But her over all point was the questions that the bible answers about God and His relationship with us, and our Conditions vs. Position as children of God. So really good stuff. (plus she let me copy her collection of U2 CD's, she gets a few bonus points for that for sure)
Week 5:
This past week, a guy came who is originally from Colorado, but has been living in the Philippines for the past 15 years, Dustin Campell. He came and talked about Hearing God's Voice. About the different ways God speaks to us each day, how we can get better at actually hearing and paying attention to God's voice, as well as the things in our lives that will keep us from hearing. It was pretty powerful stuff. And he brings it boldly saying what God has put in his heart to share. He doesn't make any bones about it. It was good stuff.
We have one more week of class this next week, then we leave for our first outreach at which time I will have to have the first half of my tuition paid. So far everything has been great. SOOO much information, but the staff is really good at giving us times to sit back and process what we have been learning, what's going on in our heads, and what God is saying to us. This has been so far above what I could have expected, and I am stoked for the next few months.Every Tuesday we are going to a local university to work with the students, and my group and I think we have found a place that we can go to consistently and minister. Please be praying for opportunities for us to meet and share our lives with the students. The idea we got was a place for the students to come to as a shelter and a break, so pray for us to be faithful to God's vision for what we are doing.
Prayer requests:
~ Energy: we go hard and there is a lot of info given each day. It's fun, but it's taxing ~
~ Tuition: I am still about $1,200 hundred dollars short ~
~ Relationships: with fellow DTSers, staff, and people we encounter ~
~ That God will continue drawing me closer and teaching me about Him ~
~ Tuesday outreach at Chiang Rai Ratchapat University ~
~ Our two week outreach that starts next week ~
~ That God would continue to move in mighty ways among us ~
Love you all. Remember that if you need to get a hold of me, zacwhertvine@gmail.com is the best way to reach me. See you in a month!
zac
