by Andrew
Early Monday morning everyone at the Herrnhut YWAM base gathered into a large tent and began the day with worship. This was the official beginning of our courses and DTS training. Now after a few days Christer, Christi, and I are starting to settle into the flow of each day. Worship and prayer in the morning, followed by group teaching, work duties, and then our art track in the afternoon.
As stated previously, this is a totally new type of discipleship training school. The DTS is the largest ever to have been done in Europe. The combination of so many different artistic mediums to work together is also another new idea for YWAM.
This week has been a spiritually and emotionally draining week for us and much of the school. We have been challenged greatly to surrender all of ourselves to Christ, all of our dreams, hopes, attachments, and selfishness. It has been a very convicting time for me as I wrestle with the ideas presented. The first speaker is speaking on Hearing God. I do not have the space to go completely into the topic, but it is a difficult topic to approach. Through the teaching God has revealed a lot about myself and areas of my life that I keep from Him.
The speaker comes from a different tradition than Christer, Christi or I do. Understanding and becoming comfortable with the ideas has been slow for me. We are very careful not to just “go with the crowd.” At the same time it is undeniable God is doing amazing work in people’s lives here. All of the leaders have been blown away at how quickly lives are changing. They give us enough time to process the teachings. I am comfortable with the teachers and leaders.
The goal of all of the teaching is intimacy with Christ. That I can completely get on board with! Knowing and being comfortable with the character of our creator. That is awesome! Whether or not we do exactly as the teacher says to do it, is less important than having a moment to moment relationship with Christ. Using His gifts, passions, and relationships for His glory. This is an exciting time of personal development and challenge as God draws us near, which is never a simple and easy process.
September 9, 2010 |
The Soma Journal |
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by Andrew
Today we got our schedule for the first week of the DTS. Looking it over we noticed that the kick off event suggested us to bring our sleeping bags. We arrived at the event a few hours early and learned how to play “Ninja.” Our goal was to hit other people’s hands to get them out of the game, but we only had one move to do it each turn. With all the mud around it is needless to say I (Andrew) got quite dirty. My initial strategy of jumping for the person farthest from me only turned out to be a complete failure. Too bad it took me three attempts to realize just how ineffective it was.
After dinner and an introduction of many of the different leaders a large German man stood up to speak. He then told the story of how the Marriage of the Arts DTS started. It was about a year ago during a DTS out reach to Ethiopia. The group decided to visit a large trash dump where they had seen kids rummaging through. What they found broke their hearts; young kids barely surviving off of the trash. Over the next while they developed relationships with the kids, sleeping where they slept and eating their food. Since then they have combining their different arts to bring in more help and funding for the ministry. Since then they have rescued a number of the kids and given them jobs. The way they intigrated their arts together to help these kids inspired them to start Marriage of the Arts DTS.
Flash forward to yesterday, we all stood an listened to this story. As they continued to talk it became clear that we were going to participate in a simulated garbage dump living situation. The staff made it clear that the exercise was completely optional, but that all of the staff would be participating with us. We all got boxes and started building a giant box city where we were going to be sleeping. The temperature had dropped quite low at this point and we were all shivering. It was quite a unique experience, luckily I had my sleeping bag to get into negating the cold factor. There were people though that did not use sleeping bags or any such comforts. For them the lesson was much deeper than for me though. It was a fun and exciting experience driving home the point that so many people live like this, even without the high tech sleeping equipment. The next morning i awoke stiff and tired but have some good memories to show for it.
September 5, 2010 |
The Soma Journal |
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by Andrew
I still didn’t believe I was going to Germany as I got on the plane. The realization that I was going to a completely new culture started to seep in during my 20 hours or traveling. I was then smacked in the face with the idea when I landed in Switzerland. When I went to China I never noticed how much of an advantage it was having basic Chinese education. But now I am surrounded by cultures and histories that I am almost completely ignorant of. I am excited to learn the history of Herrnhut and the castle that the school is run out of.
Christer, Christi, and I all showed up in Dresden within a few hours of each other and hopped onto the first train to Herrnhut. After catching up on our separate trips eating some brats we all passed out in the rooms they assigned us. I (Andrew) am in Ficsher house which is the most central of all the living quarters and one of the oldest houses in Herrnhut, while Christer and Christi are staying in the married couples pad a few blocks away. Christer and Christi showed up and quickly found out their apartment is very much a work in progress. As of right now they are sleeping on the only furniture in their apt, two twin sized mattresses that are on the floor.
Today has been filled with meeting new fellow DTSers and exploring the city. Our first task was to find and explore the castle. To get there from town we heard that we had to walk through a nearby wooded glen. But on our way there we somehow ended up on the wrong trail and had to trudge through thick wet grass full of crickets and frogs. Finally we made i to the castle. Now the term castle is a loose description of the building. This is a East German style castle, meaning there are now spires or stonewalls. there is a bridge leading to the entrance and strange doors and passageways throughout though. If it had been up to me I would have called it the palace. But it wasn’t and so we will stick with castle. The best part of our castle exploration session was finding the attic boutique. The idea is if you have something too large or unruly to travel with, just leave it at the castle for the next group of DTSers to rummage through. I got a sleeping bag, slippers and a sleeping mat without having to spend a penny! Freaking awesome! After a walk around Herrnhut and the Castle we have all come to realize how incredibly beautiful this land is and what an amazing opportunity we have been given. We are eagerly anticipating all the adventures we will soon go on and the work God will be doing in each of our lives.
September 3, 2010 |
The Soma Journal |
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