Where to start. The past month has been absolutely amazing! So much has happened! The speakers have been exactly what we as staff and the students have needed to hear. It’s been so cool to see how God speaks to everyone in different ways.
After Cindy Mandrell of Project C.O.O.L in Canton Ohio spoke, we had Dan Sneed come and speak on Identity, knowing who we are in God. Identity is always a good week. I think it was definitely a God thing that it happened so early in the school, week 3. I didn’t have the Identity lecture until the 3rd to last week of my DTS. But having the students knowing who they are in God is such an important thing going forward in DTS. It helps them accept the fact that no matter what they’ve done in the past, they are loved, and accepted by God. Dan Sneed had a very interesting teaching style. He was more of a talk-about-it-with-slides-to-help-solidify-what-he’s-talking-about kind of speaker. Which I think is very cool to see that someone feels that comfortable just talking about something like that. He also told a lot of stories. Some from his childhood which affected who he was, and how he acted, and some stories which he’d heard from other people. The combination of them really helped get his point across.
After Dan Sneed, we had Marty Myer come and speak on Spiritual Warfare, which is always a heavy topic. Like I stated in my previous update, it was exactly what the students needed to hear at that moment. Marty Myer was about a month into a 9 month road trip sabbatical with his family. Making stops every once in a while to speak at a school here and there. So the week that he was with us, he had his entire family with him. It was definitely interesting having an entire family on the base, it was new for everyone. Marty was more of a in your face kind of a speaker. He didn’t go easy one bit. He told it how it was.
Then came my favorite speaker from my DTS, and from the word on the base, the favorite speaker of all the students, Jeff Pratt of YWAM Axiom in New Haven CT. He spoke on The Father Heart of God. Jeff has a very unique style of teaching. Before becoming a speaker on the DTS circuit, he used to be a film critic, so he combines his love for the two, and has a lot visuals in with his teaching. He shows a lot of movie clips from movies that one wouldn’t really think to use. Along with the movie clips, he tells a lot of stories of redeeming love. On Wednesday he had a ministry day…and it would be the understatement of the century if I said that it was an intense day. Words cannot begin to describe what exactly happened. All the students were set free from something. A lot of them were able to forgive those who had hurt them in the past. Overall it was a very good day, just so so so so intense. It was one of those days where all you want to do is drink coffee (or hot beverage of choice) and just stay in bed all day. But it was so good!!!! Needless to say, he was everything I remember he was, if not better.
Last week we were in Cincinnati Ohio for a Frontier Missions conference. For those of you who don’t know what Frontier Missions is, because it is a relatively new concept, it’s the going into closed countries and preaching the gospel, very carefully of course. But Frontier Missions can take place right in your backyard by talking with the Muslims, or Buddhists, or Hindus, etc. The conference was all day Monday, all day Tuesday, and all day Wednesday. The morning sessions for the three days were with a guy by the name of Steve Gregg who spoke on the Cost of Discipleship, and what it looks like. It was some really good teaching. In the afternoons on Monday and Wednesday we had what were called Breakout Sessions, which we could choose one of two topics to go listen to. On Monday, I went to a question and answer session with people that lived on the “front lines” people that served in closed countries for 20+ years. It was really cool to hear their experiences and stories, and just what God showed them through that time that they were there. On Wednesday, I sat in on a testimony of a lady who had served in Mauritania whose husband was killed by al Qaeda in 2009. It was awesome to hear her story and how God has been bringing her and her two children through it the last two years.
We left the F.M conference early Sunday morning to head to Harrisburg PA for the Northeast Regional YWAM Staff Conference. There are nine YWAM bases represented here right now. Some of the DTS with them, and some don’t. it’s been really fun getting to know other YWAMers from the Northeast and just hearing their experiences thus far. Please pray for us for the rest of the week, as the conference ends on Thursday night. Thanks!
Thank you again to everyone who has committed to support me financially as well as prayerfully, it is very much appreciated!!!
With the wind,
Mark
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