Good Morning Friends!
This is officially the last week of DTS lecture phase!! What a crazy journey! Last week, we experienced one of our students choosing to drop out of our school. He was a member of the St. Vincent team which was the smaller outreach group (4 students) which left the group bereft and confused. It was an abrupt decision based on his feelings of hopelessness and things in his life he felt unready to deal with. That was hard for us as a staff, and many of us who had been taking one on one time with him and speaking into his life felt like we had failed him. We learnt however, that God will always allow people the right to choose what they will do, and as a staff we have released this student to God, knowing that we cannot hold ourselves responsible for his choices. So that means there have been two of our students that will not go on to outreach, both from the St. Vincent team. Obviously God has been sifting our team. This team will be the first YWAM team to go into Mayreau to do ministry, and it is a groundbreaking, pioneering team. God has been taking our mission quite seriously and sifting us to make sure the team that makes this first impression on the island will be one that has gone through the fire and the purification process. Man, it hurts.
However, on the positive side: One student from the St. Croix team has been transferred into our St. Vincent team making it four students again! This student also has committed already to serving in the pioneering of the Mayreau base for TWO YEARS!!! What a blessing for Josh and Renita to be able to take on outreach one of their future staffers! I'm excited to be a part of this first team and I know John is too.
So this week, we are still trying to concretize our local outreach itinerary, thinking of and seeking God for the ministry opportunities that will most utilize our giftings and talents as a team, and bring him the most glory. We have a few ideas, such as working in an inner-city school in one of the roughests parts of Jamaica, as well as a rural primary school up in the mountains. We want to bring worship into these areas, and really impact the minds of young people who've been told "You cannot. You will never. You're nothing..." with the reality that God sees people as people, based on his image in them, not based on their address. We want them to grasp a sense of how big the world is, and how with God there is no purpose too big for them. We want to go into the malls and do spontaneous worship. There are lots of things we can do, but we are still wanting God to give us the provisions we need, as well as open the doors. We also need prayer for our safety as we are going to be going way out of our safety and comfort zones with only His protection.
You can come with us! You can read this blog and see the details of each experience and keep praying us through our outreach time. We are the hands and feet, but will you be the heart and spirit? Will you keep pumping refreshing into us through your prayers and words of encouragement? We can only do this as a team, together with you our friends and supporters. Please continue touching our lives with your kind words and prayers and "thinking of yous" they keep John and I going from week to week.
Also, our Aunt Amy comes in to visit us this week from PA! We are very excited to have her here. At the same time,be praying for our family in PA as our grandpa Gordy is going through heart surgery to fix some things that have gone out of alignment. He recently had a minor heart attack. But God used even something that could have been seen as negative be a blessing. This minor attack was what alerted the doctors to the clogged arteries so now complete restoration can take place and Grandpa Gordy should have many years left ahead of him. Please pray for success in surgery and complete recovery!
Blessings to you all!
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