It Has Started!!

Greetings from the beautiful city of London!

The School of Leadership and Ministry Development had officially begun! The school induction evening was last week Thursday, and the lessons started on Friday morning. It's really amazing being here again and being part of a YWAM base again. This house is so different from the YWAM base I was part of in the Netherlands. The school is very small. Currently there's only five of us, from four different countries (or seven given that I could represent three). However, there are two girls who are supposed to be coming. One girl, from United States of America, is arriving next week, and no one knows what's happening to the other girl, who's from Kenya, as she hasn't gotten back to the emails the staff have sent her.

The group is made up, currently, of three girls and two guys. The three girls are Alina, from Germany; Malissa, from Ecuador; and me, and the guys are Joel and Ezequel, who are both from Argentina. The staff are all from the Americas, or England. It's a very international group, which is nice, but a big change from my DTS, where the main body of the students and staff were Dutch. As the LDM as progressed into its fourth day, we've had a lot of fun together already.

Friday morning was made up of lectures. Then after that, we got a tour of both the house and London city centre, which was a lot of fun. We also found out what our work duties are, well, for the next two weeks, then it changes to something else. So by the end of the lecture phase we should have rotated through the entire house. I'm on kitchen clean up, which isn't too bad, and at least I'm not doing it on my own.

Then on Saturday, we had six little kids running around for several hours, from King's Kings, through out the morning and into the afternoon. It was intense and exhausting as having looking after kids involves a lot of energy, even when there's a number of adults about. It will take some getting used to, well, having to use a lot of energy with those dear little kids. Then in the evening we went to the park and had a flour bomb fight, which was a huge amount of fun. I've never had a flour fight before, but now the clothes I was wearing is covered with flour, and I had it in my hair. We're going to be going to the park on a weekly basis to do things with the teenagers who're there, to play games and have fun with them.

Yesterday I went to church with Alina, which was really nice. I'll be going again with her next week. In the evening a number of us met a stuff member from one of the other houses at this pub. The aim of meeting at the pub was to have a place where non-Christians can come without feeling condemned by the church for what they've done. It's a place where they can come to ask questions about Christianity. Alina had gone to meet someone near there, so we'd left early. I ended up doing something I don't usually do, buy a pair of shoes because the ankle boots I was wearing had given me some really sore feet. So I got a nice pair of flat boots for a good price (considering that boots can be VERY expensive). I'm not usually the type of person who'd randomly go out and buy boots or clothes unless I really need them, like I did with these boots. Hopefully they'll last a while before they totally fall apart.

The photographs: the April 2014 LDM (this photo was taken by Amy Lucas), Ezequel, Alina, Melissa, me and Joel; Alina and Melissa, preparing for the King's Kids; the material we used for the King's Kids, and me after the flour bomb wars.

I'll write again soon. So watch this space!