The LMD (School of Leadership and Ministry Developement) outreach started two days ago. We moved from the house at Dartmouth Road to the house at Station Road where the DTS (Discipleship Training School) live. We're with the DTS until mid-July when they go to Germany with one of us three LMD's who moved, whilst the two of us left will head to Glasgow, Scotland with one of the staff for the King's Kids Wildfire outreach. Since we've moved, I've already been thrown out of my comfort zone, doing things that I'd normally prefer someone else to do. One thing in particular is leading a outreach preparation group on my own. The first evening here (Wednesday) we had outreach preparation, which was the DTS being spilt into three groups that were led by the three LMD students, which meant that I was leading a small preparation group. It was big and very scary. I've spoken in front of people but have always preferred someone else to step up and take charge when it comes to leading a group. Thankfully we were preparing in an area that I've had some experience in. So I wasn't thrown totally into the deep end, as it were.. I was in charge of brainstorming with two of the DTS girls to put a schedule together for a children program. I'm so grateful that we've had King's Kids because I used what we usually end up doing with the KKI (King's Kids International) preparation. We had a lot of fun thinking up some songs and bible stories as well as games to do with kids. This preparation isn't only for Germany but also for our time in Islington. We're leaving in just over a week's time (Friday 4 July). It's all very exciting. Over the last few years, I've been on two missions trips (my DTS outreach and with the Operation Mobelisation's Africa Trek team). I loved those times and I love being able to go and reach out to people with other Christians. It's incredible.
Among other things, yesterday was a day of light bulb moments. I had one during the community meeting yesterday evening, which was at Dartmouth Road (it was supper weird going back and knowing I wasn't staying the night there). One of these lightbulb moments was a revelation from God, you could say. I grew up in a small African country and I've seen what hunger and poverty do to people. I hadn't really thought about it until I read an article in the July 2014 issue of National Geographic. The article was about farming in Africa, I ended up praying about the whole small scale farming in Africa. Africa could so easily become the breadbasket of the world. Yet so much food gets shipped to Africa from the Western world. Africa has so much potential, yet sending equipment that they don't know how to use, isn't gonna help (growing up I rarely saw tractors that actually worked, they were either in the showrooms or sitting in a field, broken and rusting), they need methods that they can put into practice. So I was praying about that last night.
Keep posted for more information!