October LMD: Week Two

It's Tuesday, and the beginning of another week for Youth With A Mission, London. It's also the start of of another week of lectures for both the School of Leadership and Ministry (LMD) and the Discipleship Training School (DTS), October 2014. The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy for the base and for me personally. About ten days ago, the October LMD and DTS started. That night I went straight through to Stansted Airport to catch a plane to the Netherlands. One of my closest friends, from my own DTS (two years ago) got married on October 11. It was my first Dutch wedding and I really enjoyed being there and seeing a few people from my DTS. However it was a very short visit. I was only in the Netherlands for three days (two nights). The day after I arrived back in England my sister came to visit for Tuesday and Wednesday. We had so much fun together and she's already planning her next visit to London to visit. I'm really looking forwards to her coming back.

This afternoon we have a government outreach. We've been doing quite a bit of that since the school started. The day before the LMD officially started we did a spiritual mapping day, which involved walking around London and praying for different topics as we passed that location. This week is international disarmament week, so we're going to go and stand outside parliament. It's a first for me to do this, as we didn't do this on my LMD.

Otherwise, things are going well. My parents are still in South Africa with my younger brother Caleb (who's turning sixteen in a few weeks time). They've had some issues with my parents' South African visas. The laws changed a few months back and led to a lot of problems with my dad being able to get back into the country after his visit to the Netherlands to visit my grandmother with Caleb. He had to wait until the ban that had been laid on his return to South Africa had been lifted. They're currently working with the Home Affairs Office to get the visas sorted out before we meet up for Christmas in Uganda. Hannah's still in Paris, working as a chef in a restaurant that's located in a posh train station.

Till next time

A New Season

A lot has happened since I last wrote. One of the biggest things you can probably see from the photograph on the right. Two weeks ago I had braces fitted. Some of you might remember that I had some teeth removed last November (the full story's here). One of the teeth removed was an impacted twelve year old molar, which is the second to last molar in one's mouth. The wisdom tooth behind it had surfaced a while ago, at a slight angle. The aim of braces are to straighten out my teeth, which have moved about a bit since there was nothing to prevent them from doing that (since the molars were removed) and to move the last remaining wisdom tooth into the now vacant slot of the twelve year old molar. My lower back teeth currently have brackets on them, but the wire I currently have in my mouth isn't thick enough, so none of the three twelve year old molars, and the wisdom tooth have the wires fitted, yet. That happens in November. I've finally gotten used to having braces in my mouth. It's taken a while to get over the discomfort.

Another new big change is what I'm going to be involved with, in YWAM london. I'm still going to be working with WildFire (King's Kids International), but I'm also going to be staffing the October LMD (School of Leadership and Ministry Developement). It was something I didn't quite expect but it's going to be good. There are currently about eight students from a number of different locations, who are going to be coming. Two are from the April DTS (Discipleship Training School), which my LMD were working with. We did part of our outreach with them in Islington back in the beginning of July. It's going to be a exciting season.

There are also some news items that have come up over the last few weeks. Tomorrow, two of the YWAM staff from Dartmouth Road are getting married. And whilst we're talking about marriages. A Dutch friend of mine is getting married next week. So I've booked my ticket to go and celebratie that with him. Hannah, my sister, is also coming to spend some time with me in nine days time. She arrives the day after I get back from the Netherlands.

I'm not sure when I'll next write. Hopefully it'll be soon.