Freedom's Here

The Sunset Last Night

The end of one week and the beginning of another. Its been an incredible week, for the students and for the staff. Freedom was fought for... and by this, I mean, the students opened up and shared things (prompted by the Lord) that they hadn't generally shared with anyone else before. For many, it was extremely hard being vulnerable in front of the people they still didn't totally know (and have only known for a few short months). We'd had teaching all this week about Inner Healing, according to the Plumb-line teachings. It basically teaches that we build walls around ourselves based on the experiences, traumas that we go through in our lives and what people have said to us. Based on these experiences we build walls around ourselves that are binding. By opening up to the whole group some incredible healing took place. It was an incredible experience. A lot of the staff in YWAM Urban Key have done the FCM (Foundations for Counselling Ministries, or just the Counselling School). Inner Healing is a topic that is generally taught in the Counselling School, but not in many DTS's as it isn't one of the compulsory topics of the DTS curriculum.

The London Overground

I didn't do Inner Healing on my DTS, though different people had inner healing moments as they journeyed on their different processes with God. So when I came to London to do my LMD*** I was really surprised that it was running in both the DTS and in my LMD (though the October LMD didn't do it). I remember already dealing with something when Inner Healing came up on my DTS and thus I didn't do it, like the rest of the students. However, yesterday and the day before I felt I needed to. I won't write what I shared as we'll still be here tomorrow and most of it is too private to post anyway (what happens in Inner Healing Week stays in Inner Healing Week), but it was a great experience. I'm really grateful that I did it.

Life goes on and we're looking forwards to a new week in YWAM Urban Key, London. Its the weekend and I'm in the house, on weekend work duties. It simply means that I'm staying here to keep the house clean and the people fed. Its tiring but to some degree, I enjoy it.

We're already half way into March and Easter's going to be upon us in a few weeks, as is outreach. More information on all that is going to be announced here soon, so you'll need to wait, just like us. It won't be long before we all know what's happening in that area and I'll do my best to let you good people know what's happening. However, I do want to confirm that I am going on outreach with the DTS in April and May. Its something the Lord has spoken very strongly with me over the last six weeks or so, and I'm very excited about it.

*Youth With A Mission

** Discipleship Training School.

*** School of Leadership and Ministry Development.

One Year On

A sign spring is coming

I think the last few weeks have been classified in my head as extremely busy, to say the least. Its been a rush of lectures, outreaches and work duties. So finding time, even on my days off, to sit down and intentionally write a post, has been very difficult, as my time off have usually involved going out, to find somewhere where I can be alone. To think and to process what's been happening over the last couple of months.

The October School of Leadership and Ministry Development (LMD) graduated last night, whilst the October Discipleship Training School (DTS) got their certificates on Friday night at the YWAM (Youth With A Mission)'s Friday Night Community Meeting. Its great seeing the growth in not only the DTS students (who I've barely gotten to know, sadly), but also the LMD students (who I've been working with since they arrived in October, though I didn't go on outreach with them). I'm ever so proud of the journeys that each one of them have been on, and are on now.

In a couple of weeks, we'll be leaving on outreach phase of the DTS, though more details of where we're going and what we'll be doing whilst we're away will be following soon. All YWAM Schools (save one, that I'm aware of) are broken into two distinct parts or phases, the lecture phase and the outreach phase, to graduate from a YWAM school you'll have had to do both phases. So, as the DTS lecture phase draws to an end, we're starting to look towards the outreach. For me, personally, its the most challenging and rewarding aspect of an school. I grew the most on both my LMD and DTS outreaches, but in different ways. God really used my LMD to impact and change things in me, based on what had happened during my DTS. It hurt, because God was pruning me to produce more growth in my life. So with this DTS, I'm looking forwards to seeing the growth that will happen in the lives of both the students and the other staff.

Two London Buses Outside The Tube Station

One thing that has really hit me recently is that in a few days time I'll have been in England for a year, though I didn't join YWAM London, until April 7, when I arrived at Dartmouth Road a few days before the start of my LMD. Its been an incredible journey of faith. I know there have been some huge challenges for me to over come, by coming to London, but I'm so grateful that God has put such a deep love of this city in my heart. Its great being able to work with YWAM here in this beautiful city, with such an international group of people.

I don't know how long I'll be here for, but every day I wake up and I'm just happy to have been able to finally find somewhere to call home. I haven't been able to do that since I left Uganda two and half years ago, to do my DTS. Some people have assumed that South Africa became my home when my parents moved down there with my brother, but that wasn't the case. South Africa was never my home, it was a place of transition and waiting. Its taken months for London and the house on Dartmouth Road to become my home, because I honestly had no idea what was going to happen when I finished my LMD last August, but it became clear that I needed to stay in London and work with the base here. To be honest, it also gave me the opportunity to get my teeth sorted out. Some of you might remember that I had four teeth pulled out in November 2013. Last September I had braces fitted to move the only wisdom tooth I have left and to straighten the rest out. It been an incredible gift because I haven't had to pay for the treatment, just the transport to and from the Orthodontist's clinic every six or seven weeks.

I'll try to post again over the next week or so!