Update From The Flatlands

Greetings, readers!

I've been meaning to post something for a couple of days now but this week has been a bit hectic, in terms of business. We've had inductive bible studies, a trip to Amsterdam and lectures on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, all in the space of a five day work week (I should probably say, lecture week). We also had the Love Feast on Friday night, which was a lot of fun.

On Monday and Tuesday, Nestor (one of the School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP school leaders) taught on inductive bible study based on School of Biblical Studies SBS material. The school leaders taught the SBS for years in West Africa, before they came to the Netherlands.

Then on Wednesday we went to Amsterdam to spend the morning with the Tabernacle of the Nations, which is a Youth With A Mission YWAM Amsterdam ministry. We spent two hours with them before heading on to another YWAM Amsterdam building to use their prayer room for a few hours, before we headed back to Licht In Duister LID (we did head to the Dam Square for some of the students to take a few photos). It was an intense day, as the Tabernacle is located in Amsterdam's famous Red Light District. So we had to walk past some of the famous glass doors (under red strip lights). If you aren't aware of these windows, there are prostitutes standing... and working behind these doors.

For the lectures on Thursday and Friday we had a guest speaker from Belgium, Wim Kok. He spoke on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was extremely interesting as he shared about on different ways the Holy Spirit can work. He shared about stories of healings that he'd been a part of and showed us practically how to share the gospel with people, using signs, wonders and miracles. It was exciting.

Outside the classroom we had the normal every day activities. One of the things that we have outside of class are work duties twice a week. We have smaller amount of work duties hours than the Classic & Football Discipleship Training School DTS, but we're still apart of helping keep this base clean and running.

More news should becoming soon...

The Cross

This week's been crazy busy. We've had some awesome lectures, which I can't begin to write down. My mind is still processing everything, even after a very quiet weekend.

The lectures and schedule for the School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP aren't as crazy busy as the Discipleship Training School DTS schedule is, but its more intense because of the material we're learning. It goes to a whole new level in intensity than the DTS does and it needs time to process, to sift through mentally. I guess that even with the extra time the lecture material still takes ages sinking in. That's why I'm so grateful for two full days off to sleep, rest and process (with the help of writing a journal that will be given to my mentor on Mondays; this helps with my processing and accountability during this school). This last week we've had lectures from Corrie Oosterhuis on The Cross. As Christians, the cross is a large aspect of our faith. Jesus gave his life on the cross so that we can have a relationship with God the Father. Because of the cross, and what Jesus did there, we can go to the father. He's our beacon through the mist and the fog.

One thing I really enjoy is biking to the base each morning. I took the picture on the right early this week when I was making my way through the cold. Yes, the weather has started dropping, but thankfully we haven't had any rain since the school started. We've had one morning when it was drizzling a little but nothing worth complaining about.

Its also been incredible being back at Youth With A Mission YWAM Heidebeek. Its incredible being with people I knew from when I did my DTS here. The DTS leaders did their DTS with me and there are some of the staff on base who were on staff three years ago, when I arrived to do my DTS.