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| The view from my room |
Things have been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks, thus the reason why I haven't written anything here. So here's a post with some highlights from the last few weeks... I'll try to write more regularly because it'll be nice for all of you to know what I've been up to over here in the Netherlands.
The School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP has just finished week six, which is the half way mark for this three month school. Just to clarify (and before you ask), we don't have an outreach phase at the end of the lecture phase, like the Discipleship Training School DTS do. However, we have mini-outreaches throughout the school's lecture phase. Our first mini-outreach was to Amsterdam a few weeks ago (to read about that click here).
One of the things that I'd like to share with you happened during the last week of October, when, as a school, we had the Father Heart of God. Its a subject that I've heard so many times before, and to be totally honest, after having this topic on my DTS, I kinda stopped listening. I've had a good relationship with my father and even though we've gone through our fights, I'm still close to my papa (I still don't call him 'dad'). So last week, I kinda thought oh, okay, here we go. However, there were things that were shared by our teacher that really broke through for me.
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| The sunrise just the other day |
One of these things is receiving God's love, I knew God loved me but it was stick in my head. When they say the longest mile is between the head and the heart, it's true. I knew God loves me, but with my head. Not totally with my heart. Last week, it sank into my heart. The truth that God loves me the way I am now, not the person I'm going to be tomorrow or in a week's time (or further into the future), was one of those light bulb moments. My parents always told me God loves me, but it took the Holy Spirit to actually hammer it home. So I spent a good deal of time over most of last week actually processing that. Sometimes, it takes a while for things to actually sink into our hearts because we're so used to thinking in a particular pattern. It's not an easy process.
We also the national gathering for YWAM Nederland last weekend. It was an opportunity for the two YWAM bases to come together and share the goodness of God. Its a time of testimonies and encouragement (and a football game or two). Its something that only happens once a year and this year Heidebeek was hosting. So we had YWAM Amsterdam grace us with their presence. It's the second national YWAM conference I've been to as I went to YWAM gathering for England and Wales in June 2014 (during my School of Leadership and Ministry Development LMD; for more on that click here).
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| At the Heather Fields with Anne Ruth |
When YWAM Amsterdam arrived I knew that a certain young lady would be coming. This young lady is good friend of mine. So I was very happy to spend a few hours with her. We talked about life, our experiences and the future. God really blessed me with bringing her along that day, and making a way for us to hang out. She's on staff with Amsterdam after completing her DTS there earlier this year. We talked and prayed for each other, whilst enjoying the lovely weather and the heather fields (which are no longer in bloom due to the change in season, but it was still beautiful).
Now, one think I really like about Youth With A Mission
YWAM Heidedeek is the fact that we're right in the middle of nature.
The main base is situated on the edge of this beautiful forest (one of
the last natural forests in this country, or so I heard). The student
accommodation (from all the schools) live in the next village over from
Heidebeek, which is good fifteen minute bike through this beautiful
forest. I've really been enjoying the biking, since we've had such
lovely weather (we've had barely no rain since the school started!),
which has meant that forest is truly beautiful, with all the autumn
colours and the leaves changing from different shades of green to a
whole multitude of different reds and oranges.