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| GOTeams 2016 |
GOFEST 2016
I honestly didn't think I'd have the opportunity to write during the GOFest... except if I stayed awake after I got home to type some stuff up... however, it's lunch break and since I'm eating later (at Herdershof), I've got some free time on my hands and thus I thought I'd bring you up to speed with what's been happening since the GOFest started on Friday.
Things are going really well. We've had some incredible speakers come and share at our celebration times on some different topics, like Hearing God's Voice, Discipleship and Identity. Most of our speakers are base staff at Youth With A Mission YWAM Heidebeek, but we have had one of the trainees from the September 2015 Discipleship Training School DTS and two of the Titus Project trainees from the same time (Titus is the outreach phase of the School of Biblical Studies SBS); one of whom is staff with the Biblical Studies Centre. We've had some incredible times of worship, with an incredible band.
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| Lianne, Carl, me and Bas |
THE VOLUNTEERS
Its been a huge blessing that we've had the large number of volunteers that we do this year. They have been helping us with running the GOFest, and without them it would have been a lot more stressful and busy than it is now. They've been more practically involved by helping the teams with the work duties and making sure things are set up and working the way they should. If something needs doing then the volunteers are the ones who end up helping us. Having the volunteers here has made it easier for the office team (Carl, Bas, myself and for the moment, Lianne). Lianne's the one who's been supervising the volunteers and making sure they've got things to do... and that things get delegated to them. We've had a lot of fun, even though we've been busy... the jokes have been helping us laugh despite the business of running a youth camp with so many young people (I think we've got about sixty or so people with us; most of whom are sleeping on the Heidebeek grounds). Maartje, Bas's wife, has been in and out as well.
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| Bas Speaking on the Theme of this GOFest |
MY EXPERIENCE OF THE GOFEST
Even with the long, busy days (there's almost always something that needs doing, errands that need running, or photocopies made) and the late nights, I'm still enjoying the GOFest. Usually I've been up quite early and not home until about the time when the sun sets (about 10pm). In a way, it reminds me a lot of NewDay (the NewFrontiers youth conference that's held once a year in Norwich, Norfolk, in the UK), though on a much smaller scale... though NewDay only runs afternoon mission trips into the local area instead of having two and a half week outreaches straight afterward the conference. I'm so glad I went to NewDay those three times. God did so much in my life over that time (I should write another post or two sometime about what happened at NewDay).
The last few weeks has been a little crazy for me as I've been seeing friends on the weekends and helping with the preparations for the GOFest, and I'm leaving for South Africa in a few days time (this time last week I hadn't even got my suitcase out to start packing). Thankfully that's almost done. I've still got some things to sort out and put away... but I feel more at peace in my head about leaving than I was a few days ago.
TEAM DEPARTURES
In terms of when the teams are leaving, we've got a team departing this afternoon. We had an outside youth group join us for the GOFest and they live today (they're going to Slovakia). Tomorrow we've got another two teams flying out and the Faith Experience are still in the process of working through where exactly they're going and when they leave. I'm not sure of all the details but it'll be announced at tonight's celebration meeting, I think.
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| Dick Brouwer Speaking on Hearing God's Voice |
AFTER THE TEAMS LEAVE
Once the teams leave, we're going to spent tomorrow (Tuesday) cleaning up, moving back upstairs, and dismantling the set up in the Europe Classroom, where the celebrations are taking place. Then on Wednesday I think is free, if everything's finished on time. Whatever happens on Wednesday, I'll be packing... and going to Epe to do some the last minute errands and loading my travel card (I'm heading to the airport with Holland's public transport system; it'll be interesting to see how it works).
The four teams that the GOTeams department are sending out will be coming back at the base on either August 8 or 9 after their outreaches (I'm not going to post where they're going because one of the countries has a no evangelism policy and we don't have them to get into trouble). The only team that won't be debriefing with is is the team going to Slovakia, however I'm looking forwards to hearing what the stories the other teams will have!
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