So, in the answer to what is next in my life…
I will be here, in Newmarket, with the family for the next few months, but I have started the application process and I anticipate heading out to Montana in January to complete a Discipleship Training School through Youth With A Mission (DTS through YWAM). I’m excited and looking forward to continuing to learn and grow with missions in mind.
The way a DTS is set up is that there are three months of training and learning more about the “Character and Nature of God, Worldview, Prayer and Intercession, Hearing God’s Voice, Relationships, Bible Study, Spirit-led Evangelism, World Missions, and Identity in Christ”. It will be an explanation and further study of what I experienced while on the World Race. After the three-month “learning” phase there is a two-month “Outreach” phase which could take place anywhere in the world.
Now to answer this question right off the bat, I am not looking to do this to add more stamps to my passport. I am not doing this because I am struggling with fitting into life here in North America (although at times I am). I am burdened for my culture. God has called me to missions and ministry to my own people. In what way, I am not entirely certain, I only know what God has revealed so far.
I, of course, have no idea of what is to come. After almost a year of an “adventure in missions” God has grown me, stretched me, and molded me in ways that could have only happened through His Grace and Divine timing…although some of the things that I learned or experienced on the Race do not seem to apply as easily to the people waiting at the checkout line, or behind me in traffic. (I for one am trying to avoid driving like I’ve witnessed all over the world…I choose life 
.) It’s not impossible, but at times it seems improbable the kind of evangelism and outreach that we did on the Race. Unlike in the DR, I am unlikely to walk up to someone’s house, just because they have lawn chairs out, and sit down and share my testimony. Again, not to say that that isn’t possible, but here it isn’t probable. With the burden for my culture, for my people, for North America…I desire greater knowledge of Him, practical application of things learned, outreach here in North America.
Frankly, I have no idea where our outreach phase will take us to. There are teams who have stayed stateside or gone to various places in Canada or Mexico. I am in some ways putting the cart before the horse, because I haven’t finished my application or been accepted. But I wanted to let my supporters, my blog readers, my family, my prayer team, etc….what is coming next.
It has been hard keeping this to myself, but I wanted to make sure that my family (nuclear) had peace about me leaving home again. It’s about 5 months away but I wanted to allow people to be praying that I continue to hear God’s voice and call, that my family feels a peace about this next step, that I am able to raise the $6200 required to go, and that despite the quick turnaround in coming home and leaving again…that I continue to follow God’s plan regardless of the way the timing seems to me and those around me.
First and foremost in my life, I want to love God, and love others. I want to honor God and bring Him glory. Right now, this step makes the most sense, mostly because two months ago I never even would have considered it. God has a way of putting things on our hearts that until we are ready for them, our hearts are hardened to them. While on the Race I said at various times that I wouldn’t even consider a DTS because I’d been gone for so long from home that I didn’t want to leave again, why would I want to leave for 5 more months, 2 of which might be in a completely different culture and country!?! I had said to a few people that I would do a DTS if it didn’t require the Outreach part…at least not somewhere far away. I’d done the traveling, I’d done the cross-cultural experience and God wasn’t calling me anywhere I’d been!
I came home, moved, got settled, but then I got anxious…maybe even a little depressed…I realized that I wasn’t listening to what God was saying, that the people who had suggested a DTS had my interests in mind, that they DO hear the voice of the Lord, and that I wasn’t listening. It’s so easy to come home and so badly want to do all of things that you missed, see all of the people you haven’t seen in a year, talk to people on the phone, eat cereal and milk…etc and I stopped listening to what God was saying, and focused only on what I thought I wanted or needed. I realized the emptiness of self-indulgence. I was overstimulated by all that was going on around me, but there are no excuses. Luckily, or should I say providentially, by the second week after we moved, I found a young women’s Bible study to get plugged into. God’s timing of course…we’re doing a study on Daniel, and his life in the overindulged and overstimulated culture of Babylon. The choices that he and three other Hebrew young men made in the face of adversity and a friendly captivity…the kind of things I was and am currently struggling with. Meeting with these young women, reading this part of the Bible, well, it sparked some conversations, it allowed for God to speak to me.
“Turn to Me and trust in My Timing.”
Around the same time we were learning about how Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were praying to know the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and its interpretation, I was asking God to show me what is next in my life, where to go from here…and in Daniel 2, only Daniel hears from God. The four of them are praying, but it is only Daniel who hears…so the emphasis is one the other three trusting Daniel’s relationship with God enough to trust that he has been given the divine insight to prevent their deaths. Now, I am not being threatened with death…but I had to consciously admit that I trusted someone and her ability to hear God’s voice in order to trust that this was the right next step. I share all of this to say that this isn’t a whim, this has been heavily contemplated and I continue to pray for guidance and trust in God to provide for and direct me.
I welcome you to pray with me. Thank you for your continued love and support. God bless.
