Relationships & Covenants

These last two weeks have been a blur as we have just finished up "Covenants of the Bible" with one of our favorite speakers Neville Strachan from Byron Bay, Australia. Neville is a regular speaker on DTS's here at the Sunshine Coast base. We were blessed to have him come in a basically look at the entire Bible through the lens of covenants that God has made with man. If you go back a ways on my blog list, I wrote about covenants before during the last school that I staffed last year.

Last week, we looked at "Relationships" with Tricia Hensser & Catrina Pennington. Both of them are wives and base staff here at the base. It was a great week of really looking at the value of all human beings and also the utmost importance of forgiving people. As we go forward in this DTS into outreach, it will be important to remember these principles. Outreach is a time when our integrity is tested.

Speaking of integrity, I was amazed when I was reading the Bible the other day, at the integrity of Jesus. The way I have come to understand integrity, is the way people act when the pressures of life are really squeezing them. A lot of us can understand integrity and even claim to have a lot of it, but the only way it can be tested is through trial. Jesus, after all He said and did and claimed to be, had His integrity truly tested during His trials and crucifixion. Being beaten, mocked, spit on, whipped half to death, abandoned by His closest friends, and stressed to the point of bleeding sweat, He responds by asking God Hid Father to forgive the people who have done this to Him. To me, that is an amazing example of integrity. He had every right, being who He actually was, to judge everyone who had done this to Him. He chose instead to love them.

So as I reflect on this, I begin to understand that outreach will be a time when the whole team is tested. Through extremely hot temperatures, food borne illnesses, sickness, annoyance with team members, lack of rest, and everything else that comes with outreach, I need to remember the example of Jesus, who endured much worse. Please pray for our team to have unity and love for each other. Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Week of Prayer

Moving right along, this school is going so fast! After finishing up with Project Affwan last week, we jumped right into Prayer week. At our base particularly, we do something special during prayer week. From Monday to Thursday we put everyone in two hour prayer slots. Since this school is about half the size of a normal DTS, we go from 12 noon to 12 midnight and keep constant prayer going. It allows the students to have a chance to practice the discipline of prayer and waiting on God. Typically prayer week always sees many transformations for people. The students have been really going strong this week and pressing into prayer. God is faithful and has been blessing our prayer times. We have prayed for: family and friends, Outreaches in India and Indonesia, the Church and Islam, & Each other (especially for the future).

I was fortunate enough to be able to teach some this week about prayer. I used the Lord's Prayer among other topics. I had help from some other staff people also who really set the tone for this week and challenged the students. I am really fortunate to have such a solid group of people around this base. Next week, we are talking about relationships so keep us in your prayers. I am so glad to have more time now to focus on other things like outreach which is coming up next month. Thank you all for your constant prayers and support. I look forward to talking to you soon.

Project Affwan

This week, the entire DTS drove down a few hours south to the Gold Coast of Australia for an outreach organized by the YWAM base called, "Project Affwan." The word "Affwan" is Arabic and means, "you're welcome." It is used in the context where someone would say "Shokran" (Thank you) and you would respond, "Affwan" (You're Welcome).

The entire week is centered on meeting Muslim Arabs who come here for a holiday before they return to their home countries for Ramadan. Once we meet them, we try and establish a relationship so that we have an opportunity to evangelize to them. Muslims have a lots of similarities in their beliefs to Christians, but there are some major and important differences between the Koran and the Bible. The very foundation of a biblical worldview is that Jesus was the Son of God and came to earth where He died for all people and was resurrected and ascended back to heaven. Muslims do not believe Jesus was God's Son. Actually, many times in the Koran they say that "Allah" or God cannot be a human being. Their understanding of Jesus being God's son is that Mary was "impregnated" by God in the human sense. They detest this idea as we do. We believe Mary conceived through the "Holy Spirit", which actually raises many other issues with Muslims. They do not believe that God or "Allah" is a triune God. They say, "Allah is one." They do not understand the concept of the trinity. So there are these gaps that we must fill among many others.

I have come to understand that it will do no good to get into a logical argument with any Muslims simply because what they have been taught, they fully believe. The only way for them to understand is to experience God's love through us. That's it. One thing I do admire about Muslims is that they are very devout and have a deep understanding of reverence. We can actually learn from each other, but we can never waver when it comes to our beliefs in who Jesus is. Thank you everyone for reading the blogs. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Please continue in prayer for the DTS.