Blog 12: September DTS Lecture & Outreach Phase
This is a summary of the months between September, 2024 & January 2024. In this update I will talk about how the September DTS is going, what we did in lecture phase & outreach phase and lastly how has it impacted the students and myself.
MARCH 2025
THANK YOU:
Hi all!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to write to you all again. Thank you so, so much for all your prayers and support towards my team and me. And I want to reiterate I truly mean it; this season, though tough, stressful, and busy for me, has still been full of joy. I want to apologise because this update is long overdue. I am sorry if this conveyed a lack of appreciation towards your support towards me. I truly am incredibly grateful for all of you, your prayers, and your financial support for me. During this DTS season, I tried writing this update numerous times but found it hard during this busy season full of new responsibilities.
After writing this, I plan to intentionally plan how I can give more consistent updates in the future so that this long of a gap doesn't happen again.
Once again, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to continue serving God in this. Your prayers & support the last 6 months have enabled me to lead this current September DTS well. You will be pleased to know that you have enabled me to disciple/lead a school consisting of 24 students, including a family of 5 and a staff team of 4 others.
My desire and prayer with this update is to share/write how you, God & I were able to impact their lives. So I hope you enjoy reading this update.
My Prayer for us:
“Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us reading this update fixate our eyes on the eternal things and the things that are truly important to you. Lord, I pray that you would help us to see the impact of what was sown in this season. And Lord, I ask that you would allow us to share in your joy and expectation for what was sown in this season. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. ”
When writing this update, I wanted us to consider the eternal impact of what happened the last 6 months during this discipleship training school. So I would love it if you would take a short moment to pray and ask God for His perspective/thoughts on the impact of this year's discipleship training school. My desire is that with God’s perspective, you are able to read this update with so much joy and anticipation for the fruit that has come and is to come from the seeds planted in this season. This is because God has genuinely accomplished so much these last 6 months, and I just want you to also share in the same joy & excitement He has shared with me.
OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS:
Lecture Phase
Outreach Phase
Testimonies & Impact
Whats Next?
Prayer Requests
A Typical Worship Night on Base
LECTURE PHASE:
Meet the School:
I want to begin by introducing you to the amazing students that my team and I have had the privilege to know and disciple this year. Our school had a total of 24 students from 7 different nations. They were incredibly teachable and wonderful to lead.
(Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, USA)
What Happened During Lecture Phase:
Lecture Weeks:
During the lecture phase, we focused on a different topic each week, and the weeks are arranged in a way that we spend the beginning portion focused on the idea of seeing God rightly and then the later half on the idea of seeing God’s instructions for our lives rightly. This includes God’s command to love God and go make disciples. The weeks are structured like this because I really believe in order to hold God’s commands & teachings with reverence and awe, we first need to see God with reverence & awe. We also need to see God as a relational God who desires holiness, righteousness, and intimacy with us.
Below I want to share a little about what was taught/done during each of these weeks to help us to have a better understanding of how we were impacted during our time in the lecture phase.
Topics for Weeks One to Five: During this half of lecture phase we focused on seeing God rightly.
Jesus - Starting with Jesus, we unpacked who Jesus was, with an emphasis on what He did for us. The main point this week was this: “Jesus, through the cross, has made us clean!!" Meaning we can come to the Father & experience intimacy with God right now. This was the beginning of freedom from a performance mentality for many of our students. We spent time leading them away from this wrong belief that before they could approach God, they needed to clean themselves up; they needed to do a bunch of “good” deeds before they could come to the Father to receive His love or be connected with God. We emphasised this truth of “you are loved & connected already”; therefore, live like it.
Character & Nature of God/Hearing God’s Voice - Next we explored God’s character & nature with an emphasis on the fact that God is a relational God that longs for relationship and intimacy with His creation. Then, continuing with this emphasis on God’s heart for relationship, we talked about hearing God’s voice. This week our students grew in their understanding of how great God’s love & pursuit is towards them. They also grew in their understanding that God is a communicator and that God doesn’t only listen to prayers but also wants to speak to them.
Intimacy with God - Next we talked about the importance of being rooted in God's word and the importance of spiritual disciplines like worship, prayer, and meditation on God's word. During this week, one of the elders on our base spoke on how we can always continue to grow in relationship with God and warned us about what kills growth & intimacy with God. Our desire is that they feel more equipped to live a lifestyle of intimacy with Jesus and their growth will not be surface level but permanent.
Father Heart of God - During this week we talked about God the Father with an emphasis on what having Him as our Father means for us. We also took time to acknowledge that our earthly fathers were not perfect and shared the idea that we often can have a wrong view of God because of things our earthly fathers did. This week was a beautiful time of vulnerability and healing for many of the students, with many students taking steps to forgive their earthly fathers or even reconnect with them.
Holy Spirit - Next we talked about another part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. We spent the week exploring who the Holy Spirit is, what His role is in the Trinity, and how we engage with the Holy Spirit. During this week our school grew in their understanding of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and fruits of the Spirit. For many, their home churches didn’t talk much about these things, so much of it was new to them. We also talked about the importance of prophecy for building up the church, practiced how to prophesy, and discussed what not to do/say when prophesying.
Kingdom Identity & Access - During this next week, we talked about many different topics, all surrounding the theme of our identity in Christ and what this actually means for us. During this week, we discussed many identity-shaping things, and our school became more aware of healthy or unhealthy places we put our identity in. During this week we also discussed the idea that we can potentially idolise giftings/talents/encounters with the Holy Spirit over a relationship with God. It's this idea that if we are not careful, we can love the fruits of our relationship with God more than God Himself. This was a essential warning/reminder for our school.
Photo Intermission: Pause from reading and enjoy some photos during lecture phase.
Photos from Welcome Night and the Other Schools:
Random Fun Moments with the Students:
Topics for Weeks Six to Eleven: During this later half of the lecture phase, we continued to learn more about God but transitioned into focusing on seeing God’s commands rightly. Specifically, God’s great commandments & the great commission.
Biblical Worldview - Rather than the typical Biblical Worldview lecture where we learn about other religions and how they compare to Christianity, this week focused on how to see this world from God’s perspective and what is our responsibility as believers. Our speaker regularly invited our school to see each country as another room in God’s house and to see ourselves as stewards of this earth. As a school, we were also taught to not idolise the roles of being a pastor/speaker/missionary because we need believers to influence all spheres of society. During this week our speaker also invited us to ask God what cause/issue does God wants us to fix/heal with Him. As a result, we regularly did exercises where we took time to listen to what breaks God’s heart and think of solutions with Him. This week we emphasised that prayer in response to God’s heartache is important, but so is our active action & response.
Evangelism - During this week we focused on helping our school improve their evangelism skills. Our speaker gave practical tips on how to approach strangers, how to share the gospel in different contexts and varying time constraints, and how to do it with/in reliance on God. During this week we also discussed the tissue box analogy. This comes from the idea that many of us do not know what to say when approaching someone, and because of this unknown, we are often too scared to try to approach someone. Using a tissue box, our speaker encouraged us to just try, explaining that sometimes we need to just speak and rely on God to give us the words in the moment and the idea that as we speak, the next words will come out, just like how in a tissue box. In a tissue box, you won’t necessarily see the next tissue until you pull out the top one. During this week we also did three whole days of evangelism, during which we saw people coming to the Lord, healings, and our school grow in their confidence to evangelise.
Outreach Preparation/Simulation - This was an enjoyable and essential week for our school. It was hands-on because our base worked together to simulate an outreach experience for our school. We had people in our base act and set up different scenarios so that we could see and disciple our school in their responses. We simulated the following scenarios: going through airport security and passport control in another nation, participating in children's ministry activities, eating unusual dishes at a host's house, engaging in street evangelism despite exhaustion, spending the night on the floor of a church, leading a church service, and facilitating a spontaneous Bible study. After this week our school felt so much more prepared and excited for the real outreach experience.
Fear of the Lord - Unfortunately, I was quite sick for this week, so I do not have many notes or comments from this week, but looking back at our school reviews, it was one of our school favourites. During this week our students grew in their understanding of a concept: what exactly is the fear of the Lord and what does it look like to live a life led by this reverence & awe of the Lord? In this week we discussed the idea of laying down privileges & preferences when following the Lord and that our walk with God will require sacrifice & surrender from us.
Missions/Radical Love - The last week we explored the life of Jesus & Paul in the New Testament to have a greater understanding of what it looks to live a lifestyle missions and what it looks like to radically obey Jesus’ great commandments to love God and to love others. We discussed all that Paul gave up in order to see the great commission obeyed in his life. We also spoke about the unreached people groups in the world and the growing church in these unreached areas. During this week our school grew in excitement to see the unreached reached and grew in their desire to also love the people in the nations they will be going to. [Mexico, Philippines & Brazil].
I understand that was quite lengthy, so I want to thank you for taking the time to read it if you did. I invite you to pause and think about how exciting it is that 17 & 18-year-olds are investing months of their lives to know God deeper and getting excited to respond to the call over their lives.
Impact On the Students:
Our lecture phase was quite special. We experienced so much of God’s goodness in this season, with so much unity, joy, and healing in the school. When we asked our students to share their overall experience of the lecture phase, many of the students answered that they would love to do it again and would highly recommend it to others. During our lecture phase, we saw the students grow so much in their relationship with the Lord. Many came in not believing in miracles, not knowing they could hear God’s voice, and struggling to believe God’s love toward them. By the end of the lecture phase, many of them were so sure of miracles such as healing that they were so excited to go pray for strangers during our evangelism times and whilst on outreach. Our school was finished with the lecture phase, so much more confident that they could hear God’s voice, and finished with a greater sensitivity & awareness of God’s love towards them.
Already at this time many of our students had made the decision to come back to do other second-level Bible schools where they would either spend three or nine months studying the Bible, including all the historical context behind each book in the Bible.
Another amazing testimony is that we also had many baptisms during our school this year. As you look at the photos below, take time to ask God to share with you the joy He experienced when watching these moments.
- BAPTISMS -
Moises’ Baptism:
Rachel’s Baptism:
Leonie’s Baptism
Outreach Location Reveal:
This year we had the privilege to send teams to the Philippines, Mexico & Brazil. Below is the video we used to reveal the outreach locations to our school and their reactions. It is so exciting to see their excitement to go make God known in the nations.
This Year’s Outreach Reveal Video
Outreach Reveal Reactions
Outreach Phase:
Meet the Outreach Team:
I want to begin by introducing you to Team Philippines!!!
Top Row: Elias (USA), Warren (USA), Sanne (Netherlands), Simon (Germany), Laura (Germany), Tina (Germany).
Bottom Row: Renee (New Zealand/Australia), Lobke (Netherlands), Dineke (Netherlands), Me (Philippines/Canada), Olivia (USA).
What We Did on Outreach:
MANILA:
Manila was our first location, and we spent a total of two weeks there. While in Manila, we worked with the YWAM Ships staff team to do ministry with a local church called Shekinah Church, an orphanage, and a jail. When we weren’t partnering with a specific ministry, we also did street evangelism and handed out bibles.
This was our team's first exposure to how people lived in the slums. They had the opportunity to complain about how it was not enjoyable to do ministry there. But instead of complaining, our team was filled with so much compassion for the people living in the slums that we regularly visited them, took time to build relationships with them, and went to church with them. I was incredibly proud of our team. They regularly chose to have compassion on strangers. They also made the decision to no longer complain because they realised how privileged they were in their own home countries. Saying this is one thing, but doing it is a lot harder. To my amazement, no matter the tough or uncomfortable conditions, our team never complained.
During our time in Manila, our team learnt to choose compassion and gratitude and grew in their commitment to love and help those in need.
- Photos from our time in Manila -
BATAC:
Our second location was Batac, the town I was born in. We spent a total of two weeks in Batac doing street evangelism and working with the church my uncle attends. During this time we stayed at my aunt's house and got the opportunity to regularly share God’s love with my extended family and my aunt's co-workers. We also got to visit the place where my dad grew up, pray for the students at a local school, and help a pioneering church with funds to build new walls and replace their roof.
During this time our students grew in their understanding of what it means to live a lifestyle of missions as we made evangelism times less scheduled and more spontaneous. It was initially difficult for our team to get into the mindset of evangelism without a schedule, but by the end of our outreach, all our students expressed how they want to continue living this lifestyle out. In our school we teach that the missional lifestyle is a lifestyle of always being interruptible to God’s love for those around us. It is a lifestyle in which we regularly ask God the question, “Is there someone around me now that needs to be encouraged or reminded of your love?” while they go grocery shopping, go to the gym, or while at work/school.
- Photos from our time in Batac -
LAOAG:
Our third location was Laoag, just one hour north of my hometown, Batac. We spent a total of two weeks partnering with a pioneering YWAM base. While here, we did ministry with several churches, visited the local prison, and led several kids ministries & women's Bible studies. We also regularly did street evangelism during our time in Laoag.
During this time our students became more convinced of the impact and power of evangelism as we regularly met people who were so open to hearing more about God. We got to see many healings and also led people to the Lord during our time in Laoag. It was also the location where our students got to lead more ministries, so they grew a lot in their ability to preach/teach and facilitate Bible study times.
- Photos from our time in Laoag -
CEBU:
Cebu was our last location, and we spent a total of four weeks in this location. YWAM Cebu pioneered the base in Laoag. Therefore, much of our ministry in Cebu was similar to our last location in Laoag. Almost every day we did street evangelism or led a kids ministry/mother's Bible study. Once or twice a week we would go visit a local prison. During our time here, we saw a lot of growth in our students as they became bolder to approach strangers on the street and bolder in how they shared their faith.
Also during this time we regularly taught on the topic of hearing God’s voice and helped many people learn how to hear & recognise God’s voice more. It was our team's favourite location, and by the end of our time in this location, many people in our team expressed their desire to continue doing missions in their lives, whether that’s actually going out to other countries or going back to their own countries to help/lead ministries similar to the ones they led on outreach.
- Photos from our time in Cebu -
Overview of Impact:
During our time on outreach, our team spent a total of 35 days doing street evangelism, led 12 church services, led 20 kids ministries/services, led 5 prison services, did ministry in 2 orphanages, preached in public transportation 3 times, visited 6 courses, preached 30 times, gave 34 testimonies, and presented 28 skits.
During outreach we saw 14 people get healed, 34 people make the decision to follow and accept Jesus, prayed for 600+ people, distributed 100+ Bibles, and baptised Dineke.
These are other fun random stats during our time on outreach. As a team, we had so much fun together and had 56 different inside jokes that we kept saying on repeat. Drank 22.5 litres of sweat, which was our team's favourite electrolyte drink. Sanne was called 20 different names because her name was apparently hard to pronounce. I forgot that my student was allergic to mangos and offered it to him 12 times. And lastly, we got sunburnt every day.
Dineke’s Baptism:
Graduation:
This year we had the privilege to graduate 24 amazing students. This was genuinely an amazing school, which I grew so close to. It was sad to see them leave, but thankfully many of them are returning to our base to staff or do a second-level school or pioneer new ministries.
Overall, our school grew so much in their knowledge of the Lord and their identity in Christ. Those that aren’t returning to do missions with YWAM are continuing to do so in their own home countries. I am incredibly proud of how they are pursuing participation in their local church communities, seeking opportunities to serve, and willing to lead youth & young adult groups. They have really learnt how to live a lifestyle of missions.
I want to say thank you for giving me the privilege and opportunity to lead this school. It was an absolute joy to see so many young people fall more in love with God and fall more in love with those whom God loves. I have seen their love for studying God’s word, passion in worship, zeal for prayer, and compassion for the unreached grow so much. I really do believe that many of these students will continue to make a huge impact wherever they go and will continue to lead people to the Lord. Thank you for taking the time to sow into their lives with me; I am truly grateful.
So please enjoy the graduation photos below. When looking at these photos, I encourage you to pause with God, then listen to what He is saying about this school. My desire is for you to see them from God's perspective so that you can also share in the joy He was experiencing at their graduation.
Graduation Photos:
Whats Next?:
Over the coming months, I plan to continue learning Dutch so that I can pass my mandatory Dutch exams later this June. I will also be preparing/planning the upcoming school. This includes doing interviews, preparing content, planning speakers, and training my staff team.
This year we will be receiving four new staff from previous schools and some from other bases. It will be exciting to get to know them and grow our unity as a team.
Lastly, I will be visiting Canada in July after my exams; therefore, I hope to see and connect with you while I am there. I plan to be in Canada for around a month and I am so excited to see you all.
Prayer Requests:
I want to thank you so much for taking the time to read about what I have been doing the last few months. I know it was a lot to read and look at, but I hope that you were encouraged by the testimonies and learnt more about what I am doing here at YWAM Amsterdam. I am excited to continue pursuing the Lord and continue helping others deepen their relationship with God. This upcoming season will also be busy for me, so I would love it if you could join me in prayer for the following points. Thank you in advance for taking the time to pray over me and our school.
Prayer Points:
Pray for God’s wisdom on how to plan the next Discipleship Training School.
Pray for health over my staff team and I.
Pray for greater unity within my staff team.
Pray that our team would continue to fall more in love with God and grow in our fear/reverence of God.
Pray for favour to learn Dutch & pass my Dutch exams. [These exams are required by the Dutch government.]
Pray for a greater love for the upcoming students.
An Old Video of our Prayer Points While on Outreach:
I meant to share this earlier but got busy with the practical of leading the outreach and the school. But I thought it was too funny to not share.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING, READING & PRAYING!!!!!
I also look forward to seeing you all in July and some proper rest these coming weeks hahaha.
This is a funny photo that my team took of my sleeping on the ride back from Ministry.
Blog 11: September DTS Preparation & Training
This is a summary of the months between June & September. In this update I will talk about what I have been doing in this season of preparation and what I have been learning during this time.
SEPTEMBER 2024
Someone said a really funny joke, sadly I don't remember it. But I thought this picture would summarise well how I am feeling. I am having such a joyful season with the Lord as I prepare & train myself and others for this new season of school leading the September DTS.
THANK YOU:
Hi All!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to write to you all again. I always begin these updates saying something like “thank you so so much for all your prayers and support towards my team and I”. And want to re-iterate I truly mean it, this season though full of joy has been a tough, stressful and busy for me. I think it has been the busiest season I have ever had so far since leaving for missions. I am so grateful for you all, your prayers prayers and your support for me because it has been so needed and a huge blessing in this time.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to continuing serving God in this way. By God’s grace during this time of preparation I have received so much wisdom in planning/preapring this upcoming September Discipleship Training school and wisdom in how to prepare/lead the students during this 6 month journey of DTS. I have also seen God do so much refining work in my & my team during our staff training times. Thank you for supporting me and enabling me to follow God, disciple others and experience this grace.
My desire and prayer with this update is to share/write about my new role to help us be more aware of what you all have been enabling me to do while here in Amsterdam. Unlike the last update this update has more personal testimonies rather than testimonies of what God has done in the lives of our students. This is because this last season was more focused on preparation & training for the upcoming school so there isn’t as much tangible fruit like in the seasons when the DTS is running or when we are on outreach. Also in this update I plan to touch on the fact that “God is a God who hears our prayers and responds”. Love you all, I hope you enjoy watching the videos and enjoy the read.
My Prayer for You:
“Heavenly Father, thank you that you are with us. Thank you that you are a God who hears our prayers and responds. I pray Lord that through this update you would help all of us reading grow in our faith to fully believe that you are a God who hears and a God who responds. Thank you, that our prayers are not heard by deaf ears. Help us to trust that you will speak at the right time. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen”
When writing this update I had an impression that there were some of us feeling unsure and thinking to themselves “Does God really here me?” “If He does, why hase’t He responded”. I want to let you know your not alone, I had many moments where I was tempted to believe this. But when praying and asking God for help to have greater faith in this area & asking Him to lead me out of temptation He led me to this beautiful place where I could only say “Lord I don’t understand but I trust You, who else can I trust like You. So God I give You permission to lead and do what You want to do.” My prayer is that God meets you as your read/listen to this update and that He would help you to have faith like how He has helped me.
- Cliff
OVERVIEW:
Preparing for the Next September DTS
Testimonies
Whats Next?
Prayer Requests
Preparing for the DTS:
What do I actually do, like what does it mean to school lead a DTS?
I want to begin by explaining a little bit more about my new role here at YWAM Amsterdam to give context for what I have been doing since my last update. So I hope you enjoy this video.
Big picture: As the school leader of the September DTS my primary responsibility is that the discipleship training school runs and it runs well.
Within this big picture there are many roles and responsibilities that come under that. Without going into too much detail of what I do, I can separate my main roles & responsibilities into the following categories.
My Personal Relationship with God
Staff Training & Recruiting
Student Interviews
School Structure (link to the DTS curriculum: https://ywamdtsreframe.com)
School Finances
MEET MY STAFF TEAM:
This season I have the privilege of discipling the following four staff members. They are amazing friends of mine and I would love if you would be joining me in prayer for them in this season. I would love if you could pray for them that they would grow more into the person that God has created them to be and that God would give me the wisdom to lead/disciple them well. Below I have included picture of person on my staff team and a brief introduction written by each of them.
MOISÈS SILVA
Hey, my name is Moisés and I’m 21 years old. I’m originally from Brazil but I grew up in Portugal. Some things that I love to do: I love sports, good food, watching movies, hanging out with friends, worshipping the Lord, etc. I’m also very passionate about preaching, doing evangelism, and discipling young people to love and live radically for Jesus!!
OLIVIA FERRIELL
Olivia is from Kentucky, USA. She did her DTS here in Amsterdam in 2022 and joined our staff team soon after. She loves getting to help show others who God is and the depth of intimacy they can have in their relationship with Him. She is very adventurous and loves to play spikeball, climb, hike, and chill with friends. She is always down to get a scoop of ice cream!
LISANNE TIGELAAR
I was born and raised in Dordrecht, a city in the Netherlands. Before I joined YWAM, I studied and worked in disabled care. I did this with much love and feel like taking care of people is a passion God has given me! In my free time I love to bake, go for a run/walk, go shopping or have some good conversations with my friends! I am so excited and honored to join the DTS staff team, and see everything God will do and continue to build God's kingdom!
CALEB CHAVEZ
I’m 18 years old. I am Mexican, I was born in a beautiful beach city called Puerto Vallarta. I am passionate to share the gospel with others, to see people coming to Christ, receiving His love and growing in their relationship with Him. I dream off a world full of people following The Lord, and living like Him. A world full of people worshiping God day and night. I dream off every tongue, nation, tribe and person to know who Jesus is and have Him as Lord. One of my dreams is that the bible gets to be translated to every tongue, language and dialect. And as a good Mexican, I love authentic tacos.
Testimonies:
In this section I want to take some time to share some testimonies of God hearing & responding to my prayers, my worries and using me to respond to the prayers of those around me. My heart and desire with sharing these testimonies is to encourage all of us that God hears us and that God is responding in ways that we might not be aware of yet.
Whats Next?:
Starting September 18th, my staff team and I will be fully involved in the September DTS. We will have a total of 24 students and we will begin a 6 month journey of discipleship, knowing God and making God known in the nations. Along side us will be three other schools with similar numbers or more students. This means that there will be in total making it a total of roughly 120 on base in this new season pursuing growing in their relationship with God, studying the word of God and growing in thier ability to share the Gospel.
Prayer Requests:
I want to thank you so much for taking the time to watch the videos and read about what I have been doing the last few months. I hope that you were encouraged by the testimonies and learnt more about what I am doing here at YWAM Amsterdam. I want to end this update with some prayer requests so if you like to continue prayerfully supporting me that would be greatly appreciated.
Prayer Points:
Pray that God would give my staff team and I wisdom & knowledge to lead this upcoming September DTS well.
Pray that we as a staff team would be able to hear God’s voice clearly on how to disciple/lead within the school.
Pray that God would keep all of us safe during our school and especially on outreach.
Pray that I would be able to learn dutch and speak it well.
Pray that God would continue to give me His love for my students & staff so that I can respond in grace, compassion & patience.
Pray that I would continue falling more in love with God every day and grow in my ability to love more like Him.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING, READING & PRAYING!!!!!
Our school started on September the 18th and I look forward to all the testimonies and lessons I will be able to share in the next update!!
Please keep my team in your prayers and stay tune for more updates!
Blog 10: DTS Outreach Phase & Graduations
MAY 2024
THANK YOU:
Hi All!!! It is so exciting to write to you all again. Once again I want to say thank you so so much for all your prayers and support towards my team and I. I am so grateful for how you have encouraged me in this past season of outreach and in this new season of preparation for the upcoming discipleship training school. Truly, it is a blessing to have friends & family like you all. I have so much gratitude towards your generosity, your prayers and your curiosity towards what God is doing in the nations, it is something that I often thank God for.
Once again I want to express my gratefulness for the opportunity you have given me to continuing serving God in this way. By God’s grace during my time in Mexico I got to see many people impacted by the Love of Christ, people give thier lives to Jesus and God miraculously heal others. Also by God’s grace I got to witness the growth & transformation of our students, myself and in those who we ministered too. Thank you for supporting me and enabling me to follow God and experience this grace.
My hope and prayer with this update is that as I begin to share/write about what God has taught me and the testimonies He has allowed us to be a part of this season, it will give you a better understanding as to what I am able to disciple our students into. The reason why I take the effort to talk about what I have learnt and not just share what I have done is because I want to invite you into my life and invite you into what the Lord is enabling me to lead/disciple our students into. The lessons that I share on these updates is a summarized version of what the Lord has been inviting me to teach and see multiplied in the students that God has allowed us to steward.
Another thing that has shaped this update is this; When writing this update I felt in prayer that it was really important for me to be asking God to expand our ability to comprehend about just how much God loves communing with us. God is excited to spend our days with us and excited make His love for us known & known to those around us.
When I was praying an image that kept reoccurring when thinking about God’s excitement towards us is a common one from our childhood. I want us to take a moment to think back to what Christmas or our Birthday’s were like when we were younger. Pause and imagine the excitement & expectation of running towards the presents that lay under the Christmas tree. Or think back towards the anticipation & curiosity we had towards our present as we tried to guess what was in it moments before opening it. Remember emotions of shaking it and feeling the weight of it as you try to guess what it could be.
I want to introduce you to a thought; because I believe that God loves us so much that the same excited emotion that a kid has or that we had when we were kids running towards the Christmas tree on Christmas morning is the same excited emotion God has towards us and the idea of spending the day with us. The same expectancy & joy we had when opening the presents we have been waiting all year to get is the same expectancy & joy God has towards being with us. I want you to know that at all times God loves you so much and that He is so excited & filled with joy when He thinks about getting to spend a day with you. God wants to be with us & love us far more than we can think or imagine. My prayer over all of us is that the excitement and joy that God already has towards spending the day with us becomes so much evident and easy to see. Even if you feel distant, even if you have walked away or feel like you have neglected God, His pursuit towards you never changes. He is always excited to be with you. He loves you right now.
- Prayer -
Heavenly Father, thank you for the love & excitement that you already have towards us. Thank you for how you have loved us in the past and how you are gonna continue faithfully loving us. Lord I pray for your favour over all us, that we would be so sensitive towards the love that you already have towards us. Holy Spirit please help us to be so convinced that we are loved, pursued, wanted and valued sons & daughters of God. Father I ask for this favour & blessing upon us, In Jesus name. Amen.
“This is the prayer that I am praying over all of you who are reading this and the prayer that is inspiring how I will continue to write this update. I also encourage you to make this prayer your own, personalize it and pray it over yourself. It is a prayer that has grown my gratitude towards God and awareness of His love towards me. Love you all and I am praying for your all.”
- Cliff
OVERVIEW:
Outreach In Mexico - Final Moments & Lessons
Graduation
Preparing for the Next September DTS
Prayer Requests
Lessons, Testimonies & Life in Mexico:
Lessons from Mexico:
Since my last update my team and I got to witness God do many miracles and often see God lead our team to the right people, at the right time (which is what I like to call divine appointments). By God’s grace we were able to participate and witness all these things happening. If you have followed my WhatsApp group chat during my time in Mexico you may recognize some of these testimonies/stories. I have countless stories to tell of God’s faithfulness but in prayer I felt to share a story below and the lesson God taught me through it for the sake of stirring up our excitement to continue loving people even when it may be out of our comfort zone or difficult. I also plan to share more about what outreach was like, what we ate, what ministries we did and who we met through some photos
Something that I see when reading through the gospel of John specially John 15:5 & 15:9-12 shown below is that intimacy & growth with the Lord is not only found in participating in spiritual disciplines like reading our bibles, fasting, prayer, silence/solitude, confession, etc. All these things are good and I believe many of us would agree that they are great habits to adopt into our lives but something that God has been emphasizing to me in scripture and also felt to invite us to think about as we read these testimonies is also the fruit of simply loving others. It is this special way of abiding in God and a special type intimacy that takes place when we love others in the same way Jesus loved us. I am encouraged because I know many of you reading this make loving others a regular practice in your lives, so my heart is simply to excite us toward the idea that practicing Christ-like love will bear fruit and will lead us into deeper levels of intimacy with the Lord. My hope is that this excitement gives us hope to keep on going & keep persevering because I recognize loving people like Christ isn’t always easy or convenient.
John 15:5 - “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:9-12 - “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that may joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Henry:
I want to begin with a story many of you would have been aware of, since it was one of the first and more notable stories I shared on our WhatsApp group chat. It’s a story from the beginning of our outreach which involved a man who felt very distant/unseen by God. I will be honest and admit I do not remember his name exactly but for the sake of this testimony lets call him Henry. We first ran into Henry while we were at a park in downtown Guadalajara, Mexico. Despite there being nothing out of the ordinary about him I couldn’t help but notice him. Have you every walked by a person and for some reason, despite there being nothing out of the ordinary about this person, you can’t help but notice this person? That was Henry for me.
While we were walking to the park Henry came into my focus and now being in missions for a while I felt this oh so familiar nudging. It was not this forceful nudge but this gentle nudge where I can imagine the Lord saying something like “Hey, this is someone I care about. Would you be willing to let him know I love him?”. It was this gentle voice saying “look, I love that person will you love him for me?”. Have you ever had a moment like that? Have you ever had thought to yourself “why do I feel like I need to talk to that person?”.
I have had this feeling several times but I confess I haven’t always listened to these nudging or impressions. But what helped me to obey in this moment is that I voiced this feeling or nudging from the Lord to my friends with me and thankfully thier response was like “okay lets go talk to him then”. So we did approach him. As I approached him I noticed he had a limp so I took the chance, stopped him and just asked him how he was doing. I also asked why he was limping. While he was epxlaing himself I felt the Lord download in me His love for this stranger.
In response to this love I simply just reminded Henry that he was seen, loved and wanted by God. My word’s weren’t anything special but I knew God was moving because through this simple sentence Henry began to cry and explain to me how he was recently telling God that he had felt distant from God’s love. Prior to our interaction Henry was asking God questions like, do you still see me? do you still love me? do you still want me? And through this simple act of obedience his prayers were answered. It was an amazing conversation and we finished the conversation both more in love with the Lord and more excited to listen to God and love God. When I finished this conversation and walked some distance away I felt the Lord saying to me “Cliff in the same way I love that man, I love you. And in the same way I heard Henry’s prayers, I hear your prayers Cliff” in this moment it so easily became heart knowledge because I felt & experienced it too, I felt God’s love for this complete stranger which allowed me to better grasp/understand how much God loved me. My greatest revelations of how loved I am by God came from testimonies like these. It is testimonies like this that convince me that I am loved by God. I get more convinced as I go out and allow myself to be used to share God’s love.
I choose to share this story because I really believe that what the Lord did for me in this moment is what the Lord wants to do for us. I believe that the Lord wants to fully convince us that we are loved, pursued and desired by Him. And in prayer I felt to point towards the concept that the key to discovering just how loved, pursued and desired you are by God is gonna be found in these gentle invitations from God to share His love with others. They are found in outward demonstrations of God’s love (Remember: John 15:5 & 15:9-12). But I recognize that approaching strangers isn’t the easiest thing for everyone to do. It isn't the easiest for me either, but this is why I want to share what I often tell myself when I start to feel fear or to scared to approach a stranger.
I tell myself that the Lord doesn’t speak in the language of fear, God doesn’t stop us from doing things by causing us to become fearful of them, rather He says NO or teaches to not do something/gives us wisdom to stop. I believe if God doesn’t want me to do something He has the power to say no and the ability to give me wisdom that will stop me. This thought process that has helped me push past the fear as I tell myself this; “Because the Lord doesn’t speak in the language of fear, then this must not be God. Maybe its the the enemy. If the enemy is wanting me to be afraid, then he knows it will bear fruit”. This thought process has convinced me to obey God’s desire to make others feel loved so many times. I invite you the next time you are scared when you see an opportunity to be used by God to share His love with others, ask God where does does this fear come from. I believe that God loves loving others through us, His sons & daughters. And I believe God wants to use you so that you can have a better understand of just how much He already loves, pursues and values you. I invite us all to accept His invitations to love those around us.
Life in Mexico:
Now I want to take another approach at updating you of my time in Mexico. For each one of these pictures I wrote a brief description about the picture explaining the context behind it, you should be able to see it at the top of each photo. I hope you enjoy reading more about each photo and get a better idea of what the outreach experience is like. If you have any specific questions about outreach please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Graduation:
The September DTS of 2023/2024 has officially graduated! Below I have included some pictures of our time celebrating their graduation and a picture of each graduate with short update on what they will be doing next. Many of them have graduated with a greater zeal to see the great commission fulfilled and many of them have actually decided to step back into missions either by volunteering at our base or by doing another second level bible school with the aim of staffing full time. I want to say thank you for enabling me to invest into their lives and helping me to make disciples of all nations. God’s kingdom is growing and more disciples are being made. Thank you for entrusting me with your finances and prayers so that I could continue serving God in this way. I hope the joy/celebration on our students faces brings you join as well. Thank you for not only investing in me but also the lives of my friends.
GRADUATION NIGHT:
MEET THE GRADUATES:
Whats Next?:
CHECK OUT THIS QUICK VIDEO TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHATS NEXT!!!
Prayer Requests:
That is the end of this update. Once again I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read this update. I pray and hope you enjoyed it and that you were encouraged by it. Thank you so much for supporting me and enabling me to serve the Lord in this way. I look forward to what testimonies and lessons I will get to share with you in the next update. I want to end this update with some prayer request so you would like to keep prayerfully supporting me I would greatly appreciate it. You can check out some of the prayer points below. Thank you.
Prayer Points:
Pray that God would disciple me and my staff team to be able to lead this upcoming September DTS well.
Pray that we would be able to hear God’s voice clearly on how to plan this school.
Pray that God would send the right students and staff to join our school.
Pray that I would be able to learn dutch and speak it well.
Pray that God would share with us His love for our future students so that we can love them well.
Pray I would continue falling more in love with God and continue growing in my ability to love more like Him.
THANK YOU FOR READING & PRAYING!!!!!
I am so grateful for your all, thank you :)
Blog 9: September DTS Lecture Phase
LECTURE PHASE
JANUARY 2024
THANK YOU:
I want to begin by saying thank you so much for supporting me and enabling me to serve God in this way. I am so grateful for the privilege to have such amazing friends and a church family that believes in what God is doing in my life and trusts me to steward their prayers and finances for God’s kingdom. Something that I have so much gratitude for is the love that I get to come home to every time I come to Canada. It makes me really miss home and you all.
I have so much gratitude towards God because I know that it was God that allowed me to meet you all and have you be a part of my life. I really appreciate how you desire to read about what I am doing, how I am feeling and what I am learning. Thank you for praying for me, texting me and reading my updates. My heart and hope with this update is to thank you well, bless you with testimonies of what we (meaning us or you & me) have done with God and invite you into a deeper revelation of this gift that God has given us as I share about what God has taught me and allowed me to help others grow in as well.
On school related note, something that has been a big theme in this school and in my life since my last update has been this theme of gratitude and a deeper revelation of the gift that is a relationship with our Creator. With in the school it has been described as “a gift that demands a response”. The aspect of this gift that I have been exploring more is the gift of having the Holy Spirit as our helper.
In our school several of our students have expressed to how the school has transformed the way they see and approach God. My reasoning with talking about what I have learnt and how it has changed how I see/approach God is to help you have understanding of what kind of freedom or transformation is typical in our schools. I hope you enjoy and my prayer is that God speaks to you through it.
Hi all and welcome back:
In the last four months my wonderful friends/staff team and I have had the privilege of being a part of the transformational journey of our 22 students. In this new school and new role as an assistant school leader the Lord also taught me so many new things and has led me to step out in new ways. I am very excited to share with us all what God has done and taught in this season.
Since my last update I stepped into a new role of assistant school leading, finished eleven weeks of lectures in Amsterdam and spent roughly six weeks in Mexico leading an outreach team. Before I continue with this update, I would love to share with us what God had been putting on my heart to share when praying for each one of you and this update.
When praying about this update I was reminded of Psalms 139, specifically verses 13 to 18. I really believe that the Lord is inviting us to be practiced at receiving and becoming more aware of His love towards us. When we love someone, it often brings us great joy to make them feel loved, valued and understood. I believe that it is no different with God, I believe that it brings God joy to watch us receive His love. I want to encourage us all and remind us all that the Lord delights in loving us and making us feel loved, so lets take a moment to pray and ask God to help us be more aware of the love He already has towards us.
After praying I invite us to read and let God speak through this section of Psalms 139 below. When praying I felt God highlighting verses 17 and 18 to us today. In these verses it teaches us that number of thoughts that God has towards us outnumber the grains of sand on this earth. What is amazing is that because God is Holy and can’t sin, these thoughts towards us/about us come from a place of pure love and affection. I believe that the Lord is wanting us to practice hearing these thoughts He has about us because He values us and we shouldn’t have a thought about ourselves that God doesn’t also have about us.
I also want to excite us at the fruit of practicing this daily and praying daily “God help me to be more aware of your love towards me”. I really believe that it will lead us into greater levels of gratitude, help us to see ourselves more from the truest perspective (His perspective) and allow us to love people better. This is because I believe it becomes so much easier to love from a place of being fully loved. This is what it has done for me and I hope that in doing this you would experience this fruit too.
Psalms 139:13-18 (ESV)
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
My Friends/The September DTS Staff Team
OVERVIEW:
My time in the September DTS
Testimonies
Outreach - Team Mexico
Prayer Requests
September DTS - Lecture Phase:
New Season & New Role:
I know I have already said thank you but I want to say thank you again. I really am grateful for this opportunity you have given me to serve God in this way. During this new season of DTS my understanding of what was given to us by Jesus’s death and resurrection has grown so much. And because of it I have had the privilege of growing in my ability to lead, disciple and point our students towards a deeper revelation of this gift as well. So again, thank you for giving me this opportunity to serve but also helping me to grow in my ability to serve. It has been a joy to be able to love better and disciple this new group of students better.
As mentioned above I have had the privilege of stepping into a new role of assistant school leading this DTS. In this new role I have all the usual staff responsibilities like facilitating lecture times, planning our outreaches, prepping teachings, leading groups when doing evangelism and doing one on one mentoring/discipleship with some of the students. On the left I have included our staff schedule to give us a better overview of what we do as staff during our DTS lecture phase. If you have any questions or are curious about any part of our schedule please let me know and I would love to explain and share more about it.
Something new that I have experienced in this new role is that I have been a part of leading the broader discipleship moments and been more involved in the many behind the scenes decisions. This has included leading/facilitating conflict resolution moments within the school, meeting with a greater scope of students, having one on one mentorship moments with other staff, deciding on which countries we will be going to, planning/budgeting next years school, etc.
The Prayer Help:
In this season I have done a lot of new things and led in new ways but something I feel to highlight was the Holy Spirit’s faithfulness to equip, teach and help me in this new season of new responsibilities. In our school we talked a lot about the Holy Spirit as our Helper, (John 14:26). And during our lecture phase a speaker mentioned that by listening to someones prayers you can figure out who in the Trinity does that person interact with the most. This of course peaked my interest and I decided to pay more attention to how I pray and I realized that I didn’t interact with the Holy Spirit as much as I did with Jesus & God, the Father. I realized I rarely asked the Holy Spirt for help, which was weird because the bible teaches us that He is our helper.
In my times with God I decided to ponder, why do I interact with the Holy Spirit the least if He is the one that lives inside of me. In one lecture, the teacher said this “God doesn’t want our polished or filtered prayers, He wants our honest prayers”. In that moment a thought came into my head, and I feel it was God saying, “I enjoy being needed by you Cliff and your neediness will never push me away. I welcome your needy prayers, so please don’t filter you neediness away from your prayer life”.
This was significant to me because in this new season I needed a lot of help with the many new things I was doing. Also in this season I began to notice more and more that obedience and the calling that God has for our lives will often take us to places of deeper reliance rather than greater independence. Do you recognize this in your own life too? I recognized this too but because I didn’t interact with the Holy Spirit often enough in my prayer life I hadn’t built a habit of praying help. So I started praying help more often and began discovering the beauty and intimacy found in reliance.
Beauty & Intimacy Found in Reliance:
Through this habit The Lord taught to me that He does in fact welcome our neediness. He taught me that our desire for His help and our desire for Him to participate with us is something that He desires. He desires to participate in every aspect or part of our lives, not just when we are at our limits. This was hard for me to fully comprehend because something that I have struggled with in the past, along with our students, is this fear of coming across as too needy or this fear of being a burden to others. I knew that I had this fear to some extent when it came to other people but I didn’t realize to what extent I have also had this fear in how I relate to God. Have you ever experienced this too?
I don’t know if this is the most correct way to interpret this passage of scripture, so if you disagree with it is totally okay. But my understanding of Matthew 18:2-4 below, is that when it comes to approaching God, God desires for us approach Him as someone who recognizes his/her need and without a fear of being rejected for his/her neediness like how a child approaches his/her parents whom he/she knows is good.
But In this season I felt the Father saying to me “Cliff I love being needed by you. When you declare your desire or need for me, it makes me feel so loved and wanted by you. Your want/need for My help, My love and My affirmation will never be burdensome for Me. Trust that I am a good, gracious & patient Father. I will disciple you as you express your needs and requests to Me.” When someone you are in love with, expresses their need for you in their lives doesn’t it give you this warm fuzzy feeling? I want us to remember that God is so in love with us that the Father watched His Son endure the most painfully humiliating death so that He could pay our debts, give us a gift (His Spirit) and be in a relationship with us. He died for us to give us a gift. To me that blows my mind. He loves us and because of the magnitude of His love, He is not pushed away by our neediness but draws close to us in our neediness and disciples us as we express our neediness.
Matthew 18:2-4
2 And He called a child to Himself and set him among them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you [b]change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I don’t think God was saying to me that He was promising to answer my every request or grant every desire I had, because that would be terrible. I know that I am flawed and that not all my desires are actually good for me or what’s best for me. I believe that God was just simply trying to teach me that He delights when I choose to trust/rely on Him and invite Him into more aspects of my life as I pray “Help” more often. I believe that He wanted me to know that my wants and needs are not a burden to Him. My desire for His affirmation, love and involvement in my life will not push Him away.
Because I originally had this fear of being a burden to God or a fear of being too needy with God, I came to God more often when I was at my limit or when I didn’t know what else to say/ do or when I had a big life decision to make. Do we see this in our own lives? When I think about it, I don’t think that God wants to only be involved in our lives in our moments of need. He loves us enough that He wants to be a part of our lives all the time. I recognize now that this fear caused me to miss out on more regularly experiencing God and His discipleship in the ordinary and mundane.
If you relate:
This understanding that God welcomes our neediness towards Him has led me to have so much more regular conversations with God, hear His voice clearer and experience His leadership more frequently in my life. Simple because I just invited Him into things more often and because I asked for help when I could have done it on my own. This journey of removing this fear from my life has taught me that an amazing conversation or question we can ask God is this;
“God is there a fear in my life that is limiting me from experiencing you more in the ordinary or mundane? Is there a lie that I am believing about you that is limiting you from having more of me? Holy Spirit what truth do I need to hear and learn to experience a greater level of intimacy with you.”
In the same way I have invited my students to ask God these questions, I would love to invite us to also ask God these questions.
In the beginning of this update I talked about how God delights in loving us and making us feel loved. One way we can become more aware of the love that is already available to us is by taking the time to ask the Holy Spirit if there is anything we need to hear or learn from Him to experience a greater level intimacy. If you related with me in this fear or if reading my testimony of what God did in my life made you think “do I have a fear like that?” I would encourage you to try and pray the prayer above. It blessed me a lot and it had led me to greater levels of gratitude and joy in my daily conversations with God. My hope and desire is that it would bless you too.
Thank you for taking the time read about what God has been doing in my life. Everything that I have been learning in this season is what I have been also using to impact and disciple my current students. So in the same way I have grown more aware of what has been stopping me from experiencing more of the Love that was always available to me, my students have also been stepping into a greater levels of intimacy with God and it shows in how they talk about God and their desire to continue doing missions.
Testimonies:
Baptisms:
This September DTS we had the privilege of baptizing two of our students, Noah (from Australia) who is standing to my left in the picture below & Caleb (from Mexico) in the “watch me win” shirt.
The picture below and also shown in the beginning of this update is an important picture to me because it is a testimony of the multiplication that we get to be a part of thanks to your generosity and prayers. It is a testimony of multiplication because;
I was mentored by the other Noah, standing in the middle.
Then in September 2022, I had the privilege of discipling/mentoring Moises in far right. He is an amazing friend of mine and during his time in missions God gave him a greater heart for missions and a huge desire to evangelize to the unreached. Since his DTS he has preached many times at his church and even in the streets of Amsterdam.
Now in this years September DTS, Moises and I had the privilege of discipling and mentoring Noah (from Australia) & Caleb. Both of whom are currently in Japan on their 3 month missions trip.
It gets even more exciting becuase Caleb is already thinking going into full time missions by joining our staff team next year. This means this upcoming September DTS 2024/2025, Caleb will be mentoring and discipling future missionaries also.
So once again I want to say thank you because I wouldn’t have been able to be a part of seeing this multiplication without your generosity and without your prayers. This testimony and these baptisms are thanks to you too.
Multiplication:
In addition to the above mentioned baptism, we have also seen more multiplication be confirmed and more of our current students express interest in going into full time missions.
1 student from last years January DTS has joined us as a full time staff in our worship and prayer team.
1 student from last years January DTS did a 3 month bible school with us at YWAM Amsterdam and has joined the January DTS staff team where she will also be discipling future missionaries and leading teams to share the gospel in the Middle East.
3 students from last years January DTS are confirmed and are signed up to do our 9 month bible school called the School of Biblical Studies. If you are interested in learning more about what you have helped these students desire to do take a look at this link. YWAM Amsterdam - School of Biblical Studies
3 students from this years September DTS have expressed thier desire to step into full time missions by joining our staff team. One of them, Caleb, has already sent in his application.
Several students have expressed thier desire to continue studying the bible through either of our 3 month or 9 month bible school programs. I have had the privilege of walking closely through with some of these students, one of them has already applied to the SBS.
Several of our students who already had some background in missions, some of them are kids of missionaries and have been in missions their entire lives and some of them have done other short term missions trips. These students have expressed thier desire and interest to continue in missions in what every capacity God desires for them.
This is just a little taste of the fruit/multiplication from the most recent schools I staffed and I am sure there will be more testimonies to share on our graduation day.
Outreach - Team Mexico:
Meet Team Mexico:
Our Time in Mexico:
Since my last update we have completed roughly 6 weeks in Mexico. I currently have a WhatsApp group chat where you can hear more regular updates about my time in Mexico and if you are interested you can use the link below to join.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/I5Bc5RmRM2gIZO254wkaGo
In my next update I plan to share more detailed testimonies of what God has done during our time in Mexico, so please stay tuned!!! But for the mean time what I can say is that it has been an amazing outreach so far. We have had the opportunity to evangelize to many people within the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. We also were able connected those whom we meet up with again with a local church that we regularly partnered with/attended and with the YWAM Zapopan base which hosts regular worship nights open to the public. Our heart and aim when doing outreach is to introduce people to the Gospel and get them connected with a local church/base where they can continue to be discipled even after we are gone.
Local Church: Origen La Iglesia
Local YWAM Base: YWAM Zapopan
Below you can see some pictures of our time in Mexico and some of the people we got to share the Gospel with. During our time I have watched our students grow in thier ability to preach & share the gospel in a cross cultural context, grow in their desire to see people know God, grow in their love for Jesus and grow in their boldness to make God known. I am continually surprised by our students lack of fear of man and their initiative tell strangers about Jesus. Thank you for allowing me have this opportunity to grow myself and help these students also grow in thier ability of fulfilling the great commission.
Matthew 28:19-20 New International Version (NIV)
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Prayer Requests:
That is the end of this update. Once again I just want to say thank you so much for supporting me and enabling me to serve the Lord in this way. I look forward to what testimonies I will get to share with you all at the end of our outreach to Mexico and after this September DTS graduates. If you would like to keep prayerfully supporting me I would greatly appreciate it. You can check out some of the prayer points below. Thank you.
Prayer Points:
That we would continue to see God move in Mexico and that more people would get to hear/experience the gospel.
That God would help my students and I break free from the fear of man and that our outreach team would be unified in a love for God & one another.
Prayer that God give my co-leader and I the wisdom to lead this outreach team well and into a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Prayer that God would give my outreach team and I a greater love for the Mexican people.
Prayer that we would continue to see miracles and healings here in Mexico.
Prayer that I would continue to fall more in love with God, His word and fall more in love with those whom He loves.
THANK YOU FOR READING & PRAYING!!!!! Love you all lots, thank you :)
Enjoy these Random Highlights:
Blog 8: September DTS Prep Season
PREPARATION SEASON
JULY - SEPTEMBER 2023
WELCOME AND HI AGIAN:
Meet some of my friends from Canada!!! They are the best :)
Hi Again and Welcome back!!! I am so excited for all of us to read this update about what God has been doing in this season of preparation. I am excited to share with us what I have been learning and how I have been seeing God’s faithfulness, love and leadership in my life and in the lives those around me. I pray that this update would bring us refreshment, help us to fall more in love with God and help us to find joy in bringing our Heavenly Father joy.
God is and has been teaching me so much in preparation for this new role of assistant leading a DTS and I am excited to share with you my journey of preparation and the prayer life that allowed me to peacefully follow Jesus in this journey. Since my last update I have been in Canada to connect with you all, in the UK at YWAM Harpendan and back here in Amsterdam taking part in staff training & preparation for the upcoming September DTS.
Before I go deeper, like with every update I want to begin this update with some prayers & thanksgivings. When praying over this update I was was once again reminded of Jesus’ last moment with the disciples before He gave Himself over to the cross, specifically John 14:23, where Jesus expressed a radical statement of love. It says this…
John 14:23
“23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
The key phrase I want us to focus on is when Jesus says this “we will come to him and make our home with him” or another way to read it is, within us. During a short coffee break my mentor/friend casually mentioned “Unity is a characteristic of God’s love” and he reminded me of how little I have explored this angle/side of God’s love towards us. In verse 16 of this same chapter Jesus says that He will send us the Helper or Holy Spirit. When you combine these verses together [verse 16 & 23], Jesus makes a radical statement that as we pursue Him and love Him the Trinity is desiring and willing to come into us.
I have heard it explained like this, He comes closer to us than our own skin. A thought I invite us to ponder as we read through this update and go along with our daily lives is what does God think about us, or how much does God love us, if He is willing to be that unified with us? Its a thought I have pondered several times and every time its led me to a place of worship, gratitude and weeping. Crying out God, how could you love me that much. I encourage you to let God’s love towards you overwhelm you. And that’s what I will be praying over us. I believe that God already loves us and that He really does want to be with us, its just that sometimes its hard to respond to His desire for us if we are not practiced in becoming aware of it. My desire is to pray for us to become more aware of His love towards us and more aware of His desire to spend time with us. If you would love to grow in being more aware of His love and more aware of His desire towards you, I want to invite us to pray this prayer below with me. Lets pray!
My Prayer for Us:
Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us first. Thank you for loving us enough that you would be willing to dwell inside of us. Lord, I ask that you would help us to fall more in love with you, by helping us to be more aware of the love You already have towards us. Help us to love you from a place of knowing confidently that we are loved by You. Lord I enjoy Your presence, Your company and Your voice. I ask that you would be with us and help us to be more aware of your desire to be with us. God I ask that we would fall in love with you deeper as we explore how much you want to be with us. I ask for all these things in Jesus name. Amen.
THANK YOU:
Once again I want to say thank you because I am so grateful towards everyone of you who has contributed to helping me to continue working as a missionary with YWAM Amsterdam. I am so excited to continue serving God in our Discipleship Training programs. Your generosity has helped me to apply for my visa to continue partnering with YWAM Amsterdam for the next three years. Thank you for enabling me and equipping me with the ability to continue leading people towards Jesus, growing in my own relationship with God and blessing me with the means to also be generous towards others. I will say it again in my section about coming home to Canada but I have felt so loved by you all when I visited. So thank you so much, I love you all so much and I am so so grateful for you.
OVERVIEW:
January DTS Graduations
Time in Canada
September DTS
Prayer Requests
JANUARY DTS GRADUATION:
On June 22nd I had the pleasure of graduating 10 of our amazing students from the January DTS. We had the opportunity to celebrate their graduations, hear wonderful testimonies of what God has done in thier lives in the past 6 months and said many hard goodbyes. Below are some pictures of this wonderful time. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to pour into the lives of our students.
Fruit/Multiplication:
I want to end this section on the January DTS by giving a quick recap of the fruit/multiplication we have seen in just the students. I hope that this section brings you so much joy to see how your generosity is advancing God’s kingdom and changing the lives of many young people. This is all just from one school and I haven't even mentioned or fully seen the fruit of the many other seeds that were sown for God’s kingdom as a result of the many conversations we as a school have had with people during ministry, the impact of our ministries/teachings/sermons and the impact of all our evangelism times during both lecture phase and outreach phase.
In Luke 15 verses 7 & 10 shown below Jesus teaches us that our Heavenly Father celebrates when someone repents. Repentance is not just salvation and accepting Jesus as Lord over your life but repentance is the act of turning away from sin and turning to God. From these verses Jesus teaches us that there is so much joy & celebration over every choice we make to choose Him. I personally believe that the Lord loves us enough to celebrate every time we choose Him. My prayer is that as you read about the fruit and multiplication from our school, we would experience the joy that our Heavenly Father experienced watching these 10 new graduates declare thier desire to continue pursuing Him deeper.
Luke 15:7
“7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Luke 15:10
“10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Student Updates:
1 student has joined us as a full time staff in our worship and prayer team.
1 student is continuing to do missionary work in his home country of Barbados with a missions organization called Campus Crusaders.
1 student is joining us this September for one of our second level schools, the Discipleship Bible School (DBS). The DBS is a three month bible school where participants will read the whole bible and have lectures on the historical & cultural context, literary genres and main themes of the Bible. If you are interested in learning more about what you have helped this student to desire take a look at this link. YWAM Amsterdam - Discipleship Bible School
1 student has expressed her interest in doing the DBS at a different YWAM base.
3 students have expressed their interested in committing to doing the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) or another form of . The SBS is one of our second level school and is a nine month bible school where the participants will read the bible five to six times over the course of the nine months. Similar to the DBS they will have lectures on on the historical & cultural context, literary genres and main themes of the Bible. If you are interested in learning more about what you have helped these students desire to do take a look at this link. YWAM Amsterdam - School of Biblical Studies
3 studnets have gone back to into university with a greater love for the Lord and a heart to one day step into missions again. One of them has expressed her interests in doing missions in South Korea and evangelism at her local university campus. Another one told us that she will be continuing to do house building/missionary work in Mexico with her family.
Multiplication is happening and God’s kingdom is advancing. These are not just students but now friends of mine. So thank you for playing such an important role in helping my friends become more convinced that knowing God deeper is so enjoyable and making Him known is equally great and exciting.
Graduation Day Pictures:
TIME IN CANADA:
During the summer I had the amazing opportunity to come back to Canada to connect with many of you. I am so grateful for my time back in Canada. In this time the Lord helped me to feel so loved by Him and by my friends & family, He led me to so many wonderful conversations and taught me more about His desire for unity with us and about the joy He experiences when being with us. In this section I hope to share some of these wonderful testimonies of God’s love and share some of the lessons He taught me.
A prayer that significantly impacted and shaped my time back home was this daily prayer of “Lord, how do you want me to follow you today". It is a very simple prayer that led me to so many wonderful moments and conversations. My understanding or way of following God is this; “I don’t necessarily need to have the overview or big picture plan for my life in order to follow Jesus, I just need to know what does He want me to do in the present moment”. My belief is that if every single day I seek God for wisdom on how to follow Him and fall more in love with Him for that specific day and I lovingly obey Him; I will naturally end up becoming and doing/experiencing all the things He desires & desires for me. Like with a GPS if I follow every single turn it says, I can trust that I will naturally get to my destination. The Lord’s leadership was so amazing during my time back in Canada and my hope is that as I share testimonies you too would be encouraged to trust the Lord leadership and trust that He delights to answer the prayer “Lord, how do you want me to follow you today”.
Testimonies:
My first testimony comes from my first week of being back. I was the best man at my best friends wedding. This was the first time I had the opportunity to be a best man and first time I ever wrote a best man speech. When I was initially writing this speech I was so nervous becuase I wanted to do it very well. So naturally I looked up YouTube videos of other best man speeches & read so many websites looking for tips/advice on how to write one. I spent hours doing this and still I had so much difficulty writing anything down so I quickly prayed this prayer of “Lord how do you want me to follow you into writing a best man speech”. The Lord answered and said “worship Me, thank Me and then pray for Avri & Nathan”. So I did and in the middle of worshiping God, I heard him so clearly telling me all the words to write, it was as if the Lord downloaded the entire speech to me. After the celebrations I had multiple people come up to me saying how good it was and through this I had several conversations where I got to share this testimony, talk about Hearing God’s voice and pray with others to hear God’s voice better. The main point behind this story is that, through this instance/prayer the Lord taught me how to pray in a more relational way. “Lord show me how to follow you into ____”. Do you see the small difference between Lord give me ____ vs Lord I want to follow you into ___. One is so much more relational than the other. I invite you to pray this way too and see what difference it makes in your relationship with the Lord. For me it made me so much more aware of God’s presence in the process and so much more aware that it was God who gifted me with what I desired.
My second testimony comes from my time of volunteering once again at Food for Families with City Reach/Broadway Church. When home I was really praying and asking the Lord “How do you want me to spend my time back in Canada & How do You want me to follow You Jesus in this time”. The Lord responded and asked me to spend two weeks volunteering with Food for Families, which was originally my old job before I left for missions two years ago. So I reached out and it was the most perfect timing. Unknown to me, the person who originally replaced me was stepping down from His position but at that time Food for Families hadn’t found or confirmed a replacement. All thanks to the Lord’s leadership I was able to help at the perfect time to cover some vacant shifts & also train the new staff which they eventually found. Through this the Lord once again reassured me that I can in fact hear His voice. Within these two weeks I regularly prayed “Lord help me to see the harvest from your perspective and Lord show me who do you want me to speak too.” I had the opportunity to have so many conversations about Jesus, my testimonies in missions and about the things the Lord was teaching me with many volunteers who had a heart for missions and with many volunteers who weren’t even Christian. I even got to pray one on one with some volunteers who weren’t Christian.
My last testimony is of my time fund raising. Desiring to renew my visa, I needed to fund raise and have funds for the next three years of missions. I honestly had no idea how I was gonna do it, I need to raise so much more extra money in such a short period of time. So learning from what the Lord taught me in the first week I prayed “Lord show me how to follow you into being fully supported”. The Lord never really gave me a a fundraising plan, He just asked me to daily love Him and fall in love with His word and I just obeyed. I never asked for more support, the extra support just naturally came in with friends offering to increase thier support without me even asking. I once was just getting water in the staff lounge at my church and Lori from the missions committee of my church just happened to be there and asked me to send her an email about my needs. My goal was just to get water and the Lord led me to such an amazing opportunity to be supported. I thank all of you, my friends, for supporting me because I was able to focus on falling more in love with God and prepare my heart in this time to lead my staff & students in this upcoming September DTS school, instead of being stressed out about not having enough funds. Because of your generosity I have been able to encourage so many other missionaries that the Lord does provide. With this amazing testimony of being fully supported by daily prioritizing falling more in love with God, I was able to give many others hope and many of the students I have discipled using this way of prayer have found themselves also being fully supported in thier missions journey.
So my hope in reading this section is that it inspires you to make a small change in how you pray and your heart posture when you pray by saying “Lord how can I follow you into ____”. The heart posture change is that being with the person of Jesus is prioritized over the desired outcome.
Some Highlights of My Time in Canada:
SEPTEMBER DTS - MEET THE TEAM, TRAINING & MEET THE STUDENTS:
September DTS Logo & Overview:
As most of you already know, I have made the transition from the January DTS team to the September DTS team. In this new team I have had the honour of being an assistant leader along with Laurine. As an assistant leader I get to work closely with Noah and learn more about the responsibilities of being a school leader and learn more about what it means to lead a school and a staff team. In this time of being back in Amsterdam we have had many different lectures such as Time Management, Outreach Budgeting, Vision gaining, Budgeting the DTS, YWAM Values & Intercession/Worship. I have also had the amazing opportunity to also just get to know my new team better. It has been so sweet to feel so welcomed by a new team, this new team already feels like family to me and I am so excited to lead with these wonderful people. I have included some picture below of my new staff team and some highlights from our staff training week at YWAM Harpenden in the UK.
During my time back I have also had the opportunity to be exposed to some new leadership responsibilities such as accepting students, determining speakers and determining outreach locations. As a team we have prayed narrowed down our outreach locations to four different counties. A word that we received from the Lord is “To the Ends of the Earth” so honouring this we will be sending four different missionary teams with 7-8 students each to four different countries. One in Central America, One in Africa & Two in South East Asia.
Meet the September DTS Staff Team:
Above (Left to Right): Annika from Germany, Sabrina from Switzerland, Olivia from USA, Micheal from The Netherlands, Robyn from Scotland & Moises from Brazil.
Below (Left to Right): Noah from Canada, Laurine from Germany, Me.
More Highlights from our Staff Training Week at YWAM Harpenden:
Meet the September DTS Students:
This year we have had the privilege of welcoming 50+ new students and staff to our base at YWAM Amsterdam, all furthering their training in missions & biblical studies. 23 of these new students are part of our September DTS program. We have spent one week together now and it has been a joy to already see so much growth in their passion for Jesus and evangelism. It is amazing that even in this short time I am able to already have so many testimonies of God’s faithfulness and desire to train up young people to spread the name of Jesus.
A Short Testimony:
One of my favourite testimonies from this first week comes from our time of evangelism. In our schedule evangelism is a regular thing that we do and challenge the students to take part in. It is very common that the first week is the most challenging for students, especially for students who have never done evangelism before. When we do evangelism we like to first pray together, split up into groups and then go to the city centre or local park. This time when splitting up into groups I asked who were the most nervous to do evangelism and told them they can go with me. I didn’t mean it in a prideful way, but I just know that students typically feel more at ease when they are doing it with a staff and not every student could be paired with a staff.
On the way to our location I tried my best to explain evangelism in a way that made it less stressful and light hearted. I explained to my students that ultimately it is the Lord that will pursue, love and transform those who we meet. Our focus is obedience to the Lord. I explained that we can also have confidence that because the Lord loves these people, we can trust that the Lord will send other believers, not just us, to the people we meet. So our goal with our obedience is to have us end the conversation or interaction with them going “wow that was a nice Christian, I wouldn't mind talking to more of them”.
During this time I went with two students Flo from Ukraine & Ryleigh from USA who both explained to me that they didn’t really want to do it. We went to a local park in the City of Amsterdam called Oosterpark and while walking around the park we prayed together “Lord I ask that you would highlight to us who you would want us to speak too”. We saw one woman sitting by herself by a tree and Flo felt that we should go to talk to her. Her name was Tilly and she was from Australia. Amazingly she had just landed and arrived at that park 15mins ago. I really saw that it was God who set this meeting up because we had an amazing conversation about the city, Australia (since I lived there for 3 months) and about traveling to different countries. She just graduated from Law school and was wanting to take a couple of gap years to travel. We talked about the bible school that we were doing and she had so many questions about it. She even said that if she had done something like this DTS bible school she would have probably even stayed with her church. She was very interested in this interesting school that allowed students to learn about God and travel to different nations. The conversation continued and right at the time we were supposed to connect back with the rest of our group she also had to leave so it was so perfect. We all exchanged numbers and made plans to meet up in the future. We had an amazing conversation but what exited me the most is how my two most nervous students felt afterwards. We ended this time of evangelism with these two students saying “Wow, I can’t wait to do this again. Its not actually that hard to tell people about Jesus”. This brought a huge smile to my face as it is just week one of this six month bible school. So I look forward to telling you more testimonies of thier growth.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
That is the end of this update. Once again I just want to say thank you so much for supporting me and enabling me to serve the Lord in this way. I look forward to what the Lord will continue to do in this new season with the September DTS. If you would like to prayerfully support me I would greatly appreciate it. You can check out some of the prayer points below. Thank you.
Prayer Points:
That God would be preparing the hearts of this year's September DTS students and that they would already be falling more in love with God now.
That God would help the students break free from the fear of man and that the school would be unified in a love for one another.
Prayer that God give me the wisdom to lead this staff team and these students well and into a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Prayer that I would be able to hear God’s voice so clearly so that I can really lead and disciple my team & students well.
Prayer that I would continue to fall more in love with God, His word and fall more in love praying for things that are on His Heart.
THANK YOU FOR READING & PRAYING!!!!! Love you all lots, thank you :)
Enjoy these Random Highlights:
Blog 7: God's Faithfulness in the Middle East
OUTREACH PHASE JUNE 2023
WELCOME AND HI AGIAN!!!
Hi Again and Welcome back!!! I am so excited for all of us to read this update because God is and has been doing so much here in Egypt. He has faithfully been proving Himself as a loving God who hears, sees and cares about the details. I pray that this update would bring you refreshment, help you experience God’s love in a clear way and help you to also be convinced that God see’s/understands you. God is a God of details and I hope to show that in the testimonies I plan to share.
Since my last update our team has spent two weeks in Israel having lectures and ten weeks in Egypt doing various ministries. During this time I have had the pleasure of really growing in the Fear of the Lord, especially in the area of relationships.
Like with every update I want to begin this time with some prayers & thanksgivings and share the prayers that I have been praying over this update as we read it! When praying I was reminded of Jesus’ last teachings before He gave Himself over to the cross, specifically John 15:9, where Jesus explains just how much He has loved us.
John 15:9
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love”
AS THE FATHER HAS LOVED JESUS, SO HAS HE LOVED US!!!!! WHAT!?!? To me this blows my mind!! Jesus is declaring that the same love that the Father has towards Him, is the same love that Jesus has for us. The same LOVE that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit experience is the same love that God has towards us. This trinitarian love is what is offered to us. This trinitarian love is what pursues us. This trinitarian love is what we get to abide, dwell and rest in. WOAH!!!!
My prayer for us is that we get a revelation of this trinitarian love that He has towards us and that God would also help us to have the eyes to see how He has displayed this trinitarian love towards us in our past. When writing this update, I had the sense that there are some of us reading this that feel tired or burdened and I want to encourage us that God sees you and wants to invite us to speak to Him about how to enter into this (joyous) rest found when abiding in His love. If this is your desire I want to invite you to pray this prayer below with me. Lets pray!
My Prayer for Us:
Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us first. Lord, we do not deserve the love that you have towards us. So thank you so much for how you have pursued us and loved us. Thank you for the cross and your faithfulness towards us. I pray that you would give us a revelation of just how Good of a Father you are in our current circumstances and in our past. Lord, I invite you to give us a perspective shift, whatever perspective shift that is necessary for us to be convinced that you are a Father who gives good gifts and that you are a Father who delights in our presence. Please Lord, let us see the delight you have toward us. Help us to see the delight you have towards us. Help us to abide in your love and be so sensitive towards the love you have towards us. I ask for all these things in Jesus name, amen.
THANK YOU: THE FORGOTTEN, FELT SEEN
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!!!! I am so grateful for how you have faithfully supported me both prayerfully and financially in this season of outreach. I have seen God do so much here during my time in Egypt and want to start with a testimony to give you a preview of what your support has done here in the Egypt.
While in Egypt, house visits have become a regular part of our ministry. In one particular house my team and I got to share the gospel with a refugee family from the Sudanese community. The conversation was great and we had a deep conversation about the bible as we explored books like Jeremiah, Isaiah, The Gospel of John, Ecclesiastes and Revelations. The highlight that I want to share with you is not the content we covered but what they said afterwards. When we were ending the house visit the family had expressed to us that they had never experienced having people come to teach and encourage them in the word of God before.
These were there words:
“You coming here is an answered prayer”“God sent to us a Canadian, American and an Australian to teach us and show us God’s love”“Because of this I know God hasn’t forgotten us, He sees us and that He truly does love us”
Hearing these words made me cry because I could see both the initial pain from feeling forgotten and their joy that came from feeling seen by God. Conversations like this occurred regularly as a result of your generosity. I cried so much at this particular house visit because I heard God’s voice so clearly say “whom shall I send, and who will go to the forgotten & lost?”. Partnered together we have helped God answer the prayers of so many families like this one, families who have felt forgotten, unseen and unloved. Together we have helped them to feel seen, valued and loved by God and by the church. For that I want to say thank you so so much and thank you so much for entrusting me to steward your finances in this way. I pray that as you read this update you would also experience God’s delight towards the many things you have enabled my team and I to do. Your contributions have not only made it possible for me to step out into missions but also my team. So my team and I thank you!!!.
SUDANESE HOUSE VISIT:
I got re-invited to have dinner with Ibrami and his family. This is short video from the time.
OVERVIEW:
As mentioned above, since my last update my team and I have gone to both Israel and Egypt. My co-leader and I spent two weeks in Israel and 11 weeks in Egypt leading a team of 7 students. We have had the pleasure of watching God do so much in and through our team. As leaders our heart posture is this, yes we may be the staff/leaders on this outreach team but ultimately Jesus is our outreach leader. We have seen God so faithfully prove His faithfulness to lead, speak and open doors. In this update I plan to talk about His faithfulness as I talk about the following topics
Lecture Phase In Israel
Outreach Phase In Egypt
Prayer Requests
QUESTIONS:
Before I share on the topics above, in prayer I felt to share a series of thought provoking questions that God has been unpacking with me and asking me throughout my time in Israel and Egypt. As you read through this update and as you go about your day I felt to challenge us to also ponder about these questions ourselves and see what the Lord does through it.
These are the questions; When we look at, think about and respond to those around us….
Do we think about their Heavenly Father, who calls them son or daughter?
Do we think about how powerful is the One who loves them?
Do we think about how great His love is towards them?
In summary, how does our knowledge and understanding of who God is and how great is His love influence our love towards others? Do we let it influence us? These are the questions I would often meditate on when I found it challenging to love strangers or my team. Choosing love isn’t always convenient or easy which is why I needed to do this. I needed to repeatedly think about how great is God’s love towards those I met so that I could act from a place of compassion not compulsion. I wanted to want to give genuine love, not be in a place of feeling forced to love. And when I would read through the gospels a word that would constantly stand out to me is the word “compassion”. Jesus was moved with compassion towards those He met. (Luke 7:13, Matthew 9:36, 15:32, 20:34, Mark 6:34, 8:2-3, John 11;34-38). I believe that in part, His compassion towards those He met came from His intimacy with the Father and His understanding of how much His Father loved those He met. I know that there were many other things that contributed to His compassion but this understanding of God’s love towards those who I met is often what I relied on to moved me.
LECTURE PHASE IN ISRAEL:
I so enjoyed my time in Israel and I have so much gratitude towards the Lord for how He spoke to me, made me feel loved and deepened my understanding of Him while in Israel. When reminiscing about my time in Israel I was reminded of two instances where God talked to me about His love for me and His love for others.
The Garden:
The first notable experience I had and felt led to share was at the Garden Tomb where some scholars believe that Jesus' body was laid. During this time the Lord invited me to read all four of the Gospel's accounts of Jesus’s betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection. Before and while reading I kept inviting the Lord to please speak to me and inspired by the verses Jeremiah 31:33 & Hebrews 10:16 I prayed asking for the Lord to write His law & love in my Heart.
In this time I wept, I saw my sin so clearly. I saw how undeserving I was of His love. I wept asking many times saying things like “how could you love a sinner like me?”, “why would you want to call me son?”. When He answered I cried even more. At the time He gave me a very personal answer and I also pray that He would also give you a very personal answer as to why He loves you. But I would like to summarize it like this with the hopes that you could read this as if God was speaking it to you.
“FROM: THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU MOST”
“I, your Heavenly Father, love you more than you can imagine. It will take you an eternity to fully discover the depths of my love towards you. And I am fully aware of your sin, but my love towards you will never change. I didn’t love you because of what you could do for me, I loved you because you are you. You have always been worth loving. Because you are you. I love you, sincerely the One who loves you most, your Heavenly Father.”
If you are reading this, I pray that you get to this place where you are fully convinced of this description of God. God is the one who loves you most, and when we ask He is faithful to reveal this love to us. I share this story of the Garden because I want to encourage you that He is faithful to reveal Himself and His love towards you. When praying I felt to encourage us to read through Zephaniah 3:17 and imagine God the trinity rejoicing over you with gladness.
Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
Baptisms:
In Israel we also had the opportunity to baptize two of our students, Ella (17) and Zach (20). They are two students that I have had the pleasure of walking closely with in their discipleship as they are my one on ones.
Throughout our time in Amsterdam, Israel & Egypt I watched them grow closely to the Lord, grow in their confidence regarding their identity and their voice. I also got to walk with them through their insecurities that I used to also have. Like feeling unworthy to speak, doubting their worth/value and feeling like a burden to others. If you have had these same insecurities, you probably understand/know how hard it is to feel worthy to be loved by God and others. So watching God faithfully work in and through their lives during our time together has been amazing. I have loved watching them heal and mature in their faith & identity in Christ. It has brought me so much joy to see them step out in ministries and share/preach the gospel with so much confidence. So I want to invite you into this joy. As you look through these baptism pictures, know that your prayers and generosity bore this fruit too. I pray that the Father will reveal to you His joy that He experiences when He sees His sons and daughter fall more in love with Him and deepen their relationship with Him.
BAPTISM PICTURES
The reason why I felt to share these two stories out of the many is that I believe that the Lord is inviting us to pray these two prayers.
Lord please help me to see the love that you have for me and those around me.
Lord please help me to delight in what brings you Joy. Like seeing your sons and daughters grow in intimacy with You.
Jesus teaches us in John 15:9-12 that the fruit of Christ-like love is Christ-like joy. These prayers combined with a moldable heart will lead us to experience the joy, His joy, that He desires to be in all of us. Imagine the joyous fruits we could enjoy if we were fully convinced of His love towards us & others. Imagine the joyful fruits of delighting in what brings our Father joy. This is why I felt to encourage us, let's seek to grow sensitive towards His love and joy together.
Like I said above, we did many other things in Israel. Below are some pictures from Israel and an overview of what we did in Israel:
Visit the Garden Tomb, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Golgotha, the Old City in Jerusalem & the old town of Caesarea, where the Holy Spirit first fell on the Gentiles.
Visit/meet other Missionaries with a heart to evangelize to the Jewish and Muslim believers in Israel.
Baptize two students.
Prepare for outreach to Egypt.
Have lectures on God’s Kingdom & God’s Heart for Israel & The Nations.
PICTURES FROM ISRAEL
OUTREACH PHASE IN EGYPT
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES IN EGYPT & TESTIMONIES
Going into this section about MINISTRIES a prayer I prayed was “Lord how do you want me to talk about our time in Egypt”. Many things happened in Egypt; God was faithful to answer many prayers, heal the sick, give dreams, give word of knowledge and lead us to divine appointments. God did a lot in Egypt and I can’t simply include them all. So when praying I felt to specifically focus on testimonies of God’s faithfulness towards our persistence. This is because when recalling my more notable testimonies/experiences I noticed a pattern of persistent prayer.
If we want to read an example of Jesus teaching on persistent prayer we can read the Parable of the Persistent Neighbour found in Luke 11:5-13. As we read through it, notice how Jesus ends this parable with an explanation that God is a Good Father. God isn't a neighbour who gives so that we would stop asking, instead He is a Good Father who gives to us because we are His sons & daughters. If you do decide to read it, I pray that God would speak to you and give you a revelation about the fruit of persistence for our lives and God’s desire to respond to us because of our identity in Christ.
As I talk about the fruit of persistent prayer, I don't want us to look at it like a formula where, persistent prayer = our answered desires/prayers. Rather my desire is that as we read these testimonies of God’s faithfulness towards persistence, we would grow in excitement towards persistence in our prayer lives. Yes persistent prayer hasn't always resulted in my prayer requests being answered; but persistent prayer has trained my eyes and ears to recognize how God is moving around me, to recognize how can I align my heart with God’s heart better and lastly recognize what God is doing in/through me. Although God doesn’t always answer my prayers the way I want, I find that He is always answering and persistent prayer has helped me to see how He has answered, see where my heart is in relation to His and see what God is teaching me by how He has answered.
This is my desire/hope for us that our eyes and ears would be sensitive towards God and trained to recognize Him and His answers.
So my plan for this portion is to give an overview of each ministry we got to be a part of and when led I will share a testimony from that ministry. Also when reading the explanations of the various ministries and the testimonies below, I want you to also realize that these victories are yours too. Together we have helped God to answer the prayer in Matthew 9:37-38. So before you read this update of our ministries I encourage you to pray, “Lord help me to see your joy and delight in your joy. The joy that you experienced watching these ministries happen”.
Matthew 9:37-38
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
SUDANESE COMMUNITY:
The Need in Sudan:
Many of our ministries in Egypt were with the Sudanese communities in Cairo. They have fled Sudan and South Sudan as a result of the ongoing wars in these two countries with the hopes of finding a better life in Egypt. Sadly, many of them have expressed that it has actually been worse living in Egypt. In Egypt a majority of the Egyptian families make around 3000 egyptian pounds a month, which is roughly $130 Cad. These refugees make even less and often are required to work more hours than their local Egyptian counterparts. The heart of our contact in Egypt is to equip the Sudanese communities with knowledge of God’s word, skills/opportunities to advance in society and give them hope for the future as we teach them about their identity & value. This is the vision we had the opportunity to partner with and steward. We did this through a variety of ministries listed below.
House Visits:
In the beginning of this update I had already shared a little bit about this ministry. It was a ministry we did once a week where we would visit 4-6 different families from the local Sudanese churches. Typically we would buy groceries for them and also share a short message. During these times our aim would be to build a relationship with them and cater the message to their circumstances. This ministry was one of the most fruitful ministries and we even saw a muslim family member give their lives to Jesus. We saw people's backs, knees and eyes being healed. This ministry brought has our team and the locals so much joy. I have many other stories to share from this ministry but the one that stood out is from our time visiting Doria and her Family shown below.
For context, Egypt is a closed nation. Where Egyptian law forbids public evangelism outside the walls of a church. Doria is a muslim with some of her daughters being Christian and some not.
Testimony:
Going into this house visit a prayer that I kept praying while at this house was “Lord show me how I can love this family best and how I can help them to feel so loved by you God.”
Present day Cliff: I have been praying this prayer regularly as I interact with different people and looking back this prayer has really helped me to become so sensitive to how God has been loving me and loved me in the past. Something specific is that I vividly saw the love He has displayed in His no’s and closed doors. Have you ever asked God to reveal to you His love in His past no’s or past closed doors? If you haven’t I would highly recommend it.
In my head I kept praying to the Lord saying “Lord, Lord, Lord they have to know your love, please they have too”. I persistently asked the Lord that they would feel His love. When praying I felt an overwhelming sense of love and compassion for the family so I turned to one of my students and said “Pray for me, I'm gonna be bold”. I then proceeded to share the Gospel and my testimony from an angle of “God’s transforming Love'' a love that freed us from sin and gives us the ability to live as His children. I don’t remember exactly what I shared but I remember their response; “I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT LOVE TOO”.
Full of God’s love towards them I proceeded to say something quite bold, “That this love can only be fully experienced through accepting Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior and as the Son of God. He is not a prophet.” This was something radical in their eyes and initially wanted to lead them into a prayer to accept Jesus but our local translator/contact advised against it since it was Ramadam and potentially disrespectful. Deciding to honour our local contacts' wishes and trust in the Lord's ability to continue the work He was already doing I decided to lead them into a prayer where they could experience more of God’s love.
When we visited the house again they kept telling us about how they could feel and see God’s love towards them so much clearer since our last visit. There was also a tangible shift in the atmosphere within the house and this second house visit was filled with so much more joy and they kept sharing with us testimonies of how they have been experiencing God’s love & joy in their lives since we left. I believe this is just a part of the journey they are on and that God has more for them. Below is a picture of this family, please pray that they would give their lives to Jesus and that God would send other believer to encourage/love them.
HOUSE VISIT PICTURES
(The first picture is of Doria and her four daughters)
CHURCH & VISION SEMINAR:
Another ministry we would do with the Sudanese community is take part in their Sunday services. Once a week we would share testimonies and preach a sermon at a local Sudanese church. Our team enjoyed these church services so much and at several of our altar calls people raised their hands to accept Jesus as their Lord. Also we got to pray for many people and even see healings. It was so amazing to see our students grow in confidence in their ability to preach and teach. Even more exciting is that this has helped some of our students heal from the feelings of being unworthy to speak or be heard. Please enjoy some Sudanese worship.
Another notable thing we did with the local Sudanese church was run a week-long seminar where every day of the week we talked about identity and entrepreneurial skills. At the end of this week there was a tangible shift in this church's hope and excitement for the future. We also noticed that many of the attendees were discussing the potential to meet up to do things like this seminar again and to discuss solutions about the current struggles within the Sudanese community. We saw God move this week and we saw Him inspire a whole community to pursue hope for a better future.
SUDANESE WORSHIP
African Hope Learning Center & R3 Center:
The African Hope Learning center was a school which offered education for the refugee children living in Cairo. Once a week we would teach/act out a different bible story based on the school curriculum. We would teach a lesson through a skit, short teachings and games that aligned with the message of the story.
At the R3 Center we also volunteered their once a week where we taught in their english, sowing and music classes. It was a ministry where we had the opportunity to also invest into the sudanese community and give them practical skills.
SUDANESE MINISTRY HIGHLIGHTS
SYRIAN HOME VISITS:
In Egypt there is also a large population of Syrian refugees who have left their home as a result of the ongoing civil war in Syria. They too face the same financial struggles as the Sudanese refugees; but the main difference between the Syrian and Sudanese refugees is a majority of them are muslim believers. This means we didn’t have the luxury of connecting or building a relationship with them through the Church or other Church ministries. This also meant that we didn't have the luxury of being able to directly share about the Gospel due to the differing beliefs. Despite it being more difficult, both our local contact and our team still had a huge heart to help them financially and to help them get to know Jesus.
This ministry taught my students and I the importance of preaching the Gospel through other methods and actions. Unfortunately I was sick for a little over a month in Egypt (a combination of food poisoning & covid) and through other circumstances I missed many of the Syrian home visits. From my students' testimonies and my own personal experience I truly believe that many families were led closer to the Lord as we built relationships and shared testimonies of God’s love towards us despite our sin. This is a radical concept in their view towards God.
SYRIAN HOUSE VISIT
(I only have one because I can’t post the other pictures online since it includes our local contact/translators)
PARK EVANGELISM:
With this ministry we had to be extra careful because we were in a more public setting. Despite this obstacle we have had some very fruitful conversations during this ministry. One notable conversation and testimony of God’s faithfulness took place during our conversation with Joesef.
For context, the significance of this story goes back months in advance to when we were still in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam a heart posture and habit my co-leader and I decided set for the team was that we would every single day for the months leading up to Egypt and while in Egypt we would begin the ministry day with 15 mins of just intentional listening to the Lord. And through this habit a recurring name we heard was the name Joesef.
Testimony: Divine Appointment!
On this particular day the park was full of people but despite this it was oddly hard to start a conversation, considering it was quite common for locals to approach us since we were foreigners. In the beginning we had a couple surface level conversations but no luck finding an open & deep conversation. We were initially discouraged but over and over again throughout our entire walk I kept praying and persistently asking for an open door to share the Gospel. Two hours passed and eventually we got tired so I decided to just sit on a bench while my students played soccer with some of the kids in the park. I was about to go join them too but I felt the Lord say “wait on the bench, I can bring someone to you.” . In that moment I felt so foolish, because this entire time I was looking and asking for an open door but upon looking back I realized I never asked God for wisdom on how to see His open door.
Shortly after hearing God’s voice a young man joined me on the bench. He spoke a little English and after conversing with him I found out he flew all the way from China to Egypt so that he could learn Arabic and understand the Qur’an. After getting to know him a little, he explained that he had to leave to look for his friend. Then right after he left, another God appointed thing happened. His friend that he was looking for comes to sit on the same bench. This was Joesef! God brought the open door to us, he brought Joesef to us. Under God’s guidance we were able to start up a conversation with Joesef and his friend which led to us having an amazing discussion about faith, about what christianity believed, about what islam believed and shared some testimonies of what God did in our lives.
HANDS TOGETHER BIBLE STUDY:
This was a bible study that we helped lead for several weeks with a group of Coptic Christian women. Each week we taught on a different topic like hearing God’s voice, spiritual disciplines, knowing Jesus, etc.
For context: One of the most important foundational beliefs of the Coptic Christian Church is that both God and man are responsible for personal salvation. God, through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, provided forgiveness of sins, but that is not enough. Humans must also work for their salvation through fasting, almsgiving, and receiving of the sacraments such as infant and adult baptism, a liturgy of prayer, and the anointing with oil.
This group of women had so many questions about God, the bible and other theological debates. When I say “so many” I mean tons upon tons of questions. It initially frustrated members on our team as their questions would often derail or go off track from the topic of that week. But as the weeks went on we realized that the opportunity to discuss the bible and ask questions was a rare opportunity for them. This made my team and I so much more appreciative towards the access and resources we do have in our home countries.
Testimony: Word of Knowledge!
This testimony takes place during our team's second time with this ministry. Unfortunately I was sick the first week, therefore it was personally my first time attending this bible study. This is an important detail to this story because it meant I didn’t know anything about these women going into this day. On this day we planned on teaching about “hearing God’s voice” and as a team we recognized that being able to give a word of knowledge to these women would be such a powerful testimony of hearing God’s voice for these women.
A “word of knowledge” is the ability to know what God is currently doing or intends to do in the life of another person. It can also be defined as knowing the secrets of another person's heart. It requires hearing God’s voice, to know something or share something about someone or something you have no personal knowledge of.
Going into this ministry and during the ministry a prayer I kept praying was “Lord show me how I can help these women feel so loved by you and how can I do this ministry in a way that pleases you Lord”. I also prayed persistently for a word of knowledge for these women. God answered this prayer and immediately upon entering the room the Lord highlights one woman to me and says “This woman is holding unforgiveness toward her father and I want to help her heal ''. It was a pretty confronting word of knowledge and I wasn't sure when to say it or how to say it. So I just prayed “Lord, how do you want me to say it and when do you want me to say it?” “How do I say it in a way that would make her feel loved and not shameful?”.
Eventually a moment came where I could share what I heard. I was asked to share a testimony of hearing God’s voice so I talked a bit about how I hear God’s voice regularly. Then I proceeded to share what God spoke to me. Rather than directly confronting her by saying “you are holding on to unforgiveness towards your father” I waited to hear how the Lord wanted me to share it. I asked her, “Are you holding onto any unforgiveness?” she said yes. I asked her “is it towards your father?”. She said yes and then proceeded to tell us a detailed story of how her dad had left her and her family when she was four but still remains involved in the lives of her cousins, who were also at the bible study. So she struggled with seeing her own dad being present in her cousin's families but not in her own life.
She also told us that she had been struggling to feel God’s love, she described God & His love as something so far away. So I prayed for her and kept her in my prayers asking that the Lord would reveal His love towards her. The next week when I asked how she was doing she told our team that ever since I prayed for her, she had felt God’s love towards her as if He was face to face with her. She also said that she has been hearing God’s voice on how to heal and how to forgive her father. She no longer felt distant from God and fully believed that she could hear God’s voice!!
MOTHER TERESA:
The Mother Teresa House (MT House) is a ministry run by nuns that volunteer their time to provide care & housing for the elderly/disabled. Some of these sisters like sister Faulstiva, have volunteered with this MT House for several years and have plans to continue doing so. During this ministry we mainly partnered with sister Faulstiva to prepare games and programs to get the patients active and engaged. We would also help feed the elderly women and clean up after the mess. Egypt is very very sandy and some sandstorms have occurred during our stay, therefore we had several opportunities to also help the MT House clean up the building and wipe down many surfaces.
To be honest my team and I felt like we learnt & received more from this ministry than we gave. We learnt a lot from how the sisters spoke about the patients and from how they loved the patients. There was this overwhelming presence of peace that followed sister Faulstiva. I have never met someone like her, the way she spoke, talked about the patients & did things allowed me to see Jesus so clearly in her. It challenged my team and I. It challenged me to pray prayers like “Lord how can I live in a way where it is so easy to see you through me”. Imagine being so much like Christ that people would receive revelations of who Jesus is just by being around you.
Testimony: Jakeya
Through this ministry I discovered a new side of God’s love as I had the opportunity to love in a new way. In this ministry I had the opportunity to feed this elderly woman named Jakeya. She was blind, had no teeth and too weak to feed herself. Leading up to this ministry and on the day of, a prayer I consistently prayed was Lord I want to understand your love more and I want to love these people in a way that pleases you. When I had the opportunity to feed Jakeya, I will be honest for a moment I had a selfish thought of, “aww man this is gonna be annoying, it's gonna take so long to feed her ''. I hated that thought and I told the Lord “I never want to think this way about the people I serve”. So I persistently prayed asking the Lord to understand His love towards this woman. It took me about an hour to spoon feed her this bowl of porridge and the entire time I felt the Lord leading me to tell her things like “you are worthy to be loved, you are valued, you are worthy to be heard and seen, you are worthy to be a daughter of God''. I sang some arabic worship songs over her and I just kept praying for her. Then I got this banana to feed her and I knew she had no teeth so I had to cut it up and crushed this banana. As I continued to pray over her, sing songs and speak encouragements over her something in my heart just shifted. I wept hard, I know I cry a lot but I cried really hard this time. The other sisters started asking my students “why is this grown man crying so much while cutting up a banana, is he okay?? ''. My students just laughed and said “ahh that's just Cliff being Cliff”. In that moment I had this vision of God holding me as His child in His arms. He was praying over me, singing songs over me and speaking encouragements over me just like how God had led me to love on Jakeya. I heard Him also say to me, Cliff I am feeding you and I will be faithful to feed you. I finished that day just so confident that I was a son and that I am safely in my Fathers arms. It was peace that helped me to look at my uncertain future with so much trust and confidence towards the Lord. The amazing thing about this is that this feeling of God’s love has not left. It wasn't just this revelation and this feeling that lasted for that moment but has continued throughout the three months of being on outreach.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Thank you so much for reading through this update. My hope with this update is that we get to rejoice together at all the things that God has done. As I share these testimonies and talk about the various my team and I got to serve in Egypt my desire is for you as my supporters to know that your support has really blessed people across the globe and that these victories are yours to enjoy too. My prayer is that the Lord would share with you the joy He experienced as He watched my team and I love and shepherd those whom He loves.
Once again I want to say thank you so much for enabling me to continue serving God in this way. I hope you were blessed by this update and I pray that God spoke to you through it. I also want to thank you for praying for my team and I during our time in Egypt. If you have any prayer requests please message me because I would also love to be praying for you too!!! Again thank you so much!!!! I look forward to updating you guys again :).
Our students have now graduated and are transitioning into a new season. For some that means doing more bible schools, stepping into missions or going to university. If you have time to pray I wrote some prayer points I have for our students and some personal ones aswell. Thank you!!!
Students:
Pray that the Lord would protect our students, that the Lord would protect the seeds and lessons that were sown in this season of DTS so that it will continue to bear fruit where ever they go next.
Pray that our students would continue to fall deeper in love with God and that thier love for people would also continue to keep growing.
Pray that our students would find a safe and healthy christian community where they can continue growing in their relationship with God and continue being mentored.
Personal:
The words '“Trust Worthy & Faithful” keep popping up in my head when I spend time with God. I felt to specifically ask for prayer that the Lord would continue to disciple me into becoming someone whom He would describe as a Trust Worthy & Faithful son.
I can’t do what I do without a growing love for God, His word and His people. Therefore I want to ask for prayer that I would continue to fall more in love with God, His word and His people. I ask for prayer for revelations, mentors and opportunities to grow in my love towards these things.
I can't follow God without His wisdom/guidance therefore I want to ask for prayer for a eyes, ears and a heart that is so sensitive towards God & His desires for my life. I want to ask for prayer for wisdom on how to follow Him in all areas of my life like relationships, finances, fund-raising, callings, wisdom on how to be a better leader, etc.
THANK YOU FOR READING & PRAYING!!!!! Love you all lots, thank you :)
ENJOY THESE RANDOM FUNNY MOMENTS
Blog 6: Jan DTS Lecture Phase & Outreach Prep
LECTURE PHASE MARCH 2023
THIS YEAR WE ARE CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF YWAM BEING IN THE NETHERLANDS!!!
WELCOME AND HI AGIAN!!!
Welcome and hi again! I am so looking forward to having you read this update. I am excited to share with you all what I have been doing, learning and I hope that in my vulnerability God would speak to you and you would learn something new!!! I pray that this update blesses you and helps you to fall more in love with Jesus.
Since my last update, the January DTS school has been my main ministry and my main responsibility. During this time I have had the pleasure of teaching, discipling the new students, leading intercession times, practicing evangelism and helping out in various ministries held by the base. In this update I plan to update you on how the lecture phase went for our January DTS and what I have been learning in this season.
Like with every update, I want to begin this time with some prayers of thanksgiving and write out the prayers I have been praying over us as we read this together. When praying I was reminded of the verses in Isaiah 55:8-9 and I felt to specifically pray that those reading this would grow in trusting the Lord in what He is doing, trusting His direction/wisdom and trusting that He is near.
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
AS HIGH AS THE HEAVENS ARE HIGHER THAN THE EARTH, SO ARE HIS THOUGHTS AND WAYS HIGHER THAN OURS!!! WOAH, I think this is crazy and if we can have faith in this I truly believe our trust in the Lord will grow exponentially. This verse is the verse that God has constantly been repeating in my mind throughout this season and I encourage you to ask the Lord for help to fully believe in this verse.
Imagine/think about the fruit God could bear in our lives if we fully believed what God is saying in these verses and how our perspectives of our situations/decisions would change if we were fully confident in these words. So lets ask God to help us have faith in His words and be fully convinced. Thinking about the results of being fully convinced by this creates in me so much excitement and peace. So lets pray!
My Prayer for Us:
Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Lord you are faithful and trustworthy even when we don’t always clearly see it. Thank you that your ways and your plans are way greater than ours. I ask that you would help each one of us to grow in trusting you, trusting that you are doing a good work in our circumstances, trusting for your wisdom/direction and trusting that you are near us in our circumstances. I pray that you would help us to be fully convinced of your words in Isaiah 55:8-9. Help us to see in our pasts how your ways and thoughts have already been so much higher than ours. I also pray for my friends and family that as we all read this update we would fall more in love with you Jesus, I pray that you would speak to us and that we would hear your voice as we read this update. I pray that you would draw near to us in this time and that we would grow in a passion for missions and a passion for helping others know/love Jesus! I ask for all these things In Jesus name Amen!THANK YOU!!!
Once again I want to say thank you so much for supporting me prayerfully and financially. Your generosity has not only blessed me but also helped me to bless the various ministries and others on the base with my time and also with our finances. Through your generosity we have also helped support other missionaries going to places like Malawi, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco. I am very grateful that you have entrusted me to steward your finances for God’s kingdom. I pray that as you read this update God would bless you with the joy He is experiencing as He watches His kingdom be made known and as people choose to follow/accept Jesus through your generosity.
OVERVIEW:
The January DTS so far has been so good this year. I have watched the students grow in their relationships with God so much and some of my favorite moments are those “AHHH HA!” moments where something just clicks in the students mind and you can see a clear and tangible shift in their attitude towards pursuing the Lord. In this update I plan to talk about the following things:
The various lecture topics we had this year & talk about some of my favorite weeks/lesions.
The schedule/curriculum of the DTS so that you have a better idea/understanding of how exactly you are helping others to grow this year.
Testimonies from the students & from our times in evangelism.
The locations and plans of our outreach phase.
Our prayer requests.
Lastly, talk about my personal revelations I have learnt this year.
JANUARY DTS LECTURE PHASE:
Just to give everyone a quick recap I want to discuss the focus of our January Discipleship Training School. The January DTS is a missions focused training school with a goal of helping students graduate with the skills and knowledge on how to be a missionary in both a cross cultural context and their home countries. Whether that's in their universities/collages, in their jobs or with their local church.
Remember missions is not about where you go to, but whom you point towards with your life. I question I often find God asking me is “when people look at you how much of Jesus do they see?”. Remember Jesus lived a life where He said that He was the perfect representation of His Father, who sent Him, therefore being in Christ have an opportunity to represent the one who sends us, Jesus (Matthew 28:16-20). Missions is the lifestyle of loving those whom God loves with the same love that He has and a lifestyle of being discipled and making disciples.
This year in our January DTS, we have felt to have a special focus on the Bible and how God's heart, character, and nature is revealed in Scripture and in the Jesus' life. We want to be rooted in the Word of God!
We will also have a special focus on sharing the Gospel with those who have never heard it before. This means that we will have speakers come who are actively serving in the 10/40 Window, and we will focus our outreaches in this area, specifically reaching out to the Muslim world. We will have specific lectures and training on how to minister to Muslim people.
MEET THE JANUARY DTS SCHOOL
LECTURE TOPICS:
This year we have had and will have the following topics. We are currently in our week focused on missions. We will have speakers who are missionaries in Iran & Iraq who will talk about the underground church in these muslim nations. Below I have included the other lecture week topics included in our school and shared some short summaries on what I have or other students have learnt in those weeks. My hope in explaining this is to help you to have a better understanding of what is taught in our schools with the hope that it stirs up an excitement to know that young people from across the globe are growing/maturing in these areas for the sake of furthering God’s kingdom and sharing the gospel with others!!. God is moving in the lives of these students and they have an excitement and zeal to make Jesus known!!! So thank you for partnering with me in this process, I love you all so much and I love that I get to serve God in this way. Thank you!!
Hearing God’s Voice - Out of this week many, if not all, students finished confident in the fact that God speaks and they are all growing in their ability to discern God’s voice. We did various practical exercises to hear God’s voice and it was exciting to see all the students' faces light up as they saw and became more aware of how they had already been hearing God’s voice.
Character & Nature of God - During this week we focused on unpacking how we discover God’s character and nature in scripture. As we grow in understanding of who God is, it becomes easier to recognize who’s voice we are hearing, His or Ours or this Worlds.
Jesus - During this week explored the life of Jesus, specifically the humanness of Jesus. The biggest revelation for some of the students this week is the fact that becoming more like Jesus, is becoming more human. Because Jesus lived out perfectly what it meant to be human.
Holy Spirit & Spiritual Warfare - This week was one of my favorite weeks. The thing that stood out for me during this week was a lesson found in Ephesians. In Ephesians 1:20-21 & Ephesians 2:4-6 it talks about how Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places and it also talks about how we are seated in Christ. (In Romans 8:34 it also talks about how Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.) The reason why these verses are so impactful to me is because it talks about our position, which is in Christ. It has changed my perspective of prayer. Now when I pray and do spiritual warfare, I don’t pray with this mindset of me being on earth and trying to impact what is going on in the spiritual realm, (Ephesians 6:12), but rather I pray from this position of authority of I am seated in Christ, on the throne in Jesus, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion..”. When it came to engaging in spiritual warfare it helped me to realize I am not looking up at the enemy, but looking down upon it from a position of authority.
Lordship of Jesus - This was also one of my favorite weeks. During this week we talked about Proverbs 1:7 which teaches us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” In hebrew the root word for knowledge is ( יָדַע) yâda‛, [strongs H3045], which means both to praise and also means to know someone intimately in the context of marriage. Through this week we explored how our friendship with the Lord will only go as far as our fear of the Lord. This week was very convicting for both the students and I as it highlighted areas where we don’t have Jesus first and don't have a fear of the Lord present. This week encouraged me and my students to pray this prayer of “Lord show me where are you not Lord over my life”.
Biblical WorldView - During this week we focused on understanding what is a biblical worldview, but also spent a good amount of time also understanding what is a secular world view and an eastern world view. We also explored and took the time to see how our worldview has been impacted by movies, tv shows and other things of the world.
Identity - This was a very content heavy week for us. Many of the students and staff, including myself, are still digesting this week and going over our notes. A common point of discussion for this week was shame and how it distorts how we perceive ourselves. Shame is this concept of “if they really knew me and knew the things I did, no one would accept or love me”. Our speaker did a really good job of teaching us how we can find freedom from shame in our lives.
Relationships & Sexuality - In this bible school there are many different ages, cultures and nationalities represented. There are many different ways of doing life and naturally when you do life with so many other people who have different ways of doing things or saying things there are bound to be misunderstandings. This week really helped the students and I understand the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation. A fruit of this week's teachings was that we saw many of the students taking ownership of their relationships with one another. There were many opportunities to share hurts, misunderstandings and offer forgiveness. Since this week I personally have felt that our school has been more unified and that I can trust my students to have grace and forgive one another and also show this grace/forgiveness towards the people from their home nations that have hurt them. For bigger offenses from people back home I have seen the students pray this prayer of “Lord I am willing to be made willing to forgive.”
Missions (not yet done)
The Kingdom (not yet done)
God’s Heart for Israel & the Nations (not yet done)
We were taught many things in our lecture times and most of what I mentioned above is just what the speakers thought on in their lecture times or what stood out to me the most. I love hearing from our speakers but I also love hearing from our students. We have students in various places of their lives, at different levels of maturity in their faiths and it is always interesting to see that different things are standing out for different people.
As a staff it is my responsibility to help the students further process and engage with the content of the week. I typically do this in one on one conversations or group discussion where led by the Holy Spirit I ask what has God been teaching them this week. It has been so enjoyable to help them take what they have learnt in lectures and show them how to use it to futher engage in a conversation with God. In scripture a difference I see between the thousands who heard Jesus and the few (in comparison) whom He called disciples was that His disciples took the time to ask Jesus the “WHY” questions and took the time to listen to Jesus’ explanations, but also choose to follow Jesus whether or not they fully understood Him.
In the same way, I encourage my students and teach them how to ask God questions and help them to process what they understood or didn't understand. I would typically follow up with them to help them process it more, help them to practically apply what they have learnt and follow up on their progress. As a leader I also have the responsibility to do first, then teach so I also model/talk about how I have been engaging with the Lord and talk about what God has been teaching me and asking me to grow in. It has been exciting to watch the students grow in their maturity and in how they relate with others and the Lord. Thank you for your prayers and your financial support, thank you for enabling me to be a discipler but also be further discipled by God in this process of discipling others.
Below I have included some funny pictures and testimonies from the students.
MEET THE STUDENTS & STAFF
TESTIMONIES:
ZACH:
How has this DTS impacted me or matured me?
So far this DTS God has crazily matured me in my identity as a Son. He's exposed deep areas of shame in my life that I didn't know existed, and shown me how to live free in Him and how important staying in His love is to pour out to others.
How has this school changed how I see God?
I am more confident that I am loved, but even more specifically, more confident that God is moving and I am growing even when I don't feel it or see it. Not letting my mind and emotions control my life, or at least realizing they don't have to, has totally changed how I see Holy Spirit working and how I can trust God and be loved by Him regardless of what I'm feeling or seeing
LOIS:
How has this DTS impacted me or matured me?
I am more intentional with focusing/listening to obey the Lord, focusing and listening on what and how He is speaking. I love people more and more. I look at people like how Jesus did and reflect His life in my life. I really discovered that I have a passion for the bible and I really want to know and learn more about His truth/word. My confidence in praying (in English) has grown so much. Stepping out in praying in front of more people, for example the whole base was out of my comfortzone but God asked me to do it, and in the moment I did not really enjoy it but later it helped me in other situations. Declaring prayer in the mic at the tabernacle also helped a lot and I’m more comfortable and confident to do this.
How has this school changed how I see God?
I have grown in my character, and God really opened my eyes, through encouragements from others but also through the lectures, that I’m so so so loved. I already knew it, and believed it but now it is deeper in my heart and it is sinking in. Im also believing step by step with more confidence to believe that I have good things to add and speak out.
ANA:
How has this DTS impacted me or matured me?
This DTS has matured me because I was forced to reside outside of my comfort zone, through constant human interaction, challenging discussions, engaging relationships with people I normally wouldn’t be with, etc. I have been able to explore my identity in areas of life that I have not voluntarily explored before. I feel like I take more space in society now, like I have more to offer because I have allowed myself to expand.
How has this school changed how I see God?
God is almost totally different to me now than who He was before I began DTS. I never realized how much He truly sacrificed for me, and how much He truly loves me. I now know that I do not have an identity of a sinner, but of a child of God (and that sentence never really impacted me until now).
JULIA:
How has this DTS impacted me or matured me?
I feel more the need to read my Bible. I feel when I don’t spend time with God in the morning that I miss something in the whole day. My everyday life looks different I am more open to share the Gospel on the street. I can see that fear of man is getting less and less. God is holding really his hand over me and shows me so many talents and gifts what I never saw before.
How has this school changed how I see God?
I see Him in such a big way with so much more power and love. And He is so faithful like look at the Old Testament. I got so many revelations about God being a person and especially Jesus as a person.
I don't know about you guys, but I cried with so much joy when reading these testimonies. I felt God’s joy towards these students. My prayer is that you would also feel God’s joy when reading these testimonies. God is moving in the lives of these students and I know each and every one of these students will go on to disciple more and help others discover more of Jesus in the future. This is what we have gotten to sow into. So Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
JANUARY DTS SCHEDULE:
LECTURE PHASE SCHEDULE
Now I want to talk about other things on our schedule to also help you to have a better understanding of our school and what we are investing into together. My prayer is that you would also see how these practices have contributed to the amazing testimonies above.
Worship & Intercession: It is an integral part of our school and our discipleship process. Which is why we have some form of it nearly every day in our school. (The examples of this include: Worship, Ministry Night, Intercession, Tabernacle, Base Time & Base Intercession).
Our hope with having it everyday is to teach and impart to our students a habit of daily praising/thanking the Lord for who He is and what He has done and a daily habit of praying for others. In worship as we daily declare who God is and thank Him for what He is doing; we are renewing our minds with the Truth of who He is and actively remembering/engaging in what He is doing/has done in our lives. The fruit of this is a confidence in God’s faithfulness and a sureness in God’s worth. In intercession we practice intentionally growing in awareness of what is breaking God’s heart, this can/has included learning about and praying for the needs of others, the needs of countries different from our own and the needs of the church body. The fruit of this is a mind practiced in thinking about others and a spirit intimately connected to God’s emotions.
Worship & Prayer/Teaching & Preaching Workshops: Since worship, prayer and sharing the gospel is an integral part of our school and our goal for the DTS, we have devoted parts of our week to specifically learn/talk about how we can grow in these areas. In the worship & prayer workshops we help the students grow in awareness in the different/various ways they can engage in worship and prayer. This was particularly helpful for our students who were new in their faiths. Just like me when I was just growing in my relationship with God, I didn't really know what made worship, worship, or what made prayer, prayer. I didn't know how to engage with God in these areas relationally. These workshops helped the students do just this.
We also have a preaching and teaching workshop focused on how to prepare teachings and how to share the gospel in different settings. I had the pleasure of teaching in this prayer workshop. I taught how to prepare your heart to teach, I called it “The Heart Prep in The Sermon Prep”. I know not everyone reading this will be preaching or teaching in churches but I really felt to share this one point that God taught me while preparing this teaching because I believe that this will be helpful in a variety of ways in our prayer lives. The point is from the book of Romans, specifically in Romans 8:26-27 & 8:34-35 which talks about the Holy Spirit and Jesus interceding for us (praying for us). Another example of Jesus praying for us can be found in John 17. What I am trying to point out is the fact that Jesus has been and is praying for us. So what I felt invited by God to do and what I feel to invite us to do is ask the Lord “Lord how are you praying over me and my situation, I ask for the wisdom to join in with you and pray your prayers.” Maybe you are going through some hard circumstances or having to make difficult decisions, I want to encourage you to pray and ask God how is Jesus praying over you in this situation, or ask Jesus, “Jesus, if you were me how would you pray?”. God show me how intimate this way of prayer is! Which is why I want to invite us to take part in it. This makes prayer less of a request and more of an act of joining in or an act of partnership, which is way more relational.
Bible Night: Our bible nights have been centered around God’s description of Himself found in Exodus 34:6-7, shown below. We spend the night in a lecture/discussion type of class exploring each characteristic of God, exploring where in the bible we can also see these characteristics and how we can spend it learning about how the original readers (ancient Hebrews) would have understood these characteristics. These nights have helped us to better understand who God is and why he chose to describe Himself the way He did.
Exodus 34:6-76 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”Evangelism: Our Thursday afternoons have been the most challenging time for both our students and I. I will be honest and say I am always so nervous when we begin but always so encouraged and glad that we end up doing it. One of my favourite testimonies was from the time we had the opportunity to do evangelism inside one of the local mosques in Amsterdam. We initially just planned to come and learn and be more aware of how they pray, but then they invited both the men and women in our class to have coffee & tea with them. Through this we had a wonderful opportunity to share our faiths and testimonies in a more casual setting. We also had the opportunity to read the Bible and Qur’an with them. I think it was so God planned, but unknown to us, they invited us to read a portion of the Qur’an which was a parallel to the story found in Luke 1:1-56. The part that makes it so God planned was that we were able to read Luke 1:31-35 shown below, with an emphasis on verse 35, in both Arabic and English. In fact the other men in the mosque were the ones that were more excited to read the bible. We had a great opportunity to share God’s love with them and pray for them.
“31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”One on Ones: These are scheduled times where the students and staff meet together to process the week and discuss things that they would typically not like to be heard in public settings. These times have been my favourite times with us guys every week ending the meeting amazed at what God spoke through the other person. With on my male students we have mainly been focused on the area of sonship, forgiveness and what it means to honour women in relationships.
School Time: This is a flexible time and its content is typically adjusted to suit whatever we feel as a leadership team is needed to further disciple the school in or help the students to further process/understand the content discussed at lectures this week. It is often very practical teachings, such as teachings on how to handle difficult conversations, how to deal with culture shock, how to prepare for outreach, etc.
Community Night: We describe it as mandatory fun time hahaha. It is just an opportunity for us as a school to bond together, get to know each other and play games or watch movies together. It has been really enjoyable to get to know each other in a more relaxed context
JANUARY DTS OUTREACH PHASE:
OUTREACH LOCATION: EGYPT!!!
FLAG AND MAP OF EGYPT
EGYPT!!!!!, I am so excited to go to this nation with my wonderful team below. We have been praying and interceding for this nation for the past 3 months and we as staff team and as Team Egypt have consistently been gaining God’s heart for this nation and hearing God’s voice. I am excited to see people healed, see people know Jesus deeper, see salvations, see people set free from addictions and see families be unified (especially in families where someone converting to christianity has caused a division).
It is important to note that Egypt is a closed nation where converting people from Muslim to Christianity is Illegal, therefore please be praying for us specially in the area of wisdom and also please do not post about me going to Egypt on social medias. Some facts about Egypt is that it has a total population of 110,904,000 with 86.2% of them identifying themselves as muslims. 13.2% claim to be christian. If you would like to learn more about Egypt and its progress to becoming a christian nation you can take a look at this wonderful website called Joshua Project which records this kind of progress for almost all nations.
Click Here if Interested: Joshua Project
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES:
Like with most muslim/middle eastern nations they are very relational therefore we will be spending the entirety of our stay in the capital city of Cairo to build/deepen our relationships with the locals in Egypt and out hosts/contacts. For this outreach we will have three main ministries which I will talk little about below.
FRIENDS & LOCAL MINISTRY: Our friendship & local outreach times will primarily be focused on friendship building with the intention of sharing the gospel in a more relational way. This is because we won’t be able to easily talk about the bible in these ministries, but we will be able to share the gospel with how we live, how we love them and how pause to see/listen to them. Under this umbrella of friends & local ministry, we will be volunteering with the local orphanages and handicapped centres. We will be serving at the local drug rehab centres with a potential to share our own stories of Jesus freeing us from our own addictions. Lastly we will be doing a lot of park evangelism where we will be going to the local parks, meeting with locals with the intention of building a friendship with them so that we can eventually invite them to our house to share the gospel with them in a more secure setting.
REFUGEE MINISTRY: In Egypt there are many refugees from the neighbouring countries. We will mainly be working with the Syrian and Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Most of our time in this ministry will be spent doing house visits. Thankfully our contact has already planned and set many of these meetings up. We have been invited by many of these refugees into thier homes, therefore we are looking forward to getting to know them deeper and share stories or testimonies around a meal with (which is very typical in a middle eastern setting) with the hope of making them feel loved, seen and welcomed. We hope to also be able to support them through our generosity but unfortunately this has really been unwelcome by the Egyptian locals, with many of the Egyptian locals claiming “the christians are trying to buy people into thier religion”. Therefore if you could pray that God would give us wisdom on how we are to be generous and how we can give to these people in a way that wouldn’t often the locals or damage our hosts reputation, please do so. Thank you.
BODY OF CHRIST MINISTRY: Our last ministry focus will be with the local churches in Cairo. We have some local contacts whom are pastors in Egypt, therefore we will be working with thier churches to help run church services. We will have opportunities to preach at church, lead worship, work with the local youth groups and lead bible studies within the church.
OUTREACH TEAM:
OUTREACH TEAM PHOTO
Team Egypt: [Top Row] Zach, Ella, Lois, Soyoon & Cliff [Bottom Row] Julia, Ana & Claudia
PRAYER POINTS:
As a team we felt to specifically ask our friends and family to pray for the following things.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
FOR PROTECTION, prayers for physical and spiritual protection.
FOR JOY, prayer that our team would be filled with the joy of the lord and that we would have so much joy/excitement towards prayer and hearing god’s voice.
FOR UNITY, prayer that our team would have a willingness/joy to surrender our own preferences and desires for the sake of the team. that we would choose harmony over our own desires.
FOR BOLDNESS, prayer against the fear of man and that we would have so much boldness and courage to share/live out the gospel.
FOR FAITH, prayer for supernatural/elite faith and that uncertainties or unknowns would not discourage us.
FOR NEW REVELATIONS, prayer that our team would receive new and deeper revelations of God’s love and of who Jesus is.
THANK YOU!!!
ENJOY SOME RANDOM HIGHLIGHTS BELOW
Blog 5: January DTS Preparation & Off Season
Blog 5: Jan DTS Prep & Off Season
MERRY CHRISTMAS
DECEMBER 2022
WELCOME AND HI AGIAN!!!
I want to begin this update by wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Since my last update I’ve had a more supportive role on base by helping out in the different ministries and schools apart from the January DTS school. During this time I’ve also had the pleasure of attending some events related to missions and further training. Below you can find a quick summary of the ministries I’ve been involved with and the events that I have attended.
MINISTIRES:
Maintenance Team - Sanding & Repainting Doors.
September DTS - Helping With One on Ones (remember to take a picture with moises)
Kitchen - Lunch Prep
Reception & Front Desk
Pioneering and Leading a Men’s Breakfast Prayer Group
School of Biblical Studies - Taught on the Book of Galatians.
EVENTS:
Western European DTS Workshop
YWAM Netherlands National Gathering.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ME!!!
PRAYER:
I love prayer and I truly believe that through the Holy Spirit and because of what Jesus did on the cross our prayers have authority and significance. I see prayer as a gift, because by faith our in the cross we are justified and can communicate, ask and listen to our Heavenly Father. Therefore I want to begin this update, like every update, with a prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer of blessing over you the reader.
Father, thank you for this amazing day. Thank you for all the ways you have provided for me, through my friends and my family. Thank you for how you have also provided for my friends and family. Father, I pray that you would bless and continue bless those reading this in their relationships with others and with relationship with you, bless their spiritual growth and bless them in their finances.
God, I pray that you would bless them with a greater revelation of your goodness, your faithfulness and your love towards them. I pray that you would bless each person reading this with a community to celebrate with in this Christmas season. I ask for all these things in Jesus' name Amen.
Above is the prayer that I prayed over you, but also I wanted to try something new. Below this is a second prayer that I wrote and I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me before you read the rest of this update.
Ultimately this is an update about missions and advancing/serving God’s kingdom. Through your prayers and your finances, I believe that we are doing this together. I also believe that inorder to fully experience the joys of advancing/serving God’s kingdom it requires us to also have a heart for missions, a love/compassion for the lost and a Christ-like love for God and His word. I want you to read this update with joy and excitement for all the things God has done/will do. Therefore, I want to invite you to pray this prayer alongside me.
I INVITE YOU TO PRAY THIS PRAYER WITH ME:
God thank you for the work you are doing in my city and across the world.
Thank you for your love for me and those around me. I pray that you would break my heart for the things that break you.
I pray that you would break my heart for those missing out on a relationship with you.
I pray that you would help me to love prayer and love your word.
I pray that you would help me to understand the significance and importance of missions.
Heavenly Father, help me to love those whom You love, with the same love that You have.
I ask for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you for praying that prayer alongside me.
JANUARY DTS 2023:
I AM SO EXCITED!!!, for next year's January DTS school. I loved and really enjoyed staffing this year's school but I am looking forward to staffing this coming school. I have grown a lot in this past year and I look forward to applying what I have learnt in this year and I look forward to inviting the students into the new/deepened revelations I’ve gotten this past year.
I know I still have so much more to learn and I am aware of the many areas that I still want to grow in but I am so excited for this next year. I look forward to using all this new knowledge to better serve and love the students and staff team that God chose/called for this coming 2023 January DTS school.
MY PRAYER:
In recent weeks I have been praying these prayers below in preparation for the coming school. My hope with these prayers is to be able to look at each person involved in this school, the students, the staff and myself, from God’s perspective. I want to be able to look at each person with this revelation or heart posture of “WOAH this person is so valuable and so essential to accomplishing what God wants to do for His Kingdom in this season”.
The Prayers I Prayed:
“Lord help me to understand and know why you called/choose these specific students and this staff team”
“Lord help me to see the purpose behind this school and help me to see what you want us, as part of your body, to do in this school?”
“Lord help me to see the gifts and talents you have placed in each of the students and staff. Help me to encourage and make room for each others giftings”
“Lord, what is my role in this school?”
In prayer I felt to invite you to pray a similar or more simplified prayer with me. It is a prayer to see people from God’s perspective. I think that sometimes we can be so quick to say, Lord change that person, please make that person less frustrating. Have you prayed a prayer like this before? I know I have. I have learnt that yes God wants to change and transform others, but he also wants to change and transform us. Sometimes difficult people can be an invitation from God, to grow in our ability to love like Jesus. So if you have know someone in your life that is difficult to love or if you want to learn to love people better I want to invite you to pray this prayer below with me. This is because, I believe that inorder to love someone in a way that would please God and reflect Christ, we must look at and think about someone from God’s perspective.
“Lord help me to see people from your perspective”
& “Lord help me to love others in the same way you have loved us” (John 15:12).
I prayed these prayers and I admit, I still don't know why God has called this specific group of students or this specific staff team. But what I do know is that God has been changing my heart towards them. I have this new found excitement to serve, love and get to know each of them. These prayers have given me so much gratitude towards a team and a group of students that I am not even familiar with yet. So, I invite you to pray this prayer with me, I am excited to see how God will move in your life as a result of it.
If we take a look at John 15:9-12, shown below, Jesus teaches us that when we abide in Him, we experience the joy that Jesus had, a joy that enables Jesus to endure the cross (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus teaches us that we can experience this great level of joy when we abide in Him. But how do we abide in Him? Verse 10 teaches us that it's by doing His commandments. In verse 12 Jesus clarifies His commandment (the greatest commandment, also shown in Matthew 22:36-40), to love one another as Jesus has loved us. In verse 9 Jesus teaches us this, as the Father has loved Jesus, so has Jesus loved us. This is a radical level of love. When you read this verse are you amazed by it? If you aren’t I would encourage you to ask the Lord to help you be amazed by it. Because, this is the radical level of love that we are called to give and it is impossible to love people in this way without seeing people from God’s perspective. My desire for you is to experience this level of joy, discussed in verse 11, in this holiday season, that is why I want to invite you to pray the prayer above. I want you to experience the joy found in seeing people from God’s perspective and loving them in response to that.
John 15:9-12
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
SCHOOL INFORMATION:
At the moment we have 12 students accepted and we are hopeful for more to come in these last weeks. The school officially starts January 4th, 2023 and I am so looking forward to getting to know these students, to call them friends and to help them grow in their knowledge and intimacy with God. I am excited to help them become great leaders, face fears alongside them and to serve God with them.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
At the moment we have twelve students accepted. I would love it if you could pray that God would continue to soften and prepare the hearts of these students and any additional students God chooses to bring.
Pray for the health of the staff team and students. Last year 4/5 of the staff team and some students got Covid at the beginning of the school.
Pray for team unity and grace amongst the staff and students.
Pray for wisdom on how we as a staff team can follow the Lord’s leadership for this DTS.
MINISTRIES:
Now I want to spend some time talking about the various ministries I have had the pleasure of being involved with. Like I said above, in these past few months I have played a more supportive role here on the base and my heart/desire in talking about these things is to show you how your generosity has helped me to serve others, equip others to serve as missionaries and give to others as well. So thank you for blessing me and those around me. Your support has not only blessed my life but also the many that I get to serve on a daily basis and those whom I disciple regularly. So I want to say THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY. I know God is thankful as well. I want to quickly list some of the ministries I have been involved with and expand on one particular ministry.
I have been involved with the kitchen team where I would, every afternoon, I spend a couple of hours preparing lunch for 60-90 students & staff.
I have been a part of the maintenance team on the base, where I was put in charge of a group of 5-6 students to sand and repaint the doors here on the base.
I have been involved with the September DTS school, by mentoring one of their students. We have had a great time growing closer to God together. His name is Moises, he is brazilian, has a passion/calling for missions, has had several moments of confirmation and has seen God miraculously provide for him. I have loved watching him grow in maturity and enjoyed seeing his desire to see people know Jesus grow. Your generosity has allowed me to bless him in many ways. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to disciple him.
I have also been a part of the reception & front desk crew, where I was responsible for handling the daily reception tasks, welcoming guests and replying to inquiries from potential staff, students & volunteers.
Lastly, I had the pleasure of teaching on the book of Galatians in the school of biblical studies.
MEET MOISES
MEN’S PRAYER GROUP:
Since my last update my friend and I have pioneered and began leading a men’s prayer group. Every Wednesday morning we meet together to have a small breakfast together, it involves some juice, coffee and baked goods. Then we would read through scripture together and in our most recent week we read through Matthew 6:1-15, where Jesus teaches us how we are to give and how we are to pray. The day before my friend and I typically ask the Lord for discussion questions. This week when we read through this passage, we discussed the following questions.
“Why do you think Jesus taught us to give and pray this way?”
“What does this reveal to us about His character?”
Then we finished our discussion time with some prayer. Praying for specific needs and praying in response to what we had discussed. Specifically, we prayed for the wisdom to grow in the character traits that God revealed to us in our discussions. Below are some pictures of our men’s ministry.
HOW THE MINISTRY STARTED:
In prayer I also felt like talking a little bit about how this ministry first started. Since September God has been speaking to me a lot about the importance of community and pursuing God with others. I believe that when God reveals things to us that it is our role as followers of Jesus to not just listen but also to ask the Lord, “how do you want us to respond?”. It is important to both listen and respond, not only listen or not only respond. So when God began speaking about the importance of community I asked the Lord, “what do you want me to do with this greater awareness towards a need for community?”. As a result of this question God began to expand on what he initially taught me. He showed me that He wanted to gather the men in this community around His word and around prayer. So I decided to act, slowly I made the effort to talk to different men in the community and found this common theme for a need to gather as men around scripture and prayer. One week I was sharing this with my friend Steven and I found out that God had been speaking the exact same things to him. So we prayed a lot and just decided to go for it. We didn’t know what to expect and we were content with just having three people gathered weekly, but now we are in week 6 and have around 15 men gathering weekly for this.
OUR ROLE WHEN GOD REVEALS & TEACHES:
The reason why I felt to share this is that maybe there are some of you that have heard God speak to you about community or other things, like evangelism or giving. I want to invite you to also respond and pray this prayer of “Lord how do you want me to respond to what you have taught me or shared with me”. What I have found consistently throughout my journey with God is that God loves to take us deeper than the initial revelation or conversation. BUT IT IS OUR ROLE TO ASK HIM TO TAKE US DEEPER! Our intimacy with God is related to how much we ask Him to show us more. I want to encourage you to let God take you deeper. Let God reveal more of Himself through your questions and your obedience. Yes, if you ask Him, He might ask you to do something scary, but what I want you to recognize is that we don't grow in our comfort zone. Crucial moments of maturity begin in moments of dependency. It is in the areas where we need God and rely on God that we grow in our maturity and faith towards God. Maybe He asks you to lead a small group yourself or maybe He asks you to organize a fundraiser for some cause. Whatever it is, it is in this time of responding that you will encounter more of Jesus and discover more about God. I have found a pattern in my life of discovering life changing revelations when I choose to not only listen to God but also respond. I invite you to also respond to what God is revealing to you in this season.
If you feel like God is asking you to lead something new and have doubts about your own leadership and your ability to start something new feel free to contact me because I would love to share with you how I overcame those doubts with God.
EVENTS:
WESTERN EUROPEAN DTS WORKSHOP:
In November I attended a Discipleship Training School Workshop in Hurlach Germany. The purpose of this event was to gather the different January DTS staff from across Western Europe, to meet together, learn from one another and take part in a one week leadership training course. There were about 36 participants from different bases across western europe, including bases from Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Below are some fun pictures from that time and a picture of our schedule, which shows the different lecture topics we covered.
If you want to learn more about the DTS and what it is, I want to invite you to take a look at this website linked below. It talks about what we as a team are doing for the students we get to disciple. This website explains the curriculum of the DTS, the purposes of why we do the things we do and the outcomes of the DTS.
LINK: https://ywamdtsreframe.com
In prayer I felt that it was important to provide you all with the explanation of the purposes and outcomes of our Discipleship Training Schools. I want to invite you to read this with me because this is what we get to be a part of. Through your support this is what we get to do in the lives of the many students that come to our Discipleship Training Schools. As you read this I also want to invite you to pray and ask God for an excitement for this DTS program.
THE PURPOSE:
To GATHER and INVITE people to worship, listen to and obey God, releasing them (in the context of the DTS) to serve through evangelism, intercession, acts of compassion and other expressions of God’s heart for the world, possibly even pioneering new ministries.
To INSPIRE and CULTIVATE growth in one’s relationship with God resulting in Christ-like character by active participation in a missional community who engage in a variety of Christian practices , including encountering God through the Word by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
To SHARPEN one’s ability to relate to, learn from and work with people, including those of different cultures, personalities and perspectives.
To further EQUIP each one to serve God’s purposes either in or outside of YWAM Family of Ministries, strengthening a commitment to reach the lost, especially the unreached, to care for the poor, and to influence all areas of society.
To IMPART the story, vision and foundational values of Youth With A Mission and the University of the Nations.
OUTCOMES:
THE DTS AIMS TO GRADUATE STUDENTS:
With a growing understanding of the breadth and depth of God’s character and ways
Who are becoming more like Jesus in the way they relate to God and people
Who increasingly cooperate with the empowering presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit
Who listen to and obey God as a result of God’s enabling grace
Who search the Scripture in such a way that transforms belief, values and behaviors
With a strengthened lifestyle of worship, intercession and spiritual warfare
With a greater ability to work with others, especially those different to themselves
Who can share the Gospel with the lost and have life long commitment to do so.
With a commitment to continue to be involved in some way with God’s work among the nations, including unreached people, the poor and needy and in spheres of society.
Who understand the calling and values of YWAM and are aware of a variety of opportunities available to them throughout YWAM.
With a clearer understanding of God’s purposes for their life and a sense of their life direction.
Who serve God and others in contexts foreign and familiar with openness to pursue further training and education (in or outside of YWAM/UofN) continuing to be equipped for a life of faithful service.
YWAM THE NETHERLANDS NATIONAL GATHERING:
Another event I had the pleasure of attending was our YWAM Netherlands National Gathering. In November we gathered all the staff and students from “YWAM The Netherlands” to celebrate what God has done in the Netherlands, to connect with the 400+ ywam missionaries in the Netherlands and to pray towards our future as a missionary movement. Next year YWAM Netherlands will be celebrating its 50 year anniversary. This means next year we get to celebrate the fact that God has been training missionaries in the Netherlands and sending them into the nations in the past 50 years. THIS IS SO EXCITING.
At this event we learnt about God’s faithfulness in the past, learnt how this movement in the Netherlands first started and prayed/interceded for the Nations. We unfolded giant maps of the world and prayed for the nations we stood on. My love for nations that I have never visited grew immensely in this time. If you want to experience God’s love for the nations, you don't need giant maps to do this. Try it with just a small map, explore what a willing/open heart and time can do to your love for missions and the nations. God’s love for the nations is transformative. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was this transformative love that gave me the desire to surrender my plans and receive His plans. I want to invite you to also experience this transformative love with me by taking the time to pray over your home countries or countries you’ve never been to.
Below are some pictures and funny moments from The National Gathering
A STUDENTS TYPICAL WEEK - SEPT DTS:
If you’re interested to see what a students typical week looks like, give this video a watch. This video was put together by one of my friends and it gives a good idea of what our school looks like from the students perspective.
YWAM AMSTERDAM INSTAGRAM:
If you’re interested in finding out more about YWAM Amsterdam and what we do please follow our instagram account linked below.
Blog 4: Jan DTS & DTS Equip Graduations
GRADUATIONS SEPTEMBER 2022
WELCOME AND HI AGIAN!!!
I'm so excited to be updating you again. A lot has happened since my last update so you can expect some details further below. For now here's a quick recap of the events that happened since my last update:
The January DTS Students Graduated.
I attended a missionary conference called “The Send”.
I started/finished a leadership training school called DTS Equip.
Before I continue/elaborate I would like to begin with a prayer for you my readers.
“Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to share my gratitude towards you and talk about your faithfulness in update. God I ask that you would give those reading this a spirit of gratitude and spirit of thankfulness. Lord I ask that you would be reminding them of reasons to be thankful for and I ask that they would fall more in love with you Jesus. God I ask that those reading this would be encouraged and stirred up in their faith's Father. I ask that they would have an excitement to see your kingdom multiply and have a desire to seek after the joy you experience when you see your Sons & Daughters return to you and know you deeper. God I pray that you would share the love that you have for the lost, hurt, needy, unseen and orphaned with those that are reading. I ask for all these things in Jesus name.”
JANUARY DTS GRADUATIONS AND STUDENT UPDATES:
The January DTS ended on June 18th, during the students' last week in Amsterdam we shared and celebrated many stories of God’s faithfulness, celebrated their graduations and said many hard goodbyes. Below are some pictures of this wonderful week & graduation.
DTS GRADUATION PICTURES
Throughout their last week I got to hear many stories of God’s goodness/faithfulness to provide, to lead, to give wisdom, to direct, to heal and to transform. Many of the students had shared their testimonies from outreach, but looking back I see that the greatest testimony of God’s goodness/faithfulness was not in their testimonies about outreach but it was in the transformation I saw in each of their lives. I saw new growth, freedom and passion in every student. I saw that each student was more in love with God, more convinced to follow Jesus and that each student had a hunger to see God’s kingdom multiply. As a result I am more convinced of God's goodness and faithfulness because I saw how faithful God was to work in their lives and reveal himself to them. It gave me an excitement towards what God can and is wanting to do in my life as I continue to follow Him. God is faithful to reveal Himself to us and faithful to bring us closer to purposes and callings He has for our lives. What a powerful and true statement.
GRATITUTE:
This year has given me so much gratitude towards the fact that we get to be in a relationship with a God who desires to be known, desires to reveal himself to us and a God that is faithful to grow/change us in this process of knowing. It is in this beautiful process of getting to know/discover God that we get to discover the person God is creating/has originally created us to be. I am thankful for the person God has changed me into and thankful for the person God is making me into. I am thankful for who the students have become as a result of God’s faithfulness in this discipleship training school, and I am thankful that I have so much confidence in God’s ability to continue faithfully disciple them and me. It gives me hope for the friends and loved ones in my life that I know God loves and is desiring to have a relationship with.
FRUIT/MULTIPLICATION:
I want to end this section on the January DTS by giving a quick update on the fruit/multiplication I’ve seen in just the students and staff alone.
1 student is planning on attending a school of worship. If your interested in learning more about this school you can check out this link: https://www.ywamgoldcoast.com.au/school-of-worship
[In this school you will spend twelve weeks digging deep into worship, growing in your biblical understanding, equipping your skills, and challenging your heart in worship. You will also have the opportunity to develop your songwriting skills and potentially professionally record your own songs. In addition, you will get opportunities to practice YOUR GIFTS and skills throughout this course.]
2 students are now committed to doing a bible school called school of biblical studies. It is a course where you spend 9 months reading and studying the bible, the historical context and learning how to better interpret and read the bible. Their hope is to better equip themselves for potentially serving in full time missions, ministry or to just further equip themselves to spread the gospel in whatever God has for them next. If your interested in learning more check out this link: https://www.ywamamsterdam.com/sbs
1 student left her job and is now involved full time in ministry with her husband.
2 students are currently applying to come join us to staff the next January DTS.
1 student is now in a masters program for speech pathology with the desire to use her knowledge in this field to step into full time missions.
1 student is currently already involved in full time missions in a country that I can't say for safety reasons.
1 of our staff will be going back to the middle east to help pioneer a discipleship training school.
1 of our staff will be pioneering an arts themed discipleship training school in Amsterdam.
Multiplication is happening and God’s kingdom is advancing. This is all just from one school and I haven't even mentioned or fully seen the fruit of the many other seeds that were sown for God’s kingdom as a result of the many conversations we as a school have had with people during ministry, the impact of our ministries/teachings/sermons and the impact of all our evangelism times during both lecture phase and outreach phase.
THANKS:
Therefore I just want to say thank you for partnering with me to expand and see multiplication in God’s kingdom. Through your generosity you have been able to bless me, the students and the many people I know. I know that these students will go on to impact others as they continue to serve God in the ways they have been called. Thank you for your supporting me prayerfully and financially in this journey. I have so much gratitude towards your support for me and the calling that God has put on my life. Thank you so much.
THE SEND CONFERENCE IN NORWAY:
“THE SEND” is a missions focused conference with the purpose of activating believers to live a missional lifestyle by adopting and reaching real mission fields at home and abroad. It was a conference attended by thousands of people.
THE SEND PICTURES
This was another one of my highlights. The conference was a 12 hour program consisting of worship, prayer and preaching focused on “sending” people into missions. I had the pleasure of attending it with my friends and even some of my students. 12 hours plus the multiple days it took to drive from the Netherlands to Norway and back is a lot to summarize therefore I want to narrow it down to my biggest take away.
BIGGEST TAKE AWAY - INTIMACY WITH THE LORD:
My biggest takeaway from this event happened during Francis Chan’s teaching. He is a well known pastor and I have listened to many of his sermons before. It was during this sermon that God spoke to me so clearly on the topic of intimacy. I was really looking forward to his teaching and I initially thought that my biggest take away would come from the main point of his teaching or one of his powerful one liners. That did not happen, in fact I don’t even remember a single word Francis Chan said, it was this weird thing where I couldn't hear a single word he said but I could hear his intimacy with the Lord in his voice.
This wasn't because he wasn't loud enough or that his sermon was bad, it was because his intimacy with the Lord was louder than his teaching. By this I mean that his love for the Lord and personal relationship with the Lord was so clearly conveyed in his teaching that this intimacy was what captivated my attention. It wasn't his message or a clever one liner that made me fall more in love with God, it was his relationship with the Lord that made me go “I WANT THAT”. I want that intimacy with the Lord. I want an intimacy with the Lord that causes other people to fall more in love with Jesus.
As I was praying and asking for that intimacy God responded and said “Cliff, I want that intimacy with you too and I want that oneness/intimacy with everyone Cliff.” This includes you reading this. It was at this time that I had this amazing conversation with God where He showed me what it would look like to enter into that intimacy; the sacrifice, the cost, the dying to myself, the faith and reprioritization of my life. It looked like a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hard/very disciplined work. But God also showed me the fruit of that intimacy and the beauty/freedom in the journey with Him as we get to that level of intimacy. I will never be able to explain the fruit of this intimacy as beautifully and convincingly as God can. Therefore, I want to invite you as you are reading this to take some time to pause and meditate with God on these questions below.
QUESTIONS:
What would it cost to enter into this kind of Intimacy?
What would be the fruit of this intimacy and how would it effect those whom I care about and love?
What would it look like to live a life where my intimacy with you Lord would be people's greatest takeaway when being with them?
What if we were so in love with God that we would unconsciously and naturally lead others into deeper intimacy with God?
DTS EQUIP:
The DTS equip website describes the Equip program as “an intensely effective 6-week leadership development course. It provides a resource-rich environment where DTS leaders and team members are equipped in character, skills and Spirit, so that both DTS students and programs worldwide may benefit and develop according to their individual and corporate callings.” I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to take this course. In these short six weeks I grew so much but more importantly I became increasingly aware of just how much more growth I need and can step into with the Lord. I grew in awareness of how great my need is for the Lord.
DTS EQUIP PICTURES
AN INTIMACY WITH THE LORD THAT DISCIPLES:
One of my takeaways from this course was very similar to what God said to me at The Send. It was this: “Our intimacy and personal relationship with the Lord will disciple people better than our teachings, sermons and counselling”. As a result of this school I grew in awareness of how much we are watched as leaders, especially in ministry. I have learnt and noticed that people pay closer attention to how you live your life than to your words. I learnt that your habits, disciplines & actions when you think no one is around or paying attention is what gives your words/council weight and influence. This course has challenged the way I disciple, shifting my focus to a lifestyle that disciples. How can I live a lifestyle, not only speak & act in a way, but a lifestyle that disciples people into falling more in love with God and becoming more Christ-like is a question I ask God and myself more often.
DISCIPLING OTHERS & BEING A DISCIPLE:
Another takeaway from this course is this “discipling others to be more Christ-like is the crucial aspect of being a disciple of Jesus”. I was already aware of this but I became increasingly heart broken for people who miss out on this crucial part of following Jesus. I attribute a big portion of my growth in intimacy with the Lord and growth in becoming more Christ-like to my journey/desire to become a better discipler. I grew more in my intimacy with the Lord in this season of discipling others than in my seasons where I felt like all I did was focus on my own discipleship. I believe that there is a level of intimacy with the Lord that is specifically experienced in the process of discipling others to be more Christ-like. I'm not saying you have to be a missionary or work at the church to experience this intimacy. I am simply trying to bring an awareness to the fact that in the process of helping others become more Christ-like and in the process of depending on God/seeking God for the wisdom to disciple others we experience a level of intimacy with the Lord that isn't as easily attainable if we were to solely focus on our individual discipleship journey. If you are reading this I would love to challenge you to explore this concept for yourself. Ask the Lord if there is anyone whom he is calling you to disciple and ask the Lord for the wisdom to help guide this person to become more Christ-like and fall more in love with God. You will find that as you disciple others, your desire to enter into greater levels of intimacy with the Lord will also increase with those you disciple.
PLEASING THE FATHER:
My last main takeaway and probably my favourite is that I graduated from this school able to lovingly call God “father” and see/understand my identity as His son. This concept of calling God my Heavenly Father was no longer just a phrase or a distant concept but it was very real and intimate name. The biggest fruit of this can be seen in my prayer life. In this course I noticed that in my past I had often prayed and sought after God’s wisdom for what to do because of this fear of making the wrong choice. When reading the gospels I see that Jesus’ motivation to do God’s will did not come from a fear of making the wrong choice, but rather from a desire to please His Father. An example of this can be seen in John 8:29 below. (extra verses have been added for context)
John 8:27-30
“28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”
Therefore as Sons and Daughters of God we must seek to do the same and also be motivated to discern/do God’s will by a desire to please our Heavenly Father. As a result, In my conversations with God He had invited me to pray prayers like the following. I believe that God is also inviting you to do the same.
PRAYERS:
Heavenly Father, please Lord show me how I can use this day to please you and love you most. Thank you.
Heavenly Father, I ask for wisdom to discern what choices or decisions would please you most. Thank you.
Heavenly Father, please Lord show me how I can follow you in a way that pleases you most. Thank you.
LOOKING FORWARD:
Now that the January DTS is over and that I have finished my frist leadership development school, I will have a new set of responsibilities in this coming season. In addition to helping with preparing for next years January DTS, I will also be have a more supportive role within the YWAM Amsterdam base. In this season I will be helping with the Maintenance Team, Reception/Front Desk Team and with Lunch Prep.
Maintenance: In maintenance I will be renovating/upgrading existing rooms within our building and doing odd jobs. We live in a building called Zeemanshuis which was originally build in 1857. This teams goal is to steward this building well, by maintaining it but also working towards projects that will create better living areas for future staff and students.
Reception/Front Desk: While working in reception/front desk I will be welcoming people into our building during open hours and receiving mail for the many people living in this building. I will also be responsible for managing any of the questions and applications we receive from any inquiring/potential students and staff.
Lunch Prep: This base has over 150 people living in it, not including the 60 students we expect to receive this week. They all need lunch and this role is focused on exactly what the name says, Lunch Prep. I believe this is a great way I can serve my local community as I prepare lunch for the many staff and students on this base.
In addition to joining these teams, I will also be joining the evangelism team as they go out into the streets of Amsterdam to share about Jesus and I will be joining the worship and prayer team as they pray over the city and other things as they are led by the Holy Spirit.
MEET THE YWAM AMSTERDAM STAFF
PRAYER REQUESTS AND THANKS!
That is the end of this update. Once again I just want to say thank you so much for supporting me and enabling me to serve the Lord in this way. I look forward to what the Lord will continue to do in this season of preparation for the next year's DTS. If you would like to prayerfully support me you can check out some of the prayer points below. Thank you.
PRAYER POINTS:
That God would be preparing the hearts of next year's January DTS students and that they would already be falling more in love with God now.
Prayer that God would bring the right students for our next school.
Prayer that God would provide us with the right staff and that they would find favour in their finances and with their visas.
Prayer that God would continue to provide for me financially and provide in terms of wisdom.
Prayer for wisdom in my upcoming opportunities to teach on some books of the bible.
THANK YOU
ENJOY SOME RANDOM HIGHLIGHTS BELOW
Blog 3: DTS Lecture & Outreach Phase
Amsterdam & Albania May, 2022
WELCOME
I want to begin by saying thank you so much for continuing to support me prayerfully & financially in missions. Since my last update I have seen the students have grow so much in their faiths and boldness to share the gospel. I have also seen God do a work in me as he did what I like to call spiritual heart & eye surgery. I have learnt a lot about missions, people and I have many new revelations that I’m excited to share with you. Since my last update the students and I have had various lectures & began serving the local missionaries in Albania. If you are interested to find out more please check out our instagram page linked below. Here you can find some pictures and hear some testimonies from our students.
CHECK OUT OUR INSTAGRAM PAGE BELOW
You can follow them @albaniamiddleeast_dts, picture below is just a screenshot from the actual instagram page but you can click the instagram icon just below this text to head to the actual instagram page where you can view, like & comment on the posts.
THANK YOU
In my last blog I discussed a revelation that God gave me for missions. The revelation was this definition that God gave me for missions: “Missions is actively loving those whom God loves, with the same love that God has”. God has continued to expand on this revelation showing me that missions is more than something we go do, but missions is a lifestyle choice. For me that meant “missions” has more to do with our relationship with the Lord than our physical location. Its not about where we go, but its about who’s love are we responding to. Do we allow God’s intense love for others to interrupt our daily lives? How are we responding to God’s love for us and those around us?
God has been showing me that the idea of doing missions (ei. Matthew 28:18-20) is not just a goal or something on our task list but it is a natural response. The desire to share God’s love, share the gospel & invite people into a relationship with Jesus is not a box we tick off, but something we should naturally do in response to the overflowing love that God has for us. This season has taught me that a big part of living out this lifestyle of missions requires us to continual seek out a deeper intimacy with the Lord and daily ask God “how do you want me to respond to your love for me and those around me today”.
Below is how I currently view missions. I say currently because know God will continue to expand and refine it.
“MISSIONS” is actively loving those whom God loves with the same love that He has. MISSIONS is actively inviting people into a relationship with Jesus. MISSIONS means leaving a life where we allow God’s love for people to interrupt and lead our daily lives.
This lifestyle of missions is something that I am continuing to grow in and continuing to lead my students in.
Matthew 28:18-20
“18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””
I just want to say thank you again to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. I am so grateful for all your support, encouragement & prayers. As a DTS team over the past few months we have been discipling 13 students from across the world who I know will continue to make more disciples. Because of your generosity I have seen these students fall so in love with the Lord, make great steps of faith, find freedom from lies they were believing and I have seen them radically share the love of Jesus with people in Amsterdam & Albania. God is moving in them and through them. Thank you for advancing His Kingdom, thank you for loving His sons & daughters and thank you for helping people get to know the love of Christ through your generosity.
Your generosity has allowed me to be generous with both my time & my finances. Through your generosity I know lives are being changed, God’s kingdom is expanding, people are encountering the love of God & disciples are being made. So thank you so much!
LECTURE PHASE:
PHOTOS FROM AMSTERDAM
AMSTERDAM:
During our last four weeks in the Netherlands, us staff and students had lectures on the topics shown below:
LIFE IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
LIFE IN MISSIONS & LIFESTYLE OF MISSIONS
RELATIONSHIPS & COMMUNICATION
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
I hope to write little updates on what we learnt in each of these weeks, so stay tuned!!
As staff we were responsible for learning alongside the students and further discussing these topics with the students outside of lecture times. While in the Netherlands we would continue to do evangelism and share the gospel on the streets of Amsterdam. We would also spend hours in worship and in intercession, where we prayed for various topics chosen by the students and the base worship/prayer team. As a school we also studied the bible together with a focus on the book of Genesis and do a variety of team bonding exercises prior to our outreach in Albania.
My co leader, Laura and I were responsible for leading an hour of intercession every Wednesday morning. Every Tuesday night after worship, we would meet together to pray and ask God to reveal to us what was on His heart and what He wanted us to be praying for during these intercession times. It was cool how everytime we would do this, even if we prayed separately, we would hear the same things from God. It was so encouraging to know that we were hearing God’s voice correctly and encouraging to know that we were doing something that was on God’s heart. For me this season was centered around prayer and a dependency on hearing God's voice. I grew so close to him and fell so in love with the Lord.
Outside of our daily schedule, shown below for those interested in potentially doing a discipleship training school, us staff were busy preparing for our outreach in Albania & the Middle East. Practically this included looking for places to stay, contacting people from these countries to set up ministries/work and looking into flights/transportation. We also spent numerous hours in prayer and worship because a staff team we recognized that God is ultimately the leader of our teams. I will be honest, during these times I would often be tired but I recognized that I would much rather go on an outreach/missions trip led by Jesus than an outreach/missions trip led by myself and us staff. During these four weeks we spent a lot of time just waiting/listening and allowed ourselves to be interruptible at every stage of planning. Time and time again during our planning times we felt like God would say just pray, worship and listen to me. It was great but when it was getting close to the deadline of leaving the Netherlands, we realized we didn't have much planned because we spent most of our time praying and worshiping. Despite this lack of preparedness from our end, as a staff team we still felt peace and as we allowed ourselves to be interruptible, we saw God work.
DTS SCHEDULE
This season taught me to seek out God’s perspective and taught me to not rely on my definition of what is productive vs unproductive. During these times of planning, over and over again, we would see the faithfulness of God as we chose to depend on him and chose to not rush. During this time God provided us with the right people to contact in the countries of Albania & Middle East. In fact they had actually come to the Netherlands for a quick visit and we met them by chance at an optional 24 hour worship night. This night I was completely exhausted from work but heard God so clearly say “Cliff I need you to go to this worship night”. That very night Laura and I ended up meeting our outreach hosts who would go on to do a lot of the work for us. They found affordable places for us to stay and they connected us with other local ministries within these countries.
As I look back at this season I continue to ask myself the following questions:
Am I willing to let Jesus interrupt my definitions of what is productive and unproductive?
Am I willing to let Jesus interrupt my definition of what success looks like?
Am I willing to let Jesus interrupt my plans for rest?
Am I willing to let Jesus interrupt the goals & plans I have for today?
How interruptible am I?
HOW INTERRUPTIBLE AM I?
These weeks in the Netherlands have taught me how crucial it is to be interruptible and how important it is to take a step back to just listen. Through this time God had showed me that in our pursuit to follow Jesus and do His will, prayer & listening is the most effective use of our time. It is the counter cultural concept of “prayer saves time”.
If i'm gonna be honest there have been times where I have seen prayer as something that takes up time rather than something that is an essential use of my time or the most effective use of time. As I look back at my life, especially in my early christian life, I have always said I want to follow Jesus but I would hardly ever give Him the time to speak. Often I would attempt to listen but when God’s direction did not come as fast as I wanted or how I wanted it to come, I would often make a rushed decision. As I asked myself the question “how interruptible am I?”, it resulted in deep conversations with God about His trustworthiness and how loving His timing is. It was this heart revelation that allowed me to grasp the love that is so deeply woven into His timing. As I look back at my life I constantly see the love, the faithfulness & wisdom of God’s timing. I would love to encourage you to ask yourself the questions above and have a discussion with God about His timing. Allow Him to give you a greater awareness of the perfect love displayed in His timing.
In summary this season has taught me the following things:
Our ability to follow Jesus is proportional to our interpretability.
God’s love & wisdom is deeply woven into His timing. His love is perfectly expressed in His timing.
Before we continue I want to pray for you!
“God I ask that you give us a greater awareness of the depths of your love shown in your timing. God I just pray that as people are reading this prayer they would feel your presence, your peace and your comfort. I pray that you give them a heart revelation where they understand that you have never lost control, that you God are always in control. I pray that as you're reading this you will encounter Jesus in a new way this week and fall so madly in love with him. I pray for healing over your body and over your friends & family. I ask for all these things and command this healing, in Jesus name. Amen.”
OUTREACH PHASE:
Outreach phase is what I like to call the 7 weeks we spent in Albania. Over the course of these seven weeks Laura, Zach and I led a team of 12 students on a mission trip to Albania. Albania is a very relationship oriented country therefore we spent a majority of our time in Albania supporting and partnering with the local long term missionaries who can build deeper connections with the locals. Before I dive into what we did in Albania I feel that it is important to share some quick facts about Albania so that you can best understand the need for the gospel in Albania.
ALBANIA:
Albania borders Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia & Greece as shown in the map below. Albania was under communism rule up until 1991. During communism the practice of religion was not allowed. Although communism ended in 1991, religious freedom was only granted by the government in 1998. The majority religion in Albania is Muslim, making up 60% of the population and christians making up 37% of the population. These numbers vary depending on what website but mulisms make up a majority of the population.
In Albania many christians are quite new in their faiths, due to the religious freedom act being quite recent in comparison to other countries in europe. This is why the need for missionaries in this country is so great.
ALBANIA
source: https://www.youngpioneertours.com/maps-of-albania/
PHOTOS FROM ALBANIA
MORE PHOTOS FROM ALBANIA
TESTIMONY UPDATE ON ALBANIA
Blog 2: The January DTS Begins!!
This next year I have the pleasure of staffing the January Discipleship Training School with this inspiring group of world changers, followers of Jesus and last but not least, friends. I am so excited to staff this school with this team, they have been so welcoming and such an inspiration to my faith. They have made me desire to follow Jesus more, to love others more and they have inspired me with how to intercede and pray for the students.
Blog 2: Happy New Year!!! February 2022
QUICK UPDATE:
I apologize for such a delayed update. This update was supposed to come out sometime in January but was delayed due to a covid outbreak in our building with over 30 people having covid. We had to prepare lessons, teach and lead a school while dealing with the covid symptoms and quarantining. I personally found it quite difficult and tiring but there was so much of God’s grace shown in these past few weeks.
Looking back I see God's faithfulness and that he was in control the entire time. As I look back I am reminded of Romans 8:28 shown below. The lectures during our first few weeks were all though zoom/online, it was a huge inconvenience but it created a dynamic were both staff and students were eager to intentionally connect with one another. Many of the students have said they appreciated it this period because they had a lot of alone time to process, pray and really be intentional with seeking God’s wisdom/guidance for the next few months.
Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
In summary, from my initial perspective I saw the covid outbreak as just an inconvenience but as I prayerfully sought God's perspective I saw a unified school, students that really valued alone time with God and a school that values being able to meet in person. It was inconvenient, but because I value God’s kingdom more than my convenience I can joyfully look back and say to God, Thank you. I'm not gonna deny that it was inconvenient but just because it wasn't according to my plans but that doesn't mean I'm gonna deny God from sharing his perspective of his plans.
I pray this story inspires you as well to invite God to show you his perspective of your past or present circumstances. I'm not asking you to deny how you feel, I'm simply asking you to not deny God from sharing his perspective.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!
SOME MEMORABLE PHOTS SINCE MY LAST UPDATE
I know it's very late at this point but HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! When praying about what to write I really felt to begin by praying for you. My hope/prayer is that you feel the Lord’s presence as you're reading this update. Like I said in my previous update, I believe that God has every right to answer any prayer the way he wants, but I refuse to pray small for fear of being disappointed. I love God and I love to pray boldly because I know who my Father is, I know he loves us and I know he is capable of things way greater than I can imagine to pray for. I want my prayers to reflect this belief.
“God I just invite you into the rooms of all the readers, I ask that you speak words of encouragement, wisdom and love to every reader right now. I pray that as someone is reading this they are healed of any pain & discomfort. I pray for your peace & joy to enter them at this moment. God I love you and I pray that whoever is reading this feels your love and becomes desperate to fall deeper in love with you. I ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.”
THANK YOU!!!
This is the revelation that God gave me regarding the question “why missions?”. This applies both to the supporters and the supported. He said this “Missions are actively loving those whom God loves, with the same love that God has.”
Once again I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has supported me, encouraged me and shared words of wisdom with me. These past few months I was brought to tears on numerous occasions just thanking God. I am so thankful for how he has guided me, called me to missions and connected with an amazing family of supporters, friends & fellow missionaries.
I want to give an extra thank you to those who have financially supported me and enabled me to bless others as well. When it comes to finances below is my heart, this is something I pray routinely and I would love to encourage you and invite you to pray this over yourself as well.
“God thank you for how you have blessed me so far, God I ask that before you continue to bless me, first bless me with a generous heart. God help me to steward this life and these resources in a way that brings you the most glory, the most praise and the most love. God help to steward what you've blessed me with, so that you can get the most out of it. Amen”
MEET THE TEAM:
This year I have the pleasure of staffing the January Discipleship Training School with an inspiring group of world changers, followers of Jesus and last but not least, friends. I am so excited to staff this school with this team, they have been so welcoming and such an inspiration to my faith. They have made me desire to follow Jesus more, to love others more and they have inspired me with how to intercede and pray for the students.
JANUARY DTS STAFF TEAM
(Left to Right: Me, Camille, Amy, Zach and Laura)
MEET THE STUDENTS:
Below are the students of our January Discipleship Training School. I want to emphasize “we” because I couldn't be here to lead them without you. Therefore, we get to help them fall more in love with Jesus! We get to help them discover the freedom found in Christ! We get to help them find freedom from fears, break chains and discover their purposes. We are doing this together therefore I want to emphasize that we are actively loving those whom God loves, with the same love that God has.
“God I ask at this moment that you give each reader a revelation of how significant their involvement is and I pray that each reader feels just as involved and active in missions as I am.”
FUN MOMENTS WITH THE STUDENTS
In our school we have 13 students from various countries including South Africa, Chile, Canada, America, South Korea, Jordan, China and The Netherlands. During this time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them grow in their intimacy with Jesus and in their boldness to share the gospel. In just one month I have seen these students set free from so many lies and fears that they used to believe. I've seen their hunger to know Jesus and for people to know more about Jesus grow tremediously in this last month. The students are recognizing their purpose, the gifts and talents God has given them and actively walking in it.
TESTIMONY:
I want to share a testimony with you guys about one of my students. She originally had a fear of evangelism due to a bad experience with some Jehovah Witnesses’. I initially did not know about this fear (an important detail). The story begins during our second week of evangelism. On this day this student and I get partnered together and we decide to go to Central Station for evangelism. Central station is the main train station in Amsterdam, a bigger & busier version of our Waterfront station in Vancouver. As we are walking to this station I clearly hear God's voice say , “today you're gonna speak to a Jehovah Witness.” I tell this to my student and she nervously agrees and says she heard the same thing from God. Keep in mind that at this time I didn't know this was one of her biggest fears.
As we were walking to the train station I begin to emphasize that as followers of Jesus our responsibility is obedience and God’s responsibility is the outcome. And that we need to take the pressure & responsibility of changing someone's life off ourselves because ultimately it's not gonna be us but God who convinces them to follow. I also emphasized that we will never share a message as beautifully as God and that God is a way better teacher & speaker than we'll ever be. I simply state that our responsibility when we evangelize is to boldly & lovingly be obedient to God.
Once we arrive at the train station I begin to share how I’m also feeling nervous/afraid and talk about what I do with these feelings. I tell her, if you're nervous don't try to hide it from whom ever you're speaking to and specially don't hide it from God. I tell her that often the only reason we're nervous is because we try to hide it. Then I pray with her saying “God I'm nervous, help us to be so in love with you Jesus and those whom you love, that these feelings go away”.
So my students and I start to walk around the station, and I'm just looking at people waiting for God’s prompting and boom!!! (not an explosion just a realization hahaha). I look at these two women close by and I hear God clearly say “talk to those two women”. My student hears the same thing. But we were both so nervous. Were maybe a couple meters away from these two women and me and my student have a comedically nervous conversation that kinda sounded like this….
Her: “I don't know what to say”
Her: “Cliff you go”
Me: “I don't know what to say either”
Me: “What do I say, how do you start it?”
Her: “Don't look at me”
Me: “Don’t look at me either"
This went back and forth for a bit then I decided to just go for it, hoping that God would give me the words to say. I go up to these two women and here's my opening line “excuse me, hi guys my name is Cliff and you know what i'll be honest I'm a bit nervous but we go to a bible school and we're just asking people what are their thoughts on spirituality or Jesus or God. The reason why we are asking this is because I love to preach and I feel that if I don't understand or hear other people's perspectives I won't be as relatable or as authentic. When I preach I want to be able to preach in a way that addresses many but has the same impact as an intentional one on one conversation. If you have time I would love to hear your perspective.”
Now, here's the exciting part. The two people we approached, one of them was a muslim and the other one was a Jahova witness. (WOAH, we heard God so clearly.) It was such a cool conversation because It was the first time this lady who was a Jehovah witness had ever been approached by christians. She was like “woah this is weird, it's normally me doing this”. The conversation wasn't that significant but the outcome was.
Throughout this conversation I saw my student regularly taking part in the discussion as she confidently shared her testimony and view of Jesus.
She has told me that at the she is completely free from her fear of evangelism & Jehovah Witnesses. Now she has an excitement for evangelism and every week we do it she gets more and more excited to do it. Every week she also comes back with amazing testimonies of her sharing the gospel. She is still in contact with this Jehovah witness lady and is even planning to meet up with her for Coffee to share more about Jesus.
This is just one testimony of the many that I've seen God do in our students' lives. I want to stress that you my supporters deserve the same or even more credit than I do. As a team we are seeing lives changed, and those whose lives have been changed are going out to change more lives. God is doing an amazing work here in Amsterdam.
Side note: The two women whom we evangelized to were also civil engineers. I thought it was a cool coincidence that this Jahova Witness woman went from going door to door to doing engineering and how I went from Engineering to doing missions. It's not a significant side note but for me personally it was even more confirmation that God was involved in setting up that meeting.
Here's a video of the same student making a decision to get baptized!!
ADDITIONAL TESTIMONIES:
God has done so much in this time with ywam. It is too much to put it all into words. My thankfulness towards God is endlessly big. Before coming here I struggled a lot with anxiety and I believed in a lot of lies about myself. As I get to know God more and more, the lies that I believed have been starting to break. This DTS really challenges you to step outside your comfort zone, I always felt to weak to do anything for God's kingdom, but I know that when I am weak God is strong. When I step out of that comfort zone, I know that God will provide, he will work because I trust him and will need him. I now know that can not do it on my own strength, I depend on him and not myself. Every time I step out I see God providing, I am more convinced that God wants to give good gifts for his children, thank you God.
- Evine, The Netherlands
During my time at the Amsterdam DTS, God has continuously spoken truth over my life in numerous ways. Being in an environment centred around knowing God more; surrounded by brothers and sisters, reading the expressive language of God's heart, surrendering everyday and being led by the Holy Spirit has allowed me to hear God's voice so clearly. Life before DTS was intense and knowing God to this degree was unimaginable and almost unattainable. I am so grateful because in just the past week I have had a multitude of revelations that have revealed more of God's heart. He has heard every thought/doubt I have and replaced it by speaking complete truth and clarity about how much He sees, hears, and loves me.
- Mallory, USA
This season has been so incredibly unbelievable and life changing already! He has been teaching me about not doing/fixing things in my own strength but instead hearing His voice, obeying it (even when I’m not certain of the outcome) and trusting/fully allowing Him to move etc.
He has been doing incredible things and changing my heart day by day. I’ve been growing so much closer to Him and truly learning so much about Him. I’ve found real Christian friends for the first time and have just been. Even the homework book was so transformative for me and each chapter got me more and more excited for all that God can do and will do in my life! I’m beyond grateful that God brought me here for such a time as this! And it’s only one month in!
- Joné, UK/South Africa.
Once again I want to say thank you for partnering with me as we help others to know more about God, help others find freedom from fears/lies and as we share the gospel on the streets of Amsterdam. I am so grateful that we get to partner with what God is already doing in the Netherlands. So thank you!!! If you're interested, below is a rough idea of my schedule of the January Discipleship Training School. Below is the students schedule, where there are gaps we as staff have time to prepare , meet and pray together!!. It's quite busy but I love it!!! Also below is a fun video showing one second from each day.
Blog 1: Welcome to Amsterdam!!!
I want to start by saying thank you to all my supporters, both friends and family. This has been an amazing year so far, full of fun inside jokes 😫, memories and full of God’s faithfulness. This year has genuinely been so full of joy and I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. My hope is that through this blog you are encouraged, fall more in love with Jesus and get a glimpse of what my life overseas is like.
Blog 1: WELCOME!!!!!
November 2021
I want to start by saying thank you to all my supporters, both friends and family. This has been an amazing year so far, full of fun inside jokes 😫, memories and full of God’s faithfulness. This year has genuinely been so full of joy and I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. My hope is that through this blog you are encouraged, fall more in love with Jesus and get a glimpse of what my life overseas is like. Below are some of my favorite memories from this year, so thank you for making this year great!!
MINISTRY:
If you don't already know I am currently in Amsterdam with a missions organization called YWAM Amsterdam. I’m a part of a team that leads and disciples students in their January discipleship training school (DTS). In this course students can expect to do the following:
Engage in 12 full lecture weeks on topics such as hearing God's voice, Jesus and the Cross, Missions, etc.
Spread the Gospel in Amsterdam in radical ways.
Worship together in song and prayer.
Worship together in song and prayer.
Live and eat in community.
Have people speak words of direction and encouragement into your life.
Travel to other countries to share the message of Jesus for 10 weeks.
Step out of your comfort zone in nations not your own.
Know God and make Him known.
At the moment I am taking a training course called Cultivate. At YWAM Amsterdam all new staff must take this course to help us get integrated and accustomed to the community life in Amsterdam. Below is an example of what my schedule looks like and my new friends who are also new staff. After cultivate I will be preparing for the January DTS (this can include things such as coordinating with lecture speakers, planning outreach & ministry times, team bonding, accepting students applications, etc).
Cultivate Team, Left to Right: Rebecca and Liza (Worship and Prayer Team), Benjamin (School of Biblical Studies Staff), Emanuel (Gateway Team), Me (January DTS) and Jeeyoung (Cultivate and Lookup Staff)
On top of this I will be doing more staff training with a specific focus on how to disciple and lead students within the context of our discipleship training school. I am so excited to serve, disciple and become friends with the future students. At the moment we currently have 7 students accepted, 1 pending and more interested. As a team we are praying for 15-20 students this year. At the bottom of this page I have a couple of prayer points for this year and if you could partner in prayer with me that would be greatly appreciated!!!
My hope is that these students fall so madly in love with God and his word. My hope is that they find so much joy and freedom in surrendering to Jesus. My goal is to help them step out of their comfort zones, grow spiritually and have a passion for worship & prayer. My goal is to point them towards Jesus, encourage and speak life/blessings over them daily. My prayer is that they see Jesus as a leader worth following. My prayer is that they live transformed lives that make other people go, I want what he or she has.
You know how there are some people where you just look at them and go, woah that person loves Jesus or woah that person has to know God. I want this for my students. I want them to be so in love with Jesus that naturally those around them fall in love with God.
At the moment I worship God and pray every morning for these future students of mine and I would greatly appreciate it if you too could be praying with/for me to keep this habit of prayer/worship. My desire is that I fall so in love with Jesus that I find it joyful to serve these students; even when I'm tired, frustrated, stressed or busy. I want to encourage you to also pray this over yourself, to pray that you fall so in love with God that you can find joy in serving others despite your circumstance, your tiredness or your business. I will also be praying for you!
“God I pray that whoever is reading this sees how much you love them. I pray that whoever reads this falls so in love with you Jesus that they find joy in serving, being humble and in being patient. God I ask you that you give whoever is reading your peace and your comfort now. I pray and proclaim healing over your life now! You are healed in Jesus' name. I ask for all this in Jesus' name. Amen.”
LIFE IN AMSTERDAM:
Now that I've given a brief overview of what I'm currently doing, I wanna give you guys a glimpse of my first week in Amsterdam!
I arrived in Amsterdam Saturday, November 6th. Upon arrival I was filled with nostalgia and this feeling of “I'M HOME!!!”. It was so nice to see many familiar faces but also a bit overwhelming to see so many new faces too. My first week was pretty eventful. I got fries, I went grocery shopping, then on the way home my bag broke, I got hit by a bike, I bought a bike, I ate a lot of eggs due to my limited cooking skills 😂 and I made a ton of new friends.
In this building I live with many people, both students and staff, involved in the various ministries around the base. It has been so inspiring to be surrounded by many people whom I can learn from, grow closer to God with and people who have an intense love for worship and prayer. Something I love about living in this community is their intense love for prayer and worship. In YWAM Amsterdam it's a general rule or practice that staff start their days with times of prayer and worship before work is done. This can be done in separate teams or done as a base, below is a video of our base wide worship which happens twice a week.
I have taken this attitude into my life and it has transformed my days in the best way possible. This habit of daily prayer throughout the day has made a huge and noticeable difference in my life. I understand for some people prayer might not be the most exciting thing, but what I want to invite you into seeing is that prayer makes exciting things possible.
“Prayer may not be the most exciting thing to do, but prayer makes exciting things possible”
“I pray that whoever is reading this is inspired to worship. God, I ask you to give them a passion for worship and prayer. God please let whoever is reading this find so much joy in praying and worshiping you. In Jesus name Amen.”
Also during our weekly prayer and intersession time, we decided to pray/believe for the persecuted church in North Korea and the unification of North and South Korea. I will be honest and say I forgot that I could pray and believe for such big things and issues. It reminded me of how great our God is and that he delights in bold and big prayers. I want to take this time to remind you that our God is an omniscient, all powerful God and that our prayers need to reflect just how great and powerful our God is. This time of intentional bold prayer really showed me that in a way my prayers can sometimes be too small or limited. I want to pray boldly and just have faith in God’s character, in the fact that he is sovereign and that he knows more than me. I believe that God has every right to answer a prayer the way he wants, but I refuse to pray small for fear of being disappointed.
PRAYER POINTS:
I have a passion for prayer and I simply believe that prayer works. If you have time I would greatly appreciate it if you could be praying for me regarding the points below. If you have any prayer requests yourself feel free to send me a message on facebook, instagram or even email me at casapaden@gmail.com. I may not reply right away due to my busy schedule but I will definitely be praying.
Pray for unity within the YWAM Amsterdam Community and unity within my January Discipleship Training School team.
Pray for protection against covid.
Pray that I make long lasting friendships and adjust to this new community.
Pray that I get the gift of learning languages and that I learn how to speak Dutch. I really want to evangelize and connect with the local community so learning dutch is something I really need prayer for.
Pray that God gifts me with a generous heart. I want a generous heart that is rooted in this belief that because I am supported by a limitless God, my generosity should also be obediently limitless (not just financially but also with my time, in the area of hospitality and in the area of encouragement). I believe that just like how God spoke creation into existence, he can easily speak finances into existence. I want my actions to reflect this belief. I know this may seem irresponsible but this is my heart behind this. I am afraid that I will find more security in my finances than I will with God. I am afraid of being greedy and the fruit of greed. I am afraid of holding so tightly to my fiances that I end up being disobedient. This is my heart, so please pray that God gives me a generous and discerning heart so that I can best steward the financial support my supporters have blessed me with.
My Prayer for you is this “I pray that in this moment you fall more in love with God. I pray that I find so much joy and peace when spending time with God. I pray that while people are reading this, people are healed, set free, reminded that they are forgiven by a loving God and that people feel God’s peace in the midst of their circumstances. I pray this over your life, in Jesus name. Amen.”
THANKS FOR READING, MAY YOU HAVE AN AMAZING & BLESSED DAY!!!
This is a picture I took while editing this blog, I also can’t figure out how to make this photo smaller so… your welcome hahahaha. Regardless thanks for taking the time to read, I hope . Sincerely, Cliff Sapaden
Also I want to admit that the photos aren’t the best, im learning. At the moment I only have my phone camera and I have no idea how to edit photos so I apologize for the lack of quality when it comes to photos or videos. My prayer is that one day I can own a camera and learn how to edit photos.