Frontier missions around the WORLD
The YWAM Oxford base runs many Discipleship Training Schools throughout the year. One of which is the Backpackers DTS which has been very close to my heart the last six years. Another is called the Around the World in 80 Days DTS. The heart of this school is still for the students to grow in intimacy with Jesus, however the outreach focus is different. The vision is all about frontier missions: going to nations and people groups that have never heard the Gospel of Jesus. Each outreach team will visit about four nations and serve alongside long-term missionaries as they share Jesus with the lost. The hope is that students will receive vision from God and be inspired to join or start an overseas mission organization.
After being exposed to different countries and ministries, the teams will all meet up together in Israel. They spend a week touring the Holy land and walking where Jesus walked. And then they have a week of teaching on debrief/ re-entry. The finale is when they are COMMISSIONED on the Mount of Olives- just as Jesus charged his disciples to go and disciple all nations.
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| Israel |
"And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
I am excited to announce that I am leading this Around the World in 80 Days DTS. It's a long story to explain how this all came about. The quick story is that the Father gave me a soft heart and interest in this school about a year ago. The opportunity came up to lead this school, and even though it seems crazy, I knew it was God. I have so much peace about carrying the vision for this school and imparting Jesus' heart for the nations! I have seen much of the unreached world over the last few years and my compassion and desire to love & serve them has grown through God. There is more work to be done and more people, tribes and tongues to see healed and saved. I am blessed to be a part of this great commission. I am blessed to serve this school and see Father restore lives back to Him.
God's planning
One of the things that I love about being a school leader is trusting in God to work out the details. So many times I think it's all about me and what I am capable of doing. Then He shows up and reminds me that this is His school and His children and He has a plan. I am a blessed facilitator of His school :) For example, we were planning on having 23+ students on the school this year. This is a good school size financially speaking and allows us to invite more of a variety of speakers and the budget isn't so tight. I signed up for leading this school very late so I only had a few weeks to sort out the speaker schedule. I tried inviting a few people from overseas to come speak but the dates never seemed to work out. It ended up that most of our speakers are locals from NZ. As the school was getting ready to start, we had many students back out of the school for various reasons. Suddenly we were down to 13 students, and this makes it a tight budget! I reflected on the speakers and saw God's hand on the whole process. He knew who was coming and that we could not afford overseas speakers. He is so faithful and kind.
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| Staff members teaching the students on Culture of Honour |
I also saw this in how we formed the outreach teams. As we were praying about how many teams to have and who of the staff would solo and co-lead, we felt the most peace about having three teams. This made no sense when the school size was 23 people, but we moved forward in what God was saying. A week later, we were down to 13 students and that's perfect for three teams. Once again, God was proving how this is HIS school and HIS plan and if I just listen to Holy Spirit and trust in Him, the Father's got it sorted :)
2014 Calendar
What does this mean for my schedule over this year? Well, now that I'm leading another school, my plans for being stateside are slightly different. The school goes on outreach at the end of April so I will be returning to Oregon/ Montana for the month of May, and maybe a few weeks longer. Then, I will be traveling to some of the outreach teams on a pastoral visit. I will arrive in Israel mid-July, a week before the teams, to set things up for debrief and tours. After the commissioning in Israel I hope to travel through Europe through mid-September and then return stateside. I have two dreams and plans for my time in Europe.
1) Visit past YWAM friends from over the years that live in Europe. There are people that I staffed alongside and girls from my small groups/ outreach teams that I'd love to reconnect with.
2) Visit some backpacker contacts in Holland and Spain. Specifically, there is a pilgrimage that many backpackers travel through Spain as a 'spiritual journey' and I want to hike it for a few weeks meeting travelers, giving out Bible and sharing Jesus! This walk is called the 'Way of St. James" or the Camino. Follow this link to see an example of why people walk on the Camino de Santiago: Walking with Awareness
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| The AW80 DTS students are here! It's week 1 :) |
I will keep you all updated on the journey and excitements of this new school!
Many blessings, Nicki :)
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