Hello From Uganda. We are doing great as a team. We have shared the Lord with so many people and seen many come to the Lord as well. The team dynamics have been great and the team is doing well adjusting to cold showers, rice and beans, outdoor squaties, and much more. They are loving the people and we are doing our best to make an impact. We have been preaching in churches, prisons, university groups, going door to door, and doing open-airs. So good to be in Africa

The Ugandan Outreach Team

Our last week here at YWAM Harpenden has been a real joy! Last Friday, as you might recall, the new Discipleship Training School and other school and seminar groups moved in, so we had to move into an old factory located on the property here. In some ways, we feel like we’re already on our foreign outreach as we’re camped out on the floor with sleeping bags. The night we moved in, our wonderful school leaders gave us an extra special treat of takeaway pizzas and cookies and ice cream for dessert! We played games late into the evening and made “human sandwiches” (as many people as possible squashed in between as many mattresses as possible…) People woke up a little sore the next morning…..On Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed the hospitality of some great YWAM Harpenden staff friends, people we’ve grown to love here over the past three months. We enjoyed an apple festival held in the orchards here, with fresh apple juice and delicious cakes and jams available. It was such fun and was a great chance to abandon inhibitions and become a kid for the afternoon climbing trees and collecting apples in wheelbarrows! My parents also came to visit me and took me out for lunch, which was very special. It was hard to say goodbye before I leave for my two-month outreach to Uganda, but it was a privilege to spend time with them.

We began lectures this week in a slightly different style than we’ve become accustomed to…namely, with no lecturer…or not one we can hug anyway! We spent the week watching a series of videos by Dean Sherman on Spiritual Warfare. Much of the content was new to me. Dean describes the authority we have in Jesus Christ as well as the insignificance of the forces that oppose us compared to the greatness of God. He has made it possible for me to believe that, as the Bible tells us, prayer is powerful and effective. This teaching will be so important when we get to Uganda and face situations that most of us have never dealt with before. We’ll have many opportunities to pray and then see God work…. I can’t wait to get on that plane!

In the next couple of days we will be saying goodbye to our DTS Italy team as they prepare to start their outreach in Cornwall and Brighton here in England before flying out to Italy. It will be very quiet without them here, but we are thrilled that they can begin this next adventure. Team Uganda leaves next Tuesday. Although sad that we’re saying goodbye to friends and family, nothing can take away the excitement of being led by God into the world to partner with Him in seeing lives change. Who would say no to that? So, here ends the lecture phase of my DTS…and I’m as ready as I’ll ever be!!

The next time I write it will be from Nairobi, Kenya, en route to Uganda – see you then!

Kim

We took a deep breath over the weekend before the crazy schedule of Re-engage (www.reengage.net) began. I relaxed with friends until Saturday afternoon and it really felt like I was at home. We travelled to neighboring Luton to do some shopping in between the rain storms, and even stopped for some real English fish and chips on the way home. I’m from England and I thought it was just delightful!

Sunday marked the beginning of the Re-engage conference, which has been awesome (and we’re only half way through). The conference focuses on how we can live out God’s values in all areas of society. We’ve heard from some very influential people including James Featherby, a partner in a leading law firm, John Sutherland, a superintendent with the metropolitan police, and Tim Levell, the editor of the BBC television show Blue Peter. It has been incredible to hear from people of such influence about the way they live out their faith in such diverse sectors of society.

At Re-engage, I am involved in the Government and Politics track. I’ve been privileged to spend time with Charlie Hoare, the International Secretary of the humanitarian organization CARE, which provides resources and helps to bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives. CARE is represented in the United Kingdom’s Parliaments and Assemblies, at the European Union in Brussels and at the United Nations in Geneva and New York. Charlie is involved on an international level with the United Nations and spent time sharing stories of his amazing experiences within such an incredibly influential sector. Tomorrow, I have the privilege of accompanying Charlie (with the rest of my fellow track members) on a political tour of London including the very exciting Houses of Parliament. I can’t wait!

The first week of Re-engage has been significant for me. One of the reasons I came to do the YWAM Discipleship Training School was to discover God’s heart for justice. I’m discovering that the more I know God the less of a distinction I see between His character and justice. A desire for justice is simply part of who God is and integral to what it means for us to follow him. Yesterday, Phillip Powell challenged us to say “yes” to God and be willing to go wherever He asks us to, in whatever sector of society, and to serve him with all we have. I knew that was one of the moments I had been waiting for in this journey…a commissioning of my hopes and dreams to be someone whom God could trust to help bring about justice. The exciting thing is, God has been speaking to me more directly and specifically than I’ve ever heard him speak before and I’m catching a clearer glimpse of my future.

As we continue with Re-engage for another week, I’m excited to hear more from some influential people and organisations…and to finally get a day off to process it all!
See you next week!
Kim

As I write there is silence in Number 9 (my house) as our first Discipleship Training School (DTS) assignment is due tomorrow morning. Not a sound can be heard except the clicking of fingers on laptop computers and the occasional sound of a page being turned scanning the contents for inspiration. Slight panic fills the air, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will all make the deadline (with at least seconds to spare!!)The quietness is a welcome change from the chaos of last weekend. The “React” training event brought in some 300 young people to the Oval, all preparing to take the Gospel throughout England and Europe in coming weeks.  It was amazing to see young people committing and recommitting their lives to God…leaving this place full of faith and ready to be bold for God. Though I wasn’t part of React, my friend Debbie was a leader involved in the event and we managed to see each other briefly… what a blessing for me, not to mention the white chocolate milkshake she bought for me from the brand new Oval Café (best milkshake I’ve ever had!).

Over the weekend I had the privilege of some home-cooked food. My friend Rachel has family that lives nearby so we spent Saturday afternoon eating, drinking and talking in the summer sunshine. It was lovely, and a real blessing to meet new friends. Later that evening back at the YWAM base we were watching a movie when suddenly a beautiful fireworks display began on the green outside our house. Before you knew it we were dancing on the grass to the sound of classic disco tunes from a nearby wedding and watching the glittering fireworks right above our heads. It was a great moment.

This week we’ve had a guest speaker with us, Leah from Switzerland. She came to talk about the different “spheres of society” and how we see God’s principles and values underpinning them all. The sphere of government and politics has been of particular interest to me. We looked at how the Israelites leaving Egypt and living in the desert were an uneducated, slave population. God gave them guidelines on how to set up a society that included everything they would need to live well– from good sanitation to equality in issues of justice. What before seemed to me like irrelevant and outdated Old Testament-era rules are in fact the very building blocks of a Godly society that we need in every community and nation today. This was a great revelation for me.

Last night we enjoyed the long awaited return of ‘spoons’, made even more hilarious when Leah joined us and ended up on top of the coffee table scrambling for a spoon with the rest of us. We followed the spoon action with a time of ‘name those 80’s tunes’ that included the likes of ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson…and all the dance moves that go with it! You can’t put a price on memories like that….

For the next two weeks my DTS group is joining a conference here at the Oval called Reengage (www.reengage.net) which will be focusing on how we can live out God’s values in all areas of society. This last week has been great preparation for the conference and I’m looking forward to some fantastic times of teaching and challenge as we learn together. The schedule will be insane, I’m sure….. but I can’t wait.

Well, back to my assignment. See you at the end of Week Five!

Kim

Week Three

As usual it has been another busy week here at the Oval! Trent Shepherd, a great speaker, came to share some of his wisdom with us along with some incredible stories. One involved him and another passer-by rolling a huge fish that had beached itself back into the sea as they shouting at it, “You gotta live, fish!” And it did! We spent one afternoon on the grass in the sunshine talking about our favorite stories of the man, Jesus, while Trent dug a small hole with his hands, spat into it, made mud and rubbed it on his eyes. That was a moment I will never forget. My concept of who Jesus really was has been completely revolutionized. It’s hard to believe a carpenter from Nazareth would ever mean so much to me. I came away from these lectures pondering what it means now that I know what I know about this man.

In the middle of that incredible time, we took a trip to London to see the sites. Armed with packed lunches, umbrellas and 13 cameras we descended on the unsuspecting tourist hot spots of…. St Paul’s Cathedral (we climbed to the very top…offering the best view of London by far), the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and briefly the Natural History museum!! Needless to say, by the end of the day we were SO tired!! Some of us stopped in at an Italian restaurant (where we ordered 5 cheese pizzas…the cheapest thing on the menu!!) and the rest saved even more money by frequenting the local McDonalds!! Even though we were blistered and aching like crazy by the time we got home, it was a brilliant day with some fantastic memories that we’ll share for years to come!!

On a sad note, our final school member Pendo is still yet to hear about her visa and the longer it takes to come through the further behind she gets with lectures etc. We are still hoping and praying she will get here soon…so remember her!!

I am so glad to report that the sun is finally shining here! And that is great news for the 120+ people that are flocking to the Oval this weekend for an evangelism conference. Myself and friends from the DTS now bear wounds marking this special event after erecting huge marquees and tents in preparation for their arrival…and getting flicked by giant toggles that are now holding there roofs on!! I am really looking forward to sharing time with so many people from all over the country. It will be great to have so many English people here at last – Hooray!!

This week we have been spending some time with John Peachey, the Base leader here in Harpenden, talking all about forgiveness and repentance. We have our last two sessions with him coming up these next few days and then I have a visit from my best friend from home this weekend, which is very exciting! In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!! See you next week!!

A Week One report from a Discipleship Training School Student

Join us every week for the next five months as we check in on Kim Hart, a young woman from England doing her Discipleship Training School (DTS) at the Youth With A Mission training center in Harpenden, England. Kim will tell us about what she’s learning, what it’s like to live in a community with other young Christian missionaries, and how God is changing her.  Then we’ll “travel” with Kim and her classmates as they take what they’ve learned to another nation.

Week One

I arrived here at ‘The Oval’ on a wonderfully sunny Wednesday afternoon and was shown around a property that looks rather like an army barracks. With exercise class at 7am you may well believe that you have come to the wrong place! However, despite daunting first impressions, I instantly felt as though I was walking into my home. People who live and work here at Youth With A Mission-Highfield Oval are so welcoming and friendly and have an amazing capacity for remembering names and faces, so although the environment felt foreign to me at first, I felt I belonged here.

I share a room with two other girls, one from America and one from Rwanda, so I’m sure you can imagine the vast differences in our cultures, our habits…even our sock drawers! My concern in sharing a room was not the space or even the bunk beds. It was snoring! But, I’m glad to report that my roomies are silent sleepers!! Praise God for small mercies!

After a few days of orientation exercises, a trip to St. Albans and a “high tea” welcome, we began our first week of lectures. Oh my goodness! Talk about intense. Before I left my home church, a woman told me that during a prayer time, God had given her an impression of me as if I were on a very fast moving motorway. The speed of the cars was immense and the word from God for me was that I would be “fast-tracked” into what God had for me during this training (the DTS), and that I shouldn’t be scared that I wouldn’t keep up with Him but rather that I should prepare myself for new and exciting things. Well, it’s a good job she warned me because otherwise I think I would have been out of here! This week’s lectures have been all about how to hear God’s voice, that is, learning how to recognize when He’s speaking to me and then responding to Him. We’ve talked about the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, intercessory prayer, faith and obedience…and I don’t think that covers half of it! Lectures are great and the teaching we’re receiving is inspiring, yet it is so out of my everyday routine that I struggled to keep pace at first. But God has been faithful to get me here in the first place and He has promised to sustain me so I am excited to see what’s still to come as this adventure unfolds….

As part of our schedule each week, we each have assigned work duties, doing anything from cleaning toilets to mowing the grass on the Oval. My job? I work in hospitality making beds and vacuuming with Henry (the Hoover…yes, that’s what they call him) and I’m really enjoying it. Our free time as classmates and friends is special since we don’t have much of it… so it’s not uncommon to find students diving over the coffee table wrestling each other for a spoon during our infamous card games in the evening (I believe there was blood drawn last night!).

Tonight we have our first local “outreach” time in Harpenden and we have no idea what we’ll be doing, a challenge for a girl who’s a bit of a control freak. Right now, I’m off to write in my journal, do homework, shower (an interesting event here) and make tea…being the only English girl in the school I have to do the tea pot proud!

Stay tuned next week as Kim shares what takes place during Week Two of her Discipleship Training School experience.

We’ve just come back from our outreach in Blackpool. We had no idea whatsoever that this would be our destination until about 2 weeks before the end of the lecture phase. We were praying as a group that God would reveal to us where He wanted us to go for the last 15 days of the UK outreach, since it still looked pretty much unsorted. The answer was Blackpool.We were hosted by a church in the most needy area of Blackpool. Their hospitality and generosity were amazing! We all felt as part of a family there. During our time there we were able to pray for the city, considered to be one of the darkest places in England, and speak life onto it. We also prayed for our host church, the spheres of society and people we came across. We picked up trash on the streets, helped out at a cafe that is run by a lovely couple from the church who happened to be my hosts, and got actively involved in activities at the church such as giving testimonies and leading Bible study, Sunday School and Prayer Meeting.

The highlight of this outreach though, was, for most of us, helping out at the Hope Project. The project consists of bringing hope to the homeless people in Blackpool by providing food, clothes and assistance for them. I got in touch with many beautiful and valuable people so full of potential who have gone through lots of pain in their lives. I felt helpless and all I wanted to do was stay quiet, look them in the eyes and listen to them. We were able to pray for the original design of almost everyone there and give them words of encouragement from God. It was touching to see some people with tears in their eyes as we were telling them how precious they are to God. We also handed out leaflets about the Hope Project in 3 big blocks of flats where apparently most drug dealers and addicts are concentrated. It was quite an adventure…

I was so blown away by how much the leaders of the project care for people. There’s so much love in their eyes that, honestly, I just wanted to stay near them just to feel a bit of that love. As I watched people all excited gather around the van to get something to eat, I remembered that passage in Matthew 25 which says: “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”. I could visualise Jesus Himself queueing to receive pot-noodles, coffee, a new pair of jeans and love. A massive amount of love.

We went to Blackpool to bless that city but I reckon we ended up being the ones who were blessed the most.

Ester, Brazil

DTS is a time of refreshing, restoration and God’s power of healing in my life. It’s good for me to be in this DTS as God called me and I obeyed. It’s like a process started in my life from the first day I was here, and it’s not finished yet. Every single day I learn something or something happens deep inside me. Sometimes maybe I cry and other times I’m filled with joy. It’s the best time. I’ve enjoyed my relationship with God and have an understanding of being an intimate disciple.

The most significant thing for me was in this past week. I was praying for a new revelation through the teaching about the Father Heart of God. God revealed to me that He loves me as much as He loves Jesus and Jesus loves me as much as He loves God through John 17. I might have read John 17 more than 20 times, but I have never experienced this amazing love of God for me, as He is my good Father and wants the best for me.

Through DTS I have experienced God’s love, caring, providing money for my school fees and outreach, knowing my original design and walking in it, seeing myself through God’s eyes and having my identity through Him.

Mary, Egypt

Inner Healing
We are not aware of how much we are affected by sin until we ask God to show it to us. As we move away from God’s principles, we experience pain. As we go back to God’s ways, we experience inner healing, freedom and joy.
Inner healing is not only about feeling better inside but also helping other people to get healed from the same things we used to suffer from in the past. “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds” (Jeremiah 30:17). We won’t forget what happened to us, but it won’t hurt anymore.
This teaching on inner healing was very helpful to me as I could deal with the pain that was hidden in some dark and dusty spots in my heart.

Communication
We looked at the eight different spheres of society and how God is revealed to each one of them. In education, for instance, He is the Rabbi. In economics, He’s Jehovah Jireh, our Provider. In politics, He’s justice and wants to ensure equality and justice for all citizens.
The teaching focused particularly on communication (God is the Living Word) and the power of the tongue. Scriptures like “pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Prov 16:24) and “with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9) have made me wonder whether the things I say really bless people.

Ester, Brazil

Greetings from Muizenberg,

It was very difficult to leave Worcester, but we are also excited to be here at the YWAM Muizenberg base. The weather is much cooler here and the beach is beautiful.

This past week, we have been busy working with many ministries. We have gone to the Living Hope soup kitchen, where we have led devotions, made relationships with the people and helped the staff to clean the place and prepare food.

We have gone to the refugee camp in Cape Town, where people are from Zimbabwe, Somalia, and Ethiopia. They live outside and wait everyday for papers that let them stay in South Africa so that they can get a job. We bring them sandwiches and drinks and we pray over them and hear their stories. Many are open to receiving prayer and many believe in God but are really discouraged and losing hope.

We have also gone to Reach Elderly Home, just to hang out with the elderly, listen to their stories, paint with them and go on walks with them. We have gone to the townships to work with a church and help out with the children’s church. We’ve also led bible studies in the homes of people from the church, gone to small groups for the youth and to people’s homes showing them love and praying over them.

Emmanuel has taken us on prayer walks to learn about the history of Muizenberg and to pray over the strongholds of the town. We have also worked around the base with whatever they need help with, like cleaning and making food.

As for fun activities, on Friday we went out to Cape Point and saw wild ostriches, then walked up to the lighthouse in Cape Point and saw the beautiful ocean. The Lord was with us as we went. To get into Cape Point park, there was a 55 Rand fee per person but the lady let the 10 of us go for 100 Rand! Then she asked us to pray for her to get a house. God is Awesome!
We also went to Simon’s Town where we saw penguins an inch away from us, they were so cute! Then to end the wonderful day, we went to Fish Hoek and watched the sunset on the beach.