"I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane"

Originally written on Sunday 25th November

I sit here in Belfast International airport, laptop on my lap, but with no internet connection…I was hoping to be able to post something today on some free airport internet...but they're trying to make me pay for it! It’ll have to wait for tomorrow to be posted...but I can write it from here…

I’m heading off to Harpenden, a village just outside of London where we’re going to be spending a week in lectures with another DTS there hearing from a guy from South Africa who has a lot of experience working in reconciliation there, so it looks like it’s going to be a good week, it’ll be nice for our students to be able to get a chance to see a bigger picture of YWAM too and meet a group of people who are on the same journey as them but just in a different place.

The school has been going well. We’re just about to enter into our fourth week of the students being here, and it’s been pretty crazy! I think I underestimated the amount of work that actually goes in to putting together a DTS and filling the schedule, as well as finding a bit of time for a life outside of that…

It’s been a bit of a struggle over the last few weeks to really make sure that this DTS doesn’t take over my life… Sure, it’s probably the biggest thing that’s happening right now, but if that’s all that I’m doing or where I’m spending all of my time, then that’s probably not the healthiest. So, please know that I’m trying to figure this out right now, what the balance of working for YWAM and also trying to live a life outside of that means, and so if I’ve been a bad or inattentive friend or family member over the last few weeks or months, please know I’m working on it, and I’m sorry.

In different and happier news though, the students are doing great. They really are an amazing bunch of people. We had a speaker called Steve Sullivan from YWAM in Harpenden (ironically…the very place I’m jetting off to right now!) teaching last week, and what he kept saying was how unusual our students were, and how this is a pretty special DTS. I wasn’t sure what he was meaning by this, and so I talked to him in the middle of the week to ask him to confirm what he was meaning, and he said that the difference with our DTS was that they are coming here to Belfast not just to figure out their own heads, but they are coming with a plan in mind for where they’re going to after this and a goal in the centre of their vision. They are a very purposeful DTS, focused on the direction that God is taking them in and the plan He has for their lives.

I have to admit this is pretty cool. Anyways, the students are doing great, really getting involved and engaging with the lectures and the teaching they’re receiving and so it’s exciting to see where it’s going to go from here!

A date for your diaries…. On Wednesday 12th December (at an as yet undisclosed (i.e. undecided) location) we are going to introduce our DTS students to the world! We’re going to have an evening where the students have a bit of a chance to explain to supporters and friends of YWAM where they have come from, and, as you’ve heard in this blog, a little big of where some of them are hoping to go to after this! So, if you can make it, pencil it into your diary, and I’ll put a location up here in the next while when we figure it out! It’d be great to see you there and to get a chance to meet the students you’re hearing about on here!