The sunrise on the way to breakfast this morning - pretty nice!
This past week has been a crazy whirlwind of lectures, outreach prep, sermon/testimony preparations, Skype calls, deep cleaning (classroom, training building, Number 9, bedrooms) and "see you later"'s.
On Sunday, one of our trainees' parents had given them a bunch of Easter eggs to give us, so they hid them in BB Hall (where we eat) as a surprise - some of the other trainees got a real kick out of that!
Amy Jacks (from YWAM Harpenden) was our speaker for Monday and Tuesday, she was teaching on Outreach Preparation (Missions stuff) - it was great! She really helped me to see that we need to step out in obedience to God wherever He calls us to go, and go the distance - otherwise, we can fall into a pattern of settling where we're at. The statistics show that 9/10 missionaries don't make it to the field that they're called to go because they settle, compromise, put their needs before God's, stay in comfort, put their family first, broken relationships, etc. Amy also talked about the different stages of culture shock, and how we can progress through it with the right mindset. She then talked about the difference between hot climate cultures (very relational based) and cold climate cultures (put relationships on the back burner - they come second to other things) - very interesting! Albania is considered to be a hot climate culture, so we'll be entering an area that's very different than what we're used to (in a cultural sense!)
Then on Wednesday and Thursday, Keri Fishlock (from YWAM Harpenden) spoke on Community Development. He really opened our eyes to the reality of how we can come into an impoverished nation/area with 'the solution', but we actually do more harm than good! We need to work with the locals, ask what their needs are - we shouldn't be trying to just come in with our own thing, our "western civilization solutions"! Keri got us to examine a number of case studies to further understand this whole concept.
During Outreach Prep this week, we were divided into a number of groups, and we learned a bunch of wordless skits that can be used in any culture! I'm feeling pretty prepared on the skit front now!
Working on our skits!
Over the past 2 days, we've been seriously deep cleaning Number 9 (the building we live in), and the classroom/training building - every school does this when they go on outreach! It's been very, very busy - everyone trying to get their last things done before we leave.
Praying for Jordan during one of our intercession times this week.
"Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins."
James 5:20
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