Outreach time

I know mission trips are supposed to be hard and all, but here's my view as I'm typing this.

Sorry, not sorry

 Ok, that photo was taken a few days ago, but I did take it from this exact spot. See you can even see the glare from the window in the left of the frame. Also warning: I wrote this after consuming a double shot coffee and am still buzzing. So sorry if I seem a bit hyper in this post. I should stick with tea.

Queenstown has been pretty awesome for outreach so far. But first I thought I should do some more explaining on what lecture phase was like. I figured the best way to do this would be to ask myself some questions that I would ask someone who had just done a DTS with YWAM.

So what is YWAM and what is a DTS?
Good question. YWAM is an acronym for Youth With A Mission. So basically it's a whole lot of young people (well, predominantly. Some schools cater for up to 65, but the average range is 18-25) who go out on short-term mission trips, or longer term missions if they choose to go on past a DTS. A DTS stands for Discipleship Training School. Yes we like our acronyms. It's a five month school where approximately three months are spent in lecture phase and two months are spent in outreach phase. YWAM's aim is "To Know God and To Make Him Known". So the lecture phase focuses knowing God, and the outreach phase focuses on making God known. Though both phases have a bit of each. The reason we have a longer lecture phase is because we want to try and accurately display God to other people. If we don't know Him personally, how can we share His love with other people?

You mentioned lectures. What do you learn about in lectures?
ALL THE THINGS! Roughly each week is a different topic. We covered topics such as: Father Heart of God, Nature and Character of God, Jesus as Lord (also known to us as Mark Parker week), Evangelism, Mission of God, Relationships, Holy Spirit... etc. We would also do things such as base work duties (I got really good at cleaning the stove top guys), outreach prep, small groups, outreach team meetings, outreach, and, of course, skiing or snowboarding. While up the mountains we talked with people on the chairlifts (see also: t-bars) and made friends with the lifties at our local mountain, Porters.

Outreach in Chch. Photographic proof that I did stuff other than skiing.

Most of our school on our last school day of the season. Shorts and shades!

So how have you grown over the DTS so far?
Again, good question. The focus for lecture phase, as you read above (unless you skipped ahead and just stopped here because there was a photo above. If so, I'll try put in more pictures for you), is knowing God. I already knew a lot about who God is and knew Him personally, so for me it was a time of learning more about who I am and my identity in Him. I have become a lot more confident in who I am and who He has called me to be. I also got to know God more. I feel like I had all the bases covered previously, but my relationship with Him has gone deeper. There has been so much, it's hard to remember it all at once and to put it into words.

Another photo for those of you who like photos. The view from Porters.

Ok, so now that we got those bases covered, how are you finding your first week of outreach?
Great! As you might have guessed from the first picture, my team's first outreach location is Queenstown. We'll be here for two weeks in total, then off to help with a YWAM family camp for a week. After that we will head to the Philippines for five weeks before returning to Oxford for debrief and graduation. It's amazing to be back in Queenstown. We were here with the whole school for two weeks of lecture phase so being back is great. It's a completely different feel being here for outreach. We're here just to serve and we've been having an incredible impact so far. We're working with YWAM Queenstown who are pioneering a base here. We've been helping practically in the community by helping people in need of an extra hand. Often these are people who have had an accident or disability, or single mums who work two jobs. It's been really exciting to see how these people have been blessed by just a few hours of our time. We've been cleaning houses, washing windows, painting, doing work in the garden, and much more. We've also been up the slopes chatting with people on the lifts (actual chairlifts this time!), and blessing the lifties.

On top of The Remarkables

The boys built a wall for a couple where the husband is blind and the wife works several jobs. Us girls painted and cleaned.

In our outreach teams we each have roles. Mine is facilitating prayer and intercession times as a team. I've got some plans for our family times next week.

Any prayer points?
How nice of you to ask! The team has been feeling really tired for no particular reason so I think we've been experiencing a bit of spiritual attack. So prayer for that and energy in general. Also for the people that we meet that we would be able to love on them and have really good conversations with them (the buzzword for this is "divine encounters"). And of course for anything that you feel led to pray for.

Thanks for reading! (Or just skimming through, looking at photos). Feel free to ask any questions either here or on facebook (but only on fb if you know me, otherwise it's a bit weird).

Wait, what?

So remember that time when I said I was going to update this thing regularly? Yup, that was about two months ago. Oops. Seriously I can't believe I've been here for two and a half months already and our amazing little school splits up in less than a week for outreach.

So first of all I think I should tell you where I'm going. Well first off we were team Queenuatu (Queenstown and Vanuatu).

Team Queenuatu!

Then, a week or so later, things got switched around. We were still going to Queenstown, but Vanuatu had turned out to be in need of a second year school outreach group. Philippines were keen to have another team headed their way, so we became team Philitown or Queenippines or whatever else you can think of.

Team Philitown!

Look how much happier we all look in the second photo! These photos show the difference that a week can make here in YWAM. It's incredible. I feel like so much has happened that so much time must have passed. I catch myself thinking "Was that only three months ago?" yet at the same time the past two and a half months here have flown by so fast. I'm excited for the next season but also sad to see this one go.

One really cool thing that happened was "The Year of the Kiwi". Little did I know when I first arrived, that this year YWAM Oxford is offering discounted lecture phase fees to Kiwi students. So I got a significant portion off my lecture fees that then went into my outreach fees. A massive thank you to everyone who helped support me in getting here both prayerfully and financially. It means so much and I feel so blessed.

The first month here was a season of strengthening my foundations. I felt that although I already had a good foundation, but any cracks where there was something missing were getting filled in. This last month has been learning more about myself and who God calls me to be. I won't go into details here, but feel free to ask me in person/facebook/calling/texting/whatever. I'm still in New Zealand for the next three and a half weeks so I will still have my phone with all it's capabilities. 

After been surrounded with non-NZ accents for the last two and a half months, I now understand why you can start to miss the Kiwi accent. There has been times when a fellow Kiwi has arrived on base and I have been so excited to talk to them just for the accent. When in Queenstown I was asked by a guy from Paihia if I was from Canada. Close mate. 

Oh yeah so we were in Queenstown for two weeks. It was funny, I almost felt at home being back in Otago for a bit. Even if it was Central Otago, it was still Otago. We had lectures there in the Presbyterian church and went skiing (or snowboarding) a few times. It was so cool seeing other people experience Queenstown for the first time. Everyone loved it. I'm so excited for the YWAM Queenstown base starting up there and what they're going to bring to the town.

So that's all I can think of mentioning now. I'll write another update once in Queenstown (for real this time).

Two weeks in

So just over two weeks ago I arrived here in Oxford. So hard to believe that it's only been two weeks and yet it also feels like no time at all.

I'm getting used to having to translate myself to everyone. I had to mime in the supermarket to my roommate Jayla a couple days ago. I should be picking a Canadian accent any day now. The North Americans have fallen in love with Tim Tams and Fabulicious lollies, which they call Fabby sticks. Seriously I wouldn't be surprised if Tim Tams and "Fabby sticks" become the new currency here on base. Tim Tam Slams were our initiation and have been a favourite ever since.

Tim Tam Slam time

Oh yeah I also had my birthday. I am now 22. The boys played 22 by Taylor Swift for me at breakfast. It was also played as my birthday cupcakes were being brought out. I had a good day that included coffee at Seagers (Jo Seager's cafe) and finding out our outreach locations!

So the outreach locations are *drumroll* Queenstown and Vanuatu or Malaysia and the Philippines. We're keeping quiet about where we're going until it's all confirmed and such (which should be soon). Both locations will have incredible times of outreach and will really see God move. I'm excited.

We've only been skiing (or snowboarding) twice so far due to a lack of snow. Please pray for more snow so we can go enjoy God's creation and make friendships with both those that work on the mountain and the local snowboarding community.

Not a lot of snow yet.

Jayla and I on our first day up the mountain.

It's cool to see what God's doing in all of our lives. For me personally I feel that my foundations are being strengthened and that my confidence is growing. I'm being drawn more to the secret place and experiencing greater measures of His presence and rest there. We had an amazing worship session on Wednesday night that was almost like being back at Dunedin Elim. As a school it's exciting to see the growth and passion developing.

I think that sums up most of it.
Kaitlin x

The adventure of arriving

So yesterday I finished packing then travelled the 5 hour journey (thereabouts) to drive to Oxford, New Zealand (sorry to those of you who thought I was going to Oxford, England).

Saying goodbye to Dunedin was a little hard, but not as hard as it could have been. I guess it helps that most people I know had gone home for the holidays. I almost teared up driving out of Dunedin but instead focussed on how much I would grow on DTS and how much my relationship with God will grow.

I was picked up by the very lovely Sophie and Mandi who jokingly welcomed me to New Zealand. I was quite happy to learn that I am in fact the only kiwi on this DTS (hence the blog title). It's a bit weird to be surrounded by different accents almost continually in your home country.

This DTS is super small; nine students in total. We were all expecting around 30. Turns out 15-30 is the norm for here so this really is a tiny DTS. At least I should learn everyone's names. The greatest amount of students come from Canada (four), not America as I was expecting.

My hunger for more of God has been stirred over the last few days so I am encouraged for what is to occur over the next five months. Everyone's prophecies have been super accurate and encouraging. Whenever I may start to wonder what I am even doing here I remind myself of those. I'm so glad I took the time to write them down.

Please pray for more snow so we can go skiing. Porter's will be our regular ski field and has not yet opened.

Kaitlin x.