Winnipeg Discipleship Training School

Hello again friends! It's fabulous up here in Winnipeg with it's excessively high Slurpee sales, puddles of sludge on the sidewalks, the anticipation of our outreach to Uganda, and the memories we will be leaving behind. Ladies and gentlemen.... this was our last week of teaching. The school went by so quickly. I'm still awestruck about it....crazy...Anyways lets get to the good stuff;.the details of this great week.

March 19th, 2007: Outside the YWAM office on Sargent Ave, you can here muffled noises. As you approach the office and peer into the window, you see a group of people sitting in a circle, clapping out a beat and laughing....yes....Monday morning, our exceptionally and delightfully fun(and educational...just make sure I included that, wink, wink... ) speaker, Chris Whitler, is having us clap out a beat while we holler out the name of an animal in alphabetical order. What a way to wake up! It was great, not to mention how he opened up the lecture by playing the game "I have never". It is the one where you say... for example "I have never snorkled upside-down", and if anyone in the crowd has, they immediatly bolt from their seat in search for another...and the one who isn't quick enough gets stuck in the middle repeating this cycle. Also, in the effort to make our "getting to know each other" process more interesting, Chris asked us the most intriguing question of all: What is your favorite ice-cream? Awesomely enough, I documented each person's reply (against their will...maybe...muhahaha!). So here you go...the favorite ice cream(s) of our DTS.

Staff

Matt: peanut butter chocolate
Jamie: chocolate chocolate brownie
Ree: Cold Stone Creamery's birthday cake bash or Ben and Jerry's peanut butter cup
Kim: lemon sorbet
Paul: pralines and cream

Speaker

Chris: Cold Stone Creamery's white cake batter with strawberries

Students

Ed: blue licorace
Lindsey: peanut butter chocolate
Brenden: heavenly hash
Stacie: pumpkin pie or cake batter
Robin: cookie dough
JP: rainbow or strawberry

This week's topic was Evangelism. I loved Chris's approach to teaching about it. Instead of giving us checklists of what to do, he shared about his experiances and what he has drawn from them. Through his stories, he has allowed each student to come to their own revelation of what is involved in evangelism. 

A specific story I was floored by was about him spending time in a Russian orphanage. He said something to this effect..., " The coolest part was seeing God's love and commitment to her (a little girl he had become friends with). You are not going to Uganda because of your caring and concern but because of GOD'S caring and concern for people. He cares so much that he helps you to raise the money and time needed to go to Africa and just share (even if briefly) in the lives of others." He also talked about how to love others, how evangelism is not just something done at a specific time, but rather, done everyday through our lives, how to have a balance of boldness and humility, how to walk through tension with grace, and so much more. He shared about moments of success, times of failure, and how God is using us to fill up every part of everywhere(in people, and in the world).

The illustration he used for that last point was genious. Two of us students went upfront. One held a glass tipped, the other a glass underneath, and Chris the pitcher. He then proceeded to pour water into the first cup, which overflowed to the second, and then all over the carpet( haha...I wonder how our staff was feeling about that). Honestly, I'm not quiet sure how to summarize all that our speaker taught us. I guess he imparted a peice of his life unto us, and I'm glad that through God using him, we could draw inspiration for our own lives concerning evangelism.

 
Highlights of the week:
Chris cooking Thai Food for dinner

Small group (boys and girls this week): We made mini-smores using chopsticks, votive candles, and miniaturized versions of the rest of the ingrediants. We played Mennonite maddness( don't worry, I had no idea what was going on either) , a game in which a single pen is placed in the center of the table, followed by the shaking of dice, and if a person rolls the correct number they frantically snatch-up the pen and begin to number a paper until they reach 100. When this happens, they win. It's pretty interesting to say the least, especially when you're surrounded by uber competive people. We also played a game invovling tape and frantic grabbing...the point was to rip the piece of tape of your peer's back...good times!

Outreaches: Our last ones... "tear".
 Note to reader: These are not exact quotes, but overall ideas shared by the students...

Ed's perspective: This week, we talked about what it means to be a Christian, and shared different ideas concerning it which included : forgiviness, loving one another, being supporitve of each other, being encouraging, and so on. There was definitly a sense of closure: the group of guys prayed for each of us, for our safety, health, and that we would be good and effective wittnesses. I really enjoyed meeting the people in the North End community and hearing about their journeys and day to day struggles. Many of their struggles were hard for myself to relate to, but they gave me a new appreciation and understanding for their lives and how they overcome/deal with the obstacles in their life.

Lindsey's perspective: LBE was pretty good. We as students preformed an object lesson, which went well, but what I felt affected the youth most was Stacie's testimony (concerning our illustration) because it related to them in a personal way.I also had the opprotunity to be involved in pickups, and it was good to see the living condistions of the youth because it enabled me to understand more so why they act they way they do.

Well...there you have it! Sadly, this will be my last time journeling about our school...I will be in Uganda next week! Jamie will recieve the honor of documenting our journey while we are there, and I want you to know....it's been a blast...and God bless you tremendously!

Lovin you in Christ Jesus,
Stacie J.