These first two weeks of my discipleship Training School (DTS) have begun well, with some great speakers. On Monday, Sean and Janet Lambert came to talk to us about the history of the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) campuses throughout the San Diego/Baja area. They were ideal for this topic, because they started the first base in San Diego and have expanded the reach of YWAM from Ensenada to Tijuana and now Tecate, where I am doing my DTS. It was encouraging to hear their original hopes for this area to produce missionaries to reach throughout the world with the love of Jesus Christ, because that is why I am here. I am proud to be a part of the legacy they have started.
The next speaker was Brett Curtis who is part of the leadership for YWAM in San Diego/Baja. He shared with us his thoughts on sin, preventing sin, overcoming temptation and seeing sin as God sees it. This was especially powerful because Brett felt like our class really needed to here about this topic even though it was not planed. And we were all very interested. One part of his lecture that I was particularly interested in was the fact that there is always a way out of sin. Before we fall completely into a habit or lifestyle of sin, there are multiple points where we can stop and turn to God. This is something that is often overlooked or forgotten, but can save someone from future sin and bring him or her closer to God. I also think it is important for us to see sin as the repulsive thing God sees it as, because that is what it really is. I ask God constantly to break my heart to the things that break His.
Brett continued to speak to us the following few days about intercession, which is basically praying on behalf of someone else, but is something I know to be amazingly powerful. We have been interceding for Tecate, asking God to move in this city and reclaim each person here as a member of His kingdom. We also had Mitch Carlson talk to us about cultural sensitivity, specifically between American and Mexican cultures, because those are the two cultures that we have living in community together for our DTS (even though we only have two Americans in our DTS and thirteen Mexicans). On Friday, Kody Spang came to talk to us about the love of God, which is such an amazing thing to discuss, because God IS love! I pray that every person can learn the peace and joy that comes from knowing that God loves you. That knowledge is what keeps me going from day to day. That first weekend, we went out in groups in one of the neighborhoods here to tell people about the Homes of Hope ministry we have and to pray for them. My group found out about a seven-year-old girl there who was very sick with cancer. We ended up finding her home, and spoke with her brother. He told us that she was in a hospital in Tijuana because her anemia from the leukemia was getting worse. We prayed for her and her family through that hard time, and thanked God that she was able to get some treatment.
We just finished up week two, which started out with Tim Kemp coming to speak. He is in charge of all the YWAM schools in Ensenada. He spoke about a few things, but what I really came out with was the reassertion of what it means to live like Christ. We need to live every moment and say every word as Christ would. This is so vital, because if we do not do this, we are misrepresenting Christ, and we are not doing what He calls us to do. Stephanie and Omar Murillo, also staff from Ensenada, came for two days to speak to us about forgiveness and restoration. Forgiveness is a very important topic for all Christians because we are meant to forgive each other and the forgiveness we receive from God is our salvation and allows us to be restored. Our class even took some time in small groups to go through everyone in our lives and pray for God to reveal if we need to forgive any of those people or ask them for forgiveness. This was very emotional, some of the students here have had very traumatic events happen in their lives and have not been able to forgive the people who hurt them. We finished up the week with Mitch Carlson coming back to discuss quiet time with us. Quiet time is something I do all the time, but I set aside special time in the morning to meditate on scripture and sit in stillness and listen to God. My quiet time is usually a time of worship to God for who He is, thankfulness for what He is doing in my life, and waiting upon Him to give me specific direction or answers to prayers. Since I’ve been here in DTS it’s been a lot of praise for the peace and happiness I have been blessed with, and waiting for God to speak to me about what specifically He wants me to do in missions.
This week we also spent a lot of time preparing for Thursday when we put together a “Night of Missions” at the YWAM center in Tijuana. It turned out well, with worship, a speaker, displays and a drama. We presented seven countries to focus on in prayer and their need for missions. I represented Fiji with Dina, my new sister (not to replace my other sister named Dine, but just a Mexican version of her). Then on Saturday I got to go with a few other students from our class to build a house with Homes of Hope along with a group of teenagers here doing a Mission Adventure program. It felt so good to be doing construction work again. I really miss ASP. But I'm so glad I got to help build a house for that family in the name of God, even though it was hard work. They had a bunch of adorable little kids, and a baby that I managed to find lots of breaks in my work to go play with. I love that it is totally culturally acceptable here to just pick up someone else’s baby here and hold it or play with it, because I love me some babies!
Today we’re going to do some evangelism and try and raise some money for our outreach in a few months. This is something I need your help with. We need to raise $3,000 per person, and most of the students here don’t have that kind of money and do not have support like I do to raise that money. So I need your help in praying that we can raise the funds for us to be able to all go on outreach, and pray and ask God if He wants you do donate money to our outreach. If you are willing to financially support my team or me please email me at spierz@iwu.edu and let me know. I will be sending out some letters in the coming weeks to ask for support, but it’s a lot of money to raise. And about our outreach, we were originally supposed to go to India for our outreach, but God has changed that plan. I’m honestly really sad I don’t get to go to India yet, but instead we’re going to Guatemala, including one month in San Miguel Chicaj, which is where I just went over spring break with a group from DRL at Wesleyan! This is so amazing because I almost didn’t go on that trip, and God has placed San Miguel Chicaj on my heart and I’ve been praying for them and now I get to go back!
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