To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…
27 Nov 2011 2 Comments
in DTS Related
Part I
That title was purely for Dad. Enjoy. 
OK well maybe not purely. It is kind of relevant. We now have only 5 days to go until I leave for outreach. We are going to a country in South-East Asia in which, according to the Joshua Project (www.joshuaproject.net), 68% of the people are unreached by Christians and have never heard the name of Jesus. We’re going to love and serve the people there. I am really excited and can’t wait to see what God is going to do. It is the last 3months of the DTS course and after outreach I come back to Australia for 1 week of debrief. Then we all graduate and go our separate ways! I can’t believe how quickly time has gone by!
While I’m away I won’t have access to facebook or be able to update my blog. I don’t know how often I’ll even be able to get online but when I am online I will be sending out email updates/newsletters. If you would like to get updates please drop me an email at:
amy.bishop@ywamwollongong.org
Part II
Worldview week has been incredibly interesting. We have been answering 7 key questions from 3 main viewpoints: Atheist, Polytheist, Biblical Theist. The country which we are going to is primarily Buddhist and so learning what they believe and why gives insight into their lives and helps us to interact with them in a way which is honouring and respectful to them. During the week watched the movie ‘First Knight’ and identified the different worldviews portrayed by the characters in the movie. We also visited the local Buddhist temple which happens to be the largest one in the southern hemisphere. Again, very interesting.
Our lecturer this week has been YWAM Wollongong’s base director, Bruce Skinner. I have a lot of respect for this man and am very thankful for his (and his wife’s) obedience to God to start this base. One of the things he challenged us to do is to question why we believe what we believe. To ask ourselves the questions: Where did this thought come from, why am I thinking this, who told me this? And then to see if what we believe aligns with what the bible says. I think I’ve realised that a lot of what I believe/my worldview comes from my culture and then bits come from biblical teaching. I really want to re-read the bible, find the original meaning behind the text and then apply that to my life.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for unity for our teams and that we would be led by God’s Holy Spirit. Pray for protection, clear direction and also for fun too!
Just a big thank you to everyone who has been reading the blog and has supported me financially and in prayer. I am so so grateful for your support. God has been transforming me and I love knowing more of him. I hope this blog has given you an insight into my journey, thank you for coming on the ride with me.
Hopefully you can all stay updated on my next big step with the email newsletters.
Life on the front-lines of battle.
14 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in DTS Related
Spiritual Warfare week has been absolutely amazing and incredibly interesting! We watched a DVD of Dean Sherman teaching, which when I first heard about it I was like ‘Really?!’, but honestly, it was such good teaching I did not mind a single bit that it was a DVD. I wrote 30 pages of notes from a week of teaching – there was so much good stuff in there! (Hence this might be a rather long blog post).
We spent a large amount of time looking at Ephesians 6:10-20 and the armour of God.
This is a link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%206:10-20&version=NIV
I have learnt so much from this passage in the past week I don’t know where to start! Well here are just a few little snippets of gold:
- v13 -”…when the day of evil comes…” – The day of evil will come. Be prepared.
- Spiritual Warfare is constant. The devil doesn’t take weekends off or give you a break.
- v12 -”…not against flesh-and-blood…” – Therefore people are not the enemy. The battle is in the supernatural/spirit world not the natural.
- v11 -”…stand against the devil’s schemes.” – Satan is plotting and scheming against us, therefore we need our armour on!
OK, so one thing which I REALLY liked which he said was about the importance of knowing the nature of God and the nature of the devil, and how this helps you to identify the schemes of the devil.
John 10:10 says: The thief [and by that he means Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ~Quote Jesus Christ.
From this we establish that God is a God of LIFE. God is always trying to give us LIFE. He is an upwardly mobile and active God. Everything he does is to try to reconcile us with him (but because God is awesome we have free choice in this). {Also, just a little side note of something I often seem to fail to remember is that: even the wrath and judgement of Go d ultimately leads to life and fulfilment. Just thought I’d add this in.}
Satan nature however is totally contradictory to the nature of God. He steals, he kills, he destroys. He hates us. He totally hates us and plots and schemes to kill us.
This then leads to the question of ‘why do we blame God for certain things?’ OK so not everything that happens in life is due to demonic activity. We need a balanced view of the world. Some things are spiritual, many things are not spiritual i.e. humans make mistakes; we live in a fallen world. But, when it comes to people saying, “I can’t follow God because all these terrible things are happening,” it just doesn’t measure up. We know from the bible that God brings life. We know from the bible that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. If this is true, God cannot be to blame for evil in the world. Hence we bring this all back round to identifying schemes of the devil. If it doesn’t bring life, it’s not from God.
I hope this is making sense.
I understand context is important and I’m not sure if I’m explaining well enough to give a good enough context. We learnt a lot of other things too e.g the biblical view of good and evil, how to recognise the schemes of the enemy including where he attacks us, why Christians should not be involved in the occult, how to do spiritual warfare, our authority in Christ.
I’m going to move on now to life of base outside the classroom
This past weekend has been one of the most fun weekends. On 11/11/11 we had a twin day to celebrate. My friend Carie and I dressed up identically all the way down to jewelry and nail varnish!! Here is a video recapping some of the day:
On Saturday it was Samantha’s birthday. We went to Wollongong botanical gardens which were incredibly beautiful. Whilst there we played cricket and then went for ice-creams. On Sunday I went to Sydney Opera House with 2 friends to see the Australian Chamber Orchestra perform Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. It was AMAZING!! I had an brilliant time and the music was so beautiful! I am now quite tired but this weekend was worth it
Next weekend I think we are planning to go Fitzroy Falls. I can’t wait!
Prayer Requests:
With only 3 weeks until outreach we really appreciate any prayers. We are spending a lot of time preparing at the moment; learning about the culture, praying, making up dramas/dances/songs etc.
Please also pray for finances for fellow DTS students. There is a team going to Bangladesh and this is a video they made to make people aware/ask people to give:
Thank you to everyone for all you prayers and support. It means a lot to me
Cultivate Resilience!
12 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in DTS Related
OK, so I wrote this post 08/11/11 and now it’s 2 weeks later and I still haven’t got round to fully finishing it. But this might interest you at home so here is my half post 2 weeks late!!
Mercy.
What is mercy?
How can we live out mercy?
These have been the two main questions we have been trying to answer this week. Our speaker Karen Sanchez has been a missionary working in Thailand for the past 14 years. She has been doing church planting and runs an AIDS orphanage too. This is a link to a video/website with more information about the work Karen and her family do in Thailand:
http://www.mbmission.org/video/countries/thailand/jintanas-story
Karen spoke of her life and journey to become a long-term overseas missionary. She spoke of how vital it is to cultivate resilience and tenacity as often, in any ministry, you have struggles/hard times and can come under pressure and criticism from others (she was talking more about unhelpful criticism instead of people gently trying to help your ministry improve). In those times you need to be stick to the vision God has given you and keep going! I loved this golden nugget of wisdom and I’m going to tuck it away and keep it for the future
Who is God?
22 Oct 2011 2 Comments
I think I should just start with an apology! I haven’t been very good at writing my blog and replying to the messages I have been sent! It’s been very busy here but I’m trying to get back on top of everything
This week we have been learning about the Character and Nature of God. It has been blowing my mind! The main two concepts that we have been trying to grasp/further understand are: God is big enough and God is good. It has been really challenging but so interesting and thoroughly enjoyable. However it seems the more I learn about God the more questions I have! I’m so glad I have a lifetime and more to learn it all as you can’t really cram God into 1 week of lectures! Some of the main things that have stuck with me from this week is that fear of the Lord is vital and that God desires for us to be vulnerable with him. (Vulnerable = to be who you are.) Just open, honest, vulnerable and without shame of who I am.
Following this week I have a greater desire to know who God is and grow to know more of him.
This is the song which has been played a lot during the DTS. I love listening to it as it is such a beautiful reminder of God’s greatness and the hope we have in Christ.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for some of students who have not yet got their full finances for the outreach phase. One of the girls on the other DTS that is running even sold all of her clothes to get here! God is the great provider and we are all trusting in him.
Answered Prayer:
I feel much better now!
One of the girls on my DTS who had pretty much no money received a donation so now her lecture fees are paid for!
Jonah has a paddy.
12 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in DTS Related
Last week was ‘Bible’ week. It was absolutely brilliant! The lady teaching us was called Melinda Murz and she inspired us all! We started off the week with teaching on basically why we should read the bible. She gave us a general overview of the history of the bible and then taught us how to use bible dictionaries, concordances etc. followed by how to run our own bible studies. I had no idea there are so many resources avaliable! I feel like I now have the tools in place to feed myself the bible instead of having to rely on others to find the answers to all of my questions. One of the things Melinda said which really spoke to me was that in order to know God more we should go to the source i.e. to God and to his word (the bible). It suddenly hit me how much I’d been rejecting God through not reading and studying the bible so I said sorry to God for that. The girls and I have started a before bed bible reading time in which we all sit down in our room reading, praying and asking questions. Its been really good the past few nights and I just hope and pray that it continues. On friday we did a bible study on Jonah. I learnt so much from it! I never knew how much there was to learn from Jonah! I can’t wait to do another bible study and see what else I’ve been missing.
On friday afternoon we went to make meals for people who couldn’t afford them and then had dinner with them. I love going there and the people are so nice. We are all developing good relationships with the people there. On the way home Carie (the girl from California) introduced us to country music! The car journey home was hillarious. We had a whole dance routine going to Kieth Urban’s song Love Somebody Like You to the extent where the car behind us could see our car rocking from side to side! Then when we got home we watched Finding Nemo which is one of my favourite films ever! Friday was such a good day!
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On saturday we had a girls night with the girls from the other DTS. It was so much fun and a great way to connect and grow closer. My highlights of the night were the 4 healings we saw and the suprise the boys gave us. The boys wrote lots of post-it notes with encouraging words on e.g. ‘You make me smile, You’re a perfect 10 (out of 10), God loves you!’ and then they stuck them everywhere in the girls bathroom! Ok so it was cheesey but it did make us all laugh
Prayer Requests:
I’ve been feeling ill the past few days and so prayer for that would be great.
Answered Prayer:
Well Rich had to cancel because he was in too much pain but God miraculously provided another speaker who only had 3 days notice!
Holy Spirit Week
03 Oct 2011 1 Comment
Sorry everyone that I haven’t posted in a while! It’s been so busy here the past week I’ve found it difficult to stay on top of things!
Last week was Holy Spirit Week in which we learnt about one of the traditionally less well-known part of God. It was a brilliant week and I learnt a lot. I found I had already had quite a lot of the teaching on the Holy Spirit from St Wilfrid’s church, Davenham and outreach with YWAM England but we did a lot of putting what we learnt into practice which was relatively new for me. It was so exciting seeing and experiencing the gifts of the HS (Holy Spirit). One of my friends spoke in tongues for the first time and she loved it so much she fell over and didn’t stop speaking in tongues for about a day! All the students want to continue meeting with the HS and hope that this week was just the start of an amazing adventure The speaker was called Stefaan Hugo and he challenged us a lot but he was very gentle and never forceful which I was greatful for. It was our own choice to engage with God. One of my favourite parts of the week was when we were going to pray for each other to be filled with the HS; Stefaan said “whoever wants it most come forward first and we’ll pray for you first.” Immediately everyone stepped forward! It was great!
This week we’re learning about the bible. How to read it, why we should read it, historical context and other interesting things. I think the main aim of the week is not that we know the whole bible off by heart and know all answers to every question bible related (which isn’t even possible), but that hopefully by the end we’ll all know how to find the answers to our questions.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for Rich, the man from South Africa who is meant to be speaking on the fatherheart of God next week. He broke his leg (femur bone) and he’s going in for an operation soon. Him and his wife are trusting God for his healing to the extent they haven’t unpacked their bags! They feel like this is the place where God wants them.
Are you listening carefully?
21 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
This week we have been learning about hearing God’s voice. Our lecturer is called Laurie Taylor and she’s amazing! I love hearing her teach and I learning so much! One of the main points that has stood out to me is how clear it is in the bible that God deeply desires relationship with us (I know it’s a pretty basic principal) and also that sometimes we have to wait on God for his answer to our prayers, trusting in him and his perfect timing. I know that sometimes I can be impatient with God wanting an answer from him straight away and I forget that God is so much greater than I and that he sees and knows everything. I understand better why I should trust in him and his timing – I mean, he can see the big picture a lot better than I can being God and all that!
On Saturday we had an event called ‘The Amazing Race.’ All the students (from both DTSs) were put into pairs and then we had to race all around Wollongong doing different tasks and activities to win clues and time bonus’ e.g. blindfolded assault course, eating a whole spoon of veggie mite(which is so gross by the way!), bowling a cricket ball correctly, climbing through tunnels etc.
I was partnered with a lovely girl called Rachel who is on the other DTS. We made a really good team as neither of us cared too much about winning but we also didn’t want to come last and so tried our best. We did have a rather eventful race though! There was one part where we were walking through the bush and Rachel saw a snake which was black and red… Red Belly Black Snakes are in the top 10 deadliest snakes in the world! Shortly after this we had to climb down a relatively steep path on which both Rach and I slipped and started to fall down fast. To stop us falling I put my hand out and unfortunately I put it on a cactus! I got all these horrible long spines in my hand which was so painful! It all got sorted pretty quick though and within an hour or so we were right as rain. Apart from that it was a really fun day and I enjoyed myself so much!
I’m really looking forward to the rest of this week. Today I have a meeting with one of my leaders to talk about how I’m finding things, then this evening one of the guys said he’ll teach me guitar plus I have more excellent lectures! On Friday we have scheduled evangelism and I think we are going to a soup kitchen (or something similar) to help out, then on Saturday we have a tour of the city, then Sunday I’m going to try out some more churches! I can’t wait!
Prayer requests:
Unity within our DTS team and as a community.
That I would find a church I would like to go to regularly.
That evangelism would go well and we would connect with the people there.
Pray for guidance as we start to pray about where we should go on outreach.
One of the girls on my team does not have her full course fees yet so please for the finances she needs.
Beginning my DTS adventure
14 Sep 2011 1 Comment
Its my third day living here on the YWAM base in Wollongong, Australia. I absolutely LOVE it here!! My DTS team are so lovely! There are 5 students on my DTS and we’re from lots of different countries. 3 of the girls are from Australia, another is from California and then I’m from England. Our DTS leaders are from New Zealand and then the other staff are from America and Canada! It’s sometimes hard to understand everyone’s accents and the slang but we’re getting there I find it quite funny because everyone here thinks I speak Queen’s English – if only they knew!! Currently there are 2 DTSs running side-by-side which means there are lots of people on the base which is nice. It’s really varied where everyone comes from and the ages are varied too.
The location is truly stunning and so far its been days of endless blue sky. I love the local beaches and can’t wait to spend lots of time there. On monday morning we had base worship. It was so good and I really felt the Holy Spirit there with me. Its been quite tough these first few days just because it’s quite a lot to take in at once and adjust to. But I was reminded of the verse in psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
This verse has just been there to remind me I’m not on my own and if I do struggle with something God is there for me.
Tomorrow is the first day of proper lectures which is exciting. I think we’re learning about the history of YWAM and like the values it has and interesting stuff like that. I’m looking forward to it
Prayer Requests:
Time management for myself and my team mates. We have lots of work to do and I think a few people are feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all – book reports, notes on lectures, journalling, other assignments, work duties, quiet times with God… there’s a lot going on!
And also that everyone from different cultures and backgrounds will get on and we’ll all have a fun time and not get too homesick.
