Old Testament Template

This week, our very own Richard Leakey talked about the Old Testament Template. This concept, made famous by Landa Cope, focuses on using the principles from Old Testament teaching to guide and bless nations. I have been surprised by how interested I've been in the Old Testament, and I really enjoyed learning about how God's principles for Israel can still be made relevant to many different areas of society today. 

The most eye-opening part of the week for me was discussing how the Bible wasn't written for me or for America or for 2010 but that it is cross-cultural, multi-generational, and definitely not just for me. Too often, contemporary churches focus on Jesus' teachings and how they are relevant to us individually, but I love the concept that the Old Testament was written as a template for future nations and entire generations. Thinking about this as I read makes me feel completely insignificant but it is also helps me to remember that the way I live my life today and the decisions that I make will impact my future family for generations to come, and that is something I want to start thinking about now. It is not just about leaving a legacy or the impact that my life will play on my children's, but making wise decisions that may influence people hundreds of years from now. It is a lot of responsibility but I love it.

My CHEER for the week is a toss-up between the topic and the Geneva tour on Friday. I just really enjoyed learning about the broader picture of how the Old Testament is applicable, and it was awesome to see it applied in a real-life setting and to see how it has affected, and continues to affect, Switzerland and how that has impacted the world. Even though Swiss culture is cold and doesn't have a lot of "religion," it is very cool to see how the people and culture have been changed in their very core. Seeing it all in-person made it that much more real. Maybe I'm just a history geek...

My other CHEER was our trip to Annecy last Sunday. Someone from Florida recommended that we go visit it and it really lived up to everything I was hoping for. The city is fabulous and there is nothing I love more than a good farmer's market. We got to sample a ton of fun foods (like donkey sausage and a raw oyster) and I really feel like something in my head snapped. I didn't let the idea of food control me while we were there, and I really got to enjoy things that I normally wouldn't eat, in the name of culture and vacation. We had tons of sugar treats and crepes and baguettes and sushi and cheeses and meats, and when I let myself relax about that (and just get away with David), I realized that I was a lot more fun to be around and a lot of my old personality was back. It was a day I really needed and I'm grateful that we got to spend some quality time together. We often take each other and our situation for granted, but it was so fun to get out and just play with him and remember all the fun things I love about him.

My JEER for the week was the weather. I love how beautiful the snow is but I hate that it makes me feel even more confined to the base, and I was really bummed that it was too cold for us to really get in-depth with the Geneva tour. I think there was a lot more there for us to explore and ask questions about, and it would have been fun to stay and have a cup of coffee or just walk around the city, but it was just too cold. On the other hand, it is making for great pictures and stories to share with all of our friends in the US who are still laying by the pool :) 

The YWAM Value I want to explore this week is "be visionary." I think this really ties into what we talked about all week, and the tour of Gevena on Friday. I'm so impressed by people who have been able to look at the world and what is happening in it, and make plans not just for today or for their own lifetime, but for generations and generations to come. When we were in the Cathedral in Geneva, Richard told us about oak seats that had been soaked for 300 years, but they would last for 500. Who the heck has a vision like that? That man (or woman) instilled in her children a need for that wood to continue to soak, and the need became so important to them that they passed it on to their children...all because one day after they were all long gone, it could be put into a place where people could worship God. The Old Testament is full of stories like that, spanning generations, but they are the parts that I skip because I'm just not interested in the genealogy and I can't pronounce the names. I want to be visionary though - I want a vision that spans my lifetime and affects the lives of people who won't be born for hundreds of years. After this week, I've realized that those are the true visionaries, and people who are really able to have an impact for Christ on the world.

A World Worth Saving

This week was probably, to-date, my favorite DTS week in terms of teaching. Leah (?) came from Canada (via England) to talk to our class about worldview and had a lot of great insight into how we see the world and why each of us sees it the way we do. Although there are only 9 people in our DTS class, this week helped me to realize that we have all come from very different backgrounds, representing different nationalities, family structures and church backgrounds. The experiences we've each had have helped to shape our views of the world and even the way we see God, and Leah was helpful in reminding us that the ultimate worldview is the way God sees things. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, since much of scripture has been debated by brilliant scholars for hundreds of years. Even so, it is refreshing to know that when things seem overwhelming, we can go back to the Bible to see what God thinks, and apply what we read and hear to our lives and situations.

My favorite part of the class (CHEER!) was on Friday, when she talked about God's view on injustices in the world and went through some of the initiatives that are being done in areas like HIV/AIDS, child mortality rates, extreme hunger and poverty, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. The "J" part of my personality loved this part, because it really wants justice in the world. There is so much to be done, and as disciples of Christ, it is our job to make a change in the lives of people who can't do it on their own. These people didn't do anything more to deserve their lot in life than I did to deserve mine, and they couldn't be more different. Over the past year, I have read a few books that have really opened my eyes to the injustices of the world that I would highly recommend. One is Radical by David Platt - it is just that: radical - but it dares Christians to live out their faith and give up the "American dream" to make a difference in the world and shape lives for eternity by sharing the Gospel. Another great read was The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, current CEO of World Vision. This may be my new favorite book, and it tells the story of Richard going from well-to-do CEO of a secular company to his job with World Vision and the way it has impacted his life and the life of his family. His stories of visiting communities around the world are heartbreaking and inspiring. Stories like these are what have driven David and me to want to be a part of making a difference in the world and Leah's teachings have made me even more excited to get started in South Africa and then head to Mongolia.

My JEER for the week was Bible reading. I have been really up-to-date with it until this week, and ironically we talked about it a lot this week. I have been sick, so most of my "awake" time has been in class but Leah also really drove home the point that to be able to share and live out the gospel, we have to know it. Although this really makes me want to read my Bible, it also puts a new responsibility on it and I am afraid of just skimming through and missing something important that could make or break someone's eternal destiny. I know that God is bigger than letting that happen but it is a worry, nonetheless. My other JEER for the week has been being sick - we're all cramped up in the base and sharing germs and there is nothing worse than just feeling blah. It makes me miss my family and all the comforting things about home (like medicine that doesn't cost $20).

The YWAM Value I want to explore this week is "Have a Biblical Worldview." I really learned a lot about my own worldview this week, and was so surprised to hear others talk about their worldviews in light of their past experiences. I think it is amazing that God has given us all unique ways to see His creation and this community to bounce ideas around between each other, but it is also incredible that He has given us His word to measure everything against. I've learned that it's okay to have different opinions about things, as long as we are following the ultimate view and really trying to hear what God has to say about things.

Who Am I?

This week, Carolyn kicked off our teaching with some thoughts on personality types. David and I had to take a lot of tests like this throughout college and before we got married, so I was pretty prepared for the types of answers I would receive. What I wasn't prepared for, though, was how God was going to jump and make a big splash this week.

The first real "aha!" moment of the week was after we took the Myers-Briggs Personality Test and Filo and I received the same results. It made me realize that the personality I have and the personality that I have been reflecting here are not at all the same. For example, I am an extrovert but I don't think anyone here would have ever guessed that. On the other hand, people at home would never have guessed that I'd be an introvert here. I realized after the "Sin, Cross, Repentance" week that I was holding on to a lot of bitterness and hurt that was affecting the way I was acting, but I really felt as though it was something God had been working on in me, and that things were improving.

Later in the week, Richard popped his head into my bedroom and asked if he could talk to me. These kinds of moments always send back memories of middle school when I had to go see the principal for something ridiculous I did in class...so I know these talks are never pretty! I met up with him and Carolyn and they shared that they were worried about my weight and that I was getting enough to eat. This whole situation is so bizarre to me because (like most girls, I would imagine) I have spent much of life on some sort of diet or thinking about my weight, and only recently have I felt like I've had a real handle on understanding the importance of diet/exercise/nutrition and been really confident and happy with my body type. Richard and Carolyn are right though - I have lost a lot of weight since I've been here, and I didn't have much to lose before I got here.  I remember my mom questioning me about my weight while we were visiting in Athens right before coming to Switzerland, and I have lost a significant amount of weight since then.

Richard and Carolyn prayed for me and asked me to think about it and then meet back up for a follow-up meeting. David came along instead of Carolyn and we were able to really work through some things with Richard about core beliefs I have. I've taken a lot of family communication classes and know the importance of family of origin but I also think that "daddy issues" get overplayed in Churches and Christian circles sometimes, so when we began to talk about my family, I was a little skeptical. Truthfully, though, some of the points were true. I am from a family where regret is common and emotions often run high. By nature, I'm also a planner and maybe even a little obsessive-compulsive. I hate not having a plan, and I have been completely and totally out of control here. We talked at length about how it is okay to fail sometimes and okay not to always have a plan. I can't say that I am entirely in agreement yet (theoretically, I get it but practically it's still hard to implement) but I'm working on it.

We also made a plan to work on my weight and have access to more food here on the base. I'm disappointed in the way that we cook for people here, because there are a lot of people suffering from poor health or past eating disorders, yet I think everyone would agree that we do not follow a healthy diet at all. These people are adults though, and must take care of themselves just as I must take care of myself. Elaine's friend, Rachel, is a nutritionist who is coming to visit at the end of the week, and I am looking forward to talking with her.

Learning about our personality types has also been interesting as we've been preparing for outreach. We have a very wide range of personalities on our outreach team, and it has become more apparent over the past week. I have some serious concerns over Florence and her children coming with us to South Africa but I am just trying to trust that the leadership team has that figured out. I feel like we are doing a disservice to her by setting her up for failure on outreach because physically she cannot (and has been directed by her doctor not to come) keep up with the schedule we have planned and the language barrier is just another layer of potential problems. I am doing my best to love her despite the situation, though, and know that God has a great big plan for her and our team.

Amongst all of the crazy emotion of this week, we also had the Donor Dinner, the base deep clean, Serve the City on Saturday and our book reports were due over the weekend. I love having deadlines and feeling like I'm back in school with homework and fun but I am glad to be moving on to a more "normal" week!

The Holy Spirit

This week, our DTS class traveled to Lausanne (which I still can't seem to pronounce correctly...) to team up with their DTS and listen to Maureen Menard speak about the Holy Spirit. Of all the big topics we discuss in Christianity, this is probably the one that I was the least familiar with. We talk about Him in church sometimes and He's come up in a few books that I have read but honestly, I haven't taken the time (or really cared) to do much more research than that. Isn't that terrible?

On a kind-of-related note, I've been listening to A.W. Tozier's Pursuit of God on my iPod during work duties and car rides, and have been really impressed with some of his insight and quotes. This is from another of his books, The Divine Conquest, but I thought it was a really great image of the Holy Spirit (emphasis added).

…The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life and light and love. In His uncreated nature He is a boundless sea of fire, flowing, moving ever, performing as He moves the eternal purposes of God. Toward nature He performs one sort of work, toward the world another and toward the Church still another. And every act of His accords with the will of the Triune God. Never does He act on impulse nor move after a quick or arbitrary decision. Since He is the Spirit of the Father He feels toward His people exactly as the Father feels, so there need be on our part no sense of strangeness in His presence. He will always act like Jesus, toward sinners in compassion, toward saints in warm affection, toward human suffering in tenderest pity and love.

Beautiful, right?  Maureen also made a lot of great points throughout class and was able to show us a lot of scripture about the Holy Spirit.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. and we...are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." -2 Corinthians 3:17-18


We spent a lot of time talking about the freedom that we have in the Holy Spirit, and how the Spirit  gives us al the power and strength of Jesus, who came and lived faithfully so that we could learn to live the way God intended Adam and Eve to, is literally seated at the right hand of the Father. How overwhelming to think that I have the power and authority of Jesus!

Another interesting point that Maureen brought up was that the enemy can only attack if we let him, which can happen when our hearts get hard through unconfessed sin and unforgiveness of others and ourselves. Even when we feel powerless or like victims, we can use the ministry of the Holy Spirit to fend off and fight an attack. Even though our DTS class is pretty diverse in our backgrounds, adding the Lausanne class gave us even more opportunity to hear from students of different backgrounds and I learned a lot from questions like these.

I love the way Romans 8:9-11 is explained in The Message version of the Bible and I think it really sums up Maureen's teaching for the week and the way I now understand the way the Holy Spirit works within the Trinity:

"But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He'll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!"

Although we spent quite a bit of time talking about some of the more controversial ideas of the Holy Spirit, like gifts (mostly tongues), I was disappointed that we never got around to talking about the fruit of the spirit. Gifts are something that tend to stand out every once in a while but the fruit of the spirit is something that we, as believers, should be experiencing every day. As I have worked through a lot of sin and bitterness in my life over the past week, I have begun to see more of the fruit of the spirit in my life and would be interested in hearing what Maureen has to say about it.

All in all, I thought this week was really informative and it was great to get out of Burtigny and join up with the Lausanne DTS for the week. I am definitely inspired to do more research and learn more about the Holy Spirit and His role in my life.

My CHEER for the week is everything outreach-related! Although I love the lecture phase of DTS and am definitely learning and growing, I am most excited about outreach. After a lot of discussion and prayer, David and I feel like we are being called to South Africa and I am excited about getting together in our teams next week to begin discussing what our outreach phase will look like. It is crazy to me that we will be in Africa by Christmas and that we will be there almost as long as we'll be in Burtigny (and we haven't even been here for 2 months yet. Amazing!). I'm really excited about outreach and hearing the final decisions this week was definitely my highlight!

My JEER for the week was the night activities that we did as a group. I love our DTS class and spending time with everyone but we are together a lot during the day and don't have a lot of downtime - especially this week since we were in Lausanne for the better part of the day. I understand the point of community and team building, and I think the idea behind Holy Spirit night was great but the movie night was unnecessary, especially since we couldn't really even talk during the movie. I love any excuse to try a new recipe, though, so I made Vintage Victuals' chocolate chip cookies and I think they are my new favorite.

The YWAM VALUE I want to explore this week is to "be broad-structured and decentralized." Being in Lausanne at their base made me really see and value the differences in the various bases around the world, and I am thankful that YWAM encourages individuality and creativity while maintaining relationships and core values. Even within the same country, different bases need to cater to different students and communities, and I'm glad that there is literally something for everyone within the organization. I am also glad that I ended up at Burtigny instead of Lausanne :) The people there were great, but visiting made me appreciate our little village and the homey feeling of our little base.