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hello all my peeps and homies back in SA. so as you all know i have safely arrived in maui, and spent the first day and a half meeting the people on the base and waiting for my fellow students to arrive. there are eight of us all together, two girls, natalia and ashley, and seven guys, chase, matt(an amazing musician), riki, john(an american south korean), pyongque(yes a fully south korean dude who learnt english in the three months before he arrived), an indian dude wha hasn't arrived yet and myself. so i stay in a little wooden house near the trees. the girls have a proper house made of biricks and morter. i stay in a little wooden room of six, on a little wooden bunk.
okay so lets get to the get go with me getting going with my dts. so the course officially started on saturday night the 2nd of june. we were driven to a nearby church all dressed up in the best clothes we had brought(so like baggies and slops. kidding, jeans). when we arrived all the base leaders and base workers cheered us in. the evening was just a basic introduction of all
our leaders and what they do, a message, and worship. they called us up by name and gave us those hawaiin flower neck things, they smelt funny. then we just chowed snacks and hung out.
ok so that was a little boring but now its the next day, sunday. we were told the night before to pack a bag with a sleeping bag, suntan cream, a hat, a hoodie, and shoes. we were only allowed one pair of clothes, so like the ones we were wearing that morning ie a t shirt and bordies. so we wake up, get divided into two teams, given an egg that we had to name and decorate. we were also given a list of things we had to find and the town they were in, then we were dropped off on the highway in our teams and had to hitch hike to find these things and take photos of them. it was incredible fun. we lost. that took us to lunch which was at this like big mountain nature reserve thing. we walked up the river there, chowed lunch, had a little talk on quiet times an then had a quiet time. from
there we were transported in the big green thing to some sort of heritage park next to the sea....and so Exodus begins!!!!!!!!
Exodus being the book after genesis where the nation of Israel walked around the desert for forty years eating nothing but manner from heaven. hmmm i'm syked! so we set up "camp", by set up camp i mean dumped our bags next to the 'pick up'(bakkie) that housed our water rasions and manner, and set up the little mini picnic type tarporline thing, basically a glorified mosquitoe net that attracted roaches and centerpedes, it was fantastic. from there we did the basic set up camp things,ie find drift wood and rocks from the beach down the deathly cliff and prepare a fire. then we made a dam in the river thing nearby and frolicked around like little children. for dinner we feasted on beef two minute noodles, mm scrumpciuos!!! pete tooley you would have been in your element!! oh i also broke out it some weird alien type rash the night before that spent the next few days coming and going, it was amazingly itchy, so i popped Allergex like smarties!! anyway so we were on exodus
for three days, no change of clothes, roughing it in the wild eating nothing but sugarless oats for breakfast and two minute noodles for lunch and dinner, and a hole in the ground as a loo...SUPER!!!! over the next two days in between other fun adventures we spent time together sharing our testimoies, both leaders and then us. it was crazy. God is awesome. we have ex druggies and worse and people that have just had the most cruel upbringings ever. it blew me away. you think americans lead these perfect lives but there are so many of them that are just broken to the core. God has done some huge things in these peoples lives. anyway it was a super bonding time for all of us. on the third day we hiked up a mountain, played some games that got us super dirty and full of egg, and then prepared to go to our next location for the second part of exodus. we were told we were meeting a guy at his church to get keys for the next location and we could use the toilets there. so we walk in to this church and as we walk through
the doors this huge cheering and clapping resounded and all the leaaders and mission builders and others from the base were there all dressed in their best clothes, with tables set with fresh fruit and forks and knives ready fror a feast, a tear in each eye litterally welled up, it was over. we feaasted on fillet and roast vegetables and ice cream and brownies. then the leaders washed our feet and prayed for us which then lead into a time of praise and worship, it was a really touching time.
anyway so we are now home, clean and rested, it is wednesday and our lectures begin. our lecturer is this young guy named Andy Byrd, who litterally looks 18. he is in fact 26, has been married for seven years, has a two year old son and another one on the way and has been in YWAM since he was 17. WOW is all i can say. never have i met someone so passionate about God in my entire life. he is so fulled with the Spirit it is scary. it was weird, this almost little boy is standing in front of you and he just speaks with
such knowledge, wisdom and authourity. anyway his lectures were some of the most life changing teachings of my life. at the end of the first lecture we went into a time of prayer, i started to pray out loud, and just started to sob, i mean sob like a baby, tears and snot and just uncontrolled crying, it was an awesome time. then he started prophesying over my life and sharing things he had been given by God as he prayed for us during his preparation, it was insane!!!!! he prophysied over two others and had them in tears too. he continued teaching us for the rest of the week. he tought on the parable of the prodigle son, but instead of focussing on the son, he focussed on the father. he was an awesome guy, and just allowed the Spirit to lead him and work through him. he would be talking to us and then all of a sudden just start praying, like he was talking to God just like he was talking to us, and then just carry on talking to us. So it was a pretty intense three days. the 3 hour lectures just flew by. i
look forward to what God has in store for us over the next three months. our DTS leader, matt laskey, said that in preparing for our school he got a word from God that this school would be a school of leaders that he would be leading. Andy Byrd got the same word too. i have no doubt that this is where God wants me to be, and for that matter any body else in this group.
anyway so for those of you that think this is all fun and games. we have work duties that we have to do, i was put in the maintenance team which means i have to look after the base, ie manuel labour!! our first task was to dig a 30 metre trench 8 inches deep and 4 inches wide. it was tiring and hard work, but quite rewarding, i mean we got blisters and everything!!!!
okay i'm nearly done. so on friday afternoon we had beach day, which means the whole base goes down to the beach to hang out and bond and stuff. we played volleyball, snorkelled and barbequed burgers for dinner. this doesn't happen evey week, in fact it
only happens once a school. the next day was saturday, and time off!!!!! we all slept in, which was life changing!!!! then we decided to go find waterfalls and junp off them. we went to a place called twin falls and jumped off two waterfalls there. it was pretty darn high and i was pretty scared. from there we went to another place and found two more waterfalls. we had to climb up this vertical cliff wall with a rope to get to the jump. it was unbelieveably high. never in my life have i been that afraid (i mean more scary than house sitting in cowies hill when the alarm went off at 3am and i had to phone my boy nath) my stomach was doing loops. anyway i jumped as it was the only way down, and this girl, natalia had just jumped before me from a spot 6 feet higher that the spot i was jumping from, she is my new hero. my list of heroes now goes Jesus, Natalia, Lance Armstrong, Buzz Lightyear. i braced too early for impact and got a water ennima and serious butt cheek sting, but it was all worth it. apparently
jumping off stuff is the YWAM Maui past time so i expect to become exceptionly good at leaping off high things into liquidy substances. don't worry mom they are all safe places, where the leaders have all jumped before and we check the pools with goggles before we jump just to be certain.
okay i am finally done. i know it has been a long one, but it has been my first week, and we have done so much stuff. its weird it feels as though i've known everyone here my whole life. i promise the next one will be substantially shorter.
i love all you guys a lot and miss you terribly. forgive me for any spelling and grammer mistakes but i'm typing like a freight train as time is always scarse. i 've been typing this over the last four days here and there when i get time.
K. i'm out. all my love.
PS its the next day-we found out where we going on outreach BORNIO, Indonesia!!!!! Wow. exciting!! and i'm scared. super jungle time apparently!!!! So start praying for me.
PPS: if by any chance anyone has a spare laptop or really cool digital camera, like a semi proper camera with super zoom and stuff that they want to lend me for the next 6 months please feel free to send it to me as there are some awesome pics i could be taking that my mini camera doesn't do justice to. just throwing it out there! 😊
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Daryl
non-member comment
Hi
Hey Saen. Looks like you are paradise there. Well done on getting there and I trust you are having a God time. I am praying for you and trust that you will make such a massive input into the people you meet there. You are missed and hope to hear more news from you soon. Cheers Daryl