Training Time!

God's plan for the ethnos or nations of the world and his love of cultural diversity is one of the things I am learning about this week. Our own Jim Mellis is teaching us biblical foundations in intercultural studies--it’s fascinating, revealing and wow is my worldview being shaken! I have to say that he is an excellent scholar, anthropologist, and just all-around genius!

Incase you didn't already know, I am currently a student in the Leadership Training School (LTS) in Amsterdam. It is a 3-month course designed to equip and train missionaries in the area of transformational leadership. We are supposed to develop and plan a project that we will implement during the next years. My desire for this time is that God would release vision to me about what long-term contribution I can make to the Kingdom—or as Armando (my base leader) likes to put it, "that I would find my voice."

The week before this one, Mark Anderson who is the president of the Global Pastors Network and founder of Call2All spoke to us. It was so inspiring to hear all about what God is doing throughout the earth from one of the most informed Christian leaders. It caused lots of renewed excitement among all of us about being involved in the global missions movement!

While I have laid down some responsibilities for this time, I am still involved in most of my regular activities as YWAM staff, and so this is quite a busy time for me! I am learning vast amounts of information and have little time to process it, yet I know I am still benefiting greatly. I am learning skills that I'm certain will be useful for the ministry to which God has called me.

Today I discovered that I am more atmosphere/relationship oriented than time-oriented, more group oriented than individualistic, and slightly more of a dichotomist than holist. Very interesting...

Please continue to pray for me, especially that I would hear God's voice strongly, and that I would become a more effective and Christ-like leader through this course.