As of last week, my YWAM Lecture Phase is halfway over. That means I’m halfway to Mongolia—my mission’s trip location! There’s been a lot happening here at YWAM since I started here in Kona on January 2nd, so I’ll fill you in on 3 key things:
LECTURE PHASE
Lectures in my Northeast Asia DTS are no joke. For the first half of our term, the teachings were very personal—meaning, all the things I’ve hidden away were dealt with as I learned about my identity (for the 100th time, but apparently this isn’t a topic one fully understands at once, but over and over again throughout one’s lifetime), as well as the Father Heart of God, the Church, and what it’s like to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
Even though this is the third Bible School I’ve been to (I thought I was done at one, okay?), I’m constantly learning and growing! One new thing is that my perception of worship has totally changed. One day, after a great struggle I had with how I thought worship should’ve gone when I lead it in class, I came out of it totally different. Now I know I’m a worship leader; not because I go through the motions of leading worship but that my heart is wrapped in the anointing of praising God with a genuine heart! And I want to lead others into that place of being totally sincere in front of Jesus.
Now, our lectures are shifting focus from the inside of our hearts to the others around us. From here on out, we’re learning about outreach/missions and how to evangelize! For me, I’ve imagined what it’ll be like to sit down with a Mongolian person in their yurt home (probably drinking fermented horse milk or salty milk tea), and how exactly I’d like to share Jesus with them. So I wrote down in my own words how I would tell someone who’s only known shamanism or Buddhism, or no God at all, that Jesus is real and died to be close with them on earth and in heaven. It’s not invasive; it’s sincere, and I’m really excited to share it! I’ll memorize what I wrote, and I’ll be ready for that Mongolian person. I’ll have come all the way from America just to share it with the one who doesn’t know about Jesus. (And hopefully many more!)
MONGOLIA OUTREACH
And speaking of my mission’s trip to Mongolia, here’s updates on that!
Mongolia’s closed its border with China as prevention of the Coronavirus, and will remain closed until March 2nd. Though there are no cases in Mongolia, the closure of its border with China has caused living expenses in Mongolia to skyrocket (over 70% of trade is made between the two countries, which means the Mongol people have very limited supplies and not enough money for living expenses.)
Also in prevention of the disease, the Mongol government is closing every public gathering across the country. Unfortunately this means YWAM bases as well, those of which our outreach team will be staying at.
As you can probably guess, this is all a pretty big deal for our team! The timing is too ironic to be irony. I see the devil’s thrown his first punch; now we throw them back. Please pray for Mongolia and our outreach team against this opposition! We’re ready to change the nations of Northeast Asia for Jesus, and the opposition makes our purpose all the more significant.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Lastly, before I even got to YWAM up to now and probably forevermore, people have asked me what’s next for me after the program is over. It’s exciting and uncertain all the same, but for once in my life I haven’t actually really asked God what to do next. And that’s exactly where He wants my heart right now!
Still, I have my ideas. What I do know is to steward what I have wisely. I hope to travel Korea in the summer, maybe try my hand at teaching English, but I just don’t know right now and that’s okay! I have several classmates who already know what they’ll do after outreach, but I have a feeling if I make plans now, they’ll change during my mission’s trip. That’s just like something Jesus would do anyway, right?
So there you have it; there’s my update halfway through YWAM Kona! I’ve been so blessed to be here and am so excited to see how this school grows and brings people all across the world to know God—the One True God, the Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, and Light in the darkness.
Signed,
Allison the Adventurer
