Training

Some Good News

Gangs, Language Learning, Training, YWAM -

The newspapers in El Salvador often contain very bad news. Soaring murder rates, hundreds of youth dead, students afraid to go to school, gang violence on the rise, drugs, deliquency…and on and on. But today I have some good news about the youth in El Salvador. Five Latin American students have committed to spend the next five months living and working with our Youth With A Mission staff. They’v made this committment because they want to seek God’s plan for their life, consider His call on their future, and be mentored along the way. Our DTS this year consists of one student from Ecuador and five from El Salvador. I personally am super excited because I will be working closely with this school. I am looking forward to the chance to […]

A Pair of Ducks

Crossing Cultures, Family, Third Culture Kids, Training, Transitions -

My life can be described as a pair of ducks…uh, that is, a paradox. We had a lesson about this way back in our cross-cultural training last fall.  To illustrate the great paradox of a life lived in two worlds, our teacher brought in two ducks. The “yuck” duck, and the “yeah” duck. These ducks were borrowed from our kids’ classes were they were learning about this ever-present “pair of ducks” which was an appopriate way to teach them about paradoxes. Since then our family has often referred to the “yuck” and “yeah” ducks when talking about our cross-cultural experiences. Right now we are right in between that pair of ducks as we re-enter our daily routine in El Salvador. The “yeah duck” is that we are back to our house […]

DTS Wrap-Up

Crossing Cultures, Family, Language Learning, Short-Term Missions, Training, YWAM -

Last Friday night, the July 2010 Discipleship Training School here at YWAM El Salvador graduated! It was a great night to gather together and catch up. The majority of students and staff from the base have spent the last two months on field assignment travelling around Central America to complete the outreach portion of the DTS. The rest of us stayed in country, and I was part of that group. If you recall, I was part of the July 2010 DTS. I know some of you may be reading this who are considering doing a DTS sometime in the future, maybe even here in El Salvador. I just want to share with you a little bit of what I experienced. I grew a lot in my cultural understanding, as well […]

Back to School…

Family, Language Learning, Prayer, Training, YWAM -

The last week has been spent organizing stuff around the house, planning meals, discussing kids schedules with Jon, and preparing our wonderful house helper Loita for the trauma that will be starting this week. I am going “back to school.” I hope Jon survives. You see, he gets to be “Mr.Mom” over the next 12 weeks while I participate in the daily lecture phase of the Discipleship Training School (DTS) at the YWAM base. DTS is a class that consists of a lecture phase followed by a field assignment around Central America and the Caribbean. I have never completed this course, and it is a requirement to be a staff member in Youth With A Mission. I have been a “volunteer” up to this point so I need to complete […]

An Unexpected Blessing

Guatemala, Thinking About God, Training -

I don’t know if you’ve ever had those moments in your life where you just had to stand back and wonder, “how did that happen?” Something totally unexpected happens, and yet something that is such a great blessing. Maybe it’s hearing your child say something that you needed to hear, or seeing an amazing sunset, or getting a note that really just makes your day. Well, I had one of those moments this morning. As I mentioned we were in Guatemala for a few days (I will post some pictures of our adventures soon) and as it turns out so was one of our friends that we made during our time in Mission Training International way back in the fall before we left for El Salvador. Her name is Amy […]

Discipleship Training School

Crossing Cultures, Short-Term Missions, Training, YWAM -

The organization that we are working with, Youth With A Mission, has three goals: Convey the message and hope of Jesus Christ (Evangelism) through a variety of tools, Change people’s lives through schools and classes (Training), and Care for the world compassionately (Mercy Ministries). These areas often cross over as students in our training program learn to share God’s message and to care for people in the world around them. After completing the Discipleship Training School students can go on to attend other classes in the YWAM program including classes on Social Justice, Urban Ministries, Community Development, Public Health, etc. Many of these also count towards college credit. This summer we are having a Discipleship Training School (DTS). It is coming up in July and runs through December. During this […]

Night School Begins Tonight!

Training, YWAM -

We are excited to have the Night School begin at the base tonight. We originally planned to do this school in March but we had to change the dates to May 3-June 13 due to some scheduling and financial issues with some of the students. We are happy to say it is finally starting tonight! We are hoping that the next month will be a life-changing one in the lives of the Salvadorans who are attending the school. This school is focusing on Discipleship which really means helping to train them about what it means to follow Christ in their daily lives, and how that will change them to impact their community. San Salvador has so many lives in crisis and please pray with us that the students who attend this […]

Escuela Nocturna

Training, YWAM -

  We are excited about a great opportunity coming up at the YWAM base. We are offering an “Escuela Nocturna” or “Night School” .  Here in El Salvador there is a great need for understanding what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and how to share Him with others. To meet this need YWAM is providing these classes taught by the staff as well as a few guest speakers. Basically students will attend classes three nights a week for a month and then at the end of the classes there will be an outreach to serve the community in some way. We are hoping that programs like this will help to shed some light into the darkness, and to meet some of the overwhelming need here in San Salvador. If […]

In Training

Thinking About God, Training -

With the Winter Olympics just around the corner I am sure we will hear lots of stories about the tremendous amount of time and effort that Olympic athletes put into training for their sport. They approach their training with passion and a goal of success. There are days when it is difficult, days when it hurts, and days when it doesn’t seem worth it. There are many who give up, who fall along the way, who never achieve the prize. But for those who keep the goal in mind, being in training is part of the deal. I feel like I can relate to this aspect of  being “in training.”  As we went through this process of moving, preparing, and now serving in El Salvador I can see many training […]

Good-bye SPLICE

Training, Transitions -

Tomorrow morning is our last SPLICE session and then we will be leaving Mission Training International. The past five weeks have been an accelerated time of personal and family growth and I feel like this little patch of Colorado is in many ways sacred ground for our family. We have learned things about ourselves and how much we still need the truth of God to change the dark places of our hearts. We also have had great insights into our kids and into how they will handle the good-byes, transitions, and changes of this next week and a half. We have made so many incredible relationships here, ones that I know will last once we leave this place. It has been encouraging to be with other missionaries who know the […]

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