The Chronicles of Dan- Volume 1.3
Warning: It is in the reader's best interest not to read this post until they have read Volumes 1.1 and 1.2 (For Volumes 1.1 and 1.2, please scroll down).
Here I was then, having just made a hugely life-changing decision, and having no idea of where to go next. I was absolutely sure that there was nothing that I could do, and certainly nothing that I wanted to do, more than to serve Christ and pursue His glory in Missions, but how does one go about doing this? Good question- read on!
Having made this decision was tremendously relieving- not exactly as if a weight had been lifted off my back, but more like my life now fell into place- what had once seemed out of joint had finally been healed (if anyone's ever dislocated anything, they might understand).
My next step, however, was to decide where to go from here. If God was calling me into mission, did that mean He'd want me to go to a specific place, to a specific people? And if so, how could I find out?
Here, a book my parents lent me- 'Knowing God's Will', by M. Blaine Smith, came in very handy. I actually disagreed with many of the things the book had to say, but it forced me to go back and do some research of my own on God's will. What I ended up with is that, as far as I could see in the Bible- when God called people, the initial call was often very strong and unquestionable, but what happened after that was most often up to the person who was being called. Smith, in fact, suggested that especially as we grow in our knowledge, understanding, and relationship with God, the onus of pursuing Him and our calling falls more and more on us. He calls us, and then it becomes our responsibility to use our wisdom and understanding to follow and serve Him to the best of our ability.
Which would mean that, the call having been placed, it was my responsibility to choose how to answer it.
And so, once again, I started looking, praying, thinking, and listening to those older and wiser than I am. One possibility, of course, was to go to seminary and prepare myself that way. Some men are blessed with an academic mind and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Or so I hear- I did not cherish the thought of going back to school for another 2-3 years before I could be out doing what I wanted to do.
The other possibility was to find a program with a missions agency that would give me some hands-on training, and continue from there. So I started looking.
One program that came highly recommended was Youth With a Mission's (YWAM's), Discipleship Training Program (DTS). YWAM was a large and well established Organization, and on further research, the DTS, a 6-month, intensive training program, seemed like a good springboard.
As I was praying about where I should go, I became increasingly burdened to go to an unreached people-group- to go where people had never heard the Gospel of love. This, in my mind, meant either South America (the Amazon Basin?) or Africa. Now, Having spent the first third of my life in Brazil, I already knew Portuguese, and so YWAM Brazil seemed like a good option- I would likely be put to better use in an environment where I could communicate well with the Nationals. There was also the fact that my sister had worked with YWAM Brazil in the city of Belo Horizonte, and highly recommened the DTS program there. Belo Horizonte also happened to have a DTS class starting in June, which would bring me back in November, just in time for Urbanna- the biggest missions conference in North America, which only happens once every three years, and where I could go to find a longer-term ministry once my initial training was complete. And so, it seemed, everything had been aligned for a DTS in Belo Horizonte, which would work out perfectly.
One of the most interesting points that I agreed with from Blaine Smith's book on God's will is that over and over again in the Bible, God speaks of His people as His sheep, and of Himself as their shepherd. Now, in Israel, as with anywhere else in the world, when a shepherd wants sheep to move from point A to point B, he makes sure they get there. Knowing how dumb, curious, and prone to wander sheep are- Smith writes- a shepherd makes it his responsibility to make sure his sheep get where he wants them to be, at any given time.
A DTS with YWAM in Belo Horizonte seemed perfect to me, but it would seem that my Shepherd disagreed. I emailed several different email addresses in Belo Horizonte half a dozen times, but got no reply. After a couple of weeks of this I called them, and found out that they hadn't received some of my emails, and had replied to at least one, but I got no email from them. They finally sent me an email detailing the program, but when I wrote to apply all I got in reply, once again, was silence.
Meanwhile, I'd spoken to several people about YWAM, and heard only good things. At around this time, out of the blue, I got in touch after a long time with an old youth leader whose opinion I highly respected. As I talked to him about what God was doing in my life, however, I was surprised to find that he was violently opposed to YWAM, and knew people who'd had very bad experiences with them. Now, YWAM was an organization with which many tens of thousands of people had served, and if half a dozen people had had bad experiences, that wasn't condemning evidence; but his low opinion of them, more than anything, rattled me.
Nonetheless, I continued to pursue them, and it wasn't until much more ado that I finally learned that YWAM Brazil in fact had some problems with their paperwork, as a result of which, they couldn't obtain Visas for their short-term foreign workers. If I was interested in working with them, I'd have to wait for at least an year.
By this time I'd wasted several weeks, and was rather disappointed with the fruitless pursuit, so I decided to continue looking for different organizations that would have good hands-on training programs.
Meanwhile, my church was having their annual 'Missions Fest', a couple of weeks set aside to discuss missions and the missionaries the church supports, with the focus this year being on Africa. The Fest ended with a 'Taste of Africa', a dinner organized in celebration of African culture, where everyone could enjoy some African food and hear about what God was doing through our church in Africa. I was completely mesmerized by the rich diversity of cultures, not to mention enchanted by the fantastic variety of delicious food. As a result of this evening, however, I was able to learn a little more about our church's African Growth Group (Bible Study Cell), and asked if I could join them.
Join them I did, and over the next few weeks, I fell completely in love with the warmth, joy, humour, love and hospitality of everyone I met. As the weeks went by, I became more and more interested in, and passionate about the cultures I came to know. My love only grew for the people of this continent that have suffered so much through centuries of war, followed by centuries of bondage, followed by centuries of colonization, all culminating now with a great lack of education, rampant disease, strife, hunger, and so much more. There are almost a billion people in Africa today, and God loves them with all His heart- He must want more for them.
It was around this time that, having given up on YWAM Brazil, I started looking around at different organizations. Before a week had passed, late on a tuesday evening after a Youth-group event, a friend and prayer-partner gave me a little brochure that he said I might be interested in. Now, I'd gone through several dozen brochures and websites in the previous week, and it was late, so I thanked him, held on to the brochure, and told him I'd take a look at it later.
I did look at it the next day, and what I saw completely bowled me over. The brochure was for TIMO (Training in Ministry Outreach, pronounced team-o), a program organized by AIM (Africa Inland Mission), where a group of young singles and young married couples, all new missionaries, teamed up with an experienced missionary couple and went to an unreached people group- to learn their culture, their language, and forge bonds of friendship. The main aim of the two-year program however, was to disciple and train young people and prepare them for a lifetime of service, specifically to unreached people groups in Eastern and Central Africa. (check it out- www.timo-aim.com)
I could not believe what I was reading- this program was beyond being exactly what I was looking for- it was unbelievably, incredibly, more than I could conceive of. It was perfect for the path I hoped to follow in my pursuit of God's glory.
Furthermore, I emailed them five minutes after I'd read the brochure and gone through their website, and was flabbergasted when, an hour later, I received a reply!
The application process has been long and exhaustive- a general questionnaire, followed by a specific questionnaire, followed by a very, very specific questionnaire. After that there was the four page essay on my life and it's major influences, after which there was the theological questionnaire. Then there was the interview, and the battery of psychological and personality tests. Whew. But by the grace of God, it is over.
And so, here I stand now, waiting for an important meeting to be held by the AIM leadership at the end of July (which is anytime now!), which is where they decide whether to accept or reject me, and when I'm accepted, which team I would go out with (which would determine where and when I'd go). I stand in uncertainty, but confident in the hope that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion.
Well, this marks the end of the Chronicles of Dan Volume 1. If you've found this blog and read all through these epic-lenght posts, and you're not my secret stalker, then it's likely because I love you; or think very highly of you even though you haven't kept in touch, you jerk; or because you asked me to keep you posted on what's going on, and haha, the joke's on you- bet you didn't realize how much reading was involved! But I thank you for your love and perseverance. The aim of these was to bring everyone who's interested up-to-date with the choices I've made, and where I stand now as a result of these. I would greatly appreciate your continued love, and I know that your prayers will make all the difference in the path that lies ahead.
However, this is just the beginning, and I would love to have you abide with me- in thought and prayer- for the journey that is to come. Keep checking this blog, and I will continue to post as regularly as I am able.
If there is anything you'd like to say to me, and it's too rude, or personal, or long (and goodness knows everyone's read enough, what?) to put down in the comments thingy, then feel free to email me at dddddan@hotmail.com .
God bless you!
dan.
What happens to Dan next? Is he accepted or rejected? Does he go to Nairobi or Timbuktu? And more importantly, is he bonkers or not? I dont know! Stay tuned to find out- same bat-blog, any bat-time, updates as soon as we know them.
Here I was then, having just made a hugely life-changing decision, and having no idea of where to go next. I was absolutely sure that there was nothing that I could do, and certainly nothing that I wanted to do, more than to serve Christ and pursue His glory in Missions, but how does one go about doing this? Good question- read on!
Having made this decision was tremendously relieving- not exactly as if a weight had been lifted off my back, but more like my life now fell into place- what had once seemed out of joint had finally been healed (if anyone's ever dislocated anything, they might understand).
My next step, however, was to decide where to go from here. If God was calling me into mission, did that mean He'd want me to go to a specific place, to a specific people? And if so, how could I find out?
Here, a book my parents lent me- 'Knowing God's Will', by M. Blaine Smith, came in very handy. I actually disagreed with many of the things the book had to say, but it forced me to go back and do some research of my own on God's will. What I ended up with is that, as far as I could see in the Bible- when God called people, the initial call was often very strong and unquestionable, but what happened after that was most often up to the person who was being called. Smith, in fact, suggested that especially as we grow in our knowledge, understanding, and relationship with God, the onus of pursuing Him and our calling falls more and more on us. He calls us, and then it becomes our responsibility to use our wisdom and understanding to follow and serve Him to the best of our ability.
Which would mean that, the call having been placed, it was my responsibility to choose how to answer it.
And so, once again, I started looking, praying, thinking, and listening to those older and wiser than I am. One possibility, of course, was to go to seminary and prepare myself that way. Some men are blessed with an academic mind and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Or so I hear- I did not cherish the thought of going back to school for another 2-3 years before I could be out doing what I wanted to do.
The other possibility was to find a program with a missions agency that would give me some hands-on training, and continue from there. So I started looking.
One program that came highly recommended was Youth With a Mission's (YWAM's), Discipleship Training Program (DTS). YWAM was a large and well established Organization, and on further research, the DTS, a 6-month, intensive training program, seemed like a good springboard.
As I was praying about where I should go, I became increasingly burdened to go to an unreached people-group- to go where people had never heard the Gospel of love. This, in my mind, meant either South America (the Amazon Basin?) or Africa. Now, Having spent the first third of my life in Brazil, I already knew Portuguese, and so YWAM Brazil seemed like a good option- I would likely be put to better use in an environment where I could communicate well with the Nationals. There was also the fact that my sister had worked with YWAM Brazil in the city of Belo Horizonte, and highly recommened the DTS program there. Belo Horizonte also happened to have a DTS class starting in June, which would bring me back in November, just in time for Urbanna- the biggest missions conference in North America, which only happens once every three years, and where I could go to find a longer-term ministry once my initial training was complete. And so, it seemed, everything had been aligned for a DTS in Belo Horizonte, which would work out perfectly.
One of the most interesting points that I agreed with from Blaine Smith's book on God's will is that over and over again in the Bible, God speaks of His people as His sheep, and of Himself as their shepherd. Now, in Israel, as with anywhere else in the world, when a shepherd wants sheep to move from point A to point B, he makes sure they get there. Knowing how dumb, curious, and prone to wander sheep are- Smith writes- a shepherd makes it his responsibility to make sure his sheep get where he wants them to be, at any given time.
A DTS with YWAM in Belo Horizonte seemed perfect to me, but it would seem that my Shepherd disagreed. I emailed several different email addresses in Belo Horizonte half a dozen times, but got no reply. After a couple of weeks of this I called them, and found out that they hadn't received some of my emails, and had replied to at least one, but I got no email from them. They finally sent me an email detailing the program, but when I wrote to apply all I got in reply, once again, was silence.
Meanwhile, I'd spoken to several people about YWAM, and heard only good things. At around this time, out of the blue, I got in touch after a long time with an old youth leader whose opinion I highly respected. As I talked to him about what God was doing in my life, however, I was surprised to find that he was violently opposed to YWAM, and knew people who'd had very bad experiences with them. Now, YWAM was an organization with which many tens of thousands of people had served, and if half a dozen people had had bad experiences, that wasn't condemning evidence; but his low opinion of them, more than anything, rattled me.
Nonetheless, I continued to pursue them, and it wasn't until much more ado that I finally learned that YWAM Brazil in fact had some problems with their paperwork, as a result of which, they couldn't obtain Visas for their short-term foreign workers. If I was interested in working with them, I'd have to wait for at least an year.
By this time I'd wasted several weeks, and was rather disappointed with the fruitless pursuit, so I decided to continue looking for different organizations that would have good hands-on training programs.
Meanwhile, my church was having their annual 'Missions Fest', a couple of weeks set aside to discuss missions and the missionaries the church supports, with the focus this year being on Africa. The Fest ended with a 'Taste of Africa', a dinner organized in celebration of African culture, where everyone could enjoy some African food and hear about what God was doing through our church in Africa. I was completely mesmerized by the rich diversity of cultures, not to mention enchanted by the fantastic variety of delicious food. As a result of this evening, however, I was able to learn a little more about our church's African Growth Group (Bible Study Cell), and asked if I could join them.
Join them I did, and over the next few weeks, I fell completely in love with the warmth, joy, humour, love and hospitality of everyone I met. As the weeks went by, I became more and more interested in, and passionate about the cultures I came to know. My love only grew for the people of this continent that have suffered so much through centuries of war, followed by centuries of bondage, followed by centuries of colonization, all culminating now with a great lack of education, rampant disease, strife, hunger, and so much more. There are almost a billion people in Africa today, and God loves them with all His heart- He must want more for them.
It was around this time that, having given up on YWAM Brazil, I started looking around at different organizations. Before a week had passed, late on a tuesday evening after a Youth-group event, a friend and prayer-partner gave me a little brochure that he said I might be interested in. Now, I'd gone through several dozen brochures and websites in the previous week, and it was late, so I thanked him, held on to the brochure, and told him I'd take a look at it later.
I did look at it the next day, and what I saw completely bowled me over. The brochure was for TIMO (Training in Ministry Outreach, pronounced team-o), a program organized by AIM (Africa Inland Mission), where a group of young singles and young married couples, all new missionaries, teamed up with an experienced missionary couple and went to an unreached people group- to learn their culture, their language, and forge bonds of friendship. The main aim of the two-year program however, was to disciple and train young people and prepare them for a lifetime of service, specifically to unreached people groups in Eastern and Central Africa. (check it out- www.timo-aim.com)
I could not believe what I was reading- this program was beyond being exactly what I was looking for- it was unbelievably, incredibly, more than I could conceive of. It was perfect for the path I hoped to follow in my pursuit of God's glory.
Furthermore, I emailed them five minutes after I'd read the brochure and gone through their website, and was flabbergasted when, an hour later, I received a reply!
The application process has been long and exhaustive- a general questionnaire, followed by a specific questionnaire, followed by a very, very specific questionnaire. After that there was the four page essay on my life and it's major influences, after which there was the theological questionnaire. Then there was the interview, and the battery of psychological and personality tests. Whew. But by the grace of God, it is over.
And so, here I stand now, waiting for an important meeting to be held by the AIM leadership at the end of July (which is anytime now!), which is where they decide whether to accept or reject me, and when I'm accepted, which team I would go out with (which would determine where and when I'd go). I stand in uncertainty, but confident in the hope that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion.
Well, this marks the end of the Chronicles of Dan Volume 1. If you've found this blog and read all through these epic-lenght posts, and you're not my secret stalker, then it's likely because I love you; or think very highly of you even though you haven't kept in touch, you jerk; or because you asked me to keep you posted on what's going on, and haha, the joke's on you- bet you didn't realize how much reading was involved! But I thank you for your love and perseverance. The aim of these was to bring everyone who's interested up-to-date with the choices I've made, and where I stand now as a result of these. I would greatly appreciate your continued love, and I know that your prayers will make all the difference in the path that lies ahead.
However, this is just the beginning, and I would love to have you abide with me- in thought and prayer- for the journey that is to come. Keep checking this blog, and I will continue to post as regularly as I am able.
If there is anything you'd like to say to me, and it's too rude, or personal, or long (and goodness knows everyone's read enough, what?) to put down in the comments thingy, then feel free to email me at dddddan@hotmail.com .
God bless you!
dan.
What happens to Dan next? Is he accepted or rejected? Does he go to Nairobi or Timbuktu? And more importantly, is he bonkers or not? I dont know! Stay tuned to find out- same bat-blog, any bat-time, updates as soon as we know them.
posted by dan at 7/25/2006 04:05:00 p.m.
3 Comments:
Hey Dan! This is very exciting (Did you know Kim went to DTS with YWAM?)
Can't wait to hear how it ends!
Dan, wow, thanks for your honesty. It is refreshing to hear how God has led you and your story. I will be praying that everything will be a-ok at your scary interview thingy (I have one in September)... thanks for the chronicles volume I - I look forward to hearing more of the story as your journey continues...
Dan, this is aunty rose from India - a dear friend of your Mum = ask her and she will tell you the story of our friendship. I knew you as a little boy, and when I was expecting my son we used to call him Dan-Dan because thats what your mum called you - and surprisingly both you guys have some sort of resemblance!!! He too maintains a blog and wants to help people - but thru a different channel. Right now he is in China.
I am both moved and proud to read your blog - its wonderful when young people like you have such a wonderful purpose in life. God Bless you - be happy - because when you are happy with what you do you will touch more people in the ways of the Lord. Love and God Bless, aunty rose.
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