Christmas 2011

I thought that it would be nice if I just put a video together of some photo's from Christmas day. Spent it with 300+ orphans handing out food, gifts, coke, and had many different games and such. Boxing day we had Christmas here at the base with everyone that is currently included in the YWAM Blantyre family. It was a great Christmas.

Hope your Christmas where ever you are was amazing. Many blessings for 2012, may you find what your looking for in the new year.

Travis

Outreach the first

This past week was our first week of outreach, though it’s early and in the middle of our lecture phase as well. During the week we went to two different orphanages, a street kid’s ministry, an afternoon church service and also did some local door-to-door evangelism in the surrounding area. We saw many blessings from God during the week, with God moving in each area we went to and using each one of the people that went to that place.
Monday and Tuesday we had the honour to go to Mioni orphanage, or Christian resource Ministry orphanage that Charles spend a couple years in while doing school. Our biggest goal for going here was to get to know some of the kid’s and to get them to know our faces as we are planning to go there on Christmas day to have a big celebration with them there. Monday was the day that I was able to go and we had a great morning of singing and dancing with the kids, something that they do incredible well. The students on the DTS also did a drama called “the thief of happiness” which is a hilarious skit that gets the kids involved and speaks about how God is our true joy/happiness and no one can steal him away like other things in our life. The afternoon we finally got to put our DTS team together and play some soccer/football. We had a great time playing with there team there and really worked together well and playing incredible well. Though while playing in net I happened to kick a good sized root while running for the ball and scratched my foot up pretty good, I’m fine just can’t really play soccer for a little while (though I finished playing that game that day of course). Everyone really seemed to enjoy the day and we came home in high spirits even though we had some confusion before coming home.
Wednesday we went to a completely different type of orphanage. At Mioni there are about 250 kids and very view overseers and the kids are able to do whatever they want. The place we went to on Wednesday was like a really big family with about 30 kids and a host family. The kids were very blessed and had so many good things going for them, It was interesting to see how different two orphanages can be even though they are less than 50 km’s apart from each other. Though we had a great time on Wednesday we felt as though it’s not somewhere we would be going back to often as these kids are very blessed and have much justice and we are more focused on those that have no justice in their lives.
Friday afternoon we headed out to a church for an afternoon church service that we would be running. The church was in a village that two of the guys come from so we were privileged to go and see/meet there families. Once we came back from seeing family we started paying some games with the kids outside the church. Once we were reading to start we could hear the soft sound of rain drops falling onto the tin roof of the church. By the time we were ready to start our drama, which is set to music, we couldn’t hear much and the stereo wasn’t very powerful. Before finishing the rain was falling so hard that no one but me, holding the speakers, could hear the music. So we just went straight into singing some more worship songs and just singing and dancing with the people there. We couldn’t complain about the rain though since we have been praying for it for a couple weeks now and rainy season normally starts back in October. The team made the most of the loud rain and we had a great time dancing and eventually, almost shouting we were able to share some words of encouragement and finally explained the drama that we did. Before we left the rain somewhat stopped so we figured it would be a good time to leave, yet as we walked the rain picked up and within 10 minutes we were all soaked down to the bone. Despite the walking in the rain, this was one of my highlights of the week as everyone on the team was still so happy and just filled with joy. As we walked in the rain, freezing cold, we just sang and rejoiced over the day and the rain that was digging into our skin. Once we caught a minibus back to the base we scared the people on the bus nearly to death I’m sure. We hopped onto the bus and just starting singing again as loud as we could. It was a brilliant experience and a memory that we will all hold dear I’m sure.
I have left out Tuesday and Thursday seeing as I was elsewhere as I had to work on getting my Visa updated for the duration of my trip. Tuesday was a nightmare as I went there and had them complain about my form that the week before they told me I needed when I went and tried to apply the first time. The rejected me once again but this time I just went to a local internet cafe to type the form out, thankfully I had a local friend in town that day to help me out with some things. So Thursday I went back and thankfully found out that I was approved for the Visa and now am just waiting for the forms to come in before I can go get my passport stamped. The whole ideal has been a hassle but I have been approved and that’s what matters.
This whole week was a big learning point for all of us, especially us as staff. We struggled a lot with communication and that caused confusion between us and that in turn affected the whole team. Thankfully the team is amazing and didn’t let it affect them too much, though we know that some people were hurt on the inside and we have since then worked things out. Being part of the leadership of this team has really shown me a lot of about myself. This week especially I have seen that though I can be a great leader, I’m not good at being a co-leader. I struggle with standing beside someone both have full control and coming to a conclusion together. Part of this I’m sure is my being prideful and always thinking my way is the best. I have a great team though and they have pointed some things out to me that I have done wrong, but all in a loving way that I can learn and grow and be the best leader I can be.

Prayer:
-We are in the midst of organizing two Christmas parties and still need some funds/ideas for those so pray that those come in
-Our leadership is strong and isn’t selfish and we have good communication
-Two people are still seeking funds for our outreach
-Friend back home lost her Nana this weekend, pray for peace/joy in this time
-For a boldness and increase in Faith in these coming months of Outreach
-also for energy and strength as Outreach is tiring and exhausting at times
-BIGGEST NEED is that we need fuel, we have on gas in any of our cars and none in our generators and are in need of getting some. Pray that we get some quickly and easily.


Thanks’ everyone.

Have a very Merry Christmas, I pray that you will remember the true reason for the season and not get consumed in the commercialism that has taken over Christmas in the last century.

Many blessings from YWAM Blantyre and myself.

Dance Dance Dance!!

The week was been filled with dancing, acting and a look into the future. We finally started doing some ministry prep last week. Learning some skits such as “Everything”, it’s from a song called Everything by Lifehouse, most people I’m sure have heard of it or seen it before but if you haven’t go and look it up on youtube it’s an amazing drama and has really impacted my life a lot.
I was very impressed with the students as they learned the drama and easily picked it up and within a day and a half were doing it with precession. There are still some kinks to be worked out but just little things to make it over the top good. The best thing about this drama is that all the students are involved and it just brings the team together perfectly. (I’m ok with not being in it as I don’t like acting all that much) We were also taught some other short, quick yet powerful drama’s that are fun for younger kids. They are a lot of fun and just run off of improvisation which is great, but also has lots of involvement with the kids so that makes it much better. Also doing them in Chichewa makes a big difference when you have a lot of talking parts. As I’m sure you can guess I’m not doing these ones either since I can’t speak much Chichewa at all.
Our week of dancing and drama’s ended Friday night with what YWAM calls a “Love Feast”. It’s a night of setting up the room really nicely, everyone dressing up with their best clothes and we eat the best food we have. It’s a night of just admiring what God has been doing as people gave testimonies as well as just encouraged each other. It was a fantastic evening and was really uplifting to each of us. It’s amazing what some encouraging words can do to your Spirit. It was touching to hear some of the words people said to me, I have been feeling that I haven’t been that great of a leader here this season, but from people’s words they seemed to think the completely opposite which was uplifting to me.
The week had some very good high points, but sadly it seemed for me that the week was full of extremes. Though at times I was incredible joyful and Spiritually doing wonderful, there were other times when I was very depressed and Spiritually didn’t want to be doing anything at all. I think part of things going on with me is that I’m nervous and anxious about the next two months as I co-lead the team out on outreach. I don’t really know what to expect with anything and I know that the team is amazing and don’t need me to really be there to lead them I still feel the responsibility of leading them well. Thankfully I know that God is really in control and leading the team as He wants them to be led.

Prayer:
-some people don’t have all the money yet needed for Outreach
-we are in dire need of fuel, for cars, and generators
-Daniel and Suzy are sick
-We have another team coming from South Africa this week
-for a boldness as we start outreach

IFathers Lap
I don't want to stand on the door step,
Or be at the back of the crowd.
I don't want to be held back by the people of the world,
Or the pillars that hold it together.
I will push my way forward,
Not to be at the front of the crowd,
Not just sit at the feet at the edge of His thrown,
But I wanna crawl into the warmth of my fathers lap
And have His arms wrapped around me,
Feeling His breath as He speaks.
I wanna press my head against His Chest
And hear the sound of His heart beat.
I want to smile as my Father whispers into my ear how much He loves and adores me
I will hold onto my father when the storms come my way.
Holding tightly when the world tries to pull me away.
I will be strong, clinging to the Father.
Holding onto the words He speaks.
Living the Way He lives.

Moving Forward

An inspiration week has now past us by. We’ve been filled with new insights into our future and the things that God has in store for us. Learning what it means to be a servant leader and also being enlightened on the different ways we turn away from God’s calling into our lives.
We started the week by looking into the life of Moses and looking at 6 different ways that he made up excuses for not wanting to go to stand up against King Pharaoh. These 6 area’s hitting home to each one of us, knowing that at one moment in time I’ve said each one to God and tried to justify it by some sort of means. After looking at the life of Moses we moved onto the book of Judges and, with the help of all the students doing research on a couple judges, we moved forward to look at what it means to be an effective leader. Sadly I was only there to hear the first couple points in this topic due to being busy with other base things but they were powerful and I got to hear a little bit more later on on the rest of the points. But I can also see the areas of my life where these have taken place and are currently taking place as well. Starting off with perceiving a need that is something that we are doing here in Malawi with this YWAM base, we perceive the need for Malawian missionaries around the world and are doing our best to equip Malawians to go through-out the world preaching the good news.
From there we moved into talking about 12 ways God uses a leader: which is a powerful way into looking at the different leaders that God used in the Bible and how we are called into a life of obedience to what God is calling us to do. Our obedience to God is life changing to others around us and can bring transformation to the nations in doing so. We are called to life lives that expect God to work when we do our little part. Trust that God will do more than we can ever imagine possible and more than we can expect. When we walk in obedience with God we know that He works for His glory and is using us in a small part of a bigger picture. Though many times we do not know the outcome of our obedience God is working mightily and in stepping out in faith we are expecting God to show His power. I’m reminded of the “umbrella” story I mentioned in one of my first blogs from this trip that talks about expecting God to work when we pray/move in faith.

On Friday evening we started 24 hours of fasting, prayer, intercession and worship. This is our second time doing an extended time of prayer and of fasting, but our first time to put the two together in one slot. I was very excited about jumping into the prayer time and once the signup sheet for hours of prayer slots was done I quickly added me name in for 2 hours of prayer in the middle of the night hearing from different people that the late night prayer slots were powerful. I also have been trying to increase the length of time I am able to pray for, looking back at our first time of 24 hours of prayer 1 hour alone was not enough hence signing up for 2 hours in a row (which I can tell you was still not enough).

Let me introduce you to our prayer tend:
You walk into the large red tend and straight ahead of you on the far side of the tent is the “holy of Holies” of our prayer time. While walking towards the “holy of holies” on your left are pictures of kids hanging on the wall, your mind wonders where the kids are and what their lives have entailed to this point, saying a soft prayer as you keep walking forward. As you come to the white cloth that separates the outer court area from the inside the prior person greets you and says a short prayer for you, blessings you and asking for the Holy Spirit to speak to you and touch your heart that hour. You walk in to the presence of God that has been evident from the testimonies of those that have gone before you. You look around though the first thing that has caught your mind is the wall standing before you, that in the past was white but now is teaming with colors from different people writing and drawing prayers, words of encouragement, scriptures and pictures of “typical” Christian signs. As you look over it you read each saying that is on it, reading over the scripture and praying for things that people have written.
There is some soft music playing in the background that you just now have noticed, though you don’t understand all the words (as a western) you sing alone as best as you can but just enjoy the background music. As you move to the left of the Graffiti wall you read more read some scriptures posted on the wall about prayer and intercession. Seeing the guitar leaning against the wall and pick it up, strumming a couple notes, realizing that you can’t play much you put it back down and saying a quick thanks for all the people that God has gifted with the ability to play music. Hanging on the curtain is a piece of cardboard with pictures on it. Pictures resembling different area’s in injustice in the world, things like: abortion, slaves, child soldiers and many more. You spend a good portion of time praying for child slaves, prostitutes and soldiers as you have always had a heart for the children of the world.
On the other end of where you stand, past the graffiti wall and the entrance in which you came in you sit on the grown, staring into a cub surrounded by the crown of thorns. Beside it, below the cross is a bun, the body of Christ. You spend some time meditating on Jesus’ death and thanking Him for dying for your sins. As you say Amen you hear the sound of food steps in the grass outside and realize that your hour is already over and the next person is coming to take over for you.

Now this wasn’t my personal experience this time but is a sum up of what different people have gone through as well as my first experience in the prayer tent a couple weeks ago. My experience this time around, during my first 2 hours in the middle of the night was amazing. I went into the tent with expectations to be praying for a couple different things and God had different plans. I didn’t even get to the “holy of holies” and stayed walking around in the outer court area. I spent my time praying for a couple different individuals and got some pictures and words for them which was amazing. It was incredible to sit in God’s presence for those 2 hours and just know that He is speaking powerfully. Shortly before my time was up I started to feel uninterested in prayer, more so because I knew my time was almost over and the next person was on their way shortly. But I grabbed some paper and a marker and pressed on and wrote some words about prayer and just was praising God through written word. This season of my life God has really shown me the power of prayer and I’ve really started to enjoy it and spending time with God seeking the things that are on His heart and how He wants me to pray about them but also that He puts a burden on my heart to do something about those area’s as well.
It really was a powerful week and everything seemed to just fit together, prayer, lectures, and e-mails I received from people it was astonishing to see that God uses people all around the world to bring a message about the same topic to one area.

Prayer:
-We are starting outreach preparation now and looking towards what is going to happen for the next two months.
-Pray that God reveals his calling to each one of the students and his plans for there life
-Continual pray for the revival on Malawi and that God uses us in some small powerful way
-Pray for a boldness for us as we go out and preach
- Our team safety and unit in the outreach phase.

thank you all dearly for your prayers and constant support in this season of my life.

The Three Night Movie

This week we had a shift during the DTS, before we had been looking inwards at how we see God and His work within us. Now starting this week we are starting to look into how we can affect the world, with the topic of world missions. Speaking about different parts of the world and his personal world travels and missions is Andrew Meggs from the UK, though he has traveled around most of the world doing different forms of missions. We started the week off by talking about what our motivation for preaching the gospel is and what the Bible also says about it. Many of the missional books I’ve read in the last couple years, has talked about this topic in many different regards. Each person has their own desires for doing mission where ever they feel called to be. Though we all know that missions is something we are all called to in the great commission God gave right before being taken up to heaven at the end of His time on earth. But what we talked about this week and I’ve read in all of those books is that when you get too worked up in your role in missions and the work that your missions is doing, consumes you and becomes your most important thing in life, and becomes your first love, then there is an issue. My current read is a book by Brother Yun called “The Heavenly man”, in the book there are a couple of times where his missional work overtakes his love for God and in doing so God takes away part of his mission work and brings him back to his first love, that is Christ. I can agree with this motion, I know that many times I get consumed in what I’m going here and the mission work. I’ve been sick a couple times now being here and at times I’ve thought that it’s just God’s way of making me rest and having some down time and relaxing in Him. Each book has talked about how we need to remember that our main focus is not to live for the ministry that we do, but do ministry as a sign of our love for God, always keeping Him as our focus and reason for doing all things.

On Thursday we talked about the different ways of being a leader and how they worked. It was interesting to see how different the ways of leader can be and how the outcome on the people can drastically be different as well. I have seen both ways of leadership over my life and can see how each one has influenced me. The positive type of leadership, transformational Leadership, is fully focused on the other person and has their best interest in mind. This is at times very difficult when trying to lead a team and knowing that certain things just need to be done, but in doing so also trying to make sure the person get’s as much out of it as possible. Part of the DTS is leading in this way; even during the working parts of the DTS (ex. cleaning the house) we encourage people to be seeking God and praying through it all, also trying to instil in them the manner of working with a cheerful heart, doing all things without complaining or grumbling as the bible talks about. This is one of the biggest things that stood out for me this week, knowing that I’m called to be a leader, wherever God wants that to be, I know I need to continually be praying that God is making me into a transformational leader. There are different parts of my life that I can see while leading here that I am currently doing one or the other way of leading and I pray that God can reveal to me how to change to be the best leader I can be.

This past weekend I really got to put some of my leadership skills into place as a small team and I went down to the south of Malawi to show the Jesus movie, kids ministry and some pastoral training. The speaker and his son(The Meggs), one of the other younger staff members, a student, a local over seeing pastor and I went down, with myself leading parts of the team, though Daniel had set much of it up already. The idea was that with a small, stronger team (people that had done this already minus the speaker/his son) it would be easier for me to lead. It was a blessing to have them all there with me and they made things easier as they were open to ideas while giving their own as well. Here is the story of the weekend and all the goodness that God gave to us.

We arrived there Friday afternoon at about 3 o’clock and were greeted by the pastors and some local people singing praises to God for our safe arrival. We gathered with the pastors and were just sitting around while Eknox (the overseeing pastor that came with us) talked with them. While sitting there talking with the Meggs a small gathering of children came and sat under the tree near us. I suddenly found myself sitting on a small bench with my other staff member (Charles) sitting beside me readily willing to translate for me. I sat down and started mentioning things that were the same with all of us, we slept last night, have a heartbeat, and each has legs. From there moved to areas of how we are different, stating the obvious with skin and age but also mentioned things like the gifts and talents God has given each one of us. The similarities between us were trying to make them realize that no one person is greater than the rest; I am not more special to God because of being white, or my age or anything else. Moving from there talked about how God made us all different and knows each one of us by name and made us perfect as we are in Him. I really hope that my point got across to them and they understood my point through Charles translating (he always does a wonderful job so I’m not overly worried about his translating) but more that they really felt God’s love for them through my words as I know God was speaking through me.

Within a short period of time we gathered our things and headed to the local soccer field to set up for our first night of showing the Jesus movie. The set up for the movie went incredible quickly despite having only a couple people and only some of them knowing what they were doing. Once we were set up I took the Meggs to go get some cold drinks for ourselves and the team since it wasn’t dark enough for the movie anyways. We came back and we started the movie, now the movie is long and always in a different language so every time I watch it I go and rest in the car, or sometimes I actually hop onto the car and rest on the nice soft case for the rooftop tent we have. I was lying up there half asleep and just thinking about life as I usually do, staring up and seeing the uncountable number of stars that were staring right back down on me. It’s interesting that had certain times of life you reality kicks in and you remember how small and insignificant you are in the world. Seeing all those stars so far away and how vast they must be in size. Then thinking about how God has made each and every one of them for a purpose, remember that even though He loves each and every one of those stars He loves each and every one of His children more and takes care of us so well. All three nights that I sat watching an un understandable movie I thought about life and the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, but also thinking about the future and the many plans that God has in store for me. Thinking about the past knowing that only God could have brought me to the places that I’ve been I know that He has great plans to take me into new and wonderful places that only He knows about. Though I don’t know what the next seasons of my life are going to be I know that God will show me in time and things will change as He leads me, as I feel like He is slowing showing me what the season will look like I’m already intrigued by the things that will happen.

We showed the Jesus movie three nights in a row and had many people come together each night and we saw many people come to Christ, 155 the first night, 94 the second and 97 the third night. Almost half the number of people at each movie came forward and received Christ into their which is amazing to be part of. It’s a blessing from God to be used in such a way, being part of the story of so many people’s life story and the start of their new life in Christ. I know that they may never remember me, and I don’t know any of them by name, but I won’t forget being there in those villages and being part of the night they came to Christ. Each night we also were part of many healings, seeing people released from years of pain but also got the opportunity to pray for people to me released from addictions. Though we may never know if those people are really set free from those things we trust that God will move mightily in their life. On the last night, Charles and I were praying for three ladies at a time as each one of them had stomach pains, we praying for a couple minutes and asked them how they were doing. God touched two of them and healed them, but of course we did not stop praying, but in praying for the last lady we had the other two ladies that were healed pray for her. In only a short moment the last of the three ladies was healed. In doing healings in the village we really try to emphasize that we are not the power behind the healings, but that God can use any one to heal other people, so it’s always fun to get other people to be praying for their friends and family.

Now I know that I didn’t ask for money from anyone before I left, as I have enough money to keep myself going for a while, but there are some needs from the base. There are many ideas in the air about different opportunities, but the two that stick out the most at the moment are the need for more beds/bunk beds and the hope to be buying a motorcycle. The bunk beds are kind of self explaining but so I’ll just say that we are expecting more people to be moving into the base in a couple weeks from a team down in south Africa and are currently limited in space and beds. So though we don’t know where we are going to put the beds we still really need to be making some more beds for the teams. Each bunk bed costs about $40; this is for the wood and also for the labour for our carpenter. The motorcycle desire is to be able to take a smaller team into the unreachable areas of Malawi region. The motorcycle would be much cheaper on gas and better for those that haven’t driven before as well. The motorcycle we are planning to buy is a special three wheel bike with a bed on the back two wheels (I’ll add pictures as soon as I can). The bike is going to be fairly expensive and we already have some money going towards it but we can always use more, the total cost is just over $3000, but know that any amount that is giving is important and will be a blessing to us and to God’s kingdom as well. If you feel that God is calling you to give please feel free to e-mail me (travis.vanroot@hotmail.com) and I can give you more details on how to do so.

Thank you again for reading the blog and also for your donations and thoughts as well.
Many blessings from the YWAM Blantyre Team.

A Holy Week.

It feels like I haven’t written anything in a couple weeks; though it has been about 10 days know since I last updated the blog. This past week was very different from other weeks for the DTS. We had a friendly face come and sweet this week, Stefaan hugo, who was the base leader down at Worcester where I did my DTS 2 years ago. He came to speak on the Holy Spirit, which he also spoke about during my DTS. What made the week so different was that we did our lectures at a church in town, the one that I normally try to go to on Sundays if I’m not sick and am around the area. The idea was that there would be people that would come from the church and the surrounding area for the teaching, though not many did sadly. But every day from 12-1 we had an interdenominational meeting for those who were on their lunch break which was a blessing.

In writing about this week I’m a little nervous as I know many people from the western world know little about the manifestations of Holy Spirit, and though we pray at times that Holy Spirit would come, we aren’t as open to its movements. I know that was very true to myself before I did my DTS and even after and something that I am still getting use to and getting more in tune with. But moving with the Spirit is incredible powerful and can lead to some amazing things and is a real blessing. So as you read this know that is all by the power of God that it is done, and the movements of the Spirit are all Biblical and I can give references as well to these things. But I don’t plan to try and you teach you at this moment in time, though I would love to be able to teach on the movement of the Spirit in the western world someday. (possibly something I’ll look into more when I come home)

The Gifts of the Spirit are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 if you are interested in reading about them. I’ll also try and give some passages as I go along.

The first two gifts of the Spirit that we talked about were the gift of wisdom and the gift of knowledge. The gift of wisdom is all about being able to apply the knowledge that you already have, and the gift of knowledge is knowing that’s about someone or a situation that you normally wouldn’t, here’s an example of my own. Last week Sunday a couple people I went to a church to preach and do some ministry, while one of my team members was preaching, in Chichewa so I didn’t understand, I was suddenly struck with the thought that there was someone in the local area that we had to pray for, as we always do healing calls where ever we go I knew that no one would come forward but that there was an older lady close by that we had to go pray for. So at the end of the service before we left I got up front and mentioned this to everyone at the church (only about 10 people or so) and they knew of a lady about 5 minutes away that was sick. So we went and prayed for her and then left, not exactly to my easement though as I was hoping to stay and keep praying for her but I was no longer “leading” the group and people were already leaving before I could say anything. I don’t know if that lady was ever healed or not, but I know that God was pleased with me as I walked in faith that day. You’ll see that many of the gifts of Spirit are like that, that they are all about taking a step of faith and trusting that if you do your part, God will do His part as well.

Next we talked about the gift of Prophecy, this is a gift that I know I have and am really starting to enjoy and getting stronger and stronger in stepping out in this area. Know Prophecy is basically just getting a “word”, as we would say, for someone. There are three things it could be, and has to fit into at least one or it’s not truly from God, they are as follows: To strengthen someone, to encourage, and to comfort. (1 Cor 14:3) As I said before the gifts are all about stepping out, in prophecy, you are just getting some random word or words to say to someone. It takes some faith to go and talk to them saying that you think God wants to say something to them, though you never said “God says this” you normally would start with “ I think, I believe, or I saw this picture/word for you” and so on. In the last week it has been really amazing being able to prophecy over people, on the day we were taught about it we had a time where we just go to meet up with some stranger we didn’t know and prophecy over them and then later during the interdenominational meeting we met in small groups and prophesied over people and it was moving to see how correct some of the words that people got were. Also how God can give multiple people the same word to one person just in a different way. When prophesied over, it’s always important to not let it change who you are, or where you are going. It’s something to pray over and also a good idea to talk to others about, but as an example we used, if someone prophesied over me the word China, I wouldn’t back up my whole life and move to China. But if over a couple months many people kept getting that word over me I’d really have to ask God what He wanted me to do.

After the gift of Prophecy we moved onto the gift of Tongues. This is something that I really struggled with during my DTS. I saw many people receive this gift and prayed that I would receive it myself but I didn’t fully understand it and couldn’t grasp how I could do it. But within a couple weeks of being here, and talking to Daniel about it some more and studying it, I was able to grow in this area and now feeling pray in tongues all the time. I’ve had days where I find myself praying in tongues through-out the whole day, as soon as I wasn’t doing anything my mind would go back to speaking in tongues. It was an incredible time and I really felt blessed through it, as the gift of tongues is something that is just between the person and God that only He can ever understand. Tongue’s is normally something that people get confused about as there are three different types of tongues. The first is Human tongues (Acts 2:4) this is when you are suddenly able to speak in another human language. (This still happens today but is pretty uncommon)Next is the gift of “church tongues”, this is when you speak in tongues that no understands but God speaks to someone and gives them an interpretation of what you are saying. (1 cor 14: 27) This is more common than human tongues today but only view Christians have the gift. Being able to give an interpretation of tongues is also another of the gifts of the Spirit as well. The last one is the personal tongues that I starting this topic with. It’s something that is just between you and God, normally we use it when we don’t know what to pray for or have lost words for our prayers. It also helps you pray longer and as you can just pray in tongues and never know what you’re saying or praying for. It was amazing to see people receiving this gift this past week, on Thursday Stefaan one other person and I went to the church (as the rest of the team was at the base) and we were praying for people to receive the gift of tongues and God’s presence just fell on each one of them and they all spoke in tongues within seconds of us starting to pray. It was miraculous just to see these people step out and open there mouths to be God’s presence.
There are many thoughts that run through our head when we think about this personal tongues manner. One is that we expect God to come and move our mouth and just speak through us, but a big part of it is just taking the first step and opening your own mouth and just letting any sound/noise come out and go with it. My personal tongue changed many times in the first two weeks till it became what it is today. Know that each and every follower of Christ is able to receive this gift, though some people don’t for some reason, but it is possible for all to receive it.

Most of my blogs are filled with the gift of healing so I’m not going to touch on that one at all and we didn’t really see much healing this week though we had some. But I know that during the rest of my time here this gift is just going to grow and grow and I’ll write more about it as time goes on.
Going with the gift of healing is the gift of Miracles. I personally have never seen an example but they are normally when something is replaced or made new with someone, for example someone has an amputated leg and it suddenly grows to normal length again, or broken bones are completely healed. I’m excited to see some miracles in my time here and am really trying to open myself up to see them and also putting myself out there to be used in doing them as well.

On Thursday afternoon we had a time of worshiping in a different manner them I’m sure you are all use to. It normally happens on the Holy Spirit week and we did it on my DTS as well. It’s a giving worship party, we all pray in the morning and ask God to show us something, or many things that we need to give away and then also to whom we need to give them to. It was moving to see how the Malawian who most of them have very little of their own where giving away so freely, people were giving away t-shirts and full suits to each other as well as a group of people pledging to give a total amount of $80ish dollars a month to one of the guys here. The whole idea of the party is to bless others but also to trust that God will bless us as we bless others and Him in our giving. We are not working towards blessings on this earth but are working towards rewards in heaven and our giving and trusting more and more in God is doing that. Though He normally blesses us here on earth later on in time but we must trust that God knows what is best and will provide even when we give our last cent of money to someone else.
One of the things I gave away was really hard for me as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get another one while here in Malawi and something that I used almost every day (it’s not my computer as I’m own my own while writing this) and at first I was really holding onto it, thinking that I needed it during my time here but finally God did His work in me and I knew who I had to give it to and did so. The guy was so blessed and I know that he will enjoy it for many years; I also know that someday I’ll be able to get another one, whether God blesses me with someone giving one to me, or buying one myself.

As I said before, this week was very different from any other, but it was truly incredible. I know that God has started something wonderful within each one of us this week and hopefully this week will have started something powerful for our team and the way we work and minister to others.

Prayer:
This weekend one of your teams went down south to do some ministry and as while on their way home on Sunday the car broke down. So if you could pray that we can get the car fixed but also that God will show us what His plans are for this, as Daniel said, in these situations normally its God’s way of speaking to us and getting us to go His direction and now our own.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support,
Many blessings from the YWAM Blantyre Team.

A busy week and a late update.

A view days late, for a view days of God’s Glory being revealed. As you can tell I’m fairly late with this blog update. But I have good reasons as the last 4 days we were out at a soon-to-be orphanage doing some work and evangelism. But I will get into the details of that after talking about last week.

The lecture week last week was very strange for me. We were talking about Intercession and Spiritual warfare, and during my DTS Daniel and Suzy (base leaders here) came and spoke about this topic and did an incredible job. My expectations for the week were very high even though Daniel and Suzy were not teaching it on this DTS. Sadly my personal expectations were not meet, though not a bad thing as I know many of the students were very pleased about how the teaching went and what was spoken about. For me though, it was very different then what I had in mind that the week was going to be about, as this teacher went a completely different direction and in my point of view not necessarily the direction that we, as staff, saw fit for the time. Don’t take me wrong though it was still a great week and people were blessed by the teaching. She spoke of important things that are helpful and was very encouraging to each one of us. Even I became blessed by the teachings, once I put aside my own desires for the week. One of the real points that made impact in me was the area of praying the Bible. I know for a lot of people, especially myself, that praying can either get boring or you can’t think of words to say anymore. Along with that sometimes we may think that our prayers don’t have power or God won’t answer them, but when praying the Bible, they are prayers that have already been blessed, as they are from God already. It’s a powerful way to pray as we take the prayers from the Bible, reading them allowed, but also putting into our own words and into the certain situation we are praying for.

As the week’s speaker didn’t have intention of speaking on spiritual warfare as much as we wanted to, Daniel spoke about it in our weekly “community” meeting that we had on Wednesday evening. I’ve always loved the way Daniel teaches and how he always pulls part of his own life into the mix. We mostly talked about he came to know about that there is a spiritual word but then moved onto to talk about the different spiritual words and how we have authority over them, though most of the time we only have authority over the spiritual world around us (as in the human spiritual sense) and not necessarily the second level of the spiritual world (this is the spiritual area that hovers over different areas of the world, as in depression, addictions, etc). It was cool to really look into the spiritual world and talk about it with people; I came to realize that I know little about it, though I fully believe in it. It’s something that I’d be interested in reading more about it. I’d also be interested in hearing what other people back in Canada think about the Spiritual world. As I think it’s something we really push aside in western cultures, I know I did even coming home after my DTS and learning so much about it. So please e-mail me or write comments down below with your comments about it, if you disagree with things I’m saying or agree I’m still very interested in what you have to say about it.

After the busy week and much deliberation about the weekend and the outreach that we were planning we finally left for eastern Malawi, less than an hour from Mozambique, Saturday afternoon. It was a long bumpy drive as most drives through the villages are around here. Though it was such a crazy drive I had a blast doing it as the road was in the middle of construction so as times we were off the road and on dirt roads and others zipping across the paved roads. Along the way there were lots of bridges being built so we were always going up, down and around road blocks, but half the time they weren’t really necessary so we would just drive up the step bank from the dirt road back up onto the paved road. At one point we were going around a road block and my heart stopped as I was so scared that the truck was going to tip over as it was on such a crazy angle. Once we were about 20 minutes away we stopped in the closest trade post to buy some food and we realized that we had two punctured tires, one in either vehicle. Thankfully we just drove up the road and found some people who were able to fix both tires as we waited for out food to be. It was cool to see how they did it since I have done it many many times when I worked as a mechanic. They used some of the same tools and things we would use, though they don’t have the big machines that we use to take the tire off. I think that they even did it just as fast as I would have done it back home at the mechanics. The crazy thing was that they fixed both tires for less than 5 Canadian dollars.

The outreach itself was incredible, we got there late Saturday night so we couldn’t see any of the area that we were in, but in the morning it was so beautiful. We were more a less in field with very little around us. We started ministry right away on Sunday morning after a fairly decent night’s sleep. We lead most of the church service in the small building, having a drama, two testimonies, and some people lead us in some Malawian songs. Dave, our weekly speaker and friend of Daniel and Suzy from the UK, preached and spoke some powerful words. After Dave had preached Daniel went up and he spoke about the power in healing, both from witch craft and God’s healing hand. Talking about how both have power, though God’s is free and makes true healing within. Once we had spoken about different types of witch craft we invited people to come forward who wanted to repent for turning to witch craft and not God, but also repenting for sins of witch craft within the family line as well. When praying we really felt a burden being lifted off people, though once we started praying for people to be healed from physical things we had some difficulties. Still feeling the weight of witch craft possible or some other way that the enemy was trying to stop us, but God is all powerful and conquers all wars with the enemy.

The next two days where very similar in pattern as we started each morning with an hour of praying as a team and then jumped into Dave doing some pastoral teaching that the students sat in, just to make sure that we had enough teaching for this week as it is a requirement for YWAM to have a certain amount of teaching each week. After lunch Pastor Size (who lives with us and is our carpenter at the moment) kept going with the pastoral training, but the YWAM team separated into two different teams. One team staying around with the children and playing some games with them, taking them down to the local soccer field and playing some games with them there.(sadly the first day they broke the soccer ball that I had just bought the day before we left) The other team would leave mid afternoon and head out to a village nearby and show the Jesus movie. I was part of the Jesus movie both nights as it is something that I’m helping organize most of the time and it’s really where my heart lies, though I do love working with the kids as well. God really moved both nights, even though both nights had some small issues. Both nights we had over 100 people come forward and write down their names, meaning that they gave their live to Christ for the first time there and wanted to join the local church. Upon completing the movie we did our typical call for those who are sick to come forward and get healed. The first night was so hectic during the time of healing and after praying for about 5 people I was incredible exhausted and felt so claustrophobic and had to get out of the middle of the circle of people. It really reminded me of the fact that it’s not my power or might that is healing anyone during these times, but it’s truly God as I was very distant even while praying for people. The second night was incredible exciting for me though during the time of healing. I was really reminded of the time in the Bible when Jesus heals an old man who couldn’t walk and once he was healed the man jumped up and danced around for hours. This was very similar in that night, the very first person I prayed for was an old man who had some bad knees and could barely walk. Before I even finished praying he started jumping up and down, dancing around and rejoicing. For the next half an hour, every time I saw this elderly man he was jumping, dancing around telling people he has been healed, it was amazing to see how excited this man was about life now that God had healed him. It was a real blessing to be part of it, especially as many people who get healed her don’t act so excited they think that when they act excited they will have to pay more since that is how it is with the witch doctor. Though we always make sure to bring up the point that God’s healing is completely free and is a gift from Him.

As this is getting to be very long I’ll wrap up the rest of our time there quickly. The biggest reason we went there was that they had just finished putting in a well and we had some practical work to do with adding a water tank, putting in the pluming for a couple showers and bathrooms. Though we didn’t get as much of that work done as we wanted to, due to the builders not being done there part yet, we did get some of the pipes put in and the builders got a good amount of work done. We are planning to go back in a couple months to finish the water tank and the showers/bathroom.
The whole outreach was an incredible blessing both for us and for the people that we met. The biggest blessing was having such a great team to be part of. The students on this DTS are so great and really dove into the work we were doing. They also worked really well together as a team and though we had a couple small arguments we got through them and still have great united as a team.

Now back at the base we are doing two long days of teaching (Thursday/Friday) and then having a couple days off on the weekend. Though I know people are tired we are also really excited about what else Dave has to say to us in the next two days. He has really been a blessing and he has a great teaching style and is a really great guy to have around.
I don’t think I’ll be writing on Sunday again as this is so long, I’ll just leave it to next weekend especially since this weekend I won’t be doing much anyways.

One last thing that I just want to mention is that we have a couple needs here on the base. We are looking to expand the amount of sleeping space we have so we need to make some more beds and buy a couple other things for us to have more people on the base. It would be really great if you would be able to support us in that area both with your prayers and especially financially. If you are able to give, any amount at all, please let me know and I’ll give you more information on what you’re helping out in and also how you can send the money my way. We’d really appreciate any help that you’d be able to give.

Thanks for all the prayers and support.
Many blessings from the YWAM team here in Blantyre.

-Travis VR

Bringing up the depths.

This past week was a rough one for most people on the DTS it seems. I hope that I didn’t concern you to much right there as when I mean “rough” I mean a good rough. This week was all about the character of God and inner healing. This week really touched on some deep area’s and uprooted a lot of emotions for most people. Suzy’s parents, Peter and Trish, really spoke some powerful words into everyone’s lives.

One of the days I got to sit in on class they were talking about the character of God as a father and a mother, Pete and Trish taking the appropriate roll. We talked about how God is not only the father figure that we long for, though that is a very big aspect of things, He is also a strong mother figure in our lives as well. Something that I rarely think about, but God is certainly a mother figure as He is sensitive and caring as any mother is. These area’s is what touched most people the deepest as we talked about how things our parents did, no matter how long ago, really make an impact on our lives. Things that we may have totally forgotten about really make us who we are today. This can be for the good or for the bad.

One of the big areas that we talked about was all about self cursing, such a large topic that stretches over many different things. It’s amazing to see that this is something that really touches everyone deeply. Talking with one of the Malawians during some one-on-one time he mentioned how this really hit him hard as he has always doubted where God could take him, most of that is because he thinks as a black/Malawian he is unable to go very far. This is a typical way of thinking for most Africans; thinking that they are to poor, or too little for God to take them anywhere in life. This is definitely something that I could relate to, though it’s hard to try to relate to them as I know that I have been blessed with so much growing up in a middle classed western home. But four years ago I would have never thought that I would have ever gone to Africa in the first place, let alone be living here for a good length of time. Like i mentioned last week about the skit we did about being in a box, I think I just put myself into a box and really though little about the power of God and the things He could do with my life. Now that I’ve jumped out of the box and am really letting God do with me as He pleases I’ve seen some amazing acts of God, met some wonderful people from all around the world. I even know that this isn’t the end of my path and that God has so much more in store for me and I’m so excited to see what adventures God and I will embark on over the years.

Something that really caught my attention this week when talking about God’s character was that He is a God that loves to Bless. This is something I’ve always known but we heard it in a bit of a different way this time. Pete and Trish talked about how even when praying for things we need to bless them. They told a story about how as pastor of a church really thought that God wanted them to have an orchestra within the church. So he was crying out to God for this to happen, but one day God told him to just start blessing the idea instead of asking for it. The pastor was confused but went on and just started praying a blessing over the people who would be in it but the orchestra all together, within 3 months that church had a full orchestra. We learned that you don’t always need to pray into something with big details or big dramatic words, but the power of praying a blessing over something is incredible and God really sees that we just want the best for Him and whatever we are praying for.

It was a real blessing having Pete and Trish here this past week, they are truly a couple who are devoted to what God has for them. It was great to see them teach as individuals but yet always willing to let the other speak whenever they saw fit. They are also such loving and gently people to be around. They were always encouraging each one of us and being so uplifting even when we didn’t do much to deserve it. I know that each of us is so grateful for them to be here, them giving up all of their time for us as we rarely gave them time to themselves as each student got to meet with them for some one-on-one counselling.

Now after along week of some deep teachings we finally got to the weekend and started it off strong with some prayers being answered on Friday as one of teams went to a local home for disabled kids and really felt God’s presence there and really felt like it is somewhere we can continue to work in and see God’s hand of healing but also just His hand of love as well. The second area of answered prayer was that we finally God some gas (petrol as they call it here) as there has been a shortage for some time due to government issues. We were really struggling to figure out what things was worthy of using a car for due to the lack of gas as well as running our generator here at the base for when the power goes out. But thanks be to God for providing a large amount of gas (though we had to drive for over an hour to get it).
On Saturday while on our day of rest we all got to get off the base for a day and go spend some good time in fellowship at a local lodge up on a mountain. It is such a beautiful place with a large pool overlooking the valley below, as you can see in the pictures attached. It was really a great day just to hangout, relax and enjoy each other’s company. The thing that was kind of a shock for me and never really occoured to me was that for some of the Malawians this was the first time ever in a swimming pool. It was so much fun to be able to experience it with them and just to enjoy the thrill of jumping into the water with them. Taught them some fun ways to jump into the pool: cannon ball, diving, flips etc. Finally was able to land a backflip into a pool so that was pretty cool.The only bad thing about the whole day was that we had so much delicious food that Sunday morning I woke up and was sick all day Sunday due to stuffing my face the day before. But alas it’s Monday now and I’m feeling much better. (also why this update is a day later then I’d like it to be)

Well we are unto week 4 already and it’s great to see that everyone still has lots of energy, though sadly most people have been sick for a couple days already.

Prayers:
-That no one gets sick very badly
-for over all strength for all us
-we are planning a big outreach this weekend so pray that God is opening doors for that
-God continues to transform everyone here on the DTS
-That things we learn are life long and just for today

Thanks again for all your prayers and support during this time.
Love and Many blessings from Malawi

God revealed in the Village

Wow, what a weekend we just had. Depending on how much I write about it I’ll write about the week as well, but this weekend, (mostly Sunday) was incredible and I need to testify about it.

Sunday, it was a draining day. I got home and went to sleep so quick and felt absolutely empty, but my goodness it was so worth it. In the morning a team of about 15 of us, went to a local church. When we first walked into this mud walled shack of a building we were blinded. Blinded by the sun since the roof was only partly done and there was a gapping whole in the middle of it. When we turned to the front we could see roughly about 10 people sitting on old unstable benches. In front of them where 8 nice, solid plastic chairs set out for the team. We were greeted with warm handshakes and shown to our front row seats. Once the pastor had spoken for a little bit we were called to the front to be introduced. One of the big parts of YWAM is the fact that we are not denominational, so we each spoke of where we are from and our home church, after which Daniel spoke about how we come from different places but yet are one body and that our desire has a movement is to bring churches together for one purpose. Once we introduced ourselves we had a time of prophesying over the people and church as a body. This wasn’t planned, as it never should be, and we really saw God speak. Roughly five of us or so spoke words over people and the body of people. They received it very well and after words we hurt from other people that our words spoke right into people’s lives, all by the power of God. From there we did a skit about how we can put ourselves into boxes and only God can set us free. It’s a powerful skit and really spoke to people. God continued to move as Suzy’s father preached the gospel and really was empowered and spoke God’s words over everyone. Once the word was preached God moved through His Spirit of healing and healed a couple people from different body pains. One of the big area’s we see of healing is that of headaches and backaches. This is usually caused by dehydration but it’s always a place where God moves and places healings over people. It was really amazing to be praying for people and God using you in that area. (I’ll write more about healings further down) This church was incredibly open to all the things we brought to the table and drank of the water that God was pouring out. It’s inspiring to see such small churches with such power and such depth in their faith. As much as I love big corporate churches I’m really coming to enjoy the intimacy and fellowship of small, local churches. They really know what it means to love your neighbour, or in their case, the person in the next pew. It really moves me to want to have that deep relationship with in a church setting. To those of you reading this from my church family back home, I’d like to ask your forgiveness for not being involved in the church in that area of relationship. I was frustrated by the church for a while and separated from myself from it. I know regret that I wish to be able to connect with all of you on that deeper level. I know it is not an instant, duck tape, kind of mix, but one that takes time, time that I’m willing to put in once I am back home. I appreciate all of your friendships and support very much.
Thank you church family.

Now onto, for me, the most excited part of our day. After coming back to the base and eating some lunch we packed up the big car with all of our gear and 9 people and set out to get a pastor who was going to take us to one of his village churches in which we were going show the Jesus movie in. I really don’t think we could have fit anything else in that car with us, 10 people in total now and all of the great. Five of us sitting on each other’s laps in bed of this truck as we set off down dirt roads and through small villages and markets filled with people. We drove for about an hour or so and finally reached our destination. We got to this small village and we thought there was a large welcome party coming down the road as we could hear loud drums and singing from far away. We sat on the tailgate and patiently waiting as the sound grew louder and louder. We were saddened to finally realize that the party wasn’t for us but was a celebration of a wedding that was to partake in the next week. It was great to see how the people all stood together and celebrated such a joyous day together as a body. The people did stick around though to see why we were there which was wonderful. The thing I always love about showing up into a remote village is that people tend to just stand and stare (especially the younger kids). Though there was a couple of us “western” folk there I’m usually the one being stared at due to my blonde hair, blue eyes, and the biggest thing is my piercings. But my favourite thing to do while all these kids are standing around me staring is to suddenly move to where the crowd is, scaring all the kids. It’s interesting how they are so interested in you, and yet are so scared to be within an distance of you at all at first sight. It’s always great to just ask for a high five from one young kid and just see him step out with some guts and be the talk of the town for a little while and everyone laugh at him.
Once we had figured out a good place to set up the Jesus kit we got everything arranged and started by playing some music to draw in the crowd but also because it wasn’t yet dark enough to start the movie. As we sat around waiting for darkness to flood over this small and unknown village I walked around and took some photo’s (some of them posted) and really just enjoyed people with the people. Some of the locals who were passing by stopped and saw the camera and asked for their picture to be taken. They mostly just want to see themselves on a media device, makes them feel more worldly I think. After I had come back where the team was waiting I noticed one of the small boys had a “soccer ball”. I use that very loosely as it was just a ball made of foam wrapt in stripes of an old tire, they are very inventive here. I walked over and asked him for it and just started juggling around with it for a while, once everyone saw what I was doing I was swarmed by kids of all ages. Staring intensely at me as I kept the ball up and did some cool tricks as best as I could. I loved just kicking the ball around with the kids and enjoyed them laughing and running around as I’d just kick the ball into the ground just to see it flying back to my feet within second of my kicking it away.
Now onto where God really moved this weekend. Once we had gotten to the part of the Jesus movie where He has been crucified we paused the movie and suzy’s Mother came forward to preached the gospel. Very simply and just speaking of God’s love and what He has done for each and every one of the people there. After she had spoken she had Ali, her interpreted and a student on the DTS, say a prayer that everyone said in response. Then we had those who gave their life to Christ for the first time come forward and write down there name in a book and be invited to the local church. 78 people came forward and said they gave their life to Christ that night. 78, read that sentence again and rejoice with me and the Angels in heaven.
After we had watched the rest of the Jesus movie Suzy’s father came forward and spoke of God’s healing hand, and called the team forward as he encouraged people who were sick to step forward so that we could pray for them. This is one of best parts of any Jesus showing for me. It’s the part where God comes and pours out His love on His children. God moves and speaks to us and everyone around and releases people from sickness. Like I stated earlier, many of the healings that God does is of headaches and back pains. So almost all of the healings that God used me in had those attached to them, though some add other pains on top of those ones. One of the things that I’ve really learned so far while being here, from both the DTS speakers but also from Daniel and Suzy as well is just the matter of stepping out in faith even when you think it’s something unimportant and silly. So when praying for different people God spoke to me about where to either place me hands or different things to do. The interesting thing that happened twice I think was that God would confirm faithfulness to me through the people that I’d pray for. When about to pray for young man who had pain in his leg God spoke and told me to place my hands on his ears, strange I thought but I obeyed. When God healed this man the next came forward and spoke of how he had pain in his ears. And yet I knew that even before we prayed for him that God was going to heal him, and of course God did, because He is a great God.
God continued to heal people that night and we think that roughly about 75-100 people where healed by God that one night. It was incredible to be part of that and it’s really why I came out to Africa, to see and be part of God’s salvation and healing being poured out on villages like this. I hope that this small testimony, though it might be brief and not very descriptive, might strengthen your faith in God and inspire you of His great strength and the power He holds. I know that doubt continues to build up in my humanly body but I know that God is good and is capable of all things. I daily have to repent of my doubtful being and ask for more and more faith to be poured out on me. May you also be doing likewise that God can do is work within you and through you to other people.

Thanks for reading this whole thing if you actually did. I ask that you pray that God continues to pour our His presence on this team and on the ministries we get to do.
Thanks again for all the support and daily prayers that I know are being sent from wherever you might be. God bless you as you daily walk with Him.

Blessings
-Travis

Be Thankful!!

This week was the beginning of the DTS. All the students where here by Sunday night and were “registered” and ready to go. Monday morning we started off by praying for each student and just having a great spiritual morning. The DTS started off very differently than we expected it to with some issues coming up on Monday morning already. Thankfully though we found out that there was no real issued (though we had to take the precautions in case there really was) and everything worked out in the end and was just more just a pain in the neck in the end. Thankfully it didn’t bother any the students once we told them all sides of the story and things were sorted out properly.
The rest of the week was really incredible though, we had some great encounters with God during different parts of the week. Though I missed a couple of the lectures, do to being needed in other areas of the base, the one’s I did get to hear where really incredible and made some good impact even on myself. I really saw that all the students were interested in what was going on and were focused on what Kobus was speaking about.

As it is thanksgiving today, (Though we don't celebrate here) I'd just like to say thanks to everyone for all your support and prayers. A Special thanks goes out to my family for all your support with planning this trip despite doing so while planning a wedding as well. Also thanks to my close and dear friends Ben, Jake, April,Jaclyn, Liny and Kristine. Ya'll have been great friends, either for a short amount of time or for many years,and I don't know what I'd do without you guys. Of course there are many other close friends that I could mention but I don't want to be listing off lots of people. But thanks all you Mac people for your love and friendship even though we haven't known eachother long.
Also like to thank all the members of FAITH CRC. You have been a great home church to me over the years growing up there. Thanks for all your support and kind words in the last couple years. I really hope that God blesses the church in the years to come.
Thanks everyone, hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving and are really thankful for the little things that you have.
I've really come to realize how much I take for granted and don't thank God enough for. There are so many people around the world that have so little and yet give so much and really honor and worship God full heartily. I'm really coming to understand the parable of the widow's offering. When we feel like we have so little we need to remember to always give to God. Even this morning in church a lady testified about how she was in some finical debt but once she started to give God back His money He started to bless her with more than she could imagine.
So first off I'd like to remind you to daily be thankful for the things that you have. And never forget to be thankful for the things you see being as little. As most people around the world don't have those things.
Second, when you feel like you have little, whether financially or spiritually, just turn back to God and give Him what He deserves.
Third, maybe this weekend in your thankfulness you were reminded of how much you have. I'd like to challenge you to give away some of those things you have been blessed with. I know there are lots of shelters in hamilton or around the area that would love to take anything your willing to give. Also there are lots of organizations online that you can donate to, you just need to take the time to look into it. So please take the time to pray about what God wants you to give away and to whom He wants you to give it to.


The big thing that needs prayer around here is just that the students are really getting impact and that the weekend ministry will go well and people can step out in faith.


Be blessed all.

*Remember to feel free to e-mail and questions or other things you may be interested in.
travis.vanroot@hotmail.com

A new Face for the beginning of Something Great

I can’t believe that I’m already writing about another week. This one has gone by so quickly, meaning that it was a great one seeing as good things always happen quickly. It was also very busy and I’m sure that helped with the speediness of the week. We had a great speaker named Kobus from South Africa come and speak to us staff members. It was great to pick at his brain and see what he has pulled from his DTS experiences. He’s been with YWAM for a while and has let/staffed a couple different DTS’s in the past. The great thing about him is that he was very easy going about times and also just about what we talked about within his teachings. Though he always had things some whatly planned out, he was always willing to answer questions or go off course for things. He was also very good at keeping us engaged in what was going on with asking us questions and just having general discussion on a topic. Which for me was so great seeing as I can’t just sit and listen to someone lecture to me about things. He also never minded my random doodling in class either.

Though we did a lot this week, I can’t really recall much of it. Most of the things I was doing were little practical things around the base. More cleaning and prepping to start my recording studio and just running about picking things up and fixing other things around the base.

But yesterday(Saturday) was a crazy and hectic day. Had some meetings in the morning and then had to go pick one of the students up (Norman) and do some other shopping. We had the first rain fall of the season while I was out and about. So much rain came down so unexpected and really early for the rainy season. It was also really interesting to see how everyone just seems to stop what they’re doing when it’s raining. They really just don’t want to get wet but also they just don’t care about time at all. Time here in Malawi isn’t very set in stone like it is in the Western world. It’s much more chill and relaxed and people aren’t planning everything out minute by minute. Which is rather interesting since the DTS is very time structured, but I guess with school like things you need to be.

Today was the day we finally kicked things off. All the students are here with the last one just showing up in the last hour or so. We had our “registration” this afternoon with some financial stuff, getting to know eachother/name games. Also had dinner together and now most people are just kicking around laying some games and relaxing after a busy afternoon. It’s rather interesting sitting in this room; I’ll see how well I can paint a picture for you instead of actually taking a picture. I’m currently sitting in the corner of the room at my own big table with my back facing the outdoor where our class room is. The big table across from is alive with laughter and the sound of marbles clanging together as two Malawians teach one of the school leaders, a middle aged women from the UK, a typical Malawian game that I lack the name of though I have played it before. At the other end of that table, more directly in front of me sits three Malawians and a girl from Switzerland. Here is where most of the laughter comes from as it seems they are playing “UNO” with a normal deck of cards (we do have UNO cards somewhere though). Across the room sitting on one of the 4 couches is Norman reading a book while a Malawian and German, who have known each other for a couple years, discuss how the DTS will work. During this whole time Andy and Anna have been running in and out looking for Daniel, trying to figure out if they will be leaving to head to Worcester to be doing there DTS lecture phase there instead of here. It’s a very lively and dynamically different place.
Earlier during our time of getting to know each other we briefly mentioned how we got to be here on the DTS. Now sitting here looking at the people that I’ll be living so tightly knit with for the next 5 months it amazes me that God has planned this since before we ever could think of it. In my mind I can go back about 6 years and clearly see how God’s hand was part of this, and I’m sure others can go back a ways. But every little thing has come to play perfectly for us to be here, living together at this moment in time. There have been doors that have had to open and we walk through, doors that are opened that we look through but may not enter. Doors have closed with our fingers grasping onto the door frame not wanting to leave, as well as doors that we have burst with joy, excitement and possible even fear for what was happening. But each door has served its purpose and made us to be who we are and bring us to this place today. There will different doors opening and closing during and after the DTS. Even if we never see each other again in the future God has placed us here right now, this moment in time for His purpose and serve His Kingdom.
I’ll leave those thoughts of opening and closing doors with you to pondering on.

Area’s of prayer:
-That this first week of the DTS will run smoothly and that each student will feel welcomed and will find their place here.
-Andy and Anna as the idea of them leaving is lingering and needs to be sorted out soon.
-As a base we are struggling financially. Some of the students don’t have their full lecture payments and the price of our rent is possibly going up as well.
-There has been a bad sick bug going around lately. So pray for God’s healing hand upon each of us and that this bug won’t spread now that there are lots of people here.


Thanks again,
Much Love
-Trav