It's a quiet Sunday afternoon here at YWAM Lebanon. For a little bit longer. Over the next few hours seven students will be arriving to add to the one staff and two I picked up from the airport an hour ago. They're taking TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) which starts officially tomorrow and runs for four weeks.
These past two weeks have been pretty slow. Mostly everyone preparing for the next school. Planning for our summer outreaches as well as the schools in September. Our secretary is taking TESOL so we've been training a temporary replacement. I was busy doing something... I'm not sure what though. I'm actually somewhat happy with the website now though. I guess I worked on it at some point. It's Sunday afternoon, I'm kind of tired.
In terms of base growth, we have five students who have shown a strong interest in the September DTS, and then the TESOL is almost full as well. We'd like to run a second in the fall as well, but that is dependent on whether the teacher, who is Australian, is able to renew her visa.
Tomorrow afternoon though, I fly home for ten days. I've been telling everyone here they aren't allowed to have computer problems while I'm away. This is my semi-annual "you have to leave the country and then come back for visa reasons" trip. It's going to be busy as I have a long list of people to see and I'll also be singing a few songs with my old choir on the occasion of the director's retirement. I'm excited about that, though I have to start learning the music. My main goal is to do some fundraising because I'll need to buy a plane ticket overseas for next winter as I'll be leading a team... somewhere. Either India or Ukraine, but it's not set in stone yet. It's dependent on how many students we have among other things. I am excited to meet all the new people at 24/7 Church as they recently merged with another church in Burlington. The family got larger!
This morning I went to the church I've been going to which is in Harrisburg (I always end up going to a church which is not at all close to where I live). One of the founders of the YWAM Fire and Fragrance base in Harrisburg led worship and spoke. I had a fantastic morning. Very Holy Spirit focused. Then I picked up two quiet folk from Missouri, a brother and sister. I pointed out how roads in Pennsylvania don't go in a straight line and how the highways are not at all convenient.
Life is good. Challenging, requiring growth, but good.
God Bless,
Christopher
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
A long overdue update!
So Blogger tells me it's been one month since I last update my quote-unquote "weekly" blog.
In the words of Vizzini: "What in the world could that be?!
Well, I- I could have sworn I saw something. No matter."
We've had a course running here at YWAM Lebanon this past month called a TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It's taught by an Australian lady who travels all over the world. When I picked her up from the airport she had come from North Korea. She figured out I was Canadian from my accent. We had six students who graduated this past Friday. Two of them were staff who wanted to do the course; one had just finished her DTS and is now staying on as staff; one is from Monterrey, Mexico and had just completed an ESL course in Wisconsin where she had learned English; one was a local guy who is going now to Bangladesh and thinking of doing a DTS when he returns in August and the last is from Vermont and is now going to Laos. It intrigues me how this course brings people from all over the world and then sends them right back out. Jon, who is our local student, commented on the fact that he likes the base because it doesn't feel like a Pennsylvania ministry. It has a very international feel to it. I just like leading worship in front of the large Canadian flag. Also my office (yes, I have an office) has a sign on the door that says "In this office 'Z' is pronounced 'ZED' ". So our first Spring TESOL is over, the second begins in two weeks and has nine enrolled students. Our office administrator is taking the course this time so there is a bit of a panic on what we're going to do while she's in class.
The base as a whole is doing well. I'm slowly initiating changes to try and both modernize how we operate as well as have a more professional, welcoming atmosphere. We switched from clear overheads to a digital projector for worship. How people apply has been revamped (and actually works now). We have a former student who just came on staff who has worked years in construction and is fixing up our base. This week we get a new carpet downstairs since a few weeks ago our sewer backed up. While damage was minimal because we quickly fixed the problem and were able to mop and pump out the water the insurance company decided to give us a new carpet anyways. Strangely because the clog happened on our property we're covered but if it were to have happened on city property we would have got nothing. Insurance is a strange beast. So while things here are not perfect, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Also, if anyone wants to donate a sound board we could use one.
I've started leading some of our worship times. Last week we had two visitors from India. They do ministry there with traditional sounding Indian music with great success. Even the hardest hearted Indian I'm told will sit and listen to them sing about Jesus in Hindi. They had a concert on Wednesday night with a Guitar and a Sitar and Thursday they joined me for worship. We had two guitars, the Sitar, an accordion, a violin, a flute and a piano and we all sat on the floor as is the Indian way. It's definitely something I'll remember for a very long time and stands out as one of my favorite worship times. Then Friday night we had two missionaries from Tajikistan visit us. They talk about the vast difference between expectations and reality. They went overseas for four years and had all these expectations that didn't come to pass. Instead they found a challenging country to live in where the gospel is persecuted. Being a missionary isn't always glamorous and it was quite humbling to hear them speak.
I go home for 10 days on May 20th. I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family again. Then I return and in the beginning of June travel to New York for a three day DTS leadership training course because I will be one of the leaders when the DTS begins here on September 4th. That means come December I'll once more be going overseas.... somewhere. Quite possibly Ukraine but it's not written in stone by any means. I'll really have to start fundraising. I hate fundraising. It's important, but I don't like it.
That's quite possibly it for now. My attention span is wearing down and I'm running out of things to say.
God Bless,
Christopher
In the words of Vizzini: "What in the world could that be?!
Well, I- I could have sworn I saw something. No matter."
We've had a course running here at YWAM Lebanon this past month called a TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It's taught by an Australian lady who travels all over the world. When I picked her up from the airport she had come from North Korea. She figured out I was Canadian from my accent. We had six students who graduated this past Friday. Two of them were staff who wanted to do the course; one had just finished her DTS and is now staying on as staff; one is from Monterrey, Mexico and had just completed an ESL course in Wisconsin where she had learned English; one was a local guy who is going now to Bangladesh and thinking of doing a DTS when he returns in August and the last is from Vermont and is now going to Laos. It intrigues me how this course brings people from all over the world and then sends them right back out. Jon, who is our local student, commented on the fact that he likes the base because it doesn't feel like a Pennsylvania ministry. It has a very international feel to it. I just like leading worship in front of the large Canadian flag. Also my office (yes, I have an office) has a sign on the door that says "In this office 'Z' is pronounced 'ZED' ". So our first Spring TESOL is over, the second begins in two weeks and has nine enrolled students. Our office administrator is taking the course this time so there is a bit of a panic on what we're going to do while she's in class.
The base as a whole is doing well. I'm slowly initiating changes to try and both modernize how we operate as well as have a more professional, welcoming atmosphere. We switched from clear overheads to a digital projector for worship. How people apply has been revamped (and actually works now). We have a former student who just came on staff who has worked years in construction and is fixing up our base. This week we get a new carpet downstairs since a few weeks ago our sewer backed up. While damage was minimal because we quickly fixed the problem and were able to mop and pump out the water the insurance company decided to give us a new carpet anyways. Strangely because the clog happened on our property we're covered but if it were to have happened on city property we would have got nothing. Insurance is a strange beast. So while things here are not perfect, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Also, if anyone wants to donate a sound board we could use one.
I've started leading some of our worship times. Last week we had two visitors from India. They do ministry there with traditional sounding Indian music with great success. Even the hardest hearted Indian I'm told will sit and listen to them sing about Jesus in Hindi. They had a concert on Wednesday night with a Guitar and a Sitar and Thursday they joined me for worship. We had two guitars, the Sitar, an accordion, a violin, a flute and a piano and we all sat on the floor as is the Indian way. It's definitely something I'll remember for a very long time and stands out as one of my favorite worship times. Then Friday night we had two missionaries from Tajikistan visit us. They talk about the vast difference between expectations and reality. They went overseas for four years and had all these expectations that didn't come to pass. Instead they found a challenging country to live in where the gospel is persecuted. Being a missionary isn't always glamorous and it was quite humbling to hear them speak.
I go home for 10 days on May 20th. I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family again. Then I return and in the beginning of June travel to New York for a three day DTS leadership training course because I will be one of the leaders when the DTS begins here on September 4th. That means come December I'll once more be going overseas.... somewhere. Quite possibly Ukraine but it's not written in stone by any means. I'll really have to start fundraising. I hate fundraising. It's important, but I don't like it.
That's quite possibly it for now. My attention span is wearing down and I'm running out of things to say.
God Bless,
Christopher
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