Lessons In and Out of the Classroom

We have been living in community here for about a month now and are 1/3 through the lecture portion of our DTS! We have had some thought-provoking lessons in the past weeks and wanted to share a quick over-view of what we have been learning.

The first week of class was entitled 'The Father Heart of God' and was taught by Jeff Pratt, one of the directors of the school. It was about God's desire for relationship with us. We discussed experiences and ideas that we might have allowed to create a wall of divide between us and God and how we can have freedom from those things. We talked about what freedom in relationship looks like. While we did spend a lot of time thoughtfully considering our pasts and what sort of baggage we were carrying that God wanted to free us from, we also talked about keeping our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves or on sin and the enemy. One quote that I wrote down in my notebook was, "Only deal with your past (go to it) as The Holy Spirit prompts you. Otherwise you have a selfish Christianity". The transparancy that we all displayed helped us to feel closer to a group of people who were were really just getting to know.

Our second week we focused on the qualities of Justice and Mercy and did a word-study on each. We were surprised to have our concept of justice as something extended by us to those being taken advantage of changed into a realization that justice must first be given from us to God. When we refuse him the relationship and praise that he deserves, we are perpetrators of the greatest injustice. To complain about all of the smaller injustices in the world without being in right relationship with God is to point out the speck in our brother's eye without first removing the plank from our own. We focused on these verses: Deut. 16:9, Ps 89:14, Prov. 28:5, Is 59:9, Amos 5:21, Matt 23:23, and Col 4:1. In our study of Mercy we looked at Isaiah 63:9, Daniel 4:27, Hos 14:3, Matt 5:7, Luke 1:77, 78 , Rom 12:1 and Eph 2:4. In closing we listened to the old sermon "Ten Shekels and A Shirt" by Paris Reidhead, which we both enjoyed.

We then had a day of teaching in Intercession (in addition to spending each Friday morning in Intercession). Most of the lesson was drawn from the book "Intercession" by Joy Dawson. We also spent two days discussing The Spiritual Disciplines (Confession, Fasting, Fellowship, Meditation, Prayer, Service, Silence, Solitude, Study and Worship) with Jeff Pratt. We have started to incorporate a "Daily Office" into our routine. The Daily Offices are designated solitary daily times of prayer/study/meditation that we set aside to remember Jesus. It is so hard starting a good habit, but we have each been blessed by our efforts already. Jeff left for the Montana base last week, but gave us the assignment to spend time listing things that we believe (as evidenced by the way we live our lives. You can't put 'helping the poor' on the list if you don't actually HELP the poor.) vs. Ideas that we love (thing that we wish had a place in our lives, but, based on our actions we don't believe enough to practice). Compiling our lists has been challenging and eye-opening.

Last week was entitled, "Christ In Culture", taught by Jeremy Harke. and was a review of the more prevalent worldviews and where they each differ from Christianity and the objections that their adherents usually have to Christianity. We spent a lot of time talking about Humanism - a worldview that dominates New Haven and is securely entrenched in the minds of most of our neighbors.

This week our speaker, Bill Burtness, taught on "How God Changes Nations". He teaches a class called Principles of American Government at the National University of Kosovo (I think that I got those locations right!). He teaches directly from the Bible about how the heart condition of the people can change government. It was pretty interesting.

Another part of our 'education' here is study. So far we have read and done book reports on "Is That Really You, Lord?" by Loren Cunningham and we just started "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Clainborne. Additionally, we got to choose a book to read from a list of Staff Picks and Jason chose "No Compromise" the biography of Keith Green (a whopping 500 pages) and I chose "Living On The Devil's Doorstep" by Floyd McClung about the establishment of YWAM bases in Afghanistan and Amsterdam.

We are learning a lot, in and outside of class. Living in community is challenging us to draw our strength from God and to find our value in Him alone - the other alternative is to be awful and selfish housemates! In a week we are gong in a 2 day silent retreat to Mystic Island, which is a few hours from here, I think. We are excited to hear what God has to say to us when we cut out all the other voices vying for our attention!

Good Times w/ Kid Dynomite!

Our time here with our new family of friends has been everything I'd hoped it would be as we prayed and planned for it over the last year+. Actually, even more so. In truth, I had conceded that we would likely be grouped with four 18 year olds, who while attempting to know God, would also be trying to figure out the person they would become outside of their parents reach. Honestly, any unknowns from our peers to our staff to our food or housing has really met my highest expectations. All of our classmates are in their mid-late twenties and have lived to some extent and done a lot of growing up already. I would say we are all at a point where we really have a desire to begin living more God-centered lives. Exciting.

We have already had two traveling YWAM couples stop by. One from Brazil and the other a couple who now live between here and Boston. A large group from Kona should be here later today. They have just finished their DTS in HI and are doing their outreach here around the New England area intereceding for the people and communities in the region. They will be spending two weeks of their outreach here in New Haven. Pretty neat. It has been really great living in community so far, but I also love being around and meeting new people so go figure right.?

This morning was our first meeting in which we were allotted time to kind of seek God with a short list of questions and wait for the Holy Spirit to guide us into any areas of our realtionship with Him that needed immediate attention. He showed up and really surprised me with what he had for me. Nevertheless, it was an intensely sweet and intimate time that we spent together in His presence.

Hello, New Haven!

We are finally here! After much planning and preparation we are finally getting settled into the house here in New Haven. We went ahead and decided to get four new tires in Virginia and to get new windshield wipers – it’s a good think that we did because we ran into heavy rain and high winds on the way up. Unsurprisingly, we hit traffic in New York City that stayed with us all the way to New Haven. We arrived Friday afternoon around 4:30pm after leaving Virginia at around 5am that morning. We agree that the last day of travel was the most exhausting out of the whole trip.

We are living in an old house (1913) on Willow Street. We are in walking distance of some great local shops and a very trendy downtown area. Yale University is nearby so there are tons of students everywhere and all of the sorts of businesses that cater to students. Coffee shops, laundromats etc. Several groups of people live in this house with us. The basement and attic are rented out to Yale students. We live on the first floor with four other people who are all part of YWAM. We all share the living area, kitchen, and one bathroom and eat all our meals together. On the second floor lives the YWAM director and his family. They have their own kitchen and everything that they need up there. They also have a python that escapes occasionally, we are told. They promised to get Jason the next time that ‘Monty’ gets a meal of live mice.

Our schedule has been pushed back this weekend due to one of the DTS students being ill. She has asthma and has been in the hospital here for about 3 days now. We are praying that she'll recover quickly. The activities that were scheduled to begin on Friday night (tour, orientation, etc.) were pushed back in the hopes that she would be out of the hospital and wouldn't have to miss anything, but that has not been the case. We are going to have our orientation and introduction time tonight after dinner, I think. Our regular classes will start tomorrow. It already seems like we have been here much longer than 2 days!

During our time in New Haven there are going to be a few ministries that we can choose to be a part of. One is an outreach called 'The Space' which is a music venue/coffee shop that is Christian-owned, but not really frequented by the church crowd. The other is an organization called IRIS, which works to help refugee families from the Sudan settle into life here with a place to live, furnishings, and provisions. We are going to hear more about those ministries and what it entails to work closer with them later this week.

At the moment we have enjoyed a lot of down time and have gotten the chance to set our room up to our liking and to sort of bum around town with some of the YWAM staff and other students (6 students total, including us Connors). Today we drove 45 min. to church on one of the most lovely roads I've seen. Highway 15, I think. We had a picnic lunch right off the beach and then wandered through an Italian Festival that was happening down the block. I had pretty high expectations for the festival and was slightly disappointed that no one was dancing in the street and there were no accordions being played. We finished the afternoon off with ice cream floats. Today is the first sunny day since we got here and we took advantage of it! We are now connected to the internet from our room, so more updates to come!

Our DTS Flyer

Here is a synopsis from our school's website about the specific program we will be participating in:

Axiom Five Month Justice and Mercy DTS

Axiom’s 5 month Justice DTS has 3 areas of emphasis:

Encountering Christ:
Our ultimate desire is for the Justice DTS to be a journey into the heart of the Lord where together we can experience the depths of His love and passion for mankind. The first three months of this school concentrates fully on developing a dynamic love relationship with the person of Jesus, through in-depth teaching on various topics, such as: Father Heart of God, Passion for Christ, Relationships, Christ in Community, Justice and Mercy, etc.

Engaging Culture:
During the first three months, we also enjoy times of worship, intercession and focus groups. Weekly, you will enjoy “being justice” at The Space (a cultural arts venue), distributing clothing to the poor, working at a soup kitchen--- joining with others within the community to find creative ways to bring the healing touch of Christ to those around us.

Emancipating the Oppressed:
India “Slumdog” Outreach, the second phase of the school, will focus on India. The numbers of orphans and children-at-risk are the greatest in history. India is experiencing a fierce attack on children right now (from sex-trafficking, abandonment, AIDS, etc.) We will make a difference by going to Pune and Chennai and working with street children’s ministries, HIV homes and orphanages. We can take a child off the street before they become another trafficking statistic. Come with us!

Many Indian children suffer from poverty. More than fifty percent of the total population lives below the poverty line, and more than forty percent of this population are children.
Being born in India is a big challenge for children whose parents can't afford even the basics, like housing, food and education.

The young girls of India are in the most vulnerable position as they are all low-caste and will most likely prostitute themselves or be sold to someone by the family in order to get money. The young street children, especially girls, are in the most vulnerable position. They are considered low-caste and will often prostitute themselves if they are not sold or kidnapped into sexual slavery first. Human trafficking is epidemic.

Can you imagine being in this world and having no one who loves you? No place to call home? No one to tell you that you are of value? It is unthinkable that we, as Christians, could ignore these children.

Requirements:

Applicants must be 20 years of age or older. (Exceptions may be made upon application approval.)

Dates and Costs:

The lecture phase runs from Sept.11 to Dec. 4th. The outreach phase is Dec. 28th- Feb. 22nd. The total cost is $6,200. (this is the total for the lecture and outreach phase including all housing, food, classes and transportation).

If you are interested in participating in the India outreach alone, we would love to have you with us! The cost is $2,800, and the date is Jan. 15-25th, 2010.

The Results Are In

Well, the garage sale is over. At least for now. It was a huge success. We did really well and didn't even sell a couple of the larger items, which we are hoping to sell on Craig's List. We forgot to take pictures, but we did take some of the fantastical signs that Hannah made to direct people to us. She is soo talented. Again, thank you all so very much for contributing items, staffing the sale with us, and for your prayers.

Donate to Our Fundraising Efforts Through PayPal

Follow the link to the secure PayPal website. Click on the 'Send Money' tab on the second row up top, enter our e-mail address (theoneders@hotmail.com) and yours and the amount, and off you go! www.paypal.com

The Letter

Hey there. Well the first copies of our awareness and support letter should be going out tomorrow so I guess we have officially gone public. This blog was created specifically to document the journey leading to our DTS as well as the DTS experience itself. To a certain extent the frequency of our updates once we leave home will be dependant upon our having access to computers. There are still many details of this process that are not yet clear, but nothing major. So...Let the Great Experiment Begin!!
-Jason