Dear Friends and Family!

Geez, it’s been a while since I last communicated with a lot of you, the reason being that I only have 10 hours of internet time per month, but mainly because the schedule here is pretty hectic! With all that said, I have finally found some time between my work duty and our evening session to write you all an up-date.

So for all those who don’t know what I’m up to … I’m in Herrnhut, which is in Saxony, which is a state of Germany, a country that happens to be a part of the EU in this ever so cold continent they call Europe. Pretty random eh? ... well the reason that I am here is because I am doing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM. A DTS is a six month course that is designed for students to know God and to make Him known. We have three months of lecture phase which will be held here in Germany and then the remaining 3 months on the mission field, in my case somewhere in the 10/40 window.

I have been here for a little over a week and so far, I have enjoyed it a lot, especially meeting new people and learning more and more about God. In the first week, the teaching was about “The Character and The Nature of God” which was an amazing experience for me as we really hit the road running. It really opened up my eyes to see God in a fresh way. The speaker, Peter Warren from Colorado, shared his story of how he was brought up as a pastor’s kid, and how he hit a point in his life where he cried out to God and pretty much said “God I don’t know You…. I just know of You.” It was at this point in his teaching that I was really hit hard in the face. It made me think about what my relationship with God has been like. Peter really challenged us as “career Christians”, if you want to call it that, to really seek God and stand up and take the next step towards God. I was really blessed with Peter’s experiences as they seemed so similar to mine and I thought it was an excellent way to start the school. Week two was on “Hearing God’s Voice”, taught by Rogerio Santos from Brazil and again we heard some crazy stories of him hearing from God and how even though he did not want to obey, he did obey and eventually good came out of it. It was another good week. I’ve learned how building a relationship with God with prayer and talking to him takes time and is very important and that it’s not just a “shopping list” type relationship that I should be going to him for. I have also been struggling wondering why the devil speaks so loud and obnoxiously but God’s voice is harder to hear. But I am realizing that God wants me to really want it and consciously go after it. I have been trying to hear God’s voice and learning to recognize the way in which he speaks to me.

It has always been through worship that I really encounter God, and I really got the opportunity to do so as I was asked to lead worship! I was really excited as I prepared for it with a band that I chose. We had practiced and prayed in preparation for it and on Friday it went really good! I have never felt so free and secure in God leading and never experienced the joy in being sensitive to let the Holy Spirit just work as I did on this occasion. We were mid way through the second song when I dropped my pick and started playing with my fingers. It was going good until I realized that my fingers were bleeding onto the strings and the guitar because I was strumming too hard. Funny thing was that I could not feel the pain because it was so cold, but yes it still went well!

The schedule here is pretty tight. My work duty is to set up the sound system and get the meeting tent ready, so I don’t have the normal 2-4 pm work slot. I get to wake up and set up the tent before breakfast at 6:30. We have breakfast which is a mix between bread, jam, nutella, granola and coffee, then off to worship/intercession/prayer from 8:30 to 9:30 and then class till 1:15. After lunch which is the main warm meal during the week. Then we have work duties but for me its normally free time. Occasionally we will have an afternoon class from 4:30 to dinner at 6:00 where we usually eat sandwiches. After that we have free time till we decide to head off to bed (yes we don’t have a curfew.. pretty amazing no?) after attempting to start a fire in our roomoven “heater”. So that’s pretty much a regular day for me.

The YWAM base here is a castle in the middle of a small town called Hernnhut. It really is a small town compared to back home, but very homey! There are about 100 staff here with about 70 students. Most of the staff and about half of the students live in town in apartments there and the remaining students (myself included) live in the castle in the “side building” where we have to make our own fires to keep us warm from the cold outside :D and recently the snow.

God has been amazing in these two weeks that I’ve been here and in just two weeks He has been working through us. We have developed close relationships with each other and have just started to open up with each other and invest in each other’s lives. I have already seen Him provide for little things that I have been praying for like a pair of boots. One of the students here felt that she should get some for me through her brother who works in a sporting goods store, so I am amazed to see God work.

But yes this has just been two weeks… sorry for it being so long if you have lasted this far :D Hope all is well with you all and would love to hear from you. I’d like to end with a couple prayer requests.

Prayer Requests

· Pray for the base. Undercover journalists came and stayed here for a couple days and then made a documentary that was completely false about how YWAM in Germany are a fundamentalist group who are sending out young people to the world, comparing us to the Muslim extremist. All of this in an effort to to get the churches in Germany against us. Please pray that it will be used positively for YWAM in Germany instead of creating wrong impressions of YWAM.

· Pray that I would be able to stay focused and really spend time with God(which is why I’m here) instead of just letting it be a “good experience”

· I am seeking God to see which country I should to go to for outreach. Pray that I would hear clearly from God as to which nation he would like me to go to.

· Pray that the remaining funds that I need for outreach will come in.

Thanks for listening,

Till next time…. Hang loose :D

Caleb.

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