Well it's about time...

Outreach Weeks 1-3 - April 12-May 2 - Calcutta

Well, it's been a while since I've written, but here I am in India.

Outreach Prep week went well; we had a crazy prep day where we were "on outreach" and had to bargain for food (a skill that has come in handy, it turns out), start bonfires, get dropped of miles from our base and find our way back, and put together a church service with 30 seconds notice.

Travel to Calcutta went well, and the three weeks we've spent here have been good ones. We're staying in the center of the city and have been working with several ministries in the area, including ministries to street and train station children, prostitutes, slum women, and the Mother Theresa Homes (I'd be more specific, but for now I can't due to Indian policy concerning visitors to this country).

We've adapted to India alright; aside from a couple of bouts with food poisoning we've been healthy. We now wear the traditional Salwar Suits (western clothes are thought immodest, especially in the outskirts of town). It's pretty hot here (between 85-100 degrees F), and the humidity hasn't been the greatest either, so that's been a bit of a challenge since our hostel rooms don't have any form of AC.

The culture is so very different from the West. There are so many people everywhere (Calcutta has a population of over 13 million) - 90% of the people you see on the street are men, and the gender rolls are very different here, so it's taken a bit of getting used to. It's hard to keep from smiling at men - you can't even talk to them to ask for directions for fear of sending the wrong signals!

Travel is another adventure - we've learned to estimate the amount of time it'll take to get somewhere and double it just for good measure. The bus system is cheap and reliable, but sometimes the buses are a bit overcrowded. Case in point, we once got on to a local bus that was so packed with people that you were literally pressing against people on all sides - Joel had to hang out the door as the bus drove in order to keep from being shoved off by the sheer number of bodies.

The Indian people are really friendly; they all want to know where we're all from and what we're doing here. They're also very hospitable. Turid and I sat down to talk for an hour or so with a group of street kids who were begging, and they were gracious enough to entertain us right there on the sidewalk - they bought us chai (tea) and pieces of green mango (a treat for the locals, though I prefer the ripe ones).

Tomorrow we fly to Delhi. We'll be there for a few days before taking a week-long prayer hike through the Indian Himalayas. We'll have a few days of debrief after that, then we spend a week in Delhi (or thereabouts) for a bit of ministry and our pastoral visit from Holmsted. After that, we're not sure! Our third location hasn't been made clear yet - I'll keep you posted!

Photos: Calcutta (many more to come once I'm back home!)

Halfway Done!

The India Team

Well, I’m at the halfway point of my Discipleship Training School in England! The Lecture Phase is drawing to a close; April 11 I’ll be leaving with 7 other students and one staff member for India.

Up to this point:

We’ve heard amazing lectures on everything from God’s Grace to the Father Heart of God to Justice to Missions.

We’ve spend time on the streets of Brighton handing out sandwiches, hot drinks, sleeping bags and socks to the homeless. We talked with them about their lives, listened to their stories, and told them about places where they could go for food and shelter.

We had time of intercessory prayer set aside every week; we all prayed in shifts for 36 hours straight, we learned about the power of blessing others verbally.

We’ve had a total of 50 students in this house for a week when the September 2008 DTS came back after their outreach and we served them a full 4-course meal on their graduation day.

We’ve played soccer, volleyball and other sports - the Americans even taught everyone American football on Superbowl Sunday.

We’ve become a DTS made up of three teams: the Africa Team (going to Uganda and possibly Sudan) the Europe Team (going to Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Germany) and, my personal favorite, the India Team (going you can guess where).

- and much more.

As we go off for our 10-week outreaches it’d be great to have your prayers; guidance and health being the main concerns for my team.

If you'd like to see pictures and read more about the happenings of my DTS at Holmsted Manor, click here.

If you'd like to hear details about the outreach, feel free to email me at hilarysiebring@gmail.com - I'd love to email you with details or send you the prayer page for our team!

Thanks so much for reading!

Introduction

"He has the deed half done who has made a beginning." - Horace

Perhaps Horace is right when it comes to some things, but for all that I’ve made a beginning with my trip to England, I’ve got a ways to go before the halfway mark.
In making a beginning for this journal telling you about my time away in England and who knows where else, I think I’ll give you a bit of background.
First, Youth With A Mission. I think that they are a good deal better at telling you about themselves than I would be, so…

“YWAM Explained

We are a mixture of people from all over the world, from 149 countries in fact. In many of our locations, people from a wide variety of nations serve side by side. We come from numerous different Christian denominations and speak hundreds of languages. Nearly half of our staff come from "non-western" countries, such as Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, India and Nepal.
In addition to our full-time staff, many YWAM locations host short-term outreach teams made up of individuals, youth groups, families and churches who get to participate first-hand in "making God known" through both words and actions. We send out over 25,000 short-term missionaries each year.
There are three strands of ministry weaving throughout all that YWAM does:

Evangelism - Some creative tools used to present the gospel include drama, music, performing arts and sports camps. YWAMers want to share their faith effectively in ways that the audience--whether teenagers, elderly refugees, or an unreached people group--will understand. YWAM also engages in church planting among unreached people groups.

Mercy Ministry - Mercy Ministry is the "hands and feet" of making God known. YWAM helps meet some of the practical and physical needs of about 400,000 people annually. Caring for street children in South America; aiding in the recovery of drug addicts in North America and Western Europe; feeding and housing refugees and women in need in Africa and Asia, and operating ships that declare the good news practically and verbally, are just some of the ways in which helping hands are extended.

Training and Discipleship - Training and Discipleship aim to better equip Christians to serve others in everything from agriculture and health care, to drug rehabilitation and biblical counseling. Through YWAM's University of the Nations (U of N), missionaries can study in specialized areas such as science and technology, linguistics, the humanities, and Christian ministry. Most YWAM schools combine classroom teaching with relationship-centered discipleship and practical service.
The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is a requirement for applying as YWAM staff, and serves as a prerequisite to all other training programs. Each year some 10,000 students attend a U of N school at one of the 250 different locations.”

“Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) aim to prepare messengers of the gospel, helping students to know God in depth. The goal is to form Christian character and establish Biblical relationships while developing a daily walk with God. This intensive Christian training course begins with an 11 or 12 week classroom phase followed by a typically 12 week outreach.
The DTS is designed to encourage students to develop in personal character, to cultivate a living relationship with God, and to identify their unique individual gifts and callings in God. Cross-cultural exposure and global awareness are special emphases throughout these courses, preparing the students to reach current and future generations and answer the call to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19.
Not everyone completing a DTS necessarily joins YWAM. Many participate in a DTS to take time out to concentrate on God and consider whether He might be calling them to Christian ministry.”

My dad attended DTS thirty years ago, I have quite a few relatives who are very involved with YWAM, my parents were on the advisory board of Rancho Los Amigos in Juarez, Mexico for about 5 years, and I’ve helped out on a couple of medical missions outreaches through Rancho, so YWAM and DTS have been well known to me as far back as I can remember.
I began to consider the idea of attending DTS when I was twelve; at first it was mainly as an excuse to spend time in England - a country which has always attracted me because it has such a pivotal place in the world’s history and is the country of origin of a lot of my favorite literature - and skip out on school for a year. However, over the past several years I’ve come to look forward to DTS as a time to explore my relationship with God and really think hard on how I want to proceed with my schooling and career.
And so I’ve come to this point. Thursday, January 15, at 7:30pm, my flight leaves O’Hare. I land in Dublin at 7:30am local time - 1:30am back home. Two and a half hours and one airline switch later, I’ll be on a plane bound to land at Heathrow Airport at 12:20pm/6:20am.
I’ll be at Holmsted Manor until mid April when I’ll be leaving for another YWAM base for the outreach phase. In mid June it’s back to Holmsted for a bit, then on June 27 I’ll be home.
So, there’s the much-longer-than-intended introduction to what I’ll be up to for the next few months. Each month I'll give an overview of happenings with fellow students, day trips, lessons, teachers, revelations… I’ll also do my best to illustrate with pictures .