Outreach goodbye

Hey Everybody,

We're leaving for our U.K. portion of outreach in a little over two hours. Sorry I didn't get a chance to send out one more update, but we've been pretty busy. Thank you so much for your prayers up to this point. Please just keep on praying; we will definitely need it as we enter into this 2nd stage of DTS.

I am still unsure what the internet situation will look like in Ghana, but it is not likely I will have many chances to post updates. However, there will be a blog kept by one of our members for the entire team at Ghanateam.tumblr.com. That should have updates on what we are up to, and should have prayer requests.

As for prayer requests now, please pray for:
-Safe travel for all teams
-All kinds of strength for everyone (even just temporarily saying goodbye to all the other teams has been hard for everyone)
-For willing hearts

Thank you again for all the prayer you've invested in us this far,
Will Clegg

Weeks 9-11

Hi all,

      Well, two days ago we had our last official day of classes. Now it is just one week of outreach prep and then off to outreach. It is amazing how fast the lecture phase has gone. Today actually marks the exact middle of the DTS. Anyway, on to a quick update on what we have been up to:

Class stuff:

The past 3 weeks of class have been absolutely amazing. Week 9, a guy named Andy Byrd spoke on revival of the heart; it was a really powerful week. Mainly he talked about pursuing God as a response to His pursuit of us, rather than just out of religious obligation.

Week 10, a team of speakers talked about many different aspects of pioneering missions. Also, they talked some about cultural sensitivity/world view. Some would say that this week was maybe a little less impactful on a deep level, but it was still really good preparation for outreach.

Week 11, (this past week) we have had two speakers, a man called Ashraph and another guy, Mark Sampson. Ashraph mostly talked about spiritual warfare and a little bit about world view. Mark Sampson talked about recognizing worldviews. The idea was “to put a finger print on the glasses through whicih we see the world.” This was a really mind bending couple of days, asking yourself why you perceived things the way you perceive them. It almost seemed like a philosophy class at times, but was really interesting.

Outreach stuff:

I’m not sure what we’re going to be doing in this next week of “outreach prep,” or if I will actually get a chance to send an update out on it. We are leaving next Monday to spend two weeks in Leicester; then we come back to The Oval the 28^th before we fly to Ghana on the evening of the 29^th.

Stuff has been coming together pretty well, but the logistics of actually getting there is still definitely a prayer request.

While in Ghana, it is doubtful I will be updating my blog or sending out emails, but there will be a blog for the team as a whole that I will definitely get the link sent out for.

Prayer requests:

­-That all last outreach stuff will come together smoothly, and that travel for all the teams will be safe and easy

-Unity in all the teams.

-Physical, emotional, and spiritual strength

-For a sense of peace and boldness for all of us

I am hoping to send out one more update in the next week with some more details on stuff going on over here. 

Till then, God bless

Will Clegg

Update weeks 4-8 (part 2)

Hey again,

Wanted to do another update filling you on some the not-class related stuff I’ve been up to. This is that update:

Not-class-related stuff

      Well first off, I wanted to say some stuff about the local outreaches we’ve been doing. For the first several weeks of local outreach stuff, I was going to the youth center (or “Youth centre” as the British would spell it). Over the 4 weeks I was going to that outreach, I had a really good time getting to know the kids there. It was week 6 the first time I did any local outreach besides the youth center. That week I went on a prayer walk through Harpenden. The group I was with walked down Main Street, praying for the different businesses we passed. Then, just last Friday night/Saturday morning I left the base at 12:00am to go with my outreach group to stand outside a club, handing out water and lollypops. Believe it or not, a lot of people were asking why a group of 17 to 23 year olds were standing outside of a club handing out water and lollypops, but answering that question led into many awesome discussions. That was the last local outreach we will be doing till we leave for Ghana (due to the fact that we will be very busy getting ready to go to Ghana).

    Now onto random other stuff. I mentioned (in my last update) that a couple of weeks ago we went to Cambridge for a day. We went there to meet up with another team who was doing a worship tour, but before the thing with them (which was in the evening) we spent the day doing some touristy stuff in Cambridge. To put it simply, Cambridge was awesome and beautiful. We went on a little boat ride down the Cam, seeing all the Cambridge schools, which were incredible.

    Another thing we did as a school was have a little “posh” party to celebrate getting to the halfway point of the lecture phase. We all get dressed up “smart” and had some fancy snacks. It was a super fun evening.

    Now to answer the question that I am sure is burning in all of your minds, “What is a man-meat night.” Well, to put it simply, about a month ago, the men on the DTS had a get together at night, where there was much meat. One the buildings on base is an old factory. It is probably the most legit place to have any sort of man night. We grilled some sizeable turkey legs, ate meat off the bone, drank lots of soda, and watched some manly movies. The idea was we would sleep out in the old factory too, but all but 3 of us backed out. It was an epic night, in probably the coolest building on base.

      The old factory serves many purposes actually. It is where we have our morning workouts on Mondays and Fridays. It also, just last Friday, hosted a “Culture night” where all the different cultures on base made food from their culture and did a culturally significant performance (dance, song, etc.). Then just last night, we had a DTS dance party in there.

     For the culture night, a guy from one of the other schools and I made a movie about an American and a Canadian surviving in the wild. I make a lot of videos, but that was the first one I have made since getting here. Now that I know that I have a working editing software, I will probably try to work on some more videos introducing you to some of my friends here, and showing you the campus. (This has about a 50% chance of actually happening due to a busy schedule, but we’ll see)

Prayer Requests:

      -The biggest prayer request I have is for peace about Ghana stuff. It has already been a very stressful process getting visas and plane tickets. Also, for outreach there, each team member needs to write a testimony, a motivational speech, and a sermon. Also, I am in charge of worship stuff for the team, which gives me the responsibility of getting a lot of music stuff together and organized. There’s a lot of stuff like this that aren’t huge projects, but they all add up and I would just like some prayer that I will get that all done. Lastly, related to this stuff, our team leader was just warning us that we will probably encounter a decent amount of witchcraft and stuff like that in Ghana. This honestly scares me; so just be praying that all of us will be preparing to face that kind of resistance

    -Other than that just be praying that the rest of lecture phase will continue to be impactful for all of us here.

Thank you so much for your prayers,

God bless,

Will Clegg

In-Class update (weeks 4-8)

Well, Well, Well,

      It has been a while since I have done an update. Anyway…..where to start??

Classes over past weeks:

     Week 4 of classes was on biblical foundations and being teachable. We talked about the importance of having a Biblical “backbone” and about people’s natural defenses against being teachable. Also we talked a little about a biblical view of finances. Not much of this week was new to me, but still got some good reminders and new perspectives of stuff out of it.

    Week 5 was on the “Nature/Character of God.” A speaker named Maureen Menard taught all week, mostly on the trinity and specifically on the role of the Holy Spirit. Every day we left class with our minds slightly blown, but it was a really good week.

    Week 6 was on relationships (in general not necessarily romantic). We talked about factors necessary to a relationship, communication in relationships, then tied that into our relationship with God. The class week was only 3 days long because Thursday we were given a much need day off, and Friday we went to Cambridge.

    Week 7 we spent in London at “DTS gathering,” (meaning all the DTS’s from around England met in London for a week). The teaching focused on evangelism, and we spent a lot of time putting that teaching into practice. The week held several new experiences for me, but was really cool. The outreach I did the most there was called a “prayer questionnaire.” Essentially, we went around in groups of two or three just going to people and asking them if we could ask them a few questions. The first questions were asking what people thought about the community and the Olympics coming to the community; then we asked people what they thought about the local church’s involvement in the community. Many interesting conversations stemmed from there. It was a good, TIRING week.

     This past week, week 8, has been on “the father-heart of God.” For me, this has been the most impactful week so far. We had an awesome teacher named Mike Oman. He had some amazing stories about God’s love and provision. We also went through the story of Exodus seeing more about God’s heart for His children.

      Looking at this now, I am going to split this up into two updates. So be looking for the exciting conclusion to update-stuff in UPDATE PART 2; coming hopefully-tomorrow!!!! It will include things like prayer requests, local outreach ventures, explanations for why I have been so busy/why I have not had time to send out more updates, and will answer the important question, “what exactly is a man-meat night?”

Feel free to reply and ask me any questions you may have burning on your mind.

Till tomorrow (hopefully),

Will Clegg

Ghana info

Hey all,

    Was waiting to fill you in on what we’re doing in Ghana till I got a little more info on what we’re doing there; I now have that information and I am excited to announce what all we be going on there.

    A large majority of the work we will be doing there will be with Rescue the Children. The slave trade is still very active in Ghana, and Rescue the Children works, buying children out of the slave trade, setting them free, and bringing them to a home where they can be loved, educated, and given a hope for the future. We will do some practical work for Rescue the Children (construction, maintenance, etc.), but also we will be working some in the schools, just trying to show the love of Christ to kids who desperately need it. Another important part of what we will be doing is raising awareness. The buying and selling of slaves is illegal in Ghana, but the law is not enforced. Poverty often drives mothers to sell their children into slavery for as little $50, and as horrible as it sounds, mothers will often keep having kids just for the sake of making money off of them in the slave trade. We will be speaking/doing skits in schools, and other locations in Ghana to try to motivate people to action. Lastly we will be doing “reconciliation walks” in Acca and Cape Cost. On reconciliation walks we will be walking near old slave trade ports offering apologies for the past trade dealings of our ancestors, while still raising awareness of the present day remains of the slave trade.

    Besides working with Recue the Children, we will be spending a week with the YWAM base already in Ghana, YWAM Aburi. There, we will be doing any practical that may be need around the base.

    Lastly, (the thing which is actually before we go to Ghana) every team will be at least two weeks of outreach around the U.K.. Our group will be in Lester from December 18^th to December 26^th. We will be taking a break for Christmas day to stay with one of the U.K. team member’s family, and celebrate with them. Then briefly back to the base for a day, then I think we fly out to Ghana the 27^th.

   Prayer wise, please pray that all the necessary funds will come in. I am personally fully funded, and actually have some funds leftover to help out the rest of the team financially, but several of the others are still trying to raise the necessary funds. Any extra money that the team raises will literally go to rescuing children from the slave trade. (This thought is still mind blowing to me). Also just pray that all the technical details of taking a team of 10 adults to live in Ghana for 8+ weeks will be worked out.

God bless,

Will Clegg

Drum roll please... (from 10/17/11)

Well,

Today after a time of prayer/fasting through when lunch would have been, the outreach teams were announced, and.........

I am going to Ghana!!!!

When we first were told the locations I really wanted to put South Africa as my top choice, but for some reason I felt like I needed to put Ghana as my top choice, which I did. Turns out one of the other guys on the Ghana team went through the exact thing as me and actually put the same top-3 choices that I did. Anyway, everything turned out pretty cool, and the Ghana team looks like an awesome team to be on!!

Thank you for your prayers,

Will

weeks 2 & 3 (from 10/15/11)

Hey all,

    Well today marks the third week that I have been here in Harpenden! The last two weeks have been incredible; don’t even know where to begin. Going to try to break this update in to parts….so…..

In-class-stuff over the past two weeks:

   In class last week we were learning about hearing the voice of God. A speaker named Donna Jordan came in and she had many amazing stories about listening to and obeying the voice of God. We learned about silencing our own thoughts, and about things that hinder us from hearing the voice of God. Towards the end of the week we had some “practice” hearing the voice of God for ourselves. We were sent off to pray about 3 questions to ask God: (1) “What do You think/feel about me? (2) “What do we have in common?” And (3) “What are Your plans for me?” This was kind of a new exercise for me, but it turned out to be really cool. It got even more interesting, however, after that, when we pulled names of other DTS students out of a hat and then were told to go pray through the same questions for them. This was absolutely incredible. Again, don’t really know how to describe it, but it was really cool to hear how God could speak through others to address things that each individual need to hear.

   In class this past week we have going through what is called “Freedom week.” The main idea of freedom week is to free yourself from different strongholds like fear, self-hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, pride, etc. There have been some awesome stories as staff members have shared testimonies about dealing with different things that enslave us. We have also studied “original design,” (original design being: “What was God’s original design for me as an individual?”). This has been really cool as well. The coolest part of this week was last Tuesday when each DTS student was prayed over by different staff members all asking, “God, what was Your original design for…” I literally had complete strangers praying over me and bringing up things that only someone really close to me should have known. They also prayed through what enemy strongholds were still in my life, and a guy who I had never met before was pin pointing sins that I had been struggling with. To reiterate…..this week has been amazing!

    Lastly, we have been leaning some historical stuff in the evenings. This DTS is called the “William Wilberforce DTS,” (named after the man who was one of the most influential people in abolishing the slave trade in England). So, we have been learning about the history of the slave trade. (This is largely related to studying about spiritual freedom, but also because we will be dealing with the effects of the slave trade while we are on outreach). Last Saturday, we went on a walk through London, seeing some places historically significant to the slave trade and Wilberforce. (This walk was 7 miles long).

Local outreach stuff:

    Local outreach stuff started last week as well. There are several outreach opportunities each week, but each group only does one local outreach a week. The past two weeks, I have gone with a team to a local youth center just to be a light there in the way we build relationships with the kids who attend it. That was the past two Thursdays; there was also a team that went on a prayer walk through Harpenden those two days. Last a night a team left here at 12:30 am to go stand outside of a club with coffee and water to give out to people as they came out. Haven’t got a chance to talk to any of them about how it went because most of them are still asleep. (they got back around 5:00 am).

A team is going to London here in a couple minutes to go on a prayer/healing walk. They would probably appreciate your prayers.

Out-reach phase update:

     Yesterday we were told the possible outreach locations. We were then told to go somewhere for an hour and pray about where we thought God wanted us to go. After that, we wrote down on a piece of paper what our top three choices of outreach destination would be. The leaders are going to continue praying through everything, and Monday we will find out where we are going. There are 5 teams: (1): Rwanda/Ethiopia (2): South Africa (3): Thailand (4): ****** (5): Ghana. I will try to send out an email as soon as I find out where I am going.

Prayer requests:

    That is the main gist of everything going on. Couple prayer requests: (1) That I would have peace about outreach stuff. I am just a little apprehensive about finding out where I am going (2) General health for everyone, there are lots of colds going around. (3) Continued filling with the Holy Spirit of everyone here.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please, if you have any questions, feel free to send them my way. Want to send out another email of what a weekly/daily schedule looks like; might do that tomorrow. Anyway…

God bless,

Will Clegg

Week 1 (from 10/01/11)

Hey all,

    Well, I have now been here one week, and God has already worked in some awesome ways. First off, travel probably went as smoothly as physically possible. Between finding flights, getting baggage where it needed to be, and getting through customs, everything was surprisingly flawless. It was almost surreal to be flying into London and see things like Buckingham Palace from the plane.

    After landing, I met up with a YWAM staff member at the airport, spent most of the afternoon sitting around the airport waiting for the rest of the trainees to arrive, and then headed off for “The Oval” (the name of the Harpenden YWAM base). We spent the first evening just relaxing and meeting many, many new people.  On Sunday, we were free to do whatever we wanted for church. I ended up going into Harpenden, to go to church with the DTS leaders’ family. Sunday night we had an official welcome bar-b-q, complete with smores.

    Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly in orientation. Wednesday kicked off our normal class schedule as well as our “work duties.” I am an official “grounds keeper” for my work duty, so I have spent my last 3 work-duty times (2:00 to 4:00 every weekday) trimming hedges with industrial level hedge trimming equipment. The man who is the head of work duties promises me that if I keep trimming hedges, I will add two inches to my biceps by the end of the DTS, and my very sore arms are inclined to believe him.

     Today, Saturday, we have completely free. Some of the students already jumped on a train to go spend the day in London (London is about a 45 minute train ride away). I however, am still on base, sitting in the café. A couple of other people and myself will probably head into the nearby town of Luton later, or possibly just make the 10 minute walk into Harpenden.

      God has already been working in awesome ways. It is amazing how fast all the students have been able to feel at home, the leaders of the DTS said they had never seen a group of trainees connect as quickly as we had, and it is clear that God has already started to move in the hearts of everyone here.

    Thank you so much for your prayers; they are clearly being heard and answered. I will likely be setting up a blog soon, but I will keep you all posted on what is the best way to stay updated.

God Bless,

Will Clegg

Dpartue (From 09/23/11)

Hey all,

     Well, the day has finally arrived!! At 1:25 p.m. I will be flying off to Atlanta, and after a four hour lay-over there, I will be on my way to the London airport to meet the YWAM leaders. Will be arriving there at 10:00 a.m. (their time) tomorrow (which is my 19^th birthday!!!)

      It has taken a lot of prayer to get here and I am super thankful for all God has so far. As for current prayer requests, I would just ask that you pray travel goes smoothly.

    Very excited to see all God will do over the next several months. I will keep you updated as often as I can, and I will keep you all in my prayers.

God Bless,

Will Clegg