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