Here at YWAM Harpenden, the January 2013 DTS started just over two weeks ago. Although we didn’t start with all of the trainees, we are now in full swing with everyone present and having our first guest speaker. The trainees have settled in, have grown accustomed to English culture, the pace of the school and have made YWAM Harpenden their home.

The week that the school started, we only had 8 students on the day of orientation. While others started to join us near the end of the week, we were going through the basics of DTS. Namely, what is DTS, what is the purpose and what is YWAM. The trainees bonded quickly and upon walking into the lounge every day, it’s evident that they’ve been enjoying the foosball table. On the weekend, we took the team to St. Albans for a day of Cornish pasties (& a history lesson), the cathedral, and market shopping. It was a great day spent to break the ice of first week conversations, to get the trainees away from the base and to perhaps stop by the local Starbucks for some coffee.

The first official week saw the DTS staff speaking on foundational topics for the school. We went through hearing God’s voice, living in community and local outreach (as well as many more). We also started our first official ‘Doctor Who’ night on Wednesdays that also came with a 15 minute teaching for those who were new to the TV series. By the weekend, all of our trainees arrived and our family was finally together. We have fourteen trainees from six nations (Australia, Canada, Kosovo, Ecuador, Egypt, USA) and two staff members which add Great Britain to the list. We also had our English cultural orientation night in the café and it was transformed into a traditional English pub with soda and peanuts. It was a night of eating strange foods, eating way too many sausage rolls and participating in an extremely difficult pub quiz led by our two British staff.

This week, we had our first guest speaker from the Oval, Emmanuel Entee. Speaking on the nature and character of God, he has stretched the understanding of who God is and what he intends for us for how we live and treat each other. Much time was also spent on the topic of pride and the different forms. Whether it’s insecurity, jealousy, or self-focusing, it can distort our view of God and how he created us. We also had our first time of local outreach in the Harpenden community. Although there will be many options this quarter in regards to local outreach, we started with a prayer walk around the town. We split up into groups and walked to different points of interest of where we would be involved with outreach.

Please be praying for continued unity among the school and a family-like atmosphere as we move into the third week to hear the topic of father heart of God.