So Much to Learn

As I'm sitting here thinking over all the things I have learned over the past two and a half weeks, I am amazed my brain has been able to retain most of it. After completing BST, we (the 8 of us who completed the BST first) joined the rest of the Gateway students and moved into the classroom setting; sitting, listening, and discussing all day long. Although the lectures have been long, painful, and boring to get through at times, I must admit that much of what I have learned has challenged most of what I knew as a Believer. Maybe "challenged" isn't the right word, maybe it is. I don't know. What I mean is this: my perception of God wasn't right, I had no idea spiritual warfare was so real, current, and everywhere, obedience in prayer is essential, my weaknesses will never be my strengths so don't stress out over them (MYTH: fix your weaknesses! its good to be well-rounded!), conflicts need to be resolved/its okay to be confrontational when it is appropriate, and last but certainly not least, worldviews (understanding MY worldview and the worldview of those that I will be serving in the D.R. and Africa).

There is so much that I could tell you. I guess I'll give you a break down of what I have been learning each week.

I. 1st week, Faith Foundations
A. we talked about God’s character, how we view Him, who He really is, how our perceptions of God are influenced by people in our lives, experiences, tragedies, etc.
B. Kingdom Principles: taught by Dean Sherman on spiritual warfare. This was extremely interesting, important, and useful information. Where we are going to in West Africa (Benin and Togo) are the founders of Voodoo, so there is a lot of witchcraft there.
C. Principles of prayer: communication with God. We learned the basics of pray and why sometimes it seems as though our prayers are not being answered.
II. 2nd week, Personal and Interpersonal Development
A. Living on Purpose: What is our purpose? Life’s big questions. Who am I , where am I going, how am I going to get there, who will guide me, etc.
B. DISC test: We took a personality test that (kind of accurately) told us what we were like and picked out our strengths and weaknesses.
C. Conflict Resolution: how to resolve a conflict, how to approach the person, how to forgive, how to apologize; being confrontational is okay! And healthy! Don’t keep it bottled up.
D. Living and Working in Harmony: how to live in a community of 400 people from many different cultures on a ship.
III. 3rd week, Working with the Poor

A. WORLDVIEW

B. Potential of the Poor

C. Transformational Development

D. Cross-Cultural Dynamics and Communication

E. Tensions in Working with the Poor

So there you go. Some of these topics we talked about in great detail for several days, while others we covered in one day. Spiritual warfare (kingdom principles) was covered for three days because we will be dealing with this a lot on and off the ship in Benin and Togo. I have been told that voodoo originated in Benin, so these people know, believe, and live their witchcraft.

We have been discussing worldviews a lot this week, and how we as missionaries are to go into these poor nations. There are many encouraging stories like one of just one missionary leading an entire village (mind you, it took about 20 years before even seeing one person come to know the Lord) to believe in God, but there are many cases that are not encouraging. Instances where a church group or missionaries came into a village intending to do good, but leaving things worse than when they arrived. Money, buildings, and paved streets may not solve a nations problem, and yet so many times we (Westerners) go into a poor area and think money is the solution. Our worldview can sometimes hinder transformation or development from happening. We need to seek to be a learner/facilitator among the poor, not an expert/fixer.

One more thing is on my mind from what I heard in class today. I can't stop thinking about it. I am so ignorant. And the sad thing is, a lot of people are, especially kids my age. There are so many nations who need prayer and help. I live in a little happy box where I have everything I need and I do whatever I want. My biggest questions right now are: "What will I study in college? Where will I go to college? What will I do after college?", while some people (tribal Indians in Brazil) are asking themselves, "Will I have to burry my baby girl tomorrow? Why do I have to burry her? Why doesn't she have human rights? How can we end this cultural practice?". Indian parents in Brazil are being forced to burry their own child alive if it has any sign that it may be possessed by the devil, or soul-less. Signs of demon possession include not being able to walk or talk by a certain age, cleft pallets, and other physical deformities. Also, the child of a single mother must be burried alive. This issue has recently been brought to attention Brazilian gov't officials, but unfortunately many are saying that the Indians are not humans, and therefore do not have human rights. Again, we are stuck trying to define what a human is.

This concludes my post! I know... not exactly cheery. Sorry! However, I do have a really encouraging and super neat video for you to check out on You Tube. Its called El-Zabbaleen. I believe the video is in two parts though, so make sure you watch both!