Dear Prayer
Supports, Friends and Family
On Friday I graduated from
my Community Development for Missions school. I was asked to give a
speech during the graduation ceremony to sum up
my experience in the school and to share a bit of what God did in us and
through us. I put up my speech on this blog and you to read if you are interested. I learnt so much in the
school and it was very hard to try and sum it up in just a few minutes. I have
also got a number of other posts on this blog which you can read if you are
interested in hearing more about my time in the Community Development School. A
little bragging point: I got 100% for my final project for the
school I just finished! I worked very hard on my project and I'm proud of the
outcome. The project was based on the community of Viedgesville that I have
been to visit five times with the Pinelands Baptist Church Mthatha missions
team over the years. It was exciting coming up with a development idea for a
real place that I have a big heart for and I'm excited about
the possibility of going there with our church the week that I return
to South Africa at the end of June this year. The paper is quite long, but if
you are interested in taking a look at it, let me know and I will email you a
copy.
As of Monday this week I
am now a student again at YWAM Denver, doing a School
of Worship (SOW) at last! It has been a seven year journey from when God first gave me a desire to do this school (in 2005), so I
know without a shadow of a doubt that I am exactly where God
wants me to be, doing what he wants me to be doing. I'm very excited about what
I will learn this quarter and I'm looking forward to see the
things that God grows in me and gets me to step out in. There
are eleven students doing the SOW and only three of them are Americans! It's
lovely being in such a diverse and international class!
We have four Canadians, three Americans, a South Africa, an Australian,
a Norwegian and a girl from Finland. Between all the students currently at
the YWAM Denver base this quarter, there are at least 10 nationalities
represented and I absolutely love that!
Yesterday (Monday) was
registration and settling in and today (Tuesday) has been bonding and
instructions about how things are run at the base. We have the afternoon off
and then will be having a class party at our leaders' house tonight. This week
we will be sharing testimonies and getting to hear from the base directors as
well as from the pastor of the neighbouring church. I'm looking
forward to finding out which band I will be in and who I will
be getting to write and create music with. It's so exciting!
During this quarter we are each required to write and perform four
original songs which we will further develop as a band. From these
songs, a number will be selected to be recorded professionally
by our class and made into a CD towards the end of the
quarter. We also receive one on one training on an instrument of our choice
which we want to learn or develop further in. I have chosen to do acoustic guitar because
I really want to learn to play guitar better and hopefully reach the point
where I will be able to lead worship on either piano or guitar. I know this
will be incredibly useful, especially since there are often times where pianos
aren't readily available. During this school I will also be reading
three books on worship and writing book reports on them. I will be
posting my reports on this blog, so if you are interested in hearing more about
what I am learning, feel free to subscribe to it by entering your email address on the left hand
side of my blog's page. If you need help subscribing, please let me know and I
will help you.
I'm so incredibly excited
to be here doing this School of Worship! I know that God's timing is
perfect and that there is a reason why he's made me wait seven years
to do this school. I feel like I am much more confident in my worship leading
and my ability to play in public now than I was in 2007 when I originally
wanted to do the school. Over the last few years I have received several prophesies over
my life about my gifting in worship and, while I do not yet feel like I am at
the level that these prophecies indicated yet, I want to get to that level by
being in a place like this where I can receive excellent training and equipping and
being in an environment that will stretch me and grow
me in my ability to worship God and lead people into his
presence.
Thank you so
much for partnering with me in this adventure.
I covert your prayers and I know that God uses them powerfully
in my life. Thank you so much for all your love and support over
the past three months and I really look forward to sharing with you what God
teaches me in the coming three months. Thank you also to those of you who have
contributed financially towards me being able to be here. I
really love the way that God provides when I step out in faith
and obedience to his calling on my life. I am very close to being debt
free, but am still in need of a little more support. Please
prayerfully consider whether you would be able to partner with me in this. If
you feel God leading you in this way or just want to help me out, please feel
free to either send money straight to Pinelands Baptist Church (for my South
African supporters) or to YWAM Denver (for my American supporters) with a note
saying that it is for me. I really really appreciate it. If you
have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Much love in
Christ,
Sarah
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