One of my favorite things about working with YWAM DP is living in community! Here at our campus we are running four DTS schools and three secondary level schools this means there are usually a good amount of people roaming around at any given time during the year.
We do everything together pretty much 24/7. How do we do it? In YWAM we use the term "DTS" or die to self. This is really the only way to take so many people from so many different backgrounds, cultures, and world views, and put them together to live for months at a time without us all going crazy! Living in community calls for a constant laying down of your own desires and wants to see what's good for everyone.
Personally, I find this challenging sometimes, especially when I want to live in my flesh and just do something for myself without thinking about others; but God gently reminds me that no matter what, my choices, good or bad, will affect more than just myself.
When I say we do everything together I mean everything!
We eat all three meals a day family style!
And how do these meals get cooked? We have student cooking teams who prepare dinner for us!
Team one working their magic cooking fettucine alfredo
Three times a week we get together as a community and worship! This is a special time for us to lay aside whatever duties we have for the day and come into the presence of God all together!
We also have the opportunity to hear from either a student or staff on these days for a devotional after our time of worship
Two times a week we get to do intercession together! This is a great time to come before God and join with Him in praying whatever is on His heart for that time. Prayer is a great way to bring a group of people together in unity!
We also hold a Thursday night community meeting here at our campus. It's a time for us to come together with locals and people visiting the island to worship, hear a message from our speaker of the week, and then hang out getting to know each other.
We all live together. Students have as many as 6 people to one casita (one room, one bath house) and staff have up to three roommates. We all get the chance to make our little casitas home so it's always fun to decorate and add personal things because after all it is where we live! I live with a cool chick named Ashley from Canada!
This is my side of our casita
Our little kitchen/dining area
Our closet area and bathroom
And of course the outside of it. Mine is the blue one, number 13. Over the past year we have been privileged enough to add things like a mailbox and a garden flag to the outside. This week our base directors blessed us by adding a bridge/deck area in between our casita and casita 14 where some awesome friends of ours reside! (You can see the cool bridge between the two)
We learn and grow together. Every Monday through Friday 9 A.M. to 1 P.M our campus is pretty quiet because everyone is in class.
This is our current July 2014 DTS learning about Plumb line with Barbara Sandiford
This is our April 2014 Bible School for the Nations class learning from Mark Evans
So how do we keep everything running smoothly around here? Well we have work duties that students and staff all join in to help keep our campus looking great! Once a month we have a base wide work day where we all chip in and work for either the whole morning or whole afternoon cleaning up and making things shine! We are all about working together because this is home to all of us!
We live in a gorgeous place, surrounded by a barrier reef and blue water. The only down side is sometimes the sea weed can, well, invade the beach... The photo above is all of us working together as a school to battle sea weed washed to shore. Sixteen people, 5 wheel barrows, 10 rakes, 2 pitch forks, helping hands, and good attitudes is how we worked to take back our beach! Photo credit to the amazing Charis!
One of the best things about community living is really just getting to do life surrounded by amazing people hungry for growth!
A little over a week later and it's still here but it's starting to look better!
I think we utilize our campus' beauty well by being out in the nature God created for us!
We play beach volleyball
We have community bonfires
Get out in the water and kayak to the reef to go snorkeling
Our students get the opportunity to become scuba certified!
This photo credit goes to Heather McArther!
We get to sail on our hobie cats!
But my favorite use of this beautiful blue water and pretty landscape we are surrounded by is for water baptisms! Usually once a school we open a time for people on campus to get baptized. Whether it's getting baptized for the first time or rededicating a life to Christ, we as a community get to come together and stand beside our brothers and sisters as they choose to live a life fully surrendered to God.
I have to remind myself that living this lifestyle isn't normal. It's not really normal to wake up and do a whole day surrounded by the same people. We get close really fast because of how much time we spend together. One of the hardest parts about living this life is the constant transition and change with new students and staff coming in and others leaving. I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of this community for almost two years now and it still hasn't gotten any easier. Sometimes it's scary to open my heart up over and over again knowing that in 3-5 months I will be saying a goodbye. I don't know where it originated, but a saying we say around here that has stuck with me during these times is, "The pain your heart feels when you say a goodbye shows how well you loved."
Another quote that has stuck with me since it was given to me during my DTS is by C. S. Lewis, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
I want to be all in; making the most of every moment spent surrounded by these amazing people, fearlessly loving with my whole heart even if that means I will experience pain along the way, but the joy, love, and great memories that comes with doing this makes it all worth while!
I want to say a huge thank you to all of my amazing supporters. You are a huge part of this community. It's only through your prayers, support, and encouragement that I'm able to be here, so thank you for joining with me on this crazy journey!
Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Photo credits go to Ian Christmann, Barbara, Charis, Whitney, and Heather