Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas

    Hey everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas,  here in Closkelt we went to a christmas day service, then in the evening we had a nice dinner and watched Christmas Vacation.  Yesterday we watched all of the Lord of the Rings, we started at 10 am and didnt finish till 11:30 pm.  
   Anyway, this is the last Saturday I will be in Closkelt, we leave for outreach on Monday, we will be in Cork for 10 days, London for 2 days and South Africa for two months.  We are all super excited about being able to apply everything we have learned in the last three months.  
   My team and I would appreciate all the prayers you can send our way,  please pray that one of the students gets his visa for South Africa soon.
   Thanks so much for giving me this opportunity to be here,  I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas.        
                              -Nate

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

These last few weeks

  Hey Everyone,
      I thought it would be good to update everyone about what's going on here in Closkelt.  It is very cold, I woke up this morning and it almost looked like it was snowing but it was just really foggy.  
      This week we are learning about how to tell a Bible story accurately in ten minutes, we have a speaker from Storys for All ministries, and the base purpose for this is to be able to relate the bible to Illiterate people.  It is a very awesome tool to have as a missionary because you never know if you will run into an illiterate people group.  
      This week we are also doing a thing called scripture union, which is basically were we go into a school and spend time with school children, teaching them bible stories and playing games with them.  My group is doing The Good Samaritan, and we go tomorrow (Thursday) for a few hours. 
      Last week we had an awesome week of lectures about Discipleship  and what it means to be a disciple and methods to be a good disciple and disciple some one well.  Our speaker was really awesome, he had been with YWAM Argentina for a decade and he showed me a few Argentinean Hardcore bands, it was really cool.  
       Over the weekend I went to Belfast, and went to a rugby game, it was really fun, but very cold.   The Mascot for Ulster, made fun of me because of my American accent, then he went around the field and when he came back he asked for me by saying "Where is the Yanky Doodle", it was a great game though.
So yeah thats what is going on right now with me.
                      Thanks again to all my supporters and also thanks to everyone who is leaving comments on this blog its really great to read them.   
                                                      Cheers!   Nate

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Thanksgiving

     Hey Everyone,


 Just wanted to say hello to everyone and Happy Thanksgiving.  We celebrated Thanksgiving tonight and it was nice of everyone who isn't american to allow us to!   I also just wanted to say how thankful I am to all of you who supported me and continue to support me, it means so much to me.  One more month until Outreach!


                              Thanx again.... Nate

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Galway

Hey Everyone,


     Im in Galway, Ireland right now for Mid term Outreach.  Please be praying for us, and for our time here.  
                                          Thanx!  Nate

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Mid-Term Outreach

Hey Everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, I have been very busy. We found out the other day that we are leaving for South Africa January 11!!!!!! My team has been very hard at work researching South Africa, learning Zulu, and praying about what ministry's we need to be apart of.
This week is our 24/7 prayer week so at all times during this week, we will have someone in the prayer room. Our focus for 24/7 is Ireland, Ywam Northern Ireland and Ireland are becoming one unit instead of two, this is very exciting for the full time staff and even for us DTS'ers. So we have been praying for God to reveal his heart for this Island, and it is so amazing to see what he is saying back to us.
Next week we leave for our Mid term outreach in Ireland. We will be sending out three teams of about 3 or 4 students and a staff member or two. The teams will be going to Derry, which is the second biggest city in The North of Ireland, to Cork the second biggest city in the Republic of Ireland and the whole Island, and a team to Galway, which is the biggest University center on the Island. We will be gone for a week or so doing anything we can from evangelism to looking for possible places for YWAM bases there.


So that is whats coming up.... as for what has been going on, the other day we went to Giants Causeway which is the only place in the world that these hexagonal rocks are, they are amazing. Then we went to a Castle on the north coast of Northern Ireland. It was so crazy to be in a actual castle were battles were fought.
This past week was on Forgiveness and Reconciliation, we had Johnny Clark the National Director of both Ireland and the North of Ireland. I went into the week thinking that i had everything figured out and that i had forgiven people, but God pretty much slapped me in the face with issues i had forgotten about.
The week before was about the Holy Spirit, this week was huge. I don't want to get into alot of what happened because its hard to write it out, but it was awesome. God did so much for our group that week it was amazing.
The week before that was a week on the fatherheart of God, this week was also very awesome. I had never thought about God like that before. I encourage everyone to not think of God as some King on his throne in heaven but as The heavenly father who loves and comforts us.
So that's pretty much been whats going on in my world. Ill try to write more often.
Cheers!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Weeks 1 & 2


Hey everyone,

So like I said in my last post, I'm having a great time. It's Thursday Morning here and we just got out of a lecture about the Bible which was very interesting.
Last week was mostly going over rules( not many at this base), Child protection (which was probably the most boring movie i have ever seen), and a couple lectures on Hearing the voice of God, and some others about living in community. Thursday we left for Belfast, which is were a small civil war had been going on from 68 to 98 and there is still alot of animosity between the Falls (Irish Nationals who are mostly Catholic) and the Shankill (Irish/British mostly Protestant). We had a Lecture from John Hatch a staff member at YWAM Belfast, he talked to us about the Troubles, and about how it is so much more complex then Catholics vs. Protestants.
Saturday we went on a tour of the murals in Belfast, then we went downtown Belfast for some shopping stuff. I got a Celtic Journal and a Jacket, and now I am warm. We got back to the Base later that night and everyone pretty much went right to sleep.
This week we had Lectures on Roman Catholicism from Robb Clark who helped pioneer YWAM Dublin in the 80's, it was awesome to see how different and how the same we are. Tuesday we had our first intercession time, we pretty much just learned about what it is and how to go about it, following 10 steps by Joy Dawson who was very involved in the birth of YWAM.
Saturday we start doing Night Reach, which is a ministry that is partnered with YWAM Ireland, and basically what it is is going out to the club scene in Banbridge and handing out coffee and tea to the people who come out of the club. I don't get to go this week end but I'm very excited to do it. Monday we start Boys Brigade which is sort of like a youth group for the local Presbyterian Churches, I'm also excited about that.
Part of our assignments while on DTS is to create a Blog for the Ywam Ireland website, so keep going to that website for updates, and to get a look at the rest of the DTSers thoughts.
Thanks again Everyone and I hope this Blog is doing its job of keeping you all involved in my ministry.


Cheers!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

I'm Here



Hey everyone,




Im here in Closkelt Northen Ireland. Today is the second day of the DTS and its been mostly going over child protection laws and stuff. Yesterday we had Johnny Clark come from Belfast and talk to us about what YWAM has been doing in Northern Ireland and Ireland, and also the vision about what God wants to happen with the island of Ireland.

Then we went to Newcastle and i got some shower gel and shampoo, i was very excited about that.

Friday we get to go to Belfast for a few days, I'm very excited about this because i can buy a jacket, you see i was very dumb and underestemated the weather here, so I only brought a few sweaters and a zip up hoodie.

Anyways im haveing a blast here and learning so much, Thanks again to everyone who helped me get here!

Cheers!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Its creeping up slowly




Hey everyone,
I would like to thank everyone for all the prayers and donations, i have been very blessed lately. Well I have 8 more days till I fly out to Newyork, Newyork to London, London- Belfast. I need to start packing in the next two days to see if i need anymore things or if i have to much. I descided that i would be taking my guitar, but when i took it in to get repaired today the guy at the guitar store told me i would have to go to another city to get it fixed so my friend is letting me use his guitar, God bless him. I have had such a good response to the letters i sent out and many people have showed interest in what im doing, which is good because everyone needs to be interested in Missions.
This Sunday is my sunday in church and im very excited about it because im showing a video i found that explains the DTS program better then i can, they elders are also going to lay hands on me. I made a joke or two to my dad about us becomming to pentacostle.
Wednesday was my last day at Flap Jacks (the resturant i worked at), I'm so happy to not be working there anymore, but im a bit sad to be leaving some of the coolest people i have ever met. so yeah thought i would update this before i left, i might get one more update before i leave.

Anyway Thanx for all the prayers and such, -Nate

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Getting Ready


Well, its August 19 today which means only 38 more days till I leave for Closkelt, Northern Ireland. I'm very excited to see what God has in store for me, or should I say what I have in store for God. I'm pretty much all ready to go, I need to send out my letters though really soon, it's a strange feeling not having most of the money I need for my DTS and not worrying about it. I know God will bring the money in.

If anyone reads this then please pray that I'm able to get everything ready by the 26 of September!