Week 4 complete and onto Week 5!
WEEK 4
We had Jeff Wilke and Kim Hunt come and speak to us as well as having Jeremy West speak. We covered topics that included: small groups, one-on-ones, conflict management and resolution, crisis management, working a classroom, setting up an outreach, being recharged-staying healthy in life and in ministry, and culture shock. It was a lot of information last week. I found crisis management very interesting and how important it is that in the case of someone dying, that you consider the culture they are from.
Last week was very busy for me. I had a book report due on the Leadership Paradox. It was a great book about being a servant leader. On Tuesday, Annie and I presented on Championing Young People, a YWAM foundational value. It went great! On Thursday, I was in charge of preparing worship. We meditated on Psalm 37 and we listened to a few songs. One of my new favorite songs is Yearn by Shane & Shane.
WEEK 5
This week has been very exhausting and it is only Tuesday. Tonight I presented on another YWAM value, Having a biblical worldview. The presentation went great...Thank you Annie! Yesterday we started our week of outreach here in St. Croix. We did prayer driving (praying/interceeding while driving around the island) and then we did some group praying in Fredericksted. Then in the afternoon we split into two groups. One group went to Mombisue (spelling unknown) and then the group I went with felt we needed to interceed on behalf of Contessa Nadia Farber that lives in a castle on the east side. All we know is that she is an older lady that bought her title and sometimes lives here in St. Croix. We will see throughout the week if we are to do anything more than pray for her. On friday we hope to have an evening event with some guys from the community that come to the base for basketball, your prayers for this evening that hearts and ears will be open to hearing what we have to say to them.
Next week we have Jim Isom coming to speak to us. Friday is graduation and then Home again :) The time here has just flown by, I can't believe I am almost done. God is amazing and has really been giving me more confidence in the area of leadership and discipleship.
Thank you all for your prayers!
Love, Kathy
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Week 3 DTS Equip
So what is DTS Equip all about...
To provide a resource-rich environment where DTS staff and leaders are equipped in character, skills and Spirit, so that DTS students and programs worldwide may benefit and develop according to their individual and corporate callings.
So if this is for DTS staff and leaders then why am I here...
I am in the program because I feel that the skills and topics that are taught in the DTS Equip can be used and applied to everyday discipleship and leadership wherever God calls me (and Matt too :))
Week 2 Overview:
Last week was filled with a bunch of different topics. We went over many documents that are a basic part of all YWAM as well as ones that clarify the topics a DTS program should cover. I found this information interesting, because it was neat to see how my leaders of my DTS put the topics together into the different weeks and some of the reasons they may have done certain things. It also reminded me of what I had learned.
We also had teachings last week about creating a mission statement for a DTS program, Implicational Thinking, Discipleship-getting at the belief systems of ourselves and others, Spiritual Authority and Servant Leadership. All of these were great topics that I still have so much to go over and just think about to even start applying them.
Week 3
This week we have Sarah Lanier speaking to us about Differences/Varieties. She is the author of "Foreign to Familiar" a book about the differences between hot and cold cultures. So far she has been sharing about Personality difference. The difference between Extroverts versus Introverts and the difference between Sensing personalities (left brain) verses Intuitive personalities (right brain). Later this week she will be sharing more about differences in Culture and in Style. I am excited to hear what else she has to say.
Thank you all for you prayer support!
Love, Kathy
To provide a resource-rich environment where DTS staff and leaders are equipped in character, skills and Spirit, so that DTS students and programs worldwide may benefit and develop according to their individual and corporate callings.
So if this is for DTS staff and leaders then why am I here...
I am in the program because I feel that the skills and topics that are taught in the DTS Equip can be used and applied to everyday discipleship and leadership wherever God calls me (and Matt too :))
Week 2 Overview:
Last week was filled with a bunch of different topics. We went over many documents that are a basic part of all YWAM as well as ones that clarify the topics a DTS program should cover. I found this information interesting, because it was neat to see how my leaders of my DTS put the topics together into the different weeks and some of the reasons they may have done certain things. It also reminded me of what I had learned.
We also had teachings last week about creating a mission statement for a DTS program, Implicational Thinking, Discipleship-getting at the belief systems of ourselves and others, Spiritual Authority and Servant Leadership. All of these were great topics that I still have so much to go over and just think about to even start applying them.
Week 3
This week we have Sarah Lanier speaking to us about Differences/Varieties. She is the author of "Foreign to Familiar" a book about the differences between hot and cold cultures. So far she has been sharing about Personality difference. The difference between Extroverts versus Introverts and the difference between Sensing personalities (left brain) verses Intuitive personalities (right brain). Later this week she will be sharing more about differences in Culture and in Style. I am excited to hear what else she has to say.
Thank you all for you prayer support!
Love, Kathy
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Back in St. Croix
Hi Everyone,
As many of you know I am back in St. Croix doing a 6 week Discipleship/Leadership training school called DTS Equip. It has been only three days, but I am loving it. One of the main things I have taken away from the last three days of class is that it is so important in knowing who we are we must know our father in heaven and we can do this by reading HIS WORD! This week is about being a disciple first and always. In disciplining others we must first be willing to follow. We have learned about the basics of the gospels as well as what criteria books went through to be apart of the bible. Our speakers so far have been Jeremy and Molly West, Dave Harper, and Ligia Goncalves.
So what have I been doing since my DTS and before DTS Equip. Well, I spent a lot of time with Matt, my mom and my friends in Holland in March. I got engaged on April 3 and so I did some wedding planning before and after that :) I am getting married on August 29, 2009! In April, I went to go visit Laura in Ontario, CA; my dad in Petaluma, CA; and Karen, Daniel and the kids in Tenino, WA. I had a great time visiting and finally seeing where my parents will/are living in CA. My neice and nephew have grown so much and I just had a blast with everyone :) I returned back to Michigan on April 30 and left for St. Croix on May 9.
I just want to thank all of you for your continued prayer support and love that you have continued to show me.
Love in Christ,
Kathy Beth Miersma
As many of you know I am back in St. Croix doing a 6 week Discipleship/Leadership training school called DTS Equip. It has been only three days, but I am loving it. One of the main things I have taken away from the last three days of class is that it is so important in knowing who we are we must know our father in heaven and we can do this by reading HIS WORD! This week is about being a disciple first and always. In disciplining others we must first be willing to follow. We have learned about the basics of the gospels as well as what criteria books went through to be apart of the bible. Our speakers so far have been Jeremy and Molly West, Dave Harper, and Ligia Goncalves.
So what have I been doing since my DTS and before DTS Equip. Well, I spent a lot of time with Matt, my mom and my friends in Holland in March. I got engaged on April 3 and so I did some wedding planning before and after that :) I am getting married on August 29, 2009! In April, I went to go visit Laura in Ontario, CA; my dad in Petaluma, CA; and Karen, Daniel and the kids in Tenino, WA. I had a great time visiting and finally seeing where my parents will/are living in CA. My neice and nephew have grown so much and I just had a blast with everyone :) I returned back to Michigan on April 30 and left for St. Croix on May 9.
I just want to thank all of you for your continued prayer support and love that you have continued to show me.
Love in Christ,
Kathy Beth Miersma
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Home Again!
Wow, what an amazing 5 months. Words cannot describe how much God has worked in my life, but as always, I will try my best.
I didn't have time to describe my last week of outreach, so I will start with that. During the last week we went to another area outside of Heredia in the mountains to do disaster relief from the earthquake that hit in early January. The area periodically still feels after shocks, which can be scary for the homes that are falling apart. Our group worked on two houses, at the house I was at the family's home fell completely down. With some support from family members, the government, and the community they had been able to put up a new house with materials that can shift in case of further earthquakes. This is cool because if another earthquake hits, then the house should be able to withstand the tremors. We helped with sifting sand for concrete, mixing heavy concrete, and pouring it for floors and outside walkways. We also pulled out nails from the wood of the old house that the family can then reuse or sell. The other house our group worked at they were taking down the second story of this house so that it would not fall on the neighbors house if another earthquake came. It was a tough week of hard work, but we all enjoyed it. On the last day (Wed) we were able to do an open air where we did all of our drama's and all of the students were able to give our testimonies. Then on Thursday we went to a Volcano and hiked through the rain forest, it was beautiful. In the evening we celebrated the end of outreach with a fancy dinner at Denny's :) It was delicious.
The last week in St. Croix. Our last week was geared toward debriefing our outreach, the DTS as a whole, and learning about Re-Entry back home. We had Jeremy West, a DTS leader from the Montana base, come to teach us and he really helped me process what I had learned. I was able to see how much God moved in my life throughout the last 5 months. I was also able to look back at what I had hoped to happen during DTS at the beginning of October to how God had fulfilled all I wanted and so much more. We had a nice dinner on Thursday night and then Graduation on Friday. It was very bittersweet to leave on Saturday Morning. I miss all the people in St. Croix, but it is nice to be back home again too.
DTS is an amazing time of self discovery, learning more about God, and more about the world around you. My time was invaluable and I am so glad that I decided to go. I am forever changed :) So here are a few things to summarize my experience over the last 5 months:
Self Discovery: I learned so much about my personality, who I am in Christ, and how God can use me, ME! I now have a greater confidence in who God made me to be and believe in my heart that my life has value and a purpose. He has given me a heart to serve others, and in serving others I can find a joy that comes only from Him! Over DTS I have slowly been able to get over my fear of what man thinks of me (for the most part anyway, everyday I have to remind myself of how I do not need to impress anyone, but to do all things to glorify my savior :). Discovering more about who I am is the best gift I have ever received. Thank you to God and to the staff and students in St. Croix for allowing God to use you to reveal this to me :D
Learning more about God: I learned so much about God, how he wants to and does speak to me directly, how he is trustworthy and will guide all my ways if I allow him to, and he is always by my side, never letting go of me. Our God is so big, so faithful and gracious, and so, oh so, loving that we cannot comprehend how amazing he really is, there is always going to be new revelations to receive about him :) God has shown me that in all things he will provide for our needs and sometimes there are things we would like to know, maybe about our futures or something else and he will show us, but it is always in his right timing, not in our own. Before DTS I would sometimes struggle with talking to God, I would feel like I was just talking to the air or the wall, but not anymore. GOD IS REAL! He sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for each one of us and it is so amazing. Now my prayer times are meaningful, it is conversation between myself and God and I love it :D
The world around me: The world is so big and yet it can seem so small. I have seen over the last 5 months how much people with so little live with such a joy and a heart of gratitude and it is because they have Jesus. I have seen the greedy and selfish, but I have also seen the gracious, hardworking, helpful, and joyful people of this world. People want to know about Jesus, they want to know about the only one that can truly bring life, we just need people to go out and share it with them. The harvest is ripe, but the workers are few. It was very hard to go into these areas and know that I might be the first person to tell someone about Jesus. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing experience to see someone want to run away from their old life into a new one with Christ, but why aren't there more people going around. In some areas, people were "Christians" and they went to church 1 or 2 times a year or they went every Sunday, but they did not truly know the fullness of life that Christ really has for them. There were many churches in these areas, but few seemed to be going out and evangelizing to these people. God also showed me that other cultures have some good food :) and values that are worth striving to have. The value of family was so apparent in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. They truly care about their families :) as I hope to share how much my family means to me now that I am home.
This is only a brief summary of what God has done in me and through me throughout my DTS. I would love to share more with anyone who want to know more. I am open for questioning :)
A huge THANK YOU goes out to all of you for your love, encouragement and prayers while I have been away. You are all apart of the reason I am changed for the better today, so THANK YOU. I have appreciated all the emails, letters and cards, and the blog comments.
I hope to continue updating my blog every couple of weeks, so feel free to keep checking it :)
May God Bless you all!
Grace, Peace, and Love through Christ,
Kathy Beth Miersma
I didn't have time to describe my last week of outreach, so I will start with that. During the last week we went to another area outside of Heredia in the mountains to do disaster relief from the earthquake that hit in early January. The area periodically still feels after shocks, which can be scary for the homes that are falling apart. Our group worked on two houses, at the house I was at the family's home fell completely down. With some support from family members, the government, and the community they had been able to put up a new house with materials that can shift in case of further earthquakes. This is cool because if another earthquake hits, then the house should be able to withstand the tremors. We helped with sifting sand for concrete, mixing heavy concrete, and pouring it for floors and outside walkways. We also pulled out nails from the wood of the old house that the family can then reuse or sell. The other house our group worked at they were taking down the second story of this house so that it would not fall on the neighbors house if another earthquake came. It was a tough week of hard work, but we all enjoyed it. On the last day (Wed) we were able to do an open air where we did all of our drama's and all of the students were able to give our testimonies. Then on Thursday we went to a Volcano and hiked through the rain forest, it was beautiful. In the evening we celebrated the end of outreach with a fancy dinner at Denny's :) It was delicious.
The last week in St. Croix. Our last week was geared toward debriefing our outreach, the DTS as a whole, and learning about Re-Entry back home. We had Jeremy West, a DTS leader from the Montana base, come to teach us and he really helped me process what I had learned. I was able to see how much God moved in my life throughout the last 5 months. I was also able to look back at what I had hoped to happen during DTS at the beginning of October to how God had fulfilled all I wanted and so much more. We had a nice dinner on Thursday night and then Graduation on Friday. It was very bittersweet to leave on Saturday Morning. I miss all the people in St. Croix, but it is nice to be back home again too.
DTS is an amazing time of self discovery, learning more about God, and more about the world around you. My time was invaluable and I am so glad that I decided to go. I am forever changed :) So here are a few things to summarize my experience over the last 5 months:
Self Discovery: I learned so much about my personality, who I am in Christ, and how God can use me, ME! I now have a greater confidence in who God made me to be and believe in my heart that my life has value and a purpose. He has given me a heart to serve others, and in serving others I can find a joy that comes only from Him! Over DTS I have slowly been able to get over my fear of what man thinks of me (for the most part anyway, everyday I have to remind myself of how I do not need to impress anyone, but to do all things to glorify my savior :). Discovering more about who I am is the best gift I have ever received. Thank you to God and to the staff and students in St. Croix for allowing God to use you to reveal this to me :D
Learning more about God: I learned so much about God, how he wants to and does speak to me directly, how he is trustworthy and will guide all my ways if I allow him to, and he is always by my side, never letting go of me. Our God is so big, so faithful and gracious, and so, oh so, loving that we cannot comprehend how amazing he really is, there is always going to be new revelations to receive about him :) God has shown me that in all things he will provide for our needs and sometimes there are things we would like to know, maybe about our futures or something else and he will show us, but it is always in his right timing, not in our own. Before DTS I would sometimes struggle with talking to God, I would feel like I was just talking to the air or the wall, but not anymore. GOD IS REAL! He sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for each one of us and it is so amazing. Now my prayer times are meaningful, it is conversation between myself and God and I love it :D
The world around me: The world is so big and yet it can seem so small. I have seen over the last 5 months how much people with so little live with such a joy and a heart of gratitude and it is because they have Jesus. I have seen the greedy and selfish, but I have also seen the gracious, hardworking, helpful, and joyful people of this world. People want to know about Jesus, they want to know about the only one that can truly bring life, we just need people to go out and share it with them. The harvest is ripe, but the workers are few. It was very hard to go into these areas and know that I might be the first person to tell someone about Jesus. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing experience to see someone want to run away from their old life into a new one with Christ, but why aren't there more people going around. In some areas, people were "Christians" and they went to church 1 or 2 times a year or they went every Sunday, but they did not truly know the fullness of life that Christ really has for them. There were many churches in these areas, but few seemed to be going out and evangelizing to these people. God also showed me that other cultures have some good food :) and values that are worth striving to have. The value of family was so apparent in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. They truly care about their families :) as I hope to share how much my family means to me now that I am home.
This is only a brief summary of what God has done in me and through me throughout my DTS. I would love to share more with anyone who want to know more. I am open for questioning :)
A huge THANK YOU goes out to all of you for your love, encouragement and prayers while I have been away. You are all apart of the reason I am changed for the better today, so THANK YOU. I have appreciated all the emails, letters and cards, and the blog comments.
I hope to continue updating my blog every couple of weeks, so feel free to keep checking it :)
May God Bless you all!
Grace, Peace, and Love through Christ,
Kathy Beth Miersma
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Safe travel
I'm back in St. Croix! All our flights went good with minimal delays. I will give more of an update later, but our last week in Costa Rica was awesome and I have one more week here in St. Croix for debriefing all of DTS, then home on March 9.
Thank you all for your prayers!
Kathy
Thank you all for your prayers!
Kathy
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Hi Again
Hello Everyone,
Just a quick update.
This past week we did construction at a church for their soup kitchen and we did some open airs with dramas and testimonies, also we did some english lessons with the kids in the area we were working. Thursday night to Friday night we had a silent retreat of just talking and listening to God and reading our bibles. It was a good time.
This coming week we are doing Earthquake disaster relief in San Jose and then Friday we head back to St. Croix. I will be in St. Croix for 1 week, then have a graduation. Then I head to Miami for my roomate Natalies wedding and then return back to Michigan on March 9.
Time is flying by, but I could use continued prayer for focus for this last week of outreach and debriefing week.
I am doing well for the most part, a little tired though.
Grace and Peace,
Love,
Kathy
Just a quick update.
This past week we did construction at a church for their soup kitchen and we did some open airs with dramas and testimonies, also we did some english lessons with the kids in the area we were working. Thursday night to Friday night we had a silent retreat of just talking and listening to God and reading our bibles. It was a good time.
This coming week we are doing Earthquake disaster relief in San Jose and then Friday we head back to St. Croix. I will be in St. Croix for 1 week, then have a graduation. Then I head to Miami for my roomate Natalies wedding and then return back to Michigan on March 9.
Time is flying by, but I could use continued prayer for focus for this last week of outreach and debriefing week.
I am doing well for the most part, a little tired though.
Grace and Peace,
Love,
Kathy
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Hello from Costa Rica
Hi Everyone!
I just have time for a quick note so here it is :)
I had a great time in Chinandega and our group made it safely with little delay on our bus ride to Heredia, Costa Rica. This past week we stayed in a small village/town in Guadalope, I had a great time. We have been doing Construction, acts of service, dramas, testimonies and preaching at youth services/youth conference/open airs (in parks)
I went last week to the doctor and they figured out what is wrong with my eyes and I have to use eye drops and eye gel everyday now until I go home and get them checked out again. I can see clearly all day long now which is a blessing.
Thank you all for your prayers,
Love,
Kathy
I just have time for a quick note so here it is :)
I had a great time in Chinandega and our group made it safely with little delay on our bus ride to Heredia, Costa Rica. This past week we stayed in a small village/town in Guadalope, I had a great time. We have been doing Construction, acts of service, dramas, testimonies and preaching at youth services/youth conference/open airs (in parks)
I went last week to the doctor and they figured out what is wrong with my eyes and I have to use eye drops and eye gel everyday now until I go home and get them checked out again. I can see clearly all day long now which is a blessing.
Thank you all for your prayers,
Love,
Kathy
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