LECTURES DONE!! / October - December

Right off the bat of this current DTS we could see God was going to do incredible things with this group of people. It's surreal that in less than a week, the teams will be going on outreach throughout NZ!

As we had briefly mentioned in the last post, Letitia and I were privileged enough to attend our YWAM national gathering that was hosted in Nelson. We were there for a week and were invited to share some specific stories and our perspectives as a ministry to enhance the greater picture of what God is doing in the wider YWAM body. We got lovingly called out in a meeting by another ministry leader for referring to ourselves as young way too much. He kindly noted that we aren't that young anymore and that we can't keep dismissing ourselves like that in YOUTH with a mission, haha. Good call.

We've LOVED being able to mix and mingle with other bases especially in the context of the DTS training phase. Our whole school, staff, and students went for two weeks of living and lectures to another YWAM location here in Tauranga called Marine Reach. That time was amazing and further emphasised God's nudges to perceive the new thing He is doing.

To top it all off, we were able to take the DTS from Marine Reach straight to the Bay of Islands for an entire lecture week. Te Tii Waitangi Trust and the Treaty Grounds were incredibly generous and really went above and beyond to accomodate our group of 35 people for the week. Our YWAM NZ national convenor, Ray Totorewa, joined us to talk about cultural and historical engagement in missions.

We spent the week combining times of teaching and storytelling, with visits to some of the historically significant places in New Zealand like the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Flagstaff Hill, Rangihoua Pa, and the Paihia Mission Station. It was incredible to be back in the North with our school in the place we have such a huge love and passion for and to show them some of the story in this land that they're a part of. On the way back from Waitangi we stopped in at Zion for a night and our friend Ole straight away got stuck into gardening to show love to our crew for moving away from our campus. It meant so much to Barry and I to work with Ole and the others on the land.

The lecture phase has drawn to close and we have been reflecting on the awesome and crazy circumstances that this season has brought. We're so thankful to be part of running a school with such incredible people in times like these.

Next up is our return to Northland! We have so much on our hearts for this coming year which we'll update you on in Jan :)

Thanks so much for each of you that supports and prays for us!

Meri Kirihimete!

Barry & Tesh x