Weeks 1-3 !

      Hey everyone, so we're on week 4 of our Discipleship Training School and things are going well. In case you didn't know, we are not actually in Pittsburgh, we're about an hour south in a smaller town called Belle Vernon. It's the "country" (not like Ashville though ha) and incredibly hilly.  We've already learned a TON and are in a constant state of absorbing information and applying it to our lives.  We are the only married couple among the students but there is one other married couple on our staff, from South Korea.  We have 3 students here with us from South Korea, 1 from London, 1 from South Africa, and 1 student from India.  One of our staff members is from Peru as well so we are experiencing a lot of awesome diversity.  We have had 4 speakers so far (Nick Savoca, Debi Tunney, Tim Burgan, and Lance O'Brien) and are on our 5th (Sam Dharam).  Aside from these we have been spoken to by 2 local pastors and have had the opportunity to attend a local church weekly and one week we went to another Assemblies of God church.  The church we've been to regularly is non-denominational, called Christian Center Church which is physically attached to the dormitories here. We are staying with a lady who attends this church, and has volunteered the upstairs of her condo for us so we could stay together :) She is awesome and the living arrangement is going great. For more information about YWAM itself and our class go here.
          As far as what we've learned already, the information is really vast so I'm going to do my best to summarize.
        

 WEEK 1

  We learned the basic needs of the human heart:
          -Relationship with the Lord/Worship
          -Destiny-purpose
          -Friendship, love, and acceptance
          -Challenges and success
          -Adventure
          -Understanding (being known for who we are)
          -Intimacy
          -Identity, value, and uniqueness
          -Joy and pleasure
          -Purity and holiness (freedom from guilt)
*Jeremiah 29:11-14 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." God's plan for us is Himself and His fullness.

We learned that our hearts are thirsty for the water that only Jesus provides, water that will keep us from ever thirsting again.  It's only in this water (Jesus Himself; John 4:13-14 "Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'”) that we will get the stuff above ^ that we need.  We also learned about the distorted view of God we usually have, and the truth about who He really is. God's character is not based on how our earthly fathers are, or how we have been treated by other people. He is intimate, with us, holy, loving.  The problem is getting our hearts to believe what our heads already know is truth about Him.

We learned a lot about God being trustworthy and a provider. He doesn't hold out on His kids, He gives us what we need.  (Psalm 103- He will fulfill and satisfy.) We also discovered that encouragement is "oxygen to the soul" and we spent a day writing deep encouragements to our classmates.

WEEK 2

Next we learned about inductive bible study.  We know God by His creation, and His word (the bible).  The bible has tremendous value, more than precious metals and gems but we forget that and take it for granted.  This week helped to reinforce the truth that the word is vital and our food. Inductive bible study is a method of study that involves taking specific steps in a specific order to guarantee specific results.  These steps when it comes to reading the bible are:

          -Observation

          -Interpretation

          -Application

Observation: prepare our hearts through prayer. Have tools ready (for study) like a concordance, a study bible, commentaries, lexicons, etc.  Ask questions- WHO (who wrote this, who received it, who is identified) WHAT (what do we know about the people, what events are happening, in what order) WHEN (when did these events take place, when is the writer writing) WHERE (where is it taking place, where is the writer, where are they going) WHY (why is it included, why is it included here) and HOW (how did it happen, how did it affect the people and location)?  Look for things that are repeated, things that are related, etc. 

Interpretation: 5 keys to good interpretation- first interpret based on context(the passage itself), then interpret the context (before and after). Next use comparison, then go to consultation (secondary sources i.e. historians).  Some hazards to avoid include misreading the text, distorting the text, relativism, being selective with verses, and overconfidence in your own knowledge.

Application: application is a vital part of reading the word because without it, you have empty knowledge, which puffs you up.  4 steps to good application are: 1.know; ourselves and God's word. 2.relate; to your life and to your situation. 3.meditate; willpower doesn't quite cut it, it's scripture. 4.the commitment to practice.

WEEK 3

Week 3 we learned about spiritual warfare. The battles are mostly against our own flesh and each other. More notes to come on this topic. We did get prophesied over also by the speaking pastor. It was recorded and I'm trying to get the video up but I think it's too big so that'll be condensed and posted soon hopefully.

Currently-

This week we are learning about pride (ugh). So more updates coming after this lesson is complete. Please continue to pray for us; we are not getting the funds we need and need to trust that God will provide.  Also, as you can imagine, stress levels always run high in community living, and we also have curriculum and work duties to complete. Thanks for reading and supporting and praying.

More soon,

Josh & Devi