Training update 2014

Such a long time since I last sent a decent update. Things has been busy and a bit unsettled so it has been difficult to send an update. Since a few days ago things are a bit more know so I will give it a try now.

The team

One of the things that were a bit unsettled was the team, as in who would be going on the journey. We are 7 members in the team that is going to be travelling this year, 2 guys and 5 girls. We are also leaving behind 2 girls that are not going with us, but that was part of the team through the whole of training and are now part of the team. So the team travelling are Vilandre (19, he did a journey last year), Esther (31, from Zambia), Nicole (21, studying Law), Arne (18, just finished school), Lisa (18, just finished school), Christine (17, just finished school. I also am now her legal guardian so we can go where we should till she turns 18).

The journey

As of the moment we still don't have any plane tickets bought for the journey, but this will happen this week so that by the time we leave training on Friday at least we will have our tickets. We will only be flying out of South Africa round the 10-11^th of March. The route at the moment looks like this: Israel for 3 weeks, Jordan for 4 weeks, Egypt for 10 days, back to Jordan for 2 weeks. Turkey for 4 weeks, Croatia for 5-6 weeks. And then it gets way fuzzy. These are the places where we know what we will be doing and where we will be linking in with some known contacts. The last 3-3.5 months will not look like this, it will be all new countries and pioneering work. So from Croatia we need to get back to Turkey to fly back to South Africa over this period. At the moment it looks like we will be moving down the west side of the Balkans, thus from Croatia we will do Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece. Somewhere in there we will perhaps go to Italy, we will see. So to sum up temporary route looks like: Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece.

Training

Training has been good, I will not bore you with all the details, but it is a complete different experience for the second time and also when you are not just a team member but a journey leader the responsibilities looks a bit different. Highlights were survivor (I always like it), some great teachings and the Luke 10 trip to Cape Town to do the schengen visa application.

My time in training

The time of training has been interesting. Due to the nature of trying to set up a new journey and a few other factors there has been quite a lot of flux and uncertainty around (and of course I am an expert in uncertainty and do not like things planned at all). The unknowns with regards to team, who can go and who can't go, due to different reasons has been difficult to deal with to try and create unity in the team. And even now that we actually do know, as of a few days ago, we are in a position where we are leaving 2 behind that has been part of the team for the whole of training and having one of the 7 only joining us later on the journey is a bit awkward. The unknown in the route and not having flights and stuff has ironically been exciting me more that scaring me and that is good, so I am still excited to see where we will be led on the journey. I think it is just freaking out a few of the parents of the team members since we have been unable to tell them where their children are going or even when they are leaving the country. Other than admin I have been having a sort of up and down time with times of felling disconnectedness, frustration, and being overwhelmed and times where I have been filled with so much joy, awe of God and massive revelations and experiencing new and wow things in the Spirit. But it has been a process of constantly having to see where I am and checking myself that I am not taking burdens on myself that is not mine to carry. My personal journey has been on intimacy and worthiness and it has been quite focussed and intense and it continued well into training to a point where it was 3 weeks into training before I was able to even start praying for my team. I have also been experiencing a weird time with regards to my finances, I really felt that I should not pay my journey out of the rest of my pension, but to trust that it will all come in. Till thus far I have not made the minimum amount to be able to go on the journey (not even close) but leadership also felt that I should trust that the money will come in and are sending me out in faith. But this meant that since my finances is not yet in I have also not been able to spend personal money and that has been a strange experience since it has been the first time in quite a few years that I have been in this position and to make it a bit weird is that I know that I do have access to money, I am just not allowed to use it.

So excited for the last week of training and to see what is ahead

F