As I shared in my last update (last October!), I would visit YWAM’s International Communication Network (ICN) in Colorado Springs, CO. These are people I have worked with before on various short-term projects and workshops, but now I was able to visit their offices and see where they work. The team made up of about 12-15 people.
I, and many others of us who are working with YWAM’s regional communication teams, see them as our “spiritual parents” in the area of communication since they have been so instrumental in seeing many regional communication teams come together. They have been supportive of us, both with their time and even with small financial donations from time to time.
School of Mission Communication (SMC)
While I was there, I had the honor of joining in briefly with the School of Mission Communication (SMC), a 3-month YWAM course, the ICN was running. This course was comprised of 11 students from 7 different nations (Russia, Benin, Indonesia, Nigeria, US, India and Thailand) who received training in photography, journalism, web design, video production, public speaking, writing and social media, among other subjects.
|
|
It was good to meet these men and women who are serving on the “front-lines” with YWAM in various locations and who took the time away from their respective ministries to get further training as “mission communicators”. Besides hanging out and getting to know them, I was also given an hour to share with the students about EuroCom and lead an intercession time for communication in Europe.
Budapest
There’s no easy way to communicate this, but after much prayer, discussion and tears, we felt it was right to let go of our dream of moving to Budapest for now. It was especially difficult for me, Rodney, as this was originally my dream. In releasing this, I really went through what some call the “death of a vision”.
There are several reasons we came to this conclusion, advice from others, financial reasons, etc. Any one of these wouldn’t be enough to cause us to draw this conclusion, but, all things considered, it became clear that this was the right decision.
This leaves us with many questions in our minds since I, especially, felt strongly that it was God’s will. We don’t have any answers for these questions, only hints, but we continue to trust God that He was and is leading us and guiding us.
Colorado Springs
As is often the case, when God shuts one door, He opens another. After releasing the Budapest vision in September, I, Rodney, fell into what felt like a deep pit. You could say I was almost in a burn-out with very little energy and no motivation to do much of anything. But, since I had been invited months earlier to visit the ICN and the School of Mission Communication, this seemed like a good thing to do in November.
While I was there, I had good conversations with mostly Rob Abraham and Debra Buenting who are on the leadership team. The possibility that this team would be a good fit for me began to grow in my heart and we talked about what that could look like.
This would mean moving to Colorado Springs as a family. Since I have been there, I already have a good idea of how that would be, but since neither Jolanda or the kids have been there, we felt it was a good idea to go and explore the possibility.
For this reason, we are going as a family to Colorado Springs in April to visit the ICN, and another YWAM ministry there called YWAM Strategic Frontiers which is a large base similar to Heidebeek. This base has 150 staff and 100 children under the age of 18! There will be plenty of people for Jolanda to talk to and for our kids to play with if we do end up moving there.
There would be many opportunities for Jolanda to serve both at the ICN and the other YWAM base. We will be looking into what these might be as well. We will also most likely visit elementary schools to give the girls an idea of what it would be like to live and go to school there.
Interesting fact: In April, five Heidebeek families will be on outreach in three different locations!
Nieuw Heidebeek staff
New Staff Introduction Course
New Heidebeek Staff
Recently, Heidebeek welcomed six new staff members “on board”. This meant that Jolanda and her co-workers in the Personnel Department and Staff Care and Development (SCAD) were busy organizing an introduction course for these new staff. Experience has taught them that it is very important that all new staff get a good introduction to living and working at Heidebeek.
During this course (which consist of two full days and then one afternoon a week for several weeks), the new staff receive training on how to deal with change, mentoring and being mentored, fundraising, etc. The new staff also get a chance to share together about their experiences in their first few weeks here at Heidebeek.
HFT Training Day Registration
Home Front Teams Training Day
On March 10th, 350 people gathered for the “Home Front Teams” (HFT) Training Day, organized by the Dutch Missions Alliance, for teaching and encouragement. These “Home Front Teams” are teams of two to six people who have joined together for the purpose of providing practical support (prayer, help with fundraising, communication with the local church, etc.) for a particular missionary. They are typically family, friends or members of the same church. They’re kind of like a missions board who have joined together for the sole purpose of serving that particular missionary (or missionary family).
Jolanda was present to help out during the day but also to represent YWAM to the various Home Front Teams whose missionaries are working with YWAM somewhere in the world, and to answer any questions they might have. She had contact with HFTs whose missionaries are working in places like The Philippines, Cambodia, Chili, Brazil and Mozambique, just to name a few.