Updates from Ed Ross

I've almost finished uploading all my photos from India and the DTS course. Once they are all on, I'll start highlighting some of them here.
Other than that, I'm getting on well at work, and plans for the wedding are steady.
I hope you are well.

I've started listening to podcasts again, and one I listened to today (the Glocal Family Podcast), had a feature on new cars vs old cars, which reminded me of a series of talks on Energy Efficiency given by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute that you might like to listen to:

• Buildings - Part 1
• Buildings - Part 2

• Industry - Part 1
• Industry - Part 2
• Industry - Part 3

• Transportation - Part 1
• Transportation - Part 2

• Energy Efficiency and Implementation

• Implications for Energy Efficiency

Quite a lot to think about!

I'm still here! Sorry I've not posted for a while: when I got back to Portsmouth I was a little busy trying to get a job. Now I've got one, so I'm a little busy getting to and from work!

I am happy to say that I was offered the full time position I mentioned in my previous post.

I've also managed to get on and upload some more photos of India. There will be more (photos and posts to this blog) later.

Well, for the last couple of weeks or so, I've pretty much concentrating on getting a job back in the Portsmouth area. I've had a few interviews, which have gone OK, but I'm yet to hear back from any of them. However, it doesn't really matter, as I've been able to secure a weekly-rolling-contract temp job at a good company that is not too far away. I like this approach: I'm able to work, and be paid for it, and when they see that I can do the job and they like me, they can employ me as a full time employee. I consider this better than an interview, as I can see if I like the job as well as the company likes me.

The company delivers online messaging services for companies all over the world. It is funny: in my last job I set up accounts for new customers, and set about transferring ISAs for them....in this job I'll be setting up accounts for new customers and setting about transferring domain names for them!

I've managed to upload quite a few more of my photos from the lecture phase now, which you can view on my photo site. I've not had the time to add details to all of them yet, but you might enjoy looking at the photos and wondering what was going on! Outreach phase photos will be on the way at some point, and then I plan to feature some on the blog with more detailed explanations of what was going on.

I hope you are well. Thanks for reading.

It's been just over a week since my last post, so here is what I've been doing:

Last weekend I said my goodbyes to the other students and staff at Holmsted Manor, and then set off to Portsmouth on the Monday to go to my church's Vision Night, start the job search and start the process of moving back to Portsmouth. I stayed for a couple of days, then came back home again for my Sister's birthday. I'll be going back to Portsmouth for good on Monday.

When I applied for the DTS course, it was with the intention of working for YWAM afterwards, which is still a possibility, but that was before the very special events of the day I left Portsmouth:

On that day, the lady of my life asked me out. This was a big step for both of us. I'd liked her for about four years, and she was taking a big risk as she didn't know that. Anyway, As you should know if you have been reading this blog, I said "yes", and we are now engaged. This is mostly why I'm now trying to get back into life in Portsmouth, rather than working for YWAM straight away.

So the question is: do you happen to know of any jobs in Portsmouth (UK) at the moment? I'm interested in any suggestions. I've set up a special email address you can use to let me know about any jobs you know of: findedajob@googlemail.com

I am very competent at IT support, and have also performed various administrative functions in a busy office environment. I'd also like to explore any ministry opportunities available. If you know of anything at all, please email me on the address above.

Today I graduated from my YWAM DTS course. This has been a fantastic
time in my life.
 
Praise the Lord!

This was the last full day of my YWAM DTS course! Tomorrow I graduate.
It has been a fantastic time in my life. I am so happy I found this
course and decided to do it. If you are considering any sort of
outreach work, I would seriously suggest taking a DTS course too.
 
Today we started off with a talk about how to describe our experiences
 to people 'back home', and how to answer their questions (and cope
when they say things like "I didn't know you went to India!").
 
I also went to another talk about long term mission work/raising
support (funding) for outreach. This was quite useful to go to. I have
no idea what I'm going to be doing in the future (apart from getting
married), but more missionary work is not out of the question.
 
In the evening I helped edit and produce a video showing the changes
in us as students on the course over the past 5 months. It was fun to
get back to video editing.
 
Thanks for reading. I still plan to add more posts after this week. I
want to say more about what I couldn't while on outreach, and
highlight a few photos and other things of interest.

After a fantastic full English breakfast lovingly prepared by the DTS staff, we continued our debrief week with a talk on "Vulnerability after victory". The subject covered the idea that after great victories, such as in war, sport, or outreaches like the ones we have been on, it is easy to let your guard down and let the enemy attack you. We all need to be alert to this possibility, and keep pursuing God after this course has finished.

As an aside, the leader mentioned an interesting sounding book, "The best question ever". It apparently talks about how we shouldn't consider if something is right or wrong before doing it, but instead ask "is this a wise thing to do?". There are many things that are not wrong to do, but may not be the wisest thing, because of the consequences later on.

Things suggested that we could do to help defeat any attacks against us in the time to come  were:

• Pray
• Study the Bible
• Continue in mentorship
• Continue in accountability
• Avoid temptations (for example, if you are tempted to take drugs, don't go and visit your drug dealer!)
• Find a place to serve others
• Be intentional with your relationships - make the effort to go and see people
• Don't over fill your timetable - leave room for God

After a break, we shared our "memory stones" - something from the course that has stuck out to us. Mine was attached to the pair of sunglasses I wore in India. My "Golden nugget" of truth from the course was regarding the Biblical Christian world-view. All of us have a world-view: a way of looking at the world and interpreting what we see. I am convinced that the only world-view that is actually consistent with what we see in the world is the Biblical Christian world view. It explains how there can be such beauty in the world, while there is such pain and loss. It explains science as well as art, and love and much as hate. It was the cornerstone of the West's advancement, and what made so much of what we have now a reality.

A couple of phrases the other students said during their sharing time stood out to me: "to be a leader in my lifestyle" and "God gives us many choices, they are all right - we just have to choose one".

In the afternoon Team India came together to put together a slide show of photos and videos of the trip for a presentation we gave this evening. The presentation went quite well and we were able to talk more about what we have experienced in India. Talking of photos - I'm having some difficulty getting some of my photos off the portable hard drive I took with me (ironically to try to make sure I didn't loose any photos!). Please could you pray I manage to get all the photos off the hard drive?

Today we had a good teaching time on how to deal with conflicts/settling problems with people at the end of this course. As it was mentioned in the teaching time: it would be easy to think that as we are only going to see each other for another few days, we could try to just "cope" with anyone we have a problem with, but actually, it would be much better if we sort out the problems now before we leave each other.

The tips included:

• Identify the problem
• Take the problem to God in prayer, and recognise He is the best at solving the problem
• Confess your issues to God and maybe a trusted close friend/accountability partner
• If needed, gently let the person you have a problem with know, so that you can work things out together.
• If needed after that (if they won't listen), ask your friend to go with you to try again.

It was pointed out that the Bible makes it clear that if you have a problem with someone, you should go to them about it and if you know someone has a problem with you, you should go to them to sort it out.

We also talked about "Memory Stones" - some artefact we could create that will help us remember the blessings of God and what He has taught us individually in our course.

We also performed our "Community Care" tasks one last time. There is a new YWAM DTS school here (they started in January), who have taken on the duties now. It was funny stepping back in to my cleaning clothes again.

In the evening we had a final Cafe Night, where various acts performed songs and other skits for our DTS group. I finished off (having been requested at the time), by telling the story of how I proposed.

It's been a strange day - I know it is time to leave this place. I've been so happy here, and I know it was the right thing at the right time in my life to come here, but I'm just ready to move on now. To what, I don't know, but I know God will be there with me, guiding me - if I let Him.

And while I'm in a free country again, I'd just like to say something I couldn't for the last two months: Jesus is Lord!

Today marked the start of de-brief week back here at Holmsted Manor on
the YWAM DTS course. Yes, I was still on the course in India, even if
the blog entries (necessary) didn't make it clear. I couldn't say
exactly what I was doing (but now I can, so when I have more time, I
will try to do so!).
 
Not only are we talking about our time in India, we are going to be
talking about the whole course too. It will be nice to have a reminder
of what we did before we leave!
 
I'm still feeling very tired.