Updates from Ed Ross

Last Friday seems like only moments ago, but I feel I've done so much this week too!

Today started off with Quiet Time, where we looked at John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.". Later while reading my daily Bible reading booklet, I was no longer amazed to see that today's verse was the exact same one! I think God has this way of getting things in to me in multiple ways at the moment!

Half way through Quiet Time I was asked if I could project the song words for the morning's sung worship session. I went and got my laptop, and started checking I had all the songs that the triplet leading the worship time wanted. Fortunately I did. Then we actually had the worship session.

We finished off the week's teaching on the Holy Spirit with a summary of the teaching, and an opportunity to ask any more questions.

We then met in our triplet groups and prayed about the week's teaching and planned our worship session, which will be next Friday.

After lunch we performed our usual Community Care duties, after which I helped out in the wash up room, drying plates etc.

I had to pack and get ready to go to Portsmouth in the afternoon. I'm there now for a friend's birthday party.

Local outreach was quite harrowing tonight: one of the homeless people we met had quite a disturbing story to tell us. It is very sad to see what happens to people 'sleeping rough'. We walked up to Brighton station to see if there were any homeless people up there, but there were not. I stayed there, got my ticket to Portsmouth, and managed to jump on a train which left a few minutes later.

Have a great weekend!

"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

I lead Quiet Time this morning: I spoke on Psalm 37, and talked about
how we can think a bit about the future, but we should really use this
time to concentrate on what we are doing here, now. I played the S
Club 7 song "Reach", which talks about 'reaching for the stars, for
you heart's desire', which tied in nicely to the psalm. It went quite
well, but I was a bit flustered at the beginning as I had to run all
the way up to my room and back with a USB cable to play the song
through a laptop, as it turned out my mp3 player was not powerful
enough on its own to play music over the speakers. People came up to
me afterwards and said it was good, which was encouraging.

Following Quiet Time, we restarted our teaching on the Holy Spirit.
This lead to a fairly intense debate over the meaning of Matthew
12:31-32: "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be
forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be
forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be
forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be
forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come."
It was interesting to talk about for a while, but I'm still not sure
what it really means! Anyone with ideas and reasons for their views,
please add them as comments to this entry!

After the lectures we prayed for the situation in Iran, where there is
also persecution against Christians. After that we performed our usual
Community Care duties. It seemed to me that we got them done really
quickly today, but actually it took about the same amount of time as
usual! I had a little bit of free time after that, so I went to the
prayer room. I found a copy of the orders of service for many
ceremonies in the Anglican tradition in the room, and thought I would
read the marriage ceremony. Some people cry at weddings. I got through
reading the first two paragraphs and started crying! The promises made
by each partner in a wedding service are so absolute and life changing
- one must be so certain of their meaning and power before saying them
for real!

We then had our first outreach meeting. We didn't actually get to talk
much about India as there are still some details they need to confirm.
We played some 'getting to know you' games instead. Getting to know
the other students going to India with me is a good idea. We will be
working as a team, so we need to start getting to know lots about each
other. At the same time though, we have been warned against getting
too much into 'the India group' and 'the Poland group' when not in the
outreach meetings. For this phase of the YWAM DTS course, we are all
just students at Holmsted Manor. We are not overseas yet, so we should
mix together with everyone as much as possible.

After dinner I played Uno and other card games with some of the other
students, then came upstairs to write this. It has been another quick,
but full day. The weeks are just shooting past so quickly! I'm still
really pleased to be here though. This is such an amazing life.

"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version, copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry
of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Today was fantastic. I had a lie in this morning. My first in quite a while. After that I wrote a text message to my girlfriend, and while I was waiting for it to send, the fire alarm went off. This was still great, as if I hadn't have been waiting, I would have been in the shower when the alarm went off, which would have been much worse!

Lunch today was another fantastic roast chicken dinner. After lunch, I updated my journal with the week's noted, sent more text messages to friends and family to let them know how I am getting on, and played a nice gentle game of volleyball.

The weather today was great: the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was fantastic to just sit and relax for a while. There really was a reason God said to have a day of rest!

In the evening I went with a few of the other Holmsted Manor residents and YWAM DTS students to the Church of Christ the King in Brighton. I'd heard quite of their sermons online, so it was fun to finally put a face to the voice of the preacher.

The sermon was about work, and our attitude to it. We need to see that there is an eternal significance to our work, and that we are there to glorify God, not just gain a lot of money or power. They did a quite interesting thing, and asked for people to text questions during the sermon, which the speaker then answered at the end of the sermon. Yes, I asked a question! It was funny hearing someone I'd listened to so many times online actually answering my question live in front of me. The whole evening really helped me think about my attitude to work. I think I've heard a lot of what was said before, but it was good to hear it again, especially at this time which I can use to get my mind in the right place for when I go back to work.

I have appreciated being able to go to three very different church services over the last three weeks. When I've finished the course, it will be good to get back in to being a full time attender of one church, but for now, I am enjoying being able to see lots of different types of worship and expression on who God is. It is great to know that God is so big He can be worshiped in many different ways, and they can all be accepted if worshiping through Jesus. I also like the fact that there is no one central (Earthly) Church Authority that dictates exactly how we should do things, and what we should learn about each week.

I'm so pleased to be here still, so pleased to be able to go to India, and so pleased to have weeks to look forward to. This week, we will be studying the Holy Spirit, which I am looking forward to. Have a great week, and feel free to add a comment to this and any other blog entry.

Weekends are free days, so we can do pretty much whatever we like here on the YWAM DTS course. There are shopping trips organised for the residents of Holmsted Manor though, and today I decided to go on one.

The trip started off with a surprise: we were not going to the town I thought we were going to. That was OK though: I've been to both towns many times before. The day for me wasn't about the location, but the people I was going to be spending time with. We were dropped off in Haywards Heath, and told to be back at the same spot at 3pm. That gave us plenty of time to look around.

First stop was a nice cafe I knew, where the others were delighted at the sweet taste of their drinks. I got a bottled drink so I could drink it later in the day if needed.

I left the cafe to try to find some other students who came on a later trip. I'd said to one of them that I would help them figure out how to use their Canadian bank card in our UK cash machines. When I found them, they had already managed to work it out though, and they asked if I could help them get to the train station, as they wanted to go to Brighton for the day. I showed the group to the station, and decided to go too. As my home was on the way to Brighton, I offered them an opportunity to visit a "real" English house. As there were four other students, all from different countries, I thought this might be a nice idea for them. They agreed, and we jumped off the train at the right station, and walked to my house, where they marvelled at English draining boards, sofa arm covers, and instant coffee.

We then set off for Brighton once again. When we arrived, we were all pretty hungry. I've been to Brighton so often, and really should have been able to think of somewhere to eat, but having not been there recently (apart from last night doing the homeless ministry), my memory was failing me. I took a brave step, and asked a random stranger if they knew a good restaurant. They said they did, and to follow him, as he worked there, and was going there then! We followed him, and he led us the the nice Italian restaurant he worked in. We enjoyed pizza, pasta and drinks.

I then had to set off to Haywards Heath on the train again, to make sure I got back on the trip that had been arranged in the morning. I left the others in Brighton, as they said they were going to do a bit more shopping and get a taxi home later. I had to run a bit to get back to the pick up point once I'd got back to Haywards Heath station, but I managed to make it on time to be picked up. That bottled drink came in handy though!

In the evening, I helped clean up the kitchen after dinner, and watched what I belive is one of the best films I've seen: The Matrix.

Today was almost nothing like what I'd expected, but it was fun anyway. Holmsted is in a great location, but it is nice to get out and about a bit too.

Today started as all others, with our Quiet Time, and then the finale of the lecture series on Identity. I think we have all been challenged, taught, and been made to think during these talks.

Following that we learnt our outreach locations! I'd thought that we would be told on Monday, but we were able to be told today instead. The leader of the YWAM DTS course I'm on flashed up a photo of each of the students one by one, and revealed their outreach location.

Earlier this week we had been given the options: India and Poland. Both of these places would have been great to go to, but I had felt God speaking to me about one of them even before it was revealed as an option. There were so many events and links to this place that I was so awestruck to see that they had all been leading up to this moment. We were then given an hour to pray about our choice, and write down where felt we should go, and why. I had so many reasons for wanting to go to this place, I filled up one piece of paper, handed that in, then came back later with another set of reasons too!

Today in the class room, my face flashed up on the screen, and then the location I'd been accepted for was displayed: India! I've worked with some Polish people in my last job, and they are really nice. It would have been nice to visit their country, but I couldn't ignore the call I felt about India. There really have been so many pointers to India for me recently, and also in the last few years, that have shown me that God really does speak to me, and can speak to you. You may have noticed I mentioned India quite a lot in yesterday's blog entry. I couldn't say for sure where I was going then, but that was a less than subtle hint as to my thoughts on the matter.

We have been told a little bit about what we will be doing there: working with children on the streets, orphans, and people in Leper colonies. We will be given more information during the rest of the lecture phase of the course. If you would like to help support me on the outreach phase (and now), please check out the support section of my site.

Once we found out where we going on the outreach, we spilt off in to our triplets. I'd been looking forward to this all week. It is really nice to be able to chat to just a couple of other people about how we thought the week has gone, what prayer requests we had, and anything else that might have come up. We had a great time today, and I was very encouraged by it.

In the afternoon we did our usual "Community Care" tasks, and then I had a chance to rest for a bit before embarking on my first evening of local outreach.

The local outreach I am helping with is "Antifreeze", a project by "Off the fence" which focuses on meeting, talking to, feeding and helping to care for the homeless people in Brighton. It was a fantastic evening and really opened my eyes to the differences between different homeless people. I've met some homeless people elsewhere, and there was such a difference in the attitude of the people I met tonight. Tonight most of the people really wanted to get off the streets and into good accommodation. They had sad stories of how they ended up in their current situation, and most of them had hope that they were just where they were temporarily, and something better could come up. I had a different experience to the other guys helping with this project, as I know Brighton quite well, having grown up near it. It was a weired feeling for me: looking round at the streets we were on, thinking "I've gotten taxis from here!" or "I've been to that restaurant", but now I was helping to feed the homeless people who I would have probably tried to avoid before. From what I've seen, Off the fence is a very good charity doing a lot of much needed work. This local outreach wasn't actually my first choice, but I'm now glad that I was put in this group.

So, it has been quite a day! I've discovered where I'll be for the end of the year, and I've had some preconceived ideas challenged. I thank God for every day that I'm here. While the world appears to be crashing down around me (at least according to the newspapers), there is so much happening here that fills me with confidence that this is the right place at the right time for me. Thank you for reading. Please feel free to add a comment to this (and any other) entry.

Today we focused on things we can/should give up for God during our Quiet Time. Then we continued with our Prayer For The Nations time. The group I've been put in is praying for India. Each week we will be praying for people in India, and praying about the situations in the news regarding India. We will study the situation in India, and pray the God will help. India will be in my prayers regularly throughout my time here on the YWAM DTS course.

We then continued our lectures on Identity, in which we discussed behavior and beliefs we use to build up a wall in front of us so that others (and God) won't be able to get to us. We saw that it was really liberating to walk in front of the wall and break free from the vicious cycle of anger and bitterness leading to further withdrawal.

It was back to cleaning the toilets and shower rooms for Community Care, and then I played football in the afternoon.

I've been told that we will not find out where we will be going on our outreach probably till Monday, so the mystery will continue!

Today was quite a significant day for all the students on this YWAM DTS course. It was a day for freedom, revelation, and decision.

In Quiet Time we were encouraged to think of people we wanted to forgive. I found this pleasantly hard, as I couldn't think of many people that have hurt or offended me. I also read some more of Blue Like Jazz, which is getting really interesting now. I read a section talking about how our actions show what we believe.

Then we resumed our lecture series on Identity, which started off with the teacher talking about how our actions show what we believe! She also helped us identify things in our lives that can hold us back, and things that we can try to use as defense mechanisms. We also learnt about how, if we can change our thoughts, we can change our emotions, and if we can change our emotions, we can change our actions! There was a lot covered again today, which was very good to hear. I have certainly been helped and encouraged by this week's lecturer. She has said a couple of times now how what she is talking about is not in her notes- she just feels a need to talk about these things at the time, and I think she has been right. I felt like we had done a one-morning version of the "Freedom in Christ" course run is some churches!

This week's lunchtime prayer session was for friends and family back home. We sat in 3s or 4s and each got to pray for the people the others in the groups asked us to pray for. Again, this was quite a good thing to do.

As I mentioned yesterday, I went with 5 other students to a local church, to help with some gardening tasks they had, rather than performing my usual 'Community Care' duties today. We arrived and were greeted by a Lovely English Lady, who showed us to the areas in need of work. My team were assigned the compost heap, which another Lovely English Lady informed us hadn't been touched for many years. We needed to put as much of the compost in to bags as we could in the time we had. So I shovelled compost for about 90 minutes, in beautiful bright sunny weather this afternoon - and I really enjoyed it! It was nice to do something new, outside in good weather, and get to chat to some local people. I've got a couple of photos of the work, which I will try to upload on a better internet connection later.

Then it was 4pm - the time we had all been waiting for since before we arrived. The time we would learn the possible locations for the outreach phase of the course! We started off with a time of sung worship, which really touched me: the last song we sung I remember singing early on during the time I was applying for this course, and I knew that I could sing it with conviction for the first time- the words are 'I would go to the ends of the earth for you'. The countries were then revealed when the course leader displayed their flags (well, once he'd done that, and let us know which country the flag is for anyway!). I was not amazed as I could have been to see one country available which I have been feeling might be on the list. I will try to remember to explain more later, when we know for sure where we are going, but I really feel that God has been speaking to me about where I should go. We were then asked to pray about the locations, and hand in a piece of paper with our name, our desired location, our reason for wanting to go there, and if we were willing to go to the other place instead. As you might have guessed, we have all been asked not to talk about the locations yet, so sorry - you may have to wait one or two more days for the announcement of where I am actually going!

In the evening I had my weekly 1 to 1 chat with a leader on the course, which was very encouraging once again. It is good getting to know him, and hearing what he has to say. We also got to pray about our lives and he made a nice cup of tea for me.

Sorry I still can't say where I'm going, but I at least have a good idea now. Thanks for sticking by me through this. Every day here I'm blessed by God. He has really helped me with concentrating on what is going on around me rather than on the future. He has a great plan for each one of us. We just need to let go of our own plan, and let Him bring about change in us, and to let Him work out His plan in our lives. It isn't easy, but it is worth it!