The students are HERE!!! Last Sunday the rest of our lovely DTS students arrived. We had a great time meeting their families and friends who brought them to the base. We played a couple games getting to know each other it was a lot of fun.
This amazing puzzle mural was made by our staff and students! We each painted a piece to describe what we wanted to [re]learn, [re]turn to, and how we wanted to [re]act. We had a time of sharing what God was putting on our hearts and then put the puzzle together. Nate's piece is the winter camo looking one on the left side. Julianne's is the mostly blue piece with the top of the r and the e.
This past week was a lot of orientation for the incoming students. It was also a time of figuring out our new roles as staff instead of students. We have fourteen students: ten girls and four boys. Most of the students are from the states. We do, however, have a girl from South Africa, a guy from Ecuador, a girl from Mongolia, and a girl from Brazil. It is pretty exciting around here at the base!
Our responsibilities as staff will begin within the next couple of weeks. The students will be broken into small groups and we each will be co-leading of on the groups. The small groups will meet once a week for about an hour and a half. We also will be one-on-one discipling some students over the next three months. We will meet with assigned students once a week for around an hour, talking with them, encouraging them in their walk with the Lord, and praying with and for them.
In a couple weeks we will know for sure where we will be going for the two month outreach portion of the DTS. Once the locations are set, we will help plan and prepare the trip: contacting people in the countries, booking plane tickets, and setting up ministry opportunities for the students.
We are so excited for what God will be doing in this next season of our lives!
AMAZING STORY!!!! We had a time of worship together as a class on Thursday morning. A half hour into it, we split into pairs to pray for each other. One of the guys, Nick, in the DTS really felt like he was supposed to pray for healing for someone. Nate directed him over to Julianne to pray for her knees that had been hurting. Several years ago when Julianne was visiting the doctor, they discovered that her right leg was longer than her left leg.
If you look closely at the picture on the left of her old shoes, you can see that the tread on the right shoe is more worn down than the left shoe.
When Nick came over to Julianne to pray for her, he almost immediately asked her if one leg was shorter. He began to pray for her leg to grow. And it DID!!! A warm feeling flowed through her leg. It felt like someone was tugging on her jeans, stretching it out. Now both legs are the same size! Our God STILL HEALS!!!
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support over these last three months! We really appreciate all of you! Continue to keep this fall DTS school in your prayers as we are deciding on our outreach locations soon. Thanks!
We are currently back in Grand Rapids this past weekend visiting Julianne's family. We will be heading over to Howell tomorrow morning to spend a couple of days with Nate's family. It was been such a refreshing time being back "home" again. (Plus we picked up our fall and winter clothes! It's been getting chilly.)
Keep in touch! We will be sending out our newsletters this week. If you want to receive one either by mail or online, please fill out your communication information for us. We would love to keep you updated.
CONTACT INFORMATION
We will be sending out more information about joining our team and how you can partner with us next week. Get ready! It involves COFFEE!
We love you all lots!
Love in Christ,
Nate and Julianne Gibbons
For more information about YWAM and the DTS program click here.
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