Relationships - 01/30/07
It is cold here, especially in the winter. A lot of places are not heated, and one of those places is where we’re staying. The idea is it gets so hot here in the summer, buildings are made to keep in the cool air, so in the winter it can be colder inside than it is outside. It’s okay for me but some people didn’t bring enough clothes.
Really God has brought me here and I don’t know what to say. I can’t even begin to express how much I love it here. Even in the torturous days of jet lag, I absolutely LOVE the people I’m in the school with - every single one of them. I love them to death. More than that, it’s strange because a few of them seem familiar to me even though we’ve never met particularly the school leader Miled (“me-LED”) and an Arabic girl on staff named Mona. I feel right at home and quite comfortable acting like myself despite the fact that I haven’t gotten to know them for very long. Maybe it’s because I know I can’t hide from them anyway, so it emboldens me to not even try.
In our course info packet, which describes what we’ll be doing at the school and what our schedules will be like, something in particular really spoke to me in a section where it describes life in the DTS. It says: “There is no community without conflict, but without conflict there is no Christian Growth. Jesus had a relatively short time to train a group of leaders to take the immense responsibility for guiding the early church. The method He chose for training His disciples was to gather a small number and then live together in an intense mobile community for a period of time. The gospel stories are very blunt and open about the weaknesses, immaturities, failures and sins that emerged in the disciples while they were with Jesus, but they matured. We can put on our ‘best faces’ for some time, but living in community we cannot hide from one another. We will get to know each other and we will have to make the decision to stay although it will be hard sometimes. But the decision is with you how much you want to shape and be shaped by others to grow into maturity.
What spoke to me specifically was the part about putting on a “new face”. It’s totally true. Most people, when we’re around strangers, don’t want to just come out of our shells. We want to hide and only show things that will make us seem “good” or “nice” or “acceptable”. I just decided not to play games or hide.
Let me introduce the people to you. All of the guy staff members are in one room; guy students are in one room, girl staff in another room, and girl students in one room. Everyone is here for Jesus, so that will be assumed in these descriptions (pictures are above descriptions).
Miled (“Me-LED”) is the DTS leader. He is Palestinian and did his DTS here in Cyprus just 3 years ago. Now he leads the school. I think he’s in his 30’s. He’s fluent in Palestinian Arabic and his English is good. Miled is also my one-on-one partner (every student is assigned a staff member as one-on-one partner to talk about stuff).
Ashraf (“Osh-roff”) is Egyptian and has led a YWAM school before coming on staff here. He did his DTS in Egypt in 1992, worked with YWAM in Egypt for 7 years, left the to the states in 1999, came to Cyprus in 2004 and has been here ever since. In 2001, he pioneered the first DTS in South Africa and he led the last 3 DTS’s in Cyprus. He and Naomi met here in Cyprus and now they are engaged to be married in late April, which is about the time we’re leaving for the outreach portion of the school, so they won’t be joining us for that. He speaks Egyptian Arabic and his English is good.
Naomi is the other American at this school. She’s staff, born and raised in Arizona, was going to college, but took a break to do her YWAM DTS in Texas. That was 6 years ago. Now she’s a full time staff member and her “break” turned out to be a little longer than she anticipated. She is fluent in American English and is probably knows some mixed Arabic. I think she’s my age, 24.
Claude is in charge of food and other things. He’s been a lot of places and also used to run many DTS schools. He is 50 years old and has two sons and a daughter in the US, and his wife passed away 5 years ago from cancer. He’s on staff with YWAM here in Cyprus and has been working with YWAM since 1978 – a contemporary of the original YWAM pioneers. He lived in England for 21 years doing other DTS work there, but he’s from Switzerland and is fluent in French and English. He likes tennis a lot and is quite happy to see Roger Federer winning so much.
Mona is Egyptian, but she was born as a pastor’s daughter in Jordan and is on staff. She’s 24, quite short, quiet, but really very cheery and fun. She definitely has her own style and she makes speaking Arabic sound like one of the most fun things in the world. She has a great speaking voice. She did her DTS last year here in Cyprus and loved it so much she wanted to come back. She speaks many dialects of Arabic fluently and her English is very good.
Sanne (“Sooo-nuh”) rhymes with Mona. She’s a Dutch girl from Holland (Netherlands) and she was raised Christian. She’s been doing missions trips every summer since she was 16 years old. She did her DTS here in Cyprus last year with Mona and she made so many good friends that she keeps in touch with – she decided to come back as staff. She is fluent in Dutch and English.
Robert is the youngest at 18, turning 19 in February. He’s from Manchester, England, and recently graduated from high school. He is fluent in British English he also speaks Egyptian Arabic pretty well because his parents came from Egypt to England, although he can’t read Arabic. He came to this DTS on recommendation from his youth pastor. He’s been a Christian for about 4 years, then began to backslide and is hoping this might be a changing experience. Robert went to high school where “Gandolf the Great” went!
Adam is 26 years old from Toronto, Canada. He worked in a camping good store but decided it was time to quit and come do a DTS here in Cyprus. He doesn’t like Toronto as much as other part of Canada because he says it doesn’t have a distinct identity like the other parts do. He’s here for some perspective. He’s a two-time college drop out, first in business and second in youth ministries. For two short periods of time, on an internship, Adam was a youth pastor at two different churches. Each time, he chose not to continue his studies and pasturing for different reasons, and Adam speaks Canadian. He’s rather quiet, but not shy at all – just kind of does his own thing and soaks it up.
Jason is 31 from New Zealand. He lives near the “Shire” where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins are from. The Lord of the Rings movies were shot in New Zealand. He also likes rugby. Hearing his story was intersecting. Without getting into it, you can take my word for it, that God made it incredibly clear for him to come to DTS here in Cyprus; he also said there’s much more to the story than he shared – that it’s just amazing how clearly God spoke to him and all the events that led to him coming here. He is an addicted smoker but there is no smoking or drinking alcohol at this school so he handed in his cigarettes and is quitting cold. Jason speaks New Zealand/Australian English.
Simeon (“Simone”) has an interesting story. He’s fluent in French, his English is pretty good, and he knows some Palestinian Arabic because he’s originally from Lebanon. He came to speak French because he lived in French speaking Africa for a while with his sister. That’s where he learned about the sacrifice Jesus made for the world in taking our punishment and satisfying God’s wrath against our injustice. He is divorced after many problems in his marriage, and when he looks back he’s so happy because if that would have never happened, neither would the events that led to him coming to know Jesus. He decided to move back to Lebanon to share what he knows with his family who he hasn’t seen in many years. Now he’s 39 and chose to do a DTS in Cyprus with us.
[name and picture have been omitted for safety reasons]
Another student is 34 years old from Lebanon. His entire family is Muslim and his life is an amazing testimony and encouragement. Growing up in Islamic culture, he was training to be a Muslim Shaikh (religious leader); he’s memorized the entire Koran. His story on why he is a Christian today will leave you breathless and in tears. God led this man to Jesus even though he wasn't influenced by any Christians. He merely started asking himself and God questions about things that didn't make sense - and then began to seek. Jesus did the rest. He’s very cautious about pictures in groups because of where he’s from. His life would be in danger if people knew he converted.
Melissa is 18 years old from Palestine. She’s half German and half Palestinian and speaks fluent Palestinian Arabic and English. She’s been a Christian for a while and came to YWAM in Cyprus to be changed and stop running from God’s straight path. She’s engaged to be married in August after she gets back from the DTS. She has a great sense of humor, is a very fun person to be around, and she really enjoys playing hacky sack which I’ve been trying to get people to play, and she helps get others to play, too. Her dad met her mom when he went to Germany and now they both lead a ministry of the Living God in Beit Jala, where she lives in Palestine. She showed us a funny video on her computer that was made by her ministry about Santa Clause who tried to go to Palestine but the government wouldn’t let him through the border.
Ronza (Ron-zah) is 26 years old from Bethlehem, Palestine. She speaks Palestinian Arabic and English pretty well. Right now she’s going to a Christian college in Bethlehem and is a part of Melissa’s parents’ ministry, A Place to Meet the Living God, so they are friends and I think their families are connected by marriage. She was chosen to be a student at Cambridge in England through a scholarship and after praying she didn’t feel right about it, so she turned it down and God led her to do the DTS here in Cyprus where she’s waiting for Him to guide her towards the next step in life. Her perspective is very interesting, encouraging. She’s quiet but not shy, and she’s very nice; definitely good company to be in; and her stories are very interesting. Bethlehem is no stranger to violence, which she has experienced first hand.
Sana (“Sa-nah”) is 23 years old from Jordan. She is best friends with Mona and speaks Jordanian Arabic fluently and English very well. She’s also incredibly helpful, cheerful, and positive. She’s eager to learn and answer questions, and eager to help others learn Arabic. She’s been teaching some of the guys words and phrases; she taught me to say “a-HEART-nee” which means “you have insulted my honor”. If you are saying it to a girl, you would say “a-heart-TEENEE”. She’s not sure exactly why she chose Cyprus but she knew that here in Cyprus she can learn about the character of God, to be closer to Him, and see the vision of her future more clearly; it’s clear to me that God has every one of us here for a specific reason and for our own growth to know Him more; so it will be exciting for her to look back and see exactly why He did bring her here.
Ellie is 20 years old from South Korea. She’s very talented for a person her age. She’s fluent in Korean and her English is very good. She can easily have a good conversation with any native English speaker, although she claims she’s “still learning”. She loves other languages and cultures, so she is fluent in Japanese, can read and speak beginner Arabic, and she can read Russian very well but she doesn’t understand it spoken. She’s mostly quiet, not too shy, and she’s very nice and very friendly, and speedy. When she walks, she almost always is walking fast. She can play the drums pretty well. She misses her friends back home, but I think God brought her here to spur growth so she will know more of Him.
Really God has brought me here and I don’t know what to say. I can’t even begin to express how much I love it here. Even in the torturous days of jet lag, I absolutely LOVE the people I’m in the school with - every single one of them. I love them to death. More than that, it’s strange because a few of them seem familiar to me even though we’ve never met particularly the school leader Miled (“me-LED”) and an Arabic girl on staff named Mona. I feel right at home and quite comfortable acting like myself despite the fact that I haven’t gotten to know them for very long. Maybe it’s because I know I can’t hide from them anyway, so it emboldens me to not even try.
In our course info packet, which describes what we’ll be doing at the school and what our schedules will be like, something in particular really spoke to me in a section where it describes life in the DTS. It says: “There is no community without conflict, but without conflict there is no Christian Growth. Jesus had a relatively short time to train a group of leaders to take the immense responsibility for guiding the early church. The method He chose for training His disciples was to gather a small number and then live together in an intense mobile community for a period of time. The gospel stories are very blunt and open about the weaknesses, immaturities, failures and sins that emerged in the disciples while they were with Jesus, but they matured. We can put on our ‘best faces’ for some time, but living in community we cannot hide from one another. We will get to know each other and we will have to make the decision to stay although it will be hard sometimes. But the decision is with you how much you want to shape and be shaped by others to grow into maturity.
What spoke to me specifically was the part about putting on a “new face”. It’s totally true. Most people, when we’re around strangers, don’t want to just come out of our shells. We want to hide and only show things that will make us seem “good” or “nice” or “acceptable”. I just decided not to play games or hide.
Let me introduce the people to you. All of the guy staff members are in one room; guy students are in one room, girl staff in another room, and girl students in one room. Everyone is here for Jesus, so that will be assumed in these descriptions (pictures are above descriptions).
Miled (“Me-LED”) is the DTS leader. He is Palestinian and did his DTS here in Cyprus just 3 years ago. Now he leads the school. I think he’s in his 30’s. He’s fluent in Palestinian Arabic and his English is good. Miled is also my one-on-one partner (every student is assigned a staff member as one-on-one partner to talk about stuff).
Ashraf (“Osh-roff”) is Egyptian and has led a YWAM school before coming on staff here. He did his DTS in Egypt in 1992, worked with YWAM in Egypt for 7 years, left the to the states in 1999, came to Cyprus in 2004 and has been here ever since. In 2001, he pioneered the first DTS in South Africa and he led the last 3 DTS’s in Cyprus. He and Naomi met here in Cyprus and now they are engaged to be married in late April, which is about the time we’re leaving for the outreach portion of the school, so they won’t be joining us for that. He speaks Egyptian Arabic and his English is good.
Naomi is the other American at this school. She’s staff, born and raised in Arizona, was going to college, but took a break to do her YWAM DTS in Texas. That was 6 years ago. Now she’s a full time staff member and her “break” turned out to be a little longer than she anticipated. She is fluent in American English and is probably knows some mixed Arabic. I think she’s my age, 24.
Claude is in charge of food and other things. He’s been a lot of places and also used to run many DTS schools. He is 50 years old and has two sons and a daughter in the US, and his wife passed away 5 years ago from cancer. He’s on staff with YWAM here in Cyprus and has been working with YWAM since 1978 – a contemporary of the original YWAM pioneers. He lived in England for 21 years doing other DTS work there, but he’s from Switzerland and is fluent in French and English. He likes tennis a lot and is quite happy to see Roger Federer winning so much.
Mona is Egyptian, but she was born as a pastor’s daughter in Jordan and is on staff. She’s 24, quite short, quiet, but really very cheery and fun. She definitely has her own style and she makes speaking Arabic sound like one of the most fun things in the world. She has a great speaking voice. She did her DTS last year here in Cyprus and loved it so much she wanted to come back. She speaks many dialects of Arabic fluently and her English is very good.
Sanne (“Sooo-nuh”) rhymes with Mona. She’s a Dutch girl from Holland (Netherlands) and she was raised Christian. She’s been doing missions trips every summer since she was 16 years old. She did her DTS here in Cyprus last year with Mona and she made so many good friends that she keeps in touch with – she decided to come back as staff. She is fluent in Dutch and English.
Robert is the youngest at 18, turning 19 in February. He’s from Manchester, England, and recently graduated from high school. He is fluent in British English he also speaks Egyptian Arabic pretty well because his parents came from Egypt to England, although he can’t read Arabic. He came to this DTS on recommendation from his youth pastor. He’s been a Christian for about 4 years, then began to backslide and is hoping this might be a changing experience. Robert went to high school where “Gandolf the Great” went!
Adam is 26 years old from Toronto, Canada. He worked in a camping good store but decided it was time to quit and come do a DTS here in Cyprus. He doesn’t like Toronto as much as other part of Canada because he says it doesn’t have a distinct identity like the other parts do. He’s here for some perspective. He’s a two-time college drop out, first in business and second in youth ministries. For two short periods of time, on an internship, Adam was a youth pastor at two different churches. Each time, he chose not to continue his studies and pasturing for different reasons, and Adam speaks Canadian. He’s rather quiet, but not shy at all – just kind of does his own thing and soaks it up.
Jason is 31 from New Zealand. He lives near the “Shire” where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins are from. The Lord of the Rings movies were shot in New Zealand. He also likes rugby. Hearing his story was intersecting. Without getting into it, you can take my word for it, that God made it incredibly clear for him to come to DTS here in Cyprus; he also said there’s much more to the story than he shared – that it’s just amazing how clearly God spoke to him and all the events that led to him coming here. He is an addicted smoker but there is no smoking or drinking alcohol at this school so he handed in his cigarettes and is quitting cold. Jason speaks New Zealand/Australian English.
Simeon (“Simone”) has an interesting story. He’s fluent in French, his English is pretty good, and he knows some Palestinian Arabic because he’s originally from Lebanon. He came to speak French because he lived in French speaking Africa for a while with his sister. That’s where he learned about the sacrifice Jesus made for the world in taking our punishment and satisfying God’s wrath against our injustice. He is divorced after many problems in his marriage, and when he looks back he’s so happy because if that would have never happened, neither would the events that led to him coming to know Jesus. He decided to move back to Lebanon to share what he knows with his family who he hasn’t seen in many years. Now he’s 39 and chose to do a DTS in Cyprus with us.
[name and picture have been omitted for safety reasons]
Another student is 34 years old from Lebanon. His entire family is Muslim and his life is an amazing testimony and encouragement. Growing up in Islamic culture, he was training to be a Muslim Shaikh (religious leader); he’s memorized the entire Koran. His story on why he is a Christian today will leave you breathless and in tears. God led this man to Jesus even though he wasn't influenced by any Christians. He merely started asking himself and God questions about things that didn't make sense - and then began to seek. Jesus did the rest. He’s very cautious about pictures in groups because of where he’s from. His life would be in danger if people knew he converted.
Melissa is 18 years old from Palestine. She’s half German and half Palestinian and speaks fluent Palestinian Arabic and English. She’s been a Christian for a while and came to YWAM in Cyprus to be changed and stop running from God’s straight path. She’s engaged to be married in August after she gets back from the DTS. She has a great sense of humor, is a very fun person to be around, and she really enjoys playing hacky sack which I’ve been trying to get people to play, and she helps get others to play, too. Her dad met her mom when he went to Germany and now they both lead a ministry of the Living God in Beit Jala, where she lives in Palestine. She showed us a funny video on her computer that was made by her ministry about Santa Clause who tried to go to Palestine but the government wouldn’t let him through the border.
Ronza (Ron-zah) is 26 years old from Bethlehem, Palestine. She speaks Palestinian Arabic and English pretty well. Right now she’s going to a Christian college in Bethlehem and is a part of Melissa’s parents’ ministry, A Place to Meet the Living God, so they are friends and I think their families are connected by marriage. She was chosen to be a student at Cambridge in England through a scholarship and after praying she didn’t feel right about it, so she turned it down and God led her to do the DTS here in Cyprus where she’s waiting for Him to guide her towards the next step in life. Her perspective is very interesting, encouraging. She’s quiet but not shy, and she’s very nice; definitely good company to be in; and her stories are very interesting. Bethlehem is no stranger to violence, which she has experienced first hand.
Sana (“Sa-nah”) is 23 years old from Jordan. She is best friends with Mona and speaks Jordanian Arabic fluently and English very well. She’s also incredibly helpful, cheerful, and positive. She’s eager to learn and answer questions, and eager to help others learn Arabic. She’s been teaching some of the guys words and phrases; she taught me to say “a-HEART-nee” which means “you have insulted my honor”. If you are saying it to a girl, you would say “a-heart-TEENEE”. She’s not sure exactly why she chose Cyprus but she knew that here in Cyprus she can learn about the character of God, to be closer to Him, and see the vision of her future more clearly; it’s clear to me that God has every one of us here for a specific reason and for our own growth to know Him more; so it will be exciting for her to look back and see exactly why He did bring her here.
Ellie is 20 years old from South Korea. She’s very talented for a person her age. She’s fluent in Korean and her English is very good. She can easily have a good conversation with any native English speaker, although she claims she’s “still learning”. She loves other languages and cultures, so she is fluent in Japanese, can read and speak beginner Arabic, and she can read Russian very well but she doesn’t understand it spoken. She’s mostly quiet, not too shy, and she’s very nice and very friendly, and speedy. When she walks, she almost always is walking fast. She can play the drums pretty well. She misses her friends back home, but I think God brought her here to spur growth so she will know more of Him.
posted by CarbonChris at 9:06 AM
2 Comments:
I must ask about the conversion of your friend whose name must not be spoke. I am very interested in Muslim's coming to know Christ. I am taking the perspective in world missions class and it is rockin my FACE OFF!
You know... I would be ashamed if I DIDN'T share his story. I already heard the entire thing... but I'm going to ask him to tell me again, and I'm going to type the entire thing out and send it in an update OR just post it on my blog. I haven't decided which one, yet. It's an amazing story. From what I've heard - most Muslims that become Christians are led by Jesus through dreams or visions. Peace!
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