Leadership

Hi there everyone,

So this past week was probably one of my favorites, aside from the week on evangelism.
The title for this series was Leadership and Calling, and it was taught by the man that is the leader of YWAM for the entire country of France!
He is the epitome of what it means to be a servant-leader. Nearly every morning, he is here at the base doing maintenance, watering the plants, getting groceries, and so much more.
It was great to be able to hear from him how God develops the calls for certain people, but that there is one call that every Christian has. To be a disciple of Christ.
This topic has been one that has been near to my heart for the past several years, and I had an idea of where I saw God leading, but since I've been here, I've come to realize that some of those goals were my ideas and not of God. So I will trust in the plans that God has for me like he says in Jeremiah 29.
The recurring theme of this week was the five-fold ministry as seen in Ephesians 4:11, with the offices of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. (See 1 Corinthians 12:28, Romans 12:6-8) These are callings within the church, but what about in the outside world? We are called to be in the world but not of it (John 17:14-18) so that means that we are likely to be called to work out side of the church as well.
There are seven fields that each society must have in order to operate. I've already mentioned one, Religion. Economy, Politics, Education, Family, Arts/Media, Science/Technology all make up different aspects that makes a society function, and can be fields that one could be called to. For example, some of the people here feel called to bio-chemistry, teaching, acting, etc. Three different fields that they want to use for the glory of God. I'm not saying that you do one or the other, work in the church or outside the church, but use the gifts and talents that you have been given for the furtherance of the Kingdom.
The final day of teaching of the final day was devoted to leadership, and what makes a good leader. Matthew 20 was the basis for this as we can see Jesus taking on the role of servant, and washing the feet of his disciples.
We took time this week to look at what qualities we see in others and what others see in us, and while some of the stuff I saw I had been aware of, some other character traits and abilities I wasn't aware of and it really made me smile. Not because it made me feel good, but because I had a realization that those traits wouldn't be there without God.
That's it for now, and I apologize for the posting this update a bit late, but more to follow shortly.

Thank you and....

10 November, 2012

Chères amies et famille,

            Let me begin with a few words of thanks. First off, I would not be here if not for you. I am very blessed to have you supporting me in this mission. Thank you to my family, King of Grace family and friends. Covering nearly all of my tuition was completely unexpected and I thank God for you. To those reading my blog, and leaving comments, thank you for the encouragement. It means a lot to me.

            I’ve been here for close to two months, and so much has happened. As part of Discipleship Training School (DTS) I have had daily Bible classes and lectures on a variety of topics ranging from who God is and His characteristics to spiritual warfare. Just about every week I have either learned something completely new, or had something I thought I knew and have been challenged on it. Sometimes I realize I was mistaken in my point of view and other times I come away with stronger convictions.

            When I first arrived, my greatest concern was the language barrier. Thankfully, God provided. Our translator for the first two weeks decided to stay for the remainder of the school as a student. This, combined with my progress in speaking French, is making the language barrier a very slight bump in the road.

            Those of you that have been reading my blog are already aware of some of this, but I thought it would be a good idea to send out a hard copy letter so that those who don’t have easy access to a computer can receive updates.

            I have reached the halfway point for the lecture phase of DTS, and time has flown by. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for more than a month already! Being able to communicate via email, Skype and phone have truly shortened the distance, and nearly eliminated any homesickness. For the outreach phase, it is confirmed that we will be in Senegal, near Ziguinchor (southern Senegal), working with local missionaries, and with orphans, and will be heading there in early January 2013.

            This is actually confirmation from God, because when I first received a vision to go to France, it was to work with orphans. And here I am, going to a French speaking country, to work with orphans! Every time I see this fulfillment, I get so excited. It just goes to show that what we have in mind might not be exactly what God has planned.

While my tuition expense has been covered, I do have additional living and travel expenses that are upcoming.  If you are so led, contributions would be greatly appreciated.

And if you get a chance, an old fashioned hard copy letter would be nice as well. Here’s my address again:

Jeunesse en Mission,

ATTN: Taylor Jacoby,

550 chemin des belles Jeannes,

26130 St. Paul Trois Chateaux, France

So again, thank you so much, and I relish your prayers and letters.

           

Sincèrement,

Taylor

A week of practicality ... and experimentation.

Bonjour!

This week was one devoted to what evangelism is and how easy it is to actually do it. We had several speakers this week sharing different facets of what makes up evangelism. The list is just about endless, because everything we do can be an example of (and should be). Here are just a few of the most common examples of evangelism that you may be familiar with. Baptism (Matt. 28:19), healing (Matt.10:1), preaching (Mark 16:15), praying (Ephesians 6:18), serving (John 13:5), casting out demons (10:7-9), and so many more.
The area that was the newest for me was the concept of healing (we already had gone over the casting out of demons during the week on spiritual warfare) I really didn't know what to make of the concept of healing at first, but then after taking a closer look at the times Jesus sent out disciples (not just the the Twelve, but the 70, and the others that went out in Jesus' name) they were called to heal.
I had always just glanced over this as something that just happened during biblical times, but the passages above, along with what Paul says in his letters about spiritual gifts, one of which is healing.
The other aspects serving, preaching, baptism, etc. are fairly familiar to me so I won't go into much detail with these.
The amazing thing is that I was present when one of my friends here was healed. One of her legs was shorter than the other causing her to have severe back pain that she's had for years. We prayed for healing. Her leg grew, and the pain in her back is gone.
In other news, yesterday (Sunday), we were invited by the pastor of the local church to come over for lunch. It was a really fun time and it was nice to get away from the base. He and his family live in the middle of vineyards, and it makes for a very beautiful countryside.
Here are just a few pictures (the rest are on Facebook)
Enjoy!

The last two weeks.....

Happy November! The month of football, leaves falling, unseasonably cold weather, and American Thanksgiving (I need to clarify this for the Canadians reading this.)
This has to be one of the hardest blog updates I've had to write. I really hate not having the writing spirit, and inspiration (I've been trying to get this up since Friday, whoops!)
 These past two weeks delved into very new territory for me; last week was on Spiritual Warfare, and this week was on the Holy Spirit.
The week on Spiritual Warfare took a look at the different aspects that are involved in fighting.There is a war going on and we need to decide whether or not we will exercise the authority that has been delegated to us. (Matt. 28:18-20) This was the point that really spoke to me, as I don't often act on the authority that I have been given. (Luke 10:17-19)
Last Saturday was a great day. We trekked to the Ardeche region (and by trekked, I mean that we drove), and explored some caves and then visited a Troglodyte village (cave houses). I got some really good pictures, which I've posted to Facebook (some of them are below as well)
This past week was on the Holy Spirit, and was really hard to comprehend at points. I thought it would explore more of who the Holy Spirit was, but it was more along the lines of how the teacher experienced the Spirit which was really confusing. So at this point this has to be my least favorite week , and yet I came out of it feeling refreshed, and feeling like I know God just a little bit better.
It was really fun on Friday because we spent time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to give us a person that we should talk to. (We actually met the person, but didn't know what to say)
The last couple of days, Saturday and today, have been really relaxing and enjoyable. I was able to participate in playing for morning worship for church this morning, and even though I could only understand about half of what was being said, I still enjoyed church today.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff for next time




I took this shot while driving.










And this is from the village we visited.

And this is Frimousse. He was a stray that hung around until we just gave up trying to get rid of him!He's about 5-6 months old, and more like a dog that a cat!

A week (and then some) of reflection and change

So it's been about a week and a half since my last update. The reason for this is that I have been looking through my journal and trying to figure out how to best describe the experiences from the past week. And I've come to the realization that words can't even begin to grasp what happened.
The topic of teaching (if it can be called that) was on intimacy with God. Right at the beginning, it was made very clear that this wouldn't be a week of intellectual learning, but one of spiritual growth, and connecting with God's Spirit (the Holy Spirit).
With this in mind, I had several close encounters that I can't find the words to explain, other than to say that I was brought low, and then I was soaring through the heavens. I had moments of clarity as it related to my life and areas of sin were revealed to me that I didn't know existed.
It was extremely personal, so I won;t go into further detail than that. I will, however, give a summation of how God has worked in my life since I've been here. A softening of my conscience, a sensitizing of my spirit to what God wants in my life, and a humbling of my will to the awesome power of God.
Here is a poem that I wrote, drawing on Song of Solomon 5:2-7, and Psalm 91.

Who should I fear?
You have rescued me!
Why do I cower?
You have raised me up!
I wake from deep sleep.
Listening, I hear a gentle knock,
In the dead of night, I hear.
Who is it? Who comes?
Like the wind, I rush
Rush to the door.
I lift the latch, and pull
The door swings open, wide.
There he stands, the one I long for.
My Salvation, and Redeemer.

God bless you.

A week of worship and humility

Greetings,
Sadly, I have no new photos to post, but I've been compiling some of the pictures taken by my fellow classmates and will be able to upload those this coming week.
Last Sunday, I attempted to go to a local Catholic, but after waiting an hour and nothing happening, I walked back to the house. The good news was that I had a great quiet time (It also was quite fun to longboard to church.)

Like it says in the title, this weeks lectures were on Worship and Praise, and what it means to worship (and it's not just the music you play or listen to).
To start off with, we learned some Greek and Hebrew words that all mean either worship or praise, but there is a physical act that accompanies it. There were seven Hebrew words (which I spelled all wrong) but you can find the words and meanings here, and it will be a lot clearer than I could write it.

This was very important because when I worship I rarely raise my hands, never kneel, and never even thought about falling on my face. And yet this is all part of worship.  (The Hebrew word for worship, Shachah, literally means to bow down.)

This week was also one of the most humbling experiences in my life. I won't go into to much detail, but taking a physical position of vulnerability such as kneeling or lying on your face gives you a very different perspective, and for me at least was transforming. It's not a natural thing, at least in the American mindset to kneel and bow before anyone, as we are all equal. Well, when you enter into the presence of your creator, there's not much else we can do. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it brought me another step closer to understanding God's love and sacrifice for me, and His bigness.

One phrase stuck out and really spoke to my heart. "You have a choice. You can either humble yourself before God willingly, or you will be humiliated before Him on the Day of Judgement." We looked at Philippians 2:10-11 and see a prophecy of what will happen. I found it difficult, physically painful to kneel. How much more so when it will it be for those that don't believe and yet still have to bow. Something to think about.

Finally, in closing, true worship requires sacrifice. Something that you really care about and will miss. Looking at the Passover for example, the Jews were told to take the spotless lamb and care for it. They were then to sacrifice it as atonement for their sins. In 2 Samuel 24:24, David won't sacrifice something that cost him nothing. We clearly don't sacrifice animals anymore today, so what are we to do then. Look to Psalm 51:17, and we see that a broken heart and spirit are what God wants as sacrifice. My pride was getting in the way of being able to worship, but God humbled me and brought me out new.

That's it for this week!

2 Weeks... And counting

Bonsoir!
I've now been here in France for two weeks, but it feels like months. Hard to believe that I have more than two months left, and then another couple months in Senegal!
It has been feeling very New England-ish, weather-wise, with lots of rain and chilly wind. I woke up this morning and the countryside was hidden in fog (sorry, no pictures). Later on, it turned into a gorgeous, southern France type of day. Lots of sun, and a gentle breeze. Made for a good reading environment.
Another week of classes is over, and same as last time, I have come away with a deeper understanding of the nature of God. When I have a small breakthrough, an ah-ha moment, I am filled with so much excitement, I grin like an idiot. The smallest thing can set me off laughing.
The topic covered was a deep one (again). Sin and Repentance. When I heard what the topic of discussion was, I had an uh-oh moment. Many Christians don't like to talk about how ugly our sin truly is, and whenever some talks about it, it can be difficult to swallow.
As I had guessed, it was hard hitting, but it drew every aspect of what makes sin so disgusting to God from Scripture.
We discussed the sacrifices made by the Jews in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. There was a lot of blood required to atone for the sins of Israel, so it should come as no surprise that the perfect sacrifice that would cover the sins of all the world, for all time, would be a nasty, horrible affair.
One of the topics discussed was on Jesus and the Cross. This is defining point for mankind and sin. With a little medical commentary, we broke down the suffering that Jesus likely went through. It was a sobering session. The amount of pain, both emotional and physical, that He suffered for mankind brought some in the class to tears, many others were choked up, myself included.
We covered a vast amount of ground, but the key point to remember is that Christ suffered and died, but He  rose from the grave!!! He conquered over death and gave those who believe in Him the ability to conquer sin in their lives, the sin in my life.
There is just to much for me to tell you all about unless you want to read an essay that I really have no interest in writing. I'll give you the key words, verses, and phrases from this week, in no particular order.
Rom 3:23, Rom. 6:23-24, Sin, Repentance (Matt. 4:17), Conversion, Falling short, Sin's beginning (Gen. 3),   Miss the target, Consequences, Condemnation, Suffering, Sacrifice, Death, Resurrection, Justification, Faith, Strength, 2 Cor. 5:17, Confession, 1 John 1:8-10, Temptation, Titus 2:11-15.
I think that's enough to give you a taste of what I learned this week.
Jouir et que Dieu bénisse.
Bonne nuit