Our first week's topic was simply Justice, our speaker was Phil Cunningham from the United States (no relation to Loren and Darlene for those familiar with YWAM). We also had Erin Lucas (Wife of Jay the leader of YWAM NZ) come to speak to us about hearing the voice of God. She came for the first 2 days which made this first week totally overwhelming. Because we are a Justice DTS we cram 5 days of lectures into 4 so that we have a day to cover a justice topic. But with Erin coming as well we crammed 6 extra hours into our first 2 days (It ended up being probably about 4 hours in the end). Our first week schedule was thus off the chain and totally different to the following weeks.
Each week we have to complete a journal from the previous week. This includes information on lectures, our understanding of Justice (mostly covering our friday lecture) and engage. Engage is a small project we have to do each week with getting involved with the people here in Auckland. The idea is that we do small things out of love for the people that we can also apply when we return to our normal communities back home.
Erin told us a lot of stories about her journey thus far. I learnt a lot about hearing the voice of God from "Is that really you, God" by Loren Cunningham last year. I guess that book is what really fueled my interest in YWAM although I did ignore it at that time. She covered a lot of similar things that are covered in the book but it was good to have it applied from a person and to really reinforce what I learnt from the book.
Phil spoke a lot on many different Justice issues. He did a lot of unpacking of ideas related to justice such as:
- Refugees
- Trafficking
- Female Genital Mutilation
- HIV/AIDS
- Child Prostitution
- Domestic Violence
- Child Soldiers
- Abortion
- Starvation
- Rape
- Slavery
- Poverty
We looked quite a lot into Human Trafficking. The majority of Human Trafficking occurs for the sex industry. Girls are sold, abducted and tricked and sent overseas where they are forced to work in brothels. They cannot run to police because in some countries they are bribed by the brothel owners or because they are in a foreign country without real papers.
There are many parties involved in the process and it is a big business there is a lot of money in it. To stop this market running you can take out the traffickers but they will be replaced. You can't really remove all the girls. But if the man who buys this service doesn't then there is no market to be funded (Generally it is girls sold and men buying)
Along with our lectures we have worship and intercession times. This week Richard one of our staff covered an introduction to intimacy. He covered a few different types of prayers. One of which is Petition, where we ask God about our own needs. Intercession is petitioning for someone else. We are standing between them and God or between them and the enemy.
Here is something I write about the week in my actual first week:
It is now the end of the 3rd day and it has been totally awesome and intense. We have 5 hours of lectures on Monday and Tuesday because that was the only time the speaker was available. Thankfully that’s the end of it.
I have learnt a lot of the past couple of days. It became aware to me that there is child prostitution in New Zealand which I never thought of. We are living on the intersection of K road and Queen Street. K road is an infamous street in Auckland for prostitution. I have been out with some friends to see where we are really living and my heart breaks for these people. On the corner every night is a sign advertising new escorts. It seems to be really thriving in Auckland.
Today we had the “Amazing Prayer Race” and it truly was amazing. The idea was an orientation around the city whilst engaging with the 7 sectors of the world.
First we went to an organisation called ECPAT who work against child prostitution and trafficking. Although the woman was new to the organisation she was very kind and helpful to us. She also set us up with people that do know a bit more.
Then we went to an Auckland music store and listened to some alternative kiwi music and investigated the “P” culture. Then we went for a visit to a marae although some event seemed to be going on and we didn’t get to go inside.
We then headed over the Grafton bridge to the Auckland Museum to study some more Maori culture. On the way there we went through some Gardens which were much enjoyed by the foreigners in our group. It was a really good visit and much different to Te Papa in the way of different displays. We had prayer points to pray between Maori and NZ European.
After that we went to Starship hospital and we were to try find a patient to pray for. We went a bit back and forwards and were told we needed management approval to visit a patient. Eventually we did end up praying for a child who had been in and out for 4.5 years since she as 6 weeks old. Her mother was very open to letting us pray for her daughter and was really thankful.
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