Outreach Prep Week

It was about a month ago when we had a speaker cancel on us last minute, that we decided to plan an entire week to prepare the students for outreach. The idea was to re-arrange the normal schedule, add in new things, and hope it gave them some what of an idea of how outreach is SO different than lecture phase of a DTS. It would challenge them and stretch them... we called the week 'The Gideon Experience'. The idea came from Judges 6 and 7 and just as Gideon's army went from thirty-two thousand to ten thousand, and then from ten thousand to three hundred, we really tried to facilitate an environment and experience that would allow the students to really look in at themselves, and allow God to work in them- to take away things in their life they didn't need.
We started Monday morning off by waking the students up at 5:30am for a prayer walk. They had no idea we were going to do this and to my suprise didn't put up a fight! Throughout the week we did alot of team building, which was muchneeded for our large team! We did personality tests and spiritual gifts test, and learned about left brain/right brain and gaurding your heart. Even I got so much out of the teachings, I think everyone should hear about those topics!
The best part about this week for me was how much i learned about myself. God was able to reveal things through activites and situations and I've been able to really apply things I learned to my daily life, my leadership, and my friendships. I especially benefitted from the teachings on left brain/right brain. I realized that just because my way of thinking is sort of like pulling things from a garage sale instead of a filing cabinet, doesnt mean I am not capable of certain things, and I'm finding that i have a filing cabinet in the back of the garage- its just a matter of finding it sometimes :)
To end the week, we decided to do baptisms. We usually do this once a quarter for students who feel like they've made changes in their life and want to symbolize a new self. Because this week was all about getting rid of the old self, it just seemed like the best timing. It was an amazing thing to be a part of, and I was so honored to be asked by a few of my students if I would be the one to baptize them.
All in all, God did really cool things that week. It gave everyone a little taste of what outreach is like, and they really can't wait to get to Thailand.