I decided to start this blog to keep all of my family members, friends and supporters informed about where I am and what I am doing. I am in a Program called YWAM (youth with a mission) and am doing a DTS (discipleship training school) that is 7 months long. The DTS is art based and is called MOTA (marriage of the arts), where they have a combination of tracks to choose from that are photography, fine art, music, handmade crafts and writing. I am doing the photography art track but am practicing fine art as well. The first three months are at a base in Herrnhut, Germany where we will be learning about our art track. The next three months are in a third world country to help people and spread the word about Jesus. The last month will be back at the base in germany to debrief, compile photos and make prints.
The journey overseas was pretty intense, it was pretty surreal when I was on a plane from Amsterdam to Berlin and all of the plane announcements were in another language. It was tough being the foreigner, well it still is. The money is so colorful it doesn’t seem real. but it definitely is. I love the snow here, it is pretty awesome and I have always wanted to experience a snowy winter. I think I am adjusting pretty well and the Redbulls are only a euro here!!!
IF you have read this far you might be wondering what made me decide to do a DTS. Well I had never considered the idea until about 5 or 6 months ago. I had a few friends from church who have done Ywam, But even then it didn’t interest me very much until I met a friend that could not stop talking about her time at the Kona base and the more she shared the bigger my interest grew. Then one day I was trying to make a plan for the future or just a direction to work towards. I started thinking of the different places I could move and what cool things I could do to my car, But I could feel my heart leaning towards YWAM. At first I thought, No that can’t be it, but the feeling just kept getter stronger and I realized I had been ignoring God far to long and committed to doing Ywam.
It has only been a week and I have already learned so much here about God, myself and the arts. It is almost too much to put on here but don’t worry because I will be updating continuously.
If you have any questions/comments or just want to keep in touch feel free to leave comments or contact me via email: thomasjaykeil@googlemail.com
