United with Dan on a Mission

3.2 From a snowball to a mighty avalanche

I downloaded the application package for YWAM Seamill and immediately encountered the first hurdle: I need 3 references… a church leader (I hadn’t been to church in a long time); an employer or teacher reference (had no prior employers and being an online student meant that none of my lecturers really ‘knew’ me); a reference from a friend (studying from home for three years didn’t help me meet new people, and most friends from school had faded away…)  Considering the awkwardness of the first hurdle, I decided to give into my youngest brother’s (Benjamin) demands to go to Church with him. (This led to another chain of events that I will discuss in the next chapter.) After attending a number of services at the Worcester United Church, I approached the pastor (Mario van Zyl) to test the waters, and before I knew it, he had offered to give me the first reference if needed. Then one day all out of the blue, while agonizing over who I could ask for a friend reference, an old friend from school (Tyler) decided to drop by, as if sent to me for that purpose. So I got the second reference. I was still racking my brain in regards to the third / ‘teacher reference’, when I bumped into an old teacher in the mall. He mentioned to me that Mr. Frohlich (one of my favourite teachers) had retired. Immediately I knew that I should contact him and politely request a reference from him if he was willing. He was, and so I got the final reference that I required, easier than I had anticipated.

Shortly afterwards, I went with Benjamin to a Thursday-evening praise and worship meeting at YWAM. There I bumped into Pastor Folla, who had been a regular figure in my life, as he ministered at various schools in our town, that I had attended. He was a real blessing to my family and held a special place in our hearts. When I told him about my plans to apply to do a DTS in Scotland, he became so emotional – the joy was overflowing out from him! He told me how much joy it brought him and how blessed he was to be able to see the seeds sown, planted and continually tended over many years, grow into fruit, the way I had. The joy overflowing from him was contagious and crept into me too. It was such just such an amazing experience! He also offered to act as a reference for me if I needed one, either as a pastor or as a friend!

It was so inspiring to realise: “Wow God! These references which I saw as such a big obstacle were smashed with such ease! There was no reason for me to worry!” I thanked Him for putting Pastor Folla in our lives! Then another realisation followed: ‘God had led Pastor Folla, Mr. Frohlich, Pastor Mario and Tyler, each one within their own situation, into my life so many years ago already, to lay the foundations for things like these references.’ It was just an awesome glimpse of the sheer depth and magnitude of God’s plans and how He works things out. The realisation of how the same is true for everyone, made me so incredibly grateful for all the people and relationships I had in my life. I had just experienced an amazing display of God’s power and authority and reassurance: ‘If God is at the helm, you’ve got nothing to worry about!’

While the ‘reference story’ was playing out, Nathan returned from outreach and soon completed his DTS. He invited Ryan over, and I had the experience / encounter with God through Ryan, (written about in my first log: Chapter 1: New Beginnings) which finally saw conclusive results, answers to the question and elimination of all doubt regarding: ‘Is God really real?’ and the opinion that: ‘If He is real, surely I am too insignificant for him to be concerned about.’

The next obstacle was police clearance. ‘Why the flip does a good law abiding citizen like me need a police clearance?’ was my first thought. Then I learned that despite living in the age of modern technology, instead of just checking a computer system or something, all the necessary documents regarding my non-existent criminal record needed to posted to and from HQ via ‘slow-mail’, meaning that it would  probably take up to 3 months to get. This seamed really problematic as my application needed to go in. Waiting for the police clearance would take way too long. I decided to send in my application in the meantime, promising to forward the police clearance as soon as I got it. It did not take long to get a reply from Seamill saying:

We have had the chance to prayerfully go through your application for the September DTS and wanted to share with you what we have felt. We had a very positive sense as we prayed through your application and we have been asking the Father what he had for you this coming season.  We really sensed that there is an open door for you to come join us and that there are some riches for you here if you are to come.  We also had a real sense that there are some great keys that the Trinity will release to you during your time here. Unfortunately, it is not possible for you to only do the lecture phase with us…

I was overjoyed! I was really anxious about what the verdict would be, especially having prayed about it the way I did when I first decided to apply. In my application I had stated that I intended to only do the lecture phase (probably September – December) because I wanted to do honours at university the following year – the DTS was just ‘a little something’ to do in between. But in the context of the prayer prior to applying, regarding the acceptance, the fact that they prayed about it too, and felt those things… it was a no-brainer for me. God wants me there, I am going, and I will do the outreach, even though it will cost more. If God wants me there, He will work it all out, just as He already has with so many other things! Soon afterwards, the police clearance came back; I received my ‘letter of acceptance’ from Seamill and started the procedure of applying for a Visa.  Can it really be…?

Somebody dropped a seed on a slope, it started to slide down taking some of the snow with it, and before long it turned into a mighty avalanche!