His faithfulness is a shield and buckler

A Buckler

He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

– Psalm 91:4

In community group last night we read and discussed Psalm 91. When I came across verse 4 I had no idea what a buckler was. I did some poking around on the internet and this is what I found.

Buckler Uses

• Hand protection: The primary use of the buckler was to protect the sword hand.
• Deflector: The buckler’s lightness and curved center made it excellent for deflecting attacking blades. Such a deflection would leave the attacker open for a rapid counter-attack.
• Blinder: The light blades used in conjunction with the buckler depended on rapid movements, which meant that a single second was an important advantage. The wielder of the buckler could use the buckler to shield his sword-hand’s position from view, keeping his opponent from guessing his next strike.
• “Metal fist“: A buckler can be used to directly attack an opponent by punching with either its flat face or its rim.
• Binder: The buckler can be used to bind an opponent’s sword hand and weapon as well as their buckler against their body. The buckler is also very useful in grappling, where it allows an opponent’s arms to be easily wrapped up and controlled.

In his faithfulness God deflects attacks from us, giving us the ability to quickly counter attack, bind the enemy’s sword hand and deal the fatal blow.  Amazing.

Our Outreach Locations Revealed

Outreach location for me will be either Guyana, Trinidad or St. Lucia

Two weeks has gone by so quickly.  The lessons we had on Biblical overview this week were really insightful and encouraging. My particular favourite was looking at the different names of God revealed in the Bible and their meanings. My highlight is  that God chooses to be known by the name that shows is personal nature over his power name that describes him as the powerful creator God. I found this particularly moving; I had never thought about this in much depth before.

We also found out the possible outreach locations which are Guyana, Trinidad and St Lucia. We have to pray and decide to about a few days ago. I have an idea where I think I should go but am not going to reveal yet. YWAM doesnt like us to tell others so that we dont all decide to go where our friends are going.

Last night was our welcome  pool party which was great fun, dance offs, reggae and salsa music by the pool and plenty of jamaican food.

A few prayer requests:

• My Nan caught a virus when we were in Malaysia and had a numbness in her leg. The numbness has now spread to her arms and when she burnt herself on the stove she did not feel it. The doctors do not know what it is yet. Please pray they will find out what it is and that she will be healed of it.
• My wisdom teeth have been hurting me recently.been told they need to be taken out soon. Pray they dont bother me again until after DTS when they can be removed under surgery. Had a small eye and ear infection too so pray they are sorted and any discomfort will go.
• That I am able to continue to step out of my comfort zones in talking with locals and speaking in churches, helping out in the community and the strength of mind body and spirit to make the most of my time here
• Pray for wisdom so I can make the most of my conversations with others and ‘big up Christ’ ( make him known in Jamaican speak) in my words.

I want to say a big thankyou for all your prayers and for the people who supported me financially. Was incredible my fees for the lecture part of my course all came in on the day I was leaving! Many thanks

Second Week at YWAM Mobay

I feel I’m settling well into life here at YWAM. The atmosphere around the base is uplifting and the team and staff so encouraging. I’m surprise how quickly all of us on the DTS team are getting to know each other and grow closer together. We have a great time discussing the differences in cultures and joking at differences in language and nation. More than once I’ve heard ” Would you like a cup of tea” in a hilariously posh accent. The Jamaican attempt at an english accent is the most humourous as is my attempts at Patwa to them.  ‘Wag Wan’ ‘Me dare’ ”nutting my yout’ Everyting chriss’ ‘this food ja sell off’ is about the extent of it.

As for the staff they are great spiritual mother and father figures and have made us feel welcomed and at home here. Last week was orientation wekk where we were introduced to the foundational values of YWAM and the schedule of classes for the next few months. Monday to friday we have packed days with the weekend offs. YWAM stresses it is not a church and encourages us to be involved in a local church in our time here which I was pleased about. This gives us even more opporunites to be involved in the community and have a great impact in our time before outreach. We will be working alongside local churches and other local projects such as orphanages in a build up to our two month outreach in three months time.

The support we have here is really incredible with small groups for discussions of interesting points raised in classes, questions about anything or any problems we are facing. We also have one to ones for discussing for personal problems.  The schedule is well organised and has base wide worship sessions as well as group sessions, quiet times and slots for time to journal and spend time with God alone. One of the classes which has been great so far is creative worship in which we get opportunities to express worship in a variety of formats, poetry, art, song etc.

I love the passion here for God and the infectious enthusiasm. The worship is always vibrant, colourful and varied. One of the most moving exercises we did last week was to write all our problems, fears and issues in our lives and put them in front of a wooden cross while praying for change and setting fire to the paper list of hinderances. This definitely brought us all closer together.

I knew I would be stretched here (one of the reasons I came) and taken out of my comfort zones. A few days ago I found myself having to lead some singing with djembe when we didnt have a guitarist for one song. I can’t say I’m a good singer but its a start in building more confidence in doing new things. On thursday we fasted, prayed and have a relook at where YWAM as organsation are having problems and also where us as individuals have problems too. I’ve really started to appreciate writing a journal and trying new creative ways of writing and prayers. Today I found out that I find writing a prayer in my journal to be so helpful and something I will do more. This week our classes are on a biblical overview and already in the first day have been really insightful, expanding on so much of the core truths of the Bible and look at a biblical response to many of the lies present in most of our minds in this generation.

Are there errors in the Bible?

Came across this great little post on Tim Challies blog. Definetly worth a read.

Read the full article here