Sustainability
I was reading Patrick Dodson's blog about sustainability which sparked some of my own thoughts.
I have thought that this moving short term mentality, project based life that we have been taught, modeled in YWAM is not good for us. I was taught that privates in an army make decisions based on how they see the future a month or two ahead. However Generals make decisions based on they see the future 50 years from now. During my time on DTS staff I thought that I was a private only being able to think a few months ahead. When I finished staffing seven DTSs and went on to other things in YWAM I was shocked to find that I was thinking many years into the future.
I have been wondering for years now ""what are we teaching students when we set up outreaches to move to three or four different locations over the two months of their outreach." I think we teach students more by the way we do things than by what we say.
I heard a guy saying that we need to live in a way so that we live in a way. We have lived in a way in YWAM. That way has been program after program then on to the next school. Country after different country and then on to a zone. Relationship built, relationship long distance on to new relationship. The roots are not deep. I lived in LA for ten years and my roots there are not deep at all, I'm sad to say. However that was the way it was modeled to me.
I really want us to live in a way that new students join. They join our rhythm of life and not the other way around. When a child is born into a family that child joins the life of that family. I see a lot of families these days that the new child sets a new tone or new rhythm from day one. The new parents change totally the way they live because of the needs of the new baby. It seems that the new baby dictates the way the family lives. The rhythm is now around the demand feeding, the nappy changing of this one month old child.
I believe this is what happens with DTSs in a lot of cases. We go out into the streets because the students are here. We put on our outreach mindsets because we are on outreach with the DTS.
We are not long termers we are still short-termers we just happen to live here.
I have thought that this moving short term mentality, project based life that we have been taught, modeled in YWAM is not good for us. I was taught that privates in an army make decisions based on how they see the future a month or two ahead. However Generals make decisions based on they see the future 50 years from now. During my time on DTS staff I thought that I was a private only being able to think a few months ahead. When I finished staffing seven DTSs and went on to other things in YWAM I was shocked to find that I was thinking many years into the future.
I have been wondering for years now ""what are we teaching students when we set up outreaches to move to three or four different locations over the two months of their outreach." I think we teach students more by the way we do things than by what we say.
I heard a guy saying that we need to live in a way so that we live in a way. We have lived in a way in YWAM. That way has been program after program then on to the next school. Country after different country and then on to a zone. Relationship built, relationship long distance on to new relationship. The roots are not deep. I lived in LA for ten years and my roots there are not deep at all, I'm sad to say. However that was the way it was modeled to me.
I really want us to live in a way that new students join. They join our rhythm of life and not the other way around. When a child is born into a family that child joins the life of that family. I see a lot of families these days that the new child sets a new tone or new rhythm from day one. The new parents change totally the way they live because of the needs of the new baby. It seems that the new baby dictates the way the family lives. The rhythm is now around the demand feeding, the nappy changing of this one month old child.
I believe this is what happens with DTSs in a lot of cases. We go out into the streets because the students are here. We put on our outreach mindsets because we are on outreach with the DTS.
We are not long termers we are still short-termers we just happen to live here.
posted by kiwiupover | 4:45 PM
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