...and when the sun rises, I see His faithfullness...

...a blog...well there's a first time for everything...I am not known for being savy with technology...newsletters on paper are almost a thing of the past...when you work in an organization called Youth With A Mission...you quickly learn how sometimes 'old' you feel because you still know what a CD and a hand written letter are.  However, this is my effort to try the new fangled thing of blogging....care to stumble through it with me?
    
I slept in this morning after finishing the last Niko (www.ywamsalem.org/niko) of the season.  I woke up to rain and a stiff breeze against the window pane...Fall seems to have arrived.  It held off during our last Niko for which I am grateful.  So, in the midst of doing my laundry and re-organizing my gear from a Niko pack to a search and rescue pack, I have been reflecting on this past Niko season.  'A Niko Season' refers to more than the individual weeks I am out in the woods....there is always so much more to how God moves in us when it comes to Him speaking into our lives.....seasons are just that....a time for everything He wants to both begin and finish within us.  He is, after all, the Author and Finisher of our faith.


So, I'll start with the beginning.  Last summer I was challenged with not getting discouraged.  We had scheduled 5 Nikos and seen only 2 come to completion and the others canceled due to a lack of participants.  In the natural it seemed that no matter how hard I tried I didn't understand what God was doing where the program was concerned.  I felt I was to pray for 6 Nikos and we ended up with 2.  God showed me that what He wanted to accomplish was not about the program, but rather the change and growth in myself and in the investment of my summer interns and staff as leaders.....He spoke that He didn't need a leadership training program to teach leadership...by the end of the summer I 'saw' and understood what He had been doing and it was both humbling and beautiful!  And...He even blessed us with 2 Nikos anyway!

In December of last year, God and I were conversing about Niko Season 2011 and where I felt He wanted to take the program....I'll be honest, it kinda scared me and excited me all at the same time.  I felt we were to run the program no matter the number of participants on a Niko and no matter how SMALL, He would go BIG.   You know that doesn't seem like a big deal....unless you look at numbers and realize that you need 15 participants to run a Niko and keep it in the black, plus you need 8 staff to do that and I was the only one bumping around the office in the winter.  However, black is just a color in God's pallet of all the other colors...actually if I remember right I think black is the presence of all colors...He's amazing that way...and well, staff that's no big deal to God!  So, gritting my teeth, asking for prayer, crying, feeling frustrated and finally giving up (which would have made the whole process simpler in the first place) I let go and jumped in with both feet.  Then I waited and waited....and well by this time it was getting into spring and no Nikos on the schedule and no staff who felt they were to commit to the summer season.  Well, I felt God had said He had it covered, but you know sometimes I just have this thing that pops up it's ugly head called 'performance and responsibility' and I needed to solve it!  Let's just keep it short...God and I did some more wrestling over scheduling Nikos, where were the staff going to come from, etc. and as usual...He won!


So, to the end of the story.  The first Niko was scheduled for the end of June, a late start for a Niko season, a group from my hometown of Grants Pass Oregon, led by one of my students from when I was a teacher.  Josh had done a Niko during his high school years and wanted the students in the Youth for Christ group that he led to experience the life changing impact that Niko had on him.  We had 7 participants....remember I said you need 15 to run a Niko?  Well, God doesn't need numbers, He needs availability and He fills in the holes...so we managed to add a couple more people and ran the Niko with 9 participants.  It went well and it was so refreshing to watch Josh with the students.  I was so blessed to see how God was using a young man I had watched from 7th grade to the man God had made him to be minister into the lives of others.  By this time, God had provided our Niko team with 2 interns and long-term Niko staff who were committed to helping with Niko for the season.  I was still praying for staff in whom I could invest for the main roles on a Niko of directing, leading and teaching....roles that take more than just a few Nikos to train and a much bigger commitment.

During the next month, we saw three more Nikos scheduled...all for August and September....what to do with interns for the month of July?  Internships with Niko are not just about learning the program, but challenging to look beyond the immediate to what other ways God wants to teach.  So, the interns spent their days not only prepping the gear and location of the Niko program, to lead, teach, etc, but also worked on the Salem Ropes Challenge course (www.ywamsalem.org/ropes) learning about facilitating groups through the course.  The time commitment is not only about learning how to actually run the elements on the course and the skills used to do it safely, but also how to process with the clients from all walks of life and to be the person in charge of set up and running the ropes team for the day.  It is some ways like drinking from a fire hydrant, but the result brings a well rounded learning experience to the interns that gives them great tools for their own leadership development.

 In August we ran a Niko for a Korean church from Seattle Washington.  We had 12 participants, but they blessed us with covering the cost of 15 participants.  We saw young ladies make decisions about their walk with the Lord!  It was awesome.  On this Niko I also was able to begin the process of seeing God's promise of more staff learning the long term roles of directing, leading and teaching on the Niko.  A process that takes doing these roles multiple times to be considered ready to do the without supervision.  How amazing that God had scheduled 3 Nikos so that this process could begin.  In September, I saw another break through I had been praying for.  At the Salem base it is difficult for our staff to be able to find the time to participate in a Niko and I really wanted to see how we as a Niko program could be a part of helping to develop leadership within the staff.  The staff wear so many hats and keeping schools and ministries running takes not only the season the school runs, but also the promotion and preparation for those schools....summer is especially busy.  Also, rotating support raising, continued education/training and vacation times, means there is little time left in the year....this September the Fall Discipleship Training staff scheduled a Niko with us.  The combination of staff that had committed to running the school had never had the opportunity to work together before and the school leader decided to have them participate in a Niko as a team building opportunity.  There were 7 of them....so, Samuel and the Niko staff began praying for more participants.  We ran the Niko with 16 people!  It was an amazing time!  The last Niko was with a group of Corvallis Oregon.  We had 12 participants and saw them really dive into all the challenges.  They are in a six month discipleship program with their church affiliation and will be heading overseas to do an outreach at the end of their lecture phase.  In hearing what God had given them during the Niko, lives were changed!  

So, this morning I sit and ponder. On Niko, the staff are often up before dawn breaks (probably the only time that happens for most of us) and the last morning of Niko was the same.  As I stood by the pond and watched the sun rise I was reminded of God's faithfulness.  All summer it was reflected through nature (the growth of a tree, sunrise every day), through praying with groups leaders and with my team, hearing the testimonies of participants and staff, and declaring out loud many times the choice to 'let go and let God' then seeing Him show Me once again His character.

Thank you to all of you who pray, support, encourage, and love along beside me.  I know you give to the Lord and I am so blessed to have a part in that.  A couple of weeks ago we had a staff conference at our base and the theme was Intimacy.  We talked about what it means to be 'working lovers and not loving workers' for God.  A quote stood out to me...."When we are relationally oriented first, we do not work in ministry because of a need to feel successful.  We already feel successful because of our relationship with Jesus.  Instead we launch out and do the work of the Great Commission from a foundation of success.  This sense of success equips us to continue working even when we face adversity.  But if we work because we are trying to achieve success, we will burn out quickly through added temptation and strife.  Lovers will always serve more willingly, easily and tirelessly than workers ever do."  from "The Pleasures of Loving God" by Mike Bickle, copyright 2000, Published by Creation House  Thank you for being 'working lovers'.

Blessings,
Rhoda Scherrer