Hope you enjoy this March and April update! Thanks for being a part of our ministry! It has been a crazy busy time here in the DR with the end of DTS lecture phase that Ned and Debbie are both staffing, Hannah and Jesse staffing NIKO camp in Santiago, Debbie going to Haiti and being sick, and Ned attending his high school football reunion. We are also having major electricity and internet issues. Internet is very intermittent when we do have electricity and we have had major changes to our electricity supply in the past 3 weeks with 4 to 6 hour blackouts a day for most days. These things have led to a delay in getting out our monthly newsletter! Sorry for the delay but thanks for being a part of this adventure! | | | | Bible reading and journaling are two of the things that the staff and the campers do during NIKO camp. I love this picture of Hannah and Caleb (a friend and YWAM staff kid from St. Marc, Haiti) sitting together during quiet time with Jesse in the background.
During this NIKO camp God spoke to Hannah through 1 Peter 4:10, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others; as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." She came home and told us that she wanted to do her Discipleship Training School and then get some medical training because, "I feel like God gives us the knowledge and ability to do things so that we can help others." Hannah will graduate in June and is looking at attending the DTS in Mendocino, California in September. Please pray for her as she needs to raise about $6000 for this. | | |  | Jesse enjoying a team building activity during NIKO camp in Santiago.
Not just the campers but also the staff learn more about themselves and how to lead as they go to this week of camp. We love seeing the positive changes that come each time the kids participate in NIKO. | | | CUBA!
Jesse and Debbie have the opportunity to lead a scouting trip for future teams to go to Cuba. They will be going with some of the current DTS students when they arrive back from Haiti. This trip will be May 21st to the 29th. Would you please pray and consider giving towards the $2000 they need in order to make this a reality.
Please pray as they travel to a once closed communist country that is just beginning to open up to the outside world after many years. | | | | | |
World Changers It is such a pleasure to help staff this Discipleship Training School with this crew. They are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the needs of the students and this helps them to serve the students well. Making disciples for Christ is so important and helping to shape world changers is such a privilege. | | | | | Championing Young People is one of my favorite values of Youth With a Mission. Young people are our future and we need to pour into them and help them to see their value and worth. One of the ways, we do this is by helping them to be involved with things. We have worked hard to be a family in missions not just Dad and Mom in missions dragging the offspring along. This means that we look for ways that our kids can be involved in ministry also. Hannah and Jesse will be staffing the upcoming NIKO camp in Santiago the last week of March. Please pray for them and the campers that they will serve as they all strive to find their value and purposes that God has for them. | | | | | |
Blessings~
Debbie
Check out: Walker5forGod.com
Snow fun in the states! This picture kind of sums up our stateside trip. USA flag frozen stiff in the wind and snow. The kids loved seeing snow for the first time and getting to play in it. Too bad it wasn't enough to go sledding or skiing but that will have to be a different time. We do miss the cold weather. That is something that I never thought I would say! haha
We really enjoyed seeing so many of you but are so sad that we didn't get to see or spend as much time with so many others. It was a long trip in some ways and very short in others. I guess that is what always happens. Lesson learned from our trip...we are loved! We often feel very alone here on the field. We miss friends and family more than anything else and we often feel forgotten. However, we are not. Thanks for your hospitality, your hugs, your love, your blessings... we had a great time and miss you all already!
Come visit sometime! If you are interested in coming on a trip, please email me at Dwalker.ywam@gmail.com | | | | | Matthew 16:20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."
We know this scripture and we know that these games and puzzles that the termites ate are just things. They are not even treasures but they do remind us of home and thus they were hard to see destroyed. One day we will be dust like these games. Gone from this world but if we have hope in the Lord we will live eternally with the rest of our "treasures". That is what this life is all about...storing up the right kind of treasures!
But yes, it was super hard to find our games that remind us and attach us to home destroyed. That is the reality of life sometimes. Letting go of one so we can store up what really matters. | | |  | DTS 2016
A Discipleship Training School is the introductory school for Youth With A Mission. All full-time YWAMers have taken this school. It is about hearing and knowing God and his voice and his plan for our individual lives. It is a great honor to help staff a new DTS school here at YWAM Azua. Ned and I are serving in a support role to not just the students but also the staff. Please join us in prayer for our 11 students and staff! The lecture phase runs until mid April and then outreach will run until June. Some of them still need funds for both phases.
| | | Thanks for your support!
Please pray about supporting us in 2016. We have a few needs in addition to our normal expenses. | | | | | | |
What are the Walkers doing right now?
We are moving!!
The last week of August, our family will be moving long-term to Santiago, Dominican Republic. We will be working with YWAM Santiago and the Martin Family! We are super excited about this transition. But also praying for wisdom as we figure out visa's, residency, what to do with our things, etc...
As always, we are praying that the Lord will use us wherever we are!
Lord, help us not to miss the things you have prepared for us to do!
