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A chronicle of my experiences on the 2008 YWAM Perm DTS.

January 11, 2008!

Today is my second day in Perm. I arrived with my teammate and traveling companion Amy at the base early yesterday morning after a grueling 26 hours of travel. Others of our fellow students have continued to arrive since then, and we are all in the process of settling in at our new home and getting acquainted with the many others who live and work at the base.

No sooner were had we arrived and taken a rest than we were put to work. Amy and I found ourselves scrubbing the walls of the kitchen in the afternoon of the day we arrived, and today a group of DTS students–American and Russian–and base staff spent part of the day walking around Perm and delivering flyers about an upcoming children’s outreach event at the base. We have also been drafted to help with some remodeling projects around the base in the remaining time before the official start of the school. But nobody seems to mind. We are here to learn and to serve, and being immediately invited into the ongoing work of the base seems a natural part of our welcome.

I am quickly becoming comfortable in the environment of the base, but the Russian climate is another matter. The shock of adjusting to below-zero weather for my Southern-Californian self has confirmed by belief in God’s sense of irony. When I arrived in Perm the temperature was -23 degrees Fahrenheit, and it has not increased noticeably since then. For the first time I have experiencing the sensation of ice forming on my eyelashes and even inside my nose. However, I am rapidly learning how to layer for warmth, and I thank the Lord daily for my winter boots and coat!

(The Russians, of course, are unfazed by these conditions, and this evening some of them even organized a snowball fight outside the base.)

The official start of the DTS is in two days, on the thirteenth of January, and as that time approaches I am increasingly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this adventure and of this group of people. Every new piece of information I hear about what we will be doing in the next six months strengthens my conviction that the Lord is going to use this experience to deepen and greatly mature my faith as we work for the expansion of His kingdom. I know He has brought me to this specific place, at this moment in time, for a very specific purpose.

And at that I can only marvel, and give Him glory.