We gots wheels, folks! Finally, after a few months of searching and waiting, we’ve finally been able to procure an automobile with the funds from the sale of Renee’s car in Pennsylvania this past winter, sitting there in the bank, waiting to be used. This purchase was necessary, as YWAM Closkelt is located 8-10 miles from the nearest towns (and thus the nearest grocers), and we’ve been depending on the good graces of friends who’ve let us use their vehicles over the past months when we’ve absolutely needed to go to town.

Finally, right before we left for Holland, a trusted mechanic associate contacted us with a great deal on this decent car, and we knew it was right to accept; we then just had to wait for some tests and money transfers. Thank you, Jesus!

A number of weeks have passed since we’ve sent out an update email; however, we hope you’ve been checking out the blog at www.nakedicame.com, where we’ve tried to be faithful in posting blurbs about our ongoings regularly (usually about once every five to ten days). If you have an feed reader, our the blog’s RSS feed is available via feed://nakedicame.com/?feed=rss2. Subscribe today!

This relatively quiet weekend springs up in the midst of quite a bustle in our community’s schedules. The DTS that started in January is about half way through its lecture phase right now, and has just returned this Friday from a week in Belfast working in the city with our sister base. About a week and a half ago, the outreaches from the October DTS returned to debrief and graduate, and by today, most of those students have left to go wherever they’re going next. The times that our DTSs overlap (in this case, two consecutive weekends) is usually somewhat of a hectic and strange time, marrying combinations of goodbyes and greetings and nice-to-see-you-again-s.

As for us, we’re doing quite well. Mikael will be leading the DTS starting in September, so he has put a lot of work towards that over the past week, reviewing applications and getting ready to book in lecturers, etc. Renee, who has been quite deeply involved in the spiritual leadership of the current DTS, as well as the pastoring of the DTS staff, had the opportunity to take some extra time last week while the school was in Belfast to draw up plans for a more formalized programme of DTS staff training for the coming schools. The work is good and has kept us busy.

We’ve also started to be involved more over the last month on a leadership level at the base and within YWAM Northern Ireland. Just over a week ago, we went with others from the leadership team in Closkelt to join leaders from Belfast and YWAM Ireland in Dublin for a time of prayer and discussion as to our joint future. We all understand that God is opening up the opportunity for us to be more involved in other parts of the Island, so we are considering the possibility of a mobile DTS for sometime next year that would give the vision somewhat of a start. The school might spend a couple weeks of its lecture phase in several different possible pioneering locations around Ireland and Northern Ireland.

This coming Tuesday, Renee will be traveling to Amsterdam to meet with some of the other prayer warriors of YWAM in Western Europe for an event called Prayer Shield. They will be meeting to spend some extensive time in prayer interceding for YWAM, YWAMers, and YWAM ministries, as well as for an event starting a week from now called the Western European Leadership Consultation (WELC). Saturday, Mikael and some of the other young leaders from YWAM NI will join Renee in Amsterdam, then travel two hours north by train for the WELC. The WELC will be a gathering of about 200 leaders from YWAM in Western Europe, mostly young ones, to map a path for YWAM in the future. For more info, read about it on our blog; we won’t take up precious email space to describe it in length.

In other news, we’ll probably have a car sometime in early April. Praise God! I must remind you we are about 10 miles from the nearest town when in Closkelt, and we’ve been borrowing someone else’s car to go grocery shopping. Last week, we got a call from a trusted mechanic regarding a car he has for sale at a good price, and we went and saw it yesterday. Looks good!

Furthermore, regarding prayer, please petition the Lord to bless us with DTS staff for the Fall DTS. At the moment, Mikael does not have any confirmed staff. However, this isn’t particularly out of the ordinary at this point, and Mikael is hard at work trying to recruit more to the cause. We would love to have eight staff for the school, four full-time and four part-time, the latter being prepared and trained to staff full-time on upcoming DTSs or the mobile DTS. And we’re faithful God will provide the right amount and, more importantly, the right individuals to form the right team.

Thanks for all your prayers and support so far. We’re grateful to have such a wide, diverse community surrounding us with their encouragement and sacrifice.

In His Peace,

Mikael & Renee Kristiansen

Ministry
• Pray for Jessica and her DTS staff (Sharayah, Cheryl, & Francis), cohesiveness, inspired leadership for Jessica, good staff training for next week.
• Pray for Mikael & Renee in their role in DTS supervision, for vision.
• Pray that God brings staff for future DTSs, for good recruitment.
• Recently, we’ve been updating ourselves with YWAM Northern Ireland’s new, formalized Child Protection Policy, and also sitting through hours of DVD seminars by Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) for training in properly doing ministry with children (also in respect to UK law). We now require police criminal history checks from all our staff and students. In obtaining ones from the US, we realize that the procedure and names vary by state and often county. Please pray that we’re able to navigate that process and receive our histories so that we’re released to work with children when necessary.

Home
• Pray for a car. We’ve been blessed with funds for a car, but we’re still looking for one within our budget that’s also reliable. We have a trusted local mechanic helping in the search. A car is necessary because the nearest town is about 10 miles away, and we are no longer on the base meal plan, so we need to do our own shopping.
• Flat renovation. We hope to continue to paint, patch, and replace carpet, etc.
• Pray for good appliances. We’re fortunate to have some stuff passed down to us, but we’re looking to replace a few things which are either half-working and dangerous (our gas cooker/stove) or too small (our mini-fridge). The trouble is also finding a way to pick up any used items we might buy from individuals through the classifieds.
• Please help us pray for the YWAM Closkelt base. Much help is needed in raising funds to renovate a structure sagging with band-aids. Pray for professionals to help us: architects, tilers, roofers, carpet layers, carpenters, etc. We can’t do everything ourselves and run the different ministries. We’re trusting God for the right people…