Imagine this: You're crammed in the back seat with three other people, in a car going over 100 miles per hour, on a highway full of potholes, in the blazing heat, on less than 4 hours of sleep for the past two days, in a country you know very little about (and what you do know mostly has to do with terrorists), with a man brandishing an AK-47 sitting in the front passenger seat, and the people in charge of your team are in another car, with no way to get in contact with you. That happened on our first full day in Nigeria.
A lot of our trip to Africa - heck, a lot of my past year - was like that car ride: exhilarating, exhausting, uncomfortable, full of uncertainty, and moving way to fast. It was an amazing year, but at this point it all feels like a blur, so it's hard to succinctly summarize. Let me do a rundown of everything I did...
This is something I was praying about all throughout the end of BSN and BSN outreach. I've known I would eventually join staff in YWAM since I started my DTS back in early 2014, but God kept calling me from one school to another.
During my DTS I met a team from YWAM Madison who was on their BSN outreach, and they convinced me I should take that school. Then, during BSN, every teacher or staff member or friend who had participated in the previous BPTN, or even just knew about it, suggested that it would be the perfect school for me. So, I applied and was accepted right before I left for outreach, which left me very little time to even announce that I was going to do it.
During BSN outreach I had talked with one of my outreach leaders about how I was considering staffing the BSN. He highly encouraged me to try it, because it is a great way to develop teaching and leadership skills, as well as solidify the teachings you learn on your BSN (because I'll get to sit through all the teachings again, and even do some of them myself). So, during BPTN, I applied, and a few weeks ago I was accepted to staff!
So, in early April I will be returning to Madison to begin my staff training for the BSN. In the meantime, I am looking for people who will be willing to support my monthly. To start with I'll only need a few hundred dollars a month, but at the end of the lecture phase there will be an outreach (the locations haven't been finalized, but I'll be sure to update everyone as soon as I hear where I might be going), and for that I'll need money for flights and ground fees for another country for a few weeks.
What I'm trying to get at is that I need people who will be committed to supporting me over a long period of time. A lot of people giving a few bucks a month can make a big difference. When I was doing schools with YWAM I usually just needed a one time commitment, but I know this is the start of a career as a missionary. I need to start preparing for the future, and that means finding people who can make a long term commitment to stand by me and help me to accomplish what God has for me.
If you feel a prompting to give, please contact me, either through Facebook or through my email at christopherpaulhickey@yahoo.com. There's multiple ways you can give. You can write me a check, give to my PayPal (which is through the Yahoo email above), or, if you want to give a tax deductible donation, you can give through YWAM Madison's website (just make sure to designate that the donation is for Christopher Hickey).
Even though last year was insane, it was still probably the most fulfilling year of my life. I learned so much about the Bible, about how to study it and how to get the most out of it every time I read it. I learned about missions work, about how to teach and how to preach, and how to give your all in whatever field you're called to. And I learned about myself, about my own strengths and weaknesses, about what I excel at and what I need to work to improve.
I made many amazing friends, from many continents, all of whom I've learned from and who I know will go on to amazing things. I found an amazing girlfriend, who's just as dedicated (actually, probably more so) to missions as I am, and with whom I share many hopes and dreams for how we can change the world together.
We're cute.
2015 was a year that I am sometimes still surprised that I survived, especially with this desire to basically do it over again. There were a lot of times when I was frustrated or scared or overwhelmed, but God continually brought me back to a place of excitement and desire for more.
This year I won't be taking classes or doing homework...I'll be teaching in classes and grading homework. I won't be researching books of the Bible for a homework assignment, but I'll be doing it to impart knowledge on to others. I'm accepting a whole new level of responsibility that I am both excited and terrified by, but I am firm in my belief that this is what God has called me to do, so I will do so faithfully.
Thank you all for walking alongside me throughout 2015, and I hope you will continue to do so with your prayers, encouragement, advice, and financial support.
God's Blessings,
Chris
A lot of our trip to Africa - heck, a lot of my past year - was like that car ride: exhilarating, exhausting, uncomfortable, full of uncertainty, and moving way to fast. It was an amazing year, but at this point it all feels like a blur, so it's hard to succinctly summarize. Let me do a rundown of everything I did...
Here we goooooooo!
I started out the year working at Menards, pushing carts and loading people's purchases into their cars. It was the same job I'd held back in 2013 before my Discipleship Training School (DTS), so I was very comfortable there. However, for much of the winter we were fairly shorthanded. It wasn't until the spring, as I was preparing to leave, that they hired a bunch of new workers. I got to train in a bunch of high school kids on my last week.
Then, at the end of March, I went to Madison, WI to take part in the Bible School for the Nations (BSN) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Over 4 months of biblical study, we read through and discussed the entire Bible. We learned how to study the Word on our own, and we learned how to teach it to others. While there was lots of good fellowship, it was a college-level course, and there were many late nights for all of us where we were reading, writing, or researching for our teachings on the minor prophets or the epistles.
Some of my lovely classmates handing out lemonade for a fundraiser.
We had a picnic one weekend at Devil's Lake State Park, and we did some hiking. I did not participate in this specific activity, I merely documented it.
Nerf wars happened often as a way for us all to decompress after a long day of class time and homework.
Laura had a mini-breakdown while we were going through the laws of Deuteronomy and labeling the purpose of each...and every...one. If you've read Deuteronomy, then you know how mind-numbing that sounds. It was.
At the end of July, we split in to 4 teams and went to various places in Africa. My team went to Nigeria and Tanzania (both the mainland of Tanganyika and the archipelago and Zanzibar, which together make up the nation of Tanzania...fun fact!). It was 7 weeks of almost constant travel, teaching, and preaching, all while roasting in our fancy clothes (Africans are always well dressed people, no matter what the temperature). I'm going to do a whole blog post describing more in depth each segment of the trip (I'll try to remember to come back and link it here), but for now I will just say that it was one of the most difficult experiences of my life...but it was also one of the most rewarding as well.
Arne giving a teaching on Zanzibar.
Amy riding the former governor's pet tortoise at his mansion in Taraba State, Nigeria.
A young Zanzabari girl proudly shows off the crab she just caught on the beach.
A beautiful Tanzanian sunset.
Near the end of the trip, a few of us got to go on a safari in Ngorogoro crater.
The graduating class of the 2015 Madison BSN!
I came home to Minnesota for a grand total of 10 days (8 if you count the 2 days I went BACK to Wisconsin for my best friend's wedding), I was back in Madison for yet another YWAM course, the Biblical Perspectives for Transforming Nations school (BPTN).
It took me over 48 hours to get from Tanzania to my home, and I spent less than 24 hours at home before I left to go back to Wisconsin for this wedding. I was super jet lagged, but I still got to be a designated driver afterwards.
BPTN was the most academically challenging 3 months of my life. The school had a focus on bringing revival to different "spheres of society", but we also had a few weeks on church history to provide context for what the church has looked like over time and what it's supposed to look like. We had many hours of reading each night, discussion questions based on the reading each night, we had to write lesson plans based on something we learned in class that day a couple times a week, and we had an ongoing research project from the beginning of the school to the end, which for me became a 30 page paper on how to get every "sphere" involved in getting jobs for the homeless in Madison.
The BPTN students (minus myself and Glory who presented the day before) presenting their research projects on how to bring about revival in small, specific ways.
P.D. presenting a person or even for our timeline project (one of our MANY projects), in which we each made little synopses of significant church figures or events and made a timeline of all of church history.
Halloween is a big ministry opportunity for YWAM Madison, when "Freak Fest", a city hosted Halloween party, comes to their doorstep. At the Phos House, a YWAM owned building near campus, we handed out thousands of cups of hot chocolate and hot dogs to partiers.
The entire 2015 BPTN graduating class!
The BPTN ended in early January of 2016, and since then I have been home, recuperating from a busy year, attempting to stay active in occasional ministry roles, and preparing for what's shaping up to be an equally busy year...because in April I will be returning to Madison to help staff and teach on the 2016 BSN.
That's right: I'm voluntarily going back...and I can't wait!
This is something I was praying about all throughout the end of BSN and BSN outreach. I've known I would eventually join staff in YWAM since I started my DTS back in early 2014, but God kept calling me from one school to another.
During my DTS I met a team from YWAM Madison who was on their BSN outreach, and they convinced me I should take that school. Then, during BSN, every teacher or staff member or friend who had participated in the previous BPTN, or even just knew about it, suggested that it would be the perfect school for me. So, I applied and was accepted right before I left for outreach, which left me very little time to even announce that I was going to do it.
During BSN outreach I had talked with one of my outreach leaders about how I was considering staffing the BSN. He highly encouraged me to try it, because it is a great way to develop teaching and leadership skills, as well as solidify the teachings you learn on your BSN (because I'll get to sit through all the teachings again, and even do some of them myself). So, during BPTN, I applied, and a few weeks ago I was accepted to staff!
Again, I'm going back to this...
So, in early April I will be returning to Madison to begin my staff training for the BSN. In the meantime, I am looking for people who will be willing to support my monthly. To start with I'll only need a few hundred dollars a month, but at the end of the lecture phase there will be an outreach (the locations haven't been finalized, but I'll be sure to update everyone as soon as I hear where I might be going), and for that I'll need money for flights and ground fees for another country for a few weeks.
What I'm trying to get at is that I need people who will be committed to supporting me over a long period of time. A lot of people giving a few bucks a month can make a big difference. When I was doing schools with YWAM I usually just needed a one time commitment, but I know this is the start of a career as a missionary. I need to start preparing for the future, and that means finding people who can make a long term commitment to stand by me and help me to accomplish what God has for me.
If you feel a prompting to give, please contact me, either through Facebook or through my email at christopherpaulhickey@yahoo.com. There's multiple ways you can give. You can write me a check, give to my PayPal (which is through the Yahoo email above), or, if you want to give a tax deductible donation, you can give through YWAM Madison's website (just make sure to designate that the donation is for Christopher Hickey).
Even though last year was insane, it was still probably the most fulfilling year of my life. I learned so much about the Bible, about how to study it and how to get the most out of it every time I read it. I learned about missions work, about how to teach and how to preach, and how to give your all in whatever field you're called to. And I learned about myself, about my own strengths and weaknesses, about what I excel at and what I need to work to improve.
I made many amazing friends, from many continents, all of whom I've learned from and who I know will go on to amazing things. I found an amazing girlfriend, who's just as dedicated (actually, probably more so) to missions as I am, and with whom I share many hopes and dreams for how we can change the world together.
2015 was a year that I am sometimes still surprised that I survived, especially with this desire to basically do it over again. There were a lot of times when I was frustrated or scared or overwhelmed, but God continually brought me back to a place of excitement and desire for more.
This year I won't be taking classes or doing homework...I'll be teaching in classes and grading homework. I won't be researching books of the Bible for a homework assignment, but I'll be doing it to impart knowledge on to others. I'm accepting a whole new level of responsibility that I am both excited and terrified by, but I am firm in my belief that this is what God has called me to do, so I will do so faithfully.
Thank you all for walking alongside me throughout 2015, and I hope you will continue to do so with your prayers, encouragement, advice, and financial support.
God's Blessings,
Chris
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