Kia Ora my wonderful friends and family in Christ. My prayers and blessings go out to all of you as you serve Christ in your lives.

Whats been going on?
We are winding down staff training here on the Oxford base and are preparing for the students to come this Friday. It has been a great staff training this year around. The team has bonded very well from the beginning in Auckland at a DTS Workshop. We learned a tremendous amount about leadership and the values behind a YWAM DTS. We came back to Oxford February 12th to continue to learn more on leadership and also prepare for the students arrival. One of my highlights has been picking my small group girls. The process in reading through the profiles and God highlighting the specific girls for my small group is a very special thing for me. I am confident that God is going to do big things through these girls, it brings me so much joy that I get to be a part of their lives, even if it is for a short six months.

Story Time
As part of the Basic Leadership School we need to read two leadership books and write reports on them. I was reading a book called 'Forever Ruined for the Ordinary' by Joy Dawson. It's a wonderful book about Hearing God's voice and the ways He speaks. I was reading this book in our little library at the main house, not really anticipating much to come of this book. As I read the last two chapters God completely swept me off my feet. He was pouring into me revelation after revelation of truth from the words that came from those chapters. My eyes were opened into what it really means to fear God and live in unconditional Obedience. Before I had no idea what it really meant to fear God, the words were empty to me and now God just switched on the lightbulb. He gave me a greater understanding to what it means and how important it is as Christians to apply it to our lives. God also revealed to me what a life of unconditional obedience means to Him and how it is an area that I need to work on and step out in as a leader. God has such perfect timing for my life. Having these revelations at this time is exactly what I need to boost myself into this DTS.

Prayer Requests
~ For healing; I have been sick this last week with a bad cold. I pray that it will be gone before the school officially starts,
~ that I'll be fully prepared (heart, body and mind) for when all the students to come, tomorrow is our official kick off welcome ceremony (aka. Day 1 of 6 months) .

Sincerely,
` Kari Bergmann