Opening day of our YWAM Discipleship Training School 2013 came and went.  June 6-7 we welcomed 28 students to the training center, 10 of which are families with a total of 30 something children.  Then Saturday June 8, we welcomed around 100 friends and families, missionaries and pastors for our Grand Opening  See the picture above.  It was a time of rejoicing in the Lord for the students He has brought and a time of asking His blessing over the next 5 months together.

Then we had our first week of orientation....giving the students a tour of Lichinga, doing team building games, having fun together, doing the first work duty jobs together, getting the kitchen organized and running to feed 70 people, the guys spent all day one day going 30 kilometers away into the bush to chop firewood and filled a huge truck full and a myriad of other details. 

We as a family made the BIG move to 2 LITTLE rooms last Sunday.  I said I felt like a turtle or snail...most of our family sat up in the front of the Land Cruiser with all our belongings piled up in the car behind us.  There was a lot of excitement!  The girls have made some new good friends, especially 2 sisters named Vanessa and Suzana.  The training base was humming!

So much humming, that our little Joshua found it impossible to rest and what began as a viral infection developed into major mouth ulcers all over his lips and tongue.  He went from bad to worse, his lips swelling and he was only able to swallow liquids, and that with much forcing from me and screaming. 

Thursday morning we woke up and our socialite Victoria couldn't even get out of bed.  She was exhausted too.  So the children and I went home to our house and spent the last 4 days resting.  Thursday, Victoria and Joshua both spent about 4 hours in bed.  Thankfully, Joshua is on the mend now, eating better and he has his spunky joyful energy back.

So we are headed back to sleep at the base again tonight.  I plan to return with the children 3 mornings a week to do school and to give them a rest from all the activity at the base.

All this to say, the first week with its battles and rushing and welcomings is behind us.  We praise God for the good group of eager students that we have!  And we are so THANKFUL for the staff that has worked tirelessly, each in their own area and own way to make this school happen.

And THANK YOU for your prayers!  We could still use a few more PRAYER PARTNERS for students.  Email us at victorlorifamily@gmail.com if you are interested in participating in this way.

Now we head into the first week of classes, this week's topic being WORLDVIEW.  What is a Biblical worldview?  How does that compare to our worldviews?  Pray for the students to begin to see things in a whole new way -- God's way and be open to change from His Spirit!

More later.  Time to load up the Land Cruiser again.