Matt Short

WOOOOOHOOOO!!! I figured out how to post pics on my blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night was a crucial night for the school and I feel its important for me to share it with you. To give you some background, the school is in its third week of lectures and we as staff have felt the enemy’s attack, withholding the students from receiving all that the Lord has for them the past two weeks. We feel like it’s been very difficult for many of them to engage, to hear God’s voice, and act on it. And last night I was sick of it! I wanted nothing to do with it. My spirit was raging within me and my heart was burning within me, longing to see the Holy Spirit move.

Now as we would any Wednesday night we entered into worship last night around 7:30pm. But this night my heart rate was up, as was my blood pressure probably and I couldn’t stop shaking. Not rediculously or convulsing or anything but I just shook uncontrolably with anticipation. I’d never expirienced it before and don’t know how else to explain it so we’ll leave it at that. We started with a Hillsong worship song which I felt was quite ironic because I struggle with Hillsong music. Whenever I sing they’re music I typically feel like I’m just trying so hard with my flesh and seeing no results in my spirit, so yeah, IRONIC. The next few songs weren’t much, and the whole school struggled through them as if we were climbing some never ending cliff that had little to no hand holds, but then came a new song. The song, “This is our God” I heard for the first time on staff training a few weeks ago and I asked my worship leader to learn it so we could sing it. As we stood there singing this beautiful song I couldn’t shake two words the Lord layed on my heart, “Sweet Release”.

My “sweet release”. I didn’t know what it meant but I wanted it! Something! Anything to shake the dull, dragging existence I felt stuck in at the moment. That’s when the words, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty” came to my heart and I sang them. I sang them with everything I had in me. I LOVE that phrase because as referred to in Revelations, the seraphim sing them night and day, NEVER ENDING, and they never grow old or become less true. Now it took a few times before others chimed in but not before long the whole room was singing this simple phrase. And as we sang with the seraphim these wonderfully uplifting yet simple words the presence of the Holy Spirit was finally released. People began pressing in, singing out what the Lord laid on their hearts and finally began worshiping Him as He deserves.

We later opened things up for ministering to one another and the students, for the most part, dove in. An hour and a half later, the Spirit was still moving, still speaking and people were (hopefully) finally beginning to understand. It was AMAZING to finally expirience such a release amongst the students and GLORY to God for all that  He did last night!

Thank you all for your prayers, I greatly appreciate them!

God Bless,

-Matt

I am beginning this blog by saying that I am SO blessed to have the staff that I do! And God has blessed me with one incredible bunch of students. Please see my Photo Gallery for pictures of me and my staff as well as the school photo. You can see a larger version of the photos if you follow the link that says “View flickr photo page”. Then you can see an even larger version if you click on “All Sizes” at the top left corner of the photo.

This past week was our first week of the BDTS and I feel like the students got a lot out of it. I spoke on “Unity within the Body of Christ” while others on my staff team spoke on “Bible Studies”, “Worship”, “Intercession”, “Devotions” and “Hearing God’s Voice”. Teaching for an entire hour was slightly stretching for some of my staff but that’s good. They’re here to be stretched and challenged probably more than the students will be. I know I have been! They pushed in and delivered messages that I feel like were right on what the students needed to hear.

I have been absolutely blown away by their commitment to serving as leaders. Being that this is my first time leading a DTS its pretty obvious that there will be things that I will overlook or forget to plan, but anytime that happens I know I have my staff to fall back on. Such as, last Sunday night was our welcome BBQ for the students and I had no one scheduled to help clean up afterwards. Without even a word my staff were in there cleaning dishes and helping put away food. It’s those simple things that help me SO much! I don’t know how to express to you how much I really appreciate these guys… I wish you could meet them.

I have been very impressed by the student’s hunger for the word too. I suppose it shouldn’t be much of a surprise though. While praying for them before the school I felt like God was saying this would be a school that really dug deep into the word and pressed into his presence in worship. They have done exactly that. God has SOOOO much for these guys and I’m STOKED to have a front row seat in watching the hand of God!

A “quick” story:

At the beginning of the week my mind was cluttered with all sorts of odds and ends. No longer were the students simply pictures, they had become tangeable, touchable beings that I needed to actually do something with now, haha. And though it sounds quite strange I was rather overwhelmed by this thought. On Monday my staff and I shared our Testimonies. I kicked us off and ran through mine real quickly, missing very crucial points of my life and not really glorifying God as much as He deserves for where I am now and what I’ve been through. Afterwards I took my seat and listened in on all that my staff had to say. Almost immediately I began to be grieved by my pathetic presentation of all that God has done for me. I HAD to say something about it! After my staff had finished, I stood up before the class and apologized for giving the students probably the worst testimony that I had ever given. It SUCKED to stand there and admit my stupidity! Humbled and looking quite silly in front of a room of twenty some odd individuals that I am to lead these next five months, I knew it was right. Later I looked back on it and realized that though my testimony wasn’t used to bring him glory my humility was. That’s good enough for me seeing how that’s the most important thing to me. I pray that God uses this to help the students know that they can be open and vulnerable in this place. I am not here to judge them, but to help them grow closer to our Lord and Saviour despite their downfalls and struggles. And I am right along side them in this journey.

I pray this testimony builds your faith as well, and challenges you to be humble even though it may suck.

God Bless

-Matt Short

These past weeks have been the busiest ones I’ve ever spent here. God is SO good to keep me sane. I’ve spent the majority of my time preparing for the school which is just around the corner. The rest of my time I’ve spent training my staff and helping them begin with the work they’ll be doing.

This past week and a half my staff and I have spent living up the street from the base in a separate house, growing, learning, and studying together. I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve gotten to spend with them and I’m excited to see how God’s going to use each one of them. I have two guys and three girls on my staff team, and there is 20 students on our school. I’m glad it’s a slightly smaller school especially with only 5 staff members. The acceptance process has been sort of ironic as well. A couple times now we’ve reached 22 or 23 students but each time a couple people back out, so it seems that 20’s a good round number to stick with.

The school begins on October 5th. We’ll have a week of administration things to do and simple short teachings like “Devotions” or “Worship” each day. The second week we jump into things with a couple over seas speakers coming to teach on Backpacker Evangelism. With that broad focus I hope the students will quickly grasp the vision of what we do on outreach and pursue it on their weekend activities. From there, on the third week we go into more intimate and deep topics such as “The Lordship of Christ” and “Father Heart of God”.

All this to say, things are flowing smoothly, though they may be stressful from time to time, God is guiding me with every step. I’ve found it slightly difficult to step right into this job without evident direction but that only helps me to rely on Him more. God is faithful through every trial and tribulation we’ll EVER face. He’s been there done that, no matter what you can imagine. And THAT’S an encouraging thought.

God Bless

YWAM Oxford Base Vision Statement
Our vision is to develop and maintain a Christian community where young men and women from many different nations can come and grow in their love for God, His work, and His world by way of short term, Bible based courses, practical cross-cultural field experiences, and hands-on leadership training.
 

Backpacker’s Discipleship Training School Vision Statement