SAVE the DATE!!!

Hi All, I hope I find everyone well and happy. It has been some many months I'm sure, since I last updated everyone for as usual, there has been many things going on for both myself and my family over the last few months. So I felt it was high time I update everyone and inform you all of some very happy and exciting news. Firstly, my sister has graduated from medical school this summer and is now a Junior Doctor in one of our local hospitals (in fact in the hospital my dad worked in). Needless now to say, my dad has also retired this year having worked in UK for 21 years which has been such a wonderful blessing and support to me and my family. Next steps for him are unknown so he's taking one day at a time. With all these wonderful things to celebrate and keep us busy as a family, it's also been a very significant time for me since I have returned from South Africa last Christmas. Some of you may know already but I now wish to announce that I am officially engaged to Hagen Martin Schilder from Munich, Germany and will be looking to get married on 21st April 2012 in Birmingham, UK.

Now this may come as a surprise to many, but I met Hagen in South Africa last year where he too was completing a Discipleship Training School with YWAM. He is originally from a town named Bautzen in East Germany near Dresden and is a Software Consultant. Getting on from the very start, we started to court after the DTS was completed in December 2010 having sought God on the relationship thoroughly and with the blessing and guidance of our YWAM leaders. We are currently living in our respective countries and see each other once a month but mostly communicate via SKYPE. We do praise God for this particular blessing and as time has gone on it is even more and more evident that God has something special planned for the two of us. Neither were really looking for a relationship; going to South Africa in obedience to God first and foremost, but it really has been overwhelmingly wonderful every step of the way.

We are very excited and hope many of you can join us for our special day next year but in the meantime would love your prayers and support as we prepare. This year has been particularly busy with preparations, serving in our communities, getting to know each others families and friends and looking for jobs etc. At present, we do not know where we will live after we are married so would really like special prayer and guidance as to where God wants our roots as a couple to be. We both have in our hearts to go on to do long-term mission but a specific ministry is not clear just yet. I am currently Temping whilst looking for something more permanent whilst Hagen is working full-time for his previous company. This summer, he went to Uganda to work in an orphange, school, encourage a local church and review a special Toilet project his church supports. I have been serving in my church's sunday school and youth and have started volunteering for my local Domestic Violence Helpline Service too. As many of you know it has been a long-standing vision to work with abused women & children, which I believe God has put in my heart since I became a Christian 13yrs ago and so we hope that God will reveal what part Hagen is to play in this. I have made connections with the International Christian Dance Fellowship group in my local area too and looking to start dancing more in church having worked a lot with the Girls Brigade at the end of last term. There's so many exciting things going on, I guess this is really where God says that “...he came to give us life & life to the full” (John 10:10b) and “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans not to harm you but to give you a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11) are really true and I am really looking forward to what God has for this next stage in my life!!! I hope to be able to be in better touch with many of you in the future soon and share more. I would love to catch up with everyone else's news so please do drop me a line, call or email me on: grace.troko@ gmail.com. We have a wedding website where all information re: the wedding will be up and some fun activiites too. The website address is: http://www.eweddings.com/hagen4grace It will go live on 1st October 2011 so we hope you enjoy it, as there's lots of things to do on there, quizzes and pics and there will also be info re: accommodation and RSVP option closer to the date. Do leave us some feedback . God bless and hope to hear from you all soon. Love in Christ Grace

So you think it's all over....

Hi guys, I know you all thought you had heard the last from me but just thought I'd update you on where I'm at as it has become a stark reality that the Arts DTS was only the beginning of an incredible journey with God. Having returned home 3 months and 2(almost 3) days ago, much has happened and much has changed since I last shared.

Transition to "normal life" has actually taken much longer than first anticipated and at present there is still so much unknown ( no surprise there for an extended DTS and where God is concerned). This is not to say I'm not at peace about what is happening right now in-fact as I look to share briefly now, I hope you'll see that actually the future is very exciting!!! I only ask that you catch this next wave / vision and stand with me in prayer and continue to journey with me.

So.... having gone back to God to seek out more clarity about what He wants me to do next I now have now a few more answers and steps in place to share. I heard recently from an intern at my church about International Justice Mission who are a Christian human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems. I have been seriously considering getting involved as my heart is very much to do aftercare with victims of injustice, and my existing gifts very much lie in counselling/ pastoral care / spiritual guidance and discipleship although much of this is not official. However, I have felt God really wants me to return to study law and work from that aspect and feel this is where God may want to use me more.

I am currently now still looking at a range of options to getting into law and am looking at starting a course soon. Also, due to a change in personal circumstances, I may be looking to move to Germany and study there and so am looking at opportunities there internationally? Please can you pray for me in terms of direction and clarity of where this should be and favour to get on to a suitable course.

By way to explain how I got here, I want to share that it was in India when we were working with isolated women in the local ladies bible study and experiencing the very hidden , oppressive and patriarchal society that I started to feel God stirring a vision in my heart to pursue working in the international arena although I have always wanted to work with abused women & children since I became a Christian.

In light of this, I am currently involved in sunday school and the youth at my church - I am also due to start volunteer training with Domestic Abuse Service - Women's Aid in my city from mid-May. I am temping at present but looking for a part-time job to facilitate the voluntary work and study. I am looking to raise the profile of IJM in my church once I am clearer about how God wants me to get involved and shall be in touch about that. Please again can you pray for open doors in this area and God's favour, direction and wisdom.

As you can probably guess now, I am looking into full-time mission and have been involved and very much supporting the missionaries of my church in prayer. Please can you continue to stand and pray with me in God's leadership. I have come to realise that without prayer, nothing happens and that everything I have been through especially in the last year has been because of your prayer and support.

Thank you and hope to hear from some of you soon.

God bless
G

Merry Christmas everyone

Hi everyone,
Just wishing you a very happy christmas and a wonderful new year to you all!!! Much love and hope you're all well. Thank you all for supporting me all this year!!!! x

I'm back

hi guys,

just in case it wasn't completely clear but I have now returned to England and am now settling back into life here until God reveals what is next for me. Please can you all pray that God reveals his purposes as I am very much wanting his will for my life. Thank you so much for all your love and support and prayers. I really appreciate everything you have all done and look very much to sharing next steps and walk with God. x

Grace x

Final South African DTS blog

Hi everyone
Apologies again for the delay of this my final update on my Arts DTS Journey with YWAM Jeffrey’s Bay. Here are pictures of our final day at the Taj Mahal and pictures of Nicolene who chose to stay behind. We were able to meet up with the South African team as soon as we returned to South Africa and so there is a brief summary of what the south african team have been up to followed by the whole team ministry in Uitenhage,Eastern Cape, final week of ministry in Jeffrey's Bay, our graduation and what's next for me!!! There is much to share so please keep reading.

After our return from India - which was emotional to say the least - we were blessed to meet up with the South African (aka Brazil) team in Ennerdale (just south of Joburg central). As some of you know already, one of our team - Nicolene - chose to stay on in India until March 2011. It was a true shock for the South African team but it really hit home for us when we met them too. A very close member of our family was no longer there but we knew and were very happy for her obedience and fully believed she had walked fully into the will of God.

Despite a very “relatively” peaceful time in India, we encountered problems only in the last few hours. To cut a long story short, after a day at the Taj Mahal and on our way to the airport, myself and 2 other team members were separated from the team. It took about 3 hours to be reconnected but amazingly, throughout this time, God gave me great peace and told me to worship instead of worrying about it. In the middle of worship, God spoke directly to me that He would bring the rest of the team to us and this is exactly what happened. The lesson was definitely learnt. The enemy tried once again to steal our peace with airport security trying to prevent us from saying goodbye to Nicolene and the faithful team who served us throughout our time in India but God was able to make a way. Jay Ma Seki - Praise the Lord).

We were all very keen to share our experiences and found that both of us had had equally powerful experiences. South African team shared that they had been on the radio sharing their testimonies, involved in many children ministries including visiting a few orphanages and had run a youth camp for teenage boys. As a team with only 2 white young people, they had amazingly ministered in an all - white church in Brits where at first, they were barely touched in a handshake but by the end of ministry were leaving contact details with various members of the church. A powerful encouragement to them and massive reflection of God’s awesome power, work and heart for reconciliation in the nation of South Africa with regards to racism which is obviously still rife.

We all headed to Uitenhage (Eastern Cape - predominately coloured community) to do a final week of ministry as one team again. We found this town to be filled with talented and gifted people musically and spiritually. We were built up greatly here which was awesome as we were all very tired both emotionally, spiritually and physically by then. Despite being a very poor community and high unemployment, many still had pride in their homes which was reflected in their immaculate landscaped gardens which they did themselves!!!! They were very welcoming and receptive to us and what we had to share and we received no resistance to our presence there. However, we did find that many struggled with alcohol and drug abuse. There was definitely a stronghold of homosexuality and many small children showing signs of this influence. Many of them suffered a lot from neglect from their parents and were modelled violence on a daily basis from their homes and gang-communities.

We felt God asked us to focus on the next generation while here so most of our ministry was Kid Zone - playing games, singing songs and instilling in them values of respect for each other. There was much aggression between the kids especially from very little children which was often unprovoked. It was very sad we couldn’t be there longer. Please pray.

Evangelism to the poorest township community was dynamic and we saw amazing breakthrough and healing in people’s lives. A few people became Christians and many recommitted their lives to Christ which was very exciting - this included a gangsta whom Ettienne (staff) was really able to minister to having been part of one of the worst gangs in the country himself. Truly his mess was used to bring an awesome message!!!

I was able to pray for a woman with a very bad and unexplained skin disorder and God told me that she would be healed in 3 days. Lauren, was there and had equally a strong sense that God was in control and would heal her after 3 washes,. Unfortunately, we were not able to return to the same area but I’m really believing God will have touched and healed this woman - Jeannie. Please can you stand with me and pray for her as often it is about our faithfulness in prayer, that miracles happen. The fact that Ettienne and Vicky were able to meet a lady almost fully healed from severe paralysis whom they had prayed for the previous year on their DTS gives me complete confidence in God’s healing powers.

We returned to Jeffrey’s Bay with great joy to see much missed friends and especially our street kids like Vusi and Diego. We found that they were regularly attending the base still and that there was now an after-school club in place to help them with their homework too. Please pray that this grows and is really a benefit to the kids and a way for stronger relationships to be built with the community.

Coming to the end of outreach was personally somewhat disappointing as I had really enjoyed it. When we were asked to minister to the September DTS and help out with the Christmas Party for the HIV / AIDS group - many of us were first on the volunteer list. I have to admit I felt alive once again and realised that outreach really doesn’t stop we just need to respond to the opportunities God gives us - right on our doorsteps. In contrast , we found the other DTS really struggling with their unity and unforgiveness and God really used us to help them move forward significantly in preparation for outreach. Many were released from bondages of un-forgiveness leaving a powerful and tangible peace between them. It was awesome to be part of that and truly believe this is what God wants to become a regular occurrence in my life.

So what now?
Well I am finally at an end of this journey now that I have graduated. I have learnt so much about God’s love, his grace and compassion for this world and us. I have been overwhelmed with what God has done in and through me and the team and feel so honoured to have been given the opportunity to have this experience. I will recommend to all who read this and others back at home - DTS has been the best “re-laying” of the foundations for my Christian walk and an awesome time to find out who I really am in God.

Next on the agenda is to settle in at home and see what God has for this season but I am deeply stirred to do a an intensive Biblical Core Course for 3 months (Intensive Bible School). The course helps you go deeper with God, challenges, refines your character and really equips you to be more effective in teaching and preaching and sharing the word in greater depth. I feel, I will need it for future ministry so would love for you all to pray with me for clarity and direction. If it is a BCC - then where and if not, then what else. I am totally open to God’s will and fully believe there is something very specific He wants to do in me and I am willing to be part of that.

To much is given, much is expected!!! Here I am Lord, speak for your servant is listening.