Missionary Training School - The Official Story

First off, commenting is now enabled for everyone, including those who don't have any of those crazy accounts listed.  Just write your comment and post it under the "anonymous" profile.  It should work. :)
And now for MTS. :)  What an incredible week!  We loved having Laura Keslar from Acme, PA (about 3 hours from here), here to stay with us during the School.  She and another girl who attended the School, Rachel Hughes, are preparing to be full-time missionaries to the Ukraine.  It was so exciting to hear their stories and their plans for the work in Ukraine.  Laura became very dear to our family, and we look forward to seeing her again as she will probably be doing a lot of her deputation (more about that in a bit) in this area.
By the time MTS ended, we logged about 29 1/2 hours of lecture time.  We were the most green group they had ever had - everyone was either in the very early stages of deputation or had not yet even begun.  Deputation is the process most missionaries have to use in order to get churches to pledge to support them for a certain amount every month that they're on the mission field.  They set up meetings with the churches (Sunday morning services, Sun. evening services, midweek services, missions conferences, etc.) during which they present their ministries and plans to the congregations.  If the churches feel drawn to their ministry, they promise to donate a certain portion of their collective tithes and offerings to the missionaries' monthly income.  When I first heard about this on Monday, I was really confused.  I had never heard of deputation before, and I was pretty sure I had never heard any CMA missionaries talk about it.  As I found out from Mommy, a tithe of each individual CMA church's weekly collection goes to a central Great Commission Fund.  Our missionaries' salaries are then paid out of that Fund - they don't have to raise any money on their own.  As it turns out, the CMA and Southern Baptists are the only denominations that run their missionary support system this way.  So if the Lord tells me to enter career missions, I'll be supported that way.  It was still beneficial to learn about the deputation process, however, since I do have to raise my own funds for short-term trips.
My favorite part of the week was getting to know the other students and the instructors.  The class consisted of 13 students: 4 married couples (one of whose 18 y/o daughter took the classes with them) and 4 single ladies.  Two of the couples used to be Amish - I really appreciated being able to talk to them and get a better understanding of how our Amish friends think.  One of the instructors is a missionary to French-speaking countries (France and the former French colonies in western Africa - Mali included!), as is his daughter, another one of the students.  I was able to talk to them both and learn some really useful information about Mali and how to prepare for the trip.  Yet another of the instructors was my aunt and uncle's pastor.  He's been to India and Mexico, two third-world countries much like Mali.  He warned me to research Mali culture heavily before I leave - he didn't before he went to India, and he really regretted it! ;)
All week we received teaching on the Holy Spirit, prayer, and leadership, as well as more concrete topics like relationships, writing prayer letters, and finances.  Some of the material was over my head, beyond my current situation, or irrelevant to someone who wasn't Independent Baptist.  But the vast majority of it was significant and practical.  We covered things every missionary, no matter their denomination, should know: how to relate to coworkers, how to keep a family united on the mission field, how to manage time, how to set and use goals in ministry, how to present your ministry in 3 minutes (that one we learned by experience.... yikes! :3 ).
All in all, it was a very challenging and very rewarding week.  I am so thankful to Good Shepherd Baptist Missions for letting this little CMA girl come to the school, to the instructors for making their wisdom accessible for this week, to the other students for all the great conversation, and to the Lord for putting all this together.