Hello Everyone!

Recently I was thinking about how many of you might not be sure exactly what a Discipleship Training School (DTS) is, so let me tell you a little bit more about DTS’s at YWAM Perth. Below is some of the information that we send to potential students and a bit about what I'm doing as well…

DTS is a 6-month school – the first 3 months are spent here in Perth and then the second 3 months is the Outreach Phase.  The first 3 months of the school is the Lecture Phase.  Each week we have a different teacher speaking on a different topic including the Character of God, Repentance and Forgiveness, Relationships, Father Heart of God, Missions and Evangelism.  The focus of DTS is on Christian character and living and the structure of the school reflects this.  There is some weekly written work but we gear the school more towards personal application and response rather than on just acquiring knowledge.  The daily schedule includes morning exercise, morning chores, intercession or worship, teaching, eating, work duties (2 hours per day – in the kitchen or on the property or in the office – part of our live-learn approach to training), more eating and then different activities every night including lectures, small groups, evangelism time etc.  Sounds pretty intense…. And it is…  YWAM is all a live-learn approach so the classroom isn’t the only learning environment… but its all of it – living, eating, working together. 

I staff the Young Peoples Discipleship Training School (YPDTS) focuses on equipping and mobilizing young people into missions. It all happens with a whole lot of energy, which comes from a large group of 17-25 year olds gathered together from all over the world to seek and follow Jesus into the nations! God has huge dreams for this generation and we want to see them encounter God personally and be able to present Him clearly to the nations.  It’s high energy, dynamic, and adventurous…

Week 5 of the DTS just finished, and we looked at relationships a pretty interesting topic for young people. We didn’t just look at romantic relationships though; we were created for a relationship with God and others in all different contexts. Now is the challenging part of taking what we’ve learned to God and asking him how we apply what we’ve learned to our lives. Next week we are going to be looking at Evangelism!

And then there’s the Outreach Phase.  We head out in teams for 3 months to make God known in the nations of the earth.  Its about getting out there and finding opportunities to be involved in evangelism and discipleship.  This could include all kinds of strategies – working in churches, community development, construction, orphanage work, photography, art, personal evangelism, youth groups, out on the streets in huge overflowing cities, hiking into remote villages, music, dance , prayer and worship… anything at all that in some way will communicate Jesus to people. 

Outreach for the 2011 YPDTS will involve options in Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia.  As a base we have a vision called 97 Nations, which aims to send teams into every nation in Asia and Africa.  This vision was running over the last few years and now we are sending teams to reconnect with the contacts we have made in these nations.  YWAM Perth also has a vision to support YWAM ministries in Europe as well as assist in pioneering bases in this region.  Finally, teams may involve a component of focused youth ministry in regional Australian towns in partnership with our youth ministry on base.  I will be co-leading a team with Glory a Californian girl that has just spent 6 months in Mexico leading outreach teams and connecting teams with churches. In April we will head out to China working with different contacts, then in May we will move on to Iceland and work with a newer YWAM base right in the center of Reykjavik. For the last month of outreach we will be back in Western Australia running seminars in high schools.

Prayer points:


-For personal health as I’m having trouble with ovarian cysts that are causing lots of pain and are keeping me from being able to participate in all the school events. This has been going on for over a year but have been getting steadily worse over the past few months. 
-For the students to continue to engage in lectures and respond to what God is saying to them.

-For financial provision for doctor bills and fast approaching outreach!

Thank you for reading, let me know if there is anything that I can pray for you about!
Christi


Just a couple pics, My lovely sister came to visit over Christmas!!

This is a picture of Christmas Morning :)