MIA'S YWAM JOURNEY

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Hey there,

This page should hopefully help you find out more information about my adventures in the mission field. You'll be able to find out more about my DTS experience, receive my monthly newsletters, prayer requests and ways to support my journey.

My DTS Journey

This Next Season...

Throughout my time in YWAM God highlighted the word 'leadership' to me and showed me leadership qualities in myself. As I began to think more about leadership I started to consider returning to help lead.

After a lot of time praying and asking God, I felt Him telling me that leadership is a skill He has given me and something he can use in the future. In light of this I felt the urge to start growing in biblical leadership.

I plan to return to YWAM for this next year to grow in biblical leadership and help staff their new 'Endeavor DTS' starting in January 2024. I feel this is a great way for me to hopefully steward well the gift God has given me.

In order to train us and prepare us to step into this role in leadership, we are to do a Leadership Training School starting July 24th.

Timeline

DTS RECAP

The first three months of DTS is lecture phase, and for my lecture phase I was in Kona, Hawaii. This is the part of DTS where as students we are taught more about what our own personal relationship with God is and how we can grow in it. A normal week consisted of lectures, worship, work duty, prayer & intercession, bible teachings, and time with our outreach teams in preparation for outreach.

Week after week we had a new lecturer speaking on different topics. Some of those topics were: Character and Nature of God, Friendship with God, Father Heart of God, Hearing God's Voice, Holy Spirit, Bible Overview, Evangelism and Missions. These lectures helped me understand so much more about my own walk with God and helped me grow so much in my relationship with God. As we were taught, and I studied more for myself, I only felt my hunger for a deeper understanding, and deeper relationship with God grow.

I loved worship times. For me, worship is one of the times that I feel closest to God so having regular worship, as well as being surrounded people my age worshipping God full-heartedly was so encouraging and I met God time and time again.

Over lecture phase one of the main things God taught me was the importance of fellowship and the importance of having a good strong Christian community around me. I came to realise the importance of who I had pouring into to me, because the people I surround myself with will impact and influence me. God highlighted to me that we as humans are made to be in, and thrive in a community, and that having a strong community of Christians around me is important to help call me higher as a believer and help point me back to God in times where I might struggle myself. God taught me so much about fellowship I ended up writing a sermon about it that I was able to use at a couple of churches we visited

The final three months of DTS is outreach, and for my outreach I was in Paraguay. I, along with my team of six others, was able to travel around the country and visit seven different locations where we were able to do ministry and serve in whatever ways we could.

During our time in Paraguay we were able to do lots of different ministries. We had the opportunity to visit indigenous communities - we would take food, lead worship, share testimonies, and pray for the people we met. We had the opportunity to build a water pump for one of the communities so that they could have running fresh water, and in another community we were able to be a part of them hearing the gospel for the first time. Our other ministries included: lots of evangelism, working with local churches, we painted a church, had opportunities to preach, lead worship, attend prayer burns and do house visits for members of the church where we were able to pray over them for their specific situations.

Before going to Paraguay one of the things our team was really praying for was revival amongst the youth there. So it was amazing to arrive in the country and be given so many opportunities to work with the youth there, whether it was kids ministry during Sunday services or during the week, teens/ young adults small groups, or visiting schools and going class to class it was amazing to see God moving in the youth. In one specific location, we were actually able to bring some of the school kids from one local Christian high school to visit another school near by to do ministry and share testimonies and the gospel with them, and after doing the ministry the kids we took with us were so grateful and were really set on fire for God and that was really encouraging to see that answer to prayer!

Debrief is the final week of DTS, this was based back in Kona and this was when the different outreach teams from all the locations gathered back in Kona to share testimonies and prepare for returning home.

I was part of the Awaken 2023 DTS, and my DTS sent out eight teams to different counties all over the world. We had teams in; Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Cambodia, India, The Philippines, The Middle East, and of course Paraguay. So for our debrief week all our teams reunited and we were able to share stories about how God had used our teams in our countries to impact the people we met and spread the gospel.

As well as this we had lectures for that week, however these were more to prepare us for returning home. As DTS is such a unique experience it was really helpful to be given advice on how to share our experiences, and how to continue down this walk with God as we returned home, and I found these lectures helpful because they gave me practical applications and advice.

It was also amazing to be reunited with my friends who had been in different countries and hear all their stories about what God had been teaching them and how God had been using them, and to close our DTS we had a graduation which was an amazing time to just reflect on the change I could see in myself and marvel at all that God had done in me and through me.