YWAM DTS Beginnings

It has been three whole weeks since I left Missouri to do my Discipleship Training School in YWAM Ozark, Arkansas. It has been some of the most intense and riveting weeks of my life.
There are 10 of us doing the DTS 8 guys and 2 girls.

                     Connor, Brad, Nick, Josh, Michael, Gabriel,

                               Dan, Caitlin, Rebekah, Bryce.

The YWAM base sits atop Manitou Mountain, a name given by the Native Americans meaning Mountain of God or (Great Spirit).
I can tell you that the Spirit of the true God really dwells here. There are many people at this place from around the States, and the world.
It is amazing to hear many of their stories of the things that brought them to this place to give everything for Jesus and the Discipleship of His people.
It is an outdoor DTS so the first week we got here, we set out on a 10 day outdoor adventure. We packed our gear and belongings in trash bags and buckets and headed to Buffalo National River to canoe for four days. I had never canoed that much at one time in my life before. I had a blast and so did everyone else, swimming in the river, knocking each other out of the canoes, and gazing at the magnificent Arkansas scenery.

We pitched our tents and on the river bank and cooked up dehydrated foods for our meals, which actually tasted amazingly yummy.

Our first week's speaker came along with us, and we had sessions around the campfire along the river. It was one of the most beautiful classrooms I've ever been in. We had lots of time to talk about the foundational characteristics needed throughout the Discipleship Training School and the rest of our lives.
We would need the humility to always be able to learn, with discernment, from any teacher despite their teaching style. What really stuck out to me and really confirmed my need to be here is that someone who wants to serve God must have roots that are deep, vast and strong in Him or else we will fall when the trials come in our times of ministry. (Luke 8:13 The parable of the sower, seeds, and soils).
That is what so much of this DTS is about for me.
I want to give God my all and not be held back by any uncertainty in my foundations.

A big element of DTS is learning to serve and work together as a team, so each night different people were assigned different tasks for the next day. Fire/bear hang/EPA crew, meal prep crew, meal clean up crew, the navigator, and the leader of the day were chosen. It taught us responsibility on the trail and how things roll while in a group of people in the wild.

After canoeing for four days we enjoyed our weekend on a vast gravel bar beneath a massive cliff  that was on the opposite side of the river. Our weekend speaker was the father-in-law of our school leader and he talked about the Life and Work of Jesus Christ and how he came as the perfect Man to reclaim the earth from the enemy and restore dominion to mankind. Now we as Christian's are to live in the authority of Christ's name serving with power.

After the weekend break we switched gears and hit the trail, with only what we could carry on our backs.

We trudged up steep, rocky hills, plodded through tall grass, searching for a barely visible trail, and delicately stepped from rock to rock where the river crossings were shallow enough, and waded through the deeper parts.

We camped under the trees and got our drinking and cooking water from the streams that crossed our path, either boiling it or putting iodine in it to make it safe to digest.

One of the most powerful elements of the trip to draw us all closer together as a body and team, was when the days travels and work were done and we sat under the vast expanse of the starry heavens around a crackling fire and told our life stories, those events and happenings in our lives that made us who we are. Our group is very diverse with many different struggles and victories, but we have gone though this first trip together and become so very close. Even though YWAM isn't affiliated with a denomination or considered a church in-an-of-itself, I would consider it one the truest and most real things to church I've ever been apart of. We are believers living and working together for the kingdom of God.

So during our backpacking trip we carried our week's speaker along with us in the form of a projector and ipod (which we may also use on outreach for showing the Jesus Film), when we had camp set up we would gather around with our notepads and head lamps and watch our speaker talk about relationships.

It was Wednesday when all of us were all resting around an outhouse having our daily snack of cookies and joking around when up drove a volunteer parks service person, who asked us if we knew that we were trespassing.
We had been in the wilderness for the past few days and had no communication with the outside world. Little had we known that our federal government had shut down and also the national park we were on. We were all shocked and didn't know what what to think. We didn't know much of what was going on, but the park person told us that we needed to be out of the park the next day by noon.

We spent one more night in the park and were able to get out the next day. We all loved camping but were glad to get home. None of us had done more than swimming in the river and our aroma was quite frighting.

The schedule is quite full here even at the base and I feel bad not getting an update out sooner. Maybe I can fill you all in more later.

So for closing I will say that I finally know where I am going in the world for outreach.
Half of the team will be going to Paraguay and the other half (my team) will be going to South East Asia.
Please be in prayer for all of us as we prepare for going to these countries and also for the rest of the lecture phase that our hearts will be open to the things God wants to teach us.
I love you all! God bless!