Before I left for my Discipleship Training School, my family really had no idea what YWAM was. If your family is anything like mine, I want to put your mind at ease about saying yes to God. I asked my Mom, Christina Bear, to share her thoughts and how she felt when I left to pursue God's next step for me at YWAM Tyler.
2 min read
How DTS Changed My Child
Topics: God's voice Family Life-Changing Identity Discipleship Opportunities Hope Faith Following God Go DTS parents
2 min read
Laying Down My Rights
I was sitting in my DTS classroom, my head wrapped in thoughts of a family circumstance that was happening. We had teaching on Lordship and Surrender, which was timed perfectly for what I was struggling with. I had a sense of fear and lack of control over the situation, but throughout the class, God kept reminding me that He has control of the unknown and that I can trust and surrender it all to Him.
Topics: Worship Freedom Hope Faith surrender life lessons relationship intimacy lordship perseverance create
5 min read
Breaking Out of the Box
There really is such thing as a Jesus glow. The glow where you’re so full of Jesus, it’s so evident and so seen from within that it overflows onto the outside of you. You see, it’s one thing to be beautiful on the outside, but it’s a whole other thing to become beautiful on the inside. There are a LOT of physically beautiful women in this world, but outward beauty means nothing when the fruit on the inside is rotten.The darkness in this world sucks the life out of you, and blows your flame out resulting in lifelessness. The only way I could ever describe myself before I knew Jesus was lifeless.
Topics: Purpose Identity Insecurity Freedom Hope Faith Confidence Beauty Deeper with God God's Love Overcoming
2 min read
Faith Like a Child
My name is Matheus Barros and I am from Brazil. I completed my DTS in 2019, and it was an amazing, life-changing experience of growing in my relationship with God.
By the end of the Discipleship Training School, God started speaking to me about attending the School of Evangelism (SOE). I felt God prompting me to do the school, but I resisted the idea because I didn't have the tuition. I had a month long break between the two schools and I began to pray to see if this was even going to be possible.
Topics: Trust God Obedience YWAM Outreach Finances Faith provide surrender ywam missions soe testimony God's will faithfulness
3 min read
Lessons Learned at YWAM Tyler Continue to Shape My Life
As I awoke again to the sound of the sea surging on the rocks, the scream of the gulls, and the beautiful vista fanning out before me, I was struck with the thought, “However did I end up in Newfoundland?” Me, whose life was going to be happily-ever- after in the nirvana of Beautiful B.C. The chain of events was unexpected, un-sought, and wandering, yet God brought me to my heart’s home in this extraordinary province.
Topics: YWAM Tyler Missions Direction Life-Changing Choice Missionary Missionary Life Discipleship Opportunities Community Faith Missionary Training Dependence on God surrender Called to Mission God's will
2 min read
What I Didn't Expecting During My YWAM DTS
With tears in my eyes, I pulled down the door of the Budget rental truck, said goodbye to my apartment, and heard God say to me one more time, “Will you give up all I’ve given you to receive all I have for you?”
At 26 years old, God was calling me to a Discipleship Training School. I had no idea what to expect other than God was getting ready to stretch me in a way I had never been stretched before. I sold most of my furniture, stored the rest of my belongings, and headed to YWAM Tyler. In faith, I stepped out trusting God, the author of my life, and believing I needed to expect the unexpected from this point on.
Topics: YWAM Tyler Living in Community Relationship with God Following Jesus YWAM DTS Spiritual Growth Journey Perspective Faith Get to Know God Deeper with God friendship
3 min read
Trusting God To Make A Way
Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is tell you to seek Jesus for yourself. In reality, as Christians, we should all be trying our best to seek Him first.
Kaleigh Seliskar helped disciple students while serving SSTs this summer. Listen as she shares an encouraging testimony of how God increased her faith through a student.
Over this summer, I had the honor of working with YWAM Tyler’s teen summer camp called SST. During this time, I had many roles. One of them included guiding and encouraging three teenagers to prepare a teaching. They would have the opportunity to share their teaching at a Vacation Bible School (VBS) they would help with during their outreach in Houston.
One of the students, "Josh", was preparing a teaching on Moses and the Red Sea. He came to me on the last day of preparation and said to me “Kaleigh, I want to give an altar call at the end of my teaching but I don’t know how to do that. Can you help me?” I asked him to pray about it and then come to me later and we could talk about how to do it. He never come back, so I assumed that he either decided to skip it all together, or that he went to another leader and talked about it.
The next week we were in Houston and Josh gave his teaching on the final day of VBS. The kids in the group were engaged the whole time, and consumed by what Josh had to say. Towards the end of his teaching, he began looking around the stage like he was missing something. At this point, I was pretty confused because his teaching appeared to be going as planned and he hadn’t missed anything. Suddenly, he stopped looking around the stage and seemed very excited and he did something that the other leaders and I had not expected. He asked the kids in the VBS if they wanted to accept Jesus, and if they did to raise their hand. Twelve of the nineteen kids responded immediately.
Josh ran to the side of the stage and pulled two cases of water to the center of the stage, got back on the mic and said, “If you just raised your hand, come onto the stage and walk between these cases of water like the Israelites did through the Red Sea to show everyone that you are going to follow Jesus.” All twelve of those kids got up and ran to the stage to declare their dedication to follow Jesus.
As a staff member for these SST students, I was so impressed with Josh's creativity and on-the-spot thinking. This is just one of the few ways that the teenagers in the SST were able to impact the people of Houston. Not only did they touch the people of Houston but I was also personally affected by them. At times I felt that I was too young or just didn't have enough experience to share my faith. The SST students blew those thoughts away. Their fearlessness and resilience showed me that age has nothing to do with my ability to talk about Jesus.
Did it ever occur to you that when you were all grown up the next generation would look up to you? It doesn't matter what you think you are capable of, God can and will use those with willing hearts to fulfill His plans. If you open yourself up and follow wherever the Lord may lead, He will amaze you every time. Seek Him first and He will always be there to help you.
Topics: Trust Knowing God Making Him Known Discipleship Opportunities Freedom Faith Teenagers SST Leadership Youth With A Mission ministry youth Red Sea
2 min read
Fear Doesn't Have To Derail You From Fulfilling Your Purpose
Is God calling you to step out in faith and apply for a Discipleship Training School (DTS), but fear keeps kicking you in the guts? What if this turns out to be the biggest mistake of your life? What if you're asked to do something way out of your comfort zone? What if you don't fit in? Run out of money? Or fail everyone's expectations? What if you're not really hearing God's voice after all? Something is gnawing away inside your head saying, "I just don't think I can do this!"
Topics: Purpose Following Jesus YWAM DTS Calling Destiny Overcoming Fear Hope No Fear Hearing God's Voice Faith discipleship fear jesus
1 min read
A Pack of Cigarettes Led a Man to Jesus
Our team partnered up with a local church to do evangelism in our city. I was paired with a couple and their eight year old son.
Sometimes it can be difficult in East Texas to share the gospel or pray with people because they give responses like, “No thanks, I don’t want prayer. I prayed on Sunday.” But today was different!
Topics: Outreach School of Evangelism YWAM Tyler Evangelism Following Jesus Gospel Faith discipleship jesus cigarettes
2 min read
How DTS Set Me Free
Fighting for my relationship with God 24/7 was one of the most challenging actions I've ever taken in my life, however, I knew what I wanted was worth it and fulfilling. I was yearning for God to awaken these dry bones and transfigure me into a new creation. For Him to continue to transform me, I had to build up my spiritual endurance and become stronger in my faith in God and rest my worries upon Him.
Topics: YWAM Tyler Change Belief Following Jesus YWAM DTS Spiritual Growth Depression Freedom Anxiety Sin Faith Following God suicide DTS Youth With A Mission relationship ywamtyler pain
5 min read
4 Earth Shattering Truths I Learned on my DTS Outreach
After sitting in three months of mind-blowing DTS classes, I was ready to get our there into the real world with the rich truths I'd learned! The best way to solidify all God has done in our lives is to transfer the knowledge into our daily experience, allowing His grace to have its perfect work. And that’s just what He did during our 8 weeks of travel covering 20,000 miles, including 2 nations in East Asia.
Topics: Outreach Korean Missionary YWAM DTS YWAM Outreach Poverty Making Him Known Nations Faith God's Presence Mission Trip Make Disciples Prayer Redeem Go Dependence on God World Changer God's Love
4 min read
Fundraising Doesn't Have To Suck
Fundraising is a huge part of missions. Whether you are raising money for yourself to be supported as a missionary, or for a project to help others, it takes funding to accomplish our God given goals. Although it can be overwhelming, it doesn't have to suck.
