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.

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!"

"Jacob is sharing his testimony of how he said 'yes' to Jesus. Now he is showing how he was baptized to hundreds of students in schools, and even on the streets of Norway and Sweden 🤯."⏤Matheus.

Sometimes it's hard to believe what can happen through the life of just one Discipleship Training School (DTS) student.

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!

Seeing what is happening on some college campuses, perhaps it has already begun! Their hunger will not be denied! I have chosen the two pictures because they represent those of this present Jesus generation, sometimes called “Gen Z.”

The chilly air in the theater lobby reminded me I should have brought a hoodie to stay warm. As my wife, and the 16 year old young man we invited to watch this film with us strolled past the marquee, he asked, "What kind of movie is this, anyway?" That's fair. The photos of hippies and what looked like a Jesus type character decked out in psychedelic garb made it clear this would not be a Liam Neeson thriller. 

My phone buzzed on silent mode in my pocket while I was busy just doing normal old stuff. But that vibrating buzz alarms me everytime. Glancing at the shortened notification on my homescreen I saw the first line, "… I heard the Gospel for the first time." It was from Glenn. Glenn reminds me of speaker Bob Goff, the writer of Love Does, because he lights up the room wherever he's at and makes you feel like you're the boss. I was honored to be on the list of umptine friends in his contacts⏤my name and number got the text. 

In an upcoming social media post that you'll see in the coming days, we are posting the caption: "The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intense of a missionary we become." As part of the editing team I wasn't 100% convinced of this statement. 

So, I decided to reach out to some long-term, incredibly thoughtful missionaries at our campus to ask them their opinion. What I got as a response was quite incredible.

I suppose it is possible, but there can't be many YWAM missionaries around the world who haven't heard of Joy Dawson. When word spread of her death, the fruit of her ministry instantly came to mind. Many of us had the privilege of hearing her speak, and perhaps listened to her teach for a week in a YWAM training school, or read one of her books. Most of us have a story about her, or can share how she has impacted our lives.

I’ve been re-reading a book that my husband Richard and I read when we planted the church ReaLity in Greenville, South Carolina. No Compromise is the life story of Keith Green written by his wife, Melody Green. It tells the story of how Keith and Melody came to believe in Jesus and then follow Him.

Something about their story and Keith’s music resonated within us as we were ministering to young people in Greenville. Not only were Richard and I drawn to Keith Green’s life and song, but the people in our church were as well. His songs were raw, deeply moving, and full of the Holy Spirit’s anointing. Keith’s story changed us. We were challenged to live fully surrendered and love sacrificially.