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.

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.

When I went to The Flood, I was expecting breakthrough, but little did I know what it would entail.

The Flood was a week long event preceding the Send missions movement, held in Kansas City, Missouri. During The Flood and The Send, there were lots of worship times, speakers such as Francis Chan and Lou Engle, as well as outreaches each afternoon of The Flood. Before going to the Flood, I was not completely sure what to expect. I knew it was going to be incredible, but what would that look like?

The Cost of Following Jesus Anywhere and Everywhere.

We shouldn't be upset when God moves us and scatters us into the world. Even if we are somewhat in our home culture, we need to remind ourselves that we are outlanders.

A lot of us feel even more disconnected because the world seems so weird now. There is so much turmoil and change. We feel uncertain.

As believers, we should be certain of who we are because as we own our identity, we transform the cultures and places where we are planted. Yet, we remain different from them.

How do we operate among the lost? How do we reach them?

While in Mexico on outreach, my team did all kinds of ministry in different places for three weeks, but my favorite experience took place the last days of our trip in the Purepecha indigenous village. We were stripped from our normal daily comforts, forced to wear long skirts, and slept on cold cement floors, but it was in that village where God gave me my joy back.

My life needed redirection

As a burnt out special education teacher, I was desperate for anything different. At this point, I was wondering if maybe I was too desperate.

When I look back at my life, I have no regrets because each of the decisions and experiences I've had led me to where I am today. However, I have gained some insight along the way that will maybe help others who are trying to decide what to do after high school.

At YWAM Tyler, students are graduating their Discipleship Training Schools with tons of memories, friendships, and passion for Jesus! Read some of the most recent reflections of students' experiences.

At the beginning of 2018, a new adventure will begin for many. People from around the world will gather together to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS). Each student arriving will have different goals. Some simply want to know God more because they’re hungry for a deeper walk with Jesus. Others will come with a desire for fresh perspective. They want to experience God in a new way and within a different culture, seeing the beauty of His creation in this world. Then there will be those that need change. Life has beat them up; choices haven’t always been the best; wounds have left them internally bruised. They’re longing for more. No matter the reason, DTS is a great opportunity for fulfilling one’s heart desires. 

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center estimate, there are roughly 1.8 billion Muslims in the world today, and Islam is supposedly the world's fastest growing major religion. Many Christians have a heart to see Muslims reached with the good news of Jesus, but let's face it, the task can seem daunting. After all, Saudi Arabia isn't where most of us go on vacation, and Iraq isn't exactly in our neighborhood!

It doesn’t take an astute observer to realize that there are many things in the world today that are not as they should be. Modern society is like a piece of shattered plexiglass; it’s still intact, but its integrity is compromised. The entire framework of our human reality is filled with cracks and fissures, all of which can and should be fixed by focusing and investing into our vertical relationship with God, which in turn smooths out our horizontal relationships with others.