In September last year we ran a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with 18 students. Students came from the nations of Indonesia, Philippines, Austria, Trinidad & Tobago, England, and the USA.
The lectures finished in December and those students are currently on outreach in China, East Timor, different parts of Indonesia and even here in Bali. This year’s DTS has been an incredible bunch of students, noticeably hungry for more of God and pursuing Him. It’s been exciting witnessing God do a deep work in their lives, transforming their character, and igniting a passion in their lives to know Him more and make Him known to the nations. We asked some of our students to share a few of their experiences about DTS.
Leo and Dewi
Leo and Dewi are from Indonesia and have been married a year now. Leo had previously gone to Bible College and had served in his local church back home before DTS. During the lecture phase, he was continually amazed at the teachings, and how they helped him view Scriptures he had learned before in college from a whole new perspective and in a whole new light. It was on the lecture phase that Leo & Dewi also welcomed the arrival of their first child, a beautiful baby boy named Deo. By beginning this new lifelong journey of parenthood, they really took their DTS and personal discipleship to a whole new level! When asked about DTS, they said, “We are extremely happy here, because we can learn together, serve together, and get to know God together. This opportunity has been a wonderful gift for our family.”
Grace
As a part of the DTS lecture phase, our students had the opportunity to serve in various practical ministries, reaching out and serving people in various low income communities in our area. One of the students, Grace, describes her experience during these times of ministry, “Puji Tuhan mereka menerima pelayanan kami dengan sangat baik, khususnya anak-anak. Kita dapat menunjukan kasih dan gambar Tuhan melalui kasih dan perhatian kita kepada mereka. Hal yang terpenting buat saya adalah kualitas doa.. melalui doa keliling dan pujian penyembahan setiap harinya oleh tim kami karna itu adalah kekuatan kami sebelum kami memulai aktifitas kami.” (Praise the Lord they received our ministry well, especially the children. We can show God’s love and image through our love and interest in their lives. The important thing for me is prayer…through prayer walks and praise and worship everyday with our team because that is our strength before we can serve through our activities.)
Grace also shared some of her thoughts about outreach: “Outreach bukan hanya memberkati beberapa tempat yang kami kunjungi tetapi melalui outreach Tuhan juga membentuk hidup saya secara pribadi khususnya hubungan saya denganNya.” (Outreach not only blesses a few places that we visit but through outreach the Lord also shapes my life personally, especially by relationship with Him.) In commenting on something that has impacted her life through DTS, Grace says, “You don’t need to know where you’re going, if you know God is leading.”
Joe
Joe from England shared some of his thoughts about DTS: “My favorite part about DTS has been the new experiences. These have taken place within the DTS team, during the lectures and most certainly on outreach. The DTS puts you in situations that you have never been in before and gives you the opportunity to allow God to use you in them.” He describes one of those new experiences from outreach when they lived in a village in the jungle reaching out to the people there. Even though they experienced difficult times once in a while, Joe kept them in perspective, “This is not to say that we didn’t face difficulties, challenges and hardships. It’s just that we knew He was there with us through those times.” He describes his biggest challenge during the lectures, as a guest speaker shared each week more of God’s truth and challenged the students to apply it to their lives. One of his fellow students described this time as ‘daily heart surgery’, and Joe could totally identify with that. He said, “The challenge was to stay in a place of complete openness to God throughout the whole 12 weeks. It was hard, tearful and tiring at times but ultimately brought me into a closer relationship with God and into a greater understanding of who He is.”
Josh
Josh, a young guy from Indonesia, shared his experiences on DTS: “Banyak pengalaman yang membuat ku untuk menceritakan kebaikan Tuhan selama saya berada di Ywam.. yang jelas baik saya berada di tempat ini dalam merasakan campur tangan Tuhan , benar-benar menjadi pengalaman yang menjadi nyata dan sangat fenomenal dalam diri saya .. baik bagi diri sendiri ,hubungan dengan orang-orang sekitar , dan lebih khusus dengan Tuhan … dalam diri sendiri benar-benar nyata pertolongan Tuhan baik dalam keuangan, dan kebutuhan yang lain Tuhan sangat mencukupi.. , dan hubungan dengan orang –orang sekitar terjadi dengan sangat cepat seperti hubungan satu sama lain sudah seperti keluarga.. …Wow .. dan dengan Bapa ku .. dari semua yang sudah Dia kerjakan dalam hidup saya pribadi … saya makin jatuh cinta akan dia .. segalahnya nyata bersama Dia.” (There are many experiences that make me speak of the Lord’s goodness while I’ve been in YWAM. What’s been obvious to me in this place is feeling the Lord’s involvement in my life, truly making these experiences real and incredibly phenomenal to me. This has benefited me, my relationships with others, and especially with the Lord. In my own life I’ve really seen the Lord’s assistance in finance, and other needs that have been completely provided for. And relationships with other people have developed very quickly, as if we have already become like family. Wow, and with my Father, from all that He has done in my life personally, I’m increasingly falling in love with Him, everything is real/clear with Him.)
This current DTS will finish at the end of February. A number of students have indicated an interest in joining staff here at UofN Bali to partner with us in advancing the kingdom of God and transforming this nation for His glory! We will be running two more DTS’s this year in 2013, the first one beginning May 17 and the second one September 13. If you or someone you know may be interested in joining the DTS this year, please contact us for more information at uofnbali@ywamindo.org .